2002 School Magazine

original works

Televised Sport is Dominated by Male Sports Lockyer passes to Tallis. Tallis powering down and he scores! Poor defence there by Newcastle. Gregan passes to Tun and he charges through the All Blacks' defence and what a try!!I Schumacher another Grand Prix!!! Tiger Woods, is he the greatest golfer ever? Do these sound familiar? I think they do and this is because males dominate televised sport From a quick glance at a television on any weekend it becomes obvious that the televised sporting world favours men over women, outrageous as this may seem! Rugby League and Aussie Rules are broadcast In prime-time places on commercial channels and Netball. one of Australia's biggest women's sports, is only covered on television on Sunday afternoons on the ABC. Why is this You may ask. As well as Rugby League and AFL, Brisbane club football games are also broadcast before the Commonwealth Bank Netball Trophy games are even thought about. And that is only on free-to-air television. What about Fox sports? On this pay N channel, wrestling. boxing, golf. football and soccer are broadcast. all of which are male dominated sports. Women's sports rate only a cursory mention in the male dominated world of sport As Australians, most people tend to think our culture focuses on giving everyone "a fair go" and supporting the underdog. But the truth is. we don't! If we as a community, supported everyone and gave everyone "a fair go" we would have to ask the question, why, on Friday nights. is Rugby League broadcast on Channel9 and not the Commonwealth Bank Netball Trophy? Also, why 15 AFL shown on Saturday afternoon on Channel 10 when we could be watch'rig the Australian Women's Softball competition? There is 00 doubt about it. Televised sport is dominated by male sports Traditionally. men have always played sport and women have been the spectators 15 this because we. as the International viewing population, think that watching men play is more entertaining because they are stronger and more prone to aggression than women? Women and sport, are two words with very different meanings. Why is it that they can't go together? National television networks seem to have a preconceived idea that women are meant to be in the home and not showcasing their talents on the world stage. Men are portrayed as heroes in televised sport on a daily basis. If the world sporting community cared as much about women as they do about men then every follower of swimming would know as much about Sarah Ryan and Petrea Thomas as about Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe. These two female athletes love their sport and have been competing for some time. In fact, Petrea has been swimming for Australia for eight Years, far longer than either of the males History is a wonderful thing, but the treatment of women's sport histor'cally, is somewhat embarrassing. When the Olympic Games began, women weren't even allowed to watch, let alone compete. Today we seem consigned to a similar fate. Despite the massive levels of participation by the female population in sports such as Netball. the majority of the media seem to feel that women should be neither heard nor seen As a population we must question our motives in watching televised sport. Some people may watch particular sports because they play them or have played them in the past and they have a particular interest in them. If this is the case, then women. making up half of the population. havejust as much right to see their favourite sports televised as men do. This does not happen. For others, it may be just a form of entertainment, with the more aggressive male sports such as rugby providing an outlet similar to violent computer games. 15 that what half of the population, the females of the world, want? If sport is for entertainment. then women are not being entertained as much as men because televised sport is definitely dominated by male sports Whether it is the amount of prime-time coverage allotted, the attitude of the male dominated television networks. the history of Inequality for women, or the fact that televised sport is a form of entertainment, it 15 obvious that televised sport is dominated by male sports, whether we like it or not

Jessico Cormichoel 8 Woolcock

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