THE PORTRAYAL OF
FEMALE ATHLETES
IN ADVERTISING & MEDIA
By Alexandra Berard
Final Project:
GEND 350:Sex, Sport, and Society
Prof. Carolyn L. Fortuna
BENEFITS OF TITLE IX
• “The influx of girls and women into sports following
the passage of Title IX Legislation in 1972 was the
key antecedent to the eventual development and
recognition of a women’s market in sports and
fitness.”
Source: Lucas
BUSINESS
• Title IX legislation not only changed the playing field, it
change the market place.
EXPLOITING THE
FEMALE ATHLETE
• Dr. Murray Phillips, author and authority on media coverage and
women's sports says “sexploitation” is harmful.
• “It excludes many female athletes who do not fit into the
appropriate body types,
• It glorifies certain female shapes and sends messages about what
is appropriate and inappropriate for aspiring female athletes.
• These images fit neatly into stereotypes that have historically
prevented women's sport from being accepted on par with men's
sport.”
Source: Australian Sports Commission
WHY ATHLETES ACCEPT
BEING EXPLOITED
• “As long as their ambiguity persists, the oppressed are
reluctant to resist, and totally lack confidence in
themselves” (p. 50).
• “All the actions of the dominant class manifest its needs
to divide in order to facilitate the preservation of the
oppressor state” (p. 140).
• Because the consumer/fan does not consider women’s sports equal
with men’s sports, female athletes have to accept the media’s
sexualization to emphasize their femininity and gain publicity and
money. Anna Kournikova is a perfect example of this.
Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed notes
Liang, E.
ANNA KOURNIKOVA HAS NEVER WON A MAJOR TOURNAMENT’
BUT SHE HAS BECOME THE WORLD’S MOST HIGHLY PAID
WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYER THROUGH ENDORSEMENTS THAT
EMPHASIZE HER SEX APPEAL OVER HER ATHLETICISM.
ARE WOMEN EXPLOITING THEMSELVES FOR
FINANCIAL GAIN OR ARE THEY BEING EXPLOITED
BY OTHERS FOR FINANCIAL GAIN?
• “ It is not always easy to ‘distinguish the difference
between women’s capital accumulating strategies
and the use of women by others as bearers of capital
value.”
Source: Bourdieu, Feminism and Female Physical Culture: Gender Reflexitivity
and the Habitus-Field Complex
EXPLOITATION CAUSES
PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
• “Advertisers manipulate reality in the service of selling their
products.”
• Even though we know images are retouched and celebrities
have cosmetic work done, the constant bombardment of
these images affect our perspective and self esteem.
• “It is the created image that has the hold on our most
vibrant, immediate sense of what is, of what matters, of
what we must pursue for ourselves.”
Source: Bordo, Hunger As Ideology
IMAGES SELL
• The media regularly delves into the personal lives of female athletes,
and minimizes their accomplishments and skill. There is too much
focus on how they look and not enough credit for their ability.
EXPLOITATION CAUSES
PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
• “In constructing images, of course, continual use is made of knowledge
of consumers’ lives. Indeed, a careful reading of contemporary
advertisements reveals continual and astute manipulation of problems
that psychology and popular media have targeted as characteristic
dilemmas of the “contemporary women,” who is beset by conflicting role
demands and pressures on her time.”
• Advertisers have mastered the skill of using buzz words such as:
Control, Mastery and Empowerment.
• When directed at the male consumer it is control, mastery and power
over others.
•
When directed to a female audience it is control, and mastery and
empowerment of your self. Do you measure up?
Source: Bordo, Hunger As Ideology
• WHEN COVERING WOMEN’S SPORTS, THE MEDIA
REGULARLY PORTRAYS FEMALE ATHLETES AS SEX
OBJECTS.
THIS TYPE OF ADVERTISEMENT REINFORCES THAT
BEAUTY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ABILITY.
•
http://youtu.be/au17YpGAa-s
“STUDIES HAVE REVEALED THAT NEWSPAPER AND TV COVERAGE
AROUND THE GLOBE ROUTINELY AND SYSTEMATICALLY FOCUSES
ON THE ATHLETIC EXPLOITS OF MALE ATHLETES WHILE OFFERING
HYPERSEXUALIZED IMAGES OF THEIR FEMALE COUNTERPARTS.”
Source: The Nation
FACE BOOK -SURVEY RESULTS
• 30 responses,
1.) How do you perceive Roger Federer on the cover of Australian Tennis?
A.) Athletic (20) B.) Hyper sexualized (0) C.) Tennis Superstar (9) D.) None of the
above (1) E.) All of the above (0)
2.) How do you perceive Caroline Wozniacki on the cover of Australian Tennis?
A.) Athletic (4) B.) Hyper sexualized (16 ) C.) Tennis Superstar (4) D.) None of the
above (2) E.) All of the above (4)
3.) Do you feel athletes are overly sexualized in the media?
A.) Just male athletes (1) B.) Just female athletes (13) C.) Both (11) D.) Neither (5)
WHY ARE FEMALE ATHLETES CONSTANTLY
DEPICTED AS SEX OBJECTS?
PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE BOYS ARE CONDITIONED IN THE ART OF MASCULINITY
FROM BIRTH. THE RESULTS SUPPORT A DOMINANT PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY.
•
“Masculinity is as much about proving
what one is not—namely female and
homosexual. Thus in the contradictory and
unforgiving world of adolescent
masculinity, one must sanction all that is
“appropriately” male while simultaneously
ridiculing all that is not.”
•
“Examination of the crucial role that sports
play in boys’ lives and American society
offers a meaningful context, for sports
•
functioned as a prominent rite of passage
and means of acceptance for the boys
who clearly sanctioned the collective
American belief that athletic ability is a
prerequisite for “manhood” and sports the
natural training ground for the “traditional”
male role.”
Source: The Making of Masculinity
•
“our very ways of knowing or being in
the world, so natural to us that we
generally fail to see their constructed
nature or influence in our lives. Because
we rarely recognize this influence, we
become gendered through language as
our positioning within these dominant
discourses actively shapes and
influences our notions of what it means
to be “male” and what it means to be
“female” in the social context.”
According to The Harvard Law
Review “media exploits women
because the American public still has
not yet become comfortable with the
ways in which female athletes
challenge traditional notions of
femininity and masculinity.”
NIKE & ESPN
HAVE TEEMED UP TO CHANGE
ATTITUDES
• “Framing of female athletes as sex objects or as sexual deviants
is no longer a tenable strategy if the media are to maintain their
own legitimacy.”
Source: Messner
WOMEN WANT ATHLETES TO LOOK LIKE
ATHLETES, NOT SEX SYMBOLS
•
“University of Minnesota Professor,
Mary Joe Kane, PhD, is one of the
nation's most outspoken critics of the
sexualized imaging of women
athletes.
•
She has joined an advisory panel that
will guide the ESPN on its future
coverage of women's sports and
women athletes.
•
ESPN launched a new business
and digital platform called espnW.”
•
“Nine for IX” documentary on why
women athletes should be treated
equal to their mail counter parts.
•
http://youtu.be/oAzVJ7KJefU
Source: MinnPost
.”
NIKE:
HELPING TO CHANGE LIVES
•
Nike knows “Girls are a smart
investment to accelerate change. This
isn’t a social issue; it’s smart
economics.”
•
Nike has generated a series of
commercial to empower the female
athlete
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ighx
U1vYw&feature=share&list=PLE1DF982
CBAEF3000
•
“Girls can play a crucial role in solving
the most persistent development
problems we face in the world today.”
Source: nikeinc.com
•
Perhaps the The Nike Foundation “The
Girl Effect” is one of their reasons for
the commercial campaign to empower
the female athlete.
•
The girl effect is about leveraging the
unique potential of adolescent girls to
end poverty for themselves, their
families, their communities, their
countries and the
world...http://www.girleffect.org/
UNFORTUNATELY
THERE ISN’T ANY LEGISLATION TO REGULATE
EQUALITY IN ADVERTISING
• Do you think media advertisement should be regulated
around women?
REFERENCES
•
Australian Sports Commission.
•
http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/women/resources/issues/media
•
•
Bordo, Susan. Hunger as Ideology
•
•
Heinrich, Jill. The Making of Masculinities: Fighting the Forces of Hierarchy and Hegemony in the High School Setting.
•
•
Liang, E. (2011). "The Media's Sexualization of Female Athletes: A Bad Call for the Modern Game." Student Pulse, 3(10). Retrieved
from http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=587
•
•
Lucas, Shelly. “Nike’s Commercial Solution: Girls, Sneakers, and Salvation.” http://irs.sagepub.com/content/35/2/149.abstract
•
•
Messner, Michael A., Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain, (pg. 205)
http://journals.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/9489.pdf
•
•
MinnPost. “Media critic and women's sports advocate Mary Jo Kane is about to step into the belly of the ESPN beast”
•
http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2010/07/media-critic-and-womens-sports-advocate-mary-jo-kane-about-step-belly-espn-b
•
•
The Nation. “Sex Sells, Not Women Sports.” http://www.thenation.com/article/162390/sex-sells-sex-not-womens-sports#
•
•
Pedagogy of the Oppressed notes