Today, I found out that Serena Williams just surpassed female golf legend Annika Sorenstam as the all-time money leader in female sports.  Nice.

Several months ago, when I was applying to be a blogger for the most fantabulous organization in the world (eh-hem, YouthNoise), I wrote a sample blog post about female athlete salaries.

Take an EXCLUSIVE peep at my sample:

Female Pro Athletes ‘Got Next’ Salary Checks

6/16/08
By Tara L. Conley

Long before the WNBA dubbed “We Got Next!” for their national campaign slogan, young girls, like me, were on the sidelines antsy as jitter bugs waiting for a chance to play with the big boys.

During the 80’s, women like Cheryl Miller and Billie Jean King were revolutionizing basketball and tennis, respectively.  Yet, despite the 100-point games and multiple Grand Slam championships, both women still weren’t as monetarily valued as their male counterparts.

Enter: The twenty-first century, and although young women playing in the WNBA only receive a fraction of male NBA salaries, there’s actually a glimpse of hope in the field of female pro tennis.  Unlike WNBA players, female pro-tennis athletes receive the same amount of prize money as male pro-tennis players.

Yet some in the industry still choose to criticize pro-female singles players for making equal pay.  They claim that since male tennis athletes play 5 sets and female tennis athletes only play 3 sets, then the latter should receive lesser pay.

Wuzza-what?!

Considering that, across the board, women (even college educated women!) still only pocket on average $.76 for every dollar earned by their male counterpart, it’s nice to see that some industries, especially within pro-sports, are closing the gender salary gap.

To those who complain about female pro-tennis salaries, stating that earnings aren’t fair – I say, FINALLY—progress!

Besides, if you ask any Joe/ann Blow on the street to name three top U.S. tennis players, I bet among those would be Venus and Serena Williams.  Pro tennis is a business, and celebrity-status is BIG business. Salary earnings have lots to do with the celebrity-status of certain female athletes.  Billie Jean King may have revolutionized women's tennis, but the Williams sisters have taken the sport to an entirely different level in terms of pro-tennis visibility in the U.S.

Take even, Anna Kournikova.  Although homegirl isn’t considered as talented as the Williams sisters, that hasn’t stopped her from landing major endorsement deals, modeling contracts, and gracing the covers of numerous fashion magazines.  And good for her!  Here’s my theory: Americans seem more drawn to female tennis players—cause-um-a-rah—they’re just more interesting than male players.  Arguably, not since John Mackenrow would throw his ever-classic temper tantrums has men's tennis actually been worth watching.  

Heck, men are dominating every other sport salary-wise (deserving or not).  If French and Wimbledon officials are handing out fat checks, then more power to every female tennis players who cashes in!
 
A new voice of young female athletes are chanting “we got next!” all across the nation not only because they want to rumble with the big boys on the court, but also because they want their turn in the capital gains market too.

(Incidentally, Serena is covering the July issue of Ebony Magazine4, she’s also rumored to be dating Common, famed hip-hop artist.  Um, let's see Andy Roddick top that!).

###

Well, well, well, looks like somebody in the universe was listening to yours truly :-)

Okay, okay, maybe it's not such a big foresight as, well, predicting the exact date of the next California earthquake, but I did recognize women's tennis as one of the few sports leading the way in salary earnings, particulary at a time when nay-sayers were really trippin'. (BTW - that's me, "Friday025" responding to the author's ridiculous argument.)

Now if the rest of society would just get on board and start paying women the money they deserve in sports - and in practically all other industries - life would be grand!

Reminiscing is always so much fun.

 

 

When you think Anna Kournikova, do you think tennis player or "hot" tennis player?

Often the appearances of female athletes can overshadow their talent in competition. Do you think we oversexualize female athletes in a way that undermines their athletic ability?

Here's a quick homework assignment. Google your local newspaper and click on the sports section. Count the number of articles profiling female athletes. Count the number of articles profiling male athletes. Take out your calculator and do the math.

The answers are not in the back of the book; they're right in front of you.

Thirty-six years after Title IX brought national attention to gender discrimination in school sports, "the mass media still spend a grossly disproportionate amount of time covering men's sports while ignoring, marginalizing, or trivializing women's sports," says Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports. This is not so different from 1970, when "gender inequity [in sports] appeared so natural [to Messner], it was invisible." At that time, our mothers and grandmothers could participate in intramurals, cheerleading, and a few other loosely organized athletic activities. But they lacked uniforms, funding, official teams, favorable press coverage, and most importantly—respect on the playing field.

Since then, women have worked hard and played hard to gain widespread recognition for their athletic talents. Still, women's sports achievements often appear invisible to the mainstream media.

Here's your next homework assignment: analyze this trend in a broader context.

Does the shortage of women's sports coverage reflect that fewer women care about pro sports? That fewer women play sports? That there are fewer paid positions in pro sports for women? That the press doesn't care as much about women's sports? That their target audience doesn't care as much about women's sports?

Short answer: yes.

Next question: why?

Old habits and expectations are difficult to change. Girls need female sports role models. They need to see their heroines on television and in the news. They need to see professional opportunities for female athletes. They need to see that others actually care about women's sports.

Parents need to see this, too. If our culture doesn't demonstrate that women can gain respect through athletic prowess, then why would responsible parents encourage their daughters to pursue sports?

Fortunately, we've got lots of young girls and women willing to challenge archaic belief systems about femininity and athleticism. Not all of these women approach sports from a feminist perspective. They might not care about social history or gender politics. Some girls just like the feeling of sweat pouring down their mud-stained faces, muscles driving forward across the field. Some girls do it to win, training months or years for that moment when they cross the line first. Some girls just want to play, and they won't listen to any excuses about why they shouldn't.

Lack of prominent female role models in sports? Perhaps. Lack of girls and women muscling their way past social disparities and kicking butt on the field? I think not.

The lovely folks over at Bitch are talking about a topic I brought up a few months ago during the summer Olympics: the sexualization of female athletes.

La Macha does a great job of asking people to think about the implications of the hyper-sexualized female athlete, and also if there's a way female athletes can negotiate between a sex positive image and the aforementioned.

There is a thin line, in my humble opinion.  I mean, really, where do we draw the line - or rather who is doing the drawing of the line?  Is it the female athletes themselves or the advertisers and companies that endorse these athletes?

Speaking of advertising, the folks over a Jezebel also brought up the issue regarding sexist advertising.  We all know sex sells - or do we?  Is this a universal claim or just something posed so consumers (you and I) remain complacent?

If you ask car racer Danica Patrick, she'd probably that this pose is empowering.  So be it.  Like I said in a previous post I don't have a problem with grown women doing what grown women want to do.

But then La Macha brought up another key point about 'white' female sexualization versus women of color.  Perhaps some of the more 'feminized' athletes who can sell a sexualized athletic image are boxer Laila Alli and WNBA player Candace Parker.  But what about when idiots call female athletes like Serena and Venus Williams monkeys, or when the women of the Rutgers basketball team are called nappy-headed hoes.  What are folks really saying about Western beauty here?  And what in the world are we, as consumer and sports enthusiasts buying into exactly?

As the debate continues, my head throbs and my blood pressure rises...

[sigh]

"It's not about becoming masculine" said female Arab bodybuilder Dorra Zaier to Sonia Ounissi of Reuters.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

I can't tell you how many articles THIS MONTH alone I've read where some person (usually some ill-informed male blogger or journalist, not all of them, but some of them) talks about female pro athletes looking like a man, wanting to be like a man, or wanting to get paid like a man.  I haven't come across any articles talking about male pro athletes trying to play, or shoot, or kick, or hit like a woman.  It's obvious why the latter arguments don't really exist: typically in modern-day society most people deem sports as part of the male domain.  Anytime women step into this male-dominated zone they tend to face criticism for trying to be (or look) too much like a man.

Granted, some arguments are warranted; particularly those that address the physical impact participating in sports can have on women and young girls.  But when a woman is told that she should not be participating in athletic competition because she’s a woman, I have a huge problem with that logic – and so does Zaier.

Zaier resides in one of the most progressive nations in North Africa, Tunisia.  However, she's had to face challenges as one of a few female bodybuilders in the country.  Though her father supports her ambitions, her mother continues to tell her to hide her broad muscular shoulders by wearing her hair down. 

But Zaier isn't the only woman who has to grapple with the beauty ideal as a female athlete.  I was never petite by any means.  I still carry a muscular frame even after all these years of not competing in organized sports. 

 

Along with carrying a muscular frame, admittedly I also carry some insecurities about my body while looking at billboards, Internet ads, and television shows of thin-waisted women with bubble boobies.  I don't think any women in this day and age can escape the Western "beauty ideal" – or myth (popularized by author and intellectual, Naomi Wolf).

Though women like Amanda Beard, Anna Kournikova, and Ashley Harkelroad have used their athletic bodies to pose for Playboy, Maxim, FHM, blah . . blah . . blah . . most female athletes, particularly those participating in the 2008 Olympic Games, are most known for their brawn and not their (photoshopped) beauty.  Case in point, Austrailian swimmer Libby Trickett, pictured below.

So while most of us deal with the beauty ideal, some female athletes are speaking out about their own bodies – not to be seen necessarily as masculine, but as healthy, tone, fit, and ready for competition.

I applaud Zaier for speaking out (even though she did say in the interview that her fiancé will "allow" her to continue bodybuilding after they get married – mmmkay.)  But even still, I always like to come across stories about female athletes defying the odds, breaking gender roles, and most of all proving that sports can be a means through which we all can achieve physical greatness.