This week’s readings were to me a juxtaposition to each other through the lens of gender and sport. In the first reading, Chapter One of “Futbolera”, the topic discussed is the formation of women’s sports in Argentina and Chile. Although this first chapter covers a wide range of topics and material the main point I took away from it was the arduous process of getting the public to be accepting of female sport. In the other reading “A Soccer Christmas Story, 1884” the story of the first international soccer game ever played in America is told. In this article the general timeline of soccer in Canada is covered as well as giving details about the man who helped develop its popularity, David Forsyth. Forsyth’s road to developing a men’s national team seems to be pretty straight unhindered by prejudice. The same can be deduced in America by the presence of numerous local teams in the St. Louis area. While detailing the events of the games in harsh weather, the intense, disheveled, and muddy nature of it add to the romanticization of them. This starkly contrasts the reality of the early days of women’s sports in Argentina and Chile. In “Futbolera” the struggles of establishing womens sport is discussed. It covers the push for female PE in schools and the sports women were pushed into outside of it. The rationalization of allowing Female PE was not to promote team work or anything like that but rather for the beautification of the female body. It goes even further describing how women were discouraged from playing soccer as it was viewed as too violent and dirty, and therefore unfeminine. Because of this, they were pushed to play cleaner safer sports such as indoor basketball. I just found this to be an interesting comparisson behind the gender expectations from the time. It also to me shows how much less open minded society was to the Idea of women outside of traditional roles, especially when those roles were viewed as explicitly masculine. Even when it was something as genderless as being intense and exercise.
