User:Hwilliams989/sandbox

(Bold type is my work. I also added the headings)

Binary Divisions Within Sports
There are many perspectives through which sport can be viewed. Therefore, very often some binary divisions are stressed, and many sports sociologists have shown that those divisions can create constructs within the ideologies of gender and affect the relationships between genders, as well as advocate or challenge social and racial class structures. Some of these binary divisions include: professional vs. amateur, mass vs. top-level, active vs. passive/spectator, men vs. women, sports vs. play (as an antithesis to organized and institutionalized activity). Following feminist or other reflexive and tradition-breaking paradigms, sports are sometimes studied as contested activities, i.e. as activities in the center of various people/groups interests (connection of sports and gender, mass media, or state-politics). These perspectives provide people with different ways to think about sports and figure out the differences between the binary divisions.

'''Not only can binary divisions be seen within sports themselves, but they are also seen in the research of sports. The field of research has mainly been dominated by men because many believe that women's input or research is inauthentic compared to men's research. Some women researchers also feel as though they have to "earn" their place within the sports research field whereas men, for the most part, do not. While women researchers in this field do have to deal with gender-related issues when it comes to their research, it does not prevent them from being able to gather and understand the data they are collecting. Sports sociologists believe that women can have a unique perspective when gathering research on sports since they are able to more closely look at and understand the female fan side of sporting events. '''

Gender in Sports
'''Over the past century, women have been given more opportunities to participate in sports, and not just in sports that are considered more "feminine." Lyndsay MC Hayhurst, a Faculty of Physical Education and Health at the University of Toronto, states that research on women and girls who participate in sports has shown to "lend [them] the opportunity to challenge and resist their domestic duties, improve their social networks and relations with communities, confront gender norms, boost self-confidence, advance communications skills, and increase their ability to make decisions regarding their own well-being." However, some sports sociologists question whether these programs for women are more focused on the masculinity and male-oriented view of sports rather than actually pushing it more towards a female-oriented view.'''

Theories in Sociology of Sport
(Added this heading to article)

(I also moved some parts of the article around to organize the information and to help it have a better flow)