News journalists love to lead with controversy and conflict. It’s easy to find news items about successful athletes that focus on the “problem” of their bodies, race, gender, clothes, masculinity, femininity. Do you see star athletes being reduced to the issue of their sex, race, or appearance in sports news? Is this changing?
Construct your essay using at least one news article (cite author, source, date) and at least one quote from our assigned readings. Coming on Strong, Darwin’s Athletes, and other sources provide insights on race, class and sex stereotypes of men and women in
sports history. But even today, old attitudes can be found in news articles presenting athletes in a certain light: bad boy, princess, “thug,” “monster,” animal, beauty queen.
Journalists have the power to reinforce our ideas about gender, race and class in sports.
In this first paper, point out where YOU see old biases in journalists’ language, headlines, and content. Be certain to select actual, published news writing. Do not build your paper
around a fan’s blog, a YouTube video, or Wikipedia. Go to published sports journalism, newspapers and magazines; online versions are of course fine. Columns in, say, ESPN.com or SportsIllustrated.com are acceptable, as are pieces in daily newspapers— but use sources where an author is identified.
Once you have a news sample (or two) and are ready to write, look for the assumptions about gender, race and sports performance. Who is the intended audience? Are there
mixed messages or contradictions? What do these sources imply about athletes or sports? Does the author intend to provoke the reader? In your paper, please, in your opinion, the
assumptions about sex or race, masculinity or ethnicity you noticed. Were you surprised?
What satisfies our cultural ideals about men and women as heroic or beautiful, tough or ugly? (Relax: you don’t have to address ALL those points.)
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