Christina Hoff Sommers once again shows herself to be an anti-feminist — this time by failing to recognize that market economics is itself a patriarchal construct, and so cannot be used to justify the very kinds of iniquity its insidiousness demands. And yet she tries:
Since 1989, the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California (USC) has published a study of “Gender in Televised Sports” every five years. The latest report has just been released and the Women’s Victim Industrial Complex is reeling from the findings. “Shocking,” says the Women’s Sports Foundation.
According to the report, coverage of women’s professional teams has “nearly evaporated” and a “deepening silence” has enveloped women’s professional soccer, basketball, golf, field hockey, and softball. “Nothing short of stunning” says author Michael Messner, a feminist sociologist at USC. “This is simply intolerable.”
Diana Nyad, sports show host for National Public Radio affiliate KCRW and a celebrated distance swimming champion, was moved to write a special introduction to the latest report: “Women’s athletic skill levels have risen astronomically over the past twenty years … It is time for television news and highlights shows to keep pace with this revolution.” She describes the neglect of women’s sports as “unfathomable and unacceptable.”
But the heavy focus of news and highlights shows on men’s sports is not only fathomable but obvious—that is where the fans are. And that is where advertisers expect to find customers for “male” products such as beer, razors, and cars. Men’s professional sports are a fascination (obsession is more like it) to many millions of men, because they offer extreme competition, performance, and heroics. Women’s professional sports, however skilled and admirable, cannot compare in Promethean drama.
Even women prefer watching male teams. Few women follow the sports pages and ESPN, but many enjoy attending live games—featuring male athletes. According to Sports Business Daily, 31 percent of the NFL’s “avid fans” are women.
Nyad and the USC study authors demand that television cover women’s sports “fairly and equitably,” but the study never once mentions the word “attendance.” Shouldn’t fan interest in the games drive the media stories? Economist Mark Perry, my colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, looked at the numbers. For the 2009 season, the NBA got 92.3 percent of the total attendance for pro basketball (NBA plus WNBA), while the WNBA got only 7.7 percent of the total attendance (see chart below). But according to the USC study, the WNBA received 22.2 percent of the coverage. Perry’s conclusion: “So women’s pro basketball got a hugely disproportionate share of media coverage. Total attendance at NBA games was 12 times greater than attendance at the WNBA games, but media coverage was only 3.5 times greater for men than for women.”
Nyad and the USC researchers claim that current media neglects and under-serves a large audience of female fans. Where are these fans? Sports Illustrated for Women, first published in 2000, was marketed to females between the ages of 18 and 34 with a “passion for sports.” The magazine lasted less than two years. The Women’s United Soccer Association and the American Basketball League were supposed to appeal to this same passionate demographic: both folded after a few seasons. The WNBA loses money every year, but survives because of the largesse and determination of NBA Commissioner David Stern—whom ESPN’s “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons refers to as the WNBA’s “Sugar Daddy.” (According to Slate, the NBA owns and subsidizes 6 of the 13 WNBA franchises, and the WNBA teams lose between $1.5 million and $2 million per year.)
The latest USC report is silent about the near-total absence of sports in women’s media. The limited coverage consists mainly of human-interest stories about women athletes. By the logic of the USC authors, shows such as “The View” and “Oprah” should be offering sports highlights and scrolling tickers with scores. Magazines such as Vogue, Allure, Cosmopolitan, and Better Homes and Gardens should be bursting with stories about draft picks, photographs of awesome plays, and up-to-date information about fantasy teams and brackets.
Oh, posh. That’s just so much false-consciousness speaking.
Because everyone knows that we can never have equity in sports until those who aren’t interested in women’s sports are forced to watch it and enjoy it. And that won’t happen until they are properly shamed educated about their own bigotry and misogyny / self-loathing.
Can a sister get an amen?
We should give credit to Dubya for his support of women’s sports. I know I’ve tried to follow his example.
Winner.
Good joke at the Sommers link:
• The odds a man will attend a WNBA game this year are 1 in 168.2. And the odds he’ll do so willingly are 1 in no freaking way. — Steve Hofstetter, National Lampoon “Sports Minute”
This, in spite of the well-known fact that the women’s game in BB has better fundamentals. If they didn’t, it wouldn’t get mentioned, like, every 83 second.
Cordially…
I love to watch the wymyns play beach volleyball. But the game isn’t the sport.
Mrs. Darth and I enjoy watching womens basketball. More so because OSU gives those tickets to us when we buy our mens basketball tickets.
sometimes I ask polite questions about sports but for the most part there’s just no time plus I think it’s fascist how they’re always drug testing everybody
I like watching women’s soccer games. When there’s no other footy on.
I wonder if any of these writers ever see the pw sarcasm and go, wtf?
but all the sports chicks I know they only like guy sports
“Sports chicks”. Heh. That won’t get you laid, bro.
“Can a sister get an amen?”
Sexist.
People watch sports, inpart, to see others do thing that they could not do themselves. Run faster, hit harder, thrown harder, shoot better, whatever.
That dude from USC is a pinhead. Good Allah. The adjectives he and Nyad used did make me laugh.
author Michael Messner, a feminist sociologist
How the hell did that happen?
“Sports chicks”. Heh. That won’t get you laid, bro.
Seriously, dude. Don’t be sexist.
LOL!
If Diana Tarausi was as good as D-Wade, she would get the same coverage. If Paula Creamer was as good as Phil Mickelson, she would get the same coverage. Natalie Gulbis should get more coverage, BTW.
Are you kidding me? I can’t even imagine the amount of tail that comes with a job title like feminist sociologist. Sting writes songs about that kind of shit.
Good to see I’m not the only one who considers women’s beach volleyball eminently watchable; if only my wife would let me have a TV in my bunk.
You mean you don’t need a Bangkok op or Buffalo Bill tuck-in?
Dare I ask, SW?
Which one, JD?
When the NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament was going on, ESPN or ESPN2 televised every game. I watched occasionally, and wondered, first, how the fuck are the batters supposed to hit that ball, it’s on them so fast, and second, damn I’m glad that women softball players haven’t gone to the baggy uniforms that baseball players are wearing…
;^)
Oh, and yes, women’s beach volleyball is eminently watchable.
=^D
Natalie Gulbis. Google that. I dare you.
This is really just all about basic carnal lusting, and how athletes appeal to the opposite sexes idealized body, etc ….
But not Natalie.
Okay, I’ve seen the image of her tee shot, and I have to say her form is perfect.
“Shaddap and go get me another beer.”
Natalie Gulbis. Google that. I dare you.
OK I’ll bite.
Natalie’s knees are too sharp.
Reminds me of that Trapper John line from M.A.S.H. I guess she knows how to work in close without letting her tits get in the way.
Surely you have heard of the surgically enhanced companions in Bangkok, JD? And if one’s pocketbook doesn’t stretch to the full Monty, well, you can always pretend a little, like Buffalo Bill.
He’s just like the old man in that book by Nabokov, or somethin’.
From the movie, How High:
“How’d I get an F in women’s studies. I fucking love bitchs!”
bitches
Is there anything more annoying than a male feminist?
Seriously — male feminist? For one thing how patronizing is that? Literally, it’s the most patronizing thing ever. Male feminist douche. Auggh…makes me wanna kick Alan Alda in the neck.
People don’t actually read the words here sometimes. I’m sure of it.
I’m quite sure the insult was unintentional but the host of this site has long maintained that classical liberalism encompasses first-wave feminism. Even for the men.
Here, the most recent post on the topic.
waahh…
I’m a big fat meanie. No soup for me!!
I keep making the same mistake. Thanks for the reminder, eleven.
I think eleven can be forgiven his confusion. It’s inevitable when terms like “feminist” and “liberal” have been twisted 180 degrees from their original meanings.
Plus, I cut him slack for the Alan Alda imagery.
I don’t think feminist sociology has much in common with first wave feminism, bh.
Didn’t think they did, SW.
I shouldn’t have used the word “people” when I was just referring to eleven in this instance.
Meh.
Just trying to be a meanie too, bh. It might improve my image.
I’m thinking the host of this site probably isn’t down with Michael Messner, bh. That’s who my comment was directed at.
I am not an animal!
The Alan Alda thing was cool, though.
It’s all good.
Wasn’t trying to hammer you, eleven, just feeling a cumulative type of frustration.
And, it’s entirely possible I’ve been taking whiny little girl pills this week by accident. They certainly haven’t been increasing the size of my junk, that’s for sure.
If you’re already hung like Bucephalus, bh, it won’t matter. On the intertubes, nobody knows you’re not John C. Holmes.
We good….
(Sorry for any offense Mr. G.)
– Teh wymyns go to the male sporting events, because that’s where the males are. Q.E.D
– Wymyns like men in uniforms.
– Men like the wymyns out of uniforms.
– Not all that complicated.
OK, this IS a serious golf question…
O_O
And perhaps the women that go to female sporting events just aren’t that into the whole male thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Hell, it’s been the basis of many a fine film…
Thanks, Spiny. I almost drove my new SUV into a lake.
– You may have focused to heavily on the word “wet” JD, and go distracted.
are they real or are they memorex
Judging by the swimsuit pix, newrouter, I’d say “wonderbra”.
;^)
Greetings:
I read an article a while back wherein the author expressed an opinion that women athletes tend to look more like athletes than women, if you get my drift. This may very well have something to do with it. Except for that very small percentage of women who like to stare at women athletes, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
A woman once asked me what I thought about women’s basketball. I said that men used to play it back in the ’50s, if you get my second drift.
she should have to tee off at the men’s tee with that extra momentum imparted into her swing;)
If they want to get men to watch women’s sports – I suggest the women go topless.
If they want women to watch women’s sports … I suggest really hot male coaches with lots of close ups.
Annika Sorenstam missed the cut by 4 strokes at the 2003 Colonial. She shot from the same tee area to the same holes as all the other golfers. The very existence of the LPGA is based on the obvious fact that a Babe Didrickson (who was good enough to finish 33rd in the PGA’s Phoenix Open) comes along once every few generations.
Take the members of the WNBA All-Star teams, and have them try out for roster spots on the worst NBA team. I bet you not a one of them can make the team. Therefore, the only reason there’s a WNBA is that the women can’t compete with the men.
One might observe that few white men can compete at the NBA level, and that they need A League of Their Own to fix the problem. But one would be raaaaacist.
nah leave something to the imagination
Or perhaps some equivalent of cheerleaders for the women to watch. A bunch of men digging holes along the sideline or something. Or using power tools.
Surely the failure to award the Lezbo-chic WNBA and LPGA superstar status runs against the egalitarian spirit striking down Prop 8? Shouldn’t we be required to watch?
Spiny wins the internets for today. That swimsuit plus golf? Bunk!
Well, in fact, it’s largely a cultural thing. Sports are popular because fathers encourage their sons to play and watch sports at a very early age, and that creates a bond. And that’s because the fathers’ fathers did the same thing. Etc. So what we’d need is for mothers to do the same thing for women’s sports with their daughters.
I wonder how many of the complainers do that. I’m inclined to think they’re too busy writing articles and protesting.
Personally, I had asthma and I never really clicked on sports, so I’m not a sports fan and I just don’t understand the HUGE interest or see any of the value outside of sports. However, I do get caught up watching a very occasional game, and I understand how easily that occurs.
i like sports cuz u never are sure of
the outcome
like the made for tv movies and crap like that..
i could be naive and gullible but it wouldn’t be the first time..
it could all be a bag job and fixed
bread and circuses
OT, slightly, but check out the racisms fight in the comments here. It was almost funny up until “Go home and get your shinebox”.
– Loved that “there’s no such thing as a race card” comment. I guess the latest goalpost relocation in “teh narrative”, banks on the idea if there is none you can’t lose it. Nice dodge.
– Going with the flow then, that would mean if some Lefturd punk calls you a racist to your face, you can just pop his face inside out and claim there’s no such thing as a broken nose.
Cash in your teeth. that’ll give you a litter extra spending money.
Cote de Pablo rocks.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/gallery/data/525/natalie_gulbis-55.jpg&imgrefurl=http://khanworldsports.blogspot.com/2010/07/natalie-gulbis.html&h=400&w=500&sz=50&tbnid=F7xvKxq09hiVOM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgulbis,%2Bnatalie&usg=__LUzNxSO683ra4r9MGn2hXJDAII8=&sa=X&ei=UNBkTJmcAoH68Aam3-HECA&ved=0CCEQ9QEwAw
#63 LPGA isn’t Dikes on Spikes anymore. The wymyn’s were (mostly) run out years ago.
Golf is the most easily attainable scholarship for young girls wanting to go to college on the college’s dime thanks to that stupid equal access law. Thousands of scholarships go unclaimed annually and many girls (and their parents) are starting to catch on to this fact. Shoot 80 top ten div one school, shoot 90 bottom tier div one, shoot under 100 and you can go to just about any div 2 or div 3 school with a golf program.
My daughter plays golf in High School – shoots 90 – and the summer tours are all dominated by PRETEENS with last names like Cho and Huang that shoot 72…
First generation Asians seem to have embraced the fact that a div one top tier school is within reach for their daughters without bankrupting the family.
BTW the newest pro on the LPGA is a 15 yo named Alexis Thompson and Jessica Korda is probably only a year or so away… neither of which would be comfortable playing on the LPGA of the 80s… IYKWIM.
A Sunday afternoon 4-some of Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer, Grace Park, and Suzann Petterson would garner pretty damn good ratings.
If you check out Michael Messner’s bio and pic at the USC Sociology website, you kind of get the sneaking suspicion that Michael is formerly Michelle. NTTAWWD.
Male pron stars get paid way less and get way less coverage. They should revolt.
Here’s Mikey’s “Major Contribution”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_of_Violence
They’re real…and they’re spec-TACular!