Group Blog

In class we were asked two questions in our group, one asked, based on the 1993 study on "gender of audience building" what would the findings show if the study was done today and the second asked, based on the article by Messner how could audiences be constructed to reflect growth of girls and women in sport?

The first question was tough because there have been improvements in the coverage of women sports, but they still lack the quality coverage that men sports receive. For example most women sports are announced by little known announcers, or rookie announcers while men sports are announced by the best of the best such as Al Michaels, Joe Morgan, and many others just depending on the sport. This can also be looked at in a bias because to be honest I am not familiar with many women sport announcers and do not know if there are any really well known ones that announce for a lot of the big women sporting events. All in all though besides the fact that the ratio for women to men sports being broadcast is very large the quality and such of the men's broadcasts I would assume are much greater, with more cameras, more crew, and like mentioned before the best of the best announcing the game.

The second question Messner says show more women sports coverage on local news instead of the ESPN's and such that are on cable television because everyone may not have cable, so if you do not get ESPN or cable for that matter you are receiving very little if any women sports coverage (only exception may be during the Olympics). Another one of Messner's suggestions is a simple idea, just show more regular season and post-season women sporting events, and I do think this has been done, maybe not on main stream channels but ESPN2 has a lot of women sports on, such as the WNBA and woman's college basketball. So progress is being made, but realistically this is not where the money is and for main stream networks such as ABC, NBC, and CBS to telecast a woman's sporting event it has to benefit the companies also, and this is the main reason I think it is not being done more often.

Vilolence in Sports

In class we recently discussed the violence in a women’s college soccer game. The main person of discussion was Elizabeth Lambert of New Mexico who was playing BYU at the time. Lambert was caught on video, but not by the refs of rough play and even at one point yanking an opposing player down by her hair. Rough play by any standards, but she has been suspended and has received nation wide criticism, having her parents phone number displayed on the internet for anyone to see and people wishing many negative things to happen to her via e-mail, blog, and phone messages. I mean what she did was wrong and she should be suspended for a period of time, but again with most things we discuss in class the double standard is being used. In a game not to long ago Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was caught on film trying to gouge the opposing players eye! Brandon’s punishment by well known and respected coach Urban Meyer was one half of a game (later changed to a full game)! I don’t know about you but I think I would much rather have my hair pulled than my eye scratched at. These are two very different sports, but at the same time physicality that neither soccer nor football condones, but much harsher penalties were handed out to Elizabeth Lambert than that of Brandon Spikes. This to me all ties in to the masculinity and femininity associated with men and women. Seeing a women being physical and violent is very un-feministic and more masculine than anything, so it is looked at in a very negative way. I agree she should be suspended for her actions but all the negative attention she has received I feel is unjust and she should be reinstated onto the team as she has apologized, is speaking to youth soccer teams, and seeing a psychologist to better understand her actions on the field. You can get more information if you click on the players names as they are linked to some informal articles about the situations on both players and the physical play in question.

Language in Sport

Recently in class we discussed how the LPGA tour was making it mandatory that all players learn the English language. This got me to thinking about other sports too. Like someone mentioned in class Hideki Matsui who won the World Series MVP, yet he could not speak English and needed a translator. He has been in the league for 6 going on 7 years now and still does not speak English. To me this does not bother me as much, as long as his/her teammates can communicate with them and do not have a problem with it. I remember when Bartolo Colon pitched for the Cleveland Indians and it was rumored that he was not even attempting to learn the English language, but he was a successful pitcher with us, and it did not seem to bother his teammates. Another good point that Pedro Martinez brought up is that for one Japanese player they receive a translator and such, while players from the Dominican and Venezuela and such do not receive such treatment. Good point but a good percentage of the MLB is from those countries so they can communicate with fellow countryman in the league while Asian players are still a much rarer breed in the MLB. Regardless of anything said it should not be mandatory for anyone to learn a foreign language.