Soccer stars leave the ladies asking for more; Ladies happy Confed is over

Description:

A brief textual analysis of two articles published on Sowetan on July 2009 just after the FIFA Confederations Cup. The articles, entitled “Laddies Happy Confed is Over” and “Soccer Stars Leave Ladies Asking For More” are accompanied by images of local and European male soccer stars showcasing their muscles and a male football fan blowing a Vuvuzela.

This article may be used to indicate that:

• soccer is still male dominated.
• women’s participation as football fans is viewed as an intrusion.
• media perpetuates stereotypes that women do not enjoy sports but only fascinated by looking at male bodies.
• media coverage during the confederations cup downplayed the active role that women can play in making mega-events a success.
• media texts continue to present women in ways that sexualize and trivialize their presence at soccer tournaments.

Trainer’s notes:

Articles mediated in the Sowetan titled “Soccer stars leave the ladies asking for more” (19 June 2009) and “Ladies happy Confed is over” (30 June 2009) highlights that the Confederations Cup perpetuated stereotypes and newspaper reports served to remind the society that soccer is still a masculine space which reinforces a cultural mindset of antagonism against women. In the article “Soccer stars leave the ladies asking for more”, the reporter points out that, “With the amount of eye candy on display at the Confederations Cup, is it any wonder more and more women are taking an interest in the tournament?”. Although one can celebrate how the article challenged the normalised way in which the media portrays women’s bodies one can still argue that certain gender constructions unfold in such mediation.

For starters, the reporter constructs women as “fake” supporters who only go to tournaments to admire men’s bodies. Following this, their presence as football fans seems to be ignored and discounted. This in turn tends to expurgate female football fans as the trivial ‘other’ and endorse the popular view that football is a male preserve. Thus the role of women as fans is therefore disregarded and their sexual attraction to the players consistently emphasised. In this way, the support offered by female is dismissed and they are not considered genuine fans because if they are defined as such, they would collude with the gendered project rather than fragment it.

The reporter goes on to say that, “with his [Fabio Cannavaro] boyish looks and seductive grin he’s sure to get even the nuns at Saint Catherine’s Convent blushing in excitement”. Thus the article defines gendered identities of masculinity and femininity.

Men’s physicality is one way to define their masculinity and their superiority over women is implied by the fact that Cannavaro’s looks are extremely good that even a woman who has taken a vow to celibacy can be caught on the wrong side of the Catholic Church laws. Further, Amr Zaki of the Egypt soccer team is presented as part of the package of tourist attractions in his country. He is grouped with the ‘seven wonders’ of the Egyptian tourist attractions such as pyramids, camels and the Nile River. On the other hand, the reporter also presents women’s femininity as one which can be defined in relation to providing the male specie with sexual favours. This is affirmed in the same article when the reporter writes that, “One look at a footballer’s chiselled features and drop-dead gorgeous looks is enough to make any hot-blooded woman go weak at the knees”.

In the other article titled “Ladies happy Confed is over”, the reporter labels women as “Confederations Cup widows” who had to tightly compete with the soccer games for their men’s attention. They are also presented as widows whose existence is always at the mercy of the broader society because they do not have a protector who comes in the form of a man. Again, in the same article, women are hungry for male attention so much that one woman identified in the article as Lindsey Leung of Joburg, “was ecstatic that the tournament was over”. Somehow, this assertion affirms women’s inferiority and dependence on men.

The article further trivialises the role of women during the Confederation games. The reporter notes that, “While the men watched the matches the women’s roles were simply those of waitresses and barmaids”. The reporter perpetrates the stereotype that women are inferior to their male counterparts. To this end, women are supposed to serve men, whilst the latter are enjoying watching soccer. In addition, women have to play the traditional roles of undertaking domestic chores.

In light of the above discussion informed by the two articles under analysis, it can be argued that the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa could be a platform that challenges societal norms and values. The participation of women in sports should be viewed as incorporation into a structure that in so many ways is a bastion of male power. However the FIFA 2010 World Cup can challenge the hegemonic gender roles and a multi-sectoral approach from key stakeholders is required to change the cultural mindset of both sexes in and through football.

In Sum,coverage during the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa bears testimony that sport media texts demonstrate power games and are a site where societal patterns of patriarchy and sexism are reproduced. Looking at the two articles mediated in the Sowetan titled “Soccer stars leave the ladies asking for more” (19 June 2009) and “Ladies happy Confed is over” (30 June 2009) one can conclude that sport media texts continue to present women in ways that sexualize and trivialize their presence at soccer tournaments. The game is still male dominated and women’s participation as football fans is viewed as an intrusion and one way of challenging the status quo and should therefore not be allowed. This is achieved by discrediting women as “fake” supporters and legitimizing men as “genuine” supporters. At the same time, the newspaper articles tend to justify that women attend soccer tournaments so that they can lust over male bodies particularly those of players. I conclude that the media in Africa has a great role to play in 2010 if the positive portrayal of women is anything to go by. Women are involved in various development projects and even as football fans, there are great stories that the media can tell rather than perpetuating stereotypes and pronouncing activities such as sex work.

Discussion Questions

• Do you think the above analysis holds water? What do you think of sports coverage in all media? Is it balanced for all sexes?

• How would you have written the same articles without denouncing women’s participation in making such big events a success?

• Do you think there were many female fans at the confederations cup matches? If they were there, what do you think was their purpose to the stadiums?

Training exercises:

Exercise one:

• Analyse both headings, do they undermine women’s participation in sporting activities, as players or supporters?

• How would you have written the headlines of both articles without undermining women’s interest and love for sports?

Exercise 2

Consult the coverage of sports in all newspaper pages during the FIFA Confederations Cup

• Are the female fans in some pictures? If there is, what does it say about the reporter’s claims that “While the men watched the matches the women’s roles were simply those of waitresses and barmaids”?

Download : 10182_soccer_stars_leave_the_ladies_asking_for_more_sowetan_190609.jpg