My topic is the sexualization of professional athletic
events. I think I'm going to narrow it down to NFL, but I would love everyone’s
feedback on that! I want to focus on cheerleaders and their outfits, moves, and
perception. I also plan to look at media proclaimed “attractive” athletes. I
want to see if the sexual nature of the cheerleaders has a conscious influence
on viewers (specifically male), and if the sexualization of the athletes
themselves influences athlete talent perception and overall perception.
I plan on watching a three to five games from last season (if
I focus on NFL) to record how much screen time the cheerleaders receive and how
much more time is focused on the "attractive" athletes than the other
players. In order to judge which athletes are considered attractive, I will
Google search generic terms, such as “hot football players,” “attractive
athletes,” etc…I will also talk to fans to see who they perceive as attractive.
I then would like to interview male and female NFL
fans. I want to ask both about recognition of the cheerleaders. I want to
specifically ask the women about what attracts them to a male. I'm guessing for
those who find many athletes attractive, they will list athleticism as a
positive trait. I will then ask the women about these perceived attractive
athletes. I am hoping to personally interview at least ten people (five females
and five males) for around 30 minutes each. I would then write up my results in
a report with a few other sources, including my analysis of the three to five games
I previously watched, to back up my findings.
I am a bit concerned about a couple aspects of this
proposed project. First, I am worried that I will not be able to conduct this
research as well as people who frequently watch NFL games or other professional
sporting events. I have the potential to be biased against athletics because of
my disinterest in athletics in general. Second, I am concerned that a report
based on this research may not yield enough information for me to write a full
ten pages.
Shelby, This is a great research plan and an interesting topic. Have you thought about focusing on Football/Soccer or Tennis? That might actually give you more to work with in terms of comparing representations of male vs female athletes in game coverage and player bios, advertising, and film. Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great project idea. I don't know if this helps, but here is a link to an article buzzfeed published before this past Superbowl: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kristinchirico/every-football-playing-butt-in-this-sundays-superbowl-ranked#.gu0P0LEdp. It ranks all of the athletes' butts, so it is a pretty good example of what you are talking about. If you were to include something such as tennis, I would recommend talking about how much they mention the outfits that the players wear (mostly women but sometimes for the men too). I think it is really interesting the interviewing aspect. Are you going to create a form for them to mark what they find attractive in men and women. That way you could add athleticism to a list instead of outright stating it, which could lean people to simply say it is a priority since you are having a conversation about essentially that same thing.
ReplyDeleteIf you do go with Dr. Lampert's suggestion of including soccer, you could definitely compare the Women's vs Men's World Cups. In Germany, the Men's Cup is widely advertised, every little town and village has public viewing events, restaurants wheel out TVs to the sidewalk so people enjoying their meals outside can still watch the game. The whole country goes berserk. When the women play in the World Cup, it's almost like it isn't happening. There is no public viewing, it isn't as popular or as widely known and it's sometimes difficult to find coverage of the games on TV. This was always surprising to me because the women's team (at least the Germans) almost always made it further or won more World Cups than the men. Just some food for thought..
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