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LE426                                                 The Global Sport Industry and Media

Gender and Sport Media:

Why is Gender in Sport Such a Big Deal? -  

The sport media has always portrayed gender bias and inequality in the society that we are in today. It has shown that even though women sport and women sportsperson have advanced over time that the sports media is owned by men, to produce for men, and this can be shown through the lack of coverage women get in the sports media network. This can be shown in the research 'The New York Times, 1984-2013, 86.7% of articles focus on men's sports and male athletes; articles on women have smaller word count than articles on men' (Schmidt, 2016). This further shows the male dominance when it comes to sport in the media and shows how 'media sport reflects a trend: relatively inferior status to men' (Maguire et al., 2002). The way of which the sports media does actually portray women's sport is usually through their appearance rather than there performance, and this obsession with the female performers body instead of their skill leads to strong women that have the potential to be role models to the younger generation to go invisible and in the eyes of those watching them. However, through judging female athletes through their appearance it also leads to other problems such as stereotypes and the sexualization of females athletes and women in sport in general which can not only effect those elite-level athletes but also those at a grassroots level or watching on the TV, because they may feel that because they do not look like the athletes doing the sport then they are not able to participate in it or even if they do not see specific sports being played by women on the TV or in the newspaper, that the sport is only for men which in many cases is not true and this therefore creates a 'social hurdle' (McDonagh and Pappona, 2008). Also other issues of gender in sport, includes homophobia in sport. This is because it is not seen as being normal in the sporting world because throughout some of the main sports such as football, rugby etc, there are hardly any openly gay players because of fears of how they would be treated inside their team as well as how the media would portray them.

Portrayal of Women in Sports Media -  

As mentioned above one of the main problems when it comes to gender in the sports media is the way women and women's sport are portrayed and some of the stereotypes that women that play sport receive. Therefore, the way women are portrayed in sport are through their appearance and most of the time they are not judged on their performance, which is how people would judge male athletes. This is shown in 'This is a classic example of the fact that female athletes tend to gain media attention at least as far as photographs are concerned – for what they look like and not necessarily for their sporting achievements.' (Bernstein, 2002). This can then lead to problems throughout women sport meaning people that excel in the sport but do not have the preferred body image may not be as successful because of the media's attention, only focusing on the appearance, this causes problems because girls watching sport at home don't have a lot of people to look up to as role models in sport compared to boys, because boys get to watch people succeed in sport based on their athletic skills and performance, whereas girls don't get the same image. Also, through the media's idea of focusing on the appearance of performers, it reinforces ideas about femininity, and about how women should or should not look which can effect peoples body image. Therefore, the stereotype that women should be "model-like-thin" does not always mean they are the best sporting figures, an example of this is Marion Jones and Amy Acuff, Marion was a muscular and strong character that declared she would win gold medals at the Olympics, through this she could be 'viewed as being unfeminine' and 'most definitely doesn't confirm with stereotypes of femininity' (Lamoureux, 2012). Compared to Amy Acuff, who was a thin part time model and was in the news coverage more than Marion because she did not mention wanting to win medals, but rather wanting to work on a sports-illustrated. This can also link in with the Bernstein quote above, because in the media they covered athletes appearance over their sporting achievements.  

Other factors of the portrayal of women in the sports media include stereotyping, this is a common occurrence when it comes to women's sport because not all women's sport is televised, meaning for young girls and girls watching at home if they don't see women playing these sports on TV, they may just think the sport is specifically for men which is not always the way. This therefore influences there choices when playing sport at school or at home because they may not want to play it because only boys play it or because they might get people making gestures to them because they playing a male-dominated sport. This is the case when it comes to a lot of sports such as football, rugby etc because they are male dominated,'It was difficult for myself growing up because there were a lot of boys playing and you did get bullied sometimes because you were the only girl playing' (Jill Scott,Sky Sports 2016) this shows even though there are women teams because they tend to require different body types compared to the norms of women, that they are stereotyped to be homosexual, a man and all these different names through playing a sport that they enjoy, and this could therefore put them off of playing it and decrease participation in these different sports for women.  

Homophobia in the Sport's Media -  

Another issue of gender in the sport media is homophobia, this is a big issue in sport because it is becoming more common for people in the community to come out as being gay, lesbian or bisexual. But, when it comes to openly gay players in sport, there are hardly any, and this is because of some of the things that go on behind the scenes of clubs and teams that could put people off of coming out. However, one of the big factors of sporting stars coming out as openly gay would not be the fans, the team but rather the media and how the media would react and portray them to millions of people, they would be scared of what people would think of them and how team-mates would react if they read or saw it on the news. One of the reasons players could be scared of how the media portrays them is because of what happened with Justin Fashnu. He was a famous football player in the 1970's and 1980's and had a successful first few seasons of football at Norwich which earnt him a spot at one of the top clubs in Europe at that time Nottingham Forrest for a record fee of one million pounds, which was a first for a black football player at that time. He failed to live up to the expectations and was sold off after he's first season there and his life went downhill from there playing for many different clubs, but towards to the end of his career he openly came out as being a gay footballer and this caused a huge footballing upset throughout the world and Fashnu 'became a target for the notorious English tabloid press' ( Lane, n.d). This and the constant homophobic abuse Fashnu received and the sexual assault of a 17 year old boy he was accused for, therefore lead to him committing suicide at the age of 37 and ending the life of the only gay professional footballer.

However, what the media fails to show is the amount of homophobic remarks can come from inside the changing room and this is another factor that influences the choices of players to not to come out. This can be shown in a number of sports but notably in the NFL, as a former player Esera Tualo told the truth in an article on homophobia in the changing rooms as he described it as 'homophobia peppered the banter' and that players used to call 'each other fags, fucking queers, fudge packers' (Moore, 2017) which shows the problems that they would have to overcome and changes to the locker room that would have to be put in place so these sort of remarks wouldn't occur upsetting players. Therefore, other forms of homophobic abuse the media fails to cover much is that of the fans, this is because just like racism homophobia can also be chanted and upset players.

What Has Happened? -  

Although there are still gender issues when it comes to sport media, things are vastly improving both with women's sports and getting the sporting recognition that they deserve and in terms of tackling homophobia throughout sport there are campaigns and things being done to allow people to be openly gay and still be an elite level sportsperson.

If we look at women's sports today compared to what it was 50 years, it has changed dramatically because of how hard women have strived in order to gain the ability in order to play and participate in sport and overcome stereotypes and discrimination. One of the main reasons for why this has happened is the women's success in the London 2012 Olympics 'It does feel like these Games are a really stepping stone for women’s sport, to really make a change which is desperately needed' (Wcsfmedia, 2013) and the success of people such as Jessica Ennis or Nicola Adams who are now sporting icons for girls and women.

In terms of homophobia people are supporting the cause through campaigns such as the Stonewalls Rainbow Lace's which is a visual intervention and gives a clear understanding that the person wearing the laces supports the LGBT community, with this campaign it has gained huge support from teams and leagues such as the Premier League of which the players wear the laces to show their support. As well as this the DCMS has also taken 'a zero-tolerance approach' (BBC Sport, 2017) in order to try and make an environment of which players can make a decision and be accepted and supported with the decision that they make.

Bibliography:  

Schmidt, H. (2016). 'Women's sport coverage remains largely marginalized.' Newspaper Research Journal, 37(3), pp.275-298.  

Maguire, J., Jarvie, G., Mansfield, L. and Bradley, J. (2002). 'Sport Worlds.' A Sociological Perspective. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.

McDonagh, E. and Pappano, L. (2008). 'Playing with The Boys: Why Separate is not Equal in Sports'. Oxford University, Oxford University Press.

Bernstein, A. (2002) 'Women in Sport Media: Time for a Victory Lap?' [online]. Available: http://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2002/women-in-sports-media-time-for-a-victory-lap/ [accessed on 26th May 2017].

Lamoureux, A. (2012) 'How the Media Portrays Female Athletes' [online]. Available: https://aimeelamoureux.wordpress.com/ [accessed on 26th May 2017].

Sky Sports, Trehan, D. (2016) 'Jill Scott thrilled to see growth of girls and women playing football in North East' [online]. Available: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10222143/jill-scott-thrilled-to-see-growth-of-girls-and-women-playing-football [accessed on 26th May 2017]

Lane, D. (n.d). 'The Life and Death of Justin Fashnu'. [online]. Available: http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/the-life-and-death-of-justin-fashanu/ [accessed on the 27th May 2017].

Moore, J. (2017). 'Cowardly NFL still shows anti-gay bias, two years after Michael Sam's draft.' [online]. The Guardian. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/26/nfl-draft-gay-players-michael-sam [accessed 27th May 2017].

Wcsfmedia, (2013). 'How has the role of women in sports changed over time?'. [online]. Available: https://wcsfmedia.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/how-has-the-role-of-women-in-sports-changed-over-time/  [accessed on the 27th May].

BBC Sport, (2017). 'Sports must do more to fight homophobia, says report'. [online]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/38942441 [accessed on the 27th May]

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