Gender Inequality within Athletics
Women have been oppressed in our world for hundreds of years and slowly we have been gaining the necessary equality that we deserve. This is prevalent not only in politics, and socioeconomics, but also in our substantial emphasis on athletics. Although women are legally equal to men through acts such as Title IX, the athletic component of our society continues to treat women as though we are an inferior gender.
With generations of discrimination and underestimating the abilities of women, there was finally legal progress made in 1972 in the form of the Title IX legislation intending to make things more equal between both genders. It states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The intent behind this was to increase the opportunities for women to compete and succeed within her academic as well as her athletic career if any as of the time period. Although Title IX opened up doors and opportunities for women to get a chance at feeling the incredible feeling that surges inside of you to win a sporting event or beat a previous record, it also had some backlash and ultimately backfired in some ways with unintended consequences for women in the field. Prior to Title IX being passed in 1972, 90% of all head coaches in women’s athletics were women; today that number has dropped to 43%. That means that less than half of the women who participate in women’s athletics are actually being coached by women; UNBELIEVABLE. Title IX did not only bring oppression in the field of coaching but it resulted in a highly sexualized portrayal of female athletes in the media.
The excessive amount of stereotyping and stigma that is prevalent in society’s perspective of athletics has a negative impact on women today. In a recent Nike advertisement addressing this topic, Serena Williams promoted a monumental change in altering the minds of female athletes and their ability to strive for greatness.
If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic, if we dream of equal opportunity, we’re delusional, when we’re too good, there’s something wrong with us, and if we get angry, we’re hysterical, irrational, or just being crazy, but a woman running a marathon was crazy, a woman boxing was crazy, a woman dunking, coaching an NBA team, competing in a hijab, winning 23 grand slam titles, having a baby, and coming back for more? Crazy crazy crazy crazy and crazy. So if they wanna call you crazy? Fine. Show them what crazy can do.” — Nike Ad Serena Williams
Serena Williams has shown us that no matter what a woman does, she is going to be judged for it, based on stigma that has been set up to make us fail. This is impacting women’s abilities to have anything more than an average amount of confidence within themselves as well as a lack of recognition within the media. The criteria used to make the claims she has made have been altered to value the physical attributes of the human body.
There is an obvious difference in the way men and women are portrayed in the media, but ultimately it portrays inferiority in female athletes due to the tactics used to create the media. While professional women’s athletics usually only receive 2–4% of all media coverage for sports as it is, majority of the time it’s off the court and out of uniform, and they are portrayed in highly sexualized poses having an emphasis on femininity and physical attractiveness rather than their athletic competence. I’d like to ask you when the last time it was that you saw a female athlete in full uniform being portrayed in a strong and determined manner in an advertisement; I can guarantee it’s a long time if ever. Male athletes are displayed as determined and tough, while female athletes are sexy and feminized. A study was done by Ben Wasike analyzing Sports Illustrated covers from 1954 to 2016 and of ESPN The Magazine from 1998 to 2016. He analyzed the covers based on skin exposure, facial expression, whether the subject was performing an activity or was shot still, and whether the athlete was posed in a sexually suggestive manner. He found that while women are twice as likely to be sexualized in the pictures, the text that went with them also consisted of emphasizing gender and minimized females athletic prowess. He also found that female athletes were more likely to be photographed smiling as opposed to men who were meant to depict seriousness and determination. From personal experience, I can justify the fact that female athletes are just as determined to win as men, so looking at female athletes being portrayed in a sexualized and feminine manner rather than an athletic depiction is hard to comprehend when I know those athletes want to be empowering and have a strong depiction of themselves not a sexualized one.
One kind of causal fallacy is the correlational fallacy also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc (Lat., “with this therefore because of this”). This fallacy happens when you mistakenly interpret two things found together as being causally related. Two things may correlate without a causal relation, or they may have some third factor causing both of them to occur. Or perhaps both things just, coincidentally, happened together. Correlation doesn’t prove causation. If a survey were to be conducted on the street, and we were to take random people and ask, “If Taylor Cummings were competing in a foot race against Michael Phelps, who would win and why?” The answer would always be Michael Phelps because he’s a man, but stop yourself and think, why does him being a man make him more capable of winning that race? Why have we set the value of structures used to categorize men and women to an even playing field, when we know physical capacities have set men and women apart within competition for the very reason of that men are born to be more physically skilled than women. We judge situations as we see fit, but only to a certain extent. Why do we use physical criteria to judge intellectual situations? Women are constantly being judged based on their physical capabilities in order to complete a task requiring intellect. As humans we forget to stop and take a second to dive into the depth of our thoughts and process the information as we see fit. If we skip the key step of examining our logic it leads to illogical beliefs and understandings of the world around us. By identifying the flaws in our logic we can correct the errors in our understandings. One of these fallacies is a type of false cause that may lead us to using one criteria to evaluate something completely unrelated to the situation at hand.
