Seeing the movie “Little Giants” concluded a great ending to the semester. Race, gender, and social class were topics discussed throughout the semester. After viewing Little Giants, it was clear that movies can truly portray the image Americans want to view. The movie portrayed a powerful white male leading a successful business and helping out in the community.
Throughout the movie, there was very little focus on racial issues. However, it was difficult to overlook key characters and the role their race played in the movie. Traditionally, white males play the quarterback position; so it didn't surprise me when they chose a white child to be quarterback for both teams in the movie. What did surprised me was the fact that the black children involved in the movie had a secondary role to the white players. The one black player with a consistent role in the movie was portrayed as a fast non-catching athlete.

Often stereotypes are displayed within movies. The fear of having an star Asian running back may affect possible revenue. This fear was clear in the movie Little Giants. The powerful star running back in the movie was white, but yet Emmitt Smith, an African-American football player makes a cameo appearance in the movie. My belief is, this tactic to include Emmitt Smith was used to balance the racial inequality in the movie.
Gender roles were also major focus in the movie. Traditionally girls are not able to play football, but in the movie a girl was the best player. Although a girl was the best player, she was unable to make the football team solely because of her gender. To accommodate her, a second team was formed for those players who didn't make the first team.
While forming the second team, the girl started to gain attraction to the quarterback on the team. It was clear that the quarterback did not have similar feelings for her, solely because she wasn't the traditional girl that cheerleads. In her attempts to gain interest, she decided to no longer play football. Instead of playing football she decided to cheerlead. By doing so, she gave into the pressures of society to participate in an activity that is accepted and considered a norm for girls.
In the movie the level of power possessed by an individual was illustrated through social class. The team with more money was able to provide their players with the top of the line playing equipment in comparison to the team with a smaller budget. The team with a small budget looked disorganized, disheveled, as they dressed their players in second-hand equipment.
The team with the top of the line equipment was viewed as a team with power. Their coach drove a hot red convertible while other team's coach drove around in a go-cart throughout the movie. The producers of the movie made a powerful statement by placing one coach in a 50,000 dollar car compared to a go-cart that may be worth a couple of hundreds of dollars.
In conclusion, this course was great. The topics were challenging, interesting, and eye opening. Courses as such as this one, enable students to examine the impact sports has on social, racial, and cultural norms among the world. One of my favorite lectures of the semester was the lecture that focused on race and power. The topics discussed clarified facts on how race and gender influences outcomes. As an African-American male I felt relieved, when my peers were able to understand some of the struggles that blacks and people of other minorities have to face.

Movies have such impact and influence on society that it can persuade people to act certain ways, look a certain way or convince an audience that certain behaviors are appropriate and that everyone should agree with the perspective that the movie is trying to bring across. Looking at the movie The Little Giants in a critical way, we can see the topics of gender bias, social class and  nationalism spread throughout this movie. This is especially true for gender. The girl in the movie, Becky O'shea, tries out for her Uncles pee-wee football team and it is obvious that she is the best one on the team. because she is a girl her uncle cuts her from the team and she decides to form a team of her own.
We can look at this movie and say the directors are portraying that women can play at the same level as boys can and that women are just as superior than men are. The movie then seems to contradict itself by having Becky fall in love with the quarterback(stereotypical position for girls who fall in love with boys on football teams). Being that Becky is part of the team and as seen as one of the guys, Junior(the quarterback) does not have interest in her. Instead he would rather be with a cheerleader type. This is discussed between the two of them while watching a couple kissing. So Becky decides to become a cheerleader and give up her passion for playing football. This is showing definite gender inequality, that women should become what men want. There is a some examples of nationalism that are depicted in the movie.
Kevin O'shea the older more accomplished brother owns an American made car company. Even the team he is coaching the Cowboys are seen as America's team in our country. Looking at this movie critically, we can see that portions of problems we face in our society. Even though the targeted audience is for younger children who may not pick up on these issues it is still showing them some stereotypical views of how some people act in our society and that we should become aware of who we are influencing.

For our class's film review, we watched The Little Giants. I had seen the movie a few times before but not for a few years. This time while watching it, I focused on the issues we discussed in class. The biggest, and most apparent, issue throughout the course of the film was Becky's struggle with her identity. She liked football and go carts rather than makeup and cheerleading. It was set up early in the movie when Becky was cut from the Cowboys for being a girl, even thought she was the best player on the field. Then when Junior joins the team, Becky realizes she can play football or try and get Junior to like her, not both. Junior is attracted to the cheerleader type of girl and is not into Becky, because she acts the way a boy is "supposed" to act rather than the way a girl should. She quits the team to try and fit in but after watching most of the big game from the sideline, she realizes her place is on the football field, regardless of her gender norms. This conflict is one that men and woman face every day. Most people will avoid certain behaviors because they are not "manly" or "lady-like" enough. The message in The Little Giants in the end is to do what you love. Do what drives you. What other people think does not matter as long as you are doing what makes you happy.
The other issue that stood out to me was the class differences between the Giants and the Cowboys. The Cowboys had brand new equipment and top notch facilities (for a youth team). Their coach drove a Corvette and practically owned the town. The Giants played on a dirt field with used equipment. Some of their equipment was not even football equipment. One scene that helped create the class distinction between the two teams was the scene where the two coaches are racing to get to the new football player that just moved town. The Cowboys coach was in his Corvette while the Giants coach was driving his daughter's go-cart. The makers of the film used this class distinction to further exaggerate the “David verses Goliath” persona of the movie. Even the names of the teams helped to show the superiority of the Cowboys. When this movie was made, the Cowboys had just come off winning back-to-back Superbowls. The Giants won one a few years earlier but had struggled in the division since then. This was a one-sided, yet still very popular rivalry. The Cowboys also happen to be one of the riches teams in all of sports. The decision to name the teams after these two NFL teams was no coincidence. The names were selected because of our society's preconceived views of the NFL versions of the teams at the time.
Another issue we discussed this semester was race in sports. The only two significant ethnic minority characters in The Little Giants were Marcus and Hanan. They both had small parts and were basically given short, funny, “one-liner” type lines. Now this town may be like many other real towns across the country where citizens are overwhelmingly white. However, the fact that the team had exactly one African-American and one Asian-American screams, “cliché ‘token' minority” like many Disney movies do. A passage for the King-White reading explains how movie makers use the absence of minorities in film to help the viewer identify with characters a certain way. “During Good Will Hunting… one minority actor spoke one line, and ethnic minorities were visible on screen in only two scenes. Moreover, by removing otherness… the creators of the movie make it easier to identify Will and Chuckie as ‘others'.”
Watching The Little Giants after taking this class definitely made me look at the film in a different, more critical, way than ever before. I thought going in it was not a very good movie for a film review. I remembered it being a very simple, silly, kid's movie that would not reflect our society because of how ridiculous it was. Although I continue to believe the movie is quite ridiculous, I also was able to see real life issues that I previously did not know were there.

Jeff Garretson

Throughout the movie there was a common theme of what is appropriate for the female gender. Giardina states “rarely if ever does the sport film genre have on offer a film that takes up serious issues of race, class, gender, or sexual relations” (77). On the contrary, The Little Giants subliminally covers all of these issues. Becky “The Ice Box” is portrayed as a tom-boy who could make boys cry by looking at them in a certain way. This empowered her and made her feel like she was the king of Urbania, Ohio (the stage of the movie). Becky started her own football team, which was coached by her father. Once again, she was the leader and queen of the team. As soon as the character Junior arrived in the picture Becky tried to find ways to flirt or connect with him. “In no other period of life except infancy do so many biological changes occur so quickly, and many of those biological changes are sex specific” (Montemayor et al. 9). This quote is very apparent in The Little Giants when Becky and her Cousin are at the car wash trying to gain affection from Junior. Whether it was playing a good game of football or throwing soap suds at Junior, eventually he always fell for the cheerleader type. This made Becky question her gender norm. She transformed herself into a cheerleader type during the big game and left her team to deal with the opponent. Becky thought by letting Junior and the rest of the boys play in the game, that she was doing a good thing. Some may say that she was growing up and becoming a woman, but I think that by following your passion you will eventually grow into your own. Stanley Eitzen contrastly states “typically Americans believe that sport is a path to upward social mobility. This belief is based on the obvious examples we as poor boys and men (rarely girls and women) from rural or urban areas, skyrocket to fame and fortune” (249). No matter how much society judges you, in the end, you are the one who designs your own fate. Mid-way through the game Becky realizes this and comes back into the game. Maybe her actions were catalyzed by the illegal-hit on Junior, but she could not get away from the football field. At the end of the day, Becky made a good decision because her team won, her Dad was proud, and it is assumed that she got the guy. It must be hard for a woman to thrive in a man's sport, especially in America, but if you're good enough to thrive then you absolutely have to give an attempt. “The film serves as commentary on present-day race relations, affirmative action…as read through the culturally conservative, white middle class lens of Disney “magic”' (Giardina 78). This quote really became relevant after I read it. Giardina was stating this about Remembering the Titans, but I feel that it can relate to the Little Giants. In the Little Giants, Disney tries to underline common issues, but once critiqued, they are very apparent. In a way Disney used race as sort of a crutch to gain audience appeal. For example, when Coach O'Shea is reading of the new members of the team, Hot Hands Hannah says “All I want is that Michael Irving jersey, that big eight-eight”. I saw this as a very apparent use of “black slang” or “lingo”, Hannah could have just said I want the number 88 jersey.

in the following i will discuss the movie little giants. i felt the movie expressed sevral themes we discussed in class such as neoliberalism, gender roles, nationalism, classism , race and sevral others.in the movie, gender roles were clearly the main theme of it. a girl playing football is outside the social norms. as the uncle put it, " girls are not suppose to play football they make better cheer leaders" girls are suppose to like boys seemed to be one of the roles painted by the film not neccasarily the charecters. all of the women in the film seem to be mindless and under the spell of the men in the film. thier entire roles and actions are based on that of the men.
the coprate philantrophy is not explicity noticed but product placement is noticble from nike, ford and as always coca-cola. the placement was noticed in the resturaunt, on the uniforms and the various cars you see throughout the movie. the nfl , however clearly sells themselves by having sevral apearances throughout the film as well as the teams being named after two of the best well known teams in the nfl.
class and race are inextrinclbley linked considering the diversity of the cast and clearly a working class town. nationalism could be picked up on from only american cars being showed in the movie and the fact that the movie is about football, one of smericas number one sports but overall i feel that the movie definitly covered our overall themes

I love the movie Little Giants and I have since the first time I watched it. After watching it critically in class, I picked up on a few points in the movie that I never noticed before. The issue of gender was a big one in this film and it all centers around the main character "Icebox". She is clearly a tom boy and always thought of herself as one until she meets a new guy, Jr. She of course gets a crush on this guy and struggles with her identity as a tom boy while she tries to get this guy to like her. (mind you they are only ten years old!!) The Icebox plays football and she is better then most of the boys but she never makes the team. She does not realize that by her uncle Kevin's standards, she is not fulfilling her gender role. We notice this later in the movie when she is depressed about Jr. not liking her. Her uncle Kevin tells her that she has more to offer then football and that girls are supposed to be pretty and be cheerleaders. Of course she goes and becomes a cheerleader because she thinks that is how girls act. Towards the end of the film she realizes that she loves football and she does not care about gender roles anymore and goes to play in the final game for her dad's football team. As a little kid watching this movie, I felt that it was okay to be a tom boy and to not be overly girly. Another issue that was present in this film was class. The two brothers portrayed in this film were each in different social classes. The older brother, Kevin, had the better football team with better uniforms. He also owned a better business and was the small town hero. The younger brother, Danny, has always been in Kevin's shadow. He owns a small gas station that does not appear to make that much money. His football team is a band of misfits and they do not have proper equipment or uniforms. The one thing I really liked about this movie was that while the underdog of course won in the end, Danny and Kevin became closer and combined their two football teams. This seemingly makes the class difference between them disappear.

The move the Little Giants to me is a classic and after taking this Sport and Society course this semester I can appreciate sports and now sports films in new ways. The Little Giants shows us many things about America and just today's society as a whole. In the Little Giants from my observation there is a huge sense of Nationalism. It is pretty funny how of all the teams to be chosen by the Heisman Trophy winning older O'Shea brothers to play for it is the Dallas Cowboys. This demonstrates a big part of Nationalistic views because the Dallas Cowboys are said to be "America's Team." Of course like you said Ryan the eldest of the O'Shea brothers happens to own a Chevy dealer, which is another demonstration of Nationalism, and it as well can be taken as Neoliberalism because not only is Chevy promoting their automobiles, but you see the NFL promote itself with the brief scenes with John Madden, Emmitt Smith, Bruce Smith, etc. Throughout the movie you see differences in the way the different genders are treated. Becky aka. "The Icebox" starts out being a Tom Boy and as the movie goes on she starts to fall for Junior. The female gender is not valued as an equal, because in the movie and even in today's world girls are not supposed to be the way Becky is, instead she should be more of the cheerleader type and at one point in the movie she believes all in order to get Junior's attention and for him to like her and not just see her as "The Icebox." As Butler says " a dominant male figure unquestionably holds ownership over his wife's sexuality." What Butler says is what happened in the film the "Little Giants" where everyone except Becky's father does not approve with the manner that she conducts herself and even though indirectly sometimes it is still noticeable when the people around her try to get her to act more like a girl. In the film I also noticed the class differences. In the championship game the two brothers bet their prized possessions. Danny bet his gas station and the first thing that Kevin told him was that it was beat down and not up to the level of his Chevy dealership. Kevin would rub his social class status in Danny's face every once in a while throughout the movie and try and Danny feel bad for what he doesn't have.

The movie, The Little Giants, speaks to many preconceptions of gender, race, and youth sports that permeate society. This leads society to believe certain identities and experiences are normal. Giroux said it best when he stated that film “is a compelling mode of communication and form of public pedagogy- a visual technology that functions as a powerful teaching machine that intentionally tries to influence the production of meaning, subject positions, identities, and experience.” In the film, the main character, Becky or Ice Box, is a girl that lives the life of a young boy. She grows up playing with the boys and is one of the best players in football. Her being a girl then leads to controversy over a peewee football team and the movie builds around the big game. She falls for a boy and is then transplanted back to the stereotypical ways of a girl. In the movie, Becky is picked on at football tryouts by the other boys just because she is a girl playing football, regardless of skill. Then she is not picked on the grounds of her being girl. This reflects how in society people judge others based solely on gender stereotypes rather than performance. The uncle tells her to be a cheerleader and pretty much fall in the societal trap of females being inferior and knowing their place. This film seems like it tries to lead girls to conform to societal pressures. It doesn't help that she falls for a boy that is well-liked by girls, both older and younger than he is. Becky falls into the pressures of conforming and wants to become a cheerleader. She wants to be her mom's “Little Princess” again and become your typical girl. This was a good movie to show how girls were supposed to act because football created such a hyper-masculine environment that it was easy to see Becky being out of place.
Race is another issue presented in this film. There are a couple of racial stereotypes presented through the various black kids on both the Little Giants and the Cowboys. First, in tryouts, as they were running the dash, the black kid, Hot Hands, gets the first sufficient time because he is stereotypically fast. The black kid on the Little Giants cheats by using glue on his hands and is a very outspoken individual. Hot Hands also wants Michael Irvin's number, another prominent black figure in sports. Also, the coaches and most of the fans and kids are white, and continue to hold the power as the majority.
Nationalism and the importance of space and place were presented. First, the opposing team was the Cowboys, supposedly America's team. This was also reinforced with the Chevrolet dealership, an American made car. Also, the town seemed like it had a very Americanized name in Urbania and its love for football. Football, arguably the new American sport, was a huge spectacle in the town and everyone was talking about this peewee football game.

Watching the Little Giants with a critical mind showed that movies can really reinforce gender roles, inequality in class, race, and gender, and nationalism. After all, movies are very influential in how people think and form their own identities. Giroux says that movie “is a compelling mode of communication and form of public pedagogy – a visual technology that functions as a powerful teaching machine…(p. 587).” The movie focused on Icebox who is a tomboy who refuses to give into the idea of being a girly girl. During the movie she is faced with a dilemma as she falls for a boy in that she doesn't know how to get him to like her. She sees all the value placed on being a cheerleader for girls and not being tough or an individual. She gives into this after being cut from the football team since her uncle thinks girls should stay on the sidelines. Even though she has more talent than her whole team, she doesn't play in her team's big game. Eventually she gives up her fake identity and becomes an individual once more. The movie promotes being an individual but doesn't really put down the idea that girls should be cheerleaders. Apart from the female gender roles, male gender roles are really reinforced. Some Cowboys teach the Little Giants about aggression and intimidation. The football game is all about showing guts and being tough throughout the whole game no matter what.
Race is presented in an interesting way because there was a great mixture of ethnicities involved on the teams. None played a critical role in the game, but there were a greater number of minorities presented in this movie compared to others. The minorities' roles were limited and some stereotypes did seem to be at work with “Hot Hands.” He seemed to play the fool by dropping the ball all of the time and talking to himself about it they also show him cheating with sticky hands.
There is an undeniable amount of nationalism in the movie too. The American flag can be seen flying near the town's water tower. At the big game, patriotic music is being played as the stadium is being shown. The stadium is filled with red, white, and blue banners. There are also red, white, and blue balloons flying around. The idea of pee wee football bringing everyone to the stadium and having a good time with patriotic décor and music is very nationalistic.

The Little Giants is a classic American movie that I have loved since the first time I saw it when I was a little kid. I have seen the movie numerous times but have never really looked at it critically like I did in this class. Of course I noticed the sexism in the movie when I watched it previously as the girl character, Becky, is sidelined by her Heisman winning coach and uncle, but there is so much more to it than just not getting picked to be on a pee-wee football team. Gender is the biggest factor in this film; first of all, the girl, Becky, is the best football player in their little town called Urbania. All of the boys are scared of her, but they still make fun of her for being a girl. During the tryout for the team, even though she is clearly the best player, some of the boys trying out make comments like, “Hey Ice Box, you look like a boy, you play like a boy, but can you pee standing up?” She then begins to beat up one of the boys making fun of her until her father stops her. The movie progresses and more stereotypes about what girls should be become present. Becky, or The Ice Box, becomes enamored by the quarterback of her team and sex normality comes into play even more. She starts questioning herself about playing football because boys like cheerleaders and not teammates, and she eventually becomes a cheerleader because she wants the boy she likes to like her back. This movie brings in the gender norm to the fullest trying to show what girls are supposed to be which are cheerleaders, not football players. This movie also brings in a little bit of social class because the Cowboys, which are coached by the rich Heisman winning uncle, have nice equipment and uniforms and the Little Giants have old, used equipment which is not suitable up to any standard. Honestly, looking at this movie critically, many issues in the social culture of America arise, which is also true in many other movies that depict American society. “This, of course, is not to say that all people are mindless dupes that blindly follow the conventions of what popular culture dictates, but rather takes note of the power popular culture has on delineating normal national culture- or in this case cultural citizenship in a commodity nation” (King-White). What we see in this movie is a sleuth of cultural norms that people follow because they are on the big screen. This movie depicts what girls are supposed to do, chase boys and blend in with each other, not be themselves and do what makes them happy. But, that is what American culture is and what is produces.

The movie "The Little Giants" was a great movie. I had never heard or seen it before but it looked interesting right after seeing the cover. Further, "Henry Giroux has suggested that film more than any other form of multi-media is so important to place under a critical lens, because 'it is a compelling mode of communication and form of public pedagogy- a visual technology that functions as a powerful teaching machine that intentionally tries to influence the production of meaning, subject positions, identities, and experience'". Moreover, to this previous passage I agree, film really is quite compelling. In this movie alone, there was an interesting love story, several mentions of nationalism, class differences , among many other critical items. The subject of gender was definitely present in this movie and almost forces society to look a certain way when viewing this movie. I feel that the producers wanted the audience to experience the difficullties of beings a girl in the mid-1900's Ohio. All of the players on the team knew she was one of the best players. What's interesting is that she threw away her football talent at one point in the movie because it was more important to her to win the heart of a good-looking boy on the team. Ultimately, it was her talent and drive to win that impressed the boy and they got together at the end. Further, she didn't need to dress up like a cute cheerleader to win his heart, he was impressed by her toughness and skill. I believe this point illustrates the politics in time time period as women were fighting for equal rights in this moment in history. Moreover, this film would be a great propaganda technique for women because it features football (usually men's favorite sport) and has a girl be the tough, talented, player on team. In this film, the team would not have won the championship without the talent of this girl because their star quarterback got knocked out and they needed a replacement. All the rest of the players did not have any skill at the quarterback position and it was up to the girl to become the hero. All in all a wonderful movie and one I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to view.

Ryan, your class was awesome. I enjoyed talking sport with you and my classmates and will continue to view sport critically. It is absolutely fine to view a film for fun, but it is not difficult to see it critically as well. Moving forward, I will analyze the plot and look at how topics such as corporate philanthropy, neoliberalism, nationalism, class, race, gender, and social space are reflected in film and sport. My favorite lecture was the nationalism lecture. I liked how many arenas and countries were shown and how others view sport so religiously. It was fun to view the 1980 Olympic Games and how the underdog Americans were able to defeat the number one team in the world. Beating Russia was wonderful for the USA because of all the hardships at the time and the Cold War with Russia. Being a massive hockey fan myself, it was great to view ice hockey in a sport class in college. My least favorite lecture would have to be the race lecture. Some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinion, but, I felt if I did that I would be the only one with my opinion. It certainly seemed like a confrontational lecture with many verbal arguments erupting onto the sporting class surface. Further, I am not a confrontational man much, so that type of disagreement was almost over the top, but I can appreciate the opinions of all. I may not ever have a class with you again Ryan, but, this class was fun while it lasted and you are an awesome teacher.

Thank you very much!

Nick Seitler