Brett Creamer Conclusion

While taking this Sport and Gender class I was able to learn about the similarities and differences between gender and sports.  In this class I was able to participate in class and always able to talk whenever I wanted to. In past classes I didn’t talk as much, but since this class was so open I was able to talk whenever I wanted to, which was nice. I would rank this class in my top five for my college career, and I would say that comes from the open discussions, the articles, and writing weekly blogs and comments. The online blogs brought a new mindset to the class, because it enabled me to take what I learned in class and make me think and form my own opinion into my own words and what I personally felt.

I really enjoyed our class discussions about equality, because that was something I was born into and firmly believe. When talking about this in class, I felt it was important to mention to say, “treat others how you would want to be treated”, and realize that everyone is the same. I felt like by commenting on transsexual blogs, and people that come from a different background blog that I was able to still portray this message and still get the point across. Although in class discussions could get somewhat heated when people disagree I think that it’s important to remain level headed and respect the other persons point of view, and remember that where they came from is different then how you were raised. The research presentation was another reason why I enjoyed this class, I got to research about a sport I love (basketball) and compare the two professional leagues (WNBA, NBA) and see the differences between the two, and try and find input on how I think they could both improve. All in all I really enjoyed this class, because we could find a sense of humor in a tough conversation. I think I remained open minded, and also helped people around me and in the class remain open minded and respect others and their point of view.

Brett Creamer 

Conclusion - Ollie Goss

I thought this class was very interesting and educational compared to any other classes I've taken at BG. This class was made enjoyable because of the discussions that were debated in class such as if we still hated LeBron or was Serena's "crip" walk offensive. During this semester, I learned all the benefits for women that Title IX produced and how that law has boosted women's sports in the U.S. to the best in the world. We learned this when we talked about the olympics and how the women won the United States the medal count and most golds.
I also learned that Billy Jean King was one of the most important figures in advancing the equality of women's sports in America. I had never heard of her match with Bobby Riggs and didn't know the massive impact her victory in that match had on the sporting world. I also learned about how difficult of a time transgender athletes have had attempting to compete in sports.
I found the entire sections on Title IX and budgeting useful because I would like to become an athletic director upon graduation of college and being knowledgable of the budgeting processes and dilemmas will help me in the future. I thought the athletic budgeting we completed in our groups was a great simulation of how hard it is to be a collegiate athletic director.
A few of the articles I found interesting were the ones on "cool pose", athletes the pros would pay to see, and sister act VI. I thought the "cool pose" article was interesting because it showed how the NBA gained culture from the hip hop environment and a sense of swagger to NBA superstars. The prime example of cool pose was Allen Iverson and how he dressed like rap artists. Another article I thought was interesting was "Who the pros would pay to see". The article was a little outdated but I still thought it was interesting how the female athlete everyone wanted to see was Serena Williams, but not for her amazing tennis game, but because of her sex appeal. It was also interesting to see how many athletes would pay to be Tiger Woods' caddy. I also thought the Sister Act VI article was interesting because I had never heard of the incident that occurred at Indian Wells and was shocked that tennis fans would do that. I could see fans from Philadelphia or New York do that, but tennis fans who are supposed to be proper and more courteous yelling racial slurs is unheard of.
Keeping a blog helped me write about discussions in class as well as provide more information on current events that dealt with the controversial issues debated in class. The blogs provided a way to expand on some of the discussions talked about in class and really functioned as an educational tool.
Presentations about figures in tennis or basketball were more interesting to me than our presentation about hockey because I'm not really a hockey fan. I am a pretty big tennis and basketball fans and watch the sports whenever they're on tv. I rarely watch hockey and when I do, I watch during the playoffs so I wasn't too interested in the presentation on Sydney Crosby.
As I previously stated, some of the activities that I will take from this class was the budgeting activity during the athletic director simulation as well as the unit of Title IX. Being in compliance with Title IX is a necessity the school I work at.

Conclusion- Jeff Hardin

For my final blog for this semester I'm going to take the time to reflect on the class and what my overall thoughts about the class were. From day 1 this has been my favorite class this semester I have enjoyed everything we have done in this class all of the assignments and readings we have done for this class has been interesting to me. Dr. Spencer is a great professor and I have enjoyed being in this class this semester; the one thing I would say I have really enjoyed is the class discussions. All of the discussions we had about cool pose, NBA and the WNBA, Michael Jordan, Lebron, and countless other things we discussed in class. My favorite two favorite discussions we had were about Michael Jordan and about Magic Johnson's announcement that he had HIV; the discusssion we had about Magic Johnson really touched me and it affected me because we are living in a day and age where HIV/AIDS is killing alot people and almost everyday somebody is being diagnosed with the deadly disease or it is affecting someone we know. Also I enjoyed working the group work we had as well, I think the group work brought more discussion to the class and we were able to reflect on what we had done in the groups to the whole class. Overall this has been my favorite class this semester if this class had another class that went with it I would definitely take it and if Dr. Spencer taught another class I would take it as well, I would recommend this class to anybody not just in Sport Management but in any major. I had alot of fun in this class this semester and it was a pleasure being in this class.

Conclusion- Jacob Beverly

I enjoyed taking this class and learning about all the different aspects of sport and gender. This was one of the best classes I have taken regarding interesting topics and class discussion. Every day seemed like a great class discussion and it was cool to hear everyone's opinion on our topics. It made coming to class entertaining to say the least. Some things I've learned in the class is how society tries to put a title to everything and judges everyone, especially when it comes to gender and how people are perceived in sport. It has been very interesting and eye opening to see the deeper aspects of sport and gender that we have discussed throughout the semester.

I think keeping a blog helped me express my opinions on certain topics and allowed me to see everyone else's opinions as well. I think it made for additional great discussion that extended from our class discussions. Keeping the blog made me think of how I really stood on certain subjects, sometimes I find myself just listening and not really thinking of where I stand, but when I have to write about it, it makes me think of how I feel and what my views are.

I will take the views of society and the deeper definitions of sport and gender throughout my life and I think it will help me in a journalism career. It will allow me to write better stories and let the audience know the real details that they would not normally realize or think about.

Conclusion

            Sport and gender was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be, I credit Dr. Spencer for this. Whether it be her biased tennis opinions or her lack of knowledge on new trends she always knew how to get the class to laugh, which we did quite often. We talked about many things throughout the semester and a few of them stick out to be the most interesting to me.

I really enjoyed talking about Michael Jordan because I had no idea there was so many things that surrounded him. I knew he was the greatest basketball player to play the game but all the other small things that he had to constantly deal with like the media, sponsors and endorsers. I really had not known much about Jordan coming into the class so it was really interesting to see how well he was able to cope and grow as person as well as an athlete. I probably would have never went and watched the 30 for 30 without discussing it in the class.

Another topic that I enjoyed learning about was the transgender athletes. I really had no idea that there were athletes that actually were transgendered, I just figured there were only a few who were. It was good for me to learn that it is more common than I realized and that way I will be educated on the subject if I ever come across it in life. With cases like Renee and Kye I was able to understand their mindset and see how I could act to make them feel more comfortable wherever they may be.

The argument that I enjoyed debating was the discussion of women athletes with higher level of testosterone. Since it is a tough topic to decide what is ethically and morally the right decision, it made for good opinions from the rest of the classmates. It is incredible to see the body shapes and muscle tone affiliated with the higher testosterone levels and the tolls that it takes on the women athletes. Even though they may be able to dominate the competition, their social lives are a cost for that success.

This is also the first class that I have had to do a blog for and I have to say I liked it. Not only does it help the class further learn and research about the topics that are mentioned in class it helps remember them as well. It is fun to debate with the classmates and see how strongly they feel on subjects. I like the point system where you are able to comment or blog that way the blogs actually get some discussion on them. The class itself was one of the most talkative ones I have been in which made it really fun. There was always at least one topic each class that would get the class talking. Also I would like to mention it was nice having Kara that actually talked and gave input to class, none of the previous TA’s I’ve had did that. This was one of the best classes I have taken at BGSU because it taught me things that I won’t forget once we get back from break.

By: RJ Hefflinger

Conclusion

I thought this class was one of the most interesting class I have taken.  The class environment made the class be more aware and open to discussions. We as a class always had discussion, no matter what the topic was that day, and I personally enjoyed coming to class just to see what the class would "fight" over.  I learned out in this class that I would of not have thought about happening in today's society. I had a few topics that I thought were my favorites throughout the semester.  Girls playing in boy's sports and boys playing in girl's sport was one of them because I have never heard a successful attempt to play in a gender oriented sport before. I give them credit for loving the sport enough to endure what comes along with playing in an opposite gender sport like football or field hockey.  Every topic we covered allowed me personally, to think about how I would handle a situation like this if I had to. The class gave me the opportunity to open my opinions on certain topic and issues that I would say I was one sided on.

I enjoyed doing the blogs throughout the semester. The blogs gave the class the opportunity to express their opinions on topics we discussed and allowed the class to interact outside the classroom. I thought the ability to comment and discuss through the blogs was great way to see how others in the class thought about a certain topic; since some did not talk in discuss while in the classroom. I would have to say I would take this class again based solely on discussions we had in class.

--Jenny Kelley

Conclusion

I never really had an idea of how important of a role gender has in sports until I took this class. I thought we were mostly going to cover the differences in male and female sports, but we went way deeper than that. We discussed how male and female athletes play differently, are treated differently, and are looked at differently. We also did a lot of comparison between the sexes, and we discussed gender role and masculinity/femininity. Along with these topics, we had discussion about things that weren't as directly related to sport and gender, but still appropriate for the class. The thing I found most useful in this class was the freedom to speak. Coming from a community college, I never had a class that relied that heavily on class discussion, and I absolutely loved it. I also loved the blog/journal assignment. I thought this was a great way to keep the class connected throughout the week, and it opened my eyes to see how not one student thinks alike. Reading all the different viewpoints will definitely help me in the future. Although the majority of topics were very interesting, my favorite had to be Michael Jordan. Growing up in Chicago I was certain to be a fan, but I never knew he had that much of an impact on the game and everything surrounding it. My respect and like for him went to a new level after learning that. Again seeing how people think differently will definitely help me in the future, but so will learning about all the differences/similarities between male and female athletes.   

-Michael Discipio