1. Melton discusses society’s patriarchal tendencies in sport media; women are objectified, whites are upstanding members of society while blacks are troublesome, and heterosexuality is over‐emphasized. With the continual growth of technology and media’s role in sports, do you think this gives the non‐patriarch members of society (women,minorities, homosexuals, transgendered, bisexuals, low‐income) a chance to stake a bigger claim in sport media content? Please use references from the text.…
Within sport, gender has played a huge role the way it affects one’s involvement in participation. As I will explore sociologically in this essay, there are a great number of reasons why this has occurred and still does occur, and the way in which pre-conceived ideas and stereotypes along with many other things affect sport involvement.…
Sport is not traditionally seen as feminine. Ex-professional women’s basketball player, Mariah Burton Nelson begs the question then- “How can you win if you’re female? Can you just do it? No. You have to play the femininity game. Femininity by definition is not large, not imposing, not competitive. Feminine women are not ruthless, not aggressive, not victorious. Femininity is about appearing beautiful and vulnerable and small. It’s about winning male approval (Burton 1998).” Gender roles play a large part in the media’s representation of female athletes. In a historically sexist world where ruthlessness, aggression, and victory are associated as male characteristics, female athletes are viewed as masculine and undesirable. In order to be socially…
As a result of the immense sexual objectification of women in sports in modern times, ''Playing the Field:Sports and sex in America”' examines the evolution of women's sports from a time when sweating was taboo, as was wearing shorts, to temporarily, when the muscular physiques of Venus and Serena Williams reflect new paradigms of beauty. Ironically, when many women first began to play sports, they were shunned and covered up, unable to play in venues with men in attendance because it would be unladylike for men to see women sweat. Therefore, how we as Americans react contemporarily to women's sports (glorification, hypersexualization), represents a stark contrast. Therefore, a downside of hypermasculinity, is the burden that it puts on male and female athletes who don’t meet its standards. From requiring women to be fully covered in a full body veil to having women play tackle…
The reading describes some research studies regarding males and females involved in sports. One of the studies was a comparison of the coverage of females and males in the U.S. open and NCAA events. The findings include that females were classified as ‘failures’ when it came to losing, and males were classified as ‘active agents,’ and their nonsuccess was blamed on their opponents. Also it’s important to note that males are classified as ‘athletes,’ and females are gender marked as ‘women’ basketball or tennis players/athletes. Gendering in sports is portrayed in our mass media whether it appears on television, or in newspapers. In the past, sports were encouraged and discouraged among boys and girls. Children were taught how to represent ones masculinity and one’s femininity. Boys joined sports teams to represent their competiveness, and girls usually participated only in physical education…
The media plays a significant role in the gender bias against women’s sports. The visual media reflect the way the society feels about a topic. In this case, through the Eastbay catalog the visual media document that society defines men’s sports superior than women’s sports. While a person reads the Eastbay catalog, the person is encouraged to accept the perception of the superiority of men’s sports over women’ sports. Hence, we should promote changing the world of today’s visual media while shifting our focus on finding out how we can close the gap between the number of men and women cover images in Eastbay catalogs. This approach will encourage others magazines or venues to treat male and female equally in sports advertisements. We need to understand the significance of the gender bias message in Eastbay sports advertisement. Also, we need to take steps to broaden the review of the cover images before publication to ensure images fully meet Eastbay intentions and our community social expectation of gender…
There are several impacts on female athletes and women’s sports of being sexualized and hyper-feminized in the sport media. First, “Sports Illustrated lack of respectful coverage of female athletes tends to “minimize the opposition that strong women represent” by only including very little coverage of women” (lecture, p.6) This is kind of disrespectful for women, and will mislead women. They might think that strong women are not able to play and get attention. Second, “women are being objectified and viewed as a potential object for sexual gratification.” (lecture, p.7) This will mislead women to value their appearance rather than their abilities as an athlete. Ultimately, fewer and fewer women will think their body as an object of another…
Dominant cultural ideologies are contested and struggled over in everyday life (Falcous, 2005), sport included. Falcous’ Media-Sports Complex allows us to view sport in a light that we are not subject to as consumers. It is a key text in understanding what we buy in to, and why or how we have come to the decisions that we have regarding sport in society and culture. It is with things such as the Olympics and highly advertised games that we question: “why did I actually watch that?” It is rarely because you are an avid fan, or active in the sport, but because the media filters the raw reality of the situation, to a point where the act of watching the sport is seen as desirable and rudimentary to your life. With examples of the NBA and NWBA, we are forced to view women in a secondary light to men when it comes to sport, and this is a global phenomenon. In conclusion, the media, be it mass media, niche media, or micro media, have a certain amount of control over sport; how it is viewed, and how it is perceived in society. The critical theorist would place the media at the top of the hegemonic power ladder, controlling the sports, and their organisations. The relationship between media and sport is no longer symbiotic as it was once thought, but viewed as part of the emergent vertical integration…
The sports industry works against females as only 4% of sports programming and 5% of media print are devoted to female athletics. Even within these small percentages, females experience sports coverage that consists of anything but their actual athletics because the media considers their “competition outfit or hair” the most engaging aspect of their athletic ability. Furthermore, 99.6% of sponsorship money goes towards the male sports industry.…
68% of girls play sports, between the ages of 9-11 years, or the “finding your identity period”. (Click) So when mini netball skirts that fly up with every move, are their uniform, what messaging are they getting? (click) Young girls nowadays are bombarded with pictures that only highlight ‘sexiness’ of sports women. (click) Women’s beach volleyball is more popular than most mainstream sports such as cycling, hockey and basketball. In 1999 the International Volleyball Federation regulated uniforms standards, but they were accused of selling the player’s looks rather than their talents. Hence the FIVB, allowed anything as long as it looks clean and professional. Yet, still women's sports are covering nothing except their capabilities. The first image is from a 1980’s professional volleyball team, and the second from the 2012 Olympics, and certainly the bikinis drew the crowd. In fact 90% of the audience were men between the ages of 16- 54, hence proving the impact that the appalling mistreatment of women’s bodies, has on men’s perception of us as pleasure objects. The degrading of women can also be blamed on the media’s repulsive…
Although there has been substantial growth of the recognition and popularity of women’s sport, female athletes are still degraded to be second best to their contrasting male athletes that are illustrated by the media to be superior and the attention is focused on the body of the female objectifying her rather than emphasising her athletic ability and skill . This injustice of inequality will continue until the media its self-changes the perception of men and women and shows them to the same and just as competent as each…
Media coverage has a great influence on why there is still a gap of popularity among women and male sports. In order to be able to make it in the sports industry it is important to have media and commercial appeal in order to attract an audience. ("Why Professional Women's Sport Is Less Popular than Men's.") Worldwide the coverage that women’s sports have in the media ranges from a five to seven percent. This means that male sports dominate the industry with a ninety-three to ninety-five percent of sports coverage.…
Ever since the beginning of the Olympics Games in Greece in 776 B.C., women have always been put on the back burner when it comes to sports. To this day there are very noticeable differences in women’s sports compared the nature of men’s sports. Women and men alike experience their inequalities in sports. For example, of you were to ask a group of people what they would rather watch: women’s basketball or men’s basketball; generally speaking the majority of the group would favor watching men’s basketball. On the contrary, most individuals would rather watch women’s synchronized swimming as opposed to men’s synchronized swimming. Sports and all things involved are a business. Men playing professional sports get paid drastically more than women playing professional sports. It…
The sport industry is nothing less than the pastime of America. Millions of viewers tuned in everyday to receive updates and news on their favorite sports team or even players. Nationwide networks and even local sporting stations broadcast anything from the more popular sports such as football, baseball, and basketball, to the less familiar and far less attractive sports such as volleyball, rugby and even lacrosse. From there, you then see the differences of gender roles and the popularity issues within each and every sport. Gender…
1. One of the paradoxes associated with the media coverage of sports is that the media open up new opportunities for spectators to view sports, but they also limit and define the experiences of spectators. Explain how the media can do both of these things simultaneously.…