Media Representation of Women in Sport: Faster, Stronger, Sexier?
-It has been previously discovered that through a series of discriminating and normalizing “techniques,” the American media covertly disparage and subordinate sportswomen. To what extent does the media participate in the discrimination of female athletes today, moreover, how does discrimination in sports media translate into and affect the social and athletic lives of female athletes.
-The 2012 London Summer Olympics Games follow this modern trend in sports media, and had a tendency to project hegemonic gender and femininity standards onto society. Showing some major differences between female and male sports commentary.
- The results revealed interesting findings. First, discrimination in sports media commentary is still present, albeit highly subtle and no longer overpoweringly oppressive as it was presented in past literature. Nevertheless, the media continues to strongly encourage the sexualization of female athletes.
-“Candance Parker is beautiful. Breathtaking, really, with flawless skin, endless legs and a C cup…She is a woman who plays like a man, one of the boys, if the boys had C cups and flawless skin…She’s the total package: your sister’s pal, your brother’s prom date, a supermom-to-be (Glock, 2010).”
-These were the words in the opening lines of an ESPN article about WNBA star Candace Parker. In her feature cover photo, Parker is dressed in a beautiful white dress-showing ample cleavage- and lovingly holding her pregnant belly. This athlete is one of women’s basketball’s best player of all time. She has been called the WNBA parallel to Michael Jordan. She is an Olympian, an MVP, and the first female in her sport to be able to dunk a basketball, and y...
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... women, but especially athletic women, and is socially constructed to dictate women’s appearance, demeanor and values (Krane et al, 2004).” Females, for example, are expected to look and behave in a feminine way in order to satisfy heteronormative practices such as marriage. However, to participate in a sport, a traditionally male dominated realm, female athletes must acquire more traditionally masculine characteristics like strength, aggression, competitiveness, and assertiveness; characteristics that betray hegemonic gender and societal norms. Issues pertaining to feminine behavior and appropriate gender roles continue to be the root cause of discrimination not only in sport, but also in modern society as “sport is a sub culture within a larger society, therefore nothing typically occurs in sport that does not occur in the larger culture (Vodden & Schell, 2010).”
Lopiano and Sommers agree that the amount of media coverage female athletes receive compared to male athletes indicates that female athletes are less valid. Lopiano and Sommers both point out that the media tends to highlight female athletes in action only during major events. Fortunately, for the male athletes, the tendency is different because no matter what time of the year it is, male events are always airing on the television. The media only decides to highlight events such as the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s basketball Final Four, Olympics, and World Cup soccer. Since the Olympic games and World Cup occurs every four years, the Final Four also known as the semi-final round are the rare eve...
...ennis, basketball, soccer, and martial arts—have come from the days of cheerleading and synchronized swimming when she was growing up in the ’70s.” Disparities in media coverage and over-sexualized female athletes on magazine covers is something that needs to come to an end because of its effects on both male and female viewers, young and old, athletes and non-athletes. Both female and male athletics influence young people and shape their personality and morals as they mature. Retired WNBA player, Lisa Leslie credits her participation in basketball with shaping her character, as well as her career. “Sports can also help teenagers during an awkward time in their development.” (“Women’s Athletics: A Battle For Respect”). The solution is to come together as a society and identify how to balance the respect for female and male athletes in the media.
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports. When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a Man can play, with equal skill, if not better.
Unintentionally, a lot of us have been boxed into institutions that promote gender inequality. Even though this was more prominent decades ago, we still see how prevalent it is in today’s world. According to the authors of the book, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree define gendered institutions as “the one in which gender is used as an organizing principle” (Wade and Ferree, 167). A great example of such a gendered institution is the sports industry. Specifically in this industry, we see how men and women are separated and often differently valued into social spaces or activities and in return often unequal consequences. This paper will discuss the stigma of sports, how gender is used to separate athletes, and also what we can learn from sports at Iowa State.
Diana is an excellent illustration of the many struggles of women to find a place for themselves in sports. On an individual level, defying societal stereotypes is extremely difficult. The buriers that the first person must overcome are often extreme. However once the first person breaks down those buriers, it becomes increasingly easier for others to follow in their footsteps. Diana's struggle demonstrates both how far women have come and how far women still have to go.
Within todays sporting community, certain aspects of sport and its practices promote and construct ideas that sport in general is a male dominated. Sports media often provides an unequal representation of genders. Women athletes are regularly perceived as mediocre in comparison to their male equivalents (Lenskyj, 1998). Achievement in sport is generally established through displays of strength, speed and endurance, men usually set the standards in these areas, consequently woman rarely reach the level set by top male athletes. Due to this, the media significantly shows bias towards male sports while we are ill-informed about the achievements in the female sporting community. On the occasion that a female athlete does make some form of an appearance in the media, images and videos used will usually portray the female in sexually objectified ways (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). This depiction of female athletes can cause males to take focus solely on the sexual assets of the athlete in preference to to their sporting abilities (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). Sexualisation of sportswoman in the media is a prevalent issue in today’s society, it can cause physical, social and mental problems among women of all ages (Lenskyj, 1998).
We analyzed the use of he/she pronouns, present focus, sexual language, and perceptual processes using a system called LIWC. We expected to find that, when a male receives an award, no matter the similarity to a female’s award, the language congratulating the male will be much more enthusiastic and much less critical than the language associated with the female’s achievement. Our results were consistent with our hypothesis, but we found that the language surrounding the achievements of both men and women athletes in the 2016 olympics were not only more enthusiastic towards the males, but were also full of gender bias, primarily the inferiority of women in comparison to the achievement to men in their event and/or their spouses as well as the presence of perceptual focus in articles discussing the history of gender bias in the Olympics. In hindsight, delving deeper into other aspects like tone, comparisons, anger and social aspects of the articles. These results can be applied to how we view women in our society, and if shared, these results can help us to make a change in how we perceive women’s success so that the media can take steps toward equal recognition. We were limited to articles from this year and if we were permitted to pull past articles into the research our findings could provide a clearer picture of the full extent of sexism in the
Even though progress was made in the appreciation of women’s sport and the crowds women’s sports brought In which mean a rise in ticket sells for women’s sport, but the media coverage is still treating women sports as if we were still in the
Most people watch some form of sports, whether it be the Olympics or the highlights on ESPN. The NBA and NHL playoffs are underway and theyit seems to be the only news on ESPN. There is almost no coverage of the WNBA playoffs or any female athletics. Tennis isone of the only big sports on ESPN for women. While during the Olympics the coverage seems to be non-stop and close to equal. Women’s participation in sport is at an all-time high and has almost become equal with men’s, however,. sSports media does notfails to show this equality and skews the way we look at these athletes. Through the disciplines of sociology and gender studies, it can be seen that despite the many gains of women in sports since the enactment of Title IX, “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity still dominate media coverage of males and females in sports, which is observed in Olympic programming and sports news broadcasts.
The concept of hegemonic masculinity, as described by R. W. Connell, is becoming more applicable than ever, namely in the world of sport. This notion was developed nearly twenty-five years ago, yet remains highly influential in the social construction of gender roles. In current Western societies, there is an automatic assumption that women involved in sports are all lesbians, and men posses more masculine traits than one who is not involved in sports. This double standard emphasizes the inequalities within the athletic community. The emphasis on masculinity brings forth different consequences for men and women, where men are regarded as strong and powerful, while women are intrinsically seen as more masculine (Baks & Malecek,
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
her career or athletics — and also conform to the old standard of beauty and sexuality. This is evident in films about female athletes, who face immense pressure to be perfect both on and off the playing field, andto represent their gender in a
...age of female sports. News and the press coverage and broadcast of male’s sports substantially more than females. This is an issue because women in sports work and dedicate themselves equally as much, but receive less than 10% of coverage. Granted, women make up only 2/5 of athletes, but the coverage is far more uneven than the number of athletes. Women’s sports receive the shorter broadcast on television, magazines, and newspapers. Secondly, when female athletes do receive coverage, there is more focus on the appearance of the athletes rather than their dedication to, or skill in, the sport. Athletes not considered attractive by the majority population are ignored and forgotten by the media. The media should be more even in their coverage between male and female athlete’s, and cover women based on skill and effort, as opposed to their level of attractiveness.
Krane, V. (2001). We can be athletic and feminine, but do we want to? Challenging hegemonic femininity in women's sport. Quest, 53,115-133.
Whether its baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, or tennis, sports is seen all over the world as a representation of one’s pride for their city, country, and even continent. Sports is something that is valued world-wide which has the ability to bring communities together and create different meanings, beliefs and practices between individuals. Although many people may perceive sports to have a significant meaning within our lives, it can also have the ability to separate people through gender inequalities which can also be represented negatively throughout the media. This essay will attempt to prove how gender is constructed in the sports culture while focusing on female athletes and their acceptance in today’s society.