Sports And Male Domination : The Female Athlete As Contested Ideological Terrain

Gender classification is a predominant topic within today’s sports and is most broadly understood through the portrayals of sports media. Through overt and covert ways, sports media has continued to promote a masculine representation of sports (Millington & Wilson, 2010; Messener, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). By understanding the way in which sports media portrays sports, one can recognize how masculinity has dominated the world of sports. With the aid of two unique studies of sports media, this paper will critique the way in which media has effected the gendered depiction of sports.

According to Smith (2010:98), issues of gender are core to social life and this fact makes the concerns of masculinity and femininity essential. Critical feminist theorists have stressed the importance of critiquing and changing the culture and (Pfister and Kristin 2013:208) body (physicality) of sport so that they represent the perspectives and experiences of women as well as men (Maguire 2002:207; Coakley 2001:39) with the aim to expose gender inequalities (Jarvis and Watts

The documentary discusses how media coverage of women's sport works to reinforce the traditional stereotypes of both masculinity and femininity. There has been both widespread acceptance and movement of women in sports but at the same time there has been an increase in backlash about women's success and their presence. The documentary states that sports and sports media are traditionally masculine domains and the media coverage keeps them that way by marginalizing the increased power and presence of women in the media world of

With media in sports, males and females are demonstrated distinctively in sports. males during the time have taken strength to the playing field. One of the principle purposes behind this was their physical quality to take an interest at an incredible level. In any case, as time went on, ladies started to end up noticeably more required into the male game culture. For an example, the male and female media demonstrate the distinction as being onto a cover on a games magazine, the quantity of times a female competitor had made it to the front page of a magazine is much lower then a male competitor making it to the title page.

This paper aims to convince an audience that the objectification of female athletes as sexual possessions in mainstream media is negatively impacting women in sports. This will be achieved by a method of careful research through detailed articles on the subject of women in sports. This paper will explore different perspectives on the topic and convey a reasonable answer on why the objectification of women in sports should cease as a practice among main stream sports media. Sexual objectification occurs when a woman’s body, body parts, or sexual functions are treated as objects simply to be looked at, desired, or touched. As women’s sports are gaining momentum and popularity, so is the practice of sexual objectification in the media.

In the modern sport, gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviours, activities and tributes that a particular society believes are appropriate for men and women. The assignment of these roles and adoption of these traits can create gender inequities — differences between men and women that systematically favour one group to the detriment of the other. Gender constructs have created an inequitable distinction between male and female athletes such as sexualisation of women, television/media coverage, advertising, figueroa, sport as a microcosm. In the society, woman play sport don’t get much attention as when man play sport because of sexualisation of women as they think women play sport not good and not interested, as well

As sports is considered a men’s world, dominant media sports such as men’s football are mainly produced by male journalists for male audiences, representing a particular preferred reading or favourite subject position (Knoppers & Elling, 2004). Peeters, & Elling (2015), argue that, this is both done by presenting male athletes and downgrading female athletes and by sexualising sportswomen. In international competitions such as the Olympics, gender beliefs might be partially “overruled” by nationalism (Wensing & Bruce, 2003). Women’s sports’ lack of coverage and the lack of respectful and serious coverage of women’s sport has been researched for a while and seems to occur in various media platforms such as print and televised news media (Duncan et al, 2005; Adams & Tuggle,

This study analyzes how female and male athletes are portrayed in media coverage of the Summer Olympic Games. Beliefs about female athletes reflect gender in society. Jones, Murrell, and Jackson (1999) found that female athletes in male sports used frequent male-to-female comparisons and comments that had little to do with sports or the athletes performance. Sports broadcasters become conformed to a central belief that women are not as athletic as their male counterparts, so are often stereotyped as not athletic. Compare to female athletes in female sports focused more on performance, but still reinforcing female stereotypes. Billings, Angelini, and Duke’s (2010) as cited in Sage (1998) argues that organized sport has been a powerful cultural arena for reinforcing the ideology and actuality of male superiority and dominance. Also demonstrating traditions that subordinate women in society.

The relevance of sports to nations cannot be overemphasised; it is the basis for calls from interest groups for more equal opportunities to participate in sports. Gaps in status between men (dominant) and women (dominated) highlight the association of nationalism and gender bias. Sports serve as a platform where the integration of nationalism and masculinity becomes more visible (Nauright 2010:281; Coakley and Dunning

The 21st century is supposed to be a time of equality, where people of all races, religion, size, etc., are accepted. However, that is not the reality. The reality is this: women are overlooked. Women look and strive for the empowerment that men automatically have. They look for that sense of acceptance in all aspects of life. Gender inequality in sports is the problem at hand. Men are often seen as the dominant figure in athletics, while women are seen as being there for participation. This study is to show how women have evolved into competitors over time, yet are treated unequally.

Female athletes and sports leagues are viewed as less important than men’s professional athletics. This is because gender stereotypes are still evident in our society, which is shown in the way women are presented in sports media and that sports leadership roles are mainly male oriented in our society. There is a small percentage of female voicing at the higher levels of sports organizations, in Australian and Canadian leagues. This reflects why we need more women at the heads of these organization to make women’s sports more diverse in terms of both genders. Kids grow up watching male dominated leagues and most families don’t ever watch any female sporting leagues and don’t introduce their kids to those leagues. Young boys have all these male athletes to look up to and young girls don’t have that same opportunity as there is nowhere to watch female athletes. When female athletes are presented in media they are usually sexualized and only viewed for their physical features. This research essay will explore how women are viewed as second class athletes and why they are presented in media less than men.

For generations, viewers prefer to watch men play sports rather than women. But people occasionally do watch women's sports if the sport involves women wearing revealing clothing and the players is extremely attractive. There is only a small amount of viewers who would not only acknowledge the female player’s appearance, but also their skills. However, men’s sports are more televised than women’s Also women are treated differently physically and mentally.

Argument/Conclusion: The policies concerning female athletics are made to seem fair but at the same time they target only those women who look more masculine than the others and as a result intensify the “gender policies” that plagues women’s sports.

At the start of this essay, I suggested that some of the female athletes I would be interviewing may feel the need/desire to counteract their supposedly 'masculine image' they portray whilst playing sports by performing acts of femininity outside of the athletic environment. Kolnes (1995) investigated how female athletes across four different sports reflected upon their relationship between being a female athlete and the conceptions of femininity and reviewed that female athletes are exposed to constraints and paradoxes summarising that they are allowed to compete in sport but it cannot weaken their heterosexual attractiveness (p.73). Being a female athlete comes with expectations to project their sexuality through their behavioural characteristics

Gender issues According to (Coakley, 2010) society provide very particulars role for women and men. According to (Hoard, 1973, p.36) sexual discrimination with women started from her birth. (Embry, Padgett and Caldwell, 2008) find out that male dominancy is still present for women. (Whisenant, Pedersen and Obenour, 2002) suggested that sports is only for men and it correlated to masculinity. (Norman, 2010) find out that women treated as B-class in the sports activities. Gender issues are innate matter in all over the world. Removing of this issue started from the grass level by dire steps. Gender means perspectives, roles and domestic tasks of males and females (Sancar. A, Sever. C, 2005). Cluster lively exercise for occurrence can boost the knowledge of participants about gender- specific socialization, stereotypes and position patterns (Frey Regina, 2003). Women have restricted opportunities in subjugated professions.(Cutler & Jackson, 2002; Garey, 1999; Hewlett, 2002; Williams, 1995). Gender philosophy in sports belief that “masculinity is synonymous with sport” (Anderson, 2008, p.7).It is clear that specific social, societal and structural factors have disadvantaged women and have meant that their participation in sport has dogged by problems.(Peyton, C. 1989). According to