Sexism in the media has received a significant amount of attention recently due to the treatment of female Olympians in comparison to their male counterparts. While men like Michael Phelps are repeatedly heralded for their accomplishments--even those which are less impressive than their usual performances--women like Katie Ledecky are having their accomplishments attributed to the men in their lives, are being criticized for the exact same behaviors as some male Olympians, and are generally being given less credit for comparable or even more impressive feats than male Olympians in the same sport. Sexism in the media is, of course, not just prevalent in sports coverage. Sexism appears in the news almost every day. Sexism appears in reality shows. Sexism appears even in scripted television shows. It is everywhere. It is so pervasive, not a day goes by when I do not read, see or hear something sexist in the media.
Analyzing every sexist remark appearing in the media in the past week--even in the past day--would take far too long, so let us use the Olympics as a sort of microcosm of media sexism. These are by no means the only sexist remarks made about female Olympians during these Olympics, and this article is not designed to be a comprehensive review of sexism in the media.
Example #1:
The Associated Press published the article shown above on August 14th, 2016. Although it is no easy feat to win a silver metal, it is very clear which of the above headlines should be larger. Had the roles been switched--meaning Phelps set a world record and Ledecky won a silver medal--Ledecky would not even have been a part of the headline. So why does Phelps--who has won multiple silver metals before--get the bigger type and the more important spot in the layout? The answer is simple: he is a man.
Katie Ledecky broke a world record in women's 800 freestyle. A world record. She was faster in that event than any other human being in the world. There is no legitimate reason she should not have been the leading headline. There is no legitimate reason the media should not be praising her existence and rubbing her elite athleticism in the faces of us all. But the media is not doing that. If women had not seen this headline and rightfully pointed out the injustice of it, then Ledecky's name would probably already have faded into the background despite accomplishing such unbelievable feats.
Example #2
Gabby Douglas (pictured second from the right above), one of the most famous female gymnasts in the United States, was criticized heavily for her supposed "lack of patriotism" in the picture above. She did not place her hand on her heart during the National Anthem, and members of the press attacked her more fiercely than any self-respecting adult should ever use their professional platform to critique a young woman with incredible athletic prowess.
Douglas was not only criticized for this action, however. No. She was also ripped to shreds because of the way her hair looked whilst she competed. Hundreds of people took to twitter to make fun of her hairline or hair do. Other commentators said her makeup made her look like she was trying to look sexy to get higher scores. Gabby Douglas's appearance has nothing to do with her performance in the Olympics, and it has no place in the coverage of the Olympics.
One commentator said she and the rest of the members of the Final Five "looked like they belonged at a mall." Excuse me, sir, these are Olympians. They are the greatest athletes in America, and according to their gold medals, the world. How dare you reduce all of their time, effort, undeniable skill and athletic ability into something as trivial and condescending as spending time at the mall. This situation is made even worse by the fact that we all perceive spending time at a mall to be trivial and insulting. There is nothing wrong with teenage girls going to the mall--there is just a large difference between shopping and winning gold medals.
Example #3
The Chicago Tribune published the tweet pictured above after Corey Cogdell-Urein won a bronze medal in women's trap shooting. The article headline did not mention Cogdell-Urein's name or her Olympic event. It does not mention how she has competed in the Olympics three times. The only thing the headline mentions is her husband--because that is apparently the only important aspect of her existence. Women are constantly evaluated based on their relationships to men.
To further prove this point, Katinka Hosszú, a Hungarian swimmer who broke the world record and won gold in the 400-meter individual medley had her incredible performance credited to her husband. One commentator stated her husband was responsible for her record-breaking athletic ability. That makes no sense. Katinka Hosszú won a gold medal, and the congratulations belong to her husband? He did not do the swimming. He did not break the world record. She did that. She deserves the accolades and all of the credit for her abilities.
Being a woman in the sports world is difficult, and it is made far more difficult by the lack of diversity in sports journalism. According to multiple reports, 90% of sports journalists are men, and 90% of sports journalists are white. Why is that significant? It means sports journalism in the United States is one of the least diverse professions in the country. It means most media reports on sports are inherently biased. It means the people with the loudest voices are not properly representative of the population of our country.
We need to encourage more diversity in the media. We need to demand more diversity in our media. We need to continue calling out journalists who allow their personal biases to overshadow their journalistic integrity. We need to write letters to the editor, write response articles, tag media sources in tweets and Facebook posts, and generally, make noise about the injustice in our media. The Olympics are just a microcosm of the greater world of journalism, but if we cannot hold sports journalists accountable for their words and actions, then we have no hope of holding the entire media accountable.
