"Improving women's basketball"

Cindy Yorba
KIN 338I
t/th
9:30am- 10:45am


http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/columns/story?columnist=voepel_mechelle&id=5662243

This article covers a lot of what we have discussed in class. It mentions how little coverage women basketball receives in comparison to men, particularly for the association FIBA. FIBA is trying to figure out ways to make get more coverage and more fans. They are proposing getting new uniforms. They want to make the players look more like "women", therefore trying to feminize the sport. They also want to lower the rim so that the women can dunk more; in theory, more people will become interested because dunking seems to be very popular and desirable.


All these things have a common theme, the women are being pressured to play for others instead of themselves. The women are being pressured to get more fans, instead of being motivated to train. They are changing their uniforms to be more appealing to others, instead of feeling good about themselves in their current uniforms. They are also going to have to change their shooting techniques if the rim is lowered. Its evident that FIBA wants to make profit off these women, and are less worried about having these women play a sport that they love.