Last week the instructor of the class this blog is for gave us two articles to read based on gender issues in sports. One of them was a study conducted by two female researchers Jo Ann Buysse and Melissa Embser-Herbert, in 2003 called "Constructions of Gender in Sport".
In brief summary of the article, it explains how colleges (NCAA Division) are marketing their athletes in a way that would maximize "the institution's coverage and support". These marketing strategies included "trying to sel the team as heterosexy and feminine" instead of athletically capable and competitive. According to Buysse and Embser-Herbert, their findings revealed that "men were ...more likely to be portrayed as true athletes, and makers of femininity had become common in the portrayals of women athletes" saying in the conclusion of their paper that "As long as they ca be seen as "ladies" first, they will not be compromising their femininity, or their heterosexuality by playing sports."
After reading this article I did a little bit of my own research. I opened my browser, directed it to google.com and then typed in 'female athletes'. There were a lot of articles and videos of legitimate examples of what a female athlete is, but as I looked further, advertisements on the sides of the articles began to get sexier and more revealing and my Youtube.com videos began to turn into "Hottest Women in Sports" or "Hot Girls in Sports" such as this video:
Most of the video clips in this video are of photoshoots where the female athletes are NOT in competitive clothing or action, and the videos of the actual sports competitions are of butts, boobs, thighs, and stomachs. It's pretty sad that a pole vaulter's ass gets more video coverage than her clearing the bar.
Finally at the end of the video is a WWE women's Wrestler who is, in fact, not wrestling at all, but giving a lap dance. Excellent role models for young girls.
As a female athlete it is incredibly frustrating how this can continue to be the image of women's sports without there being some kind of uprising. However, it seems that the sexier a female athlete is, the more money she makes. That seems to be the more upsetting issue in all of this.
What do you think? Should women just accept this norm and continue to participate in athletics despite their obvious sexualization and marginalization? Is there anything that can be done to stop this? If there was no sexual link to female athletics, would people still pay attention?
References: "Constructions of Gender in Sport: An Analysis of Intercollegiate Media Guide Cover Photographs" by Jo Ann Buysse and Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert. Published in Gender & Society, Vol. 18 No. 1, February 2004, Pages 66-81
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