Women Play Sports: Fact or Fiction?

One thing that caught my attention from the article, "Framed and Mounted," was the way the media treats women athletes.  If you open any sporting magazine at random, it's likely you will find article after article of men's sports only to be broken up by pictures of women models or athletes in provocative clothing or situations that have little to do with sports.

This is something I have never consciously noticed but can easily reflect back upon.  I am a big fan of fantasy football magazines and I'll buy one or two every year the league draft comes around.  The magazines are packed with pictures of male football players often framed in the most athletic plays they made the previous season.  However, every twenty pages or so is a picture of a women dressed in skimpy clothing advertising something that has little to do with football.  The only time women seem to get attention in sports is when they look sexy, have a personal life story, or break a world record.

Whatever the case is, rarely does reporting and pictures regarding women's sports have to do with sports.  While men are made to look fierce, women are subjected to a subservient athletic role and appear emotional or are being embraced by a male after a game or event.  It's almost as if the media doesn't want women athletes to be viewed as athletes when photographing them.

As long as the media continues to portray women athletes more as models or focus on their personal lives primarily, society will continue to struggle to view them as true athletes.


Discussion Questions to Ponder:

1)Why do women athletes subject themselves to this kind of treatment?

2) What will it take for women's athletics to gain respect?