The article by Jamieson (2008) dealt with how feminists during the time of Nancy Lopez’s reign on the golf course throughout the 70’s and 80 have had a hard time relating to her. The way I understood Jamieson’s arguments was that they kind of resented her for the way she kind of wanted to be normal and put in to a higher class of just your average every day Latino. This in a way relates back to what we talked about a few weeks back in that athletes of a different ethnicity besides white should represent their ethnic background in a way that will make people happy. Therefore when other ethnic woman see Nancy Lopez marrying two white males in Tim Melton and Ray Knight as the article Jamieson (2008) portrays, this gives them the idea that they are being betrayed in some way.
My feelings on these notions are that people are looking too far into this and should try to keep athletes on a level playing field as everyone else. Although it seems hard to do, we must realize that athletes are human beings just like us if a latina woman like Nancy Lopez wants to be a professional golfer in a primarily white dominate sport then we should let her do it. And to the fact of her assimilating herself into a more high class society than what latinos are used to, I would think that this would be setting a good example for young Latinas that they really can be whatever they want. In all fairness, Nancy Lopez was simply doing what she loved in a time where not just latino women had trouble gaining respect from society but so did women in general.
I also found it surprising about this article in how Nancy Lopez in her first few years on the pro tour was just as successful as Tiger Woods during his first few years on the tour. However, I doubt that she got nearly as much publicity as he did and yet probably a fair amount of negative publicity for leaving the game at times to have children with her Caucasian husband. Much like how Tigers image was largely based on him being a loving husband and father(in the early years) and had that all come crashing down on him during the incidents in November of 2009. As a result, I feel that both Nancy Lopez and Tiger Woods are more subjective to criticism not because they were the best at their game during their time period but because they were of a minority race that is not as generally accepted in white male dominant society.
~Max Householder
Golf is a very sensitive sport in terms of how the media goes about the coverage of events and how people view golf. Max did an excellent job of telling us Nancy Lopez is a regular individual just like everyone else and her opinions, job, sex, and race shouldn't matter. Women and golf always seem to be on the hot burner because of many clubs around the country don't allow women to be a part of the club. Take Augusta National Golf Club, this course is where they hold the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, The Masters, and the club is a single gender membership club and remains so to this day. Many people might remember in 2002 when all the controversy surrounding this policy surfaced. When looking at Lopez and Tiger Woods as a comparison I find it hard to go into much detail because we are talking about a women, Lopez, who was a great golfer and deserves respect but when you look at Tiger it's a totally different thing. Tiger changed the world of golf and how people look at it. For as many golf channels, stations, media coverage, much of them are because of the rise of Tiger Woods in 1997 to now.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a big fan of golf so I might be bias to the type of athletic ability involved in golfing. But I do agree that some sort is but not the same when being compared to contact sports such as basketball and football. Like Dane mentioned, Max did a great job in describing that Nancy Lopez is a normal Latino human being who wanted to be a professional golfer is a predominantly white sport. Because she was female and Latino she had a harder time then white women in gaining respect and popularity within the sport of golf.
ReplyDeleteI think we can relate this a little to our discussion board for Friday (3/23). Like Nancy Lopez and Latino’s, Asian-Americans are very scarce in the participation in sports. And I think eventually this will change and the prevalence of difference races will be seen more often.
-Alyssa Robinson
I too am not a fan of golf, before covering Nancy Lopez in class I had only heard of her name because of the Jamie Farr Golf Classic played in my hometown. As Max said Lopez was just a normal person who was a professional golfer in a sport that does not see very many Latino players. As Max points out the article from Jamieson (2008)and how her marrying a white man may make others feel like she is going against something. Where Lopez does not see it in any way of race or anything, she has the right to marry whoever without people reading into what it means.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Latino athletes are not as predominant as other races in sport they still are more so than Asians in many sports. I hate when race is the first thing pointed out when discussing sports. In reality from a global perspective certain races play certain sports over others due to the region of the world they are from. From a national perspective certain races play certain sports over others do to the culture they are raised in. I do not feel it is as much of a race thing then it is a difference in culture.
-Tony Fritsch
I do not like it at all how the media always makes race the biggest issue in sport sometimes. It almost seems as if racism can be completely gone in today’s society in our nation, but with the media always blowing up things out of nothing, racism continues on to make a dent in our culture. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Nancy Lopez marrying a white man. Let the woman live her life! Racism in sports is one of the most annoying things in my opinion. On many different sport television shows or radio shows they talk about race a lot and how it is all involved in sports. ESPN First Take is a prime example of this during the Jeremy Lin phenomena that took the nation by storm. They were unable to realize that the fans were not crazy over this guy for his skin color but for his talent and his passion for the game. The New York Knicks are a team that America can vote for because they are in a big market and they are very entertaining to watch. Media needs to stop blowing up race for more than what it is because it only prolongs racism to continue and makes it always visible in the public’s eyes.
ReplyDelete-Tim McLellan
I think perhaps you may have missed some of what Jamieson was writing about in reference to Nancy Lopez. She was not criticizing Lopez for marrying a white man. But rather, she was comparing multiple sites where Lopez was written about (mainstream magazines like Sports Illustrated) with magazines that are geared mainly to Spanish speaking readers. Her point was that each magazine focused on different aspects of Lopez' story - SI seemed to be more interested in highlighting the lower class economic status and lack of education her father had, while the family aspect was more prevalent in the other two Spanish magazines.
ReplyDelete