Professional Women in Sports Advertisements
This first set of advertisements is to give an idea of how real professional women are portrayed in a variety of sports. They help show the contrast in the ideology of being a woman and the ideology of being an athlete. Ideology, as defined by Rose is "knowledge that is constructed in such a way as to legitimate unequal social power relations" (Rose 75). Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm are an interesting comparative because they played on the same team. Brandi Chastain is known worldwide for scoring the winning goal in the 1999 Women's World Cup, then pulling her shirt off in celebration. Although the text is too small to read, the number 6 identifies Brandi Chastain in this advertisement for Nike Fit. The ad shows her whole body in the fetal position with the word Tough following her curves. This follows the trend Plous & Neptune found in their study of images in women's magazines from 1985 - 1994. They "found an increase in the body display (skin exposure) of female models" (Lynn et al. 399). The way her body is positions makes me feel that rather than making her seem in control of the situation she is vulnerable and powerless. She is completely exposed to the lens of the photographer, and therefore the gaze of the viewer. Other images of Brandi Chastain from a Sports Illustrated shoot are shown as well. These images take away her professional ability and leave her as a sexual object for others to objectify. Her bare body can be seen as a sign, defined by Rose as "the basic unit of language," that signifies deeper meaning, or connotive sign (Rose 79, 87). The Connotive sign is saying that Chastain is a sexual being and is seeking out sex.
Mia Hamm on the other hand, is known for being an amazing soccer player and the icon of girls in my generation. She has written books on the game and gives speeches to help inspire up-and-coming soccer players and women in general. This advertisement for Gatorade isn't aimed just towards women. As seen in the ad, Hamm looks powerful and aggressive. Unlike her teammate it is hard to see how Mia is being sexualized, until the words are read. The slogan "is it in you?" can be glanced over but combined with "it's never wanting to stop" could suggest something far less athletic and far more heteronormative. For example, as a younger scholar, I remember replacing anything sexual with the word "it" because it was embarrassing to say "penis" or "sex."
Moving away from soccer and into a more feminized sport, tennis, Serena Williams will be the case study in her advertisement for Nike. "Nike, which has been praised by some for its 'empowering' messages in regard to female sports, has 37% of the women's sports market" (Lynn et al. 336). This ad again forgoes the name of the athlete replacing it with cultural references, a tennis racket in this instance. It's headline "Are you looking at my titles?" forces and confronts the viewer into looking at her prominent chest with the word "ATHLETE" just above, and then makes the viewer feel guilty for doing so. Williams is also very feminine in this advertisement, she is wearing an obvious lip-gloss and her hair is done nicely. Her large hoop earrings also suggest femininity and beauty. If this ad doesn't say enough to show the perpetuation of women's sexulization, take a look at the next couple of tennis images showing Ana Ivanovic in a couple of different advertisements. I shouldn't even have to mention famous golfer and model, Anna Rawson, but she is clearly being overtly sexual and sexualized in this advertisement for Golfpunk.

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Works Cited
Lynn, Susan; Hardin, Marie; Walsdorf, Kristie. "Selling (out) the Sporting Woman: Advertising Images in Four Athletic Magazines." Journal of Sport Management, 18.4 (Oct 2010). 335-349. Web.
Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: an Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: SAGE Publications, 2007. Print.

Images (click)
Chastain Shirt Celebration
Man Shirt Celebration
Chastain Ad
Hamm Ad
William's Titles
Yonex
Rolex
Golfpunk