**6. Final thoughts**

power that I had with my body. And I successfully demonstrated that for years. Also, whether I was too big or small, I had a great deal of success in other sports I played because of my gymnastics background whether it was medaling at state track or playing on a championship softball team. When the time came to leave gymnastics, I knew I would be able to pick up

Gymnastics made me feel beautiful, confident, strong, and successful. Even when the time came to let it go and move on, I knew I would always carry it with me. To this day, it still contributes to my feelings of self-worth and my desire to push through difficult challenges

Athletes have powerful bodies, but do we, as beings, have power? How one comes to understand her own beauty is heavily influenced by perceptions of others. Those whose opinions matter are often people who are in a position of power. If the opportunity to play exists in a safe and positive space, the benefits to engagement in sport are numerous and well documented. But if the play experience exists in a negative and harmful environment, the impact of the experience can be devastating. If a person in a position of power (e.g., a coach, an athletic director, a judge, etc.) believes that perceived beauty is a reflection of personal worth, this message can be detrimental and damaging to a young woman still seeking to find herself. The need to please in the pursuit of playing time can mean athletes may adopt unhealthy behaviors to reach an imposed end goal related to weight

Athletes must be change agents in creating, supporting, and facilitating safe and positive participatory spaces. The culture of athletics has long been argued as a heteronormative, hyper-masculine environment. The truth is athletes are athletes, regardless of their sex or gender. Athletes, male and female, must demand change. No longer can it be acceptable for the use of language that demeans, belittles, and strips power. No longer can it be acceptable for people to take space that isn't theirs to claim. Athletes must hold themselves, each other,

They do this through solidarity in numbers. For example, it is common practice for teams to set goals at the beginning of every season. Goals should include intentional efforts to create safe and healthy playing environments where athletes and coaches agree to support, rather than belittle, one another. Additionally, team members must commit to holding each other accountable to safe and healthy interactions. If teammates begin to police one another's word

An additional consideration is utilizing the services of a sport psychologist. Doing so will allow players and coaches access to a trained professional whose focus is on building a cohesive and supportive competitive unit. Additionally, a sport psychologist can work with individual team members on strategies to improve self-concept and self-esteem. If an athlete finds herself struggling with issues related to image or weight, a trained professional can help an

and their coaches and administrators responsible for their choices.

choices and actions, the participatory culture will change to be supportive.

athlete get the help she needs to make healthy decisions.

another sport as a strong competitor.

in life.

**5.3. Heather**

168 Perception of Beauty

or appearance.

I am not sure that the beast of the sport—the ugliness of how people treat each other—is limited to sport. Lisa's story is more about other girls in school rather than experiences within the sport. I was always a big girl and even had a relative or two say hurtful things like, you are so pretty, too bad you are so fat. I even had an uncle call me the little fat girl from Marshallville. Society is hurtful, people are hurtful, and words have to mean [9].

The first step in making change is to inform and to share stories with others. This chapter is one of those first beginnings to an audience outside of the sport academic community. Title IX has brought sports participation to women in the United States, and more women today participate in athletics and sport than at any other time in the past [16].

Unfortunately, participation in sport is one of the few places in education and life where moral rules of society appear to be on hold. Stoll and colleagues have shown over a 25 span that moral reasoning and moral development of athletes, coaches, and fans appears to be masked when participating [10–13, 17, 18]. Rudd [19] asked 108 athletes of how often they were insulted or harassed by spectators; 47.2% said they had been insulted. Interestingly when pressed as to how hurtful the harassment was, the athletes appeared to say it had little to no affect on their playing though 17.6% felt the comments were hurtful. As Heather said and Lisa and Nicole supported, beauty lies in the strength of the athlete and the power of the athletic endeavor—and that's where we should all perceive the importance of beauty. Our comments about beauty are supported by Krane [4] who argued athletes know how to be "pretty" in a societal sense, but do athletes really want to deal with societal perception? Women today in athletics have more opportunity than in the past to participate and excel both in and out of sport. However, the beauty and the beast still exist in. We should take their suggestions to heart and make a difference so that the beast is laid to rest.
