The 2016 Rio Games were an amazing exhibition of the dedication and talent possessed by the athletes. Records were broken and dreams were fulfilled for many men and women throughout the two-week period. The way in which the media covered and spoke about athletes based on their gender however, was not something worthy of any medals or celebrations.
Despite the fact that female competitors make up nearly 45% of the field of athletes, Cambridge University researchers found that the word man was used nearly three times more frequently than the word woman in the media’s coverage of the games. This statistic holds true even though female competitions were given about 17% more prime-time coverage by NBC than male competitions.
The same researchers found that words associate with male athletes included fastest, strongest and greatest. While the word women was often associated with the age or marital status of the athlete. At a time where the American women alone collected 61 medals, (a number that would have put them third in the overall medal count had they competed as a separate country) it is time for the media to evolve and give female athletes the credit they deserve. Female Olympians train just as hard, if not harder than their male counterparts and thus deserve to be treated and spoken about on the same level as male Olympians. Male athletes’ performances are equally affected by things such as their outfits and their marital status, however this would never be attributed as a reason for their success, in fact it might be used as an excuse for underperforming.
The Chicago Tribune reduced U.S. trap shooter Corey Cogdell-Unrein, a two time Olympic bronze medalist, by placing the value on the person she was married to, a member of the Chicago Bears, and not even including her name in a tweet they posted on their official account. By focusing on Cogdell-Unrein’s role as a wife, The Tribune perpetuated ideas about the role of women in society, giving power to the more traditional role of wife and taking power away from the women as a strong, independent and powerful member of society. Not to mention completely disregarding her value as an athlete and diminishing her achievement of being the third best athlete in the world in her particular event.
Roisin Lanigan wrote an article for The Tab outlining Michael Phelps’ success at the games in a manner that would be applied had Phelps been a female athlete. The article is chuckle-worthy and satirical in its nature—not due to the writing, which is superb—because it reveals aspects of his personal that affect his profession minimally if at all.
Women in the workforce often face this type of discrimination, in that people often argue women are less competent because they are married or are mothers. Unmarried women also face skepticism and critique. This issue is not solely an issue faced by female athletes, however because the media chooses to reinforce these ideal on the world’s largest stage, the implications of their words are much greater. Discrimination is never overcome quickly nor quietly, we all must do what we can with or words and actions to make or society a place where everyone is judged based upon their character and abilities and not their gender, race, class or sexual orientation.
