This article basically states exactly what the title means. Sex sells sex, it doesn't sell women's sports. There is an assumption that sexualizing female athletes is the most effective way to promote women's sports, but this is not true. When Sports Illustrated publishes its swimsuit issue males are very interested in buying the issue, but this doesn't mean that their interest in women's sport has increased. They are usually solely interested in the sexual aspect of the certain athlete. The true marketing campaigns for women's athletics emphasizes the nature of women's sports, highlighting the connection between fathers and daughters. The message is supposed to come as women's sports embrace traditional "family values." They did a survey on the "sex sells" approach, and found that the majority of women and older people found this approach to be very offensive. This survey also showed that the younger males would say that the sex sells approach is "hot", but it didn't increase their interest in women's sports, mainly when it came to actually attending a sporting event.
The key takeaway for me is that I am happy to see that people do not follow women's sports solely because they are "hot". There will always be judgment about women in sport when it comes to sexuality, but the survey did snow that sex sells sex, not women's sport.
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ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteI agree that sexualizing female athletes is not the most effective way to promote women sports. I think on the contrary selling the personalities of women athletes would work a lot better. We saw that the WPGA tried to do this and I feel that in more major sports such as the WNBA it could work better. When we look at male sports and the athletes who receive endorsements there is a heavy trend of long term names. For instance LeBron James or Kobe Bryant these are two players who became fan favorites instantly. Yes they are great athletes but at the same time their personalities have been shown. I think the biggest promotion in anything is making it relate. People can may be relate more to women sports through being able to relate to the player’s more. Of course more attention from the media is necessary though. Most of the time when males do buy SI it is usually due to provocative covers but once you turn the page it is up to the athlete to sell themselves for interest. Women sports will sell once people feel that there is an interest, other than the sport itself, for people to want to watch or come out to games.
Greg Gantt
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI agree that sexualizing female athletes is not promoting the female sports in the way that they want to promote their sports. Females that are in the Sport Illustrated are not really showing off what sports they play but they are showing off more for their bodies. I think there are many of different ways to get their sports more watched and more popular. They will need help doing this because they will not be able to do it by themselves but it is possible if they got the right people help them out. I think female sports could be become more popular than they are already are. I'm not saying that they will become more popular than males sports but it could be more popular than they are.
Jeremy Shay
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely with what you wrote in your post. I do not believe either that when women are advertised in sport to show how attractive they are that it attracts people to their particular sport. Another situation I have seen this happen is in NASCAR with Danica Patrick. I saw this with all of the "Go Daddy" commercials. I feel as if this did not make everyone rush to NASCAR events to see Danica Patrick. The faithful fans who love the sport will always be there, but it's not because the female athletes are put in advertisements to show their beauty.
-Logan Walker
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI agree that sex does not sell sports. In many magazines women athletes appear as though they aren't even athletes. They look more like models. They often dress even little clothing and there are no hints towards them being a great athlete. The people who buy these magazines are not too concerned about women's sports, they're more concerned about the pictures. If women athletes want to be looked at more as athletes they need to take more pictures in uniforms and less in swim suits(unless they're swimmers).
-Erin
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your blog about how sex does not sell women sports. When fmela eathletes are sexualized, it creates a sexual interest in the player, but not a sports interest. The problem with this, is that many female athletes uniforms are very revealing, especially with tennis. Some female tennis players are trying to make a fashion statement and it takes away from the sport. Serena Williams for example, was the mos exciting female athlete to watch in many athletes minds. The real question is whether they like to see her outfits, or her tremendous play on the court.
-Tad Margolies
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI think that the "sex sells" approach is not only ineffective, it is adding to the problem. It doesn't legitimize the women as athletes, it merely sets the stage for objectification and scrutiny. To those of us that are actually fans of a particular woman athlete, seeing her pose nude on a magazine cover may cause us to lose respect for her as an athlete. She is selling out, instead of being true to herself and refusing to be a part of this inappropriate exposure. Even to those who don't watch women's athletics, seeing a familiar female athlete portrayed as sexy and "hot" rather than competent at her respective sport gives us the preconceived notion that she is nothing more than a good looking woman. I think this approach is hurting the women's sporting industry more than it helps.
-Andrew Hayes
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that sex does not sell in women sports. The harsh reality of it is that most sports fans do not have the same passion for womens sports as they do for women sports. Now marketers have tried to change consumers view points on women's sports by trying to sell it with sex appeal. Those types of magazine issues are not sold for the purpose to gain attention to womens sports, the purpose of those types of magazines is to make money. I also agree with Erin's statement above that the only way women sports will be able to be taken seriously is by taking pictures of them as athletes and not eye candy.
- John Ruppert
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI defiantly agree that sex does not sell in women’s sports. If sex did sell in women’s sports, there would be record numbers in fan totals for women’s sports. Their audience attendance would probably be as much as men’s games. But that is not the case. According to ESPN, the average attendance for each team game in the WNBA was slightly above 7,800, though the WNBA didn't count Tulsa -- which had relocated from Detroit after the 2009 season. Each NBA game averaged around 18,000 people for their in game attendance. So as you can see, sex does not sell or there would be more reported fans in comparison to men’s games. Sex sells in magazines in posters, but not in the actual sport.
Darion Delaney