I think we definitely had a spirited discussion in class today, but I know for me, it was hard to make ground on most topics because they are generally in the eye of the beholder. What makes one thing more creative or accessible to one person is a limitation to another. The topic that I think was the best to discuss was the role women play in sports. I think that it is incredibly difficult to discuss this because we have so many years of "this is a male sport, this is a female sport" shoved down our throat. I am guilty of this as well, but we tend to view things as a woman competing on or above a man's level. Even "She Rips..." used this thought process a little. One point that I saw was prevalent was the idea that women's sports or competitions are limiting gender wise. By specifying the gender of the competitors it only allows for someone to be good for a girl/boy. In order to not have this mindset, we would have to have sport with no gender regulation. Frankly I believe that at this point the only way that would happen is with the creation of a new sport.
Because we had a focus on skateboarding, I thought that this series of videos was worth posting. In "She Rips," Elissa Steamer's role as a female skater was gone through in some detail. She had the first female video part and was the first female pro. She was in Tony Hawk video games and was an X-Games gold medalist. In 2011, she quit her sponsor, Zero, and as the "godmother" of skateboarding was unable to get a sponsor. This series of 4 videos (about 40 minutes) goes through her entire career and really picks apart what it is like to be the only female in the boys club that is skateboarding.
http://www.vice.com/epicly-later-d/elissa-steamer-part-1
In response to your comment about creating a new gender-unbiased sport, I think we should also determine what kind of sport it should be. For example any sport that involves physical contact will always be under public scrutiny because one could easily argue that men have the natural advantage over women on a physical playing field. Even if a sport was created that was initial gender neutral, technicalities such as this may cause it to shift to one side as time goes on. As talked about it class the other day, the only real gender neutral sport would be one that focused on skill, talent, or strategy rather than on physical prowess. In this realm both men and women are equal and therefore would not be impeded by any sexist criticisms. As for right now I believe that current sports will slowly start integrating both genders however any sport that involves physical contact will forever be separated by gender in my opinion.
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