"Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender representation in Sport Illustrated

I believe many have the impression that male athletes are more represented in media than females. Moreover, the few articles that cover women's sport often focus more on body and appearance, rather than athletic performance. In this blog I will examine gender representation in the magazine "Sport Illustrated" by looking at the number of cover photos and the style of these photos, and thereby determine if the impression of gender discrimination in sport medias really is the case. 

I went to Sport Illustrated's webpage (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com) and the first I saw was that 4 of 4 main news are about male athletes. Basketball, hockey and football is outlined with "in action pictures". I find this wired: Firstly, there is an ongoing winter Olympic in Sochi, Russia, these days, and basketball and football are not Olympic sports. The to sports are also known to be male dominated. Moreover, although several American women has taken medals in the Olympics, you can barely find any information about it! By scrolling down the home page, I only manage to find one article about the Olympics! 

Furtherrmore I find 17 out of 23 news articles with pictures to be about male athletes, and again the four American male dominated sports are the best represented. Only 1 of the 6 cases about females are actually talking about a "real" female athlete: If you scroll down on the site you will find a small picture of Katilyn Farrington who won the gold medal in snowboard slop style competition. The 5 other cases about females, are on the other side related to appearance and body: Skinny and tanned girls in bikini are posing for the camera, and the articles are about the choice of the 50th anniversary swimsuit cover. Another example is a female golfer who has chosen to pose naked for the sport magazine. 

I think this way of covering the sport is wrong. To focus on male is one thing, but to use the small room left for women for modeling posing is just absorbed. Males are pictured in athletic actions, representing their sport, however the females are used to entertain the men? What does bikini and nudity have to do with sports other than that the ancient Greeks competed naked? I think Sport Illustrated is discriminating by gender, and they shoulwith respect.   

This screenshot of the webpage shows how the magazine is presenting athletic articles about male, while females are represented through appearance and nudity.