Women’s Sports are Still Largely Ignored by Mainstream Media

Why don’t people care more about women’s sports? If you know a girl or woman who has played a sport, and you have followed their progress possibly into a college, semipro or professional career you are probably well versed on what social media platforms and what obscure cable networks to tune into to keep up to date. However, the average Jane or Joe hasn’t got a clue that 90% of the women’s sports clubs even exist let alone know that they could follow them, or even watch them on the boob tube! Here is the problem. Women’s sports don’t even get their schedules posted on local news networks, so it is a completely ignored market. Boys High School Prep Sports fill the gaps in air time between men’s league seasons, so women Pro teams don’t even get a shot when they play during the off seasons of mainstream men’s leagues.

“A 20-year study of network and cable by USC & Purdue sociologists find men take 96% of sports news in 2009. Even the ESPN Ticker gives women the short shrift – 96.4 percent of the information scrolling along the bottom of the screen was dedicated to only men’s sports.” The finding is part of a 20-year study of sports coverage released today by University of Southern California sociologist Mike Messner and Purdue University sociologist Cheryl Cooky.

In 2010, ESPN seemingly in response to the research mentioned above, thought they had a good answer… they launched espnW… a digital presence for women, where its all-women’s sports all the time. In theory it is a wonderful idea, and if it was only “the thought that counts” they would have won a trophy for their effort. Here is the problem, it keeps women’s sports out of the mainstream media, away from the mass public that are the primary consumers of sport. If the only ones that are going to look at your website are the ones that already know you are there your numbers are NEVER going to grow organically.

If women’s sports were given just a fraction of the airtime that men receive the difference it would make for women’s clubs would be phenomenal. Instead we not only have every men’s game imaginable available to us, all year round, we get talking heads analyzing every fart and jersey movement of every player on and off the field and how it is going to affect their multi-million-dollar deal. You have to do an extensive internet digging expedition to find highlights of the Women’s World Cup Soccer Match, but you can’t stop seeing every run, score, touchdown or goal from every men’s or boys’ game that happened be playing that night before.

Women play sports for the love of the game, not the money or the fame or the glory. (OBVIOUSLY!) We are just starting to see some progress when in comes too equal pay for women in sports since the USWNT sued US Soccer for gender discrimination beginning as far back as 2016 (which is still an ongoing court battle). However if you look at how many women and girls play sports at club, HS, college and even Pro levels and never see a dime in compensation for their commitment to the sport; when you compare that to the men… its decidedly lopsided and unfair.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/sports/womens-soccer-team-lawsuit-gender-discrimination.html

Just as a point of interest Minnesota a a LEADER and Innovator in Women’s Sports. Out of the 4 Major Professional Women’s Sports Leagues Minnesota has a team in all but one and has been championship quality in all of those 3. Basketball there’s the WNBA ~ Minnesota Lynx, Hockey its the NWHL ~ Minnesota Whitecaps, Yes even 100% Full Contact Women’s Football there’s the WFA ~ Minnesota Vixen, and then if you like European football … or Soccer there is NWSL we don’t have a team here yet but with a brand new stadium and a strong soccer following for the Men’s team the MN United… I’ve got my fingers crossed!

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Captain Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Hero

Warning: This post contains (mild) spoilers.

Yesterday, Rick and I went to see Captain Marvel in theaters.

Strangely, I’d heard almost nothing about it after it was released on March 8th. The only thing that had passed through my social media was some headline about an old white guy upset about the MCU’s mightiest hero being a woman.

Over dinner last week, my dad, who coincidentally is also an old white guy, and who has not yet seen the movie, expressed his own confusion about Captain Marvel being a woman. Having grown up with the kind of Captain Marvel who starts out as a little boy, shouts “Shazam!” and channels the powers of several ancient male heroes by morphing into a well-muscled, fully-grown man, he wondered how all of that was going to work.

First of all, there’s no reason a girl couldn’t channel the powers of male heroes, given the opportunity–their maleness and their powers are not mutually inclusive. Secondly, I’m not sure what the deal is with kids having to grow into adults in order to use their powers (this also confused me when I first read the W.i.t.c.h. series).

But, most importantly, DC’s Captain Marvel/”Shazam” is not the same character as Marvel’s Captain Marvel. And, as I’ve learned from my good friend Wikipedia (because I am in fact not a comic book nerd), Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel’s civilian identity) has been a fixture of Marvel Comics since 1977, when she first appeared as Ms. Marvel, in a new series of that name, after having gained her powers from events that transpired in the Captain Marvel comics. She finally took up the mantle of Captain Marvel herself in 2012 (although it appears there were a couple other women who also held Captain Marvel’s title and/or powers, at some point or another). So, yes, the first Captain Marvel was a guy, but Carol Danvers certainly has a legitimate claim to the role.

And Marvel nailed it with this movie.

It is the most normal movie I have ever seen.

“Vers” (played by Brie Larson) as she’s known when the story begins, is apparently an alien soldier from another planet, fighting a war against another race of aliens called Skrulls. When the Skrulls capture her and take her to 1990’s Earth (this is a prequel), she works with a young Nick Fury to find and defeat the Skrulls before they can infiltrate Shield and steal an essential piece of technology.

It sounds pretty straightforward, for a superhero mission, but along the way, Vers, who can’t remember anything about her past and has trouble controlling her powers (read: obeying; getting things right), manages to discover who she is and what she is really capable of.

I cried watching her self-actualization play out. This wasn’t a story about a woman being powerful despite being a woman or because she was a woman. This was a story about a human being–who just miraculously happened to look and act like me–realizing their full potential.

Brie Larson is beautiful, make no mistake, but they don’t make her up like a supermodel (cough cough, Wonder Woman), and she’s dressed from head to toe in a practical uniform which sufficiently protects her from both the elements and the vacuum of space. She’s fit, like I imagine anyone with military training would be, but she looks like a normal person, not somebody’s ridiculous ideal.

And our hero’s defining relationship? Carol Danvers’s friendship with Maria Rambeau, a black single mother and badass pilot, replaced what could have easily been a meaningless long-lost love interest, if this were a different movie.

Captain Marvel, despite the horrendous line of advertisement I found on this AMC theater page, is not a “(her)o.” What a strange and belittling advertisement for such an amazing and worthy character.

She is a hero.

Captain Marvel is smart, brave, and human, in addition to having powers on par with those of DC’s Superman. I’m excited to see her take down Thanos in Avengers: End Game next month.

In the meantime, go see Captain Marvel. (Go experience it in IMAX, too.)

Take your friends and your children with you.

Everyone should see this movie.

Blog 4

https://nypost.com/2018/02/04/doritos-to-make-lady-friendly-chips-that-dont-crunch-for-women/

The New York Post released an article that depict the subject of Doritos plans on making “lady-friendly” chips that won’t crunch. Apparently, women dislike the sound of crunch and something less messy. Also stating that “women” dislike the idea of having to like their fingers after consuming chips. The idea of Doritos generalizing “women” and their likes and dislikes is infuriating. The global chief, Indra Nooyi is implying that “although women would love to crunch [chips] loudly, lick their fingers and pour crumbs from the bag into their mouth afterwards, they prefer not to do this in public,” (2018, para. 2.) I’m assuming that the Doritos team and/or the New Your Post is targeting a specific age group of women because, I know multiple women who loves chips for their crunch, taste, and most of all, licking the flavors off their fingers. Though the idea of licking your fingers in public may disturbing or looked down upon (especially for girls, because we all know the double standards society has for women,) it is one of the best part about eating chips. Also, I think that the intentions behind this “invention” is probably well intended but, in it’s own ways, it has pushed it even further towards gender stereotypes. It’ll be even more ironic if the team who decided all this is a group of women who is trying to include women as a whole but, in response to that, it’s the opposite. I would argue that the author of this post is pretty neutral. If anything, they’re just trying to throw the news out there through this article, it is not bias nor favoring one side of a story. Something that the author left out was the input of men. Though, I would understand why. This article as a whole is already about discriminating women and/or targeting them, there’s no need to hear the inputs of male. Who, in the article, opinion’s does not matter because this isn’t chips for them. Men’s opinion has always been added to news outlet, I think that the fact that they left out men’s input in general, makes sense.

Gender Bias

 

Gender Bias is a discrimination that often goes unnoticed on a day to day basis. This Bias has been push through each generation from early history when all women would stay at home to care for the family and house while the man went to work to provide the income for the family. For history to have a period of time like that creates a bunch of stereotypes for what boy and girl should be and act like from an early age. It was up until the nineteenth century when women were allowed to partake social life, education, and politics. These ideas where pushed through movements like Christianity and the age of enlightenment. It has taken women movements and acts from the government for women to be respected by institutions of the government. Although women are still fighting to this present day to still have equality between men and women. Our history allows us to see there has always been separation of fair equality between men and women. Overall both of these links below talk about gender bias in different and similar ways but both educate you on gender bias in the world today. They both also touch on how gender bias has progressed over the years and through movements.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-marie-jenkins/unconscious-gender-bias-e_b_7447524.html

http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/271/Gender-Bias.html

Well? What are you wearing?

Every week, it seems, I see headlines about something awful on the news. TV headlines are outrageous, Reddit headlines are outrageous… heck, even Facebook headlines are outrageous! It leaves me with a sense of helplessness. What can I, personally, do against kidnappings, murder, violence, and terrorist attacks? Whenever I see these headlines, I’m filled with a sense of unsettled silence. A heavy sadness. A ruined peace that leaves me crushed for the rest of the day.

But there are certain headlines, and certain comments on the internet, that just make me mad. And violations of women’s rights, especially when it comes to the way she looks or dresses, fit that bill.