The "Position" Women Play in Sports Media

When you think of the word position and sports you probably think about a pitcher, goalkeeper, or a quarterback. Many women and men play other positions off the field as well but particularly women athletes that are attractive play a different position than ones that are classified as "less attractive" by whoever classifies them. Let's take Alex Morgan, for example, she is a phenomenal soccer player who plays for the US women's national team. You probably have seen her face on many promotional ads as well as other brands outside of soccer brands not because she is the best female soccer player some might argue there are better ones but because she is "the most attractive". Most companies running ads targeted toward people who are fans of sports pick the most attractive women to be on their ads because they know men like to look at attractive women so then it makes them more likely to buy the product they are advertising. This happens with women athletes across all women's sports. More recently sports illustrated has put the "chubbier" athletes into their body issue to promote body positivity and I think is fantastic and all ads should include women with all body types. This is especially important for women athletes who are in ads that younger women see because no one should be ashamed of their body and only seeing attractive and fit women is not beneficial to young women.

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Women and The Super Bowl

When you hear the words Super Bowl the first things to come to mind are football, beer, food, and commercials. Usually, this combination makes you think of men hanging out in a bar or man cave. It also makes you think about men running around a field throwing and kicking a football. One thing you don't think of much while watching football is women. As much as men are related to the sport of football and the Super Bowl, women still watch it and this year for the first time in history a woman was a part of the San Francisco 49s coaching staff. Think about it: when you're watching the Super Bowl, when do you see women? Definitely not on the field. During the broadcast, the only women you see are the wives and girlfriends of the players/coaches/owners (sometimes condescendingly clumped together as WAGs), the cheerleaders, and sideline reporters. What do all the women who even make it onto the broadcast have in common? They are (almost) all very attractive. In the ...

Women:Athletes and equal pay

There are many women athletes out there but there are not as many women pro teams as men. Women also do not get paid as much as men do to play sports. This is a major topic in women's sports right now especially with the women's national soccer team. When it has come to women's rights in the sports world it has always been a hot topic. I first remember hearing about women not getting as many scholarships or not as much scholarship money as the male college athletes. Now there are rules in place that for every male athlete scholarship there is a women's one as well. Which I believe is important because women deserve the same things men do. So back to the US women's soccer team, they have been fighting for equal pay and it looks as if they are finally going to get it (yay!). I love what this is doing for women's sports because the players in the Women's national basketball association are also fighting for higher pay. Its the part where the word fighting comes...

Women and MLB

Last week I wrote about Katie Sowers who is the first women coach in the NFL. Well making headlines this week is Rachel Balkovec, who is the first female hitting coach to be a part of the MLB. Now let's talk a little about stereotypes that come with women and baseball. When you think about women and baseball most people automatically think oh they have their own sport softball. Most people think that because from a young age children are told boys play baseball and girls play softball. This has changed more recently with girls playing in the little league world series. It has always been ok for men to play softball, especially slow pitch softball or recreation league softball. But otherwise, men always coached and played baseball and men and women coached and played softball. But the main point here is that men can play and coach both baseball and softball and women can only play and coach softball and not baseball. Well, things are changing for the better. When watching...

Women: Sports Media

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