What Is Discrimination Against Women's Sports In The Patriarchal Mass 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

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.

The purpose of this research is to bring attention to the lack of women’s sports coverage in the media and show how male sports have taken priority over women’s sports.

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.

Turn on a sports channel, odds are it is a male sport or the talking of men in sports playing. The odds that this is true is because according to the Washington Post, “in 2014, ‘SportsCenter’ dedicated just two percent of its highlight program to women’s sports” (Talbi). That would mean that they could go nearly an entire show and only mention women once. Women compared to men in their image of their respective sports is incredibly less. Women are shown as more of an attractive side while men are shown as more heroic or athletic. Studies have been taken showing how unfair women are shown in sports compared to men. How does the attractiveness and athleticism of women’s sports play a role in their sponsorships and media portrayal? Women’s attractiveness

In sports there is huge gender inequality in the media with women athletes often only receiving attention for having good looks or the best body, rather than their athletic abilities. Men, however, don’t receive this attention and people only focus on their athletic prowess. This report will review and analyse two examples of how the media portrays different genders in accordance with the following question: “How does the media portray men and women in sport?

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.

Sexism in sports journalism occasionally deals with the media or male athletes making rude and sexist remarks about a female reporters and athletes. According to the article Media Coverage of Women Athletes (1992), “The media reinforce this stereotype by portraying female athletes as over glamorized, over feminized, and too emotional to deal with success and failure on the playing field (pg. 74).” This quote talks about how the media portrays female athletes as too feminine and emotion to deal with success. This source was not the only source found that thinks sexism in sports journalism is a controversial topic. According to Ponterotto (2012), “The sports media often convey the idea that female attractiveness and sexual desirability are more important than athletic ability (p.15).”

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.

Sports fans usually acknowledge various sports through different mass media outlets. To develop our comprehension of social qualities inserted in sports and to investigate current values and power structures in regards to men and women, it is important to explore the potential impact that media may have in manipulating conventions about gender-appropriate sport conduct. One question that will be answered is, does mass media influence the beliefs about gender-appropriate sport behavior during the broadcast of various sports? To help answer this question three sets of participants are going to be involved. Ranging from 16 to 26 years of age, the sets will include individuals who have ample knowledge regarding various sports, individuals who have no-in-depth knowledge, and finally individuals who are active athletes throughout various levels like high school, college, and professional leagues. These individuals will view interviews, and coverage of different athletes, sports and events present in the Olympics. Following the exposure to the various segments, participants will complete a questionnaire and a survey regarding their experience during the viewing. With an international aspect and various races, cultures, and genders a change in both the representation of genders and the traditional expectations of genders would be present with a change in the

Sports media has played a significant role in supporting the concepts of male dominance. The language of sports announcers greatly reinforce the developing division between male and female athletes and mirrors traditional norms and