ESPN’s Lack of Coverage on Female Athletes

Every morning, I find myself on ESPN’s official website catching up on the day’s top stories. Each day, I scan the website’s main pages to find any articles that capture my interest. Sometimes I spend hours on the website just reading up on what is going on in the sports world. At this point, I have come to realize that I am a huge sports junkie, and also that I know the ESPN website like I know the back of my hand.

As a result, I have come to the conclusion that ESPN has an extremely low percentage of coverage on female athletes. Every once in a while, the website does publish stories about occurrences in women’s sports, but always seems to place these articles at the very end of the headline list. Eventually, these stories are removed altogether from the front page in order to make room for news about men’s sports. It seems as if ESPN posts about women simply to fulfill some sort of quota they might have about covering women’s sports.

At ESPN, there is a lack of enthusiasm toward female athletes and I feel that this needs to be improved. If there is more coverage on female athletes at ESPN, then attitudes toward women’s sports will begin to change.

Edwin Martin

Kin338i

Wed 4-6:45 PM

006915998

Congratulations Baylor on a perfect season..

To my pleasant surprise, there has been a lot of coverage on something other than football and the NBA on Sport Center these days: Baylor winning the National Championship. This is their first national title since 2005 but obviously their first finishing with a perfect 40-0 record. All of this helps when your center is a foot and half taller than any other player in women's college basketball. Seeing the highlights of the game on Sport Center of 6-foot-8 Brittany Griner dominating Notre Dame was like watching a mom playing against her daughter's kindergarden class. It was a joke watching Notre Dame trying to defend her. As soon as she got the ball down low in the post they tried to double team her but all Griner had to do was make one move and her hands were inches under the basket. You could clearly see the Notre Dame players giving up almost immediately because there was literally nothing they could do to try to defend her. It didn't make for a vey exciting game. The final score was 80-61 with Griner totaling 26 pints.

I felt bad for Notre Dame because what could they do? How could they defend Griner? Put their guard on their centers shoulders? It didn't seem fair. The Irish had an equally brilliant season as Baylor but they simply did not stand a chance against Griner. It seemed as if Baylor secured their National Championship as soon as they signed Griner to a scholarship.

-Sean Boyd

006946756

Wed 4:00-6:45

Women Sports

Before taking this class, I didn't realize how hard it was for women to become apart of the sports world. I personally love to play sports, especially basketball. After having a lecture about basketball in this class, I appreciate the sport even more now. What I have learned from class, basketball consisted of no dribbling, no contact, and no male fans watching. To this extent, what is the point of playing basketball right? Women were really short handed of ability when it came to sports because of the fact that we are women and we don't belong in the sports world. To me, I believe that in order to play basketball, you need the excitement of contact, dribbling and shooting the ball, and of course, playing as a team. One of the many coaches that I've had growing up once told me that men derived their shooting from the way females have been shooting. Pretty weird right? Then again, I analyzed male players and the way that they shoot and it's true, the form is similar to the way females shoot and are more accurate. I believe that the only reason why men's basketball is more popular amongst the world is because it is more entertaning by them dunking the ball, and most of all, they have more skills than women in that they are quicker and because they are male and they are suppose to belong in the sports world. Women have evolved in the sports world throughout the years. Being able to be apart of basketball and any other sports is a major accomplishment for me because I know that I have now become part of history and can make a change, even if it is not a big change. To be able to be part of something that women always longed to do is such an amazing experience. Being in this class helps me realize more about women in sports and how we were treated in the past and now, because of Title IX, we are able to be equal with men and have the opportunity to be able to either be better than them, or at least be at their level of athletic ability.

Trayon Martin's case- Don't Make Quick Judgements

In all honesty, my initial reaction to Trayvon Martin's death was that "why is the news so focused on a death of an average teenage citizen in Sanford, Florida when there are other issues we should focus on" But as I looked more into the case, I felt foolish for not realizing the true meaning behind the killing. It made me realize that many things in this world are not as they seem. For example, the KONY 2012 video that went viral across the nation showed only one side of the story. It was not a full depiction of the Ugandan war. Similarly, the reality behind the death of Trayvon Martin is not for self-defense but a perpetuation of the stereotypes about African-American males. Today, I saw on MSNBC that new development in the case show that the 911 call had screams which were not George Zimmerman's but rather of a male under the age of 30 (http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/01/10963191-trayvon-martin-case-911-call-screams-not-george-zimmermans-2-experts-say) This is great development but sadly the investigation was done by the NBC news rather than the police themselves which shows that the police have already made up their mind about the case. Finally, its very clear that if we just go with the crowd and fail to educate ourselves on specific issues we will loose the one power we have --to think critically. In regards to the case, I feel that the underlying reason behind the case definitely stems from racism and of stereotype. The words of Kanye West from the song 'Never Let Me Down' --"Racism still alive, they just be concealing it" hold absolutely true in this case and probably many other cases.

ANI DESWAL
Kinn 338I
W 4-6:45

A League of Their Own

When I started taking KIN 338I the first movie film that came to my mind was "A League of Their Own". This film shows the trials and tribulations of an All American Women's Baseball team during World War II. Because of WWII, the Men's Baseball League was diminishing because many of the men were being drafted into the war. Women in this movie had the sole roles of housewives, until some were drafted into an American Women's League, which was created to keep the game of baseball alive during the War.

During this film, you see many scenes of challenges the women baseball players face to play the game:

-The team struggles with a male coach who does not believe in their playing ability.

-The team has to dress up in skirts and make-up during the games.

-The team had to do something "exciting" to attract attention to the game; such as catching a fly ball while doing the splits.

-The team is forced to take etiquette classes in order to remain "lady-like".

-An amazing female player is almost denied from playing on the team because she is too ugly.

-When the players are announced during a game they are referred to as "pretty, single, married, etc."

-The team's coach tells them that they are unable to be vulnerable in the sport of baseball by saying "There's no crying in baseball".

The beginning of the Women's League starts off rocky, but as the movie continues you began to see how these women fight off the stereo types and increase the popularity of the game. These women started off as only being viewed as housewives, but later start being respected as women athletes. They face extreme issues because of their gender, but we slowly see it diminish as their raw baseball talent starts to overcome those issues. I think this was an awesome movie and really related to our class. In the film you observe the under representation of women in baseball, the challenges they face to play the game, and the road to equality being slowly paved for women in sports.

Alyssa Salindong

KIN338I Section 2

Wed 4:00-6:45