I would also argue that “suppressing” female athletes’ “nature” to promote sex, is not a product of nature (meaning it is inherent in everyone), but speaks to my original point-women grow up internalizing societal and cultural messages about femininity, and what it means and looks like to be a female…in addition to the (sometimes conflicting) set of messages about what it means to be a female athlete. Unfortunately, currently only a narrow range of female athletic bodies are seen and promoted in main stream media, and those bodies are the ones that most closely align with dominant ideas of femininity. I can’t wait for the day that main stream media embraces and promotes all shapes and sizes of females athletes like Ann G. writes above. That is why WTS (www.womentalksports.com) is so needed (thanks WTS!) to provide an alternative means to promote all types of female athletes and their athleticism.

I have to disagree on the comment made about “The NBA doesn’t expect Kobe Bryant to be more than a great basketball player, do they?” The NBA certainly expects Kobe Bryant and all of their players to be more than just great players. They want them to be great role models for young children, as well as good citizens on and off the court. They have shown this by instituting a dress code on game days, starting the NBA Cares program, and penalizing players for off the field incidents that have nothing to do with Basketball. I think we expect this from all athletes as we have put them on an unreal pedestal because of their superstar status. Last year during the NBA finals, ABC/ESPN did a fairly long story on Kobe Bryant, the father. This had nothing to do with Kobe Bryant, the basketball player, but it was refreshing to see that these athletes really are human and go through the same things that we do everyday. I think that becoming pregnant and starting a family is a big moment in any woman’s life and I find no issue in the fact that ESPN was celebrating the fact that the best woman’s basketball player in the world would put her athletic career on a short term hold to start a family, something she is probably really looking forward to. (On a side note, I DO think that the actual story was badly written and the opening sentence was inexcusable.)

One last thing, I don’t think that Twittering can “save” woman’s sports, but as they say, any publicity is good publicity. Any extra exposure cannot hurt, and unlike most media exposure, this form is completely controlled by the league or player. The onus is on them to decide if they are going to contribute to gender stereotypes or not. It will be interesting to see what the research that the two graduate students are conducting shows as to how this is affect tickets sales, etc. I can’t imagine it will have had that much affect on those tangible things.

Included in most of this discourse around Twitter is talk of the new twist it’s putting on social media, but also its perpetuation of neoliberal forms of governance (i.e. 24-hour lateral surveillance, peer monitoring) that MySpace and Facebook gained popularity for facilitating several years ago. I mean Twitter literally makes it possible for you to follow someone (as long as they ‘tweet’) all day long. In fact it’s even been credited with saving lives! (Google: “Did Demi Moore’s Twitter feed stop a suicide?”) However this blog is the first I’ve seen to address some of the negative consequences associated with the Twitter phenomenon in relation to the way professional sports teams are using it as a marketing and public relations tool.

Personally, I can’t say I have thought too critically about the use of Twitter in promoting women’s sports until now. My initial reactions as a fan and consumer of women’s athletics are of course to think that any exposure is good exposure. Thus I found it interesting that you raised the question of if Twitter will ultimately just become another means of replicating traditional sport media and its marginalization/sexualization of female athletes…Obviously, one would hope not. However, then again I feel like it would be ignorant to assume that many of the WNBA and WPS players tweeting during games, on the sidelines, or on their own time, haven’t been coached on what is and is not acceptable to bring up. Could you imagine if a female athlete ever tweeted, “Tired after a long game, watching a movie with my girlfriend.” I don’t think league administrators would ever let it happen, it would defy the representations of these women in heteronormative ways, and I am sure they would worry about it alienating the “family” consumer they are desperately trying to reach that buys tickets. Therefore in this sense, maybe your question about whether Twitter is reproducing dominant portrayals of female athletes can already be answered.

In regard to the comment about Twitter’s existence doing nothing to challenge the existing inequalities between men’s and women’s sports though, I think I would have to somewhat disagree. The unprecedented marketing campaign that the new Women’s Professional Soccer League has under way on Twitter far exceeds anything the men’s equivalent league, MLS, has out there. While, I concede that using soccer in the United States is not necessarily the best example of prevalent men’s and women’s professional sports, I still feel my argument is applicable. In terms of followers alone the WPS’ official site has over twice as many in comparison to the MLS’ (4,018 vs. 1,792 to be exact). They even out number our very own NBA team, the Minnesota Timberwolves’, page by more than 2 to 1. While these numbers don’t negate your acknowledgement that because this is an “opt in” form of media consumption they may not be reaching people outside of those already interested in the league, I guess I just like to think what if they are? What if people are opting in because of the access to information and the athletes that the WPS promotes through Twitter? What if this leads them to go see a game with some friends? Technically that would put money in the league’s pocket. And while of course there is no research currently available to prove either of our opinions right or wrong (because as you said only time will tell,) I suppose I just don’t want to jump to such a quick revocation of the potential positive implications Twitter might bring to the new women’s soccer league, or women’s sports in general.

But I think that your are onto something when you said that everyone seems to uncritically accept that social media is “good for” marketing women’s sports. Social media isn’t the primary way men’s sports are marketing and promoted but it is “ok” for the women. We are relegated to the space of social media, because we don’t have any place else to go.

We can read this two ways:
1. be glad social media does exist because traditional media has never given equal coverage of women’s sports, so at least something exists!
2. be mad that traditional media has never given equal coverage of women’s sports, so at least we have something (which can be read as a “less than” something)

Traditional media as we know it, is changing…so maybe having a stake in the social media space is good. But one thing that bothers me about the use of social media is that most of it is “opt in”..–Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Twitter. For those who don’t care about women’s sport, they wouldn’t be following for example the WNBA or the Women’s Sport Foundation. They would have to search it out. So are new fans created by social media or are we just disseminating information to our brand champions in a different forum?

Pat Griffin had a good point about WNBA player Chantelle Anderson’s blog on YardBarker in that she is reaching fans on that site who don’t typically follow or care about women’s sport…because those fans ARE ALREADY THERE! That is my point.

Perhaps we are edifying and galvanzing our brand champions, but failing to rope in the coveted and elusive young male sport fan into women’s sport.

I also fear that because women’s sport and those who love it and write about ARE relegated to social media and websites, that this space becomes “feminized” and thus devalued. It is parallel to when females entered the workforce and a predominance of a certain job was filled by women, it became a less valued and marginalized job (i.e., administrative positions, nurses, teachers). I think this may be happening with women’s sport and social media….but this is more of a gut feeling than empirical.

The ultimate strategy then it to is push for more integration of women’s sports into mainstream media, while continuing to carve out a space in social media. That way we ensure women’s sports are not ghettoized in the “opt-in” exclusive space (not everyone has access to the WWW) of social media. Thoughts?