Sports Illustrated Magazine covers for 2013--Gender representations
I researched the cover photographs of Sports Illustrated Magazine for the year 2013 and found that 1 of the 160 covers had a woman in it. It wasn't even of just a woman, it was two men holding on their shoulders. She was posing in a feminized version of their uniform. This reveals the delicacy of women and the power/strength of men, thus reinforcing normalized gendered behavior.
The only picture with a female in it still reinforced societies expectation of women. The men were supporting her with ease while they held her on their shoulders. The other cover photos were all male, mostly action shots of individual athletes or sometimes specific teams. Clearly, society views men as the powerhouse and support and women as subversive delicate beings.
Despite all of the woman's rights movements, while they did have an impact, society still views if not thrives off of normalized gendered behavior. Women are seen as the delicate, poised, subversive, and 'just there to be looked at' objects of sexual pleasure. While men are seen as the support, the tough, the strong, the powerful, the focus, the determination, etc.
My research of 2013 cover photos on Sport Illustrated supports previous researched and knowledge of media and sports. According to Coakley, media such as magazines is a "very male-oriented network" (429). Men are seen as "man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. beast" while women are positioned in suggestive postitions or revealed to be powerless (Coakley 429). Statistics show that "men sports recieved 90 percent of coverage in all the media and images and narratives tend to reproduce traditional ideas and beliefs about gender" (Coakley 429).
There has been a struggle and battle for equality in sports, however, according to the statistics and evidence of the covers on Sports Illustrated magazine, the struggle is far from over.
Resources:
Coakley Chapter 12
http://cnnsi.com/vault/cover/select/2013-01-01/2013-12-31/dd/1/index.htm
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