What’s the first thing you think of when the name Anna Kournikova is mentioned? Behind those luscious blonde locks, beaming blue eyes and busty exterior, you’d barely label the 30-year-old Russian beauty as a former world number one tennis (doubles) player.
Yet mention the AFL and it’s possible even a 4-year-old boy can name each premiership winning team since 1980.
While male dominant sports such as AFL rake in millions of dollars to Australia’s economy each year, it’s disappointing women’s sports don’t receive the same recognition or exposure as their male sporting counterparts.
According to the, ‘Towards a Level Playing Field’ enquiry conducted by the Australian Sports Commission, only nine percent of television news media coverage is designated to female sports, compared to male sports which has more than 80 per cent of coverage in Australia.
It’s even more surprising that women aren’t interested in watching female sports.
The enquiry revealed that more than 50 per cent of males tune in to watch female sports, whilst 49 per cent of females do so.
By contrast the viewership of male sports is made up of more than 63 per cent of fellow males and 37 per cent of female viewers.
But then again, who wants to watch a tennis match with climatic squeals and screeches at each forehand between two women, instead of watching a rigorous and fast paced match between two men?
Janice Crosswhite, President of the Australian Womensport and Recreation Association argues that the sexualisation of women in sports is embedded within society.
“Sports marketers tap into this teenage age group and the sexualisation of young girls,” said Ms Crosswhite.
“I found the Melbourne Vixens uniform very surprising, they had huge posters up all over Westfield shopping centre’s of a-typical players with 40cm hair extensions, make-up, very unrealistic. How can you play with 40 cm long extensions?” she said.
It’s this unrealistic and exploitative imagery of sportswomen that makes a mockery out of women’s battle for equality.
Women feel that these presentations are further objectifying them and are therefore being judged accordingly. Whilst males perceive these women as mere sex objects and hence consider their games sheer entertainment.
This objectification of sportswomen is exemplified by the categories used for female sports. Defined as either ‘inappropriate’ or ‘feminine’ sports, which are considered suitable or unsuitable for a lady.
As indicated in Towards a Level Playing field, the types of sports considered inappropriate for women are those that entail heavy equipment, padded uniforms or protective armor. Sports considered as gender appropriate for women ‘depict females in aesthetically pleasing motions and poses, often emphasising the erotic physicality of the female body’.
The enquiry states that such sports considered appropriate for women are gymnastics, swimming, golf and diving. Unsurprisingly they account for over 40 per cent of the types of sports reported for sportswomen.
By contrast, female soccer makes up zero percent of soccer reports, whilst males soccer exceeds 18 per cent.
The ‘Towards A Level Playing Field’ enquiry also revealed that women’s sport have a higher tendency to include added gendered pronouns than male’s sport, by 3 per cent.
The need to always differentiate the women’s teams with their gender is demeaning as it reinforces the notion that male sport is seen as normal whereas female sport is an ‘exception’.
This is a clear indication that gender inequality is embedded not only in obvious manners such as the categories of sport, but also in less obvious matters such as nicknames and references by peers, commentators and society as a whole.
Women in sports deserve a ‘fair go’.
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