Two of the articles I researched talked about the idea of women having dual identities. In the article, “Exploring Elite Female Athletes’ Interpretations of Sport Media Images: A Window Into the Construction of Social Identity and “Selling Sex” in Women’s Sports,” the two dual identities are a physical powerful and successful athlete, and the other an athlete performing feminine traits and characteristics (Kane, LaVoi, and Fink 2013). Female athletes often feel the need to balance their dual identity by performing femininity outside of their sport, which often involves posing in sexually provocative ways to raise money and awareness for their sport and women’s sports in general (Kane, LaVoi, and Fink 2013). In the articles study they found that 47% of athletes surveyed picked off-court soft pornography when asked to choose which image best represented themselves and their sport as they felt like this image over an athletic image would generate more interest. Thus, one of the strongest themes for the article is that sex sells woman’s sports. It is definitely the assumption and belief that with woman sports it’s all about target marketing. The most effective way to increase interest in woman sports is to appeal to men by portraying woman in a suggestive, sexually attractive manner (Kane, LaVoi, and Fink 2013).
In the 2nd article about dual identity, and the more recent article titled, “Sexualized and Athletic: Viewers’ Attitudes Toward Sexualized Performance Images of Female Athletes,” the article talks about how women athletes are either seen as pretty or powerful but not both. In sports media we see this objectification of women as well, “For example, female (but not male) beach volleyball players are required to wear body-revealing uniforms by sport governing bodies; it is not unusual for photographers to focus a shot on these female athletes’ buttock and add objectifying captions, such as “buns of gold” (Daniels et al. 2021:114).” However, this is changing in our culture today especially in women’s sports. The cultural and social perceptions of female athletes have evolved. There is now opportunity for female athletes to be both pretty and powerful and both sexy and athletic and the article encourages more representation of this in sports media (Daniels et al. 2021).
The issue of gender display in sports and the media is a long going process of objectification on women. The issue is incredibly important as gender display can have an enormous influence on determining attitudes toward athletes and sports (Kim, Sagas, and Walker 2010). In the article, “Sex sells sex, not women’s sports,” This article immediately highlights the use of gender displays in advertising with the example of Lindsay Vonn on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Lindsay Vonn was the first American woman to achieve gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year by the US Olympic Committee (Kane 2011). Her image is a perfect example of gender display at its finest as she is bent over in a ski racing position but has a very inviting smile directed at the camera and appealing to the male sports illustrated audience instead of a focused look ski racing (her sport) requires. This shows how stereotypical gender roles and displays are used heavily in advertising to promote one gender role over another.