Graphic Design Post #7

Graphic Design

Post #7

Gender in Sports Advertisements

By Sammy McCracken

            Advertisements seen in sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated, usually have been known for depicting males as the dominant humans and females are sexual objects. But when looking at magazines for children, are the same results seen? The academic research article, “Selling Girls Short: Advertising and Gender Images in Sports Illustrated for Kids”, explores just that.

            Susan Lynn proposes 5 different questions, which she addresses in her research of advertisements in Sports Illustrated: Kids. Her first question is there a different number of males and females portrayed in advertisements? Second is: How is gender framed in terms of participation in team and individual sports in SIK advertisements? Third is: How are activity levels portrayed in males and females? Fourth is: Are males and females more often represented in different kinds of sports? And finally, the fifth question is: Do camera angles of males and females in advertisements support the cultural stereotype of dominant males and inferior females (Lynn 78)?

            Lynn collected and studied 36 different articles of Sports Illustrated: Kids from July 1996 to June 1999. Not surprisingly, her results showed that 80.9 % of all advertising the magazines were male dominated. Males were shown as being more dominant 33% of the time in comparison to females being portrayed as dominant only 6.5%. But males were also seen 48% of the time in non-dominant advertising as well. This shows that males are used much more often in advertising in the SIK than females; dominant or not. Males were shown in team sports in 53% of the advertisements and females were shown in only 5% of team advertisements and only 5% of individual sports advertisements. The ratio of males and females in active poses in sports advertisements was 6:1. This is not surprising since many more males are depicted in advertisements anyway. The magazine used mostly straight photographic angles and it did not matter if the kids were male or female.

            The results from this study shows that stereotypes and sexism are still major parts of the advertising industry, even for young kids. Even though this fact is not surprising, it still shows just how influential graphic media can be and how much it needs to change.

Works Cited

Lynn, Susan. "Selling Girls Short: Advertising and Gender Images in Sports

Illustrated for Kids." Women in Sports and Physical Activity. 11.2 (2002):

77 - 85. <http://search.proquest.com/genderwatch/docview/230669658/1365469B16779E9902D/12?accountid=10650>.