Watching Sports: America's Past Time

Something that really struck me from the reading that we did not quite get to touch on in class was the lack of women's sports coverage. I will be the first to admit, I don't really care much when it comes to sports besides football & the Olympics. However I found an interesting journal article entitled "Gender Bias in American Sports: Lack of Opportunity, Lack of Administrative Positions & Lack of Coverage in Women's Sports."An important factor to remember is the definition of gender bias, which is the favor   one of the sexes specifically because of gender. One point that particular stuck with me through this article is that women have always been seen as only being suitable for specific sports that focus on aesthetics like cheerleading, ice skating, gymnastics, etc. Although it makes sense that women are not physically built the same as men to compete in a sport like American football, it is unfair that we are forced to pick up an alternative sport which is not necessarily equal. Women should be allowed to play the exact same sports men are. Even though they are given their own leagues, coverage lacks on their games. Titles are also an interesting point to bring up. Why must the women's basketball association be called the WNBA? Shouldn't that mean that men's basketball association should be MNBA? Instead they are just the "National Basketball Association." Sports are affected by the media coverage in that sponsors are not as openly available to women sports as they are men. The article points out that this is directly because of viewer ratings and women sports in general do not have the same viewer ratings as men, meaning less sponsors. The article is very extensive so I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the topic to read the entire thing. It goes into way more depth than I could ever get into. Nike even promotes the idea that it must be women vs. men in one of their commercials.

Overall I think it's important to note that women have been making significant changes to women's sports, it has just been a very slow pace of change. Just want to leave this post with a quote from the article by Erik F. Pearson "Women's sports is caught between a rock and a hard place. If they advocate for stronger pay, men come in and take over the coaching positions. If they ask the public to look at their athletic skills, there will be no fan base. If they ask us to look at other parts of their bodies, they are thought to be prostituting themselves to the highest bidder, all in the name of recognition."

Color Definition in Journalism

During class the past week, the issue of nonexistent minority journalists came up. It was interesting to learn how from 2010 to 2011 the number of minority journalists in newspapers dropped almost 1%. I'm not sure the exact statistics for the number of minority journalists in television, but I'm sure the statistics are slightly similar. However, I do believe that change is evident. My mother was a Mexican American TV anchor for the ABC affiliate station KVUE in Austin, TX for sixteen years. Through my investigation on the topic, I found an article titled "Are Minorities Getting a Fair Shot at Journalism Jobs?" through the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

My mother, Olga Campos Benz

The article opens up with a story about a young graduate journalism major's struggle to be taken seriously as a writer. The lack of diversity that I learned in class is clearly shown in the article as the author, Carolyn Toll Oppenheim, pushes to increase job opportunities and internships for minority journalists. Her drive and passion for this cause stems from her own experience working at The Chicago Tribune where diversity was appreciated. Much of the article contains commentary about the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and their failure to identify solutions to the minority dilemma. Even the few minority students that make it through the journalism curriculum still have pressures of being understood by the majority of white journalism students. I believe an overall change to the entire journalism system needs to be put into effect in order to help speed up the pace of change of diversity in journalism. A good example of a successful school implementing diversity acceptance is Wayne State University's Journalism Institute for Media Diversity. I included a diversity promo video that I found that truly captures their success.

Fashion: Stretching the boundaries of Gender Roles

Although I didn't meet with my Race, Gender & Mass Media class this week because of the labor day holiday, I could not help but continue my search about how gender roles are shaping up in the last decade. Yesterday, on September 6, the Nation celebrated Fashion's Night Out! At work we celebrated the our love for fashion and allowed our customers to see an exclusive first look at one of our local designers, Three Bishops, new fall collection. In conjunction with the world's most iconic fashion extravaganza, I found an article from one of my favorite blogs, CollegeFashion. The article focused on how gender roles are being challenged in the 21st century in the world of Fashion & Modeling. The main point of the article was to show the timeline and progression of gender stereotypes in fashion and how companies are using models to change these roles.

Writer Carrie, explains how designers have always searched for avant-garde and unconventional looks compared to the time period. Fashion is known for continuously changing and this evolution would not be present without designers looking to constantly change the norms. Back in the 50's this meant finding models who weren't exactly "beautiful" according to society's standards. However recently this means finding models who cross a fair line between feminine and masculine. I've noticed that before 1990's models were always distinctly female with very feminine traits like long eyelashes, curvy silhouette and dolled up faces. However more recently women with masculine traits have been used in runway shows to keep the audience "on their toes." Messy hair, elongated faces and strong jawlines have been present. The most radical change is happening now in the fashion world though. Today transsexual models are being used to match the innovative and unpredictable personality of the fashion industry. I am personally thrilled at the industry's acceptance of all people and their push for social change. Regardless of gender identity, designers and top fashion houses are stepping outside of the gender stereotype boundaries. I do know that no matter how innovative these runway shows are with models, it will take a drastic amount of time for the world to be "gender/color blind." However, fashion is a powerful influence over how the world views what exactly is considered "normal" and "standard" for that time period.

Masculine Models

Short Hair and Strong Jawline

Accepting change and originality is exactly what Fashion's Night Out is about. It's celebrating fashion's influence on the creative arts and for men and women all over the world to express their passion for being unique.

Here's an interesting website that shows famous transgender models, including Lea T and Claudia Charriez.

Model Claudia Charriez

Model Lea T