Over the past five years of publication, ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue” has portrayed a significant number of male and female athletes in the nude. Kevin Hull, Lauren R. Smith and Annelie Schmittel “Form or Function? An Examination of ESPN Magazine’s ‘Body Issue’” (2015) reveals that genders are relatively equally framed despite readers’ acquisitions of gender bias still being present in sports media.
Media has always covered events in a certain way to influence public opinion. Sports is an area that is highly attractive to the public and gender often plays a major role in how athletes are viewed. In sport related magazines, the discussion of female sport is there; however, they do not receive the same amount of attention as male sports (Hull et al., 2015, p. 108). Both athletes and audiences alike are troubled by this fact as the Women’s Sport Foundation promised women equal access to sports as men within the public eye (Hull et al., 2015, p.107). Evidently, participation of women in sports has increased significantly, yet media coverage has not. Therefore, this has caused athletes to resort to a different form of promotion: sexual appeal. …show more content…
Previous researchers, such as Richmond and Hartman determined that using a “sensible amount” (as cited in Hull et al., 2015, p.108) of sex appeal, will lead to positive advertising and an increase in magazine sales. Unfortunately, the main issue with nude photo portrayal is that it is focused on appearance versus the athlete’s individual accomplishments within the sports world. Shots are often taken in poses that are not sport related at all, drawing a mix of positive and negative attraction to the
Media has always covered events in a certain way to influence public opinion. Sports is an area that is highly attractive to the public and gender often plays a major role in how athletes are viewed. In sport related magazines, the discussion of female sport is there; however, they do not receive the same amount of attention as male sports (Hull et al., 2015, p. 108). Both athletes and audiences alike are troubled by this fact as the Women’s Sport Foundation promised women equal access to sports as men within the public eye (Hull et al., 2015, p.107). Evidently, participation of women in sports has increased significantly, yet media coverage has not. Therefore, this has caused athletes to resort to a different form of promotion: sexual appeal. …show more content…
Previous researchers, such as Richmond and Hartman determined that using a “sensible amount” (as cited in Hull et al., 2015, p.108) of sex appeal, will lead to positive advertising and an increase in magazine sales. Unfortunately, the main issue with nude photo portrayal is that it is focused on appearance versus the athlete’s individual accomplishments within the sports world. Shots are often taken in poses that are not sport related at all, drawing a mix of positive and negative attraction to the