Challenging the gender binary? Male basketball practice players’ views of female athletes and women’s sports

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 1316-1331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet S. Fink ◽  
Nicole M. LaVoi ◽  
Kristine E. Newhall
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
Women’S Sports

Women’s Sport and Questionable Sex

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Women's Sport ◽  
American Women ◽  
Disadvantaged Women ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Testing Policies

This chapter explores how leaders of several international athletic federations worked to quell anxieties about “manly” women competitors by instituting “sex-testing” policies to verify the femaleness of female athletes. Purporting to safeguard women's sport and its participants, the tests have too often disadvantaged women and served as a powerful form of social control that encouraged normative femininity in the context of sport. Although most organizations have since declared an end to sex-testing in their official policies, new forms of surveillance and detection continue to define who counts as a woman in the context of sport. For better or worse, the introduction of the sex-test signified that women's sports were on the rise, and in the 1970s American women went through what many felt was an athletic revolution.

scholarly journals Gender Representation of Athletes in Finnish and Swedish Tabloids

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Laine
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Gender Representation ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Sports Journalism ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Sports Coverage

Abstract The study examines quantitatively and qualitatively gender representation in Finnish and Swedish tabloids’ sports coverage during Athens 2004 summer and Turin 2006 winter Olympics. Several media studies argue that sports journalism marginalises women’s sports and sexualises female athletes. The results of this study show that male athletes received more coverage than female athletes in every tabloid, but when the number of domestic participants and their level of success were considered, neither country’s tabloids quantitatively marginalised women’s sports. Qualitative analysis found that research stereotypes showing trivialisation and sexualisation of female athletes were incorrect, with the exception of Finnish tabloids representations of female athletes participating in sports that are considered masculine. For the most part, female athletes were represented in the same way as male athletes. However, it should be emphasised that the material is limited to Olympics coverage: during such major sporting events women are treated more equally, particularly quantitatively.

Newswork, News Values, and Audience Considerations

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 647-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merryn Sherwood ◽  
Angela Osborne ◽  
Matthew Nicholson ◽  
Emma Sherry
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
News Values ◽  
Sports Media ◽  
Repetitive Nature ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Sports Coverage ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
Sports News

Substantial research indicates that women’s sports and female athletes gain only a small fraction of sports media coverage worldwide. Research that has examined why this is the case suggested this can be attributed to three particular factors that govern sports newswork: the male-dominated sports newsroom, ingrained assumptions about readership, and the systematic, repetitive nature of sports news. This study sought to explore women’s sports coverage using a different perspective, exploring cases where women’s sports gained coverage. It identified Australian newspapers that published more articles on women’s sports, relative to their competitors, and conducted interviews with both journalists and editors at these newspapers. It found that small, subtle changes to the three newswork elements that had previously relegated the coverage of women’s sports now facilitated it. This research provides evidence that, at least in some newspapers in Australia, sports newswork has developed to include the coverage of women’s sports.

Gender loci in DNA forensics and women's sports

Biomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
R.R. Garafutdinov ◽  
A.R. Sakhabutdinova ◽  
Ya.I. Alekseev ◽  
A.V. Chemeris
Keyword(s):  
Y Chromosome ◽  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
False Negative ◽  
Pcr Analysis ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Genetic Characteristics ◽  
Women’S Sports

In forensic medicine, it is necessary to establish the sexual identity of the owner of the analyzed biological material. To do this, it is necessary to use PCR to detect specific DNA sequences that are characteristic only of the Y chromosome. For these purposes, a number of loci are used, located on both the Y and X chromosomes but carrying certain differences in the nucleotide sequences (alpha satellites DYZ and DXZ; amelogenin loci AMELY and AMELX; STS steroid sulfatase genes; the genes of the neuroligin NLG4Y and NLG4X, etc.), and those located only on the Y-chromosome (sex-determining region SRY; gene of the specific testicular protein TSPY, etc.). At the same time, forensic experts often deal with damaged or old samples in which the DNA has been destroyed and extended fragments in it may simply not be, as a result of which false negative results will be formed. Thus, in DNA forensics, when detecting gender loci, the sizes of amplicons should tend to the minimum possible. Therefore, in this review article, a certain emphasis was placed on the size of amplicons, and as practice shows, for most loci, their minimization is in demand. Moreover, such a PCR analysis in a number of cases (in XX-men, XY-women, in persons with other sex chromosome abnormalities, in people who deliberately changed their gender identity) it can lead to a false definition of the phenotypic sex due to the genetic characteristics of such individuals. As a result, the ongoing investigation of a crime, focused on the search for a representative of a particular gender, can go down the wrong path. A cardinal solution to this problem in DNA criminology can be a universal DNA registration of the entire population, which will allow for the biological traces with high accuracy to establish a specific person to whom these traces belong and his real sex will no longer be important and it will not be relevant to determine it with the help of PCR. In addition to forensic medicine, the problem of establishing gender also exists in women's sports. For a whole decade, the PCR method and some of the loci listed above were used for this purpose, but since 2011 PCR has been abandoned and instead the level of the male hormone testosterone has became determined. However, with the gender of female athletes, there are much more ethical issues than genetic ones.

Anything Can Happen in Women’s Tennis, or Can It? An Empirical Investigation Into Bias in Sports Journalism

2019 ◽  
pp. 216747951989057
Author(s):  
Alice N. Tejkalova ◽  
Ladislav Kristoufek
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Sports Journalism ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Special Events ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Rank Difference ◽  
The Common ◽  
Year 2000

The claim that “anything is possible in women’s sports” frequently employed by both sports journalists and general audiences highlights the widespread perception of a seemingly uncontested truth about female athletes and their (in)ability to perform consistently at peak levels in comparison to male athletes. We focus on this treatment of female athletes in the world of women’s tennis and contest the “common sense” and “experience” justifications of the unpredictability in women’s sports with actual data to reveal clear media bias. Utilising a database of the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association tournaments dating back to the late 1960s and covering approximately 225,000 fully described matches, we examine the “anything can happen in women’s tennis” assumption through logistic regression, focusing on the effect of rank differential on the winning probability in the match while controlling for other factors (tournament type and stage, court surface, age differential, and elite players). The results are rather shocking. The women’s matches do not show higher instability or lower predictability at all, but rather the contrary—the men’s matches show lower dependence on the rank difference. The results are robust as checked for data sets of the year 2000 onwards and those including only special events such as Grand Slams.

The Freedom to Choose: Elite Female Athletes’ Preferred Representations Within Endorsement Opportunities

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet S. Fink ◽  
Mary Jo Kane ◽  
Nicole M. LaVoi
Keyword(s):  
Title Ix ◽  
Sport Management ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Basketball Player ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Financial Reward ◽  
Know How ◽  
Athletic Competence ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Gendered Expectations

“I want to be respected for what I do instead of what I look like”—Janie, a swimmer“They can see the moves I make, the action I make [on the court]. But I also want them to see this is who I am off the court. I’m not just this basketball player. I can be somebody else”—Melanie, a basketball playerDespite unprecedented gains in women’s sports 40 years after Title IX, female athletes are rarely used in endorsement campaigns and, when used, are presented in sexually provocative poses versus highlighting their athletic competence. This pattern of representation continues, though empirical evidence demonstrates consumers prefer portrayals focusing on sportswomen’s skill versus their sex appeal. Research also indicates females are keenly aware of gendered expectations which create tensions between being athletic and “appropriately feminine.” The current study addresses what we don’t know: how elite female athletes wish to be portrayed if promised the same amount of financial reward and commercial exposure. Thirty-six team and individual scholarship athletes were asked to choose between portrayals of femininity and athletic competence. Findings revealed that competence was the dominant overall choice though close to 30% picked both types of portrayals. Metheny’s gendered sport typology was used to analyze how sportswomen’s preferences challenge, or conform to, traditional ideologies and practices surrounding women’s sports. Implications for sport management scholars and practitioners are discussed.

#Gramming Gender: The Cognizance of Equality on Instagram Accounts of Prominent NCAA Athletic Departments

2021 ◽  
pp. 216747952110041
Author(s):  
Rich G. Johnson ◽  
Miles Romney ◽  
Benjamin Burroughs
Keyword(s):  
Title Ix ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Women's Sports ◽  
Athletic Departments ◽  
Women’S Sports ◽  
Promotional Efforts ◽  
Fan Engagement

Under the federally mandated Title IX, NCAA athletic departments are directed to offer balanced promotional and informational coverage between men’s and women’s sports. This study examines how gender is represented in photographs on the Instagram accounts of prominent NCAA athletic departments. Findings indicate mixed results: female athletes, when showcased, receive similar promotional efforts to their male peers; their athleticism is highlighted; and fan engagement metrics are as high as male sports. However, female athletic achievements are overwhelmingly underrepresented, suggesting equality is still deficient.

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