Sexualisation in Women's Sport

A post by Natasha -

Sexualisation in Women’s Sport

Sport has so much to offer each and every person, and the best thing about sport is that it doesn’t discriminate; there is a sport out there for everyone, from a beginner to an elite athlete. Sport knows no boundaries, each sport requires different skills and personality traits, and attracts different spectators. It brings people together to share what has enriched their lives, and it teaches you to believe in yourself. But the people that play, watch and govern sport can tint the otherwise glossy nature of sport. There are a number of factors that make sport unenjoyable, difficult and confidence-breaking.

 

Why is this happening?

-          A 1996 Survey “An Illusory Image” states that ‘consistent media coverage can benefit a sport in a number of ways. It can provide a visual profile, create positive role models and, by increasing spectator appeal, help attract lucrative sponsorship opportunities for the sport’. The 1996 survey took a snapshot of media coverage of women’s sport from newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations during a 2 week period. The good news to come from the paper was that the newspaper reportage of women’s sport had recorded just over 500% increase from the first study done in 1980. The deceit here is that the 500% was because the coverage of women’s sport had risen from 2% to 10.7%. (http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/women/resources/issues/media)

-          It is not only the quantity of women’s coverage that is lacking, when they are given the stories, they suffer from poor placement. In newspapers, positioning is often placed on the bottom of the pages, or in the inner, least accessible pages of the newspaper. Female sports stories are feature at the end of news/television segments.

-          Another injustice for female athletes is the language and descriptors used when they are given coverage. Language used also makes perceptions of an athlete’s physical ability differ, depending on the words chosen to represent an action. For example, in the article about Jordyn Wieber, American gymnast, she ‘failed’ to qualify, whereas the USA men’s swimming relay team simply ‘didn’t have enough left’ to beat France in the hunt for a gold medal. Similarly, if a male were to crash against a tackle in football, a female may simply move against the defence. Sporting achievements are often downplayed or omitted.

MISSION STATEMENT

"The Lingerie Football League has become the Ultimate Fan-Driven Live Sports Phenomenon - Blending Action, Impact and Beauty."

Where has sexualisation worked as a business model?

 

The Lingerie Football League is a prime example of this. In the inaugural 2009-2010 season, ten teams competed in the season and it was aired on some local television stations. In the next season, MTV2 licensed the rights to broadcast the games, and  two highlight programs. In 2012, plans were made to design and develop the official LFL gaming platforms. The league is now expanding into other countries, with Canada adding 4 teams to the American competition, and leagues about to be launched in Australia and Europe. In 2014, the league also plans to have the champions of each of the leagues compete in the inaugural LFL World Bowl (http://www.lflus.com/ ). The below quote sums up people’s attitudes to women’s sport pretty accurately.

“The lingerie football league is a rarity in sports – a women’s professional league that is actually growing.” Business week’s Paul Wachter.

 

Uniforms – Are they actually performance enhancing or is it just a case of sex sells?

-          Beach volleyball protocol:

o   In accordance with the FIVB Athens 2004 protocol, women must wear either a two-piece in accordance with the diagram, clearly stating that briefs are to be no more than Max 7cm at hip, or a one piece closely fit to the design of the two-piece. (http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Rules/BVB%20Uniforms%20OG%202004.pdf )

o   These are some comparisons of Australian Olympic uniforms, for men and women. Surely if the players choose to wear something baggy then that will be their own downfall, why should they be made to wear something so tiny? And clearly it doesn’t impact the sport that much if the men are able to play in it. This has now changed and female athletes are allowed to choose shorts should they prefer.

-          In these examples you can see the men wear loose clothes, whereas the women are in tight, figure-hugging clothes that don’t hide a thing. Other national sports include:

-          Hockey:

    

 

-          Touch Football:

-          Tennis:

 

-          Basketball is an interesting one. After years of the men’s national team wearing traditional baggy uniforms and the women’s national team wearing figure-hugging bodysuits, this year’s Olympics saw the females finally change back to the traditional uniform. This switch, however, was player lead, as they pushing for the change. The Australian’s since the 2008 Olympics ‘have been lobbying for uniforms that decrease rather than encourage the perve factor.”

 

Involuntary Sexualisation

·         Women are more often than not steered towards individual, aesthetic activities, such as gymnastics, dance and figure skating, where men commonly participate in aggressive, competitive, physically demanding team sports such as football. This gender-role variation is not viewed in a positive light by society, rather they pretend it does not exist by not covering it in the media. Weatherington and Cotrell (2008) found that females participating in ‘masculine sports’ were viewed as less likeable and less respected than those considered to be participating in feminine sports. This then leads to the term known as ‘Female apologetic’. It is where individuals make an exaggerated effort to manage their appearance to look more feminine and therefore more ‘straight’. This is to try and compensate for the fact that they play ‘a man’s sport’. This then results in the voluntary sexualisation of the female athlete to prove their feminine qualities.

·         Media driven through the use of suggestive pictures. Image use and task relevance is important here. Images that are chosen to accompany articles are usually very sexualised images, most often with very little to do with the sport itself, and rather just about the attractiveness of the athlete. Images of men are commonly action shots, taken during a game and portraying the courageous and strong side to the male, where as the women’s image which is more of a glamour shot, is posed to be raunchy rather than action shots. Shots from the sport itself are generally of the female alone, having omitted the competitors and sporting equipment.

o   Here are examples from Hockey, netball, basketball – where the players are in full stretch, and the angle either looks down on them or tries to flaunt their assets.

o   Beach volleyball examples, taken straight from the websites and news articles they were used for, no editing or cropping.

 

 

Finally, the biggest way that the media and sporting organisations can alternatively promote and market their sport is to use the sport itself!! Even if the sexualisation draws attention to the sport, they still have to be able to keep the viewers, so what better way than to give the viewer what they will get! Each sport contains a large amount of talent and athleticism, so why not use this to promote it!!