The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

12-2023

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Styleguide

mla

Degree Name

English: M.A.

Department

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

James Heiman

Second Advisor

Marla Kanengieter-Wildeson

Third Advisor

Sarah Green

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Rhetoric, Terministic Screen, Title IX, Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Historically, women’s sports have been underrepresented. The sports world has been dominated by male athletics; football, basketball, baseball, and more. It was not until recent years that female athletes received more recognition in media and in organizations, like the NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association. The increase in female athletes has led to an increased awareness of gender equity efforts in athletics. The NCAA has a myriad of social media posts, online resources, and more materials highlighting the benefits of Title IX. However, the NCAA continuously leaves out Title IX and protections against sexual harassment. Lack of resources for women’s sports, inequitable policies, and no mention of sexual harassment communicates that it is not a problem in the NCAA and is not relevant to their conversation about Title IX. Although they continue to increase awareness for women’s athletics in general, the NCAA does not have the same awareness to sexual harassment issues faced by athletes. In addition to the main research question, “How has the NCAA removed sexual harassment from the Title IX conversation?”, the thesis will investigate the following research questions: a) Where and what does the NCAA communicate information about Title IX? b) What meaning can be interpreted from the NCAA’s communication on Title IX? c) What is the motivation for the NCAA to communicate the way they do about Title IX? Through analysis of external communications, I will utilize rhetorical tools to investigate interpretations derived from the NCAA’s communication and lack of communication on Title IX.

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