Essay #4 - Sports

Write a 3-4 page essay that provides an analysis based on one of the following exercises.


• Watch a sporting event on television. Does there seem to be a culture attached to that sport? Are the commercials during the event geared to a specific audience? Consider the gender and ethnicity differences. Are they a factor in the sport or not? What function do the fans have?
  
  
• Attend a sporting event. Once again, consider whether there seems to be a culture attached to the sport. Is there a different culture “live” rather than watching the sport on television? As in the last question, consider the gender and ethnicity differences. Are they a factor in the sport or not? What function do the fans have? Does the sport reflect American values in any way?
  
  
• Provide a semiotic analysis of a fitness club or other athletic arena. What do you notice about the layout? about the participants? about the activities that occur in that space?
  
  
• Watch a movie that focus on sports as a main topic. How is the sport portrayed as it relates to its function in our society? Some suggestions for movies include Any Given Sunday, He Got Game, Hoop Dreams, Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams, Love and Basketball, Remember the Titans, and Hard Ball. (There are many other possibilities. If you are unsure if a movie is appropriate, please see me first.)
  

• To think critically about the role of sports in our culture.
  
  
• To utilize other writers’ theories to help support and/or to articulate your own opinions and disagreements with those writers.
  
  
• To provide a central thesis statement and to support that thesis statement with evidence from your analysis.

• Must be typed and double-spaced with 1” margins on all sides.
  
  
• Standard 12 pt. font should be used.
  
  
• The paper should include an informative and interesting title (do not use “Essay #4” as the title).
  
  
• Papers must be a minimum of three pages in length (not including the heading, title, or any supporting graphics). Number all pages except for the first one.
  
  
• The paper is due on Monday, November 25, 2002 in class. The revision (post-peer review workshop) is due on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 in class. If you arrive to class five minutes late on either day, your paper will be considered late.

• Schrank, Jeffrey. “Sport and the American Dream”
  
  
• Messner, Michael A. “Power at Play: Sport and Gender Relations”
  
  
• Dyson, Michael Eric. “Be Like Mike? Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire”
  
  
• Greenfield, Jeff. “The Black and White Truth about Basketball”
  
  
• Cantor, Paul. “Pro Wrestling and the End of History”
  
  
• Beal, Becky. “Alternative Masculinity and Its Effects on Gender Relations in the Subculture of Skateboarding”