What To Do With Female Athletes In Kate Fagan's Sex Sells?

In the 21st century, despite many years of progress, gender inequity still exists in sports, with male athletes dominating their female counterparts in aspects such as pay, endorsements, media coverage and participation. Indeed, of the 100 highest paid athletes in the world in 2015, the top 20 were all males, and none were from any of the so called ‘female’ sports [1]. Consequently— in an effort to lessen this disparity— ‘the commercial exploitation of sex, sexual attraction and sexually explicit materials of female athletes in sport [2],’ or sexualisation, has become increasingly commonplace, with netball now under fire.

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 athletes are often exploited by marketers and advertisers who want to increase their revenues and bottom line sales. Advertisers focus more on the women’s “skin” and sex appeal rather than women’s athletes, leaving the impression that woman are not as talented in the sports as male athletes (Roenigk 1). Many spectators and advertisers do not take female professional sports seriously and think that female athletes play more for fun. Therefore, female athletes do not receive as much attention for their talent. Advertisers exploit women athletes by focusing on their looks and appearances. Advertisers focus on the female athlete’s sex appeal rather than talent (Julius 2). Those who are more talented can be drafted to play professionally where they receive a salary. However, marketers still focus more on male sports. Therefore, increased revenue continues as spectators buy tickets to watch professional male athletes. The female athletes continue to generate revenues from sex appeal and looks over talent. This professional salary in no way compares to the pay received by professional male athletes.

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.

“An average WNBA athlete makes an average of 72,000 dollars a year.”("Gender, 2014”) That’s no money compared to what an NBA athlete makes a year. Popularity can be a big factor in the athletes pay for the women because less people attend a women’s game and they can’t really afford to pay the women. Is gender really a factor in this situation or is it popularity? “The WNBA itself makes on average one million dollars a year.” ("Gender, 2014”) What is the difference between a female athlete and a male athlete? The difference is popularity. More people attend a NBA game then a WNBA, so therefore more money will be

Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World Cup

Male sports receive more recognition than female sports. “Additionally, in a study of four major newspapers--USA Today, the Boston Globe, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Morning news--women-only sports stories totaled just 3.5 percent of all sports stories.” (Collins Live Strong). Has one ever heard of Lisa Leslie, Kerri Walsh, or Chris Evert? Lisa Leslie is a WNBA basketball player. Kerri Walsh is a famous volleyball player for Team USA. Chris Evert is a tennis player. Has anyone heard of David Beckham, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Michael Jordan or Lebron James? Those well known names do not need any explanation. However, those female athletes have worked just as hard and have achieved so much for their team that they should receive just as much recognition. Whenever an individual searches through the sports section of a newspaper they are bombarded with news about male sports, but what about female sports? Mckenna Peterson is a twelve year old athlete who plays basketball. While she was reading the Dicks Sporting Goods Magazine, she realized that there were no female athletes featured in the magazine. “McKenna added in her letter that the only women featured in the catalog are sitting in the stands, or dressed as cheerleaders in the coupons” (Murray ABC). Editors of sports magazines need to take a closer look at their content and not be so discriminatory and realize that they could draw in female readers by including female athletes. Currently, it is so hard to imagine that a sports magazine would not feature female athletes along with male athletes. More people would run up to famous male athletes in public than famous female athletes. For example, more people would take notice of Derek Jeter than Jennie Finch if someone saw them in public. People are glued to their TV screens while watching

Let us go back to Renée Richards, why was Richards able to play in a woman’s sport after going through surgery and becoming a woman? The answer lies in the process, Richards went through surgery which included hormone treatment. Zack Ford, a writer for Thinkprogress.org published a piece on August 8, 2016, entitled, No, Allowing Transgender Athletes to Compete Won’t Destroy Women’s Sports. Ford makes some very compelling arguments and points out that many different organizations already allow transgender athletes to compete and they have not had any problems. Ford points out that women sports already have women with a physiques that seem to be a huge advantage, like 6’ 8” Brittany Griner in the WNBA. Ford’s major flaw is that sites the Olympics as one of the

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.

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).

Another aspect of this “image problem” that pervades in female athletes is based on a more recent issue where a female surfer wasn’t able to get sponsorship to support her career because she wasn’t pretty enough. Silvana Lima is the best female surfer in Brazil, was denied a full sponsorship for the first 13 years of her career because of her physical appearance. This can dampen one’s spirt towards their sports because their talents are being ignored for something like beauty or physical attraction which has nothing to do with the way they perform. I can only imagine how Lima felt after not receiving the sponsorship she needed to continue her career because as an athlete when I run all my problems seems to fade away for a few seconds. Lima

While women in the sporting community are subject to objectification and devaluation, there is a particular fetishization of the deviant body, which violates traditional gender norms. Through media coverage, “televised sport creates fetishes by commodifying athletes and their actions, that is, by treating the material of sports as goods to be closely examined, appraised, and assessed” (quoted by Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Barry Brummett Rodgers 365). This pornographic gaze towards women’s sport “is particularly prominent in media coverage of women’s tennis, “where many players’ physiques and performances are the objects of a constant gaze” (McKay 495). Like in sexual objectification, there is a natural dehumanization involved in fetishization in transforming bodily or physical characteristics into an object of desire. However racial

This concept leaves females with the less valued endorsement deals. On one hand, LeBron James is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, owns the largest Nike endorsement deal of history. Nike signed LeBron to a billion-dollar lifetime deal. On the other hand, Skylar Diggins is considered one of the top five WNBA players, has a Nike endorsement deal of just over a million. Both LeBron James and Skylar Diggins are at the peak of their professional careers but based on the fact that Skylar Diggins is a female, she does not have the same opportunity to be offered a major deal like the deal LeBron James was offered. Coupled with lower salaries and less endorsement deals, WNBA games aren’t nearly as nationally televised as NBA

The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation reported that in 2013 women’s sports received 7% of coverage and 0.4% of the total value of commercial sponsorships. Which is incredibly low compared to men’s sports. This is why female athletes are ‘sold with sex’. Due to female sports not bringing in huge attention, advertisements must interest and attract audiences with a different approach and that is where targeting the sex appeal comes into play. The world’s no.1 highest paid female athlete, Maria Sharapova, is proof of this. According to Forbes in 2010 her earnings were over $24.5 million, of which $23.5 million came from endorsements many including sensual

As humans, we need to work out and practice sport. No matter what our levels are or our gender. Seimone Augustus, Laure Manaudou, Hope Solo or Serena Williams; are those names familiar to you? Chances are that even hearing these names, that probably most of people would not recognize these athletes, perhaps it will be due to the fact that they are women trying to gain recognition in a male dominated world of sports such as Basketball, Swimming, Soccer and Tennis.