Women,+Sport+&+Gender.


 * Michaela Hatzirodos**
 * Tutor:** Abby-Rose Hamilton
 * Student Number:** 8311277
 * Tutorial:** Wednesday 3-4pm

Running like a __ Girl: __ How Equitable is the playing field when it comes to __ women __ in sport?


**Cultural Artifact ** The artifact presented above is August's 2009’s monthly Playboy magazine featuring former U.S. tennis professional, //Ashley Harkleroad//. It displays a large coloured picture of this elite female tennis player posing with a skimpy, almost nude sexualized tennis outfit, with no top and a small, wet hand towel to cover her breasts. She has been sexualized and represented as a primary commodity where her body is portrayed as a marketable item, as she performs a small action shot of her elite sport. T his media artifact highlights a clear and demonic representation of women in sport which compliments the hegemonic masculinity to purely ‘serve men’. There is no doubt that viewing thin-idealized media images of women on magazines and other media sources would increase self-objectification and negative effects of body dissatisfaction in young women (Daniels, 2009). Thus, they are subject to a great deal of pressure to conform to the thin ideal of feminine beauty.

**Public health issue**  Throughout the years, society has thought to legitimise the argument that sport is the ‘natural’ domains of men, thus battles still continue to fight for equal treatment of women’s sport (Daniels, 2009). It is well document that women strictly receive less sports media coverage than men. According to the results of a survey conducted over a 2 week period from the Australian Sports Commission (2001), results indicate that women’s sport comprises of 10.7% newspaper coverage, 2% television and 1.4% radio coverage, in comparison to the remaining percentage offered to men.

 Women, who participate in activities considered as inappropriate for women, are often depicted in a depreciative manner. Women are often marginalized, made invisible, trivialized, infantile, and reduced to sex objects (Brace-Goven, 2010). Both sport and the associated images of sporting bodies that are routinely packaged for the consumption of international audiences are heavily gendered. Media attempt to increase their profit by fashioning different magazines and products depicting hegemonic masculinity rather than the sport (Brace-Goven, 2010). This thereby undermines their real athletic achievements and displays a set of gender based attitudes which systematically disadvantages women’s position in society. Sociologists have suggested that the sexualisation of women athletes in mass media serves to reinforce patriarchal power and devalue women’s athleticism (Brace-Goven, 2010).

 ** Literature review **

In today’s society, research still focuses on aspects of gender inequalities, body image and the manner in which the media constructs these representations. Given the traditional social definition in western societies that females are subservient and subordinate to men, women are therefore not expected to compete in sports that demand competition and self-exertion. The sports industry is omnipresent in sports pages of print media and online, television programs and channels and most evidently, in specialty magazines (Speer, 2001). Besides, representations of physically active women in magazines were uncommon. Often when women are pictured in sportswear products, there was little evidence of exertion, yet heavy emphasis on sexuality (Knight, 2001). In other words, women’s bodies even when supposed to be physically active were directed towards being attractive to others and ‘hetrosexy’. Sport is an advertising and marketing industry worth billions of dollars, thus is also a carrier of significant cultural ideals and representations of physically active embodiment (Speer, 2001).

 The overwhelming media coverage of men’s sports creates, reflects and refracts the hegemonic masculinity, especially in everyday sports reporting. The ideology of hegemonic masculinity powerfully influences the ‘invisibility’ of female athletes so that they rarely entre the national or global marketplace as role models in sport (Jochen & Valkenburg, 2007). The media coverage dedicated to women’s sport is crucial for the visibility of the female athletes, although it doesn't always represent women’s achievements in sport equally. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011), women’s sport coverage makes up a minimal 9% of all sports coverage in Australian television news while male sport makes up 81%. Despite the fact there has been an increased coverage of women’s sports being telecast, there are still inherent differences in the way the sports commentators speak about the female athletes, compared to their male counterparts ( Harper, & Tiggemann, 2008)

 Televised women sports tend to focus on athletes who participate individually and not with a team, as well as on sports that stress charisma and grace of the athlete (Jochen et al, 2007). In contrast to female athletes, male athletes are believed to have personal characteristics inappropriate for women; these characteristics include aggressiveness, competitive spirit, discipline and stamina. These characteristics are the ones that believed to be inherent to masculine sports, insuitable for women including soccer, football and boxing.

 Given that, throughout the years Australian women’s sport has displayed excellent results, not only at an individual level, but at a team level. This can be revealed within the Matildas National Soccer team who have showed outstanding results where they dominated the Asian cup, finishing as the top team. Australian women footballers success have propelled them into one of the top ten teams of the world, reaching their highest ever world ranking. Additionally, with men's team, the Socceroos, currently sitting at 22 in the world, this marks the highest ever world ranking by the Australian football teams (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). It is evident that this small segment of the success of women’s sport highlights the exceptional results they achieve, even in comparison to the men. So why don’t such tremendous results get acknowledged and reported to the media in a positive manner? How will younger generations of girls look up to their sporting idols if they are only ever represented as sex objects in various media advertisements ? Ultimately, the Australian public is unaware of women’s sporting events and achievements, thus are only very few widely known positive role models for women and girls.

 Centuries of discrimination has shaped cultures and beliefs of a number of societies, deeming it ‘unladylike’ for women to partake in a number of sports (Daniels, 2009). The sports media occupations continue to be supressed by male dominated system, which ultimately further overpowers women to an inferior position when choosing this career path. According to The Australian sports Commission (2010)//,// only 11% of employees in sports departments are women, where limited branches will actually accept them as employees. Several respondents believed that female sports journalists and commentators have a much tougher job than men, as women in sports media are just not taken seriously by the fans as are men doing the exact job.

 Sports journalism and commentary continues to be a male dominated culture as women are viewed as not being as knowledgeable regarding this subject matter. They are often disrespected and underrepresented due to a superficial stereotype constructed decades ago, still greatly prevalent today. Men are often presented as the untouchable royalty who are given the important jobs of expressing their ‘god-like’ opinions of sport either in print or on air (Stankiewiez, & Rosselli, 2008). In saying this, the very few women who have been successful in developing professional careers in major sporting events and organisations, are ultimately positioned as a pleasurable visuals for the audience tuning the program (Stankiewiez et al, 2008).

** Cultural and social analysis **

 The first feminist perspectives concerning sport, examined the social construction of women and femininity, and the symbolic aspect of sport which have entered the discourse in sports studies (Daniels, & Wartena, 2011). Notting the patriarchal character and the sexist ideologies and sociological research that pervades sport, these feminists provided one of the first analysis of the influences of mass media on sport. It can be argued that the research concerning the sexist nature of sport and the view on sport as a patriarchal and socially constructed institution opened. This allowed further critiques to analyse women’s exclusion from sport, their traditional roles, and cultural ideas of femininity and the women’s body, all of which prevented women from entering sport.

 Following the work of Catherine MacKinnon, Helen Lenskyj (1986), was one of the first feminists to write about the relationship between female sexuality and sport (Bandy, 2005). Arguing the male control of female sexuality has been the ideological basis on which women have been excluded from sport, she maintains that ‘political institution’ of compulsory heterosexuality, a form of male control, is of particular relevance to the study of women in sport. She expresses: “N//ot infrequently, medically defined notions of optimal female health, individuals, and social wellbeing have justified the practice viewing female psychological functions as requiring prescribed or delimited levels of physical activity and restricted sporting opportunities”// (Bandy, 2005)//.// Helen Lenskyj (1986) was also among the first to draw attention to the relationship among ideology, female sexuality and sporting participation, by linking the anatomical, physiological, social and expressive dimensions (Angelini, 2008). Further focus was applied to the construction of female frailty in which underlay the rationale that was used to exclude women from the modern sport, revealing a power of discourse on the formation of societal views of women.

 In using these theories, it has been highlighted that women are still subject to gender inequalities surrounding participation in sport, besides the idea that rates have increased over time. Ultimately, societal views still report that th e biological differences between men and women are too different. Men have and always will be physically bigger, faster and stronger than women, thus are and always will be the dominant figure.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;"> **Analysis of the Artefact and Learning Reflection** <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> After critically analysing the topic of women in sport and deconstructing my chosen artefact, I was quite upset when understanding the extent to which women choose to wear minimal clothing and sexualise their bodies, just to gain media coverage for their sport. As it can be recognized through the literature review presented above, it is evident that women are marginalised in the sporting arena where they are further subject to gender stereotypes of sport.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> As an Australian Soccer player myself, I find that the equality of women in sport is so inferior to that of men, it is worrying to think about how the future of women’s sport will progress. Provided this, the //Gender Schema theory// highlights how individuals, particularly children form beliefs about the societal roles of men and women, where they process this information pertaining to gender, thus are influenced by their own representation of men and women (Daniels, & Wartena, 2011). These schemas of gender are formed by seeing and processing repeated social cues from their immediate and mediated environments (Angelini, 2008). One of the major sources which children gather their cues about gender is through media, predominately television. The exposure of these stereotypes messages about gender through these media sources, including through the viewing of a sporting event, can assist in the active formation of gender schema that contains counterfactual information (Stankiewiez et al, 2008). Thus, these societal beliefs about what personality traits are appropriate for boys and girls are taught at a young age and are widely accepted with no actual evidence to support their validity.

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> As research still stands, sport is still the ‘natural’ domains of men due to their innately biological and psychological natures. Women have, and will always be vulnerable to sexual discrimination, trivialization and objectification of their bodies. Although several initiatives have been put in place to help break such gender barriers, there will never be a time where the sporting field is treated equal between both genders. Thus, the degree in which the discrimination in women’s sport is removed, comes down to the ever changing beliefs in society.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;">** Reflections on PUB209 student pages ** __ PAGE: ‘Sport and Femininity Do Not Mix,’ says who? __ <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;"> ** COMMENT: **  Hey,   I think your wiki is really intriguing. You have a great title, and your artefact is a great example to support the argument you present about women in sport. You discuss a lot of interesting information regarding how women are subject to sexual discrimination, media objectification and gender inequalities. For me as an Australian Women's soccer player, I come up against these inequalities quite regularly, and it is even more frustrating to look at these current statistics regarding media coverage and participation, particularly where women only gain 9% coverage in comparison to the 81% dedicated to men. I look at this and wonder what hope younger generations of girls have of creating sporting futures and idols, when sportswomen are only ever seen in sexualized outfits where their athletic abilities are rarely acknowledged. I’m glad you have put up this argument for women’s sport as we do deserve to be treated in a much positive manner. Good luck!

__ PAGE: Obesity is a Capitalist Disease __ <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;"> ** COMMENT: ** <span style="background-color: white; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;">Hey, I think you have produced an important and interesting discussion on your Wiki. The information you have provided outlines how obesity is a major public health issue, influenced by a number of factors including socio-economic status, built environments and most evidently, the dominance in the media marketing and advertisements of food. It’s great to see the depth of research you have undertaken to give people a thorough understanding of different influences that can cause obesity, rather than assuming it’s purely due to the ‘genetics’ and ‘upbringing’ of their parents.

<span style="background-color: white; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left;"> Great work

**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Reference __**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Daniels, E. A., (2009). Sex Objects, Athletes, and Sexy Athletes: How Media Representations of Women Athletes can Impact Adolescent girls and college women. //Journal of adolescent research, 24, 399-422. doi: 10.1177/0743558409336748//
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Brace-Goven, J. (2010). Representations of Women’s Active Embodiment and Men’s Ritualized Visibility in Sport. //Marketing theory, 10, 369–396. doi: 10.1177/1470593110382825//
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">//Speer, S. A. (2001).// Sports Media and Gender Inequality. //Body and society, 7, 109-114. doi:// 10.1177/1357034X01007001006
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Knight, J.L. (2001). He’s a Lacker; She’s a “Looker”: The consequences of gender stereotypical portrayals of male and female athletes by print media, 45 (4), 217-229. Retrieved from []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jochen, P. & Valkenburg, P. M. (2007). Adolescent’s exposure to a Sexualised Media Environment and their Notions of Women as Sex Objects. //A journal of Research,// 56, 381-395. doi: 10.1007/s11199-006-9176
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Harper, B. & Tiggemann, M. (2008). The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on Women’s Self Objectification, Mood, and Body Image. //Journal of Psychology//, 58, 649-657. doi: 10.1007/s11199-007-9379
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Daniels, E. A. (2009). Sex Objects, Athletes, and Sexy Athletes: How Media representations of Women Athletes can impact adolescent girls and college women. //Journal of Adolescent Research//, 24, 399-422. doi: 10.1177/0743558409336748
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Stankiewiez, J. M. & Rosselli, F. (2008). Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements. //Department of Psychology,// 58, 579-589. doi: 10.1007/s1119-007093591.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Daniels, E. A. & Wartena, H. (2011). Athlete of sex symbol: What boys think of Media Representations of Female Athletes. //Springer Science, 65, 566-579. doi: 10.1007/s11199-011-9959-7//
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Bandy, S. J. (2005). From women in sport to cultural critique: A review of books about women in sport and physical culture. //Women’s Studies Quarterly,// 33(2), 246-261. Retrieved from [|http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/233632516/fulltextPDF/]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Angelini, J. R. (2008). Television sports and Athlete Sex: Looking at the Differences in watching Male and Female Athletes. //Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic media,// 52, 16-32. doi: 10.1080/10934520701820752
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Australian Beauru of Statistics. (2011). Australian Women’s Soccer team, Retrieved from [|http://www.abs.gov.au/]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Australian Government, Australian Sports Commission. (2001). Televised Sports News and ESPN's 'Sports Center'. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 26px;">[]