In the end, we can learn a lot about sport today based what sport was like for women in Ancient Greece. In doing this report, a few questions have presented themselves based on the information researched.
One of the biggest questions is the idea of is sport so different now than in Ancient Greece. We have a huge division between the genders and to suggest that a merger of genders in sport is ridiculous. We still have female dominate and male dominate sports and to introduce a male into a female sport or vice versa is not something that we readily consider. America Football is like this and continues to show that in sport not much progress has been made in the last few years.
Another idea that comes up is that female sports are handicapped. In Ancient Greece it was the races, but even today we still have the opinion that a woman cannot do something as well as a man can. This is particularly evident in the differences between rules of the female version and the male version of lacrosse. Lacrosse is almost a different sport entirely for the men and the women because of the different rules associated with it.
One of the biggest questions I have coming out of this project has to do with nudity in sport. Why do sports not encourage nudity? If sport is really the appreciation of what the body can do than why are we afraid of nudity? Nudity in sport would allow people to better view and appreciate the complex motions of the body and the athlete. It seems that we have taken a backwards stance on clothing in sport when we made clothing mandatory. When did we become scared of the male and female body without clothes? Why should society have athlete’s cover up instead of letting them display what they have worked so hard for? Maybe the Ancient Greeks had it right, maybe sport is better enjoyed and sport is given a greater depth by having the athlete do the activity in the nude.
Even if you do not like this idea, that sport and nudity should be considered further, the Ancient Greek practices of the different clothing for the sexes bring up a very important point about our society today. Just like the Greeks, sport and society toady makes a distinction between what a women can and cannot wear when practicing or competing in a physical activity. Male runners today can run shirtless, but for a female runner to do so is wrong. Women have to follow a different dress code than men and this article on Ancient Greece shows how little we have come along. Women had to wear chitons and men went naked. There is a big resemblance with what went on in Ancient Greece with cloths and what went on today. This article is not meant to advocate turning over the norms right now but rather to examine them. Examine the differences between male and female sports and examine the idea of nudity in sport. In doing this project, I have been questioning these ideas and they seem valid ones to questions. By learning about Ancient Greece we can learn about our own peculiarities in sport. While the Greek’s had a different society thousands of years ago, they suffer some of the same odd behaviors in sport as we do and assume right now.