1. Fitness, Health, and
Attitudes of Athleticism
at University of Maryland
Harold Jimenez, Subhashree Nayak, Milana Shapsay
W M S T 2 9 8 D | 0 1 0 4 | T U E S D AY, D E C E M B E R 1 7 TH 2012

2. • In our October 9th
discussion on “Sports and
Women”, we took an
informal poll of how
many of the (mostly
female) students exercise.
• Turns out, most of us
exercise regularly.
However, reasons were
varied.
• Our project was
developed to find out how
female students at UMD
felt about health &
Introduction exercise.

3. • Athletics are BIG at University of Maryland, College Park.
• Many people are athletic or at least “fit-minded”
• Also, the demographics of our sample are the younger
generation (18-22, presumably), and can provide insight
into the newer, shifted opinions.
Introduction (cont’d) A photo of Ritchie Coliseum

4. • Roth A, and Basow, S. (2004) “Femininity, Sports, and Feminism: Developing a Theory
of Physical Liberation.” Journal of Sport and Social Issue 28(3):245-265.
• Theory of physical liberation
• Dworkin SL. (2001) “„Holding Back‟: Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women‟s
Muscular Strength,” Sociological Perspectives 44(3):333-350. Retrieved from Weitz text
(pp. 301-317)
• Motivations for athleticism and to what extent
• Blumenthal K. (June 22nd, 2012) “The Truth about Title IX”. The Daily Beast. Retrieved
November 24th, 2012. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/22/the-truth-about-
title-ix.html
• Influence of governmental policies and encouragement of
athleticism
• Smith KL, Cornelissen PL, Tovée MJ. (2007) “Color 3D bodies and judgements of human
female attractiveness”. Evolution and Human Behavior 28 48 – 54
• Scientific basis of attractiveness – superficial body cues
Sources – for more info, check our wiki!

5. • 1. We hope to assess the attitudes of women to
athleticism. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it an emerging or
fading contention for women's bodies?
• 2. Where are some points of contention when it comes
to women's athleticism? Are the motivations for
exercise necessarily for "health" purposes as much of
media and society likes to portray it as?
• 3. We also want to address the attitudes of athletic
authority towards women. Are programs conducive to
women's involvement here on campus?
Specific Aims

6. • Over a two week period
(November 21st – December
08th 2012), we conducted an
online survey.
• Required Terpmail or UMD-
email
• Also, over this two week
period, we conducted an in-
person survey.
• We also emailed athletic
coaches from specific teams
(basketball, track, etc.) with
questionnaires. Copy of an e-mail distributed to the CMNS-
listserv over our two week-period
Methodology

7. RESULTS
The Surveys
10-Questions & Short-Answer Responses

8. Sex of Interviewee
400
350
96.4% (375 out of 389 total) of our
300
interviewees were female. We also
250
used this question to help screen for
200
male participants, as we wanted to
150
understand female’s perspective of
100
themselves in relation to fitness.
50
0
Sex of Interviewee
Female Male Does not prefer to answer
Demographics

9. Question: Rate your confidence in your
athletic ability from 1 (Not confident at all) to
5 (Extremely confident)
• The average rating for our
sample was 3.06 or
“relatively confident”
Confidence Rating
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
1. Not Confident 5. Extremely
2 3 4
at all. confident.
8.53% 20.53% 32.80% 33.07% 5.07%

10. Question: How many hours a week, on
average, do you spend exercising?
• 88.80% of our respondents reported regular exercise.
• A distinct majority
Exercise Habits
70.00%
59.73%
60.00%
Percentage of Respondents
50.00%
40.00%
30.00% 25.60%
20.00%
11.20%
10.00% 3.47%
0.00%
0 1-3 hours 4-6 hours 9+
Hours a Week Spent Exercising

11. Question: Do you feel
pressure to exercise?
Do you feel pressure to exercise?
No
Yes
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%
Yes No
56.86% 43.14%
• The follow-up for this question was
to state some reasons for the
pressure…

12. Some responses:
• “There is huge pressure at UMD to live a fast-paced
glamourous lifestyle; in part from the large role that
Greek life plays here as well as the culture. So many girls
workout around campus because they feel the need to be
accepted and think that if they are fit, it will be easier for
them to make friends.”
• “I feel I need to stay in that shape to maintain a
presentable look for my family and friends.”
• “Media and not wanting to look flabby. Family - mom
makes comments about my weight sometimes”
• Most common reasons were: family, media, school
culture, and health

13. Question: Are you exercising more, the same
amount, or less now that you are in college?
• Surprisingly, the majority of respondents said that
they were exercising less or the same amount
Exercising in college vs. before college
50.00%
45.00%
40.00%
Percentage of Respondents
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
44.00%
20.00%
33.07%
15.00%
22.93%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Exercising less Exercising the same amount Exercising more
Exercise relative to pre-college habits

14. Question: Who do you exercise with?
Exercise as a Social Activity
Exercise with a group of friends [VALUE]
• About half of people
exercise with another
Exercise with one friend [VALUE]
person or group of
persons while half of
people exercise by
themselves.
Exercise by myself [VALUE]
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

15. Question: Would you consider “athletic” as
an attractive quality for women?
Is athletic attractive?
• 84.50% of people said that
it was an attractive quality.
• 13.10% said that it doesn’t
matter.
• <2% reported “No”
Yes No Doesn't Matter

16. Question: How high a priority is “athletic” as quality that
you look for in a partner? Rate from 1 – 5.
• We want to specifically relate athleticism to qualities
relating to desirability and attractiveness.
• The average rating was 3.38, or “Important”
Athleticism as a priority in a partner
39.47%
40.00%
30.40%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00% 12.00% 11.73%
15.00% 6.40%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
1 (Unimportant) 2 3 4 5 (Very
Important)

17. New Years is coming up…
What’s your resolution?!
Exercise as a New Years' Resolution
• 2/3 of respondents
said “Yes”
34.67%
• Exhibits some
65.33% attitude to
athleticism
• A goal-oriented
desire
Yes No

18. Question: Is our culture
health-obsessed?
Health Obsession?
70.00% • Question was
60.00%
60.64%
vague/confusing/badly
worded/somewhat irrelevant
50.00%
39.36%
40.00%
• People posted more interesting
30.00%
responses to the short-answer
20.00%
follow up
10.00% • Cited media/healthcare/
0.00%
government as major reasons
Yes No for social push for athletics

19. Question: Do you watch sports
at University of Maryland?
Involvement in Athletic Culture
• The purpose was to gauge
the involvement of
No - women in the athletic
[VALUE Yes -
] [VALUE culture at Maryland.
]
• The results show a split.
Yes, I watch sports at University of Maryland.
No, I do not watch sports at University of Maryland.

20. Current Event: VS Fashion Show
Question: Are these
tweets and thoughts in
exaggerative terms or
do they suggest a
deeper issue?
How do they affect
women’s involvement
in sport/athletics?
Negative motivation, but positive
outcome?

21. Question: Is this a smart, healthy decision on the part of the family, or is this a
societal decision from her peers that made it not okay to be the weight she was at?
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/breanna-bond-9-loses-66-pounds-133918949--abc-news-health.html

22. RESULTS
Coaches Questionnaire

23. • After e-mailing the coaches, we did not initially receive a
response.
• We e-mailed a second time, about a week later. As of
now, we have not received a response.
• We called their offices, but were directed to leave
messages. No responses have been received as of yet.
• Therefore, we decided to do some of our own
investigating into the differences in men’s and women’s
athletic teams.
- No Responses

24. What we did notice…
• Interestingly, there were more women’s teams than men’s
teams listed in the University of Maryland Athletics
Department Team Roster (11-8).
• This shows that more programs that support women’s athletics
are open. Regardless, Men’s Football is the biggest source of
income for University of Maryland Athletics and many
women’s teams don’t get nearly as much fanfare or support.
• Question: Why do you think that there are more women’s
teams than men’s? Does this mean women have reached some
parity? Is it even significant?

25. CONCLUSIONS

26. • Aim: We hope to assess the attitudes of women to
athleticism. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it an emerging or
fading contention for women's bodies?
• Most respondents attributed athleticism as a positive
outcome of UMD culture.
• The plurality of respondents said that athleticism was an
important quality they looked for in partners, and often
demanded of themselves, too.
• This appears to be another emerging “normative” standard.
Specific Aims

27. • Aim: Where are some points of contention when it
comes to women's athleticism? Are the motivations for
exercise necessarily for "health" purposes as much of
media and society likes to portray it as?
• Many of our survey responses say that reasons other then
health serve as personal motivations: family, personal goals
to keep up appearance as well as media, athletic culture, and
the desire to be “thin, attractive”.
Specific Aims

28. • Aim: Address the attitudes of athletic authority
towards women. Are programs conducive to women's
involvement here on campus?
• It seems as though women’s athletics have reached a degree
of parity, with there being even more selection for women’s
teams in the athletics department than men’s.
• However, women’s teams still do not enjoy the same level
of support from the UMD community.
• We did not perceive many institutional biases.
Specific Aims

29. • We only reached out to survey people from the CMNS
listserv – College of Computer, Math, and Natural
Sciences
• Our sample was from University of Maryland (keep in
mind racial and class make-up of the student body)
• Our sample was in no way scientific and relied on the
“honor system” (people self-reporting)
• Peoples’ opinions may be different (what’s considered
athletic or attractive, etc.)
Biases

30. • We might want to pick one topic that we studied in the
survey and craft a study specifically around that.
• Re-phrase to be more specific in studies
• Learn more or establish the role of physical liberation and
increased involvement in athletics.
Lessons, improvements, &
future courses

31. Any Questions? Comments?
• What we hope you got from this…
• Regardless of motivation, it’s good to exercise and practice
physical liberation!

32. Special thanks
- Dr. Rosenfelt
- Jaime Madden
- All of you guys!
Thanks for listening!