The systemic injustice I am going to talk about is the one from my most recent systemic post, the difference in weight rooms between the women that made the NCAA March Madness tournament and the men that made the tournament. There is going to be a picture in this post comparing the two. Just to touch base, and go over again what is going on. There is a video that went viral from a women NCAA athlete showing the two weight rooms and showing the huge difference between them both, with the women just have a set of 12 dumbbells while the men had a full set gym to have a workout in. I will go over both main arguments from both sides, the people on the side of women deserving more equipment are making the argument, that the women collegiate athletes or just women in general in any athletic scenario can compete with the same level male athletes. The other side of the argument is that men bring in $800 million every season, while the women lose an estimated $14 million in revenue every season. The morally right thing is to use some of the extra money the men bring in on the women so they can get more advanced things, but the argument that the women did not earn it is the argument mainly thrown out there, which is not right for the way we want society to head.
Something this can relate to in our class is Satrapi’s goals in Persepolis. A quote that we went over in our class from Satrapi is, “The only thing I hope is that people will read my book and see that this abstract thing, this Axis of Evil, is made up of individuals with lives and hopes”. They way I take this quote is that people form the “Axis of Evil” through their own individualist ideals and their personal hopes. That is why the women get a lower grade weight room than the men, because they do not see any benefit in it for them, because they do not get national attention and bring in the same money as men, as a society it should be that we are trying to help one another out not bring one another down.
The YouTube link I have attached is a more recent video going over the whole situation and showing the women’s new weight room. It was nice for them to get a whole new weight room but it should have just been this way from the get go. The NCAA directors try to act like a group of people that want to get rid of any systemic injustices in their system but then they go and let something like this happen, it is ridiculous and uncalled for.
Works Cited:
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/sports/ncaaw/2021/03/27/march-madness-why-cant-ncaa-get-womens-basketball-right/7012017002/
I really like this post- especially the topic that it revolves around. As an avid sports fan, this story of the NCAA tournament disparity in terms of weight rooms has caught my eye due to the amount of buzz that has been surrounding it. Since we have been doing a lot of thinking and writing on systemic injustices, I feel as though a lot of it has been revolving around race. I think that it is important that injustices like this get talked about as well because this issue is very real. I believe that we are making strides in the sports world in terms of female inclusion, but this was definitely a big step back and a big misstep by the NCAA.
Great job on this assignment! I wrote one of my Diary of Systemic Injustice assingments on the same topic and thought that it was a really glaring example of injustice with regards to gender inequality. The realm of sports and NCAA basketball, as you pointed out, really concentrates and highlights the issue and I think most would agree that it was a very positive outcome by the Oregon team bringing the weight room issue to light. Hopefully collegiate sports leaders and university administrators will take issues like this seriously and come together to address the issue meaningfully to work towards female inclusion in the collegiate sports arena.
Awesome job on the showcase. You have done an excellent job in showcasing the issue that represents one of the major injustices in our society against women. Even my showcase involved sports, we have been constantly seeing that female sports are always downplayed and discriminated as not competitive. I agree that the leaders in all sports should come together to provide equal opportunity of everyone in sports regardless of their gender.
Amazing job on your showcase! One thing that is often not brought up as well in terms of NCAA inequalities is not just the inequalities between genders but between sports themselves. As a member of the OSU fencing team, I can say that we do not receive as much funding or support from athletics as the football and basketball teams. This may be because we aren’t the most spectator-friendly sport. This explanation makes sense. Virtually every sport at OSU makes the university lose money, except football and men’s basketball. As much as I don’t like to say it, my sport relies on the revenues of these sports. Their financial success is one of the only reasons my team can exist.
I decided to make a comment on this post due to the information on this topic I have seen circulating tik tok. I think it is insane and a huge red flag into the injustices of woman’s v. mans sports. The fact the weight room had some free weights while the mens included full racks is not a matter of money its a matter of a favoritism to men in the NCAA industry. This post I think highlights one of the most prevalent examples of injustices circulating the nation today.
I like your post about gender equality. It was a heated topic and have been discussed over several years. I love how you connect the phenonmenon that you found in your daily life to the book that we have read. When I read Satrapi’s goals in Persepolis, the plot likewise attracts my attention and starts to pay more attention on this issue