Model athletes – The representation of women’s sport in the media
Story and cover by Bryn Turner.
This story is part of the March 2022 issue of The daily universe magazine.
Imagine a basketball player.
What do they look like? Are they big, muscular or fast? Imagine the athlete’s photo in a magazine. Do they dunk the winning shot? Maybe they’re posing facing you, arms crossed, with an intimidating smile on their face. Either way, it feels like a basketball player is a force to be reckoned with.
Is the basketball player a man?
Now imagine a female basketball player. How is it placed? What kinds of words describe it? Can you tell she’s an athlete from the photos in the magazine? Is the story about his game-high free throws or about staying in shape? Can you imagine an article about a female basketball player?
Although these questions may seem trivial, these images in your head mean more than you think.
Women of all ages are exercising more than ever, according to a report by Purdue University. However, women’s sports benefit from as much air time today as in the 1980s. Men’s sports have always been broadcast more than women’s sports since sports transmission was possible. From 1989 to 2019, television coverage of women’s athletics increased by 0.5%, with only 5.4% of women’s athletics represented in all airtime.
During the pandemic, interest in women’s athletics has increased exponentially: the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Women’s World Cup have been among the most popular groups to benefit from an increased audience, according to Deloitte Insights. Social media accounts for female athletes and female teams have sparked growing interest not only in what women can do athletically, but also in who they are as people.
Jennifer Rockwood, the head coach of the BYU women’s soccer team, wants her athletes to get the recognition they deserve on and off the field: “Because they are incredible, incredible young women. Not just on the field, where they play their sport at the highest level… We want to see our athletes who accomplish these things get the recognition they deserve. Any type of recognition they get is… recognition for all of us.
Even though media coverage is meager, major media platforms that cover women’s athletics often tend to portray female athletes through the lens of traditional feminine values, such as motherhood, beauty, grace and aesthetics.
A 2018 study in Body Image (2019), discovered female Olympic athletes featured in Sports Illustrated problems are most often posed in a manner unrelated to their sport (i.e. posed facing the camera, smiling, tight clothing). In contrast, the magazine features primarily male athletes in action in their sport or training, showcasing their endurance and strength. Other international research found that female athletes were often photographed in “passive” poses, compared to the “active” poses of male athletes.
Tegan Graham, a graduate student on the BYU women’s basketball team, dedicated her master’s thesis to researching gender equality in sports. As a consumer of sports media and often in the spotlight herself, she denies the notion that tight clothing and provocative poses are the key to greater media representation.
“There’s this myth in the sports media world – in media in general – that sex sells women’s sports,” Graham said. “And gender doesn’t sell women’s sports. Sex sells sex.
A review of sports images found that “the overt sexualization of athletes has implications for public perceptions that carry over to broader perceptions of the value of women’s sport.”
Graham, as an athlete and advocate for equity in women’s sports, insists that women’s athletics has value even without objectified marketing. “I think when big companies tell a female athlete that this is how she will get attention, brands and money, they are lying to them, right? Because the sexualization of female athletes does not promote their athleticism, it does not promote their talents and skills.
Look at this Analysis 2019 of 1,587 Instagram images from major media accounts from NBC, ESPN, FOX Sports and CBS Sports. The researchers found that among the extremely low percentage of female athletes covered, almost half appear in a passive state and off their playing field. Male athletes, however, were featured in athletic positions in 80% of their photos.
Graham argues that the lack of debate about gender equality in media representation is because women’s sports are too often swept under the rug.
“There’s such a small percentage of coverage in general that I think the conversation around (the objectification of female athletes) gets less attention because there’s (already) less attention if it has to. sense. I think the main key point about promoting women’s sports and women athletes is that there’s not enough of it,” Graham said.
The same study of Olympic athletes found that the amount of muscularity depicted in stories surrounding Olympic athletes increased over time. This level of muscularity is not achievable for most people. Due to the well-known correlation between unrealistic body standards in the media and the unhealthy enhancement of performance that results, this type of constant athletic portrayal is potentially harmful to consumers.
“Female body image and women’s sports is a very complex subject, mainly because you have to sort of balance that fine line of showcasing someone’s athleticism without trying to look that they are the standard for what it should be,” said BYU graduate Macenzi McGuire.
This year, McGuire joined a media startup as its ninth employee of nine. The other eight colleagues? World-class female athletes including Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Sue Bird and Simone Manuel. Founded women TOGETHERHXR as a media company whose mission is to bring a culture of proper representation to all groups of people, especially in women’s athletics.
In the brand’s own words found on TOGETHERHXRthe website of:
“TOGETHXR is the place where culture, activism, lifestyle and sports converge. We break through the often narrow portrayals of women in media with content featuring a diverse and inclusive community of game changers, culture creators, thought leaders and barrier breakers.
For McGuire, as a sports content producer, the job of representation is to show the dedication, hard work and mental toughness required for a female athlete to succeed.
“You don’t get someone in an interview to talk about, I don’t know, why their belly looks bigger in one photo than another,” McGuire said. “You want to know what their actual base strength is… You want to know what kind of exercises a person is doing to get that fast… You don’t want the focus to be on the fact that they have naturally these “runners”. legs’ or something like that.
BYU Associate Athletic Director for Communications and Media Strategy Jon McBride says the sports communications department strives to give men’s and women’s sports the same amount and quality of coverage.
“For us in sports communications, what we’re trying to do is make sure we provide the same amount of communications resources and talented staff to be able to effectively cover women’s sports here,” McBride said.
Rockwood explained that the importance of empowering representation of its football players has the power to inspire future generations.
“Again, it comes down to inspiring young athletes who may one day want to become a Mikayla Colohan or an Ashley Hatch,” Rockwood said. “I guarantee Ashley had posters of BYU football players in his room before he came to BYU.”
For women of any age, seeing athletes who look like them in the media can be what pushes them to achieve incredible athletic feats. Seeing images and hearing media comments that show respect for the strength and courage of female athletes could inspire little girls to become record-setting athletes. Maybe when this little girl learns about women who are brave, fast and capable, she will imagine a basketball player.
