Spectators & the Media

            The United States has four major professional sports teams. Those sports teams are The National Football League (NFL), The National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) and they are referred to as the “Big 4”. The Big 4 provides the biggest competition in sports and they are the wealthiest professional club competition in its sport worldwide. They make up the top four out of five sports revenue in the entire world. The one pitfall to these professional teams is that they are a male dominating sport and only males participate in these sports. How can something that is so big and make such large of a profit dismiss woman so easily?

The image above represents the Big 4. 

            Women have been neglected from sports time and time again throughout history. Despite their advancements in sports, it is just not quite enough. One of the ways in which women have failed to earn the respectful attention in sports is playing time within the media.

            According to Blinde, “The media provides the audience with more than just a sporting event—it presents the events in terms of framework or perspective, presenting the audience not only with a sporting event but also an accompanying set of instructions or maxims on how to interpret the events” (99). Blinde’s article discusses the sporting ideology and culture that exists within sports. The media controls and plays a large factor in sports team. The media helps control what the audience sees, how they see it, and what is said about the sport on the media. In addition to a unique sport ideology, there is also a power ideology between the male and female gender.

            Last year the 111.2 million people watched the Super Bowl, 15.8 million people watched the World Series, 3.16 million people watched the Stanley Cup, and 26.5 million people watched the NBA Finals. Those four games alone gathered a lot of spectators and fans.

            Last year the WNBA finals gathered a little over 650,000 viewers and 20.3 million people watched the Women’s World Cup. The Women’s World Cup received the most viewers for any US female sport in the history of female sports. The number of spectators that watched the Women’s World Cup cannot compete with the number of spectators that watched the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl.

             Even though the photo is a little over 10 years old, it is a good illustration to show the difference in airing male sports versus female sports. 

            After reviewing the numbers, it is interesting to understand the outstanding difference between the spectators for the male and female audience. There was over a 25 million viewer difference between the men’s basketball finals and the women’s basketball finals. The questions that can be then asked is why is there significantly more people watching the male sport compared to the female sport? What does that say about our culture? Why does this issue matter?

            Blinde and other scholars have researched similar questions. His essay, “Differential media coverage of men’s and women’s intercollegiate basketball: Reflection of gender ideology” examines why male sports receive more media time than female sports. One of the reasons is the difference between the male and female body. There is a power issue between the genders. Males are depicted to be powerful, physical, masculine, intendent and dominance, thus creating and shaping the social structure. Compared to men, women’s bodies are viewed as inferior, passive, weak and feminine. Due to the structure of the female and male sports, women’s sports are viewed to be inferior compared to the men’s sports teams (109)

             Another reason as to why females receive less viewership is the contact in a sport. Men’s sports are viewed to be more physical and there is more contact in men’s sports than female sports. Commentators and broadcasters are used to seeing physically fit males and their physical strength ability and athleticism. When a commentator sees a female who is very athletic, they act and sound surprised. This then leads me into my next point. Commentators treat males and female sports differently because there are different expectations between genders. According to Blinde, broadcasters and announcers have to be more careful what they say at a women’s sporting event than they do at a men’s sporting event because women are viewed to me more fragile and passive than what men are (107).

            I think it’s absurd and wrong to judge a female sport based on their physicality and biological structure. I also think that the Big 4 should not be compromised of just men. Those four teams that make up the largest sport revenue are controlled, played, and operated through men. Where do women fit into this hegemonic sports structure?

         

Work Cited:

Blinde, M. E., Greendorfer, S. L., & Sanker, R. J. “Differential media coverage of men’s and       women’s intercollegiate basketball: Reflection of gender ideology.” Journal of Sport &   Social Issues. 98-114. Print.