Battle of the Sexes

Hello Blogosphere,

I just read a very insightful article, Equitable Media Coverage of Female and Male Athletes: Is there a Solution? By Dr. John Vincent, (which unfortunately I can't provide a link to, you'll just have to take my word for it) that discusses how the media portrays women athletes and athletics inadequately to their male counterparts, in everything from the quality to the stories to the pictures that are ran.

Vincent brings up several factors that he uses to gauge the equitably of the media coverage of the genders; Feminist, cultural studies and political economy perspectives.

Feminist believe that the media exploits female athletes, and only the heterosexual athletes whom ooze sex appeal get the media coverage.

Cultural studies scholars believe the media plays a prominent role in reinforcing gender differences through the subordination and oppression of female athletes.

Political economy scholars view newspapers as being driven by financial gain. So instead of acting as engines of social change, reinforce traditional cultural mainstream values.

Female athletes typically receive about 10 percent of print media coverage and when they do receive coverage, it's often based on sex role stereotypes and their feminine heterosexual attractiveness rather than athletic skill. Men are often described in terms of their strenghts and success.

Vincent has many recommendations for what the media can do to for the print media to have equitable coverage of females: Improve the quantity and quality of coverage, position on page, content and quality of of photographs and the portrayal of female athletes.

Although I agree that female athletes deserve equal coverage to males, I'm realistic and know that the majority of sports fans are males, and most of the guys I know don't really care if a female scored 50 plus points in a basketball game, unless the broads boobies were the size of basketballs. Yes, it would be nice if female athletics were taken as seriously as males, but at the same time, its important for the media to know their audience and write for them.