GRSJ224 Gender Double Standards In Hockey
Introduction
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, attitudes surrounding the deep-rooted gender social roles has been a topic for much debate. Despite the growing trend towards eliminating gender inequality, we still see several “double standards” in both sports and society that certain genders are subjected to (Axinn, Young-DeMarco, & Ro, 2011). Women have been primary victims of gender double standards in ice hockey, and have faced disproportionate amounts of discrimination due to various interlocking stigmatized characteristics.
Gender Specific Rules
Traditional gender stereotypes have long been reinforced in ice hockey through specific gender-oriented rules such as ones pertaining to the physical nature of the sport like body-checking and fighting, which are currently not permitted in any form of women’s hockey, but have played a large role in their male counterparts in the sport. Body-checking (which was removed from the women’s game in the 1990s) is an exciting defensive tactic used to separate an opposing player from the puck, by physically colliding with them. It has played a large part in the men’s game but has seen changes in recent years to reduce the number of hits to the head. In women’s hockey, to separate a player from the puck, one must use a defensive tactic called body contact, where a defensive player attempts to angle the offensive player into the boards and lightly make contact, separating them from the puck. These rules have contributed to the notion of social expectations and strive to dictate how someone should behave according to gender, enforcing gender hierarchies (Weaving & Roberts, 2012).
The lack of body-checking in particular has had negative consequences on women’s hockey as women are deprived an exciting aspect of the game, hindering their ability to flourish in the sport. Gender specific rules like these emphasize society’s largely backwards, sexist stance of reinforcing masculinity and femininity in society (Weaving & Roberts, 2012). Furthermore, the double standards for rules like these emphasize the continuing trend to oppress women to promote masculine traits of strength and aggression, while continuing to promote the connotation that women are fragile and weak (Muir, 2011).
If the motive for the abolishment of body-checking in women's hockey was really for the safety of the players, why is the rule absent from professional men's hockey? In fact, women have been found to be injured at higher rates, when contacting the boards or opponents because they were not expecting the hit and played with their head down, which increases the susceptibility of being injured because they were not following the play closely enough, due to too much trust in the body contact rule (Weaving & Roberts, 2012). While the debate whether hockey should have body-checking or not is a complicated one, the rules should be the same for everyone, not just for a select group of people who identify as a certain gender.
Stereotyping Descriptors in Broadcast Commentary
In a study of media portrayals of the 2010 winter Olympics, female ice hockey players were commonly evaluated on both their level of technical skill but also largely on their emotions and personalities, much more than men. For women to be considered skilled, society has long pushed the notion that emotions and personalities must be kept in check or they are acting as stereotypical women whose lives are entirely immersed in their emotions. While it was found that the commentators were focusing on the technical skills 35% of the time, women's emotions were the second major focal point in the player evaluations (Muir, 2011).
Despite the increase in televised women’s ice hockey, the coverage has been subject to double standards as seen by the varying use of stereotypical descriptors leading to the further reinforcement of male hegemony in sports (Muir, 2011).
Drinking Culture
Celebrating heroic victories in hockey as a team has been a fundamental tradition for years that routinely includes consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. There are double standards as women celebrating this way have been commonly disapproved by society much more harshly than men as exemplified by the reaction to the Canadian women following their gold medal victory at the Winter Olympics in 2010 (Edwards, Jones, & Weaving, 2013).
The women were thrilled to have won such a nail-biting 2-0 game and partied their hearts out on the ice when they believed everyone in the stadium had gone home. They assumed wrong, and their post-game antics such as smoking cigars, drinking Molson Canadian and champagne, and even taking the Zamboni for a cruise in celebration was witnessed by some journalists who were still in attendance. Before long, news broke out internationally of their excessive partying, or so it seemed, but would this reaction have been so substantial if it was the Canadian Men’s ice hockey team instead? (Edwards et al., 2013).
Drinking and sports have typically been seen as masculine practices that can help explain (but not excuse) the overarching amounts of criticism the Canadian Women were faced with following the news going viral. These accusations were largely hypocritical as the outcry was primarily gender specific, whether people consciously realized or not (Edwards et al., 2013).
Future Steps
While people have been critical of the many double standards in hockey, the women's game has been growing in popularity due to the "cleaner" style as described by author and radio producer Lynda Baril. Women's hockey has been on the rise and despite being historically disadvantaged by the rules, it can be argued that the rules are more modern and serve beneficial purposes for those playing the game. The game is changing as speed has become a much more dominant aspect than brute physicality. Regardless though, the rules should be the same for both genders, as players and viewers will adapt (Terlep, 2014).
Due to growing research on the effects of repeated hits to the head, it would not surprise me if down the road, all leagues ban fighting and body checking for everyone, regardless of gender for the safety of the sport. It will protect people physically, and adversely in helping eliminate gender norms. Gender specific rules are of the past and people, regardless of gender should have equal opportunity to succeed in both society and sports ((Edwards et al., 2013); Muir, 2011).
References
1. Axinn, W. G., Young-DeMarco, L., & Ro, M. C. (2011). Gender double standards in parenting attitudes. Social Science Research, 40(2), 417-432. 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.08.010
2. Edwards, L., Jones, C., & Weaving, C. (2013). Celebration on ice: Double standards following the canadian women's gold medal victory at the 2010 winter olympics. Sport in Society, 16(5), 682-698. 10.1080/17430437.2012.753524
3. Muir, H. A. (2011). Media portrayals of athletes in televised sports: A content analysis of ice hockey broadcasts during the 2010 winter olympic games
4. Terlep, S. (2014, ). Sochi 2014: (technically) no checking in women's hockey. Wall Street Journal
5. Weaving, C., & Roberts, S. (2012). Checking in: An analysis of the (lack of) body checking in women's ice hockey. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 83(3), 470-478. 10.1080/02701367.2012.10599882