I stumbled upon this article and video this morning on Yahoo about Anna Rawson.
I don't follow golf, but this article interested me because it's basically about how Anna Rawson wants to up the viewership of women's golf because she is concerned that the media doesn't give women's golf the same kind of coverage that they do to men's golf. This is a valid point, and something worth addressing and exploring. However...it appears that most of Anna's ideas for bringing in new viewership are quite sexist. Anna is not new to sexist advertising as she was declared Maxim's "sexiest athlete", and she is also a spokesperson for GoDaddy (a company notorious for their constant overtly sexist advertising). So it would appear that Anna has no concerns about being objectified.
The video implies that Anna wants to make women's golf "sexier" as a way to bring more people to the sport. In the video, an interviewer asks Anna "Are you selling professional golf or a sexual stereotype?". Anna's response to this question is simply "It's just more about getting eyeballs". Which doesn't actually answer the question in any way.
It would seem that Anna's attempts to bring in more viewership may be doing more harm than good. A few years ago, Anna was being interviewed by an Australian radio host about the lack of media coverage of the women's game and made the following statement: "...the mentality unfortunately has not changed among the media and the industry. They still think we're 25 years ago where the tour was full of a lot of dykes and unattractive females. No one wanted to watch and it's totally changed".
So basically what Anna is saying is that golf is not something anyone would want to watch unless it's filled with attractive, heterosexual females. Yeah, that's not sexist at all. Kristie Kerr, a fellow golfer made the following comment about Anna's interview: "She tried to address it in her own way but didn't think before she spoke so she almost put us back another 20 years with that comment".
I completely understand the frustration of women's sports not getting appropriate viewership, however I don't think that Anna's ideas are the answer that the sport needs. Granted, she has some non-sexist ideas as well such as running the womenss tournaments at the same time as the mens as a means of more media exposure. However I find Anna's mentality to be very disturbing: If we are low on viewers, then we must show more skin and make the sport "sexier". It almost seems as if the actual skill of the game is not even remotely important....it only matters if there is enough eye candy available for the viewers.
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ok this:
"It's just more about getting eyeballs"
just sounds really gross to me
I'm usually not one to endorse the "women's sports don't get enough viewership" mentality, because the fact is most women's leagues just aren't as entertaining.
With that being said, golf is one of the sports in which the women can be as competitive as the men, and I feel that with more exposure, thje sport could become popular- just look at women's tennis. So I agree, Dawson is wrong here.
Pro Sports are show business. "[T]he actual skill of the game is not even remotely important" since people aren't tuning in for it.
Anna Kournikova was the biggest star in tennis for years.
But she's never achieved anything significant in her sport. There are many many players that are much better than her. THOSE are the players that should be getting the coverage. The problem is that it would appear that the players with the most skill are not the ones getting the most attention in women's sports. That to me is totally wrong and you don't see that as much in men's sports.
I don't even know what to say on this issue of women's sports. I used to play sports pretty seriously, but never thought about how more people probably (definitely) showed up to the boys' games. I guess that would be different in a professional setting, where the number of viewers matter, and it effects your paycheck.
So on the one hand, if these women get more viewers, it will undoubtedly include a lot of men 1. looking to see if there are attractive women they should spend a few minutes watching, or 2. as a kind of "freak show" to see why/how women even think of participating in sports. I wouldn't want any of those viewers. It seems like a lose-lose situation.