By Chelsea Reber // Special Contributor
You Throw Like a Girl… And That’s a Good Thing
“Girls playing sports is not about winning gold medals. It’s about self-esteem, learning to compete and learning how hard you have to work in order to achieve your goals.” — Jackie Joyner-Kersee
“Today we celebrate how far we’ve come. But we must also recommit ourselves to Title IX’s goal of equality in education, for too many school and education programs still drag their feet and lag behind in their responsibility to our young women and girls.” — President Bill Clinton on the 25th anniversary of Title IX
“The triumph can’t be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.” — Wilma Rudolph, Olympic gold medalist and first American woman to win three gold medals in the Olympic Games
Powerful Women
Girls grow up learning about women like Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks and Marilyn Monroe; women who represent strength, courage and leadership. These same girls are told to dream big and strive to be the best. They are told they can do whatever they desire if they have enough determination…they could even be president one day in a country that has been ruled by men since the founding fathers arrived. Modern day women like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have proved that women have already made huge strides in politics; an area that has historically been male dominated.
Althea Gibson
This brings us to another area that is also male dominated and the main topic of this paper: sports; specifically sports on television. One of the best examples of how television has affected sports is Althea Gibson. Gibson was the first African-American woman to compete on the world tennis tour and was referred to as the “Jackie Robinson of tennis” for breaking the color barrier. In 1956, she became the first African-American to win a Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. However, when many people are asked who the first black tennis player to win a Grand Slam title was, many answer Arthur Ashe who won the U.S. Open in 1968. So why do so many people answer Ashe when Gibson won a title more than 10 years before? The 1968 U.S. Open was televised, unlike Gibson’s title game, therefore, more people knew about Ashe’s accomplishment.
Portrayal of Women in Sports
Television has done so much for the sporting world – a subject that an entire other paper would have to cover. With that transition, television has also impacted the portrayal of women in the world of sports.
Because of televised sports, young girls are now idolizing female athletes: Venus and Serena Williams, Diana Taurasi and Jennie Finch. More girls than ever are participating in high school sports and some going on to earn scholarships to play at the collegiate level.
Women athletes- American public has traditionally concentrated attention on women in INDIVIDUAL sports – sports exemplify attributes of self-sacrifice, glamour, grace – like figure skating, tennis, gymnastics, pro golfers
That has changed as women are active in more competitive sports like basketball, volleyball, track and field. These require and represent strength, speed, endurance. And women in sports represents empowerment.
The Next Big Thing
This is why I think the next big thing in televised sports is a sports network with programming completely dedicated to women’s sports. There has been talk about ESPNW, an ESPN “sister” channel devoted to women. I think this is a fantastic idea and it will be the next big thing in sports.
Volleyball, softball, gymnastics… the list goes on of female sports that also happen to be non-revenue sports. So it makes sense that ESPN only airs the NCAA Women’s College World Series or the NCAA Volleyball Championships. Why would they show a regular season women’s lacrosse game if no one is going to watch it? But what about the three Jordan-Elbridge (Syracuse) female lacrosse players who have all signed Division 1 scholarships for next year? What about the eight year-old who watches her older brother play lacrosse, but has never seen girls compete?
A network dedicated to airing female sporting events would really reach out to younger female athletes who may not have the chance to see their sports being played at the highest level. ESPNW would expose the world to amazing athletes that have not received the attention they deserve. Tiger Woods’ face is plastered all over the news and sports networks for his scandalous behavior, but what about the college softball pitcher who threw a perfect game for the first time in school history? Without a women’s sports network, no one will know or care about the stories that are happening even in their own area.
Why TV Makes a Difference
Cameras and television have changed the way sports are played. There are more slam dunks, more touchdown dances and more chances for people to watch their favorite players and teams when they cannot be at the game. I think more television coverage on female sports would have a very positive affect. Female athletes would strive to be better and prove to the world they deserve face time too.
More television coverage would also create interest in more female athletes and the sports they play. It would increase the urgency to win more games and do well because more people would be watching. It would also help the general sports audience learn more about female dominated sports and become more knowledgeable about the life of a female athlete. Sports fans could broaden their horizons and learn more about all sports, not just the ones that they may have played growing up or have male stars.
Advertising
Creating a channel like ESPNW would open up a whole new world to advertisers targeting women who also enjoy working out or watching/playing sports. Female deodorant, workout gear, tennis shoes, diet supplements, the list goes on of the thousands of products that could be advertised on a women’s sports channel and would be targeted to the perfect audience.
Women like beer too, but what if beer companies could make commercials directly targeted to the female audience instead of having to worry about men too? ESPNW would be the perfect opportunity for advertisers to reach a specific audience with ease.
College Player Perspective
Kayla Schmidt just finished her senior year at the University of Alabama where she played volleyball for the Crimson Tide. Schmidt grew up in the small town of Bellville, Texas where she played both volleyball and softball in high school. She played volleyball for two years at Blinn College where she won the NJCAA Volleyball National Championship and was then recruited to play at Alabama. I asked Schmidt what she thought about a channel like ESPNW and she believed it would be a great opportunity to show younger female athletes that they could have a future with sports.
“The dropout rate in girl’s athletics over recent years at Bellville has been ridiculous. I don’t know why they quit, but I believe they just don’t see a future in sports…especially being from a small town with little opportunity,” she said.
Schmidt said her athletic career was something she never expected as a young athlete in a small town.
“Girls need to know that sports can take you places. Never in a million years would I have thought volleyball could get me this far,” she said.
Schmidt said young girls have to know that being involved in sports can take you places whether it’s off the street or to the next level of play. She also believes that a women’s sports channel would increase public knowledge of female athletes and the sports they play. She said it would make women’s sports more competitive because everyone plays harder when games are televised and they know the whole world is watching.
Katie Hinton is entering her last softball season at Campbell University in North Carolina. She was born and raised in College Station, Texas and had many accomplishments as a young softball player. She said she grew up watching the NCAA Women’s College World Series and when she saw softball on television, it made her excited to think that could be her one-day.
“I think it is helpful for younger girls to be able to watch the sports they play. I definitely think it was a positive influence on me,” she said.
She also said it is important for girls to get familiar with other female athletes and see how they can relate to them. Hinton also made the point that many of her friends and family were not able to see her play in college because she went to school in another state. She said with a channel like ESPNW, more college games could be aired, giving more people a chance to watch their daughters, nieces or granddaughters play without having to fly or drive to the game.
Girls Rule, Boys Still Rule More… but that’s OK
It may not be the most popular channel and would not magically turn female sports into revenue sports, but I do believe it would get people interested and put more female athletes on the map, getting closer and closer to their male counterparts.
Female athletes have stories too and they deserve to be told just as much as men’s stories. ESPNW would create a world that female athletes would be the stars of all the time with no competition from the Y chromosome. Young girls would have the ability to watch their idols more often and see the game played on a level that may not be available to them anywhere else but on TV. These are all reasons that a channel like ESPNW would be successful and have a dramatically positive influence on women’s sports and the world of sports in its entirety.
Leave a Reply