The Problem With Women Football: Sexism and Representation in Media
What's your problem with women's football? Or what's your problem with women's sports in general? There is no doubt that there's a large segment of men who hate men. That is worldwide, by the way. Psychologists, socialists, and scientists have thousands of research showing just that. Let's just address that elephant and move on.
The Sexism Of It
Let's just get that out of the way. Some men don't consider women to be an equal that they should respect. It just exists.
This makes women doing sports, in general, hated by certain people in society. More here in my part of the world than elsewhere. But, there's no country that is 100% okay with it either. Some say women shouldn't be in workplaces, let alone sports.
In the U.S, Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport conducted research that says that 40% of athletes, in general, are female, and around a third of sports audiences are women.
Those are excellent numbers, not quite as high as men, but we already saw that coming. The issue starts when we realize that out of all the time sports being covered and reported, only 4% of that goes to women. Some studies say 1%, but let's be optimistic here.
The Reason
Well, we have to go to feminist researchers for that. Dr. Cheryl Cooky is a professor of American Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University in specific.
Dr. Cheryl says that is in the media. She resembles American sports associations to cavemen. And I find myself agreeing with her, you'll see why I do as we go along as it doesn't even seem to be related to a time period.
It is a lady's business to look beautiful and there are hardly any sports in which she seems able to do it.
American sports writer and novelist Paul Gallico in 1937
Well, the vast majority of WNBA players lack crossover sex appeal…. The baggy uniforms don’t help
Bill Simmons HBO sports personality in 2006
Women’s sports in general not worth watching.
Sports Illustrated contributor Andy Benoit in 2015
Andy didn't even refer to a certain sport, they're all not worth watching.
To Be Fair
First of all, I am not going to "be fair" and do the whole "not all men" dance throughout this series. But, this one is relevant.
Dr. Cheryl says that while it is true we see much less of those comments nowadays but people are putting a lot more effort into concealing those comments within safer sentences such as "She doesn't look like she takes care of her husband and children" instead of just saying that a female athlete doesn't look beautiful.
The Media
Dr. Cheryl says that the media's role should be making it harder for people to fight the idea that women can be successful athletes. Basically, it would be nice to search top female athletes on google and not have a large percentage of the results on the first page be a form ranking them based on who's hottest.
We've already established that 40% of athletes are women. Do you want to guess the percentage of women in sports journalism? That would be 10%. Men make up 90% of sports journalism in all its forms.
It's not just about sexism, but other "isms" are breaking their way into this problem. 90% out of the 90% of men in sports journalism are white. So, if you're a woman of color, black in specific, you don't have as much media coverage.
We can argue intersectionalities, but what we could agree on is the fact that the number of females in sports journalism/media is very low.
I know it sounds like a woke point, but apply that anywhere and you will see how it makes sense.
As an Iraqi, I could explain the power and how much of a miracle it was for Iraq to win the 2007 Asian Cup just by being an Iraqi who lived in Iraq while that was happening. In comparison, a team of American experts wouldn't be able to explain that with all the research tools available for them.
Women receive 4% at best of sports media coverage from a media that is 90% dominated by men. 10.2% of that 4% is produced by women of color. The contradiction comes from the fact that women of color make up 70% of women in the WNBA.
Therefore, to encapsulate women's sports on the screen, audio, or on paper, we need more women.
Soooo, is that it? Let's put more women in the media and be less sexist and women's sports will be as popular as men's?
No
Representation in media is far from being the only problem. But arriving at this point allows us to establish the path that would help us get to the root of the problem faster.
Representation in media is merely the door to entering this issue. You can't just add more women and stir then await the problem to be solved. And that's what we will discover in the next part of this series.
Sources
Men hating women: A look into the psychology of misogyny
Media Coverage & Female Athletes: A Tucker Center/tptMN video documentary
Why Don't People Watch Women's Sports
Media is ‘failing women’ — sports journalism particularly so
Share of women’s soccer fans worldwide in 2019, by gender
The Scientific Reason Men Like Sports More Than Women
The weaker sex? Science that shows women are stronger than men
Yes, Men’s and Women’s Brains Do Function Differently — But It’s a Tiny Difference
Why Americans Call Soccer 'Soccer'
U.S. Women’s Soccer Suffers Setback In Fight For Equal Pay
Why Aren't Women's Sports as Big as Men's? Your Thoughts
This really exist?
Hey I really loved this post. I for one always try to address sports practiced by women, it is a great truth that the media does not address with equality or do not give so much coverage to women.
But I don't think it's because women who practice sports don't look beautiful, on the contrary, I've just been watching the World Athletics Championships and the girls there are a spectacle; they are very beautiful (at least for me).
A complicated topic that is good that you have brought it to the debate table.
One thing that stresses me about the modern whiny baby narrative is that people believe I can't just hate something without receiving a tag.
It's tedious
I think with a deeper look you’d realise that football games in general are boring at 99% rate anyway.
This series is gonna have that “you’re all wrong” conclusion to people on both sides but have to start somewhere.
For a while, I was a member supporter of a UK Football Club with a women's team. The men were paid to play; the women had to pay to play. And train.
Accidentally, this came out at a branch meeting. It had all started when I suggested that we sponsored one of the women players as part of the branch proposals for sponsoring and raising funds and so on.
Everyone was shocked - all of them long standing supporters since the beginning of the club and no one knew this was going on.
It was changed at the next AGM. Yay!
I think part of the problem, why this situation had arisen in the first place and had never come to light, was because most of the people involved were men and they watched the mens' teams.
Great start: look forward to the rest of the series!
This comment is actually closely related to the part I just shared as well. I think this argument is dominated by two sides who raise points that are completely false, in my opinion (as you will see by the end of this series).
It's good small changes like that happening. People forget that football itself needed so much investment to become what it is so it is fair to do the same for women.
Yes, your post reminded me of it.
The other comments on the post are interesting, too. I like your point about most football games being 99% boring - I thought it was just me.
When I get the chance I am watching women's football games, most times I find it more entertaining than men's football not just because there are women involved but because usually there are a lot more goals scored.
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It always angers me when some people will say that women's sport isn't "as good," like, as skillful, as men's sport because here in the US women's soccer WHOOPS MEN'S SOCCER'S ASS by a wide margin. Our women's teams win big on the international stage but our men's teams suck.
I read about this a bit, and the theory goes that men have so many opportunities for other sport in the US, they are likely to move on to sports where they might make big money if they're good at it and go pro, like American football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, but soccer doesn't pay well here and gets almost no media coverage so why would they aim for that if they can play another sport well? Whereas women don't have any choices that might make them super rich and a famous athlete so they can play whatever sport they like best just for the love of the game, and so many of them continue in soccer rather than trying to make a strategic career choice, because there isn't one available to them.
So really, MLS should be women's teams at the forefront, as they are generally way more skilled, but it isn't.
Great post! We've seen media traction in Australia about the 2023 World Cup we're hosting next year it seems like it's going to be a huge tournament