Black Female Athletes

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.

Women in professional sports fits into the Sex and Power: Global Gender Inequality class because many female athletes have experienced the inequalities in a professional sports setting. Female athletes are being put down by gender inequalities, causing less females participating in athletic programs. Women athletes are being paid less than their male counterparts. Along with being paid less, female and males are receiving unequal benefits in the form of scholarship, media coverage, transportation, and stadium conditions. The professional sport’s world is filled with the obsession of body image and sexuality. Through this obsession, female athletes have been abused from the people they trust the most. There is an increasing inequality in women’s professional sports in the form of pay, sexuality, and abuse.

Like female athletes, African Americans have had a difficult time getting equal treatment and representation for their successes by the media. African Americans were thought to have a feeling of hate towards others, as displayed in the classic feature, Remember the Titans, “Look at them, they hate us, they’ll always hate us.” In today’s sports arena, African American athletes are represented in their sports’ categories in a much larger group than in the past. However, they are still struggling to have the same equalization as their teammates in the media’s representation of their talents and skills. A typical stereotype of the African American by the media is their depiction of them having more brawn than brain. For example, Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, is a white male whom commentators often commend for his high basketball IQ when he makes plays, but often fault for his insufficient physical ability when he doesn’t. African American teammates of Walton’s, in contrast, find their “skills” praised when they execute well and their “mental errors” blamed for failures to execute. Sports-related socialization of this discriminatory type can perpetuate stereotypes generation after generation.

In today’s society, there are many ways race shapes perceptions. There is a social significance attached to skin color and race, and among this, they vary greatly. Furthermore, individuals nowadays do not shape their perceptions of athletes by athletic merit alone; instead, fans perception is often racially coded. The Atlantic article by Adam Felder and Seth Amitin presented the hidden bias of broadcaster. In this study, they focused on announcers for televised baseball games in order to detect the terminology used to describe players. They discovered that “while there is no difference between race or nationality when it comes to performance-based descriptions, effort-based and character-based descriptions make a big difference”(1) This instance demonstrates the existence of a subconscious racial bias among individuals. The race of the athlete shapes the viewer’s perception by guaranteeing the success of performance in the eye of the fan. Additionally, white athletes are credited for their training, work ethic, and dedication, whereas blacks are simply credited for their genes and skin color. This study shows how eliminating racial prejudice in sports consumption is difficult, since it is an underlying idea many have. Instead of simply focusing on their race, fans and viewers should instead take into account the effort and talent of the athlete. Media portrayals of races affect how viewers react to them, and therefore it also needs to start with the reporting of black

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

Basketball, football, and hockey are considered the most popular sports in America as of today. However, sports in the early 1950s were not as popular as they are now. According to “An Exercise in Subtleties and the Transmission of Racism: An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Covers” by Eric Primm, Summer DuBois, and Robert M. Regoli, they stated that American love their sport and that “each year they would spend billions of dollars on sports-related items and activities.” The media help promote the popularity of the sports in America. Consequently, sports media “plays a key role in perpetuating the types of racial stereotypes about minority athletes in sports” (Ismond, 115). The thesis of this writing project is with some racial stereotype reinforcement

Throughout American history, sports has always been a big topic. Many Americans view sports as a part of their culture and an influence in their lives. There are many opportunities to play sports such as basketball, football, golf, baseball, ect. However, not everybody had equal opportunities to play sports before there were major changes in sports history. One of these major changes included other ethnicity groups and skin colored people to be allowed to play sports. African American athletes were one of the main groups of people that changed this view. They were not allowed or qualified to play sports because of their skin color and background. Since the 1800’s, African Americans the views of the people in the United States of blacks in sports

The bad image of black athlete is one of the most important problems today. African American athletes are not that different from white athletes; however, media portrays a bad image of them for some unknown reasons. Our world is full of the great African-Americans who showed incredible results in professional sports. On one side, a lot of African-American athletes in the limelight right now come from nothing to somewhat. On the other side, there is a negative connotation that all African Americans have is sports because they are not educated, all they have is natural talent, and all they want is to make the money and not do anything to get there. Television today is often concentrated in stereotype – filled African Americans sitcoms, television news is often shown in negative or crime based stories about black athletes, music & music videos - profanity, misogyny, hard, thugged out. The image is terrible and the reason for that is that media in general just looks at the negative too much.

Our young black males gaze at their televisions with eye’s widened full of admiration and awe at the images of professional black athletes living the dream of prosperity and idolism. In surfing the web, pictures, along with interviews and commentaries can be seen and read by the most impressionable minds. With research, I intend to sift through various resources to uncover the effects of the Medias’ portrayal of professional black athletes on the minds of young black athletes. I intend to sift through information to find out if the marketing approach used by the media and sports to portray the success of black athletes hindered young black males from pursuing other facts of economic success.

It is no doubt that African-Americans make up a majority of the population when it comes to globally known sports such as basketball and football. We often ignore that there is still racism present in games, just because there are minorities within the atmosphere. Sports as mentioned by Harrison, “is upheld as a meritocratic social arena in which other disadvantages groups can excel.” However, I argue that other disadvantaged groups find it tough, sometimes impossible, to excel in individual sports when they are constantly looked down upon or not welcomed in a sport where there’s white domination.

Sports culture in the United States is a double-edged sword for minorities. It can promote a positive and progressive image of race dynamics but can also recreate racial issues in a large scope with more media attention. This is no different for Asian American women. Typically overlooked in research and mainstream media, a new intersectional feminist movement has finally sought to include Asian American women in research and look at their impact on sports culture in their own communities as well as the nation. While representing a small portion of American athletes, only 1.8% of all scholarship athletes, they have made substantial contributions to feminism and family dynamics within their own communities. In popular thought Asian American

Are African Americans athletes viewed more negative in the media, compared to white athletes? In this research design I will be researching articles and other media to see if African American athletes are viewed negative, or stereotyped compared to articles or media written about white athletes. I feel this is important because when the public is reading or viewing these articles, they are taking those negatives and stereotypes and applying them to all African American or other racial groups. Typically, these negative portrayals can reinforce these negative stereotypes associated with African Americans. We should care about this because we know not everyone one is treated and given equal treatment and these negative articles and media could be feeding into this, and feeding into stereotypes, and unequal treatment. In my research I will look at articles and see if they write about more negative things when talking about African Americans, compared mostly to whites athletes. I will also research if these articles or media effects how the general public views these athletes. In this research design I will give you my theoretical discussion and hypothesis, where I will give you how I justify my theory that the media is viewing African American negatively and state my hypothesis. Next, I will lay out my nature of my research, and what research I have already did, and what I came away from this research. I will also list what kind of other research I would like to

In most cases black women receive less recognition when it comes to higher positions in sports. McDowell & Cunningham (2009) suggested black female athletic administrators provide important acumens into their experiences in intercollegiate athletic departments, it is important to consider the aspects of their lives and identities' and explore how these women negotiate their identities. This notion is important for the sake of sport organizations because it gives them more insight on the point of view for black females in the realm of the sports world.

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.

When women decide to participate in sports traditionally for men such as bodybuilding, they risk the chance of being socially stereotyped as lesbians, or simply viewed as "less feminine" then say women figure skaters. For example, Venus Williams is seen as criticized for being very masculine in build and judged on that by her performance. The media has commented on how well she plays, and has compared her to men in her sport. She receives fewer endorsements than many other tennis players do because of her looks (but mainly due to her race).