“From Fizzle to Sizzle!” Televised Sports News and the Production of Gender-Bland Sexism

Abstract

This article draws upon data collected as part of a 25-year longitudinal analysis of televised coverage of women's sports to provide a window into how sexism operates during a postfeminist sociohistorical moment. As the gender order has shifted to incorporate girls' and women's movement into the masculine realm of sports, coverage of women's sports has shifted away from overtly denigrating coverage in 1989 to ostensibly respectful but lackluster coverage in 2014. To theorize this shift, we introduce the concept of "genderbland sexism," a contemporary gender framework that superficially extends the principles of merit to women in sports. Televised news and highlight shows frame women in uninspired ways, making women's athletic accomplishments appear lackluster compared to those of men's. Because this "bland" language normalizes a hierarchy between men's and women's sports while simultaneously avoiding charges of overt sexism, this article

Gender Perspective in Reports on Women Athletes in Rio 2016 Olympic Games

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“…Thus, it is reiterated that the representation of the sport is carried out by men and carried in the media for the male. 16 The print media analyzed in this research, in addition to portraying gender inequalities implicit in the Olympic games, described situations of violence against female athletes, usually perpetrated by members of technical teams and fans. The violence practiced by the media itself was restricted to one of the newspapers, in which athletes who did not meet the standard of female beauty were 11/14…”

The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Nationality in Sport: Media Representation of the Ogwumike Sisters

“…These stereotypes have historically framed Black athleticism in various ways as (un)natural, freakish, unthinking, without effort, or inhuman/superhuman/otherworldly. Musto, Cooky, and Messner (2017) introduce the concept of "gender-bland sexism" to talk about the representation of women in sport today. This concept is used to discuss how the athletic feats of women are discussed in lackluster ways and, thus, reinforce both the athletic hierarchy and gender segregation in sport while avoiding charges of overt sexism.…”

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“…Las mujeres atletas están, salvo en momentos puntuales como en los últimos Juegos Olímpicos (Barbero-González, 2017), infrarrepresentadas y cuando aparecen en muchos casos se les asigna un rol sexista y secundario (Ibáñez, 2001). Tanto en España como en otros países, el porcentaje de noticias sobre deporte femenino rondaba el 5 % (Musto et al, 2017;Frideres y Palao, 2006;Gómez-Collel, 2015; Sainz de Baranda, 2014), muy por debajo de la realidad de las mujeres que practican deporte competitivo en esos países. Estando esta cobertura del deporte femenino caracterizada por una menor producción de valores y ambivalencia (Bruce, 2015).…”