We are 3 weeks away from the 2024 WNBA season and sports experts, who cover men’s sports, are striving to report pleasantly on women’s basketball.
Most of the major new season stories discussed in the major sports media concentrate on player habits and controversies rather than on-field play and team strategy.
This is largely due to decades of undervaluation of women’s football and the lack of high-level analysts in women’s sport.
Current trends in WNBA politics suggest that the one truth worse than no policy is the increasing emergence of inaccurate, divisive, and misogynistic reporting by media professionals with little to no enthusiasm for women’s sports.
On the one hand, there is a scrutiny of the habits of female athletes, such as the scrutiny of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s playing styles. This is not unexpected or new: women have long been subjected to criteria different from those of their male opposite. numbers when it comes to competitive game tactics and tactics. What is unexpected, however, is the emphasis on diminishing and criticizing the relevance of the recently evolved rivalries between players and teams.
Professional sports are a form of entertainment, where rivalries and the intensity of the game influence and edit the overall price of entertainment. However, female athletes and women’s groups are criticized for their competitive fervor in those rivalries, as if they were not. They are allowed to interact in the same competitive dynamic that sparks interest in men’s sports. As a result, women continue to be constrained by superseded gender norms that obstruct the expansion of women’s sport.
Athletes don’t want coverage to focus on physical appearance, intense rivalries, or dominant playing styles. Yet media professionals, green in their coverage of women’s sports, struggle to triumph over their implicit biases, which falsely recommend that women want that coverage and control.
Much of recent media policy has focused on protecting one former athlete, Clark. They say that their conflicting parties are too physical and competitive with her. These biased and reactionary sentiments directly feed into the destructive concept that female athletes are weaker than their male counterparts. and at the same time they cannot take charge of the stereotypical masculine nature of the game. Through observation aimed at protecting elite athletes, media professionals, with little delight in the realm of women’s play and play culture, directly fuel an enduring infantilization of women.
The infantilization of female athletes in media politics is a pervasive challenge rooted in deep-seated gender biases and misogynistic cultural norms. This phenomenon contributes to undermining women’s professional achievements, diminishing their maturity.
Infantilization, an express form of objectification, appears through degrading language and a preference for less physical and competitive styles of play, as well as submissive gestures and behaviors. For example, it has been well established through previous studies that media policy refers to female athletes as “girls,” regardless of their age, while their male counterparts are called “men. “This choice of language subtly diminishes the professional prestige of athletes, presenting them as less serious or less mature.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 31: Alyssa Thomas No. 25 of Connecticut Sun and Courtney Vandersloot No. 22. . . [] of the Chicago Sky fight for a rebound during the second half of Game 2 of the 2022 WNBA Playoffs Semifinals at Wintrust Arena on August 31, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, you agree to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo via Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Society’s expectations of male-appropriate behaviors shape individual behaviors and perceptions in social spaces, adding sport. In sports media, those expectations result in a dichotomous representation in which men are portrayed as strong, passionate, competitive, and professional, while being portrayed as emotional, irrational, weak, and less serious about their sport.
Misogynistic cultural norms further exacerbate the infantilization of female athletes by perpetuating confidence that women are inherently less capable than men. This is evident in the constant questioning of the legitimacy of women’s football and in the comparison of the talents and performances of female athletes with that of their male counterparts, making the men’s game the benchmark.
Outside of basketball, in sports such as gymnastics and figure skating, women are regularly portrayed in a way that emphasizes their grace and appearance more than their athletic prowess. This, once again, illustrates a broader cultural trend of valuing women for their appearance and respecting classic female roles. .
CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 4: Sabrina Ionescu #20 of New York Liberty and Chennedy Carter #7 of. . . [] Chicago Sky second half on June 4, 2024 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire)
Female athletes are not damsels in misery who want sports experts to protect them from the physical aspect of professional sports. This infantilization undermines their credibility and hinders their ability to expand the game and earn greater sources of income from their skill in the game and its entertainment value. Depictions and descriptions make it harder for sponsors, enthusiasts, and the media to take female athletes seriously, which can lead to fewer opportunities and lower quality media coverage. As a result, these movements contribute to perpetuating the cycle of underestimation. Representation and undervaluation in women’s sport.
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