Sport Sociology Assignment: Gender, Race, and Media Representation

This report delves into the sociological aspects of gender and race within the realm of sports, focusing on how female athletes, particularly black sportswomen, have been objectified and subjected to societal inequalities. The assignment examines the historical context of sexism and racism in sports, highlighting how media representation has contributed to these issues. It references scholarly articles to analyze the principles, techniques, and limitations of research in this field, linking the findings back to course materials to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the subject. The report also explores the impact of third-wave feminism and social media in challenging and reshaping the portrayal of female athletes, emphasizing the ongoing struggle for equal respect and fair treatment within the sports industry. The report references key authors like Cooper, Macaulay and Rodriguez, Harrison, Lawrence and Bukstein, Adjepong and Carrington, Thorpe, Toffoletti, and Bruce, and Peeters and van Sterkenburg to support its arguments and analysis, and includes the assignment brief that required the student to find journal articles and link the findings back to the unit material.

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Title: Sport Sociology
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Contents
Gender & Sports..............................................................................................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Gender & Sports
Women have been sexualized and objectified for years on the basis of their color, body
type, race, and many other aspects. Women have been part of the sports industry from ages, but
still they are objectified as mere sex objects by many of the people. Years back, the conditions
were even worse, with black sportswomen being degraded and regarded as the “second sex
category”.
According to Cooper, Macaulay and Rodriguez, though sports has always been perceived
as an apolitical entity where the main focus is on the performance of the athletes, their physical
fitness, teamwork, character building, social environment, and many other positive aspects, but it
has from ages been a popular site where societal inequalities are practiced, promoted and ignored
(Cooper, Macaulay and Rodriguez, 2017). The sports industry has overlooked some broad
societal inequalities like sexism, racism, economic stratification. It is due to these different
aspects that the women sportsperson has faced humongous challenges that had affected their
physical and mental well-being. It is also due to these oppressions that have helped in ignoring
and reproducing these societal inequalities. For instance, the African American sportswomen
have been objectified as sex objects and have faced many social injustices due to it (Harrison,
Lawrence and Bukstein, 2011).
It has also been found that though both the white sportswomen and the black
sportswomen both were subject to sexism, but the black female athlete was tormented massively.
In addition to this, the white female athletes also made racist comments on the black
sportswomen. The black sportswomen were judged on their color, while their skills were
completely ignored. It was due to these different incidences of social inequalities that drowned
many strong female black athletes into depression (Adjepong and Carrington, 2014). In addition

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to this, they were always considered in the category of minorities, which gave the people a strong
dominating power on the black sportswomen. The black women sportswomen were also
subjected to unfair behavior by the judges of different tournament and it was all due to their skin
color. Even in today’s time, the black sportswomen face some racist comment from boys or
white sportswomen.
According to Thorpe, Toffoletti, and Bruce, there has been a huge change in the
projection of female sportswomen by the media, especially of the black sportswomen. The
different inequalities related to race, class, gender, and sexuality are still present across various
sports practices and institutions (Thorpe, Toffoletti and Bruce, 2017). These societal inequalities
and sports have a stubborn relationship. It is due to this, the initially the media also covered the
black female sportsperson in an unethical manner, as they use to objectify them with different
names that exhibited racism and sexism. But slowly the time changes and it was all due the third
wave feminism, neoliberal feminism, and postfeminism. All these different aspects started by
different activist helped in improving the conditions of discrimination, racism, and sexism, in the
field of sports. With the new rules introduced by different activist and the rise in the social
media, people started voicing their opinion, that stir ad reduced the unethical and unequal
approaches of the media houses in portraying the women athletes ambivalently.
With the approaches of third-wave feminism and neoliberal feminism, the media was
pushed to report according to ethical manners that prohibits the cruel and societal inequalities,
which include racism, sexism, economic discrimination, and many other oppressions. This
change helped in offering the black female sportswomen with the respect they have always
deserved and wanted. It is also due to the third wave feminism, which was conducted at different
levels that the media activities to sexualized women athletes slowly started to reduce (Bruce,

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2015). It is due to these steps that have changed the approach of media towards female athletes.
From the image of the women athletes to the content all have undergone a 360-degree change.
Thus, the women athletes have struggled massively for decades, to make a place for
themselves and to attain equal respect, which male sportsmen get, be it by the sports fan, by the
media, and the different sports institutions, who offer them money and facilities. But still, many
of the black sportsperson both men and women face racist comment (Peeters and van
Sterkenburg, 2016). The struggle of black women sportsperson is humongous and still continues
in many parts of the world. It is the stubborn opinions of people that do not want to change. But
with the different feminist help, it is due to the victim to report all these unethical incidences to
the higher authorities to ensure that such act of inequalities does not get ignored and a precedent
is set by taking strict action against such incidence.

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References
Adjepong, L. and Carrington, B. (2014). Black Female Athletes as Space Invaders. Routledge
Handbook of Sport, Gender and Sexuality, 1(1), pp.1-45.
Bruce, T. (2015). New Rules for New Times: Sportswomen and Media Representation in the
Third Wave. Sex Roles, 74(7-8), pp.361-376.
Cooper, J., Macaulay, C. and Rodriguez, S. (2017). Race and resistance: A typology of African
American sport activism. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 54(2), pp.151-181.
Harrison, C., Lawrence, S. and Bukstein, S. (2011). White College Students’ Explanations of
White (and Black) Athletic Performance: A Qualitative Investigation of White College
Students. Sociology of Sport Journal, 28(3), pp.347-361.
Peeters, R. and van Sterkenburg, J. (2016). Making sense of race/ethnicity and gender in
televised football: reception research among British students. Sport in Society, 20(5-6), pp.701-
715.
Thorpe, H., Toffoletti, K. and Bruce, T. (2017). Sportswomen and Social Media: Bringing Third-
Wave Feminism, Postfeminism, and Neoliberal Feminism Into Conversation. Journal of Sport
and Social Issues, 41(5), pp.359-383.

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