Kevin Matadamas Blog 2: sports/fitness cultural artifact


WOMEN STUDIES 205, BLOG 2: GENDER IN SPORTS/FITNESS POP CULTURE
BY: KEVIN MATADAMAS




Prompt 1: The cultural artifacts I analyzed show the different ways that gender is represented in sports/fitness. These sports illustrated covers show men being athletic and professional but when it comes to women the cover is often about their bodies and how they look. Rather than highlighting what makes women great athletes, sports covers usually tend to focus thin athletic women. The women in these covers are shown in bikinis, headshots of young blonde women and also a skier that has has makeup on and looks like she was made to look pretty rather than highlight her abilities or accomplishments. A lot of these images are very well produced and reel their audience in to pick up the latests issues. These types of consumers might not really pay attention to the underlying messages.
Prompt 2: The editors and producers of sports illustrated magazine created these magazine covers. The creators of this magazine used attractive women on their front pages to make men look and want to pick up the magazine. One of the magazine cover says “Thailand fling” with a girl in a bikini on it but then when men are on the cover the headline is descriptive and focuses more on sports. The headlines are different because they want people to pick up the magazine to see more of the supermodel on the front, if they put together a good title and picture then they know they will sell more copies and increase their revenue. The message that these covers make is that women in sports are are only to be noticed by how they look rather than how they exceed athletically. Some people might not notice this bias because women have been represented this way for many years. People that read sports magazines might like the covers because their entertaining and it catches their attention but they also ignore the underlying message that these images have. There has been improvements on how women are represented on magazines but there are still some attitudes in media that need to be changed. With these examples we can see how much business affects what gets displayed to the public. The advertisers and marketing departments of company know that they will have more success in targeting straight males interested in sports or fitness and they tailor their content based on what the customers might attract more towards.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 29, 2018 at 11:14 AM

    I couldn't agree with you more, Kevin. I believe Sports Illustrated is showing images of females as sex appeal for capital gain. The cover of the magazine is been seen through the lens of male gaze. The majority of the population who purchase the magazines are male. Maybe males should think if it was their daughter on the cover page, would they like it or purchase the magazine? Sports Illustrated should show respect towards women and focus on their athletic ability. The magazine should focus on women's stories of success and not their image. There are lots of women who are athletic and do not have the bodies shown on the magazine cover. Why can't they be more athletic rather than in bikinis. I partially blame women because we do not boycott the magazine and demand athletic women being shown on the cover of the magazines. The directors of the magazines should try to sale to all genders and not gear towards the straight male audience. It should be written for the gender neutral audience which will bring more revenue in the long run. The readers must speak up and break the cycle of how women are represented in magazines.

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  2. UnknownNovember 4, 2018 at 10:12 PM

    Hey Kevin
    Your analysis of Sports Illustrated magazine covers is on the dot. The male when on the cover is seen as athletic and strong while the female is seen as a sex object. When it comes to the female athlete she is sexualized on the cover. You chose great examples to use to depict the difference between male and female covers. The creators of the cover know that sex sells so they bring a hot picture of a girl so that straight males buy the magazine. Great job on picking a great cultural artifact and analyzing it. I very much enjoyed reading your blog post.
    - Justin Alcaide

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  3. AnonymousNovember 7, 2018 at 9:32 PM

    Hi Kevin,

    I like how you explored the Sports Illustrated magazine issue very in depth. You really hit the nail on the head with this, it is unjust how men are given credit and recognition for their accomplishments while womxn are only recognized for the way they look. It reminds me of the video we watched in class as well, and the difference in how womxn are interviewed versus how men are interviewed, the interview questions are much different. While men are asked about their accomplishments, women are asked about what kind of surgeries they've. Womxn are very much sexualized, I don't think that they are exempt from being sexualized regardless of what career or status they hold.

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