By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
Bonnie Hagerman, UVA professor and author of Skimpy Coverage, a Look at Sports Illustrated and Female Athletes, will speak to members of Friends of the Library on Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. She draws on her interest as a former athlete, growing up in an athletic home where Sports Illustrated was part of the household reading. That led to her realization that female athletes were underrepresented in sports though the few who were featured piqued her curiosity.
During her research on female athletes and swimsuit models in Sports Illustrated she discovered that those curious about her research on women in the magazine would prompt them to remark, “Oh, you’re looking at swimsuit models?”
“The hopeful lilt in these comments made me consider the significance of the general assumption that a female in Sports Illustrated was not an athlete but a swimsuit model, as well as the possibility that the magazine wanted her to be seen that way,” she said. “One of the stories that was particularly amazing was Sports Illustrated’s 2002 feature on tennis player Simonya Popova who had “pulchritude and attitude in equal measure” as well as a huge serve and amazing ground strokes. And she was completely fictional. Given that the magazine rarely gave coverage over to female athletes – especially in comparison to the attention it placed on sportsmen – the fact that the magazine chose to feature a completely fictional, but beautiful, athlete is telling.”
The evolution of women’s sports has been spurred by Title IX, which protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
“I think the recent success of the women’s Final Four basketball tournament and women’s success at the Paris Olympics have shown how far women have come, especially since they were not allowed to participate in the first modern games in 1896.” Women’s tennis, soccer, and basketball have been the focus of media attention in the last several years. Recently, women Olympians garnered just as much attention as their male counterparts for their accomplishments. Hagerman added that social media has also been a game-changer, increasing accessibility for female athletes.
“I feel that media coverage, sponsorship, and public perception are all on the upswing for certain sports. Equal pay remains an issue for several sports, including tennis, which is often seen as the gold standard for women.”
Considering how race, class, and sexuality have intersected with gender in the evolution of women in sports, Hagerman said, “It is all about accessibility and opportunity, and race, class, and sexuality as well as disability, motherhood, and religion have all affected women’s ability to play sports at all levels,”
She cited many athletic trailblazers, who changed perceptions of female athletes, impacting future generations, including Babe Didrikson, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, and Billie Jean King, from the early days.
“It was Billie Jean King who saw sports as a vehicle for advancing second-wave feminism, but feminists of the 1960s were slow to see the potential of it until Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the second Battle of the Sexes in 1973. But sport has been a platform for activism for decades.”
She named the tennis-playing Williams sisters, Megan Rapinoe, Naomi Osaka, and Simone Biles as examples of recent women athletes who have changed perceptions.
“There are so many more. All of these women completely changed the world of women’s sports in terms of what women are capable of physically, as well as mentally. For the latter, Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles changed the game where mental health issues are concerned and prioritizing their mental health over anything else.”
She also discusses the obvious – the swimsuit model and the female athlete.
“For SI, the idealized qualities of its female athletes, good-looking, straight, white, able-bodied, and cisgender, mirrored those it prized in swimsuit models. Anytime we talk about femininity instead of femininities, we are talking about hegemonic femininity which denotes that there is one right way to be feminine instead of multiple approaches.”
