The William and Mary Men's Gymnastics team bends societal expectations of the bi-gendered society in this female-dominated sport.
Gymnastics is a visual sport, focusing on their lines and defying their physiological capabilities in six different events: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal (high) bar. These events are only seen in men's gymnastics (with the exception of the floor event, although they have different rules and technique between men's and women's gymnastics. Filming in gymnastics is crucial for them to reevaluate their skills, but it can take toll on their mental health and body image.
Society has taught us to gender people, objects, and actions. Unconsciously, living in a world that expects us to have a heteronormative spectacle, we find ourselves settling into social expectations of what gender rather than what we identify with. I focused on the William and Mary Men’s Gymnastics Team and how they combat and bend gender expectations. Gymnastics is a heavily female-dominated sport in America, causing misconceptions about their masculinity when society looks in.
To understand their experience, I interviewed Sam Lee ('24), a senior on the team. Though this is now subjective to his journey, it is important to note that mental health will vary between each gymnasts. I focused on his experience along with what he has observed throughout his gymnastics career both inside the William and Mary team and outside. We take a look into his upbringing and his idea of body image in gymnastics along with his encounters with being feminized or seeing instances of feminization in the gymnastics community.
"I have been doing gymnastics for 16 years...
I started when I was 5"
- Sam Lee
The team shows their dedication and passion for this sport and explains how it became a crucial part of their childhood and identity. For Lee, he has not undergone malicious comments about his masculinity, but he has witnessed others, both in the collegiate level and past teams, cope with toxic masculinity and the pressures of the public's opinions on the feminization of the sport.
The men's and women's team trains and practices in the same location, so it is inevitable to watch both. Looking at the differences in training seems like they are performing different sports when comparing. The men focus on strength training to perform their events' routines.
“I don’t think that mentality (pressures of de-masculinization) is just with men in gymnastics, it’s just the overall perspective of male athletes… it’s kind of like a ‘push through it’ mentality. I do think that in [men’s] gymnastics, there’s a mindset of ‘I need to look strong and look amazing’ while doing it, but I do not think it has changed my definition of masculinity inside of gymnastics and what I should conform to in order to keep my masculinity”
- Sam Lee
Gymnastics originated in Ancient Greece and, rather than focusing on women, it was catered towards men. In the past,the tournaments included tumbling, rope climbing, and related skills to what we see in the modern day. They believed that gymnastics is able to find a balance between the humanities, such as art and music, to the physical body. This creation caused a symmetry between the mind and body and has continued to evolve through the centuries. They increasingly push past the physical capabilities of the human body.
I want to understand what it means to gender a sport and why people perceive men as “less” masculine when doing a sport that is seen as more feminine. Many of the men in this team have been participating in this sport since they were children. The older they grew, the more aware they became about their masculinity and identity and how the public sees how “feminine” this sport is, thus reflecting their perception of themselves.
“I think in America, gymnastics is predominately seen as a woman’s sport, and when you say that you do gymnastics a lot of people ask if you do… these techniques that are seen only in women’s gymnastics. The gymnastics we do is called artistic gymnastics and the point of it is to look showy, but when you see a lot of that in men’s gymnastics, at least with the younger generation, they see it as feminine. When you try to be performative, instead of exemplifying your strength and muscles, people see you as feminine.”
- Sam Lee
“For people who do [men’s] gymnastics, we think about men with big strong muscles. We then think about ourselves and it forces us to have a mindset of, ‘I have to look a certain way’ so sometimes you get to this point where you look at yourself in the mirror and you start to hate what you see. We want to improve every part of our bodies in order to achieve our standard of perfection.”
- Sam Lee
“It [gymnastics] has changed my perception of my body and how I look. I started comparing my gymnastics with other people’s gymnastics and what my physique looks like as well – it happens a lot. When you analyze other people you can tell the difference between yours and theirs and then you reflect on how you look. I have felt insecure about my body. A lot of the time, at least for myself, I look at people who are good at gymnastics and I look at their bodies and I look at my body and compare the two. It makes me feel like I was more like them.”
- Sam Lee
“There are gymnasts who are openly gay, very few though. When you look at their gymnastics it is noticeably different from the way they perform. It is more artistic and showy and it looks good. A gymnast, for example, Heath Thorpe on the Australian National Team, [his gymnastics] got comments of looking pretty and elegant. Overall, their gymnastics is a lot more artistic, flowy, and ‘feminine’. That is reflected in the sport, in general. When the public looks at those specific examples, they reflect that to men’s gymnastics and generalize that onto the sport as a whole.”
- Sam Lee
“I know some people on the team started dieting, but excessively, just to fit an image that we want. Some people would eat fewer meals or restrict certain foods from their diet. They make sure to lose weight or just to look a certain way.”
- Sam Lee
Niko Greenly on pommel horse
Dominant American social structures are patriarchal norms and traditional gender roles. Even though there is progress in gender and sexuality identity, toxic masculinity is still evident in society and is reflected in sports. Sports can become an identity and reflection of who someone is. It then becomes a measure of their masculinity, pertaining to men. Men who want to participate in a non-hegemonic masculine sport stray away from it the older they get because of their growing consciousness of gender norms. Where men in gymnastics are seen wearing pants that are similar to tights, and flexibility and mobility are crucial for this sport, society may question their masculinity, but why does this matter? How can certain sports become malevolent to identity and gender ideals? Where clothing and movement are deemed as feminine and are seen as “losing” their masculinity, whereas women participating in a male-dominated sport is seen as a progression.
“All of the routines we do is focused on body weight. Some people on the team did not want to look too big or weigh too much or else they feel heavy and unable to execute the moves correctly because they are heavier. I know that there are other people who want to get bigger because they that bigger equals stronger. One of my teammates mentioned to me that they wished they looked like me, but I felt that way with my other teammates as well. Sometimes I get confused because I feel like I look, not out of shape, but not the physique of what a great gymnast should look like. I do see myself comparing my body to an excessive amount of my teammates. They look a certain way and I do not look anything like them, so I am the negative version of them.”
- Sam Lee
Body imaging and gender norms have become an issue, not only in gymnastics, but in the athletic industry as a whole. Through failure and success, the team unapologetically shows their appreciation for one another. Their bond through their physical pain, laughter, and joy of the sport continues on outside of the gym, where they combat societal expectations and show the public who they are regardless of gender expectations.