Femininity in Sports

Sports help produce culturally dominant conceptions of masculinity and femininity by continuing to place female athletes in sexist roles. Feder-Kane remarks in her article on figure skating and femininity, “ Femininity and athleticism have long been mutually exclusive concepts in American culture…women have been constantly reminded that all signs of their athleticism must be kept invisible.” (278). Instead of admiring the accomplishments of female athletes, the focus tends to be on the woman’s “artistry” (283) or physical beauty. I agree with Quan that there has been a lot of coverage on female athletes such as the tennis star Maria Sharapova for their beauty more than their athleticism. If a woman is deemed as athletic, a common reaction is that she is “manly” or lesbian. Thus, to negotiate this conflict a female athlete will tend to “participate in her own construction as a hyperfeminine creature.” (280). To see this phenomena just look at Sharapova posing in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition or Serena Williams posing for Men’s Fitness. Serena was named by the magazine as “one of the sexiest female superstars in the world”. Look at her website and you can see all the cleavage shots, the cleavage that she named in the interview as her favorite body part. There is a Nike add on her website where she is shot from the chest up with a shirt that reads “Athlete” and above her head is written “Are you looking at my titles?”. Now tell me that’s not suggestive. How much are the athletes themselves to blame for perpetuating gender roles in sports, or is it more advertising’s fault for using beauty to make people more interested in female athletics?