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COVERAGE OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS MAGAZINES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS
Abstract - - COVERAGE OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS MAGAZINES: A
CONTENT ANALYSIS - Susan Francis
The purpose of this thesis was to examine women's sports magazines to see
how female athletes would be portrayed. Historically, female athletes have
been under-represented in the media and have been portrayed in traditional
feminine roles. A content analysis was conducted examining the three
women's sports magazines, Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness, Sports
Illustrated for Women and Real Sports. The results of this study
demonstrates that significant improvement in women's sports coverage is
still needed.
COVERAGE OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN WOMEN'S SPORTS MAGAZINES:
A CONTENT ANALYSIS
Susan Francis
3982 Eastrise Drive
Groveport, Ohio 43125
614-834-5902
[log in to unmask]
Ohio University
Journalism Graduate Degree, June 2002
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Although women and girls are participating in all levels of sports in
unprecedented numbers, the images these same women are exposed to through
the media are typically not celebrating the female athlete, for her
strength, quickness or stamina, according to some studies.1 Mary Jo Kane,
director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sports,
summarized that female athletes tend to be portrayed in one of three
ways.2 First, they are separated from that of male athletes and described
in terms that make their athletic abilities different from male
athletes. As a result, male sports are the "norm." Second, female
athletes are portrayed in very sexual, feminine ways that reassure us that
even though they may be athletes, they retain the most important qualities
of being feminine women. Third, and related to the sexual portrayal, is to
portray female athletes in domestic roles, such as mother, dutiful wife,
etc., to reinforce that the female athletes have not forgotten their most
important roles in life or they are portrayed as victims.
The media often distinguish between female athletes and male athletes by
defining them in terms of masculinity and femininity. The traits defined
as masculine are accepted as the standards for athleticism against which
all athletes are judged against, male or female. Given this threshold,
female athletes are not only seen as "other than," they become "less than"
male athletes. Media critics, including Mary Jo Kane and Janet Parks, in
The Social Construction of Gender Difference and Hierarchy in Sport
Journalism - Few New Twists on Very Old Themes, have argued that
overemphasizing a female athlete's feminine traits reinforces her
otherness. Trivializing her athletic abilities because she can not compare
to male athletic abilities keeps the female athlete in a secondary position.3
The portrayal of female athletes in sexy, feminine poses is pervasive in
the media. Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports
Foundation, discussed when nudity is used as a celebration of a strong
women's athletic body and abilities and when it is used in an
inappropriate, gratuitous way.
According to Lopiano, when photographs feature female athletes in strong,
athletic positions or when the photographs emphasize a competitive
psychological attitude, instead of focusing on sensuality, these
photographs are seeking to "uplift" female athletes. More often than not,
the public does not see these kinds of images. Instead, the viewer sees
pictures of female athletes in various stages of undress being photographed
in non-sport settings which focus exclusively on their body and not their
athletic abilities. In general, male athletes are not asked to pose for
these type of pictures; instead their skill and muscles are highlighted and
they are in athletic gear and in real sport settings. Due to this focus on
sexuality, we often see female athletes being celebrated for their feminine
assets, and not their physical assets, Lopiano said.4
Female athletes are also defined in terms of domestic roles and/or being
victims. Coverage of female athletes tends to focus on their roles as
wives or mothers. When Chris Evert retired after a successful tennis
career, she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the
following tagline, "I'm going to be a full time wife."5
Victim portrayal is also a common method used to portray female
athletes. Tara VanDerveer, Stanford University's women's basketball coach,
discussed Sports Illustrated's choices for its cover. She pointed out that
between the 1993 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and the 1994 issue, only
three female athletes were included on the cover of the magazine. All
three of those issues focused on female athletes being victimized: Monica
Seles who was stabbed; Mary Pierce whose father was abusive; and Nancy
Kerrigan who was clubbed in the leg.6
Most media outlets have fallen short when it comes to giving adequate
attention to female athletes. According to the Modern History of Women in
Sports, men receive 90 percent of the coverage in the sports sections,
women receive 5 percent, and horses and dogs get 3 percent. Women did not
even surpass horse and dog coverage until 1992.7
According to Lopiano, the Women's Sports Foundation executive director,
the most important goal for women's sports in the next ten years is to
break through the "log-jam" of men's sports and to start getting
substantial coverage in a good time slot on a regular basis. Lopiano notes
that this is critical because it directly relates to the sports succeeding
financially.8
Judith Greenberg, author of Women & Sports - Getting Into the Game, argued
that the lack of women's sports coverage in the media is important because
it reflects a much larger picture of women and their role in our society.
Greenberg writes, "The place of women in the sports world reflects their
place in every other area of life; and the way women are regarded by their
society is reflected in the acceptance of women as athletes throughout
history."9
Three magazines were introduced to the general public in the late 1990's
that highlighted and targeted female athletes. They were Real Sports,
Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sport & Fitness. These
were new kinds of magazines that had not been produced in the past. The
question is will the magazines continue to reinforce the portrayals of
female athletes as listed above, or will they take a different approach?
NOTES
1 Studies include: Donna Lopiano, "Modern History of Women In Sports -
Twenty-five Years of Title IX," The Athletic Woman, April 2000; Jan
Graydon, "But it's more than a game. It's an institution. Feminist
Perspectives on Sport," Feminist Review, 13(1983): 5-16; Marie-Luise Klein,
"Women in the Discourse of Sport Reports," International Review for
Sociology of Sport, 23(1988): 139-152; Michael Messner, "Sports and Male
Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain," Sociology
of Sport Journal, 5(1988): 197-211.
2 Mary Jo Kane, "Media Coverage of the Post Title IX Female Athlete: A
Feminist Analysis of Sport, Gender and Power," Duke Journal of Gender Law &
Policy, Spring 1996.
3 Mary Jo Kane and Janet Parks, "The Social Construction of Gender
Difference and Hierarchy in Sport Journalism - Few New Twists on Very Old
Themes," Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, Fall 1992: 50-51.
4 Donna Lopiano, "Putting Female Athlete Nudity in Perspective,"
Submitted to Sports Business Journal, September 2000.
5 Pamela Creedon, Women, Media and Sport. Thousand Oaks, London, New
Delhi: SAGE Publications, 1994: 30.
6 Jane Gottesman, "Coverage of Women in Sports: Q & A with Championship
Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer," EXTRA!, November/December, 1994.
7 Donna Lopiano, "Modern History of Women In Sports - Twenty-five Years
of Title IX," The Athletic Woman, April 2000.
8 Donna Lopiano. Interview with Susan Francis, 18 December 2001..
9 Judith Greenberg, Women & Sports - Getting Into the Game, New York: F.
Watts,1997: 16.
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
While research on the three major women's sports magazines is limited,
there is a substantial amount of data of women's sports coverage in other
media outlets.
J. Renee Mackin did a content analysis of the three women's sports
magazines (Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness, Sports Illustrated for
Women and Real Sports) in 1999. She focused on advertisements, feature
stories and the covers. Advertisements in Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness were primarily for sports apparel and beauty products; its feature
articles were generally health oriented and the covers had a non-sport
focus with casual clothing. Advertisements in Sports Illustrated for Women
were mostly for sport events, sport apparel and sports products. Feature
articles were primarily athlete oriented and the covers had the athletes
posed but dressed in athletic clothing. Real Sports had advertisements
mostly for sport events, its feature articles were mostly sport oriented
and its covers had athletes dressed in athletic clothing and performing an
athletic feat. Mackin summarized that the covers reflected the nature of
the three magazines. According to Mackin, Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness focused on its casual fitness orientation, Sports Illustrated for
Women's covers were consistent with its approach to catch a younger
audience by focusing on the athlete's personality, and Real Sports targeted
sports enthusiasts with action shots.1
L.A. Schell looked at the photographs and text in Conde Nast Women's
Sports & Fitness between 1997 and 1999. She found that the magazine's
cover and the photographs accompanying the articles tended to have white,
thin models clothed in fitness clothes and with various body parts exposed
including thighs, abdominals, cleavage and buttocks. The author argued
that these kind of portrayals reinforce the idea that women's sports are
not competitive and that only sex-appropriate sports should be covered.2
Mary Jo Kane and Janet Parks examined framing in the context of sports
journalism and gender difference. They argued that the media overemphasize
a female athlete's feminine side or trivialize her athletic abilities, and
affect the public's attitude by its lack of coverage of women's sports.
Kane and Parks examined three Sports Illustrated feature articles covering
three tennis tournaments. They found that when describing an athlete's
successes, they were described in masculine traits, and when athlete's
weaknesses were being discussed, they were described in traditional female
traits. Descriptions of weakness were used more for women than
men. Female athletes received an abundance of coverage focusing on their
emotions, including crying. Female athletes were most often described in
terms of their clothing choices. Female athletes were more often portrayed
as their personal lives negatively impacting their sport. For example,
poor play by female athletes might be attributed to such distractions as
breaking up with a boyfriend, having a domineering parent, etc. The
authors concluded that the media are creating gender differences that put
female athletes at a disadvantage.3
Stanley Wearden and Pamela Creedon argued in 1999 that in sports, female
athletes were represented as weaker than male athletes and that images of
female athletes reinforced traditional images of femininity and gender
roles. The authors examined the commercials aired during the WNBA's first
season to see if the commercials upheld traditional feminine roles or
reinforced the strong female images viewers were seeing during the WNBA
games. They found that over half of the commercials portrayed women in
traditionally sexist roles; that the majority of women in the commercials
were conventionally beautiful models; and that young women were used much
more often in commercials for all products. The authors argued that
viewers were getting a mixed message regarding women's roles. The
commercials seemed to indicate that it was okay for a woman to be strong in
the context of sports, but that in the rest of her life, she must live
within the traditional roles for women.4
Bonnie Hagerman examined coverage of women's sports in Sports Illustrated
from 1954-2000. She found that the overwhelming theme of the magazine was
to uphold the traditional roles for women by emphasizing a female athlete's
femininity. Bil Gilbert and Nancy Williamson, Sports Illustrated writers,
criticized their own magazine and other media outlets for focusing on a
female athlete's looks or for portraying her in an unnatural way.
Gilbert and Williamson noted "the amount of coverage given to women's
athletics is meager and the quality is atrocious. Rather than describing
how well or badly the athlete performed or even how the contest turned out,
writers tend to concentrate on the color of the hair and eyes, and the
shape of the legs or the busts of the women. The best-looking girls (by
male standards) are singled out for attention, no matter how little their
sporting talent may be."5
One study by Angela Lumpkin and Linda Williams examined all feature
articles in Sports Illustrated between 1954 and 1987 and found that 90.8
percent of the articles featured men, 91.8 percent of the articles were
written by male authors, men's articles were on average ten column inches
longer than women's articles, and for every one article that focused on
women, nine articles focused on men. They also noted that women were
described in "blatantly sexist terms." They found that females received
the most coverage in "acceptable sports," including tennis, swimming,
diving, cycling and track and field. The authors concluded that Sports
Illustrated reinforces the traditional feminine roles by its choices in
what female sports to cover and how the magazine focuses on the physical
appearance of the female athletes instead of their physical abilities.6
Sports Illustrated is not the only media outlet that is not providing much
coverage to women's sports. The same criticism leveled at Sports
Illustrated for its lack of coverage, its emphasis on traditional feminine
roles, and its overemphasis of acceptable female roles has been expressed
about other media outlets as well. Nearly all media outlets have been
criticized for not covering women's sports and for trivializing female
athletes' accomplishments.
The New York Times' coverage of the 1995 women's and men's National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournaments was examined
by Lynn Silverstein. She discovered that the men's tournament had three
times the coverage the women's tournament received. Silverstein found
that the men's tournament was featured on the front page of the sports
section thirty-one times, while the women's tournament only made the front
page of the sports section four times. The author concluded that the
Times inadequately covered women's sports and when they did cover them, the
newspaper tended to uphold old stereotypes.7
The New York Times and Indianapolis Star were examined for their coverage
of women's sports in 1989 and 1999 by Judith Jenkins George. In the Times,
women received 2.2 percent of all sports coverage in 1989 and 6.7 percent
in 1999. The Star had 2.7 percent in 1989 and 8.6 percent in 1999. Female
athletes make up nearly 40 percent of all high school, college and Olympic
athletes.8
Margaret Carlisle Duncan found that women's physical appearance is
highlighted in sports photographs. The author found that those female
athletes that most closely resemble the "ideal" femininity are photographed
most frequently. Women are often photographed in sexy or tight clothing,
as opposed to athletic uniforms. In addition, photographs also focused on
certain body parts to play up female sexuality, or they pictured women in
submissive positions. Methods to stress women's femininity included
focusing on emotional displays, using camera angles that look up to men and
down at women and using visual groups that stress action pictures of men
and non-action pictures of women.9
Several studies have found that television coverage of women's sports is
considerably less than men's coverage. Women are portrayed in
stereotypical images and are often put in a secondary position to
men. Studies have found that women's sports events receive less air time,
have fewer cameras covering the event, are covered by second string
broadcasters, are severely edited, and "condescending, trivializing
comments" are used by the commentators.10
The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles studied televised
basketball games and tennis matches to compare how men and women athletes
were covered. According to the authors of the study, the coverage
presented female athletes as inferior. They found that commentators
commonly referred to female athletes as girls, while never referring to
male athletes as boys. Women were called by their first name 53 percent of
the time, while men were called by their first name 8 percent of the
time. The authors also documented that men and women were described in
different terms. Men were four times more likely to be described in terms
that relayed strength rather than weakness. Alternatively, women were more
likely to be described in terms of weakness.
The authors also found that when a male athlete failed, commentators
generally blamed the power, strength and intelligence of their opponent,
not their individual shortcomings. When a female athlete failed, the
commentators most often attributed it to the athlete lacking in stamina,
aggression, or confidence.11
Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and
Women in Sports, argued that a new stage is occurring in covering women's
sports. While feminizing women athletes to keep them from threatening the
status quo has been occurring for quite some time, according to Kane, a new
emphasis on making female athletes not only feminine but overtly sexy is
occurring.12
NOTES
1 J. Renee Mackin, Women's Sports Magazines. Paper presented at
the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Southeast Regional Colloquium, North Carolina: Chapel Hill, 2000.
2 L.A. Schell, Socially Constructing the Female Athlete: A Monolithic
Media Representation of Active Women. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
Texas Woman's University, Denton, 1999.
3 Mary Jo Kane and Janet Parks, "The Social Construction of Gender
Difference and Hierarchy in Sport Journalism - Few New Twists on Very Old
Themes," Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 1(1992): 49-83.
4 Stanley Wearden and Pamela Creedon, "We Got Next": Images of Women in TV
Commercials During the Inaugural WNBA Season. Paper presented at the
Commission on the Status of Women at the Annual Meeting of the Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, New Orleans: Louisiana,
1999.
5 Bil Gilbert and Nancy Williamson, "Sports is Unfair to Women," Sports
Illustrated, 28 May 1973: 88-89.
6 Angela Lumpkin and Linda Williams, "An Analysis of Sports Illustrated
Feature Articles, 1954-1987," Sociology of Sport Journal, 8(1991): 16-32.
7 Lynn Silverstein, Full-Court Press? The New York Times' Coverage of the
1995 Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament. Paper presented at the Annual
Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication, California: Anaheim, 1996.
8 Judith Jenkins George, Lack of News Coverage for Women's Athletics: A
Questionable Practice of Newspapers Priorities. Women's Sports Foundation
web page - www.womenssportsfoundation.org, March 2002.
9 Margaret Carlisle Duncan, "Sports Photographs and Sexual Difference:
Images of Women and Men in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games," Sociology of
Sport Journal, 7(1990): 22-43.
10 Studies include: Charles Tuggle, "Television Sports Reporting of
Female Athletics: Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis of ESPN
Sports Center and CNN Sports Tonight," Dissertation Abstracts
International, 57-06A(1996); Charles Tuggle, Suzanne Huffman, and Dana
Scott, "A Descriptive Analysis of NBC's Coverage of the 2000 Summer
Olympics," Media Report to Women, Summer 2001; and Karen Weiler, Images of
Illusion, Images of Reality. Gender Differentials in Televised Sport--the
1980's and Beyond. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Indiana:
Indianapolis, 1992.
11 Margaret Carlisle Duncan, Michael Messner, Linda Williams, and Kerry
Jensen, Gender Stereotyping in Televised Sports. Study for the Amateur
Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 1992.
12 Mary Jo Kane. "Media Coverage of the Female Athlete
Before, During,and After Title IX: Sports Illustrated Revisited," Journal
of Sport Management, 2(1988): 87-99.
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study examined whether women's sports magazines portrayed women in
the stereotypical roles as previously discussed.
The research questions for this study are:
- Will the three women's sports magazines portray women's sports as
being something "other," something different, something not the norm, and
portray men's sports as being the "real" representation of sport?
- Will the three women's sports magazines portray female athletes in
sexy, feminine roles or as athletes active and succeeding at their sport?
- Will the three women's sports magazines portray female athletes in
traditional roles as wives, mothers, and/or victims, or in strong, athletic
roles?
CHAPTER IV: METHODOLOGY
A content analysis was used for this study. The three magazines examined
were Real Sports, Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's
Sports & Fitness. The study covered all issues of each of the three
magazines through September 2000 since their inception: 1997 for Sports
Illustrated for Women and 1998 for the other two magazines. This time
period covered the period when these women's sports magazines first
appeared and a time when women's sports was being emphasized.
During the time of the study, Real Sports published eight issues with one
issue in 1998, four in 1999, and three in 2000. Sports Illustrated for
Women published a total of ten issues: two issues in 1997, none in 1998 and
four each in 1999 and 2000. Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness published
a total of twenty-two issues for this time frame, as it changed from a
monthly to a bimonthly, then back to a monthly. This included nine issues
in 1998, six issues in 1999 and seven issues in 2000. The total number of
issues analyzed was forty.
Content categories were created to analyze how the three magazines were
covering female athletes. The three major categories were the covers, the
advertisements and the feature articles. Each cover was coded for which
sport the photograph represented, whether the photograph was an action shot
or a non-action shot, how the person or persons on the cover were dressed
and whether it was an individual or two or more persons on the cover. Each
teaser on the cover was also coded for its emphasis on athleticism, or
other issues such as health, beauty or exercise.
Each full page advertisement was also coded. The type of advertisement
was recorded. The advertisements' photographs were also coded for whether
they were sports related or not, how many featured males and how many
featured females, whether the pictures were of action or non-action images,
and whether the people in the advertisements were in athletic attire or
non-athletic attire.
Each feature article was also coded for several items including the focus
of the article, physical descriptions of the athletes, and the sport the
athlete was associated with. All photographs accompanying the feature
articles were also coded as to whether they reflected a sport or not,
whether it was an action picture or non-action picture, whether athletic
wear or non-athletic wear was featured and whether the photograph was of an
individual or a group. The author did all the coding.
CHAPTER V: FINDINGS
This study found that between the three magazines, there were differences
in how female athletes were covered. Three major categories examined in
the context of this study were the covers, the advertisements and the
feature articles. For the covers, the photographs and the teasers were
coded. Real Sports used athletes in athletic poses and in uniforms, and
its teasers were almost exclusively focused on athletics. Sports
Illustrated for Women also had female athletes on its covers and most were
in athletic dress, although the athletes were in non-action poses. Its
teasers were mostly athletic, which clothing coming in second. Conde Nast
Women's Sports & Fitness had little athletic focus on its covers. The
photographs were mostly posed women in swimwear, and the teasers focused on
(in order) exercise, athletics, health and travel.
Advertisements for sporting events, footwear and vehicles made up the
majority of advertisements in Real Sports and Sports Illustrated for
Women. Advertisements in Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness focused on
vehicles, cosmetics, footwear, clothing and food. There was little
athletic representation in the advertisements in Conde Nast Women's Sports
& Fitness.
The feature articles in Real Sports focused on athletics including
sporting events, specific athletes, specific sports and sports teams. It
had no articles that focused on other fitness-type areas like exercise,
weight loss, etc. Sports Illustrated for Women also focused on sports, but
the majority of its articles featured specific athletes. Conde Nast
Women's Sports & Fitness did not focus on sports. Its articles mainly
featured general fitness and exercise.
Real Sports
For this study, each issue between its inaugural issue in 1998 through
September 2000 was examined, totaling eight issues. For the magazine's
covers, basketball was the most prominent sport with 62.5 percent of the
covers (see Table 1). All of the covers featured action shots, including
one female basketball player dunking the basketball (see Table 2). Seven
of the eight covers had athletes in athletic wear (see Table 3).
Women dominated the cover photographs (see Table 6). These findings
demonstrate that Real Sports is taking a different approach to portraying
female athletes when compared to other media outlets. The covers all had
action shots, and had athletes clothed in their athletic uniforms. One
reader wrote "It is wonderful to see live, action shots of women in sports,
not only through your entire magazine, but on the cover as well! It is
tiresome to see the typical 'women's sports, fitness and health' magazines
tout the stereotyped woman on the cover in a swimsuit, highlighting weight
loss, sex, hair, makeup, etc."1
The teasers that ran on the cover of the magazine were also coded (see
Table 7). In Real Sports, the vast majority of teasers were sports
focused, accounting for 91 percent of all teasers. The columns that ran in
Real Sports also had a focus on athletics, with 88 percent of the coverage
(see Table 8).
Real Sports is lagging behind Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast
Women's Sports & Fitness in the number of advertisements per issue. In an
interview with the author, Amy Love, Real Sports publisher, expressed her
frustration over her lack of success in getting businesses to place
advertisements in the magazine. With a total of seventy-four
advertisements in the eight issues, the average number of advertisements
per issue was 9.25. In contrast, the average number of advertisements in
Sports Illustrated for Women was 34.6 and Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness was 39.
Sporting events had the most advertisements in Real Sports with 24.5
percent, with the majority of those sporting events being female sports
events (see Table 9). Footwear had the next highest percentage with 16.5
percent and clothing and entertainment each had 10 percent.
Fifty-two feature articles were coded (see Table 13). Real Sports had the
highest percentage of female writers, with 69 percent (see Table 14). Real
Sports also had the highest number of articles with females being the
subject of the article, with 98 percent (see Table 15).
To determine the focus of the article, thirteen categories were created
(see Table 16). Real Sports only used five categories: sport event,
specific athlete, specific sport, sport team and other. Noticeably absent
were such categories as beauty, self-help, travel, exercise, weight loss
and fashion. Most articles focused on a specific sport with 42 percent.
Real Sports had the lowest incidences of physical and emotional
descriptions of female athletes in its feature articles (see Table 17).
Weight and height were the most common physical description for Real Sports
with 22 percent. However, these descriptions were almost exclusively
standard statistics listed for the athlete, not a commentary on the
athlete's appearance. The second most frequent description was emotional
outbursts with 19 percent, with crying making up the majority of the
references (see Table 18). However, when emotional references were made,
they related to an athlete pushing herself to the limit in play, in
recovering from an injury, or expressing her despair over losing a hard
fought battle. Other common descriptions included injuries and/or surgery
and body structure. Overall, the descriptions tended to reinforce strong
female athletes, including descriptions such as "bruising post player" and
"steely blue-eyed stare."
In the feature articles, professional sports received 37 percent of
the coverage, other sporting events received 31 percent and college events
received 21 percent of the coverage (see Table 19). Of the fifty-two
articles, 100 percent of the articles had a sports focus (see Table
20). The four major sports that were featured were basketball (34
percent), soccer (15 percent), other - which often featured multiple
sports (13 percent), and softball (10 percent). These results are not
typical of other media outlets, as the majority of these sports are team
oriented and don't fit in the typical "acceptable" sports model for women.
Of the fifty-two articles in the study, fifty of the articles had photos
of women and eleven of the articles had pictures of men (see Table
21). Sports was the focus of 96 percent of the photographs. Eighty-three
percent of pictures were action-oriented (see Table 23). Athletic wear was
featured in 84 percent of the photographs (see Table 24, Table 25). Female
athletes are shown participating in their sport, they are wearing their
athletic uniforms and the frequency of shots with individuals and shots
with two or more athletes is almost the same.
Sports Illustrated for Women
A total of ten issues were coded for this study, spanning from the
inaugural issue in spring of 1997 through September/October
2000. Basketball and soccer were the sports most often featured on the
cover of the magazine (see Table 1).
The remaining sports were, in order of frequency, track and field, tennis
and mountain boarding. Ninety percent of the Sports Illustrated for
Women's covers were non-action photographs (see Table 2). The magazine did
feature most of the athletes on the cover in their athletic uniforms, with
90 percent falling into this category (see Table 3). The magazine put an
emphasis on individual athletes instead of team photographs (see Table
5). Nine of the ten issues had individual athletes on the cover. All ten
covers had females on them, while only one cover, the swimsuit issue, had
Shaquille O'Neal, a NBA basketball player, on it (see Table 6).
Sports Illustrated for Women's covers tended to cover women's sports in
some traditional ways, but also in some new ways. Traditional coverage
included the vast majority of athletes being featured in non-action
photographs and focused on individuals instead of teams. Conversely, the
magazine did feature team sports on the cover, including basketball and
soccer and it featured the athletes in athletic wear in most of the issues.
The teasers on the cover were mostly athletic (38.5 percent). The second
highest category was clothing with 19 percent, and the remaining was
exercise, health, beauty, travel and other (see Table 7).
The magazine's columns also had a similar representation with athletic
columns being the most prevalent with 20 percent of the total,
nutrition/diet was right behind with 19 percent (see Table 8). These were
followed by clothing, exercise, beauty, health, travel and steps to improve
life. The columns tended to generally focus on fitness including such
topics as yoga moves to relieve menstrual cramps, products to pamper your
feet, new athletic clothing styles, and summer skin and hair tips.
Footwear and vehicles were featured most often in the magazine's
advertisements, each with 14 percent (see Table 9). Other advertisements
included sporting events, clothing, entertainment, food and sporting gear.
Seventy-one feature articles were coded in the study. Female writers
wrote 46 percent of the articles, and male writers wrote 33 percent of the
articles. Sports Illustrated for Women did focus almost exclusively on
female athletes, as women received 93 percent of the coverage and men
received 7 percent (see Table 15).
Sports Illustrated for Women tended to focus on specific female athletes,
with fifty-five percent of the articles focused on a specific athlete (see
Table 16). However, the type of coverage these articles received seem to
fit more with the traditional feminine roles.
The top four descriptions of female athletes were weight and height (19
percent), marital status (15 percent), motherhood status (13 percent) and
emotional outbursts - mostly crying (11 percent).
Ninety-three percent of the features articles were sports related (see
Table 19). The least covered of all sports were professional
sports. Sports that were not professional or college and other
sport/fitness articles received the most coverage with 25 percent and 24
percent respectively, and college sports received 23 percent. The majority
of coverage was basketball with 35 percent (see Table 20). The second
highest percentage, with 24 percent, was sports that fit in the "other"
category. These were sports not fitting the traditional categories of
sports and included sports such as surfing, wakeboarding, rollerblading,
mountain boarding, etc. Non-sports articles received 7 percent of the coverage.
A total of 453 photographs with feature articles were coded. Of all the
photographs, 91 percent of them had females in them, and 31 percent had men
in them (see Table 21). Seventy percent of the pictures were sports
oriented, and 30 percent were not sports oriented (see Table 22). Of
Sports Illustrated for Women's 453 pictures, 47 percent featured athletes
in action poses, and 53 percent in non-action poses (see Table
23). Athletic wear was featured in 68 percent of the photographs and
non-athletic wear 32 percent (see Table 24, Table 25). Finally, Sports
Illustrated for Women featured individual athletes more than any other
category, with 51 percent of the coverage (see Table 26). Most of the
photographs emphasized sports over non-sports and most of the athletes were
wearing athletic attire. However, most of the athletes were featured in
non-action poses and mostly individuals were shown, instead of teams.
While Sports Illustrated for Women is including more nontraditional sports
and featuring women in athletic wear, it is still perpetuating old feminine
stereotypes by focusing on female athletes personal lives and emphasizing
their appearance and their domestic roles.
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness
Twenty-two issues of this magazine were coded starting in January 1998 and
ending in September 2000, the magazine's last issue. The magazine began as
a monthly, then went to a bimonthly schedule and then returned to a monthly
schedule.
The majority of covers,77.5 percent, had no sports connection (see Table
1). Most consisted of a woman/model pictured in a bathing
suit. Non-action covers were featured 95.5 percent of the time (see Table
2). Eighty-two percent of the covers featured women in non-athletic wear,
with 56 percent being swimsuits (see Table 3, Table 4). Only 18 percent of
the covers had women in athletic wear, though none of the covers featured
athletes in their official athletic uniforms. One hundred percent of the
cover photographs had one individual woman on the cover (see Table 5, Table
6). The editor of Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness is quoted as saying
that the magazine will meet "the very high aesthetic standards of the
women's magazine industry. That doesn't mean if a female athlete is ugly,
we wouldn't put her in the book. Just not on the cover."2
The cover teasers also had a lack of sports coverage. Thirty-eight
percent of the teasers focused on exercise, 15 percent on athletics, 14
percent on health and 11 percent on travel (see Table 7).
Columns were represented in a similar way with exercise receiving 24
percent of the columns, clothing with 16 percent, athletic with 14 percent,
nutrition/diet with 10 percent, travel with 9 percent and health with 7
percent (see Table 8). Standard topics in the columns section included
exercise routines, fitness trends, sporting gear, nutrition, style, beauty,
food and travel.
Vehicles were the most advertised product in Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness with 22 percent of the advertisements (see Table 9). The next
highest categories were cosmetics/hygiene with 14 percent, footwear with 13
percent, clothing with 10 percent and food with 9 percent. The Conde Nast
Women's Sports & Fitness advertisements did not have many strong female
athletes in them.
In this magazine, 169 articles were coded. Females made up 57 percent of
the authors, and men made up 17 percent (see Table 14). Females were the
subject of the feature articles 55 percent of the time (see Table 15). A
full 44 percent of articles had neither men nor women as the focus of the
article. Most of these articles focused on exercise, nutrition, health,
etc., and therefore did not focus on a person, male or female.
The focus of the articles was most often on general fitness with 19
percent (see Table 16). Following closely were exercise with 16 percent,
specific athlete with 14 percent and fashion with 11 percent.
Descriptions in Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness included marital
status and body structure, which tied with 12 percent each, followed
closely by weight and height and hair style, both with 11 percent, and
clothing with 10 percent.
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness tended to downplay female athletes'
skills and, instead emphasized their domestic roles. One article in the
February 1998 issue discussed fear, claiming that women experience fear
more than men when it comes to sports. The article goes on to quote a
professor of exercise physiology at the University of Houston: "Female
athletes tend to catastrophize more, meaning they collapse in despair when
things go wrong. Men will be able to cope better and have a more cognitive
approach." .
Of the 169 articles, 77 percent had no sport focus. An example of this
type of article was the fashion lay-outs that ran in every issue of Conde
Nast Women's Sports & Fitness. Of the 23 percent that did have a sports
focus, 12 percent was on "other" nontraditional sports, 6 percent was on
Olympic athletes or the World Cup Soccer team, 4.5 percent on professional
athletes and .5 percent on college athletes (see Table 19). Ninety-one
percent was made up of articles where sports were not applicable or the
sports focus was on general fitness or some other type of
fitness/nontraditional "sport."
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness had 1,706 photographs coded in this
study. Eighty-nine percent of the photographs featured women and 22
percent featured men (see Table 21). As already witnessed in cover
photographs, non-sports were much more prevalent than sports photographs
(see Table 22). Non-sports made up 67 percent, while sports photographs
had 33 percent. Seventy percent of the photographs were of non-action
shots, and 30 percent contained action (see Table 23). Athletic wear was
photographed 54 percent, and non-athletic wear 46 percent. However,
fitness or workout clothing was coded as athletic. Few of these
photographs coded as athletic featured athletic uniforms (see Table 24,
Table 25). Individuals were featured in 55.5 percent of the photographs
(see Table 26).
From the results of the study, Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness seemed
to reinforce traditional feminine stereotypes for women. The focus clearly
is not on sports, but on women's personal lives and their appearance, and
their domestic roles. The female athlete really has very little to do with
this magazine.
NOTES
1 Letters to Real Sports, Real Sports, Winter 1999: 12.
2 "Women's Sports Magazines Seeking Identity, Advertisers," Media Report
To Women, Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 1998.
CHAPTER VI: DISCUSSION
This study looked at women's sports magazines to examine the following
research questions:
1) Will the three women's sports magazines portray women's sports as
being something other, something different, something not the norm, and
portray men's sports as the real representation of sport?
2) Will the three women's sports magazines portray female athletes in
sexy, feminine roles or as athletes active and succeeding at their sport?
3) Will the three women's sports magazines portray female athletes in
traditional roles as wives, mothers, and/or victims, or in strong, athletic
roles?
The results for all three questions are mixed:
1) The focus of the three magazines was to cover women's sports and/or
fitness. As a result, there were no articles directly comparing women's
sports and men's sports. Therefore, no conclusion can be drawn regarding
the first research question. However, there were incidences where a female
athlete's abilities were downplayed as less than a man's abilities.
Overall, Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness did tend to portray women's sports in a "less than" role compared
to men's sports. However, there were not enough examples to draw any
findings. In contrast, Real Sports did not draw any direct comparisons
with men's sports and did not downplay women's sports.
2) Focusing on an athlete's femininity occurred with overwhelming
regularity in Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness.
Most of the articles in Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast
Women's Sports and Fitness feature female athletes' personal lives, and not
in their athletic roles. Real Sports has an entirely different
approach. Amy Love, publisher of Real Sports, noted that female athletes
are beautiful just as they are, in their athletic successes and
failures. That is the message that is carried throughout the
magazine. Images featured women athletes playing their sport and articles
discussed their sports skill, not their favorite shopping destination,
their favorite make-up or other unrelated topics.
The findings of this study demonstrate that Sports Illustrated for Women
and Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness put a priority on portraying female
athletes in feminine roles. Females were regularly featured in
non-athletic clothing, often with athletes posed seductively. Real Sports,
in contrast, focused almost exclusively on the sport and the athlete's
participation in that sport. As a result, the reader would see almost
exclusively action photographs with women in their athletic uniform.
3) Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness
magazines also focused on an athlete's role as mother and/or wife and to a
lesser degree her role as a victim. Real Sports again kept its focus on
the athlete in her athletic role. The athlete's marital and motherhood
status was not emphasized, and most times not even mentioned, in articles
or in photographs.
Given the results of this study, Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde
Nast Women's Sports & Fitness magazines are both reinforcing traditional
female stereotypes in their portrayal of female athletes. Real Sports
focused almost entirely on the actual sport. There is very little
attention devoted to the athlete's personal life. Articles mostly focused
on a sport, instead of a specific athlete, and discussed game play and
techniques, instead of personal information about the athletes.
According to Whatever It Takes - Women on Woman's Sports, this emphasis on
portraying female athletes in domestic and feminine roles reinforces the
idea that these roles are more important for women to achieve as opposed to
athletic success. The authors argued that being a wife and mother, and
being attractive are held up as what women should aspire to as opposed to
athletic qualities including "intelligence, courage, hard work, integrity
of play, ability to collaborate, and grace under competitive pressure."1
Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said
in an interview with the author that the major ways to increase the
popularity of women's sports, is to increase media coverage and to have
support from major advertisers.2 She argued that women's sports are
crowded out by men's sports, which takes nearly all of the available space
for sports coverage. Without the coverage, there are few opportunities for
women's sports to tap into advertising budgets, which results in female
sports continually being cash strapped. Lopiano also called on companies
producing and selling women's sports products to do more than just offer
the products and to begin to actively promote women's sports.
NOTES
1 Joli Sandoz and Joby Winans, eds, Whatever it Takes - Women on Woman's
Sports. New York: Farrar, Stratus & Giroux, 1999: 8.
2 Donna Lopiano. Interview with Susan Francis, 18 December 2001.
CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSION
This study found that two magazines, Sports Illustrated for Women and
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness, tended to portray female athletes in
the stereotypical feminine and domestic roles. Real Sports tended to
portray female athletes without using these stereotypes, by celebrating
their athletic successes and featuring their athletic abilities, instead of
their personal lives.
Amy Love, publisher, created Real Sports out of her house, after waiting
several years until she thought the market had matured enough to support a
women's sports magazine. Love had a clear vision of creating a women's
sports magazine that focused on the female athlete and her sports successes
and failures. Not only is Love passionate about creating a new environment
for female athletes, so are her readers. The audience for Real Sports is
widespread, and includes teenage girls, middle aged women and middle-aged
fathers of girls. They are sports enthusiasts and they want to see female
athletes celebrated for being athletes. The commitment by Love and the
readers is a large reason for the magazine being created and its continued
survival.
In contrast, Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness were created by large publishing companies. Their focus was to
find an untapped market and to reach it to increase sales and
profits. Sports Illustrated for Women came from the publishers of Sports
Illustrated, a magazine that has been criticized for years for its lack of
coverage of female sports and overcoverage of swimsuit models. The
majority of the staff of Sports Illustrated for Women came from Sports
Illustrated.
Sports coverage in Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness was nearly
nonexistent. Again, this company saw a possible niche to market to with a
fitness focus. Conde Nast publishes a wealth of women's magazines,
including Vogue, Self, Glamour, Bride's, Allure and House &
Garden. Clearly, Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness was designed to fit
into this type of design. Its focus was to include the traditional women's
magazines coverage including make-up tips, relationship advice, health
tips, and to also include information on fitness trends that would help
women to get into better shape for purposes such as attracting men.
Even though Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports &
Fitness had female editors, their approach seems to uphold the traditional
method of portraying female athletes. One would argue that with female
editors, the coverage should have been more about celebrating the female
athlete, as opposed to what she was wearing or who she was dating. The
author would argue that the institutions that created these two magazines
played a much larger role in determining the focus of the
magazines. Change often comes through small, grassroots organizations that
have the freedom to do things outside of the norm. In this case, Real
Sports, as a little start-up with a committed publisher and staff, has
bucked the system that has decreed how female athletes should be covered,
and has created an entirely new way of covering these athletes. Sports
Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness on the other
hand have reinforced the status quo. This apparently was the safe,
bankable approach to take, though Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness
folded after its September 2000 issue. There also is the argument that
there are not enough women's sports fans for a magazine that focuses so
exclusively on women's sports as does Real Sports. Real Sports circulation
remains small at 75,000. Supporting women's sports is still a relatively
new concept and there, as of yet, is not a demonstrated sizable group of
followers for a real women's sports magazine, for the WNBA, women's
sporting products, etc. Given this, a magazine like Real Sports has to
educate casual readers along the way why this is something to which they
should want to subscribe.
The real test will be Real Sports' long-term effect. Unfortunately, it's
no big revelation that some women's sports magazines cover female athletes
in a way that demeans their athletic accomplishments. The bigger question,
and one that only time can determine, is the effect magazines like Real
Sports will have on the long-term coverage of female athletes. One might
argue that, at a minimum, it has changed expectations for future
publications covering women's sports.
Results of this study may have been flawed by a too broad definition of
"sports" and "athletic wear." Clearly, the three magazines had very
different definitions of "sport" and "athletic wear." In Real Sports, a
cover shot of a female basketball player dunking the basketball was coded
as a sport and athletic wear. In Conde Nast Women's Sports and Fitness,
Marion Jones was photographed wearing a sports bra and spandex pants, with
no activity. It too would have been coded sports and athletic wear.
The author began this study thinking it would be easy to distinguish
between sports and non-sports, but found it to be a rather blurry
line. Much clearer definitions for sports and athletic wear could have
been created.
In addition, the coding of models was also problematic. Many of the
pictures featured in Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness were of women who
appeared to be model like, but no good definition was established for what
a model was or was not. There were also several pictures of women in
casual dress or in swimwear who appeared to be models, but were athletes in
often "nontraditional" sports, such as surfing, beach volleyball, etc. In
the photo layouts, they looked like models, but were technically athletes,
so they were coded as athletes. A much sharper distinction needed to be made.
Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness have
both been compared to general women's magazines. It would be interesting
to see a study that examines if these two magazines are more similar to the
general women's magazines than the other sports magazines. They appear to
have many of the same format characteristics including health and beauty
tips, relationship advice, fashion layouts, and fitness exercises.
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TABLE 1:
Type of Sport Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Basketball 5 (62.5%) 3 (30%) 0
Ice Skating 0 0 1 (4.5%)
Soccer 1 (12.5%) 3 (30%) 1 (4.5%)
Track & Field 0 2 (20%) 1 (4.5%)
Tennis 0 1 (10%) 1 (4.5%)
Cycling 1 (12.5%) 0 0
General 0 0 1 (4.5%)
Fitness
Other 1 (12.5%) 1 (10%) 17 (77.5%)
TABLE 2:
Type of Movement Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Action 8 (100%) 1 (10%) 1 (4.5%)
Non-action 0 9 (90%) 21 (95.5%)
TABLE 3:
Type of Clothing Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Athletic Wear 7 (87.5%) 9 (90%) 4 (18%)
Non-Athletic
Wear 1 (12.5%) 1 (10%) 18 (82%)
TABLE 4:
Type of Non-Athletic Clothing Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Casual Wear 1 (100%) 0 7 (39%)
Swim Wear 0 1 (100%) 10 (56%)
Lingerie 0 0 1 (5%)
TABLE 5:
Individuals and Teams Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Individual 3 (37.5%) 9 (90%) 22 (100%)
Team 5 (62.5%) 1 (10%) 0
TABLE 6:
Number of Males and Females Featured in Cover Photographs
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Male 5 1 0
Female 13 12 22
TABLE 7:
Focus of Teasers Used on Cover
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Athletic 41 (91%) 20 (38.5%) 18 (15%)
Health 1 (2%) 5 (10%) 17 (14%)
Beauty 0 1 (2%) 0
Exercise 0 8 (15%) 46 (38%)
Steps to
Improve Life 0 0 5 (4%)
Travel 0 1 (2%) 13 (11%)
Clothing 0 10 (19%) 9 (7%)
Other 3 (7%) 7 (13.5%) 13 (11%)
Totals 45 52 121
TABLE 8:
Focus of Columns
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Athletic 29 (88%) 22 (20%) 46 (14%)
Health 1 (3%) 8 (7%) 22 (7%)
Beauty 0 10 (9%) 14 (4%)
Exercise 0 11 (10%) 79 (24%)
Steps to
Improve Life 0 2 (1%) 13 (4%)
Nutrition/Diet 0 21 (19%) 31 (10%)
Travel 0 5 (5%) 30 (9%)
Clothing 0 12 (11%) 53 (16%)
Other 3 (9%) 20 (18%) 41 (12%)
Totals 33 111 329
TABLE 9:
Type of Advertisement Used in Full Page Advertisement
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Footwear 12 (16.5%) 46 (14%) 114 (13%)
Clothing 7 (10%) 35 (10%) 86 (10%)
Vehicles 5 (7%) 47 (14%) 185 (22%)
Cigarettes 0 4 (1%) 0
Alcohol 0 2 (.5%) 11 (1%)
Sporting Gear 6 (8%) 20 (6%) 55 (6.5%)
Nutrition/
Diet Aids 1 (1%) 8 (2%) 50 (6%)
Exercise
Equipment 0 3 (1%) 5 (.5%)
Food 1 (1%) 25 (7%) 74 (9%)
Jewelry 1 (1%) 3 (1%) 15 (2%)
Cosmetics/
Hygiene 3 (4%) 11 (3%) 120 (14%)
Medicine 1 (1%) 7 (1.5%) 47 (5.5%)
Travel 0 3 (1%) 5 (.5%)
Electronics/
Technology 1 (1%) 6 (1.5%) 11 (1%)
Sporting
Events 18 (24.5%) 28 (8.5%) 15 (1.5%)
Financial
Investment 5 (7%) 12 (3%) 12 (1.5%)
Entertainment 7 (10%) 27 (8%) 9 (1%)
Other 6 (8%) 59 (17%) 6 (8%)
Totals 74 346 858
TABLE 10:
Gender of Athlete in Full Page Advertisements
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Male 0 0 4 (6%)
Female 76 (100%) 65 (100%) 62 (92%)
TABLE 11:
Athletic Level of Athlete in Full Page Advertisements
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
College 9 (15%) 2 (3%) 0
Professional 39 (65%) 50 (65%) 29 (43%)
Other 12 (20%) 25 (32%) 39 (57%)
TABLE 12:
Type of Sport Featured in Full Page Advertisements
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Basketball 19 (24%) 20 (21%) 13 (19%)
Gymnastics 1 (1%) 2 (2%) 0
Golf 1 (1%) 4 (4%) 2 (3%)
Hockey 0 1 (1%) 2 (3%)
Ice Skating 0 2 (2%) 3 (4%)
Soccer 9 (12%) 26 (27%) 13 (19%)
Track & Field 1 (1%) 5 (5%) 10 (15%)
Swimming 2 (3%) 4 (4%) 4 (6%)
Tennis 22 (28%) 18 (18%) 7 (10%)
Volleyball 3 (4%) 3 (3%) 0
Softball 5 (7%) 2 (2%) 0
Field Hockey 3 (4%) 0 0
Cycling 0 4 (4%) 0
Weight Lifting 2 (3%) 0 0
Gen. Fitness 4 (5%) 1 (1%) 0
Other 5 (7%) 6 (6%) 15 (21%)
Totals 77 98 69
TABLE 13:
Number and Length of Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Number of 52 71 169
Articles
Average # of 6.5 7.1 7.7
articles/issue
Average 35.3 25.6 26.8
per article
TABLE 14:
Gender of Author of Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Male 10 (19%) 26 (33%) 29 (17%)
Female 36 (69%) 36 (46%) 97 (57%)
Couldn't Tell 6 (12%) 17 (21%) 43 (26%)
Totals 52 79 169
TABLE 15:
Gender of Subject of Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Male 0 5 (7%) 1 (1%)
Female 51 (98%) 66 (93%) 93 (55%)
Neither 1 (2%) 0 175 (44%)
Totals 52 71 169
TABLE 16:
Focus of Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Health 0 0 12 (7%)
Beauty 0 0 7 (4%)
Self-Help 0 1 (1%) 6 (4%)
Sport Event 14 (27%) 5 (8%) 6 (4%)
Specific
Athlete 6 (12%) 39 (55%) 24 (14%)
Specific Sport 22 (42%) 4 (6%) 7 (4%)
Sports Team 3 (6%) 7 (10%) 1 (1%)
Sports
Technique 0 0 3 (2%)
Exercise 0 1 (1%) 27 (16%)
Weight Loss 0 0 5 (3%)
Fashion 0 1 (1%) 19 (11%)
General
Fitness 0 1 (1%) 32 (19%)
Other 7 (13%) 12 (17%) 20 (12%)
Totals 52 71 169
TABLE 17:
Physical Descriptions Used in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Weight &
Height 15 (22%) 48 (19%) 43 (11%)
Hair Style 1 (1.5%) 12 (4.5%) 43 (11%)
Makeup/
Grooming 0 5 (2%) 11 (3%)
Skin/
Complexion 1 (1.5%) 2 (1%) 29 (8%)
Body Structure 8 (12%) 20 (8%) 45 (12%)
Facial Feature 3 (4.5%) 9 (3.5%) 24 (6%)
Jewelry 0 0 11 (3%)
Voice 0 1 (.5%) 6 (2%)
Clothing 6 (9%) 11 (4%) 36 (10%)
Injury/Surgery 9 (13%) 9 (3.5%) 0
Emotional
Outbursts 13 (19%) 29 (11%) 19 (5%)
Expressions
of Fear 0 8 (3%) 13 (4%)
Marital
Status 5 (7%) 38 (15%) 44 (12%)
Children 3 (4.5%) 34 (13%) 34 (9%)
Other 4 (6%) 31 (12%) 16 (4%)
Totals 68 257 374
TABLE 18:
Emotional Outburst Descriptions Used in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Crying 9 (69%) 22 (76%) 14 (74%)
Yelling 1 (8%) 0 0
Tantrums 2 (15%) 2 (7%) 2 (10%)
Other 1 (8%) 5 (17%) 3 (16%)
TABLE 19:
Athletic Level of Athlete in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
College 11 (21%) 16 (23%) 1 (.5%)
Professional 19 (37%) 15 (21%) 8 (4.5%)
Other Sport
Event 16 (31%) 18 (25%) 10 (6%)
Other 6 (11%) 17 (24%) 20 (12%)
Sport Not
Focus 0 5 (7%) 130 (77%)
Totals 52 71 169
TABLE 20:
Type of Sport Featured in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Not Applicable 3 (6%) 5 (7%) 90 (53.5%)
Basketball 18 (34%) 25 (35%) 1 (.5%)
Football 2 (4%) 1 (1.5%) 0
Golf 2 (4%) 0 0
Hockey 0 1 (1.5%) 1 (.5%)
Ice Skating 0 3 (4%) 3 (2%)
Soccer 8 (15%) 7 (10%) 0
Track and
Field 1 (2%) 6 (8.5%) 2 (1%)
Swimming 0 0 2 (1%)
Tennis 3 (6%) 3 (4%) 5 (3%)
Volleyball 2 (4%) 2 (3%) 0
Softball 5 (10%) 0 1 (.5%)
Field Hockey 1 (2%) 0 0
Cycling 0 0 1 (.5%)
General
Fitness 0 1 (1.5%) 39 (23.5%)
Other 7 (13%) 17 (24%) 24 (14%)
Totals 52 71 169
TABLE 21:
Gender of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Male 11 (21%) 22 (31%) 37 (22%)
Female 50 (96%) 65 (92%) 151 (89%)
Total
Articles 52 71 169
TABLE 22:
Sport Focus of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Sport 313 (96%) 317 (70%) 564 (33%)
Non-sport 14 (4%) 136 (30%) 1,142 (67%)
Total Photos 327 453 1,706
TABLE 23:
Type of Movement of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Action 271 (83%) 214 (47%) 507 (30%)
Non-action 56 (17%) 239 (53%) 1,199 (70%)
TABLE 24:
Type of Clothing of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Athletic Wear 275 (84%) 309 (68%) 927 (54%)
Non-athletic
Wear 52 (16%) 144 (32%) 779 (46%)
TABLE 25:
Type of Non-Athletic Clothing of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Business Wear 5 (10%) 0 10 (1%)
Casual Wear 38 (73%) 90 (62.5%) 258 (33%)
Swim Wear 1 (2%) 17 (12%) 200 (25.5%)
Lingerie 0 0 12 (1.5%)
Sexy 0 0 14 (2%)
Other 8 (15%) 37 (25.5%) 285 (37%)
TABLE 26:
Type of Grouping of Persons in Photographs in Feature Articles
Sports Illustrated Conde Nast Women's
Real Sports for Women Sports & Fitness
Individual 140 (43%) 231 (51%) 944 (55.5%)
2+ Athletes 121 (37%) 95 (21%) 141 (8.5%)
Team 20 (6%) 30 (6%) 16 (.5%)
Crowd 14 (4%) 4 (1%) 10 (.5%)
Family 1 (.5%) 43 (10%) 35 (2%)
Models 0 0 231 (14%)
Other 31 (9.5%) 50 (11%) 329 (19%)
APPENDIX
MAGAZINE PROFILES
Sports Illustrated for Women
Sports Illustrated began publishing women/sport (later changed to Sports
Illustrated for Women) in the Spring of 1997. Two issues of the magazine
were published in 1997, one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring
issue featured WNBA basketball player, Sheryl Swoopes, who was six months
pregnant, with the cover line, "A Star is Born: Sheryl Swoopes and the WNBA
are both due in June." The second issue featured Mia Hamm, a star of the
U.S. Women's World Cup soccer team. The cover line was "Mia Hamm - the
best soccer player in the world," though the title of the article was
"Reluctant Diva."
According to Sports Illustrated publicity materials, the target audience
for Sports Illustrated for Women is the "Title IX generation," women age
eighteen to thirty-four. The magazine has focused more on personal
stories and fitness tips. Sandra Bailey, the magazine's founding editor,
commented that women are more interest in the human side of a story,
instead of just getting statistics. Bailey noted that women would be more
interested in information about a player's brother who had cancer, instead
of who was most recently traded or what sporting record was broken.
In 1999, the reformatted Sports Illustrated for Women began a quarterly
publication schedule. The March 1999 issue featured a fourteen-year old
basketball player and included articles on how to play through your
menstrual period, sports horoscopes, and celebrities who used to be
cheerleaders. According to Jeff Metcalfe, in the Arizona Republic, this
type of sports coverage was not met with much support from
sportswriters. One female sportswriter was quoted that she threw the
magazine away because of the lack of sports coverage. Distribution for
these issues were 450,000.
Bailey defined the magazine's audience as high-school or college-age women
who grew up with the Title IX benefit. She called this group a
"post-feminist generation" who basically has the opportunity to play any
sports they want to. She also saw her audience as participants of sport
activities, as opposed to being fans of women's sports.
Sports Illustrated for Women is a "little sister" to Sports Illustrated,
who boasts a circulation of over three million and is published weekly.
Sports Illustrated for Kids began publishing eight years before Sports
Illustrated for Women. Sports Illustrated for Kids has a circulation of
950,000 and is published monthly. The Sports Illustrated web page, as of
April 2002, had three media kits available for more information on their
publications. The media kits are for Sports Illustrated, Sports
Illustrated for Kids and CNN - Sports Illustrated. There is no mention of
Sports Illustrated for Women.
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness began as two separate
magazines. Women's Sports + Fitness was created in 1974 by Billie Jean
King. Conde Nast acquired the magazine in 1998. Conde Nast was already
publishing a magazine called Conde Nast Sports for Women, which they began
publishing in 1997. These two titles were combined into Conde Nast Women's
Sports & Fitness in 1998. Suzanne Grimes, publisher of Conde Nast Women's
Sports & Fitness, acknowledged that having sports displayed prominently in
the title was a mistake for the magazine. She noted that by containing the
word "sport," it was categorized with other sports magazines primarily
targeted to men. According to Grimes, by adding in the word "fitness," the
magazine was moved to the women's magazines section. By making this
switch, the magazine's advertising jumped by 24 percent and circulation
went up by 89 percent to 475,000 copies. Fitness became the overwhelming
theme for the magazine.
A reader in the July 2000 issue had the following to say, "Call me crazy,
but your Special Fitness Issue (May 2000) is no different from any other
one you've published. You consistently run images of somewhat fit (but not
too muscular -- ooh, that would be scary!) models who pose in non-active
stances. Seemingly, according to Women's Sports & Fitness, the only reason
to engage in sports is to burn calories to "look good" and attain the
"perfect body." Wake up, Women's Sports & Fitness! The other half of your
name, Sports, is hardly evident in the magazine. Rather than being another
fitness publication, you should offer positive images of real women engaged
in real sports."
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness ceased publication after its September
2000 issue. Conde Nast spent over $70 million trying to make the magazine
successful.
Real Sports
Real Sports (which was originally titled Amy Love's Real Sports) began
publishing in the winter of 1998 and was published quarterly throughout
1999 and 2000. Amy Love, who was part of a lawsuit at age nine to be able
to play on a boy's soccer team, because there was no girl's soccer team,
started Real Sports in her house. Distribution for the magazine is
75,000. Real Sports has a focus of covering women's sports exclusively and
presenting female athletes in their athletic successes. It eschews the
fitness model that other magazines have used and emphasizes hard-hitting
news and action-oriented photography of female athletes. Comments from
readers include "Finally a real sports magazine for women. No longer are
'women's sports' magazines just scantily clad, thin women photographed
doing quasi-athletic activities. Real Sports is real sports! Not glamor
clothed athleticism." Another reader wrote "It is refreshing to read a
women's sports magazine that has professional hard coverage of women's
sports/athletes instead of 'fluff.' I wanted to see the power and grace of
an outstanding female athlete frozen dramatically in photos. I wanted to
read analysis and play-by-play action in the printed word. The photos stir
you and the words enliven you. The writers are astute and the photographs
dramatic."
In an interview with the author in 2001, Amy Love discussed some of the
challenges of publishing an independent women's sports magazine. According
to Love, advertising is the number one challenge for the success of Real
Sports. Love asserted that advertisers have refused to take the magazine
seriously because it focuses on women's sports. In addition, because of
the magazine's focus, make-up and fashion advertisers have refused to run
ads in the magazine. Real Sports does not use make-up on the athletes used
in photographs. The pictures are real, taken during the actual sporting
event, so there also are no athletes pictured in designer fashion
outfits. Love also questioned the role of Sports Illustrated and Time
Warner in advertisers decision to not advertise in Real Sports. She argued
that given the vast reach of Time Warner, that some advertisers were
hesitant to rock the boat. Love also noted that because Real Sports is a
woman-owned business, she has had difficulty getting a sufficient level of
capitalization and venture capital. Love added that Sports Illustrated
for Women outresources them 100,000 to 1.
Love also discussed how Real Sports is different from the other women's
sports magazines and women's magazines in general. According to Love,
Sports Illustrated for Women and Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness are
"quasi-sports, fitness, gossip type publications." Love said that Real
Sports is very serious about creating a positive image for female athletes,
including using action photographs and not running pictures that show
half-empty stands.
Love said that Real Sports focused on four team sports - soccer,
basketball, softball and volleyball, with some individual sports sprinkled
in each issue. According to Love, articles are based upon what is
happening in the sports world, not who would make a good cover girl.
Love noted that the decision of who will go on the cover of the magazine
is determined by how it relates to one of the major feature articles and
the quality of the image as a strong female athlete. She added that the
other women's sports magazines have a different process that involves
getting the prettiest, best-known athlete, or model, bringing them into the
studio and spending several rolls of film to get an acceptable
photograph. Because Real Sports photographs aren't posed, the magazine
must hire photographers to go to sporting events to get the
photographs. Love noted that unlike men's sports, where photographers will
already be attending to take pictures on speculation, for women's sports,
the magazine must hire a photographer for every sporting event they want to
include in the magazine.
APPENDIX
DESCRIPTION OF COVER PHOTOGRAPHS
Sport, Action, Dress, Jewelry (if any)
Real Sports
Eight issues:
Fall 1998
Basketball - College. Action - Player from Tennessee dunking basketball as
fans and male players look on. Athletic wear.
Spring 1999
Basketball - College. Action - three players going for basketball.
Athletic wear.
Summer 1999
Soccer. Mia Hamm. Action - running with soccer ball. Athletic wear
Fall 1999
Basketball - WNBA. Action - Cynthia Cooper and Vickie Johnson with Cooper
taking a shot. Athletic wear.
Winter 1999
Tennis. Billie Jean King. Action - coaching, yelling and pointing. Casual
wear. Jewelry: earrings, watch, bracelet.
Spring 2000
Basketball - College. Action - player from UConn dribbling ball. Athletic
wear.
Summer 2000
Cycling/Triathlon. Action - two competitors riding bikes. Athletic wear.
Fall 2000
Basketball - WNBA. Action - four players playing with Lisa Leslie taking a
shot. Athletic wear.
Sports Illustrated for Women
Ten issues:
Spring 1997
Basketball - WNBA. Sheryl Swoopes. Non-action. Athletic wear, holding
basketball, very pregnant. Jewelry - wedding ring.
Fall 1997
Soccer - World Cup. Mia Hamm. Action running with soccer
ball. Athletic wear.
Spring 1999
Basketball - High school. Non-action. Athletic wear. Shows smiling
face of player with white background.
Summer 1999
Soccer - World Cup. Julie Foudy. No action. Athletic wear with white
background. Jewelry- wedding band.
Fall 1999
Soccer- College. Little action - hitting ball with fist. Athletic wear
with white background. Jewelry - class ring.
Winter 1999-2000
Soccer - World Cup and Track & Field. Soccer team and Jackie
Joyner Kersee. No action. Athletic wear with white background. Jewelry
- weddings rings, necklaces and earrings.
May/April 2000
Tennis. Anna Kournikova. No action. Athletic wear - tennis dress.
Jewelry - bracelet.
May/June 2000
Basketball - WNBA & NBA. Lisa Leslie and Shaquille O'Neal. No
action. Swimwear - Leslie wearing a bikini on a beach. Jewelry - ring and
earrings.
July/August 2000
Mountain boarding. No action. Athletic wear.
September/October 2000
Track and Field. Marion Jones. No action. Athletic wear but also
wearing angel wings and is barefoot and standing in glitter. Jewelry -
bracelet, wedding ring and earrings.
Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness
Twenty-two issues:
January 1998
Surfing. No action - sitting on surf board. Swimwear.
February 1998
No sport. No action. Woman in swimwear.
March 1998
No sport. No action. Woman in swimwear.
April 1998
Beach volleyball. Gabrielle Reece. No action. Swimwear. Jewelry -
wedding ring.
May 1998
Outdoorswoman. No action. Wearing sports bra.
June 1998
Tennis. Anna Kournikova. No action. Wearing sports bra & spandex
shorts. Jewelry - earrings.
July/August 1998
No sport. No action - holding surfboard. Woman in swimwear.
September/October 1998
No sport. No action. Woman in jacket and short shorts.
November/December 1998
No sport. No action - holding snowboard. Woman in jacket & pants.
January/February 1999
No sport. No action - holding snorkeling mask. Woman in swimwear.
March/April 1999
Ice skating. Michele Kwan. No action - holding one skate. Casual
clothing - shirt with string tops and bare midriff. Jewelry - necklace.
May/June 1999
Beach volleyball. Gabrielle Reece. No action - holding volleyball.
Swimwear. Jewelry - wedding ring.
July/August 1999
Surfing. No action. Swimwear.
September/October 1999
Model climbing Kilimanjaro. Christy Turlington. No action. Casual
clothing with top that bares midriff and short jean shorts.
November/December 1999
Model/Actress Brooke Shields in Egypt. No action. Casual clothing with
small top & pants. Jewelry - bracelets.
January/February 2000
No sport. No action - holding boogie board. Woman in swimwear.
March 2000
Soccer. Mia Hamm. No action. Casual dress with small shirt and shorts.
Jewelry - earrings.
April 2000
Actress Sarah Wynter getting fit. No action. Casual clothing with small
top baring midriff and pants/shorts.
May 2000
Beach volleyball. Gabrielle Reece. No action. Swimwear.
June 2000
No sport. No action - holding kayak. Woman in swimwear.
July/August 2000
No sport. No action - holding surfboard. Woman in swimwear.
September 2000
Track and Field. Marion Jones. No action. Athletic wear - sports bra and
spandex shorts. Jewelry - wedding band, earrings, necklace, bracelet.
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