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.
Sociology is a growing discipline and is an important factor to the understanding of different parts of society. Sociology is “a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them” (Faris and Form P1). Basically, sociology is the study of different groups and their human interactions compared to the society as a whole. One part of society that sociologists have studied is the media coverage of sports. These sociologists have studied how race, gender, gender identity, and stereotypes affect what and how sport is covered in the media. Overall, sociologists critically examine parts of the society and make conclusions about those parts of society that they have studied. Sociologists have created many studies about the way the media cover gender identity in sports.
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Therefore, the women participating in such arduous sports breaks the normative ideas of what it means to be a women and what activities she can participate in. In contrast, for those women who do carry on tasks that are typically seen as masculine, are valued less, have less recognition, and their prestige and income tend to decline compared to their male counterparts (Johnson, 1997). Interestingly, when one types “soccer team” on google, the first thing to show up is the Unites States Men’s National Soccer Team. One has to explicitly type “women” in front of soccer. This shows the lack of acknowledgement of the women’s soccer team compared to their male counterparts. If the men’s soccer team is credited significantly more than the women’s soccer team, then the male representation is made more palpable in media with a greater screen time, thus bolstering their reputation and popularity and resulting in increase in pay from the soccer
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The Akron Racers are social agents combating the gender based inequalities, and the players are pioneers for advocating a much needed cultural shift in the institutional structure of softball. A large portion of eliminating these stereotypes and preconceptions surrounding softball will be changing the way we transform the children’s foundation of sport (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015; Buning, 2015). Rauscher and Cooky argue the cultural shift will only occur if adolescents develop leadership through an empowering and protective setting (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015). For example, Messner highlights that the “gender regimes of children’s sports may be increasingly challenged”, when post Title-IX women and, “heroic female athletes become more a part of the cultural landscape for children, (Dworkin and Messner 1999)” (Messner, 2015). In addition, Heaphy’s solution to combating the inequalities has high correlation with Rauscher and Messner’s ideology regarding a cultural shift through social agents (i.e. the Akron Racers) that empower children. The documentary displays the Akron Racers are activists towards the cultural shift of softball because, during
Sommers, C. H. (2010, August 12). Take back the sports page? The American Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.american.com/archive/2010/august/take-back-the-sports-page/
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.
Can women's sports establish itself as a topic of on-going media and journalism curiosity? Currently TV stations do minimal coverage of women's sports, while newspapers and magazines do just a little bit better. In a recent interview with Gary Webb, a sports writer for The Spectrum, he says that "the people have demonstrated that there is an audience that loves hearing about women athletes. After all, they are somebody's kids, sisters, and moms". I learned that these sports writers love to cover women's games, especially girls highschool basketball games. Gary said that he would rather watch a Parowan-Beaver girls game over the boys anyday. Karen Winegar, staff writer for the The Star Tribune of Minnesota said., "Portrayal of female athletes is improving, but despite increasing interest and participation, their sports are getting no more coverage than they got five years ago" (1A+). Women's sports participation will surely continue to grow in the future, so the media and journalists better be prepared to increase their coverage accordingly.
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.
4. Shulte, Brigid. "Does Title IX Equality for Females Come at Males' Expense?" SIRS Issues Reader. N.p., 29 June 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
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
Sports, in general, are a male dominated activity; every “real” male is suppose to be interested and/or involved in sports in the American society. However, it is not expected of a female to be interested in sports and there is less pressure on them to participate in physically enduring activities. These roles reflect the traditional gender roles imposed on our society that men are supposed to be stronger and dominant and females are expected to be submissive. As Michael Kimmel further analyzes these gender roles by relating that, “feminism also observes that men, as a group, are in power. Thus with the same symmetry, feminism has tended to assume that individually men must feel powerful” (106).
The first film we watched was a documentary entitled, Dare to Compete; it provided a brief history of women in film, focusing primarily on American women in sport from the late 19th century to the present. From this film we gained a notion of where women have been and how far we've come in the sports world. In fact, the growing equality, autonomy and independence of women throughout the 20th century from the suffragette movement to the adoption of Title IX and the Equal Rights Amendment is linked directly with the growing prominence and acceptance of women in sports. The main themes of the film, along with the examination of women in sport, were the celebration of the female athlete and how far women have come in the sports world as well as a reminder that female athletes have not yet attained the same status as male athletes.
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
Women have been criticized when it comes to sports participation, sports is viewed as a dominant role for males and females should play a supportive role rather than participating in the actual field activities, this is just one of many reasons why inequality still exists. Sandys (2007) suggests that gender inequality in sports stems from the stereotypes that exist in society today. For example, stereotypes of women’s physical abilities and social roles are still very prominent today, and so women naturally feel inferior in the sports domain. If we stray away from the right track towards gender equality in sports and increased feelings of empowerment will only be reached if these stereotypes are eliminated (Sandys, 2007). Therefore, it could be argued that increased media coverage of women’s sports could be a possible solution, because it would serve to ed...
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