Integrating inequalities in sports media: examining gender/race representation in Sport Illustrated

While sports are something that both men and women participate in, through the way sport is portrayed in magazines and television we can see what is more valued between men and women sports. For this entry I chose to look at how gender is displayed in sport through sport magazines-especially in who makes it on the cover page. When looking at the Sports Illustrated covers throughout the last year I began to notice a pattern that I don't believe was a coincidence. Throughout the whole year there were only three times that a women was seen on the cover: once was a women police officer standing next to two other male officers, and the other two were of the model Kate Upton posing with baseball players or for their classic swimsuit addition. In none of the covers were female athletes seen in action shots like their male counterparts and instead the only women on the covers were models not athletes. For the rest of the covers, males were shown playing football, basketball, hockey and baseball. Their photos ranged from action shots to masculine poses in their uniforms displaying the classic toughness and intimidation we associate with masculinity. This trend that was noticed with these magazine covers matches the way we view male and female athletes. We place very little importance in female sports and when they are noticed it is through sexualization of these athletes through their uniforms or the pictures of them that do make it in the magazines. Men's sports is what is most important to us in our society and the different ways we choose to idealize them can be seen in these covers. My findings seem to match the findings of other scholars about the way gender is used in our society. Authors Mandie Brandt and Adelia Carstens (2011) say that although we are still striving for gender equality in sport, the media is still dominated by stereotypes of women athletes. Due to this, women continue to be seen as objects and weak athletes as opposed to the strong and competitive athletes they really are. In the same way the men dominate sport culture, they also then dominate in the media.  

References:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/photos/1305/si-covers-2013/96/
BRANDT, M., & CARSTENS, A. (2011). VISUELE STEREOTIPERING VAN SPORTVROUE IN DIE SPORTMEDIA. / Visual stereotyping of sportswomen in the sports media. South African Journal For Research In Sport, Physical Education & Recreation (SAJR SPER), 33(2), 1-15.