By

Cathleen Daus - Graduate Student
University of Central Florida-College of Education-Sports and Fitness Department

Contents:

The purpose of this article is to promote discussion about how media handles the topic of homosexuality in men’s and women’s sports.

When discussing the issue of women in sports and homophobia, one cannot ignore the role the media has played on what is acceptable and how it is portrayed. According to Lisa Bennet in her research published in the Gay and Lesbian Review about the last fifty years of prejudice in the media she discusses the affects media has on homosexuality and the views other people believe about it. “When journalists first came to the story of homosexuality at the end of World War II, the stigma surrounding the subject was far greater than anything that exists today. All the major religions condemned it as a sin against God and nature. Psychiatrists treated it as a serious mental disorder. Almost every state in the nation had a law against it, with many calling for a prison term for convicted homosexuals. And Americans generally didn’t talk about it, at least in public.” (Lisa Bennet 2000)

Bennett's research was to examine over three hundred and fifty stories over a fifty-year period to see how the media began to change its view on homosexuality and how articles in the media can shape prejudices. In the 1940's only 2 articles had been written and 21 in the 1950's and 25 in the 1960's. According to this research most of the articles where very critical of a homosexual lifestyle. In the1970's 62 articles where written, 95 in the 1980's and 151 in the 1990's. Many of these articles where written about controversies of gays and lesbians fighting for their civil rights. Into the 90's there is still prejudicial allegations and distorting coverage of homosexuality in many articles and news reports. Lisa Bennet (2000)

Jennifer Knight and Traci Giuliano research the impact of the Medias heterosexist portrayals on perceptions of male and female athletes. In doing so they often found that woman athletes although more accepted then in the past are put to a constant feministic test. The state that woman’s sport has a image problem and that that problem is usually stated as image is actually that all female athletes are lesbians. Media outlets use this language to divert attention from the fact that there are lesbians in sport. There is a method of feminine apologetic actions that most athletes are subjected too, to avoid the stereotype of being a lesbian (Griffin, 1998). However, according to Knight and Giuliano, men are not subjected to the same homophobic views. Especially when it comes to a more masculine sport men are assumed heterosexual and they are rewarded and acknowledged for their great athletic achievements. Women on the other hand are constantly shown in a heterosexual spotlight that shows them in society driven feminine roles. Often there cooking, shopping and caretaking of children and being shown with a husband overshadows there athletic prowess. Knight and Giuliano conducted a study where they had participants read a hypothetically article about male and female athletes. In some of the articles it was stated that the athlete was heterosexual in others the athletes sexual orientation was ambiguous. This study revealed that even though it is usually assumed that men are considered to be heterosexual, in this study male athlete whose sexuality was ambiguous was assumed to be homosexual as was the female athlete. A reason for this could have been the sport that was used as the example was not considered an extremely a manly sport. All female and male athletes that where thought to be homosexual where perceived negatively by the readers. Many of the participants commented that they wish the hypothetical articles with the ambiguous sexual orientation focused more on the athlete and no personal life add-in. However, they did not make such comments about the heterosexual personal life add-ins (Knight and Guliano, 2003). This brings up an interesting question if fans really care about the sexuality of their sport stars.

In a recent examination of a study conducted on female basketball fans concerning questions about sexual orientation of Cheryl Miller, Pamela Foreman and Darcy Plymire examined responses of a group of woman basketball fans to an internet posting that questioned the sexual orientation of Cheryl Miller. Miller has never come out as a lesbian but there is speculation, however she dresses in ties and suspenders, but when asked she gives a very feminized dressed up answer. As stated in Foreman and Plymire’s research another researcher Clarke states that this is a type of “gay window advertising”. Interestingly enough eh interest fans have in this topic and her own style is something that she and her employers seemingly ignore. This is not the only professional basketball player that there seems to be some rumblings of lesbianism surrounding the. Difference in treatment between men and women sports figures: Example

Sue Wicks played for the New York Liberty and the first player in the entire WNBA to come out as a lesbian (Gretchen, 2002). The interesting and almost baffling thing about this story is that it really was not much of a story. Wicks answered “yes” to a question in an interview if she was a lesbian. For over a month not one other publication seemed to pick up on the story and basically it was shied away from. Gretchen has found that many other professional athletes that have come out have been flocked by reporters and many chastising articles have been done on them. According to Gretchen the really big picture is how little e coverage a professional woman received for coming out and taking such a courageous step, when across town a male professional was holding press conferences to denied allegations and rumors that he was homosexual. He made big headlines and Wick’s got little attention. This could be taken that it is more acceptable to be a lesbian in sports and that society is accepting. However, Gretchen points out that Cathy Renna the news media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Renna, 2002) feels this is not the case. She believes that society believes when women play sports, they are assumed to be gay. This thought process will tear allies especially heterosexual allies away from sport. Griffin states that “silence is the most consistent and enduring manifestation of homophobia in women’s sports (Griffin, 1992)). She further states that the “silent avoidance” is the strategy of choice whereby those in charge of women’s athletics avoid the topic at all costs, from rebuffing reporters interested n the issue, to rarely scheduling panels on homophobia at conferences or within individual sport programs (Griffin, 1998).

In the media there are many examples of men being treated very differently when their sexual orientation is in question. As previously stated with the example of Sue Wicks and another athlete. That athlete is part of the big 4, this is a term used to describe the four major sports. They are considered the four major sports because of fan base, money making, and how masculine of a sport they are (Messner, 1992)). The four sports are baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. The player who was in question of being gay was Mike Piazza of the New York Mets professional baseball team. Brendan Lemon is the author of an article called “Not out at the Plate”. In this article he discusses the fascination that people have with others especially sports stars sexuality. He believes that there are three powerful cultural sources that make people interested and they are sex, sports, and celebrity. Then with secrecy involved it becomes an irresistible mix. (Sports Illustrated, 2002) He touches on a great issue that many spectators may bring up and that is “Couldn’t we all just focus on the game?” Lemon states that the greatest of sports stories involve the breaking of barriers, whether athletic or social.

If it is true that the greatest sports stories do involve the breaking of barriers, would it matter if a man or woman, is the one breaking them? In a society where men athletes receive more attention then women athletes it could be assumed that homosexuality would be discussed more in men’s sports. We can see from the research done that that has not been the case and far too often women are perceived a certain way just for being athletes. More case studies and research need to be done to get a better in depth coverage of how homophobia in sports begins and spreads.

Bennett, L. (2000) Fifty Years of Prejudice in the Media. Gay and Lesbian Review, VII, Spring

Griffin, P. (1992) “Changing the Game: Homophobia, Sexism, and Lesbians.” Quest 44

Griffin, P. (1998) Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Knight, J. and T. Giuliano (2003) Blood, Sweat, ad Jeers: The Impact of the Media's heterosexist Portrayals on Perceptions of Male and Female Athletes. Journal of Sports Behavior: September, Vol. 26 Issue 3

Lemon, B. (2002) Not Out at the Plate. Sports Illustrated; 6/3/2002, Vol. 96 Issue 23

Messner, M. (1992) Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Beacon Press, Boston, MA

Plymire, P. and D. Forman (2001) Speaking of Cheryl Miller: Interrogating the Lesbian Taboo on Women's Basketball Newsgroup. NWSA Journal, 13, spring

Renna, C. (2002) GLAAD Statements Regarding Anti-Gay Comments Retrieved 9/29/04 from: www.glaad.org/media/archive_detail.08_02.php

1). Should media be held accountable for printing material that may question a women athlete’s femininity?

2). Do you think fans are ready to sport a gay athlete in a team sport?

3). Should media cover the “scandal” or the “positive” side of a story about a gay athlete?

4). Is the topic of homosexuality just another example of how sex sells in the media?

5). How can we put an end to negative stereotyping of women athletes?

First copy the above questions ( you'll paste them into the reply form of the discussion forum) and then ...

Just click onto this link

September 2005 - Dr. John Ferguson will start with a new article.

Have a good discussion, 

co-ordinator 

Guy Van Damme