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Research Synthesis 

To begin this research project I first thought about a topic that would be interesting to research. I want to research a topic that I am actually interested in therefore I can engage in the process and actually learn something from it. I began by thinking of a topic of interest and I came up with feminism. In order to narrow down this broad topic I thought about things that are happening recently in the world that would be relevant and have recent information on. I came to the topic of sexism in sports. This is a world wide issue that takes place throughout many sports, if not all of them, and is currently effecting people all over the world. After narrowing down my topic I started the actual research portion. I simply typed into Google “sexism in sports” and came up with a multitude of articles and websites with information on this. One of the things I came across was a Blog called Women in Sport which talked more deeply on this topic and used specific examples such as Lucy Bronze. This source along with the other sources I began with gave me the preliminary information I needed to know in order to continue researching this. Such as examples of specific teams this has effected, how the media plays a huge role in this, the differences in money between men and women, other peoples views on this and whether or not they believe there is sexism in sports, etc. These sources provided me with the foundation for my further research assuring me that there are many more stories to find about sexism in pro sports. After going to class and e-mailing you I learned that I had to narrow down my research significantly. This got me thinking about what exactly I should focus on. One of the sources I used previously spoke about a women’s soccer team which made me remember the fact that US Women’s Soccer Team just won the Women’s FIFA World Cup this year in 2015. I figured this would be perfect topic to research since it is recent and it is a women’s team. Since I had narrowed down the exact sport and team I would like to research I had to think of a question about the topic of sexism that had to do with this team. This was the easy part. These women won the FIFA World Cup and I don’t remember seeing much about it in the media anywhere. Social media, magazines, news on TV, newspapers, news articles online, nothing! That’s when I knew the perfect research question. It is clear that these women did not get the attention they deserved along with other things they didn’t get despite how much they earned it. The question “How did sexism effect the Women’s USA Soccer Team after winning the FIFA World Cup in 2015?” is the question I used to guide my research from here on out. In order to research this I once again used Google and simply typed in “sexism US soccer team.” This gave me many articles and websites that were very insightful. After reading through these articles I found that it is not only me who sees this issue among sports especially within this sport and team. The first article I found was rather positive on the issue stating that the media was very involved in this team much to the surprise of the head coach Jill Ellis. This article focused more on the past and how horrible the media coverage was on the women’s leagues and how now it seems to be getting better one step at a time. The next article I read gave specific numbers as to how much money the male and female members have made in the past and more recently like last year. These numbers provide with hard evidence towards the fact that women do make significantly less money than men in the pro athlete world. This article provided with just another piece of evidence that there if in fact sexism in sports. The next article gave me two important facts from this years Women’s FIFA World Cup. First of all the women were presented with medals by other women and not just any women, models. This in itself is degrading and sexist. Also the fact that they play on turf and not real grass which in turn is very harmful to the players physically and performance wise. The last website I looked at was the most positive of them all. It was filled with tweets and pictures supporting the girls team after their victory including tweets from the President and Vice President of the United States. There were many supportive and congratulatory tweets and picture that I’m sure the women of the US soccer team appreciated very much. Overall, after doing this research I found many more specific effects of sexism on these women than I had originally thought. No matter how much support and congrats these women get, there is still an issue of sexism within sports that has greatly effected these women in many more ways than just their paychecks. This leads me to question why this is still an on-going issue considering it is so widely known. In relation to my research question I now know much more information on just how sexism is prevalent and has effected women of all sports, especially those of the US soccer team. I can now create a working thesis from all the information I have. I believe that the sexism in sports has effected the team members of the US Women’s National Soccer Team before, during, and after their win of the Women’s FIFA World Cup 2015.  I do believe in this statement however I still have some questions around this topic. One question I still have is just how badly it effected them. Is the amount of money they are making really effecting them so much that it is effecting their way of living? How much money are they really making and is it not enough to sustain a good life? While I do have these questions there is not doubt that sexism exists in sports and no matter how much money the women make if it is not the same or close to the amount of the men, it just simply isn’t fair.

Love Yourz

Sara Ahmed essay “Why Happiness, Why Now?” proposes to us the question of “what does happiness do?”(2).  As time has gone by, this question has gotten harder and harder to answer, especially for the people of our modern Western society. She begins her essay by explaining what happiness is described as according to Frey and Stutzer: “the object of human desire.”  Then she brings into question the idea of happiness, and that we wish for it yet we don’t know what we are actually wishing for. Thus introducing this concept that “happiness” is more than just “a wish, a will, a want.” In his song Love Yourz, J.Cole addresses this question by explaining what happiness is NOT and adding another component to happiness that could possibly be the solution to the recent “happiness crisis” that Ahmed writes about.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCAvzIFY-s[/youtube]

“Love Yourz” is a prime example of happiness and what it really means to be happy. J.Cole begins by talking about his success and how people act differently towards him now that he has money and fame. Consequently instituting the theme of his song: happiness is the end goal and money can NOT get you there. This is the typical celebrity rags to riches story of starting with nothing and making it big, but still not being happy. However, the mere fact that it is “typical” makes it so real. The commonality of this story among many famous people reveals the fact that this does actually happen (often), hence the “happiness crisis” Ahmed speak about.   J.Cole is just another celebrity that has realized this and wants to share his experience. Not the fact that he is now wealthy but what that wealth has actually done for him, or not done for him rather. As he points out through his song, it hasn’t done much but make him realize what is really important in life; happiness. This message is one both J.Cole and Sara Ahmed convey throughout their pieces.

“More money more problems” as the famous saying goes. J.Cole references this point by repeating the line “think being broke was better.” This line appeals to the main idea Sara Ahmed is trying to portray throughout her essay. “The demand for happiness is increasingly articulated as a demand to return to social ideals, as if what explains the crisis of happiness is not the failure of these ideals but our failure to follow them” (7). In other words, we do things that we THINK will make us happy because all we have known to do so is those things. For example, driving a nice car, having nice clothes, being wealthy, etc. Ahmed asks us to rethink these values for maybe it is not us failing to reach them, but them failing to make us happy. One of these ‘things’ we believe makes us happy is money. Today’s society has prioritized money over happiness by somehow relating the two. We have come to think that we can, in a way, buy happiness because of the associations we see between two. In reality, money can only get us material things and this is where we, as humans, get confused. Yes, money can (sometimes) get us the things we want which in turn makes us happy, TEMPORARILY. However, cars and clothes can not and will not make us happy in the long run. J.Cole makes this clear by powerfully stating that he would rather be poor than live a life full of wealth, for all the wealth means nothing if you aren’t happy. Like Sara Ahmed, J.Cole is trying to make us understand that we need to reevaluate our ideals of happiness if we actually wish to be happy.

“Always gon’ be a bitch that’s badder out there on the tours but you ain’t never gon’ be happy till you love yours.” In the lines prior to this J.Cole expresses the fact that there will always be a better house, better car, better clothes, or in this case, better woman, surrounding you, but you will never be happy until you “Love Yourz.” These ideas, as Ahmed points out derive from the media; “The media are saturated with images and stories of happiness” (3). This is where we have gotten our ideas of the “good life” that both Ahmed and J.Cole disagree with (5). However J.Cole and Ahmed disagree in different ways. Cole brings up his belief that the ultimate goal in life is happiness as well as adding another emotion to the picture, love. Cole expresses that one of the most important things in life, besides happiness, is love. This is because it brings us the ultimate happiness, or so he thinks. Ahmed would not agree with this statement as read in her paragraph on marriage. She refers to marriage as a “happiness indicator” making it seem like a tool used to measure happiness not actual happiness (6). However, I agree with J.Cole that happiness and love go hand in hand. We must have one to have the other. Ahmed is against many of the general ideals we hold about happiness and wants us to discover our own way of achieving happiness. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s not, but she is not going to tell us either way. That is why I think this song is a great example because J.Cole not only tells us what happiness is not, like Sara Ahmed, but he gives an example of what happiness actually can be: love. Providing us with the guidance we need to end this “happiness crisis” (6).

Ultimately, the idea of happiness is one that humans have not fully understood yet. We struggle everyday to find happiness, yet we still strive to find it. That goes to show how important it is to be happy. Therefore, as both Sara Ahmed and J.Cole try to convey, we should take it seriously and try to uncover the truth behind happiness. What is it that happiness does for us and how do we reach that.