Australian Sportswomen

Gender classification is a predominant topic within today’s sports and is most broadly understood through the portrayals of sports media. Through overt and covert ways, sports media has continued to promote a masculine representation of sports (Millington & Wilson, 2010; Messener, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). By understanding the way in which sports media portrays sports, one can recognize how masculinity has dominated the world of sports. With the aid of two unique studies of sports media, this paper will critique the way in which media has effected the gendered depiction of sports.

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

This section will outline how, throughout history, the role of Women in Society that has been reflected in the role of Women in Sport.

Woman’s sustained involvement in ‘male’ team sports has only occurred relatively recently. Woman’s participation in sport has been blunted by

This article talked about the daunting unequal media coverage in sports of male sports teams in comparison to females.They researched the true differentiations of coverage between men and women sports. The actual percentage difference of coverage of male vs female sports discovered in their research truly is unfathomable. Men’s sports receive 96.3% of the airtime, women’s sports 1.6% and gender neutral topics were 2.1%. When you think back about twenty years ago and the coverage of media people tend to think that America is generally trending positively forward, however that is not the case for the coverage of women's athletics. It has actually gone down since then. Although on the scarce occasion that they are feature in the news, more often than not they are conveyed in the stereotypical way: as wives, girlfriends, or mothers. When media is highlighting these aspects instead of their talent, hard work or success it takes away from their image as an athlete and it demonstrating that it is acceptable to do so in society. However if male athlete achieved equal success and he was a father, that

Australia is widely regarded as both characterised and united by sport. Sport has an elevated place in Australia's official and popular national culture, and the country’s reputation for being a 'paradise of sport' has become a largely unquestioned aspect of the Australian way of life. Gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviours, characteristics and actions that a specific society deems appropriate for men and women (WHO, 2014). The established relationship between gender equality and sport is a widely regarded issue in not only Australia, but all around the world. Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including sport and physical recreation

It is also believed that female athletes become objectified in the media as an “attempt to limit female power, thereby reinforcing hegemonic masculinity” (Pederson,2002). Mass media and sports are one of the most commanding hegemonic social institutions and there is a strong link between athleticism and masculinity. It is due to this hegemonic masculinity that women, in many ways are considered inferior to men and treated as if they have no place of their own in sports, where only male power dominates.

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

Gender stereotyping in sports media is something we see everyday in magazines and on TV. Since sports were invented, males have dominated one of Canada’s largest pastimes. Reasons for this being physicality and strength, but as time progressed women began to become more involved in the culture of sport. Today there is almost an equal amount of women participating in sports as man, yet women are still not being represented with the same approach as men. About a month ago I found a video online that followed a sports reporter who was trying to make a point about gender stereotyping within sports media. He would interview professional male athletes but rather than ask them the typical interview questions we see in male sports, such as “has your workout routine changed since…” but rather asked them questions that are typically related to female athlete interviews such as one that was asked to swimmer Michael Phelps “Shaving your body hair gives you an edge in the pool, but how about your love life”, or “any comments about reports about your girlish figure”. At the end of the video they show real women athletes being asked these types of questions in real interviews. The men’s reactions of embarrassment to disgust vs. the women’s reactions of showing no surprise to being asked these derogatory questions, says it all. It is no surprise that the sexualization of female athletes is something all too common in sports media. We’ll be looking into the idea of sexualisation in

Before I conducted this media analysis about women in sports and sport broadcasting, I hypothesized the obvious - that more male sports would be in the media, and that there would be more male sports broadcasters as well. Through my observations I did find that the sports arena and sports broadcasting sphere are male dominated. However, I also found that although there are not many stories about women, there has been a steady progression and magazines like Sports Illustrated are becoming bold enough to highlight women athletes in a magazine that is targeted towards a male audience. Although women still have a long way to go, they are making some headway into the male-dominated sports arena.

According to Knight and Giuliano’s 2001 article, gender equality has been and will remain a current topic of hot discussion in the media and its portrayal of athletes. Athletes have a unique ability to deliver their thoughts and information to the masses through the media outlets given to them in regard to their social status. Once the media has heard what the athletes have to say it can be at the media’s hand for interpretation. In this specific study 92 undergraduates were given a fake newspaper that covered an Olympian with the main focus being on attractiveness. The study covered male and female athletes in the newspaper article while focusing predominantly on attractiveness. Results show that the readers not only disliked the attraction focus, but also preferred the reading be more focused on the athleticism of the Olympians. The largest take away from the study is the media and its coverage or portrayal of athletes being geared towards athletic achievement over quality of appearance

Men are playing the same sport as women but at a much different, thrilling level (“Women Still Battling for Equality in Sports”). In most sports, men can jump higher, run faster, and perform stronger. Therefore, several reporters use the men’s powerful performances against women, and “too many people see men’s sports as ‘real sports,’ so the accomplishments of female athletes are diminished” (Hillin). A lot of the sexism in the Olympics comes down to respect. In 2012, the USA’s women’s basketball team still felt unappreciated and not respected after winning four consecutive gold medals (“Women Still Battling for Equality in Sports”). Men receive more respect and attention for winning one medal than women do for winning multiple. Male athletes are respected if they are skilled and successful. For men, it does not matter if they have been in trouble with the law or if they have a bad personality. For women, they need much more than skill and some accomplishments to be appreciated and respected (“Women Still Battling for Equality in Sports”). A researcher on the Cambridge team found that the “word ‘man’ has generally been used roughly three times as much as the word ‘women’ in sports news. Sports-related coverage continues to increase; this could be the “reason for the increased scrutiny on why the words used to describe the women are still very different from those used to describe their male counterparts.” A researcher at Penn State University said “the journalists who are brought out every two years to cover women’s Olympic sports are out of practice because of the general lack of prime-time demand for sports that feature women.” Reporters and editors juggle the responsibility of producing interesting headlines that are also true. The reporters may not mean to call out women in a sexist way. However, the media notices the reporters that do, thinking it could

AFL has been loved by many all over Australia since 1896; the newest addition to the league being the AFL Women’s. This no doubt has brought new interest to the game with young girls and boys seeing that it is possible to follow their dreams and play whatever sport they want. The women’s football has exceeded the AFL’s expectations with massive crowds at all games and TV ratings skyrocketing. The opening match of the season between Carlton and Collingwood saw a crowd of 24,568 at Ikon Park, with 2000 supporters stuck outside as an official lockout was declared (AFL Staff writer, 2017). The opening match of the season also saw 1.1 million people around Australia enjoy the new generation of football on television.

With the rise of feminism, gender inequality has been quite the topic in todays time. With the wanting of equal rights and treatment it has been pointed out as per which all places males have the hegemonic overview and women are the oppressed; one of the areas where its unequal in gender is in sport. This paper will examine and break down the issues regarding sex and gender biases within sports in modern day media and how it can be resolved.

From the three network affiliates they studied, they found that 96.3 percent of the coverage was for men’s sports and women only received 1.6 percent (Messner and Cooky 4). When analyzing the coverage of Sports Center, which is arguably the most popular sports show on television, they found that women still only received just 1.4 percent of their coverage (4). This study also found that 100 percent of the Sports Center programs had a lead story that was about men’s sports (4). Even the most renowned and credible sports show, which only shows sports all year long, does not even provide women’s sports with equal attention. Even more shocking than this was that the study also revealed that reporters devoted more coverage to men’s sports that were out of season than they did women’s sports that were actually in season (4). This can be extremely disrespectful to female athletes when their sport is pushed aside and ignored so that a men’s sport that is not even being played can be covered by the media. These women put all their effort into performing their sport at the highest level, but their media attention gets replaced by men who are in their off-season.