Journal Article Analysis
The author of the article “Grapping with Dominant Ideologies: Fox Network weighs in on Girl/Boy Wrestling” does well with describing the problems that occur when girls play mainly guy sports such as wrestling and football. This author, Theresa Walton’s, main focus is on the effects of girls wrestling boys and how it is viewed by the public. Girls playing guys sports seem to cause problems for the boy, the girl, and society in general. With subject-specific vocabulary such as patriarchal hierarchy and hegemonic masculinity the author explains her ideas well in everyday terms which help communicate with her general audience. The author seems to have a general audience because the message of the article is to alert everybody to the problem by using everyday examples. To illustrate the effects of girls playing guy sports the author, Theresa Walton, uses three absolutely brilliant examples of girls wrestling boys on the Fox network. The three shows and episodes are King of the Hill “Bobby Slam”, Malcolm in the Middle “The Bully”, and Boston Public “Chapter Ten”.
The “King of the Hill” episode “Bobby Slam” focuses on how girls’ wrestling with boys prevents the boys from gaining their masculinity. For example, if a boy wrestles a girl instead of another boy the boy does not get a chance to prove his masculinity due to society’s view that girls are weaker than boys. The result of the wrestling match is a draw which allows both the boy and the girl to be successful, but still hurts bobby’s masculinity.
The “Malcolm in the Middle” episode “The Bully” takes a difference approach by focusing on the harassment a boy faces when losing to a girl and how that effect social order. Malcolm’s Brother Reese gets beaten badly by a girl wrestler which causes Reese to change his ways and give up being the school bully. Once Reese finds out him being a bully was in fact a good thing he reverts back to a bully and beats kids up to regain control of the school. The approach “Malcolm in the Middle” takes is that if a boy beats a girl chaos will emerge and it will put a boy’s masculinity into question. “Malcolm in the middle” focuses on social disorder and public humiliation of losing to a girl.
The “Boston Public” episode “Chapter Ten” focuses on what the girl endures when she wants to play in guy sports. In this show, the girl, Christine is being picked on and referred to as "The Blob" because of her size and response by beating the boys up who made fun of her. Christine gets away with beating up the boys because they will not tell anyone the shame of being beaten up by a girl. The example given that Christine dies in a later episode was concrete in showing society’s readiness to eliminate girls who tests its boundaries. Boston public focus on what affects the girl who is wrestling which is complementary to the effects it has on the boy who is wrestling and society as a whole.
Fox shows evidence of the increasing boy/girl wrestling phenomenon of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The writers of these three shows express the results of what happens when girls do well in boy sports. The author of this article expresses the negative things that happen with girls wrestle boys. One thing is when girls wrestle boys it takes away their chance to gain their masculinity and the other thing is the girls that enter into the boys sports might be in danger. When the girls start to wrestle in a male sport the media undermines them by not including them much in the story line or simple killing them off. The social view around the physical defenses between girls and guys creates a male dominated institution of organized sports. Sadly the fictional shows on Fox choose to follow the social injustices of reality.
References
Walton, T. (2007).Grapping with dominant ideologies: Fox network weighs in on girl/boy
wrestling. The Journal of Popular Culture. 40, 714-727.
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