Race, class and gender shape experience. Racism is a belief that one race is superior over all others. Sexism is one of discrimination forms according to which one sex is believed to be inherently superior over the other sex. Both sexism and racism shape the culture of society. Culture refers to the beliefs, values and material objects that form a person’s way of life. Culture plays a central role in shaping personal identity.
Furthermore, personal identity defines how people fit in various groups based on perceived values and attributes such as skin color, height, weight, talents, job status, membership in organizations, and even neighborhood. Gender differences influence the formation of identity. Michael Messner found out that men use sports as a vehicle for achieving secure masculine identities and status. Taking a historical perspective, Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei illustrated the realtiveness of gender, race-ethnicity, and class and demonstrated how each of these social constructs is affected by the others. Messner as well as Amott and Matthaei explore the issue of gender identity and stress that gender plays important role in defining personal identity.
Males have special attitude towards sports. In particular, sport in the male community is described in terms of relationships with other males. Those who are less skillful are alienated due to highly competitive and hierarchical system of organized sports. Recognition from within the male community promotes status as males are viewed as winners. Moreover, there is a direct link between social class and sports. For example, the chances of attaining professional status in sports are 4/100,000 for white upper income males.
Gender is a crucial factor not only for sports but also for workplace relations. Gender differences in the social life of men and women are based on biological differences. In particular, women are often limited in their choice of occupation to secretaries, nurses and school teachers. Men, on the other side, are more successful as CEOs, managers, police officers, firemen, athletes, judges, lawyers, and surgeons.
Messner suggests that while men’s involvement in sports may speak to the construction of masculinity as an expression of dominance over women, other factors such as class and race, also affect the role of sports in the development of male gender identity. For example, “blacks were found to be more likely than whites to view sports favorably, to incorporate sports into their daily lives, and to be affected by the outcome of sporting events” (Messner 191). Nevertheless, when age, education and social classes were included into analysis, race did not explain difference orientations between whites’ and blacks’.
Furthermore, Messner argued that the boyhood dream of one day becoming a professional athlete-a dream shared by most men- is rarely realized because sports world is very hierarchical. As the result, men make conscious decisions in college to shift their attention toward educational and career goals. Thus, a decision not to pursue an athletic career is a rational decision based on the knowledge of slim changes to be successful in sports. “The white, middle-class institutional context, with its emphasis on education and income, makes it clear to them that choices exist and that the pursuit of an athletic career is not a particularly good choice to make” (Messner 195). Young men find sports a convenient institution to construct their masculine status, but adult men from higher-status background pay more attention to education and career.
Amott and Matthaei also explored the issue of identity development, but with the focus on women and their role in workplace setting. Authors showed the multiplicity and diversity of women’s work contributions to US economic history and laid out the interconnections and interdependencies involved in multiplicity of works with the focus on processes of exploitation and oppression of women by men. In particular, they noted that “the process of gender, race-ethnicity, and class-intrinsically interconnected-have been central forces determining and differentiating women’s work lives in US history” (Amott and Matthaei 27).
In conclusion, studies on gender identity reveal that there are numerous factors affecting the formation of personality. Messner argued that participation in sports contributes to masculinity establishment in young men. However, Messner made a point that intensive sports competition and slim chances to become successful shift interests of young women towards education and career. Amott and Matthaei argued that gender, race-ethnicity and class are interconnected. Authors pointed out that historical oppression of women in workplace is a perfect example of gender-based essence of American society.