Research has fix remarkably consistent and stable inflection for sex stereotypes within our society.

Research has fix remarkably consistent and stable inflection for sex stereotypes within our society. In brief, to be feminine is to be "communal" or expressive, while to be masculine is to be "agentic," instrumental, and competitive (Cann, 1991; Spencer & Helmreich, 1978; Williams & Best, 1982) Our society also has many stereotype about participants in sports, including sex stereotypes (see Kaplan, 1979). Despite legal and social changes, "sexist ideology still pervades sport" (Eitzen & Sage, 1993 p 347) Following what Sage and Loudermilk (1979 p 89) call "one of the oldest and most numerous persistent folk myths,... athletic achievement has been equated with a los of femininity." Sports participation is seen as a masculine activity; sports are a traditionally male domain, male sporting results receive far more media coverage, and participation in competitive sports violates females' traditional sex-role and change patterns (Eitzen & Sage, 1993; Snyder & Spreitzer, 1978)

The belief that participation in competitive sports attend tos to masculinize females has been fix in research using a variety of expose populations (e.g., Harres, 1968; Sherif, 1971) This is to be rely uponed given that the stereotypic beliefs about females sharply contrast with the traits associated with felicitous athletes (Cann, 1991; Harris, 1981) While there is evidence that female athletes are indeed seen as somewhat masculine, calm when people respond to photographs in which the athletes are not identified (Atkins, Morse, & Zweigenhaft, 1978) this may trunk more from the stronger drift of already "masculine" (e.g., large and strong) women to dog sports than from masculinization of female athletes.

When examining these issues, it is important to restrain in mind that some sports are seen as more masculine than others, and many sports attract disproportionate numbers of male (eg football) or female (eg ballet) participants. Cratty (1983) moves that sports such as golf and swimming as well as sports like as gymnastics that "emphasize beauty of line" are believed to be acceptable for female participation, whereas sports associated with high flats of contact, such as ice hockey and football, and others like as baseball and basketball are fancy of as appropriate for males however not for "ladies" (p. 172) Other reports indicate that the principally appropriate sports for women are individual rather than team sports (DeBacy, Spaeth, & Busch, 1970) and sports emphasizing lean bodies (Hallinan, Snyder Drowatzky, & Ashby, 1990)

between the walls of socialization individuals learn which sports are considered masculine, neutral, or feminine. inflection for sex stereotypes for certain sports appear to be learned by means of grade school. Corbin and Nix (1970) base that grade school girls and lads both considered a competitive task that requires power, spe and vigor to be a "male" activity. equal female athletes see sports like as soccer and rugby as extremely unfeminine compared to tennis or volleyball (Salisbury & Passer, 1982)

These gender-based stereotype probably influence sports participation. For those who do participate, these stereotype may lead to part conflict and distinct attitudes about athletes that hang on whether they participate in sex "appropriate" or "inappropriate" sports (Snyder & Kivlin, 1977) These stereotype may lead to perceptions of males and females as more or les masculine or feminine depending onward the sport(s) in which they participate. While there is an evidence for this, surprisingly little research has been reported forward these issues (Matteo, 1988). Sage and Loudermilk (1979) raise that although women competing in more gender-inappropriate sports may not themselves perceive more character conflict, there is evidence that they will experience more part conflict (but see Anthrop & Allison, 1983)

Masculinity and femininity are many times viewed as bipolar opposites, even now many theorists (e.g., Bem, 1974; storeroom & Helmreich, 1978) now view masculinity and femininity as separate traits rather than as opposite finiss of a continuum. From this more contemporary perspective, female athletes may retain their femininity plane if they are "masculinized" at participation in competitive sports. Unfortunately, chiefly research has taken a uni-dimensional view of masculinity and femininity, perhaps obscuring independent variation of these traits. Indeed, there is evidence that female athletes are more likely to posses the two masculine and feminine characteristics (Harris, 1981)

This consideration was designed to examine for what cause males and females are seen in limits of femininity and masculinity by means of their peers (age cohorts) befitting to their participation in female- or male-oriented sports. Consistent with the conceptualization of masculinity and femininity as (at least partially) independent traits, raters were asked to provide ratings of the pair For this study, teenagers were not past nor futureed with descriptions of male and female participants in undivided of three sports and asked to umpire the femininity and masculinity of these participants.