Yesterday I was looking for information about Megan Rapinoe, one of my new favourite players on the US Women's National Soccer team. I googled her and came across this article. If you haven't read it, please read it now, or else the rest of this post won't actually make sense.
http://www.tchuddle.com/2011/07/women-athletes-and-the-need-to-objectify/
I read the article and, as it is a topic that is obviously quite close to my heart, I was interested to hear what others thought about the article and its content. After hearing some opinions I thought I'd lay out some of my opinions here.
Most of the comments people made in response to the article focused on men's sports being more enjoyable to watch than women's sports which I'm not really going to go into very much here. I acknowledge that is the case and I don't think that it will change much in the future considering there will always be physical barriers that separate the performance of male and female athletes. As a female athlete this is slightly depressing and I'm constantly pushing myself to try and keep up with the guys I train with but I know that no matter what I do I won't ever be able to lift as much as they do, run as fast, or play football as well. Since sport is a world in which better performance is rewarded, it is unsurprising that better sportsmen would get more attention and more coverage.
In terms of the women athletes as sex symbols thing, I really struggle with this idea. First off, I don't like the idea of objectifying women in general. But I think that if women are going to be seen as sex symbols, I really like the fact that the women that are being seen as sex symbols are strong, fit, athletic women. Maybe because if being athletic isn't seen as attractive then I'm in huge trouble, but I think that if anything its better for strong athletic women to been seen as sex symbols than deathly skinny actresses or models who don't eat anything and can barely lift the massive handbags they carry around.
However, the biggest takeaway I took from the article is that apparently I'm a massive hypocrite! I realized this in two different ways. First of all, I was annoyed by the whole "sex sells" aspect of article and the fact that the most common way that women's sports are marketed has to do with the athletes being attractive. However, one of my favourite websites is Kickette (www.kickette.com) which unabashedly objectifies footballers in so many ways. Apparently I don't have a problem with websites like this but it rubs me the wrong way when, for example, the advertisement for the women's world cup focused about the hotness of the players. If I'm not going to complain about the objectification of male athletes I have no right to complain about it for female athletes.
And secondly, based on the ideas in the article about gay athletes and searches about the sexuality of female athletes, I too found myself curious about the members of the US team and if any of them were gay. I then found myself making assumptions about them based on their clothing choices, hairstyle choices, etc. After a few minutes of this I realized what I was doing and immediately stopped. For those who don't know, there is a pretty strong presupposition in the UK that female footballers are gay. Many times since I've arrived in Oxford I questioned whether people questioned my own sexuality (and have since had it confirmed that some people thought I was gay). I think everyone knows that I'm not the most "girly" of girls, I don't dress in a particularly feminine way, and I'm more comfortable in football boots than high heals. I have often been worried that people would make assumptions about me solely because of what they see or who they perceive me to be and there I was, doing the exact same thing.
So basically, while I haven't actually come up with any opinions worth writing home about considering the coverage or exposure of female sports, the sex status symbol or female athletes, or female sports and homosexuality, I have realized that its really easy to fall into the same traps that you complain about in other people. So before you complain about something or write an article/blog post, or go on a diatribe about something that bothers you, make sure that you're not doing that exact same thing.
http://www.tchuddle.com/2011/07/women-athletes-and-the-need-to-objectify/
I read the article and, as it is a topic that is obviously quite close to my heart, I was interested to hear what others thought about the article and its content. After hearing some opinions I thought I'd lay out some of my opinions here.
Most of the comments people made in response to the article focused on men's sports being more enjoyable to watch than women's sports which I'm not really going to go into very much here. I acknowledge that is the case and I don't think that it will change much in the future considering there will always be physical barriers that separate the performance of male and female athletes. As a female athlete this is slightly depressing and I'm constantly pushing myself to try and keep up with the guys I train with but I know that no matter what I do I won't ever be able to lift as much as they do, run as fast, or play football as well. Since sport is a world in which better performance is rewarded, it is unsurprising that better sportsmen would get more attention and more coverage.
In terms of the women athletes as sex symbols thing, I really struggle with this idea. First off, I don't like the idea of objectifying women in general. But I think that if women are going to be seen as sex symbols, I really like the fact that the women that are being seen as sex symbols are strong, fit, athletic women. Maybe because if being athletic isn't seen as attractive then I'm in huge trouble, but I think that if anything its better for strong athletic women to been seen as sex symbols than deathly skinny actresses or models who don't eat anything and can barely lift the massive handbags they carry around.
However, the biggest takeaway I took from the article is that apparently I'm a massive hypocrite! I realized this in two different ways. First of all, I was annoyed by the whole "sex sells" aspect of article and the fact that the most common way that women's sports are marketed has to do with the athletes being attractive. However, one of my favourite websites is Kickette (www.kickette.com) which unabashedly objectifies footballers in so many ways. Apparently I don't have a problem with websites like this but it rubs me the wrong way when, for example, the advertisement for the women's world cup focused about the hotness of the players. If I'm not going to complain about the objectification of male athletes I have no right to complain about it for female athletes.
And secondly, based on the ideas in the article about gay athletes and searches about the sexuality of female athletes, I too found myself curious about the members of the US team and if any of them were gay. I then found myself making assumptions about them based on their clothing choices, hairstyle choices, etc. After a few minutes of this I realized what I was doing and immediately stopped. For those who don't know, there is a pretty strong presupposition in the UK that female footballers are gay. Many times since I've arrived in Oxford I questioned whether people questioned my own sexuality (and have since had it confirmed that some people thought I was gay). I think everyone knows that I'm not the most "girly" of girls, I don't dress in a particularly feminine way, and I'm more comfortable in football boots than high heals. I have often been worried that people would make assumptions about me solely because of what they see or who they perceive me to be and there I was, doing the exact same thing.
So basically, while I haven't actually come up with any opinions worth writing home about considering the coverage or exposure of female sports, the sex status symbol or female athletes, or female sports and homosexuality, I have realized that its really easy to fall into the same traps that you complain about in other people. So before you complain about something or write an article/blog post, or go on a diatribe about something that bothers you, make sure that you're not doing that exact same thing.
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