1. MASCULINITY and FEMININITY in SOCCER Media representations of male and female soccer players

2. What is already known….

3. POOR QUANTITY OF FEMALE SPORTS MEDIA COVERAGE “Women in sport continue to be underrepresented in the Australian media” (NSW Sport and Recreation, 1996)

4. - Coverage of women in sport made up 9% of all sports coverage in Australian television was devoted to female sport. - Male sport on the other hand, occupied 81% of television news. (Australian Sports Commission, 2010) POOR QUANTITY OF FEMALE SPORTS MEDIA COVERAGE

5. POOR QUALITY OF FEMALE SPORTS MEDIA COVERAGE “Representation of sportswomen is often derogatory or focuses exclusively on the sportswomen’s physical appearance” (Australian Sports Commission, 2009) “look at those world cups” “he is a magician”

6. PRESENTATION FOCUS Are these trends consistent in the newly formed W-League and the already existing A-League?

7. THIS PRESENTATION WILL EXPLORE… Masculinity and femininity in soccer Examples of A-league and W-league season launch pictures and TV advertisements –Is bad quality coverage worse than no coverage at all? –Does inequitable media coverage affect female soccer role models?

8. THE MEDIA The mass media have become some of the most powerful institutional forces in society. The dominant electronic and print media narratives about elite female and male athletes helps to define, normalize, influence, and reflect mainstream societal beliefs about them (Sage 1998).

9. ANALYSIS OF THE MEDIA – WOMEN’S SEASON PROMOTIONS SexualisedHair and Make Up Done Still photo (no action) “football with style” has a double meaning FOOTBALL WITH STYLE

10. Over the years, women have been made to appear trivial, romantic or hyper- sexualized (Bishop 2003). Short uniform sexualized Promotes gender stereotypes: pretty, eligant, aethetics, limited skill focus ANALYSIS OF THE MEDIA – WOMEN’S SEASON PROMOTIONS

11. FOOTBALL AWARDS Focused on beauty

12. WHYDON’T THEY USE POLKINHORNE? WHY DON’T THEY USE POLKINHORNE?

13. WHAT THE LITERATURE SAYS…. Sportswomen are depicted as: -attractive and sexual (Shugart, 2003) -soft porn (Fan & Mangan 2004) -feminine (Buysse & Embser- Herbert 2004) -passive participants (Australian Sports Commission, 2010) -emotional (Australian Sports Commission, 2010)

14. When it was once enough to feminize women athletes, now it is necessary to sexualize them for men, putting them in their place and making them non- threatening. ‘Instead of hearing I am woman, hear me roar’, we are hearing ‘I am hetero-sexy, watch me strip’ (Holste 2000) WHAT THE LITERATURE SAYS….

15. ANALYSIS OF THE MEDIA – MEN’S SEASON PROMOTIONS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scW24zdnigo&feature=related Picture: -Strong -Intimidating -In context -Masculine Video: -Skillful -Fast

16. Action orientated

17. Men are depicted as: Athletic (dynamic, powerful, agile, swift) (Pedersen, 2002) Masculine (fast, dangerous, aggressive) (Mean, 2010) Competitive (Australian Sports Commission, 2010) WHAT THE LITERATURE SAYS….

18. MenWomen Action orientated Featured more in uniforms Focus on performance Receive majority of coverage with better photos in terms of content, position and colour Masculine poses Passive Featured less in uniforms Focus on clothes, appearance and other feminine characteristics rather than performance Underrepresented in the media Photos taken out of sporting context A-LEAGUE COMPARED TO W-LEAGUE SUMMARY

19. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with how the media portrays women in sport in Australia Consistent with how international soccer players are portrayed by the media “ Soccer in many countries is a key site for the reproduction of traditional forms of aggression, competitiveness and masculinity,” (Mean, 2010, p.65) W t “Consequently, the re/production of women’s soccer as primarily about femaleness will continue to undermine women’s identities as athletes, serving to protect masculinity,” (Mean, 2010, p.83)

20. IMPLICATIONS If more media coverage means more sexualised images is more necessarily better? Or is more worse? Is any media story ‘good’ news as far as female athletes are concerned? NO COVERAGE ?

21. References Australian Sports Commission (2010). Towards a Level Playing Field: sport and gender in Australian media: January 2008 – July 2009. Canberra: Australian Government. Bernstein, A. (2002). Is it time for a victory lap?: Changes in the media coverage of women in sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37 (3-4), 415-428. Bishop, R. (2003) Missing in action: feature coverage of women’s sports. In sports illustrated. (electronic version) Journal of sport & social issues, 27, 184-194 Bussye, J.M, Embser-herbert (2004) Constructions of gender in sport: An analysis of intercollegiate media guide cover photographs (electronic version) Gender & Society 18, 66-81 Carty, V. (2005) Textual portrayals of female athletes: liberation or nuanced forms of patriachy? Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s studies, 26, 132-155 Duncan, M. C., & Messner, M. A. (1998). The media image of sport and gender. In L.A. Wenner (Ed.), MediaSport, (pp. 170-185). London: Routledge

22. References continued. Fan, H & Mangan, J. A (2004) Soccer, women, sexual liberation: kicking off a new era. Frank Cass; USA Harris, J., & Clayton, B. (2002). Femininity, masculinity, physicality and the English tabloid press. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37 (3-4), 397-413. Holste, G. C (2000) Women Athletes Often Debased by Media Images. WE news. Retrieved from: http://www.womensenews.org/story/athleticssports/001017/wo men-athletes-often-debased-media-images http://www.womensenews.org/story/athleticssports/001017/wo men-athletes-often-debased-media-images Mean, J. (2010). Making masculinity and framing femininity: Fifa, Soccer and World Cup Websites. In H. Hundley, & A. Billings (eds.). Examining identity in sports media. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. New South Wales Sport and Recreation. (1998). Media coverage of women in sport. Retrived from: http://www.dsr.nsw.gov.au/assets/pubs/industry/info_mediawo men.pdf

23. References continued: Pedersen, P.M (2002) Examining equity in newspaper photographs. (electronic version) International review for the sociology of sport. 37, 303-318 Boys to men: http://www.la84foundation.org/9arr/ResearchReports/boys tomen.pdf Sage, G. H. (1998). Power and ideology in American sport: A critical perspective (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Shugart, H. (2003) She shoots, she scores: mediated constructions of contemporary female athletes coverage in the 1999 US women’s soccer team. (electronic version) Western Journal of Communication. 67, 1-31 Williams, J. (2007) A beautiful game; international perspectives of women’s football. UK: Apex