The Gender Gap Between Jamaican Athletes
Sports in Jamaica have always been a way of life for all Jamaicans, both athletes and supporters. While sports is a pass time for others, it is an opportunity to do something you love and a job/profession for many others including famous athletes such as Dr. The Hon. Usain St. Leo Bolt O.D.O.J, Ambassador Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Asafa Powell, Elaine Thompson, Kemar Bailey-Cole, Ristananna Tracy, Chris Gayle and Stephanie Taylor just to name a few. However, there is a huge gender gap as it relates to these athletes and how they are viewed publicly, especially in the virtual world.
What exactly is a gender gap? A gender gap by definition is a disproportionate difference or prosperity between sexes. Conventional wisdom is that differences between boys and girls in math and science are not a matter of biology; any observable differences are influences of the social environment. In a more understanding definition, a gender gap is the difference between man and woman in regard to social, political, economic, or other attainments or attitudes, or the problem perceived to exist because of such a difference.
I move to examine the gender gap between four well established Jamaican track and field athletes.
- Usain Bolt vs Elaine Thompson
These are two Jamaican athletes who competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics and each won two individual gold medals and a relay medal. Days after the Olympics, both athletes started trending on popular social media websites and to my understanding it wasn’t just about winning medals, it was something way more interesting. Usain Blot was seen in numerous photos with more than one women in way more than one compromising positions. To my and everyone else’s understanding is that “the fastest man in the world” just before the Olympic Games said that he is in a committed relationship for the past two years. Conversations slang up and many persons thought he was just celebrating the high life and his triple triple Olympic Glory and it is okay to slip up once, his girlfriend should understand. Couple weeks later he took his “girlfriend” on a long expensive vacation and everything was forgotten. On the other hand, the fastest women in the world in 2016, Elaine Thompson ,wasn’t forgiven for writing tweets expressing her sexual feelings decades before winning an international medal for the country. She had been called all sort of derogatory and disrespectful names for something she did when she was young and misguided. This shows the huge gender gap between these two successful athletes. Why is it ok for Bolt to “cheat” on his girlfriend and it is not ok for Thompson to express her feelings? I believe that these preconceived norms as what is befitting of a woman and a man needs to be looked deeply into. Why is the female the one that is bashed? Why isn’t the male bashed? Who and what determines that the female is wrong to express herself?
2. Asafa Powell vs Kaliese Spencer
These are two world class athletes who have represented the country at the highest level in track and field, however none have won a world or Olympic title. If Kaliese competes and she didn’t perform to the ‘standards’ of the Jamaican people, thousands of memes are made of her and she is criticized over and over. One major story was that she is mentally ill and she is gay and that is what is clouding her mind. On the other hand, if Asafa competes and does not live up to the standard at a major championship, it is said that he is just not a big competition runner, he is a ‘money’ runner, meaning he only wins the races that pays him a lot of money. Why couldn’t Kaliese be referred to as the one who is just not a championship person? Why couldn’t Asafa be the man who is ‘mental’?
I understand that the internet is a free space where people voice their opinions, especially these social media websites but why aren’t the females treated with the same respect as the females?
Another thing is that male athletes are more endorsed than the female athletes. You would likely to see Bolt in advertisements popping up all over the internet or on billboards than you would see Elaine Thompson or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. I will explore these aspects but that is for another time and another blog.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to leave your comments.