Entry #6

I was interested in the topic because I had always heard little surface pieces about Title IX when I was playing sports in High School. A mom of one of my old teammates was adamant about Title IX and I remember it being brought up sometimes. It triggered other thoughts about Title IX and I started to think about what sports were like when I was growing up, and how I played on the boys' baseball teams because there weren't any girls teams that were competitive enough and available for me. My topic started out being a lot about how it helped girls athletics improve. I kind of had this vision that everything was so much better than it was. When I read some of the research and started learning about how Title IX still needs to be worked on and implemented better into athletics it got a little bit more interesting. 

I really liked researching for my counter-argument paper, because this is when I read about things that I had no idea before. I found some racial issues with Title IX that were a little unexpected but that made them interesting to me. Also, how women had to assimilate to a "man's" game was a new fact that I found. I also didn't realize the impact it had on men's sports teams. The research I found at first was different than my assumptions that I started with. I had this very false assumption that Title IX did no harm and helped give money to girls programs in some magical way that did not affect other people as much as it did.

My topic matters because gender equality is important and in athletics it is not achieved. The opportunities should be fair for men and women, so they both have the great opportunity to compete in something they love doing.

Entry #5

It was good to see some fresh research about Title IX. I read a lot about the history of Title IX so that I could found some periodicals, and newspapers that show a good perspective of Title IX. There were some good experiences and examples of how Title IX has affected different communities. The New York Times had a few articles from the 70's and 80's that were interesting. 

The interview I had with Corinna helped focus on aspects particular to college women's basketball. I'm not sure how much of the interview I'll include in my final research paper, but even if I don't use it, I enjoyed learning about how schools in our state treated women's athletics. The interview went well and it was useful to learn about certain players that received scholarships and what the program was like. 

I read an article about Brittney Griner, a current WNBA player, recruited from Baylor. In the article the authors (who were male) talked of Brittney Griner's skill and how she is built "like a man". It was also brought up that she could possibly play in the NBA. Because she is 6' 8" tall, she is comparable in size to most male players. The funny thing is that the way they discussed it was like they were thinking "if she's that big and that good, then she should play with the boys" as to assume that no female athlete could be the best in the WNBA.

Entry #4

For my Vignette Draft I wrote about Gender Equality, Discrimination, and Double-Status.
Gender Quality is a big part of Title IX. The portrayal of gender in sports and the opportunities out there for college athletes of both genders is very important. To create more equality there not only needs to be added funds and support in that regard to women’s sports, but the overall interest and attention to the more “feminine” sports and specifically sports being played by females needs to increase. Title IX can help create gender equality in sports by applying laws and enforcing them on programs. The concept of gender equality in sports may be very hard for us to reach because our society has been formed around the feeling that masculinity is greater than femininity
Discrimination is an important part of Title IX because different sexes and races have a different experience with Title IX. Women often feel discriminated against in the athletic world because of the general expectation that sports are for men.Men also feel discriminated against through certain acts of Title IX, because ins some cases men's athletic programs are taken away in order to help women's athletic programs. Minority races also feel discriminated against and do not generally benefit very much from Title IX. 

While writing my Counter Argument: I grew to understand that point of view very well. I have debated adopting that point of view, as well as other counter argument worthy aspects of Title IX. It's interesting to hear about how Title IX can hurt different people in the college athletic world. I especially think it's interesting how it protects from sex discrimination but does not protect so much against race discrimination or helping out those of minority races.  I plan to incorporate  how Title IX affects men;s sports teams as well as how it doesn't particularly help out females of minority races. That was an epiphany to me and I think it's an important issue to address.

Entry #2: Questions

A good question for a research paper is attainable, as in it can be answered. I think that a good question also triggers a lot of thought and a good question has many other questions that stem from it. This makes it interesting and it makes it so you can keep learning more and more about your initial question.

The central questions for my paper are "How has Title IX changed college athletics?" and also asking if it's provided enough equality in women's sports, and also how men's sports have been affected by it as well. I may touch on what races benefited the most from Title IX as well. I have played sports my whole life but long after Title IX was enacted and so I don't really know how it improved programs for women and girls. I was already lucky enough to play with more benefits than others before me. 

As far as the other assignments leading up to this point I've found some good questions to answer and I'm excited about my research and what i'll learn. I hope that I can help educate about how there is still some inequality in our word today and even though we've made some big strides from the 1900's that there are still battles worth fighting for, and one of them is the battle that women have when trying to be competitive in athletics.

This Youtube video is centered around the WNBA. Many players wouldn't have had the opportunity to play professionally if Title IX wasn't enacted. I like what Sue Bird had to say, she said that she didn't know what it was like to play without it, and that's kind of the stance I take on it too. I'm grateful I was born into an era where I didn't have to fight as much to compete even though I am a girl. If you notice in the video, a lot of the women are African-American, or not Caucasian, and may be from a foreign country. These women benefit from Title IX also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcYTg182GU

Entry #1

1) Reflect on your past experiences with writing and research. What were they like? What sorts of methods or types of research did you do? What does good writing, and more specifically "research writing" look like to you?  2) So far, what are some of your early musings/ideas for a potential research topic? Share with me your interest or investment in at least one or two of these topics and why it might be a worthy or interesting quarter-long inquiry? What would you like to know more about or prove? If there are any related videos or articles to your potential topic ideas, feel free to include these.


I've done several different research projects all through-out school, and most but not all have been on topics or people that I have chosen. I remember growing up I did a lot of research projects on my idols, more like biographies almost. I also chose to research animals a lot. Which seems silly but I freaking love animals, and they're pretty fun to learn about too. I've done several other research projects since then on various topics. I got most of my research from online sources like journals or credited websites or from physical books.
I think that good research writing incorporates more than a few sources (so the information is backed up by more than one source and is more credible) and I think that it has a lot of concrete detail, and also some writing analyzing your research and what it means for your research. 
I am thinking of researching LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans) movements, Hip-Hop music, or sports, specifically women's role in sports. LGBT movements would interest me because I identify as part of LGBT, and issues having to do with their rights have recently been a big deal in the nation. I'd like to know how movements started and when they started fighting for rights for LGBT people. Hip-Hop music has a lot of different areas that I could research. I could choose a specific artist or conflict within the genre and research it. The whole story about Tupac and Biggie might be interesting, even though it also might be hard to research because a lot of parts of that story might not be known to be actual facts which would be hard to narrow down. Women in sports would be interesting for me to write about because I've grown up playing three sports every year. I played competitively in soccer, basketball, and baseball/softball and seen how the program options are for girls, as well as just girls/women in sports in general and the role. I remember moments when my team had to fight for a better program and things like that.