With the Commonwealth Games fast approaching my hope is that coverage of female athletes will increase. Research shows it does increase during both Commonwealth and Olympic Games, but what is being found is that the focus is more on the way the athlete looks rather than her performance.
This is a topic I’ve written about before. I’ve suggested that when we cover men it’s about their skill, strength and agility. When we cover female athletes it’s about how tight their uniforms are, whether there are any “diva” activities or who they want to date.
The focus is on “pretty”. We’ve heard it all before… women don’t sweat, they glow. They wear skirts and have toned, beautiful legs. Their armpits are smooth and sleek. They wear makeup which doesn’t run. This is the image of sportswomen we face every day. What kind of message is that sending?
When I was younger I struggled with the way I looked. At age 11, while participating in netball, I was asked why I didn’t shave my legs. At that age for me sport was about having fun and growing my skills. I hadn’t put any thought into being “pretty”. But that is when the seed was planted. In my later teenage years I’d put on makeup and pile my wrists with bracelets while playing football. I felt like I had to conform. Even today, while participating in indoor football I wear a “skort”. Why do I do that? Maybe I’m reinforcing my heterosexual femininity in a masculine environment. I also team my skort with shin guards and thick rugby socks. I might look “pretty” in your eyes, but I’m ready to play… and play hard, but fair.
What messages do “pretty” images and stories of sportswomen send? Google “sportswomen” and see what pops up. It won’t be long until there’s a photo gallery of the 10 hottest sportswomen. By focusing on the looks instead of skills are we are saying to the younger generation that it’s more important to be “pretty” than it is to have the right attitude, work hard and succeed?
The pressure for girls and women to be “pretty” just doesn’t happen in sport – it happens in society and it starts when babies are in the womb. I’m of the age where friends are getting married and having babies. One of my closest friends has just found out she’s having a baby and has decided not to find out its sex.
We need to change the words we associate with sportswomen from “glamour girl” and “sex symbol” to “world number one”, “skilled”, and “agile”
Shopping for gender-neutral stuff is a total nightmare. Clothing attached to sports (like baby sized letterman jackets), to science and the outdoors is found in the boys’ section and coloured blue. All that was on offer for girls were flowers, fairies and princesses in pink. We are saying to the boys – you can be sports stars, astronauts and businessmen. We are saying to girls – you can grow up to marry someone rich, wave to the paupers and smile for the cameras. We give our boys trucks, tools and sports equipment to play with, and our girls dolls, tea sets and mini kitchens. (I love this blog about parenting and toys… read it!). We want our boys to be strong and we want our girls to be “pretty”.
Even though I tried hard to conform to “pretty” in my teenage years, I was still teased incessantly. At that age I was still trying to figure out who I was. I was a cross between Hermione Granger and Ugly Betty (minus the braces), with a bit of Bend it like Beckham for good measure. I had long, frizzy mousy brown hair and large glasses. I felt more at ease talking about how the Blackcaps’ middle order had capitulated again rather than what Cosmo suggested we do to “please our man”. My peers teased me because I was different. Now, in my 20s, I’m glad I’m different. I still rock my mousy brown hair and glasses. I’ve found my identity. I’ve ditched “pretty” for “strong”, “smart”, “funny” and “feminist”.
We need to ditch “pretty” in sport. We need to change the words we associate with sportswomen from “glamour girl” and “sex symbol” to “world number one”, “skilled”, and “agile”. We need to change the images from the up-skirt and bikini shots to fierce photos of sportswomen being competitive and showing their athletic prowess.
