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Sexualization Of Women In Sports Essay

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Do the names Alex Morgan, Simone Biles, or Jackie Joyner-Kersee ring any bells? They are extremely powerful women who have accomplished prodigious records in sports in the recent decades. Now do Ann Meyers, Helen Wills Moody Roark, Flo Hyman, and Lyn St. James also sound familiar? If not, it may be from the lack of media representation of women in the past, for all of these women are phenomenal athletes who have each broken records, setting bars for the next female athletes to break. Media creates an immense influence on the way things are viewed, such as propaganda leading people into believing in something. Coverage of women in sports is similar, for they shine and demolish their sport, but that is not always shown in the media that covers …show more content…

In interviews as well, there is a clear divide between what both women and men are asked. Many times the media wants to ask the male athletes about how they feel after making it thus far, but for women it can be completely unrelated questions such as clothing, hair, and family. As mentioned before, female athletes are many times depicted to be crying or emotional in sports images, while males look powerful and triumphant. That ties to the idea that women are shown in the media as weaker, more vulnerable beings, while men are the strong, victorious type(Friedman 2021). Figure skating, along with gymnastics, is a sport where the ranking of points system includes categories that involve beauty and femininity. This relates to the idea that women are meant to stay within a realm of certain sports that do not align with the more masculine side of them. This growth of media is a fantastic thing, but there is a vast difference between the depiction of women and men in sports. Looking on an international level, coverage for women in sports is just as unfair. Regarding coverage for sports on Twitter, it is mentioned that the underrepresentation of female athletes actually causes a lack of female role models in media(Sainz-de-Baranda 2020). Sports coverage for female athletes is extremely poor, and needs to be embraced in order for Title IX …show more content…

All of the athletes mentioned earlier are incredibly influential and powerful women that set standards and allowed for the newer generation of girls to become successful athletes. They fought for an increase in the media coverage that was originally given to them, and did so while absolutely dominating their sports. Media coverage to the public has grown substantially for women in sports, but so have the negative stereotypes that come alongside. Social media is a fantastic place to spread information and grow platforms for strong women in sports, which is another factor that must be considered when discussing the growth of media internationally. As easy as it is to post stereotypical comments based on women in sports, the world needs to move forward on accepting and encouraging women of all ages, sizes, races etc. to strive for the gold. Allowing and empowering these women to participate in sports allows for a more inclusive world where media coverage can continue to grow, while hopefully eliminating the harmful backlash and stereotypes tied to women in

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In the article titled Face-off on the playing field By, Judith B. Stamper explains girls have their own story of support or discrimination, success also the debate of girls be allowed to compete on boys’ sports team. First, the writer Title IX explains female athletes are been treated second-class for long enough and should pass of inequalities and biases of girls. The writer also clarifies that girls doing sports make them healthier, physically, and emotionally. Other girls that don’t play sports are less likely to use of drugs. In addition, she notes a former Stanford University basketball player Mariah says, strength and independence of things girls learn from sports, the opportunities that are changing women.

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Moreover, female athletes have been facing an unfair coverage on the media. That women sports are underrepresented on the media is still happening. In most popular sport websites like Yahoo! Sport, ESPN, CBSSports, NBC Sports, etc., man sports always receive far more media coverage

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Cooky argues that participating in sports does not take away a woman’s femininity, despite many societal stereotypes, a woman does not have to choose between being feminine and engaging in a sport. Rather, sports require even more maintenance that surpasses the one needed to maintain a woman’s femininity. When covering women in sports, many sports reporters choose to focus on the “‘heterosexiness’ of the athletes more than their performances” (Cooky 98). Women who choose to participate in vigorous physical activities and resist engaging in activities to produce their feminine bodies are seen as masculine. This negative discourse around women in sports provided another example of how SI for women serves as an outlet for women to participate in physical activity.

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It has been seen that when women are given the opportunity to play sports they will take it, but Title IX hasn’t only given women the opportunity to play but also the opportunity to challenge stereotypes that men are superior to women in sports. According to National Center for Education Statistics there was a 1000% rise in women who play high school sports from 1971-72 to 2010-11. And boys participation in high school sports has gone up by 134%, this just goes to show that as soon as women were given the chance to play they took it. This growth is translating into college sports for women. Before 1972 scholarships for women were unheard of, but according to a new report by the National Coalition for Women & Girls in Education “In the past 40 years, high school girls' participation in athletics has grown tenfold, and college scholarships for female athletes have gone from virtually nil to 48 percent at Division I schools” (Khadaroo), this is great improvement for women.

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The fact that kept away women participating in sport in the begging of the 20th century was because many sports programmes ignored females and also the participation of women in sport was considered from organisers and sponsors as less important for the development of sport at the time. (Coakley and Pike, p.

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I sadly have to say womens athletics are also often disregarded. For example, the now-famous tennis match between tennis Hall of Famers Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs shows the way women's sports are viewed throughout our society. King's goal was to close the pay gap between her and her colleagues because there was a great difference in between their salaries. Billie Jean King felt that “women's sports were still generally treated as a novelty,” (Ott 2). She needed to beat Riggs in order to demonstrate that she is not inferior to men.

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Most women's exposure is not related to sports but to their attraction and looks. Female athletes are often portrayed in the media in a way that differs from their male counterparts. This was discovered by a 2018 study from Sports Illustrated Magazines “Female athletes are more likely to be depicted in sexually objectified ways” (Sports Illustrated Magazines). They are frequently sexualized and objectified, with a greater emphasis placed on their physical appearance and fashion choices than their athletic ability. The media also tends to highlight female athletes' personal lives and relationships, while male athletes are primarily judged on their athletic

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Women athletes and women workers do not get the recognition they deserve. Men especially, look down upon women when it comes to their appearances, their knowledge and a women's physical and mental strength. In certain cases, a woman loses out on a job in the sports industry because she is exactly a woman. A male trainer can refuse to train women because of the parts her body has. Men and women have grown up in a world with the mindset that women know less than men when it comes to sports.

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There are constant social stigmas in women’s sports, such as women not able to throw as hard or accurate as a man or there is no way a woman could slam dunk a basketball. There have been multiple surveys that reveal girls don't think they are worthy enough of reaching the professional level, as well as feeling the constant worry of being judged. An article by Women's In Sports states, “Women in Sport has found that more than one million teenage girls (43%) who once considered themselves ‘sporty’, disengage from sports following primary school. A fear of feeling judged by others (68%), lack of confidence (61%), pressures of schoolwork (47%) and not feeling safe outside (43%) were some of the reasons given for not wanting to participate for this group of girls”. With a decreasing amount of younger girls participating in sports and women playing sports in college, there is a lack of general participation in women's professional sports today and there is a concern of no participation in the

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The articles show the gender inequalities between men and women and how media depiction continually emphasize gender stereotypes. I believe the media depicts women in sport negatively due to the gender stereotyping emphasized through the media which can be seen by the inferior depiction of female hockey players in the 2010

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A study done in 2019 came to the conclusion that only 14% of sports highlights and news were about women teams or individuals. Meanwhile the other 86% were turned towards mens sports. Women's sports are incredibly underrepresented in the media, underscoring the idea of conforming to gender norms. The idea of strong female representation in sports should be focused on more often because it is used to inspire younger generations on how far women have come, and how they keep taking steps towards equality.

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(Managan, 2017) Although sport engagement and aid of women athletes has grown increasingly, future improvements are not a given fact. It is a well known certainty that even in the current 21st century, the reality is that women in general still experience difficulty and discrimination from the conventional gender norms that hinder with their engagement in sports. In order to make sure that gender equity in sports is maintained, the gender ideals that are correlated to sport must be examined thoroughly and effectively before any succeeding action takes

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If society stops to understand the struggles these women have been facing for decades will have a clearer picture of what steps to take in order to make a change in the sports industry. Men need to put their masculinity aside and advocate giving women a voice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues women in the sport world have faced through history, wage gaps, current issues today, and to discuss findings and recommendations for future research. Title IX is a law that came into effect in 1972, this comprehensive federal law prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

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When the media did show the female athletes they always showed the negative plays in the clips of commercials making the girls look bad and weak. “Womens sports continues to be covered in ways that convey the message to audiences that women's sports

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