The Phenomenon that Sport is Healthy

In society we are taught basic life skills and understanding of the world around us. From a young age we are taught right from wrong and goals and aspirations of what we want out of our life. A family, friends, a great job, education and being healthy are just some the aspects that people in society would say would make their ‘perfect’ life. As most of us in society would agree to want similar things in life. However, the idea behind all of those ideas is that they are perceived in a good way, but has anyone considered that they are not? Sport is healthy is something that many of us can agree on in society as it has great benefits to an individual and society.

However, we don’t look or think of some of the negatives that are associated with sport. Sport can cause mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and can lead to unhealthy mentality where athletes are often told what kind of athlete they should be (Rosdahl, 2014). Everyday young athletes are training, competing and framing their life around sports, but has anyone considered the harm sport is actually causing in society? Men and women are told from a young age how they should act like, what is expected of them in society and that there are still to this day gender norms, especially in sport. Similarly, body shaming is a very prevalent in sport creating this sociological “ideal” look for women in sport (Rosdahl, 2014). Women are often told that they should participate in more “feminine” sports that don’t require strength (Rosdahl, 2014). Women in society who participate in sport that requires a great amount of strength, such as body building are often seen as “unfeminine” (Rosdahl, 2014). As femininity has been studied and has been found to be self-constructed in society, due to this it has created a negative impact for women in sport (Rosdahl, 2014).

According to Rosdahl (2014) Body sculpting is a prime example of how it affects women sociologically in sport as it is primarily competed in Australia and America where only women are able to compete on components of a women’s femininity within the realms of body building. This competition focuses on characteristics such as having small amount of “muscle mass, symmetry, proportion and tone” while all remaining on the feminine side of sport (Rosdahl, 2014). This type of gender stereotypes creates an unhealthy mental idea around body image for women in sport, which will carry on later on in life for most young girls (Rosdahl, 2014).

Sport in society is often taken out of the pure enjoyment for the sport and transformed into a full-time job. Many young children all over the world are struggling between their motivation to continue participating in sport. Sports have become a means of where society is competing against one another for external rewards such as power, medals and awards. However, this can create a negative impact on your kids and their mental health (O’Connell, 2017). Kids who are taught that sport is all about the competition and therefore might sit on the side lines will continue to have problems as they get older (O’Connell, 2017). The idea behind competing in sport often excites athletes and motivates them to try and achieve their best. However, when an athlete feels failure their self-worth goes down as a whole (Van Lier & Raes, 2018). As athletes tend to hold onto past failures throughout their sport experience and affect them later on in life (Van Lier & Raes, 2018).

Sport in society can create great opportunities for many people and offers great health benefits as well. However, sport can also have negative impacts that affect individuals. Often, we look at the benefit of sport and don’t dive into the deeper sociological effects sport can have on society. In western culture sport is widely participated in and often shapes people in who they are and who they become later on in life but can also affect them dramatically as we have seen above. As a society we have to be able to recognize when something is no longer providing just good and understand when adjustments need to be made in order to make it better.