Is+It+Really+All+About+The+Sport?

**Name:** Luke Watson **Student Number:** n8325022 **Tutor/Time:** Michelle Newcomb/9-10am friday

**Running like a girl: How equitable is the playing field when it comes to women in sport? **

**Cultural Artefact: ** The artefact presented above depicts upcoming female golfer Nikki Garrett posing for the magazine company Alpha. The spread displays multiple images of Nikki posing provocatively in clothes that could probably be seen as unconventional attire for the golfing greens. The images focus is purely on marketing Nikki Garrett's physical appearance through sexualizing what she wears rather than highlighting her golfing performance. Altering this portrayal of women in sport will go a long way in closing the gender difference in sport as n onsexualized media images of women athletes can no doubt positively impact the audience's perception. This view is In contrast to society's norm where media attention on all mediums is focused on women’s physical appearance and sexual attractiveness opposed to portraying women as active and athletic (Daniels, 2009).

**Public Health Issue: ** The issue that majorly surrounds women in sport is their portrayal in the media. Male athletes seem to be in the spotlight constantly in regards to their sporting endeavors whereas on the other hand for female athletes, it appears to be a case of 'pose for the camera's in this magazine and you will get coverage'. This statement reinforces the gender inequality notion in sport today as it is apparent that for female athletes to receive media attention, it has to be sexualized. However, even if women's media content is sexualized, current media coverage levels still denote the fact that men are by fair, more prevalent in the media. An Australian Sport Commission survey revealed that women receive only 10.7% of total newspaper coverage while 79.1% was devoted to male sport (ASC, 2001).

**Literature Review:**Society today rallies around gender equality in things like jobs and giving women a fair go. Though, how come when it comes to sport, there is a completely different scene being set? Hegemonic masculinity in sport has always been a prevalent factor throughout history where men have been seen as the dominant gender, physically and mentally. Males have been depicted stereotypically through their apparent strength, power, speed and masculine appearance where women have always been presented in more feminine roles in life. Many publications have attempted to challenge these gender roles where it is seen that a more complex model of gender hierarchy and emphasizing the agency of women will help the movement towards a gender democracy (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005).

 A big factor that contributes to the audience perception of male and female athletes is the media. Research has highlighted the fact that women and men receive different treatment within the media which is split into how much media coverage each gender receives, and then nature of the coverage itself (Speer, 2001). The interesting fact is, that it was concluded in studies that sports media play a central role in altering and influencing gender equality and the ideology of hegemonic masculinity. For example, broadcasters often refer to women as 'ladies', which portrays them as delicate (Steer, 2001). Men on the other hand, are never referred to as 'gentlemen', which would challenge the male dominance stereotype. A study that reinforces this difference in media coverage levels was an analysis of photography from the 2008 Olympic Games, where in total, female athletes received far fewer photographs than male athletes. Frequent depictions of them as passive subjects rather than active competitors in their sports echoed the historic and stereotypical treatment of women (Jones, 2010). The fact that women received such low attention compared to their male counterparts was not in relation to the success of the women at the Beijing Games. Sports journalist Dennis Phillips (2008) wrote that "Australia's reputation as an Olympic nation relied disproportionately on the performance of its women athletes. Women, who constituted 46 percent of the 2008 Olympic team, won eight of 14, or 57 percent, of Australia's gold medals". This statement brings to significance the point that, gender inequality in sport centralizes with the media coverage it receives.

Another factor that then stems from the media coverage in women's sport is the sponsorship it receives to be able to fund female athletes. If women receive such low attention, how is their sport a marketable opportunity for businesses when majority media focus is specifically just on male sport? This perhaps, is what leads female athletes to exploit other initiatives to gain income such as posing provocatively for magazines in an attempt not only to gain sponsorship, but increase their profile to the public. Research indicates that money interests determine sports journalism’s agenda. Elite male sports which create the biggest turnovers in advertising, sponsorship, numbers of television viewers and spectators in the stadium dominate the international sports press (Jones, 2010). The news industry appears to demonstrate little interest in women’s sports and clearly 'genders' its sports coverage in accordance to the liking of male tastes and in the pursuit of male audiences.

The gender inequality in media coverage is not at all an indication of participation rates in women's sport. Physical activity participation of Australians aged 15 years of age or older was recently recorded at 64% with males and females having in fact very similar rates at 65% and 63% respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). This statistic shows that participation rates are on an even playing field even though media coverage levels offer a vastly different indication. A more in-depth look into participation levels in sport showed that the difference between peoples roles, either playing or non-playing, still depicted similar results. Male participation rates were 24% playing and 10% non-playing, whereas females were 20% playing and 8% non-playing respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010).

(ABS, 2010)

Recently, in support of women in sport and in an attempt to fill the gap between media coverage and funds, the Australian Government through the Australian Sports Commission, released an initiative to invest around $35 million into Women's sport in Australia. The initiative recognizes the one major barrier facing women in sport is getting women seen, heard and supported in the media (ASC, 2010). This clearly outlines the aims of the Australian Government in closing the gender inequality gap where funding will increase the profile of women's sport and provide more funding to players. The injection of money is to be provided in three sections:


 * $32 million over 4 years to the Football Federation Australia, which includes supporting a televised Westfield Women’s League,
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">$2.4 million to support the Trans-Tasman netball competition, including funding to support and promote free-to-air television coverage of the ANZ Netball Championships; and
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">$100,000 to support the 5th IWG International Conference on Women and Sport (ASC, 2010).

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Cultural and Social Analysis:**The media has a huge influence on the social and cultural beliefs according to what they release. They have the power to manipulate the view of women's sport negatively, or support it and promote it. Analyzing coverage of the 2008 Olympic games showed that gender bias is still prevalent as not one of the 19 shots of Australia's most photographed Olympian, Steph Rice, showed her competing. This is in contrast to the 30 action-posed pictures of Michael Phelps (Jones, 2010). These passive poses reinforce the gender stereotypes of females and downplays the athleticism by showing them motionless. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Both private and public media has revealed that the coverage of women's sport is significantly less than that of men's (Cunningham, 2003). Exposing and addressing the negative stereotypes is crucial. These stereotypes encourage a belief that women’s place in sport is an inferior and subordinate one (Rodriguez & Schell, 2000). It is important to therefore alter the cultural and societal norm that has been set in place and increasing media coverage in women's sport will challenge the male dominance and ultimately shift perceptions and interest. The power of change lies with the media and even though it is still reported that men will always be biologically better built for sport through their power, strength and speed, coverage in the media for women will increase the likeability of their sports and also bring the inequality on par. The awareness of gender inequality in sport has slowly come to the forefront in the media in recent years as more and more women rally for and even playing field within the media. They argue that why should they have to reach out to media companies and expose themselves to make a living when male athletes can solely rely on their sporting salaries. This point highlights the fact that for women, maybe a career as an athlete isn't all about the sport if they cannot meet ends with minimal funding compared to males. Focus to remedy this problem lies with promoting the sport to companies as a sponsorship opportunity and lifting the media coverage of the sports so that companies can view investing in women's sport as a profitable, marketable and long-term venture.

**<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Reflection and Analysis: ** <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">The Alpha magazine spread on Nikki Garrett is an exceptional example of how women in sport today try to lift their own profile and earn more money through other avenues. It highlights the important point that women athletes have to go to extreme lengths of revealing themselves and posing in provocative outfits to make ends meet. The inequality in media coverage is significantly detrimental to women's sport as the lack of attention branches off into spectators, participation and sponsorship. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">After analyzing and deconstructing my chosen artefact, it became apparent just how huge the inequality gap was between male and female athletes was. It was a rather confronting and emotional feeling when researching the topic and how women have to sexualise themselves because their sporting world is marginilised in society. The facts presented pinpoint that stereotypes and preset cultural and societal norms affect public perception today and curbing these views is a very drawn out and timely endeavor. As a male athlete, I always was aware of the public perception and level of women's sport to some extent. This knowledge was in no way near what the actual problem is at the present time and I therefore think that informing others about the extent of this issue will increase the awareness that something needs to be done in women's sport. As research still presents the view that men have always been seen as the dominate gender, there is no possible way to immediately alter and erase the inequality in women's sport. The process will take a number of years to break the cycle of the gender barriers and government initiatives are definitely a positive start in what needs to be a collective effort. The skills developed through analyzing the artefact has enabled myself to compare and contrast government websites and peer reviewed journal articles to gain a deeper understanding and definitely acquire more insight and understanding on a present and future issue in society.

**<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">References: **<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">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.// <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Connell, R. W., Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic Masculinity : Rethinking the Concept. //Journal of// //Gender & Society, 19, 829-854.//

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Speer, S. A. //(2001).//Sports Media and Gender Inequality. //Body and society, 7, 109-114.// <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Jones, D. (2010). Online images of the 2008 Olympic Games. //Australian Journalism Review,// 32, 89-102.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Phillips, D. (2008). If I could be half the athlete they were. Retrieved 4th November, 2011, from <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32506.html

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Australian Sports Commission. (2001). Media. Retrieved 3th November, 2011, from http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/women/resources/issues/media <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Australian Sports Commission. (2010). New report reveals poor coverage of women in sport. Retrieved 3rd November, 2011, from <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> http://www.ausport.gov.au/news/asc_news/new_report_reveals_poor_coverage_of_women_in_sport

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Involvement in Organised Sport and Physical Activity. Retrieved 3rd November, 2011, from <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/6285.0~April+2010~Main+Features~Characteristics+of+persons+involved?OpenDocument

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Australian Burea<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">u of Statistics. (2011). Sports and Physical Recreation: A Statistical Overview. Retrieved 2nd November, 2011, from <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/2F119C9289BDB079CA2578DC0001E45C?opendocument

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Cunningham, G. B. (2003). Media coverage of women's sport: A new look at an old problem. //Physical Educator, 60//(2), 43-49.
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rodriguez, S & Schell, L. A. (2000). Our sporting sisters: How male hegemony stratifies women in sport. //Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 9//(1), 15-15. ====


 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Reflection on Other Pages: **

Page: http://healthculturesociety.wikispaces.com/Running+Like+a+Girl+-+How+Equitable+is+the+Playing+Field+when+it+comes+to+Women+in+Sport Brodie Hicks n<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">8320187 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Tutor: Michelle Newcomb <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Comment: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Hi Brodie,

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">What a very interesting read that was! You presented a very relevant and recent artefact that accurately depicts sexism in society today and how present it is. The way you used statistics was very eye-opening as it really drums home just how marginalized female athletes are. Not only that, i thought you brought up a very good point in highlighting the fact that the gender inequality doesn't just fall on the competitor's but on all involved in the sport whether it is a playing role or non-playing role (commentator etc). Overall, i think you have done an excellent job at bringing awareness to the different treatment between males and females within sport.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Page:http://healthculturesociety.wikispaces.com/Women+-+Equality+in+Sport <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Name: Jesse McDonnell <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Student number: n8326134 <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Tutor/Time: Katie Page. Friday 10-11am <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Comment: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Hi jesse,

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Good job on the page! I thought the artefact was a very interesting promotion of women's rights and it does indeed challenge the female stereotype of just being seen as feminine. You make a great point that discrimination has been around for the ages and it is not just present in sport. Also, a great analysis to finish off, highlighting that there is still a long battle to eliminate the gender inequality in sport. Solid effort!