Does women’s sport need to be more controversial?
The bad boys of men’s sport get a lot of media attention, so does women’s sport need ‘bad girls’?
There’s an old saying that any publicity is good publicity. But there’s nothing more annoying to me than another ‘bad boy’ taking up space in the sports media. Sometimes it’s fairly innocuous behaviour and many times, it’s not. I’m not going to go into that here. There’s a culture of toxic masculinity around a lot of sports which I know there are attempts to address but we still have a long way to go.
This leads to the question — does women’s sport need to mirror men’s sport to succeed? I say ‘hell no’.
Women’s sport has the opportunity to do things better. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but we only need to take the good from professional men’s sport and leave behind the bad and the ugly.
As someone who has worked in and around the media, I know first hand the interest, clicks and eyeballs that a controversial story can generate.
I also know that good, solid content also works. But that generally costs more resources (time, talent, money) to produce and if can post a photo of some athlete on a drunken night out, doing something stupid and still get the clicks, why wouldn’t you?
And then what’s stopping these ‘bad boys’ from continuing to do it when they know all they get what amounts to no more than a slap on the wrist and their name in lights?
We don’t need this in women’s sport. I don’t want this in women’s sport.
Is there a middle ground? Yes, according to netball great, Liz Ellis:
Sportswomen are often made to feel that they have to be perfect(generally by their own sports) What grabs public attention though is imperfections and so I’d like sportswomen to feel that they can just be themselves — warts and all.
There is pressure on girls (and women) to be ‘good’, to stay out of trouble. To always be aware of how you look to other people. This is something the majority of us have grown up with and always been conscious of. This can lead to a lot of cookie-cutter profiles pieces from female athletes.
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Authenticity is the key. Individually. Australia likes a bit of a ratbag, a bit of a show stopper. Someone INTERESTING. But no one needs to resort to bad behaviour. And when sportswomen ‘go bad’, it’s never as ‘bad’ as the men but the consequences can be devastating. That’s a topic for another time.
And if the blokes would quit it, that would be awesome. If the media would refuse to give them air time and instead, focus on the achievements of our women in sport, that would be awesome-er.
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Related reading: Media relations for sportswomen — A beginners guide.
