Wmst298 d group-project_presentation

Fitness, Health, and Attitudes of Athleticismat University of Maryland

Harold Jimenez, Subhashree Nayak, Milana ShapsayW M S T 2 9 8 D | 0 1 0 4 | T U E S D A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 7 T H 2 0 1 2

Introduction

• In our October 9th discussion on “Sports and Women”, we took an informal poll of how many of the (mostly female) students exercise.

• Turns out, most of us exercise regularly. However, reasons were varied.

• Our project was developed to find out how female students at UMD felt about health & exercise.

Introduction (cont’d)

• Athletics are BIG at University of Maryland, College Park.• Many people are athletic or at least “fit-minded”• Also, the demographics of our sample are the younger

generation (18-22, presumably), and can provide insight into the newer, shifted opinions.

A photo of Ritchie Coliseum

Sources – for more info, check our wiki!

• Roth A, and Basow, S. (2004) “Femininity, Sports, and Feminism: Developing a Theory of Physical Liberation.” Journal of Sport and Social Issue 28(3):245-265.

• Theory of physical liberation

• Dworkin SL. (2001) “‘Holding Back’: Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women’s Muscular Strength,” Sociological Perspectives 44(3):333-350. Retrieved from Weitz text (pp. 301-317)

• Motivations for athleticism and to what extent

• Blumenthal K. (June 22nd, 2012) “The Truth about Title IX”. The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 24th, 2012. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/22/the-truth-about-title-ix.html

• Influence of governmental policies and encouragement of athleticism

• Smith KL, Cornelissen PL, Tovée MJ. (2007) “Color 3D bodies and judgements of human female attractiveness”. Evolution and Human Behavior 28 48 – 54

• Scientific basis of attractiveness – superficial body cues

Specific Aims

• 1. We hope to assess the attitudes of women to athleticism. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it an emerging or fading contention for women's bodies?

• 2. Where are some points of contention when it comes to women's athleticism? Are the motivations for exercise necessarily for "health" purposes as much of media and society likes to portray it as?

• 3. We also want to address the attitudes of athletic authority towards women. Are programs conducive to women's involvement here on campus?

Methodology

• Over a two week period (November 21st – December 08th 2012), we conducted an online survey.• Required Terpmail or UMD-

email• Also, over this two week period,

we conducted an in-person survey.

• We also emailed athletic coaches from specific teams (basketball, track, etc.) with questionnaires. Copy of an e-mail distributed to the CMNS-

listserv over our two week-period

RESULTSThe Surveys

10-Questions & Short-Answer Responses

DemographicsSex of Interviewee

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Sex of Interviewee

Female Male Does not prefer to answer

96.4% (375 out of 389 total) of our interviewees were female. We also used this question to help screen for male participants, as we wanted to understand female’s perspective of themselves in relation to fitness.

Question: Rate your confidence in your athletic ability from 1 (Not confident at all) to 5 (Extremely confident)

• The average rating for our sample was 3.06 or “relatively confident”

1. Not Confident at all. 2 3 4 5. Extremely confident.0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

Confidence Rating

Question: How many hours a week, on average, do you spend exercising?• 88.80% of our respondents reported regular exercise.• A distinct majority

0 1-3 hours 4-6 hours 9+0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

11.20%

59.73%

25.60%

3.47%

Exercise Habits

Hours a Week Spent Exercising

Perc

enta

ge o

f Res

pond

ents

Question: Do you feel pressure to exercise?

• The follow-up for this question was to state some reasons for the pressure…

Yes

No

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Do you feel pressure to exercise?

Some responses:• “There is huge pressure at UMD to live a fast-paced

glamourous lifestyle; in part from the large role that Greek life plays here as well as the culture. So many girls workout around campus because they feel the need to be accepted and think that if they are fit, it will be easier for them to make friends.”

• “I feel I need to stay in that shape to maintain a presentable look for my family and friends.”

• “Media and not wanting to look flabby. Family - mom makes comments about my weight sometimes”

• Most common reasons were: family, media, school culture, and health

Question: Are you exercising more, the same amount, or less now that you are in college?

• Surprisingly, the majority of respondents said that they were exercising less or the same amount

Exercising less Exercising the same amount Exercising more0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

44.00%

22.93%

33.07%

Exercising in college vs. before college

Exercise relative to pre-college habits

Perc

enta

ge o

f Res

pond

ents

Question: Who do you exercise with?

• About half of people exercise with another person or group of persons while half of people exercise by themselves.

Exercise by myself

Exercise with one friend

Exercise with a group of friends

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

49.87%

29.60%

20.53%

Exercise as a Social Activity

Question: Would you consider “athletic” as an attractive quality for women?

• 84.50% of people said that it was an attractive quality.

• 13.10% said that it doesn’t matter.

• <2% reported “No”

Is athletic attractive?

Yes NoDoesn't Matter

Question: How high a priority is “athletic” as quality that you look for in a partner? Rate from 1 – 5.

• We want to specifically relate athleticism to qualities relating to desirability and attractiveness.

• The average rating was 3.38, or “Important”

1 (Unimportant) 2 3 4 5 (Very Important)0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

6.40%

12.00%

30.40%

39.47%

11.73%

Athleticism as a priority in a partner

New Years is coming up… What’s your resolution?!

• 2/3 of respondents said “Yes”

• Exhibits some attitude to athleticism• A goal-oriented

desire

65.33%

34.67%

Exercise as a New Years' Resolution

Yes No

Question: Is our culture health-obsessed?

• Question was vague/confusing/badly worded/somewhat irrelevant

• People posted more interesting responses to the short-answer follow up• Cited media/healthcare/

government as major reasons for social push for athleticsYes No

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

60.64%

39.36%

Health Obsession?

Question: Do you watch sports at University of Maryland?

• The purpose was to gauge the involvement of women in the athletic culture at Maryland.

• The results show a split.

Yes - 52.44%

No - 47.56%

Involvement in Athletic Culture

Yes, I watch sports at University of Maryland.No, I do not watch sports at University of Maryland.

Current Event: VS Fashion ShowQuestion: Are these tweets and thoughts in exaggerative terms or do they suggest a deeper issue? How do they affect women’s involvement in sport/athletics?Negative motivation, but positive outcome?

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/breanna-bond-9-loses-66-pounds-133918949--abc-news-health.html

Question: Is this a smart, healthy decision on the part of the family, or is this a societal decision from her peers that made it not okay to be the weight she was at?

RESULTSCoaches Questionnaire

- No Responses

• After e-mailing the coaches, we did not initially receive a response.

• We e-mailed a second time, about a week later. As of now, we have not received a response.

• We called their offices, but were directed to leave messages. No responses have been received as of yet.

• Therefore, we decided to do some of our own investigating into the differences in men’s and women’s athletic teams.

What we did notice…• Interestingly, there were more women’s teams than men’s teams

listed in the University of Maryland Athletics Department Team Roster (11-8).

• This shows that more programs that support women’s athletics are open. Regardless, Men’s Football is the biggest source of income for University of Maryland Athletics and many women’s teams don’t get nearly as much fanfare or support.

• Question: Why do you think that there are more women’s teams than men’s? Does this mean women have reached some parity? Is it even significant?

CONCLUSIONS

Specific Aims

• Aim: We hope to assess the attitudes of women to athleticism. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it an emerging or fading contention for women's bodies?• Most respondents attributed athleticism as a positive

outcome of UMD culture.• The plurality of respondents said that athleticism was an

important quality they looked for in partners, and often demanded of themselves, too.

• This appears to be another emerging “normative” standard.

Specific Aims

• Aim: Where are some points of contention when it comes to women's athleticism? Are the motivations for exercise necessarily for "health" purposes as much of media and society likes to portray it as?• Many of our survey responses say that reasons other then

health serve as personal motivations: family, personal goals to keep up appearance as well as media, athletic culture, and the desire to be “thin, attractive”.

Specific Aims

• Aim: Address the attitudes of athletic authority towards women. Are programs conducive to women's involvement here on campus?• It seems as though women’s athletics have reached a degree

of parity, with there being even more selection for women’s teams in the athletics department than men’s.

• However, women’s teams still do not enjoy the same level of support from the UMD community.

• We did not perceive many institutional biases.

Biases

• We only reached out to survey people from the CMNS listserv – College of Computer, Math, and Natural Sciences

• Our sample was from University of Maryland (keep in mind racial and class make-up of the student body)

• Our sample was in no way scientific and relied on the “honor system” (people self-reporting)

• Peoples’ opinions may be different (what’s considered athletic or attractive, etc.)

Lessons, improvements, & future courses

• We might want to pick one topic that we studied in the survey and craft a study specifically around that.

• Re-phrase to be more specific in studies

• Learn more or establish the role of physical liberation and increased involvement in athletics.

Any Questions? Comments?

• What we hope you got from this…• Regardless of motivation, it’s good to exercise and practice

physical liberation!

Special thanks- Dr. Rosenfelt- Jaime Madden- All of you guys!

Thanks for listening!