Final Reflections

Prior to taking this course, my perception of sport in the US was seemingly accepting in terms of its controversial aspects and debates such as PED’s, violence, sex and the media. I guess I never truly analyzed the idea of sport and it's role in America. My perception of sport in the US has drastically changed over the course of this semester. I now find myself dissecting every aspect of controversial articles and headlines that have to do with sport in the US. I always enjoyed sports growing up and still do today, but there is now a sense of underlying interest in sport that I never knew about. 

The topic of media and objectifying female athletes really interested me. I am currently in a class "Mass Media Analysis", where we discuss media and the role of women. I was surprised at the fact that we never touched base on female athletes in the media. As a female, I am not a feminist in any way. I am actually quite traditional, but I do not believe that for women athletes to be featured in the media they must appeal to the male eye. Another controversial aspect of the class that we talked about was the sport ethic and how athletes in the US are literally willing to sacrifice not only their time, but their bodies. Sport in America is easily one of the greatest forms of entertainment. The athletes participating in professional sport are not only players, but celebrities and role models. 

Looking forward, I know that I will continue to critically analyze sports. While I am an advertising major, I think that in finding the media and advertising aspect of sport in the US so fascinating, it will aid in furthering my understanding and research in the advertising industry. I am confident that I will take the skills and information that I learned in this class and use them as tools for success in my career in the future. I would absolutely recommend this course to anyone interested in sport, advertising or media. 

"Why the 'Mans Mans' Game is an Insult to Men"

The movie Training Rules is a powerful documentary illustrating homophobia in collegiate sport; specifically the Pennsylvania State University Women’s basketball team coached by Rene Portland. Portland was known for her leading Penn states repetitive wins and for her “training rules”: no drinking no drugs and no lesbians. This film has the ability to strengthen people’s knowledge on homophobia in sport. 

Although in today’s culture LGBT athletes do not feel welcomed to confront their true identities or sexualities, like racism, homophobia has the potential to essentially be overcome, too. Sport holds an inclusive identity within itself, being that athletes of all ages are stereotypically strong, masculine, tough and straight. I think these stereotypes hold great hidden context in terms of falsely attributed identities in sport. In effort to create a more inclusive culture in American sport, I do not think there is an easy road to take. I think various aspects of homophobia and its stereotypical norms go hand in hand with racism and its battle against American culture. In order to end racism, many women and men of all ages had to withstand negative abuse and hate. Jackie Robinson is a prime example depicting racism in correlation with sport in the US. He faced prejudice everyday in sport and his color was something that he could not hide unlike your sexuality.

Robbie Rogers, a former Leeds winger and hero to many for publicly announcing his hidden sexuality, expresses his feeling of freedom and peace at mind for finally confronting his identity at age 25. Being an openly gay athlete in the NBA, NFL, etc., there is a negative connotation with not only the individual athlete, but also the team they may play for. Recently, UMass basketball player Derrick Gordon came out as being gay. While he is the first openly gay division 1 men’s basketball player, he serves as an inspiration to many others whom may be in similar situations (Senne, 2014). With the assumption that inspiration will altar athletes’ decision to come out as gay, there is a window of opportunity to change culture.

References:

Steven, Senne. (2014). UMass player Derrick Gordon comes out as gay; says he was inspired by Collins. CTV News. DOI: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/umass-basketball-player-derrick-gordon-comes-out-as-gay-says-he-was-inspired-by-collins-1.1769554

"Darwin's Athletes": Sports & Ethnicity (SP# 13)

Hollywood’s portrayal of sport in the African American culture varies respectfully with that of the Hoop Dreams documentary.  While media serves as the ultimate source for falsely portraying the African American culture as a whole, it is inexcusably evident that media holds a sense of negative representation of African American athletes in society. Hoop Dreams is a documentary featuring the struggle of two young inner city boys from Chicago simply battling the various challenges they faced while trying to become college basketball players for a ‘ticket out of the projects’. This seems to be a recurring story in Hollywood sport films that largely feature African American athletes. For example, The Blind Side is a newly popular film based off of the true story of a current NFL player’s life. This movie serves as a prime example of a Hollywood film that has significantly and stereotypically portrayed the life of an African American athlete. Although the story is based off of a true story, Hollywood dramatized his story and ultimately worsened his backgrounds and upbringing. Hollywood succeeded in creating the typical film about an African American athlete growing up in the projects and solely counting on success in sport as the only way out of his harmful upbringing.

Because money and power run today’s society, money and power are ultimately measured through an individual’s success. In Hollywood, an African American athlete’s success is mainly measured through their accomplishments in effort to escape the harmful areas of their upbringings.  In Hollywood films, racism is terribly evident both in effort to prevail and exemplify what racism was like in the past, and in order to show that racism still lives in society today.

While I do not believe sport is damaging or diminishing the Black American, I do believe that critical analysis of stereotypical opinions can essentially prove to be negatively representing the African American culture through sport. Sport is not preserving the myth of race. I believe that current sport is becoming blind to color. While racism was once an order of daily functionality, today, some of the most respected and famous athletes are African Americans, and their legacies are certainly not being diminished! 

Sports: Women and the Gender Order

In the process of searching for a commercial advertisement featuring and or representing the roles and identities that athletes withhold around the world, I was shocked at the gendered identities that were given to women athletes. In my observations, I realized that Nike’s promotional advertisements were seemingly the least bias and most diverse ads. I chose to dissect and interpret the messages in the “Voices” commercial, which features elite women athletes, because it portrays an idea of what society should categorize women as and it gives us a sense of how far women athletics have come in terms of sports in the U.S. This commercial gives women a sense of relief in that sports and women’s inherited false identities as athletes may be on their way to equality.

In class, we’ve gone into detail about the negative connotations in which women have been categorized as athletes in today’s society. The role of solely participating as an athlete does not suffice for women. They must be both sexy and athletic to fulfill their roles as successful athletes. Media serves as an external promotion for products and people in society. It  dictates our minds and has the ability to give women false identities. It is through media that women athletes are objectified and portrayed more as sex symbols than as athletes. Magazines, commercials and advertisements adhere to society and it’s bias against women athletes by representing women as sex symbols and men as strong, successful athletes. Why is it acceptable for male athletes to be photographed in normal clothing and women athletes in obscure clothing? “Try Googling the words "women" and "sport" and you quickly come across the item "No athlete would mind being interviewed by one of these sideline hotties" from the US's Men's Fitness online magazine. You can also have a look at the sexiest female athletes of 2013. Try it with men and sport and, sorry ladies, not a six-pack in sight” (Stanistreet, 2013). Stanistreet’s observation of the correlation between women and sport in inevitable. Women athletes will not be featured in the media unless they are being objectified. 

References:

Stanistreet, M. (2013) Medis need to stop portraying women simply as 'touchline totty'. Media Blog. DOI: http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/19/media-portraying-women-sports-sexism

Voices Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ighxU1vYw

Interrogating Inequalities in Sports Media: Examining Gender Representation in Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated published the total of 102 magazines in 2013. Out of all 102 covers, only 3 of them featured women and only 1 of the 3 was a woman unaccompanied by men. Kate Upton, an American model/ actress was featured on two of these covers being completely exploited and objectified. Media in today’s culture is portrayed through the male eye. Women's role in most media is to portray a "sex symbol" role, or really not to play any role in media at all. The male vs. female athletes on the Sports Illustrated in 2013 is undoubtedly 102 to 0. There was not one female athlete featured on a single cover of Sports Illustrated in 2013. I am not a feminist, and I definitely do not believe that women can do everything men can do. On the other hand, I don't believe that men can do everything women can do. Mass media's role is to reach its audience and to satisfy. Men are easily the dominant audience of sports illustrated. Therefore, the magazine must reach men by revealing what they wanted to read and see. Most men reading Sports illustrated do not want to see a naked man on the cover. Although I do believe it is wrong that women are being exploited and objectified, it is the women like Kate Upton whom are ok with doing so. So personally, I don't see the problem.

As far as the women athletes go, they are not being featured on the covers of sports illustrated because they simply don’t attract as much publicity and audience. Sports illustrated is not purposely excluding female athletes, they are solely trying to keep their audience interested and their business in tact by seemingly and continuously providing its readers with top stories. Gender equality in sport will always remain an issue. Different ideologies affect media worldwide.