Rugby is a team, contact sport that started in England and is played by both men and women. Many people in America see it akin to American football given the tackling and more contact oriented nature of the sport, however, it is a completely separate entity. Oftentimes, heavy contact sports are mostly played by men. For example, American football and the NFL is a huge organization whose players are composed of men. This is why, as someone who has grown up watching American football, it is quite impressive to see women playing rugby with the same intensity and even more strength than an American football player. In the matches, you can see the agility, speed, and power in the movements and tackles and the true brutal nature of the sport. There is a lot less protective gear than one would expect given the style. The audience is most likely of both genders as with any major sport, but has more male spectators. Women’s rugby like many women’s sports is often underappreciated and underlooked. There is less funding and less turnout despite a team’s success. The violence and power in the sport display unconventional gender dynamics as women are traditionally expected to be calmer and more graceful. I believe that one’s gender should not limit or affect the sports or the behavior they choose to engage in. Conventional behaviors that fit gender norms can be quite restrictive and can possibly hinder the potential of an individual. It was very cool to watch various clips of women’s rugby and see these traditional expectations be demolished. The concept of wild is depicted in this sport simply due to the sheer violence with the tackles and the amazing athleticism of each woman on the team.
It’s really wild to me that there is a lack of protective gear in rugby when the physicality of the sport is similar to that of football, which utilizes very protective gear. My post was similar to yours in the way that we both highlighted the athleticism of women in their respective sports. Furthermore, the tackling aspect of the game reflects this “animal-like” wildness that is not as prevalent in other sport branches. Good job!
I wrote my blog post about women’s rugby, too! Its great that you highlighted that women’s rugby (& most women’s sports in general) isn’t paid adequately, despite their equal or greater performance compared to the men’s version of the same sport. I also hadn’t thought much about how little protective gear rugby players wear in comparison to american football players, despite how much more common rough tackles/hits are in rugby. Good work.
This is such an interesting sport to me because the idea of women playing rugby breaks all of the stereotypes put in place by the patriarchy. Women are expected to be less aggressive than men, but women don’t have to be. There are so many sports like this played by women that do not get the attention of the male counterpart sport. If it weren’t so overlooked, then maybe these female stereotypes would not be so common throughout the world once they see of what women are capable.