2016 Olympics Sexism Essay

712 Words3 Pages

Sexism has shaped the Olympics for years. 2016 Olympic games were an amazing time for women and their Olympic achievements, but media depicted their achievements differently. Vox’s video titled Sexist coverage steals the show at 2016 Olympics depicts the sexist comments and articles written by male reporters in the 2016 Rio Olympics. From the devaluation of the female tennis Olympic player Eugenie Bouchard to whom the reporter, Adam Kreek claimed was not taking her career seriously as she was more focused on her self-image by posting “selfies” holding a toothpaste tube and “trying on different hairstyles,” to the comment made to the 2016 U.S. gymnastic team when gathered around talking before the competitions by a commentator saying that “they might as well be standing in the middle of a mall” in reference to the stereotype that young females stand around in groups at the mall (Vox “Sexist coverage steals the show at 2016 Olympics “). Videos like these help people …show more content…

By giving examples of sexist action such as that shown in the video where the Chicago Tribute created a tweet with the title “Wife of Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics” displaying the photo of the athlete without mention of the sport or the name (Vox “Sexist coverage steals the show at 2016 Olympics “), we can see that we are accustomed to seeing men as the stars therefore that is what the media will use to try to get attention. By showing media that is often made without the intent to hurt, but rather to receive attention for view we can see our internalized sexism. The media shows what we want to see, if we are attracted to work that is sexist that is what the media will depict. Awareness of our internal sexism is a step to ending