As a casual sports fan and a woman, a large chunk of my team merch is from the men's section. That's right, a 20-year-old woman shops in the men's section for her fan gear. One would think that I would be the ideal consumer for pink bedazzled V-necks.
In general, my sense of style is pretty feminine. But when it comes to sports, I don't want anything pink unless pink happens to be one of the team's colors, which is doubtful, considering the gendered connotations surrounding the color. I certainly don't want anything bedazzled.
I recognize that I cannot speak for all women. Some women want to wear hyper-feminine sports merchandise and that's okay. I'm not going to police what women choose to wear. What I'm not okay with, however, is the way that sports merchandise markets towards women.
More and more women make up the numbers of all sports fans and it seems as if the higher ups in sports marketing are choosing to ignore this and/or have absolutely no idea what women actually want. So many women are frustrated by the lack of options that the women's section provides. Personally, I generally want essentially the same shirts as the men's section has, but ones that fit me slightly better. Maura Brannigan writes about the "pink it and shrink it" phenomenon:
Women's-specific sports paraphernalia, though, does not seem to reflect the size and buying power of that demographic. Featuring swirly logos and flimsy v-necks, female fan apparel tends to have a slightly girlish aesthetic. Much of what you may find in a women's section, be it covered in rhinestones or sized for a child, feels like it belongs in a trend-driven teen retailer; think a Wet Seal, rather than a Gap. The marketing ploy is obvious: Women should want to look like, well, "women" when participating in an athletic activity — and "women," generally, wear bejeweled t-shirts and plunging necklines. Right?
Another issue with the women's section of sports merchandise stores is the quality of the actual clothing. I've been to stores where most of the shirts designed for women are made with flimsy fabric that was obviously cheaply made. I've also been to stores where the women's section is completely picked over, while the men's section is fully stocked. The most frustrating experience in a sports store was when I noticed that the men's section had primarily Nike stuff (say what you will about Nike, the stuff is pretty high quality), whereas the women's section had primarily an unknown clothes brand. There was a sole Nike shirt that had been stocked, and there were only a few left.
There's an idea in feminist circles called the pink tax. Essentially, it's that women pay more for grooming and hygiene products than men, even when they're buying nearly identical items. This often applies to sportswear as well. Clothes in the women's section can be super expensive, so there's some incentive for money conscious women to just shop in the men's section. I don't like to pay more money for a shirt made out of flimsier, cheaper material.
It's frustrating. Shawnee Barton writes, "the focus on merchandising both misses the real reasons women watch sports and forgoes an opportunity to engage them in far more meaningful—and for the NFL, lucrative—ways." These failed attempts at marketing towards women just demonstrate how much people are expected to live within their gender's traditional roles. Once I saw a manager ask if a little boy was really sure he wanted a pink foam finger. It's just a foam finger, folks. We need to stop attaching gender to colors.
This is just a sliver of the sports marketing industry. There's sexism in sports in many forms, from objectifying ads to "Ladies' Nights" with 'Baseball 101' talks. I don't want to be treated any differently because I am a female sports fan. I just want to be treated like a sports fan.
