Play-the-game-Magazine-2002.
qxd 11-06-2003 11:43 Side 14
Sex appeal
Sport is big business. In the fight for sponsorship and
media coverage, female athletes are increasingly selling
their sexuality, while the media plays along
By Marlene Jensen
Is a strong woman an attractive wo-
man? And is a strong woman inter-
esting? The American athlete Marion Jo-
nes won five gold medals at the Olympic
Games in Sydney. But even though she
was certainly the most successful female
athlete at the games, she was not the
most photographed. That honour went
to Amy Acuff, the American high jum-
per and part time model, who won not-
hing. Amy Acuff has since claimed that
her goal was not so much to win medals,
but to be featured on the cover of Sports
Illustrated. In an interview with the ma-
gazine Rolling Stone, she said 'I wanted
to demonstrate that female athletes can
be competitive, ambitious and success-
ful and still retain their feminine quali-
ties.' Acuff's implication appears to be
that competitiveness, drive and success
are not 'natural' female qualities – unlike
the ability to appear half naked in ma-
gazines!
Despite never winning a Grand Slam
tournament (she won Australian Open
in double with Martina Hingis in 1999,
though never a title in single!), Anna
Kournikova is the most photographed
sportswoman of modern times. Lindsay
Davenport has achieved this feat on nu-
merous occasions, but for every picture
of Davenport, 20 of Kournikova are
published. A quick search on the Inter-
net reveals the extent of the two players'
respective popularity. While a search on
Lindsay Davenport's name gives 92,100
hits, Anna Kournikova gives 491,000.
»Anna Kournikova's profile is built
around her sexuality,« says Alina Berns-
tein, an Israeli sociologist and anthropo-
logist based at Leicester University. »It
is her body and her looks that get her at-
tention – not her performances.«
Alina Bernstein, who is the introdu-
ctory speaker in a debate entitled The
Kournikova Syndrome, believes that to
Play the game 2002
– an alternative to talent?
a large extent, Kournikova herself or-
chestrates the type of media coverage
she is subjected to. This is evident by the
way she poses for the cameras. »Anna
Kournikova is not necessarily a victim
of the media,« she says. »Not only is she
sexy, she is also very powerful. Without
her cooperation, the media would not
have been able to create the image
which she has today.«
Sex symbols
»The media has a huge influence on
sport because an overwhelmingly large
proportion of the public experience
sport through the media,« continues
Bernstein. »Although the media consi-
ders itself to be reflecting what is impor-
tant in sport, it neglects female athletes.
Their underrepresentation gives the im-
pression that they either don't exist or
they are of very little value.« Alina
Bernstein adds that this lack of coverage
is partly to blame for the fact that many
sportswomen have difficulty finding
sponsors.
»Women did beat men at their own
game in the media's coverage of last
year's Wimbledon tennis tournament,«
she continues. »The women's doubles fi-
nal, for example, attracted more US TV
viewers than the men's singles final'.
However, she adds that this boom in po-
pularity was not caused by a fresh ent-
husiasm for women's tennis – rather, by
the 'attractiveness' of the female players
on show.
»Appearance is important, but not at
any price,« she adds. Search for Anna Kournikova on one Internet search engine and
Despite the tendency for women to at- you will be presented with 491,000 hits and links to homepages
tract more media coverage as a result, across the world. You can purchase her pin up calendar, watch
Bernstein believes that by being por- the video she recently made with her new boyfriend Ricky Iglecias
trayed as sex symbols, they are being and even be lucky enough to contract a computer virus named
symbolically degraded. As one example, after her. The pop band 'Binge' has a song about Kournikova
she cites the different methods in which
currently featuring in the Lycos Top Ten Video chart.
sports commentators refer to women and
14
Play-the-game-Magazine-2002.qxd 11-06-2003 11:43 Side 15
PHOTO: POLFOTO
men. »An investigation showed that wo-
men were referred to by their Christian
name 53% of the time. This compared to
just eight percent of men,« she points out.
Beauty for Sale
»Beauty is not something we are or we
have – it's something we make or create.
And the media has a powerful role in de-
termining the 'attractiveness' of athletes,«
says Professor Gertrud Pfister of Copen-
hagen University. »Over half the media's
coverage of sportswomen concerns their
appearance, not their performance.«
Like Alina Bernstein, Gertrud Pfister
believes that the media portrays sports-
women as the vulnerable sex, and that
many women willingly play their part
in the process. To emphasise her point
she shows overhead projections dis-
playing pictures of half-naked women –
amongst them badminton star Camilla
Martin from her photo session for the
cover of men's magazine 'M'. Gertrud
Smart business
Pfister adds that the female athlete who
woman, seductive
poses most in the media was, and still is,
babe or sharp tennis
Anna Kournikova.
player? Anna
»Anna Kournikova is for sale,« says
Kournikova knows Gertrud Pfister. »On the Internet there is
how to win the no limit to what you can buy – Anna
media without Kournikova books, pin-up calendars,
any major victories and much, much more. She has become
at the tennis field the object of collective voyeurism.«
“ This initiative is the only of its kind worldwide. It is a very
”
important project if we want to preserve values in sport
Sandro Donati, Head of Research, CONI, Italy
»Sport has be-
Starting
come business
at the highest
the Day
level – if you
cannot provide
With Sport
the right goods
you have to
Many Vietnamese workers parti-
produce some-
thing else to cipate in some form of sporting
sell,« says activity at four or five o' clock in
Gertrud Pfister the morning. Thúy Há Nguén,
from the
University of
a sports journalist on the English
Copenhagen Language Vietnam News, is no
exception
For Thúy Há Nguén, starting the day with a game of bad-
minton is as natural as brushing her teeth. In fact, half an
hour in the badminton court is generally the first thing she
does after finishing her bathroom duties. And she does not
lack playing partners – her mother, father, brother, neig-
hbours and friends all follow the same routine.
Similar morning schedules exist for many thousands of Vi-
etnamese, who take over Hanoi's parks early in the morning
»Media present to warm themselves up before starting work. »Exercise is an
female athletes excellent start for a long, deskbound working day in front of
as sterotype the computer,« says Thúy Há Nguén.
sex symbols« Despite the fact that she is a competent badminton
says Alina player, she rarely plays in tournaments. The same applies to
Bernstein, tennis, which once in a while replaces badminton as her pre-
media
ferred morning exercise. On the tennis court she plays with
researcher
three or four friends – but, as with badminton, they do not
from Tel Aviv
play structured matches. When the points are not counted,
there can be no winners nor losers.
Thúy Há Nguén has previously been a member of a ten-
nis club, but as membership entailed playing matches, her
involvement was short-llived She prefers to play for her own
health and well being.
In fact, sports results only begin to matter when she arrives
at the editorial desk of the Vietnam News in central Hanoi.
Here, she helps to produce four daily pages of results and re-
ports focusing on both national and international sport. Such a
task demands sports journalists are at the peak of their form.
khr
15 Play the game 2002