Media, Sexualisation and Female Tennis.

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Recommended: gender inequality in sports media

Within todays sporting community, certain aspects of sport and its practices promote and construct ideas that sport in general is a male dominated. Sports media often provides an unequal representation of genders. Women athletes are regularly perceived as mediocre in comparison to their male equivalents (Lenskyj, 1998). Achievement in sport is generally established through displays of strength, speed and endurance, men usually set the standards in these areas, consequently woman rarely reach the level set by top male athletes. Due to this, the media significantly shows bias towards male sports while we are ill-informed about the achievements in the female sporting community. On the occasion that a female athlete does make some form of an appearance in the media, images and videos used will usually portray the female in sexually objectified ways (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). This depiction of female athletes can cause males to take focus solely on the sexual assets of the athlete in preference to to their sporting abilities (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). Sexualisation of sportswoman in the media is a prevalent issue in today’s society, it can cause physical, social and mental problems among women of all ages (Lenskyj, 1998).
Female athletes, unlike males, are not always portrayed exclusively as performance athletes, instead attention is placed on sex appeal usually overshadowing their on-field accomplishments. Unfortunately female sports, like male sports, are directed primarily to a male audience, the media commonly use marketing techniques which involve sexualisation of the female bodies under a male gaze (Bremner, 2002). The idea that “sex sells” is used to generate viewers and followers of female sport.
Ashley Harkleroad is an Amer...

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...ison, K., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2003). Women's sports media, Self‐Objectification, and mental health in black and white adolescent females. Journal of Communication, 53(2), 216-232. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb02587.x
Google.co.nz,. (2014). Google Trends - Web Search Interest - Worldwide, 2004 - present. Retrieved 22 May 2014, from http://www.google.co.nz/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F09zfnc&cmpt=q
Lenskyj, H. (1998). 'Inside Sport' or 'on the margins'?: Australian women and the sport media. International Review For The Sociology Of Sport, 33(1), 19-34. doi:10.1177/101269098033001002
Wiseman, C., Gray, J., Mosimann, J., & Ahrens, A. (1992). Cultural expectations of thinness in women: An update. International Journal Of Eating Disorders, 11(1), 85--89.
Women's Tennis Association,. (2014). Players. Retrieved 22 May 2014, from http://www.wtatennis.com/players/player/3611

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