You play like a girl: The media’s portrayal of female athletes
Kaitlyn Wood
BCSC 326
Fall 2017
MacEwan University
Abstract
This term’s research paper will investigate the topic of female sports covered in the media. The paper will be written through a feminist lens and will evaluate how the modern mass media neglects female sports when reporting, advertising and streaming. Male sports dominate the sporting landscape in the media as they generate the largest crowds and subsequently bring in the most profits. For female sports and athletes to grow and flourish, the media must take notice and give females the coverage they truly deserve. My research question is, “Why is the media coverage for female sports not equal to that of male sports? Why are female sports pushed to the back burner and disregarded by all levels of society?” Beyond looking at the lack of media coverage given to female athletes, I will dive in and take a deeper look at the psychological motivations on why society does not value female sports, and consequently, why this translates into the media not feeling a need to cover female sports just as much as male sports. I will be using scholarly sources, online articles, and television media to gather both primary and secondary research. I will be doing a content analysis of online sports articles and gathering secondary research from the scholarly articles. I hope to uncover some valid reasons why female hockey may be neglected in the media.
After an extensive literature review of sports articles covering female athletes and sports, it is clear that females are under-reported and miss-reported in sports journalism. Like many controversial issues debated today, gender equality is hot on the front burner. Compared to 20 and 30 years ago, women’s rights have improved substantially—elite jobs are now held by more women, universities are female-dominated and sports are slowly becoming populated with women of all ages. One would assume that mass media, being so up-to-date with the latest trends and popular culture, would know how to accurately represent a subject. Here lies the problem that will be examined in this paper. The limited media coverage that is devoted to female sports portrays female athletes through the ideals of “femininity” and disregards the players’ athletic abilities to focus on appearance and other non-athletic topics. With the rising number of talented and successful female athletes, it would be reasonable to assume that the media would want to cover these stories in greater amounts and quality. So why is there this stark contrast? Three critical notions will be examined further to try and answer this question. Media coverage is less for female sports than male sports even though this area in popular culture is expanding. Secondly, the coverage focuses more on appearances and family-related topics when discussing the female athletes. And lastly, the media’s portrayal of male athletes influences adolescents to want to grow up and be famous like their heroes. The media’s portrayal of female athletes paints a different picture—either women are butch or their athletic abilities are minimalized. Rarely is there a strong, talented female athlete that isn’t stereotyped to be butch or to have “male qualities.” Why are females unable be their own type of athletic and strong—totally separate from male athletes who are built differently? Why should it be such a negative thing to “play like a girl”?
Using content analysis, a variety of online sports journals such as ESPN, TSN, and the Golf Digest will be critically evaluated for the language use, tone and the overall theme presented. These sites were selected as they differ in publication location—TSN is Canadian, whereas ESPN and the Golf Digest are American. This sample will be more representative of how female athletes are portrayed and reported on throughout North America. Four articles were chosen randomly from each site that report on female athletes or female sports. Several categories have been developed after an initial evaluation of all the relevant sources being used as research. These descriptive categories include: “gender identification”, “female gender stereotypes”, “appearance”, “objective reporting”, “family and motherhood”, “inferiority or incapability”, “clothing”, and an “other” category. These categories are defined below, and the results follow. It is imperative to define these terms as rhetoric, and the language we use, is subject to multiple interpretations. How a 35-year-old Caucasian male defines “female gender stereotypes”, may differ greatly from how a 60-year-old African American woman defines the term. This critical intervention will break down a diffuse text and examine the meanings reporters and commentators inject into the articles covering female sports, and will shed a light on the miss-representation. Whether this is done intentionally or not, it is crucial to investigate this problem so changes and improvements can be made in the future of sports journalism.
Gender identification
Any unit of analysis that uses a gender specific term to
precede the name of the sport. “Women’s hockey”, “Female
tennis” etc.
Female gender stereotypes
Any unit of analysis that uses female gender stereotypes to
describe the sport or the athlete. These may include words
such as graceful, flawless, weak, or may discuss the athletes
feelings in detail, which can be perceived as a feminine
quality.
Appearance
Any unit of analysis that describes what the athlete looks
like. This can include their physicality, attractiveness, or
their overall look including their hairstyle and makeup use.
Objective reporting
Any unit of analysis that discusses the athlete participating
in sport, with an objective, unbiased tone. This is reporting
on the sport and the athlete and is free of any stereotypes.
It focuses on the factual statistics of the sports that were
played.
Family and motherhood
Any unit of analysis that discusses family members or the
athlete’s role as a mother. Any reference to domestic, family,
motherhood, or household roles.
Inferiority or incapability
Any unit of analysis that suggests the athlete may be inferior
to men, incapable of success, or intimidated by the pressures of
of the sport itself. This can also include instances where an
athlete is described by a weakness.
Clothing
Any unit of analysis that mentions what the athlete is
wearing.
Other
Any unit of analysis that does not fall into the above
categories. This may include introductory statements that
do not discuss the topic, the sport, or the athlete.
After choosing twelve sports articles at random and coding each sentence, the following results were obtained.
Category
Number of Units
Percentage
1
Gender identification
30
8%
2
Female gender stereotypes
51
12%
3
Appearance
27
6%
4
Objective reporting
145
35%
5
Family and motherhood
30
8%
6
Inferiority or incapability
65
16%
7
Clothing
25
7%
8
Other
32
8%
Total = 405 units
Total = 100%
These results indicate that rather than reporting objectively, the journalists have inserted biases, stereotypes, and sexist language into the articles covering female athletes. Another major finding from this research was the difficulty in finding relevant articles to use as research. Scrolling through the home pages of TSN, ESPN, and the Golf Digest led only to news articles featuring male athletes. A hard search through the archives was the only place where stories on female athletes appeared. Not only are females miss-reported, but they are also vastly under-reported on. According to USN News, females are nearly extinct on sports television.
In 2014, LA-based network affiliates devoted only 3.2 percent of airtime to women’s sports, down from 5 percent in 1989. SportsCenter devoted a scant 2 percent of airtime to women’s sports, a number that has remained flat since the study began tracking the nightly cable broadcast in 1999. When women’s sports are covered at all, 81.6 percent of coverage is focused on basketball (para. 3).
The injustices do not end there though. Some of the articles used outrageous language to describe the athletes, avoiding all commentary surrounding their athletic abilities, and instead focusing on their appearance or comparing them to men. “Golf historians label 2015 as the year of Jordan Spieth, but when it comes to social media influence, Paige Spiranac has been this season's major force. After graduating from San Diego State in the spring, Spiranac became an Instagram sensation” (Myers, 2015, para. 1). Instead of focusing solely on Paige, this reporter compares her to Jordan Spieth, even before any mention of Paige’s name. Another example of degrading language was found in a Golf Digest article that discussed player attire. It is no secret that a large part of golf etiquette is apparel. However, this article takes it one step further to degrade females and prescribe to them what to wear and what to avoid.
Part of us wants to say go for it, but these are a bit too tight to wear on the golf course unless you're driving a beverage cart and looking for tips. To be fair to the young lady in the first photo, it appears she's wearing this outfit to the driving range. We'll allow that (Myers, 2015, para. 2).
The power position the male writer has placed himself in becomes apparent in the last line where he remarks, “We’ll allow that.” When the athletic landscape is progressing at such a rapid pace, why is it that the media is still lagging? The media has a goal of making a profit and they will cover what they believe will gain the most readership. People love to see a male athlete succeed because they have been primed from a young age to admire these heroes.
The adolescent desires that might be represented in the professional athlete fantasy may include the power that comes with "big money" and the respect and renown embedded in "a lot of fame." Although adolescents admire athletic abilities, they may more greatly admire the rewards those abilities provide the athletes: money, enhancement of status, adoration, independence, and the admiration of women (Stiles, Gibbons, Sebben, & Wiley, 1999, p. 1084).
The media recognizes this phenomenon and focuses on the male sports and athletes that are likely to gain attention from large crowds. But what if the media flipped a switch and began featuring female athletes more? Female sports are continuing to grow, and with the help of fair and equal media coverage, they just might get the fame, recognition, and admiration that their male counterparts experience. Maybe it shouldn’t be such a bad thing to play like a girl.