Gendered Advertising

ESPN BODY ISSUE

ESPN Body Issue features many female athletes including US Olympians. It even includes a picture of a paralympic rowing athlete! Although women are equally represented in the magazine as men in terms of numbers, they are represented in distinctly DIFFERENT ways. Some of the women in the Body Issue are seen above. It is important to analyze the way these women are represented compared to their male counterparts because it has very real consequences in our sexist society. 

As Feministing points out, "over half of the female athletes (in the Body Issue) were shown only as passive eye-candy white virtually all of the men were shown in action shots." Additionally:

• 78% of the photos of men depict an active post, while 52% of women depict an action pose 
• 90% of male athletes had at least one active pose in the slideshow, while only 46% of female athletes had at least one active pose in the slideshow 

While the males athletes featured in the Body Issue embody all the charactaristics we associate with athletes -- strong, capable, fierce, powerful -- they women seem to posses complete opposite characteristics. They look glamorous and highly sexualized. With all their make up and hair done, they look more like sex symbols than they look like athletes that compete on an international level. Is this what women are supposed to look like when they enter competition? I have always found it interesting that women will wear makeup to play a sport, but advertisements like this are part of the reason women do so! Whereas males only have pressures on them to compete at a high level, women have pressures of both competing at a high level and looking good while doing it. 

This kind of coverage and representation of women in sports magazines (and commercials) reinforces sexist ideologies in society, creating very real consequences for young people. When young people see these things, they are socialized to believe that women are objects, female athletes are not as capable or important in society as men, and female athletes need to look a certain way in order to fulfill their role. Female athletes are held to a double standard because they are criticized if they are not beautiful, but they are also critisized (and highly sexualized) if they "try" to look good by means of wearing makeup in competition, etc.