Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women: Sideline Reporters

Last week I talked about a woman executive in sports media. This week I am going to talk about one who is an on-air personality. Most sports have sideline reporters but when I think of sideline reporters I always think of football and one in particular. One of the most recognizable women sports personalities is Erin Andrews. She is most known for reporting on Thursday night football. She is also a host of the popular show Dancing with the Stars but even when I see her on there I always associate her with football. Once again this relates back to the first post I wrote about how sports always seem to pick the most attractive women to be associated with them.  Someone found Erin Andrews so attractive that she had a whole stalking incident by a man who was obsessed with her. This just proves that men who see attractive women on TV during sports will do anything they can to get in contact and potentially hurt them emotionally and physically. I do not think this is right and that sports...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Coverage of Women's Sports

I have talked a lot about different women who promote and support women's sports. Well, there are ways that the media can help promote women's sports and it starts with the coverage of women's sports. Most of the time men's sports are shown on prime tv channels at prime times and women's sports are either not shown at all or on random channels no one has heard of. Or they are shown on ESPN at non-prime times. This is a major problem women talk about not having the chance to be shown at primetime because men take precedence over women's sports. If women's sports were shown at primetime there might be more of an interest from spectators who would have said they don't care about women's sports and then all of a sudden they do care about women's sports. Which is what women's sports want. I even like the idea of giving women's sports their own channel that would just play women's sports games. To give spectators the chance to watch the gam...
Post a Comment
Read more

Women and Sports

This week I am going to discuss what I have found over the course of the semester related to women who are involved in sports whether it is the media side of the sports side. What I have found is that women who play sports want their sports to be played on national broadcasts at prime times. They also want to be paid fairly. A lot of them believe that they should be paid the same as male athletes.  Women who are on the media side such as sideline reporters are portrayed as beautiful women who might know a thing or two about sports to appeal to the male viewership. Overall women's sports have a lot of growth and changes to make. Wages need to be higher for women athletes, their sports need to be shown at prime times and the media needs to stop portraying women as just beautiful people who don't know much. Instead, the media needs to portray women as strong, smart, and independent.
Post a Comment
Read more