Reflect & Write: Gender Stereotypes, Sports, and Media



Reflect & Write: Gender Stereotypes, Sports, and Media

Text: Messner, Michael, Margaret Carlisle Duncan, Cheryl Cooky. “Silence, Sports Bras, and Wrestling Porn: Women in Televised Sports News and Highlights Shows.” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 27.1 (February 2003) 38-51.

Envision Connection: Use in conjunction with Chapter 11.

Background: Michael Messner a professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California, is well known for his work on sport and male identity. His publications include Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements (1997), Paradoxes of Youth and Sport (2002), and Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports (2002). Margaret Carlisle Duncan is Professor in the Department of Human Movement Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Cheryl Cooky is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. In addition to serving as Research Assistant to Dr. Michael Messner in his work on gender representations in the media, she is also a recipient of the Dorothy Harris Endowed Scholarship for her own research on how urban girls can improve their lives through sport.

Reflect & Write:

o Half-way through the article, Messner and his co-authors introduce a section called “Instances of Gender Symmetry and Fairness.” What does this section contribute to the article? How would the argument have changed if it had been omitted?

o Did you find the authors’ use of empirical evidence effective? Why or why not?

o How would your use of the evidence change if you were making this argument were directed at a different audience, for instance to university undergraduates, network TV producers, or female athletes?

o Write: The scholars in this article imply that part of the “trivialization of women as athletes” and the “sexual objectification of women” in sports is partially the result of Hollywood’s influence. How do the local sport networks (i.e., those featured in the article, KNBC, KCBS, and KABC) respond to this implication? What affect does their response have on national attitude toward women in sports? Write an article in which you respond to this claim; use specific language and example.

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