I was in a waiting room over the past weekend when I decided to pick up a magazine to pass the time until my appointment. Being the avid sports fan I am, I chose to pick up a copy of “ESPN The Magazine”. It immediately stood out to me how bizarre the front cover of the magazine was. On the cover, there was an image of Danica Patrick wearing a low-cut black jump suit and giving off a very sensual look. Under the image of Patrick, the phrase “HOT x cool issue” was written, emphasis on the word “hot”. I then glanced over at the issue of “Sports Illustrated” that was on the table next me. On its front cover, world-class striker Lionel Messi is intensely focused on dribbling through a pack of defenders. He simply wears his Barcelona jersey and looks as if he is literally in the heat of the game.
I point out the difference in the two magazines to simply show just how opposite these two sport publications chose to market the male athlete versus the female athlete. This is not something that just started yesterday, and unfortunately a lot of the time with women’s athletics, it fails to ultimately be about the completive contest. Instead, the national media has taken the approach of using sex appeal as the cornerstone of the marketing plan to only spark interest. It seems all you have to do is pick up a newspaper or magazine to find the evidence.
When is the last time you turned on the nine o’clock Sportscenter and saw the show lead off with highlights on any women’s athletic events? If it is lucky, the U.S. women’s soccer team may get the lead-off spot if it wins in dramatic fashion, but it either has to be at the World Cup or Olympics to get that kind of attention. It’s not just in print media that women’s sports get pushed to the backburner. ESPN refers to themselves as “the worldwide leader in sports” but rarely, if ever, will you see them broadcast much of any women’s professional sports league action. How are young girls in this country supposed to watch their potential sports heroines when none of the major TV networks find it worth their time to show the games?
When Title XI was put into effect back in 1972, it truly laid a foundation for women and girls to be able to participate in sports. However, just like in 1972, there is still a hefty opposition to the advancement of women’s sports in the U.S. The only difference between now and then is that back in 1972, it was the national public that fought back against the initiative. Now it is just the national media and networks that hold the keys to future progress.
A great place to start would be for the emphasis to be placed on promoting female athletes based on their skill rather than their looks. Female athletes work just as hard as their male counterparts, and to degrade them and not take them as seriously is simply not fair. Is the reason Patrick seems to find herself on the cover of sports magazines more than any other female athlete because she’s a very good race car driver or because of her attractive features? Patrick has never won an actual NASCAR race since her arrival into the sport and finds herself most days finishing in the middle of the pack. Consider this when other up-and-coming female athletes such as Elena Delle Donne and Alex Morgan get little to no exposure to the public. A greater effort must be made to highlight the stars in female sports, instead of just the most attractive athletes.
Lastly, the commentators that describe the matches on TV need to focus more on the skill and strategy, rather than the physical appearances of the athletes. How is the American public supposed to take the game seriously when those calling the game don’t want to discuss anything other than what isn’t important to the match being played? Maybe the greatest example of this goes back to when the U.S. defeated China to win the women’s World Cup. All of the talk after the game focused on Brandi Chastain’s act of taking her shirt off after scoring the winning penalty kick rather than on the goal itself. That might just have been the greatest moment in American female sporting history, and because of her taking off her jersey, we couldn’t focus on the goal even though men do this all the time when they score in soccer.
Overall, I believe female athletes deserve a lot more respect than they currently get. National magazines, networks and all the rest need to promote more matches and market them responsibly in order for women’s sports to grow in this country. That way, next time I’m in a waiting room, maybe I can read about the next female superstar being profiled, and not the top-20 hottest female athlete countdown.
