Are elite female athletes recognised for their ability or sexuality?
Women have traditionally been considered as fragile and unable to perform the tasks that a man could. Understanding this, women were never considered to be apart of sports or activities that may involve the two qualities strength, stamina. A number of studies (Harris, 2005; Messner, Duncan & Jenson, 1993; Vincent, 2004; Rowe and Brown, 1994) discovered that in relation to female athletes most media coverage was for their looks rather than their athletic ability and skills. However the men were evaluated on the skill of the sport while women became the object to observe. Compared to the pictures taken of men and women, the men’s pose’s were more athletic were as the women’s
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Was this really necessary to get the attention ‘to promote the sport’ or did it just make the attention go on to what the athletes look like not what they can do? ( pic 1. Women’s gridiron, USA, ‘lingerie league’)
Female athletes have had to embrace the media’s sexualization to emphasize their femininity and gain publicity and money. The coverage of sports media is male dominated. 92% of sports coverage is on male athletes, while only 5% is focused on women’s athletes, with the remaining 3% for by gender-neutral topics ( C, M 2015, MEDIA COVERAGE AND SEXUALIZATION OF WOMEN IN SPORTS). The percentage of women’s sport coverage majorly under represented in
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