A View of Sexism Evident in Nike’s Athletic Promotion

This text is questioning why men are looked as being the superior athletes in comparison to girls in sports, and more particularly in lengthy distance running. It also inquiries why we as society really feel the want to evaluate them. The Guys Vs. Females challenge advertisement campaign put on by Nike plus acts as the representative instance for this text in order to see how society nonetheless values male athletes much more than female athletes. The author consulted Robert Degner’s perform, which explains how men have skilled a longer predisposition to being competitive. The author also joined a conversation with Christine Wegner about her study with regards to statistics of female marathon runners. It was located that the quantity has plateaued and it speculated that this is brought on by social norms restricting ladies from spending additional time on training that they are making use of right now to raise young children.

1 much more point for males to rule, is the caption on the advertisement of the Guys vs. Ladies challenge place on by Nike Plus (Gould). This certain ad is clearly supporting the guys in the challenge. One a lot more point for men to rule. Is it supposed to intimidate women? Or empower guys? Did Nike even think about the fact that the ad might come off as offensive? What specifically are they trying to achieve? But primarily, why are we generating it a competition amongst men and girls? With all this being mentioned, if society knows that there are limitations that have held females back from becoming as physically capable as males and, if male and female bodies are developed differently, why does society continue to worth male athletes as much more capable and superior to female athletes? My initial hypothesis is that since males have been participating in sports for a considerably longer period of time than girls have, we have a tendency to worth them far more than female athletes.

The Nike Plus ad, which I will be analyzing as my representative example, was part of a campaign originally to get more girls to join Nike plus, an app that connects to your iPod or phone to track your mileage and pace. I chose to use this advertisement as my representative example because Nike is a quite nicely known organization and they are nonetheless ignoring gender equality just for one particular of their campaigns. The staff at Nike decided that the very best way to get girls to join the app was to start a battle of the sexes. On the ad in favor of the men’s side there is a guy running wearing Nike running garments. He looks quite focused. There are massive white words in front of him saying “one far more point for guys to rule.” and then below that in smaller sized letters are words saying “join the males vs. ladies challenge at nikeplus.com.” He appears like he knows what he is carrying out, like he is an experienced runner (appropriate kind, suitable operating garments, defined muscles, and so forth.). There was an ad equivalent to the men’s ad supporting the girls. There is an experienced, focused female runner with words in front of her saying, “Ladies First. Men second.” It seems ironic that they chose to say ladies very first due to the fact at no point in history have girls dominated sports.

Guys have a vastly distinct athletic background than girls do. The Olympics have been around for thousands of years, running events have been included in all of them. Except, only for males. Ladies weren’t able to participate until 1900 and didn’t commence competing in running events until the 1928 Olympics (The History of Women’s Operating). A handful of women had been capable to compete in the 800m run in 1928, nevertheless a lot of them collapsed at the finish of the race so it was banned till 1960. This appears really unfair due to the fact even although they have been allowed to lastly run they hadn’t gone by way of suitable education, or education on how to race an 800m. Right after that event there became a rule that females could not race far more than 1.five miles since they physiologically incapable of running much more than that. The marathon was not incorporated into the games for girls till 1984 following a group of ladies fought lengthy and hard to prove that they need to have the rights to race a lot more than 1.5 miles (The History of Women’s Running). Girls have not had practically enough time to adapt their bodies for maximum possible since our history did not incorporate lots of physical activity. Why had been guys participating in sports when girls weren’t?

Men on the other hand have had a lot of time to adapt their bodies for physical activity. Robert Deaner and some of his colleagues published an article exploring the proof that males have had an evolutionary history of physical competitors, they hypothesized that simply because guys had been involved in a lot more physical activity, “Men have skilled a longer predisposition to be competitive, which has driven them to be far more interested in sports…Societies have documented female participation in sports but males were often shown to be a lot more involved.” (Deaner) Whilst they did document females participating in sports they weren’t nearly as competitive or involved in them as males have been. Could this biological response have been influenced by the social norms of that time? Exactly where these social norms influencing females drive for competition as properly? How has women’s biology played a role into their athletic participation? Why was it acceptable for guys to play sports even though girls stayed inside and cared for young children?

Females are nonetheless evolving their bodies to be capable of maximum athletic overall performance. Russell Pate and Jennifer O’Neill published a paper about the advances girls have created in the sport of marathon operating. They looked into the trend of the ideal marathon occasions for females more than the span of 30 years to see how they have changed. It was found that ladies improved their marathon occasions by 15.6% more than thirty years, while the very best male marathon occasions have remained pretty constant for recent decades. They also looked at the physiological differences between male and female runners. “The male runners had statistically significant higher values of height, weight, sum of 6-web site skinfolds, V ?O2max and V ?E compared with the female runners.” (Pate). These biological differences have been adapted more than several centuries so that guys could run to catch food or fight off enemies. It is okay to examine males and females. However, we need to have to draw the line when comparison turns into a hierarchical comparison and a placement of women and guys on a scale based on aspects that shouldn’t be compared. This is why I located the Nike ad destructive to the perform that several folks have put their whole lives into for gender equality. Does becoming a youngster bearer imply that women’s bodies are not as physically capable of athletic overall performance simply because their bodies are able to bear young children? It seems like we’ve made a lot of progress with feminism but we still have a lot of operate to do.

Social norms of girls and mothers getting the main caregivers for kids have had an effect on the number of girls participating in sports. Christine Wegner did a study about the quantity of females operating full marathons and found that “While the percentage of female runners at every distance up to and which includes the half marathon has elevated continually more than the past ten years, the percentage of females participating in complete marathons has plateaued given that 2006, with females nevertheless representing the minority in this distance at 43%.” (Wegner) Females are now the majority of half marathon runners at 61%. They suggested that girls have found their spot in running and have become most comfy operating half marathons. They continue and say, “The environmental filter that after precluded females from distance running has appeared to shift, moving the exclusionary barriers, and now appears to apply only to the longest race distances of 26.two miles and beyond.” (Wegner) The post pointed out that it is not challenging for females to commence running initially, that we have jumped that hurdle but it does turn into hard for females to up the amount of time they commit instruction for races longer than the half marathon (Wegner). They speculate this is because it requires a lot more time out of every day to train for a full marathon that most females using to take care of their children. So have we genuinely jumped more than social norms? Society utilised to see women as exclusively caregivers and practically nothing else. Their job was to remain at residence, care for the youngsters, and clean the property. Now, it’s socially acceptable for women to run and race but they nevertheless have to devote their major priorities to caring for young children, offered that they are mothers, but running is something they can do if they have spare time. Men have less of a hard time fitting operating into their schedules due to the fact of they are not expected to see to their children as significantly as ladies are.

Yet another issue with society’s hierarchy or gender is the pay scale for females compared to men. This article titled, “Here’s why it is fair that female athletes make much less than men” by Shane Ferro discussed why its fair that females get paid significantly less. It is due to the fact not as many men and women come to watch female athletics. This particular article looked into soccer players but this is typical amongst most sports. The writers utilised “fair” in the sense that what their sport tends to make is fairly equal to what each athletes makes. They went on to point out that what we truly require to be focusing on is why, why are individuals significantly less inclined to go see ladies compete, and put significantly less time and funds into female sporting events? “The real question is not why female athletes are paid less. People ought to be asking why fans and sponsors are significantly less interested in supporting women’s sports — and this is what they must be outraged about.”(Ferro) Once once again it all goes back to social norms that male sports are dominate, which somehow makes them more intriguing. Why? Could this distinction in pay scale discourage ladies from running? Could it also empower them to fight for their rights to have equal pay?

If we know that our historical differences have led to distinct biological capabilities than why are we nonetheless initiating competitions among men and females? Who is this healthy for? Could this be potentially dangerous to guys as effectively? Men also feel pressure from the hierarchy that we have produced as well. Except, they don’t worry about whether or not they will be able to compete in a sport, rather they be concerned If they will be capable to maintain up with the expectations that society has set for them as ‘fit males’. When guys see that females can beat them in a race they feel intimidated and embarrassed that a girl could beat them. This hierarchy has led to a lot of male athletes afraid because they are supposed to be much better, according to society. If they are not even though, they can really feel pressure from other males as effectively as media to be greater, stronger and quicker. Athletes will go to extreme measures to prove to society that they are the top dog. One particular frequent way they do this is by abusing functionality-enhancing drugs.

A document released by The American College of Sports Medicine stated that, “Lifetime prevalence prices for steroid use among male adolescents generally range in between four and 12 % and amongst .five and 2 % for female adolescents.”(Yesalis) This is displaying that males have a higher possibility of making use of steroids, this post also pointed out that drug use can start off pretty early in life, signaling that it could be due to social pressures. If little ones are using steroids so early in life it could be hard for them to stop later in life and also modify their mindset that they don’t require to use steroids to be fantastic athletes.

How do we move forward? I feel we have accomplished a lot to get girls in sports to where we are right now, but but we still see sexist acts and comments being produced on a large scale. Eric Anderson did a study on the cultural forces that are affecting male athlete’s attitude towards sexism. He says in his analysis, “Competitive male team sport athletes may maintain socio-negative attitudes toward females even in a time when institutional sexism has been shown to be decreasing.” (Anderson 258). He utilized information from heterosexual men who played football in high college, a a lot masculinized sport, and then went on to join collegiate cheerleading in college. He found that the guys largely changed their views relating to women’s athletics. They respected women’s leadership abilities and valued their friendship. Even though this is all properly and very good, it astonishes me that males have to actually see ladies participating in sports close up and interact with them for us to achieve their respect. It shouldn’t have to be like this, but if it aids men take women more seriously in the athletic planet then we need to continue in that direction. Maybe this signifies that we just want to combine more sports and permit men to see that we are just as willing to place in the perform as they are. Is this the appropriate way proper that we should be going about attempting to demolish gender norms?

I don’t think there is a “right” way to do it, nonetheless, we require to continue to speak about gender norms and help break them down. There genuinely is no want for comparison, we need to be able to respect each and every other’s differences no matter whether it be due to biological variations or other individuals, but at the same time be able to support one particular another. Athletics is about bettering your self and enhancing your well being, ultimately.