I’m going to confess straight up to having little to zero interest in the underwear choices of Venus Williams.
Yet in recent days her flesh coloured shorts have become a story in sport in themselves and sent twitter abuzz with is she or isn’t she wearing underpants debates.
Perhaps this isn’t so shocking, Maria Sharapova’s green “frocklet” (I kid you not- apparently there is indeed such a thing), got its own press conference launch and then we saw precious column space designated to the diamond earring and necklace choices of Serena Williams, (which she liked “because it had lots of S’s in the design”, and we can all respect that).
As female athletes’ clothing and jewellery choices shifted from the fashion pages into the sports sections in coverage of the Australian Open, it seems that sporting fashion has been a key part of how female athletes are quite literally getting themselves into the picture.
And there’s no doubt that if you’re a female athlete then picture space is limited. It’s hotly contested to find ways to get coverage, grow your profile and attract much-needed sponsorship dollars.
I’m not adverse to ranting at length about the vicious cycle affecting women’s sport. There’s the lack of coverage limiting the sponsorship opportunities, which restrict career and training opportunities, which hamper the development and professionalism of sports, which in turn limit the coverage - etcetera, etcetera.
But today I’m going to insert some new research which provides powerful background to the potential motivations to “sex up” or “pretty up” images in women’s sport.
The Federal Government recently funded research into the content and quantity of women’s sport coverage which found coverage of women in sport makes up 9% of all sports coverage in Australian television news and current affairs.
Let me just repeat that, 9%. Male sport makes up 81%. (In fairness we should note that ABC gives above average representation of women’s sport with 11% of television news coverage on ABC1 Sydney and Melbourne).
It further deduced that reports on male sport also have an average duration which is 30 seconds longer than reports on female sport.
All of this is best put in context when one considers that horseracing alone receives more airtime than all women’s sport combined in Australian television news, making up the other 10%. Which I think is interesting, to say the least.
The good news is that the coverage of women’s sport is overwhelmingly positive - far more so than men’s sport - though this is basically attributed to the facts that if you’re a woman you pretty much have to win to have any chance of making the news, whereas male sport will often be covered just for taking place. Men receive more negative press for questionable off field behaviour in part because they are higher profile and considered public role models in greater numbers. So it sort of takes the shine off that too.
Of course these are not new phenomena. And it’s not new to find ways to “sex up”, “provide a hook” or “increase the appeal” of women’s sport, far from it.
On the weekend I was heartened by a mate telling me how much he liked women’s sport, until he went on to explain that he really just meant women’s beach volleyball. And his rationale was, well, not particularly sport related. It brought back memories of the debate when volleyball ruled that men could play in shorts whilst the women on the beach circuit couldn’t wear briefs that were any thicker than 6cm at the hip. We saw it in basketball when women adopted tight fitting bodysuits in contrast to the men’s knee length oversized shorts and numerous other sports have introduced similar measures.
The thing is, and without ranting about equity issues or sexualisation or body image consequences which you can be sure I desperately want to rant about, we are a nation that prides ourself on our great love of all things sport and we’re missing some big stories in women’s sporting achievements and neglecting some inspiring female role models.
This week in women’s cricket alone, one of Australia’s greatest cricketers Karen Rolton announced her retirement after 141 one-day internationals, 14 Tests, 15 Twenty20 Internationals and winning the ICC’s Inaugural Female Player of the Year Award in 2006. She’s set a standard for women’s cricket and is a role model we should be holding up proudly to inspire our youngsters.
Just days ago, Betty “the female Bradman” Wilson passed away. Betty was one of the greatest cricketers this nation has ever produced, scoring 90 runs and taking 10 wickets in her debut Test in 1948. She became the first female cricketer to be inducted in the Australian Sports Hall of Fame with a bowling average of 11.80 – compared to Shane Warne’s 25.41 and a Test average of 57.46 runs compared to Ponting’s.
What were we talking about again though? Oh, that’s right - sports outfits.
I like frocks as much as the next person but I reckon dedicating our women’s spoirt coverage to them to stupid and counterproductive. Do we really want to be driving a market based on sex, fashion and drama when we have unsung heroes, great achievements and the sort of sporting accomplishments that we should all be holding up proudly?
Surely in 2010 we as sports lovers can send a message that we appreciate women’s sport and abilities irrespective of the darnned frocklett. With only 9% of coverage on women’s sport I reckon we can do better - and I for one want to know more of what we’re missing.
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