For 30 years now, it has been mandatory that educational institutions make access to athletic facilities and playing time equally available to women. This video is a very interesting look at the (gender) politics, and the related business, of sport. A great discussion starter for both gender and media studies. There is no doubt that women's sports have moved markedly into the public eye and, in many cases, into the money as well but broadcast and print sports coverage still focus almost exclusively on male sports.
When they (the networks, ESPN, TSN, or Sports Illustrated for example) do turn to women there is a discernable tendency to concentrate on female athletes' femininity and sexuality over their achievements on the court and field. Women athletes continue to be depicted in traditional roles that reaffirm their femininity as wives and mothers, or sex objects. This video also features another interesting point of contention; women athletes, the media and coverage of sexual preference. Sports media scholars Mary Jo Kane (University of Minnesota), Pat Griffin (University of Massachusetts), and Michael Messner (University of Southern California) look at the persistence of hetero-sexism and homophobia in perpetuating gender stereotypes.
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