The Average Male Vs. The Female Superstar

As I first read the title of the blog, Sports, Media and Society, I immediately thought of O’Reilly and Cahn’s chapter involving Mildred Didrikson and all of her accomplishments. Media and society have a huge impact on the world of sports. Popular people, games, and rules are all created because of the image that media and society projects. Therefore, although women have equality in sports, they still are not as popular as men’s sports. In the blog, Changing the Title IX narrative: A Prescription for Change, it states, “advocating for equality may not be the type of change that women’s advocates are looking for”. I believe that this is due to the way society chooses to view women’s sports, which are then publicized in the media. The article also states that, “notions of fairness and equity are cornerstones of American value systems, there is still not widespread acceptance for its application”. Women may have the right of equality in sport but what good is that right if sports are still shown in the media as a remembrance of masculinity?

This brings up another question. Does it take a superhuman athlete such as Didrikson to be celebrated in society as an athletic phenomenon? If every woman were as good as she was, would there still be such lines between male and female athletes in society and the way they are portrayed in the media? I believe that society expects all men to be better than women in every aspect of sports. Therefore the media focuses most of their attention and resources on men’s sports, despite the fact that women are claimed to have equality with men. There have been many female athletes who have accomplished things that no other athletes have before. Take Candice Parker who was the first women to dunk in an NCAA tournament, or Annika Sorenstam, who was the first women to play on the PGA tour since Didrikson. Based on their accomplishments, I would view these women in somewhat the same light that I view Didrikson. However, I believe that our society is obsessed with winning and masculinity in sport, therefore the media will never view women the same as men unless they crush every world record and excel in every sport, as did Mildred Didrikson.