There is a severe lack of voices of women and other minority groups in sports. That statement is neither groundbreaking nor shocking if you’ve paid any attention to the real world at any point over the past, well, forever.
Which is maybe why I decided to start writing this column. Why is a statement that blasé and non-groundbreaking still relevant?
I’ve spent my entire short sports journalism career as a beat writer, and while luckily I have been surrounded by supportive, progressive friends and co-workers who barely make a fuss about my being a woman, there’s still an unspoken pressure to perform at a pristine level.
That’s exactly why I feel the need to speak my voice more — I strive for the day my voice is completely relevant, the day my voice is less prone to severe scrutiny. According to a report commissioned by the Associated Press Sports Editors, 90.9 percent of sports editors in the United States are white, and 90.4 percent are male. When looking at columnists, 83.9 percent are white, and 90 percent are male. In terms of reporters, 86 percent are white, and 88.3 are male.
I fall into that 86 percent of white reporters, and I do not have the experiences to fully understand the issues faced by people of color on a daily basis. It is not my job to speak on behalf of them; rather, it is my job to lend my support, listen and learn.
But I fall into that 11.7 percent of female reporters. The challenges I’ve faced, and could face in the future, cannot accurately be described by men.
One of the first things you learn in gender studies classes is the importance of representation within the media. The media controls exactly how we view the world; it’s how we consume our information. When it’s dominated by men, we get a very rigid, masculine viewpoint of the world. The voices of women are silenced.
When a young girl opens up the sports section of a newspaper or flips on the TV and sees only male reporters and only men’s sports being covered, it gives a very clear message: sports are not an appropriate venture for me.
The availability of professional sports opportunities for women after college is laughable at best. The WNBA is the only comparable league to any of the Big 4 sports in the United States, but the minimum WNBA salary is around $35,000, while the minimum NBA salary is about 14 times that amount. Lindsay Adler wrote an article for Buzzfeed entitled “52 NBA Players Who Make More Money Than The Entire WNBA Combined.” Hint: Kris Humphries made $12 million playing for the Boston Celtics last year. That says enough.
On an individual sports level, female tennis and golf players, while slightly more comparable in terms of representation in the media, make significantly less money than their male counterparts. When comparing top-ranked tennis players, Novak Djokovic made around $7.3 million, while Maria Sharapova made just over $4 million. In golf, Rory McIlroy made just under $7 million, and Stacy Lewis made just more than $2 million.
Title IX was 42 years ago. But a woman’s opportunity for equal success in athletics is capped off after college. And the presence of anything other than ideal, hegemonic masculinity within sports is essentially nonexistent.
That’s why I won’t just laugh it off when Sir Charles Barkley says he’d love to play for a team with a woman as a coach, just so long as she’s attractive, as he did early last week.
That’s why I celebrate when I see young women like Lauren Hill, a collegiate basketball player who suffers from inoperable brain cancer, receive media attention.
That’s why I do, indeed, care when Michael Sam is cut from the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad. No, any other player being cut from a practice squad would likely not be a big deal. But he’s not “any other player.” Tweeting that “no one cares” or asking “why is this news” just exposes the issue even further. It is news. Sam is gay. He is the first NFL player to be openly gay. He is a role model to many, and his bravery means something to a significant portion of people. That significant portion of people wants him to succeed.
Pretending a problem isn’t a problem doesn’t make the problem go away. In these cases, Sam should be celebrated, not dismissed as any other average football player. Women should be respected, not the punch line of a joke.
Sports are ostensibly the most recognizable activity across all cultures. People love competition and exhibitions of strength and fitness. Given their prominence, sports should, and do, serve as a vehicle to recognize and solve flaws within society.
It’s nearly impossible to sway an entire cultural norm overnight. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.
Sarah covers men's hockey and other sports for The Daily Free Press, and is the chairman of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the FreeP during the Spring 2014 semester and was Sports Editor in Fall 2013. She has also written for the Boston Globe and seattlepi.com. When she's not writing, she loves baking and going to concerts. You can contact her by tweeting her at @Kirkpatrick_SJ or emailing her at sjkirkpa@bu.edu.
