User:Dolly/Major Assignment 5

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Kristen Beechinor “Female Athletes in the Media.”

It’s no new revelation that in today’s society women in sports is looked at as an “unnatural” occurrence, maybe in a few instances that could be wrong, but there has always been a cloud of mixed feelings, masculine femininity, and exclusion hanging around the idea of women in sports, although often in certain sports more than others. Billy Jean King played for women in the 70s to prove that women could pursue a life in something other than family, but even with the strides of famous women athletes, society has still an unsettling idea that women have no place in sports (Schwartz). We have come a far way since the days of suffrage, but not far enough. As a female hockey player, I’ve dealt with my share of lesbian-esque remarks like “butch, dyke, manly,” etc. Today, professional female athletes are facing the same problems, only in different ways, often they are made out to be sexual goddesses, objects of desire, appealing, not because of their ability to play their sport, but because of their feminine personalities, hahem, and bodies. As the presence of working women grows higher every year, the positions of professional sports athletes in the media grows with them, and through a pattern seen in sports media coverage, a woman’s femininity often becomes the subject of conversation as opposed to the game they play so well, which begs the question, How does the gender of an athlete affect the media coverage and the way they are portrayed on television?

To answer this question, or at least find some way to demonstrate and compare, I found two texts which fit quite easily into the sports media frame, and not to brag, but both have many constant qualities, which makes it that much easier to rule out other variables. The first text is an interview found on www.youtube.com by a sports reporter named Jim Courier, interviewing tennis superstar Maria Sharapova after a win in the Australian open in 2007. The second text I found was another interview done by the same reporter, Jim Courier, of another tennis superstar, Andy Roddick after the Australian open of that same year. Exciting huh? By examining the differences in these two texts, we can see the role that gender plays on the media, symbolized by the questions asked and attitudes given by reporter Jim Courier, and how what we see functions in society’s perception of female athletes today.

The first text to be examined is the interview with both males, Jim Courier, the reporter, and Andy Roddick. The interview starts off with good journalistic questions about Roddick’s game, focused completely on the game Roddick just played. Roddick continues to joke around about the game. Jim Courier continues on to talk about Roddick’s next game, and jokes around about how his next opponent is someone who used to live with Roddick. The joking tone is often seen in interviews, but one will notice that although they both are joking around, Jim controls the interview, and does not veer far from the main idea of tennis. Towards the end the joking continues and Roddick makes comments about what Jim is wearing, and how he is doing well with the interview, but these comments were made by Roddick, not by the interviewer himself. Towards the end of this interview the power shifts from Courier to Roddick, and Roddick begins to own the interview and its subject.

The second text to examine is the interview with the same interviewer, Jim Courier, only with a woman star, Maria Sharapova, instead of a male star. The first interesting thing to note about this coverage of the interview, is that before even cutting to the interview, the announcers of the media broadcast directly quote Maria Sharapova saying, “Look, I haven’t been interviewed by Jim Courier it’s time he came down and did some work with us girls.” (You tube Interview). This is the first red flag in the difference between male and female athletes and how they are interviewed. It is a fairly basic assumption that some reporters may favor interviewing male’s more than female’s, but mostly because often the rules in different gendered sports are different. In a sport like tennis, the rules are the same, which demonstrates that the fact that this reporter hasn’t interviewed any of the girls in the Australian open is an example of how gender affects media coverage of a sport.

Moving further into the clip, Maria and Jim start talking, and already there are differences in both the way Courier vocalizes his questions, and his body language towards Maria. In Roddick’s interview, he immediately begins the interview by offering a compliment to Roddick, and in Maria’s interview Courier begins by saying, “It was a tough match, you came out strong but she put on a good fight,” something that would normally be said to the loser of a match, but in this case Maria had won. The body language is also important here, Courier standing a little farther away than he did in the Roddick interview, and lowering his head when listening to Maria’s answer, much like someone would when talking to a child. After Maria responds to Couriers first question, he immediately cracks a joke at her. In this case the interviewer, not the interviewee cracks a joke in response, unlike in Roddick’s interview where Roddick himself began the joking. This demonstrates in Courier a sense of authority, that he is not worried about offending Maria, almost as if he is not taking the interview seriously, perhaps because he doesn’t usually do interviews with women.

The next part of the clip is another strong example of the differences between the interview with a male athlete and woman athlete. After only one real question about tennis, Courier immediately shifts subject and asks Maria about where she spent her vacation weeks this year. By veering away from the subject of tennis, Courier not only portrays someone who isn’t interested in the match that was just won, but also is passively patronizing Maria by assuming that something like vacation spots is something that she would rather talk about, or that it is equally as important to her as winning a match at the Australian Open. Maria seems caught off guard, and gives short two or one word answers such as, “Costa Rica, It was great, I don’t think so.” This shows how Maria had to quickly shift the subject in response to Couriers off topic, personal conversation that had nothing to do with tennis. Not only does Courier continue to pry about her vacation, but he moves on to the subject of fashion tips. After one question about tennis, and a second about vacation, he asks a question about fashion after Maria Sharapova just won a match at the Australian Open. Courier never himself steered the conversation away from tennis when he was interviewing Andy Roddick, Roddick opened the door to the joking conversation about Couriers fashion, but in Sharapova’s interview, not only was only one question devoted to the actual game she just played, but Courier asks questions about fashion and vacationing. This is a blatant difference in media portrayal, not just in the way it makes Maria look cold and short worded, but in the way that Courier assumes the position of control, bringing up outrageous feminine topics almost to suggest Maria would care more about these things than her tennis game.

Courier then continues to talk about men’s tennis fashion and asks about Maria’s opinion of the length of men’s shorts in the sport. At this point it almost seems like Courier is mocking Maria and it is blatantly obvious that she seems uncomfortable and is trying to stay composed while still answering these seemingly stupid questions. Then, Courier goes even further in saying, “I know you don’t like to talk about your personal life so of course, we will,” and continues on to ask Sharapova what she looks for in a guy. Maria immediately snaps back and says, “Are you kidding me? Well he doesn’t have red hair…” pointing to Couriers hair color, and her facial expression after the question is of shock as she continues on to make a broad statement about how she’s not going to say too much about it. The interview starts off minutely stereotyping women athletes and continues to just become a flamboyant disgraceful joke of an interview. Although in the end of the interview Courier switches back to a tennis question about Sharapova’s next match, the focus of the interview, unlike the interview of Roddick, was on her personal life. Is this really what the sports media world wants to know about a famous tennis player who just won a match in the Australian Open? Is this what we have striven so far to accomplish? Out of all the questions Courier could have asked Sharapova about her game winning performance, why are these questions the focus of his interview, and why did the media choose to air it?

These questions are important in the analysis of how media portrays women in athletics, and not only female athletes, but female reporters, anchors, coaches and even referees. How do these impressions translate into today’s society? Many studies have been done and articles published about the advancement of women in sports, and needless to say, there have been strides but the feminine stereotype still exists. In athletics, you’re either a butch or a babe, with no in between. In the sports media journalism world, female reporters are constantly being called sluts and whores, why? Not because they did something promiscuous or racy, but because they are women in the sports world. These impressions of discrimination of women in the sports world are present, even in the undertones of broadcasting and media all over the world today.

The discrimination against women in media portrayal doesn’t only translate to the suggestive attitudes of the media, but also in the quantity of effort and time allotted to each story. For example, in a study done of column space allotted to men and women athletes in between the 1950s and 1980s in Sports Illustrated, it was found that media allots far fewer column space and pictures to stories featuring female athletes as opposed to males (Knight). It is an issue seen in every media of sports coverage, and although women have been making sufficient strides in the sports world, many media portrayals of female athletes still remain unfair and undignified. Over the years society has been increasingly accepting of women in sports, but still the media is portraying female athletes in ways based on sexuality and looks as opposed to skill. This has been noted in many studies done through the years. Today, the media needs to make sufficient changes in the way they portray and speak to and about women in the coverage of females in sports. Quoted by Messner, George Gilner of the Regan administration state, “The woman athlete reduces the game from a religious male rite to a mere physical exercise” (Messner). As women continue to make strides not only as professional athletes but also as sports journalists, hopefully women will begin to be seen as role models for strong teenage girls for their skill and perseverance, and not for their ability to look good in a swimsuit.

Works Cited Knight, Jackie. (2001) “He’s a Laker She’s a Looker: The Consequences of Gender-

Stereotypical Portrayals of Male and Female Athletes in Print Media.” Sex Roles: A 

Journal Of Research. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_2001_August/ai_82782447

Messner, Michael. “Power at Play: Sport and Gender Relations.” Signs of Life in the USA Readings on Popular Culture for Writers.

Schwartz, Larry. “Billy Jean Won for All Women.” ESPN.com http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016060.html

Youtube.com. “Maria Sharapova Interview with Jim Courier” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywUsIgon7YU

Youtube.com. “Andy Roddick After Match Interview” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReKhkdzgZ7I