Gender And Misrepresentation In Sports And Media

From all corners of the globe, news headlines are becoming much more attentive to the issues surrounding women in sport. Female athletes are gaining more notoriety in the sports’ arena. However, the attention they are receiving, usually pertains to their appearance, rather than their skill. Further, they are continuously being over-sexualized and objectified and for these reasons, there is a need for sweeping change in the representation of female athletes in the media. This paper will discuss the portrayal of female athletes in the media, the coverage that women in sport receive, the current impacts that media has on women in sports, and what measures can be undertaken to curtail the current trend of the media.

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 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

Sociology professor Michael Messner of the University of Southern California explains that the media “actively constructs audiences that are likely to see the men's Final Four as a dramatic, historic event that they simply "must" watch, while fans are likely to see the women's Final Four as a nonevent or, at best, as just another game of the Men’s Final Four” (Messner). Messner emphasizes the differences in language, attention, and emotion in media coverage as the sources of different representations and viewership. Professor Messner is not the only expert to contend that purposeful sexism and subtle contrast in media representation are the causes of the inequality in coverage. Others assert that we need “more women on television, in the news, and in front of our young girls,” arguing purposeful disinterest in gender equality is the reason for lack of viewership in women’s basketball

Sport media is no different from any other profession. There is gender bias in this field. Due to sexism, it makes it hard for women to even enter into the career path they desire most. There are many factors when it comes to gender bias, especially in sport media. Women are at a disadvantage in the field of sport media. Before 1978, female reporters were not allowed to interview players in the locker room before and after games (Clapp). It was not until 1978, when a female reporter decided enough was enough. In 1978, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke sued the New York Yankees for banning her from entering the locker room to interview players during the 1977 World Series (Clapp). This case went to federal court and the judge decided that banning female reporters violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Clapp). The Equal Protection Clause demands that the states “must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances” (LII Staff). Since women reporters were not allowed in locker rooms and men were, then this was a direct violation because women and male reporters were in the locker rooms for the same reasons. In the business of sport and as a sport manager, women being treated unfairly in sport media is something that needs to be addressed by fining and suspending those coaches, players and anybody involved with a sport organization who make sexist remarks toward women

Media “combines notions of feminism and traditional stereotypes of feminity to reinforce male dominance” (Carty, 152) by making female athletes to become sexualised. Even if female athletes try and bring out new ideas on power and strength in the society, they have to take a step back and conform to the patriarchal society and their norms. This takes the society back from any progress made and the efforts of women for equality, go in vain.

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.

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.

One way in which female sport is ‘negated’ is the way in which females are sometimes referred to by the media as “girls” no matter their age and are also constantly described in terms of their physical appearance and the way in which their emotions and their emotional responses are highlighted more than in male sports. One other way in which the media influence gender participation in sport is by the use of images of athletes which could be seen as a form of propaganda. As the ‘Learn’ handout states, “Dominant masculine images are highly compatible with sport”7. The majority of images in the sports sections of papers are of males, partly because the papers occasionally turn a blind eye to female achievement or simply put it in a small box in the corner of a page but also because they believe seeing more images of male athletes in papers is what the public want. Subsequently, females across the nation have fewer role models to look up to from the female world meaning they will be less motivated to actively participate in a sport because they have very few or even no idols to look up to.

The article advances to examine the extent of media coverage in sports targeting female athletes. C.A. Tuggle claims, shows like Sports Center allocate less than five percent of the coverage on the show to women’s sports (Qtd in Hallmark and Armstrong 224). This reaffirms what I already knew about coverage and female athletes. Shows centered around sports have an uneven distribution of coverage. Females in basketball has the highest coverage among all sports played by women at one percent of the coverage. Armstrong brings up a valid argument, “Televising women's games less often than men's games and in particular, producing them in a less appealing fashion than men's games, creates a cycle wherein poor coverage begets minimal advertising interest

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.

Similarly women are receiving less attention and media coverage than men. When someone puts on the television and turns on a sports game, it is most likely going to be a men’s sport. Even when females get their coverage, the commentators are usually talking about their body rather than their skill. In an article, “Examination of Gender Equality and Female Participation in Sport” by Joshua A. Senne, he talks about how women are referred by their appearance rather than their skill. During a study about the media, the commentators mostly talked about the women’s hair, make-up, and body figure, rather than their ability. This also occurred after the 1996 summer Olympics, where there was a lack of promotion for female athletes and the marketing of women’s sports. These athletes were also only recognized by their physical appearance instead of their ability. The tone of these broadcasters was proved in a study that men 's events were the standard in the society rather than the women’s. They would list the event as “other” rather than saying it is a women’s sport. In the study that was conducted, it states that the gender marketing showed that the woman sports were marked as “other” on an average of 27.5 times, but it 's never happened in the men’s sporting events (Senne). There is still coverage of women 's sports, but it rarely covered. The title IX project made a pie chart about the comparison of men’s and women’s sports media coverage on the show SportsCenter on