Women in Sport

I just read an article called "Women's Sports Coverage Still Lacking" by Jose Alfredo Flores. It reconnected me with the discussion we had the other day in class about women in sport. In this article, it touches on the increase of popularity in women's sports, but the lack of coverage on tv, in magazines, on the internet, etc. "Many female sports writers say editors who oversee their work tend not to cover women's athletics because the majority of their readers are businessmen, who have only recently shown any interest in these stories," says Flores. So the question is: why are more men interested in reading about or watching men's sports? Does anyone beg to differ and say that men are just as interested in women's sports as well? I guess it depends on the individual, but generally, I believe it is true that men are interested in men's sports more than women's sports. How about women? Are they more interested in women's sports too? This is more questionable because many women like myself routinely watch men's basketball, football, soccer, baseball, etc. They may indeed watch women's sports more than men watch women's sports; however, the emphasis is on MEN IN SPORTS for both sexes. That is what is covered in the media, and this is what is popular. 

"What many editors don't realize is that girls are interested in sports, and if they can't read about the WNBA or the U.S. women's soccer team in the newspaper, they'll find that information on the Web or elsewhere. In a time of dwindling circulation, newspapers cannot lose these potential readers," says Susan Bischoff (deputy managing editor of the Houston Chronicle). So then how can we change the media to support and act on more feminist viewpoints? I definitely think polls should be taken and interviews should be completed in order to see what society really wants to read or watch in the media. If media coverage was more split between sexes, maybe more males would be more interested in female sports and vice versa. But this is difficult to process (as spoken about in class) due to the idea that sports were originally male-dominated and male-played. It was hard to break the trend and allow women on the athletic grounds. I feel like society has came a long way, but more opinions need to be addressed on the subject matter. For society to become more feministic in its thinking, it needs to start giving more credit and coverage to women, applauding them for their hard work and achievements. But let's face it, even at IC, more men and women go to men's basketball games than women's. They are just a bigger hype and advertised ALL over the place. Advertisements, as we all know, can convince people to unconsciously or consciously make favorable decisions about certain people, things, and situations. Therefore, if more advertisements were used for women's sports, maybe both men AND women would be more interested in succumbing to the general "right" thing to do, which is support women and watch/read about more of their achievements. But we NEED to make a much greater effort to ask for more women's coverage in sports or else it sadly just won't happen.