Women and Sports

This argument is such an old one. Why is it that women are not really given the same amount of attention in sport as men are?

I really thought, maybe, just maybe, things were starting to change. However, last week I went to the newsagency to find some magazines with sporting images in them to use in the kids art classes that I teach. We are looking at movement in images and I thought sporting images, would be perfect.

So I checked out all the magazines and was disappointed that there was not one on women's sport. I'm not saying that you can't buy them, but at the newsagency I looked there weren't any. Lots of magazines covering men's sport, like soccer, cricket, and other stuff. I asked if there were mags that covered all sport and he showed me one. Again, there were almost no women in it.

I ended up getting 3 magazines that had some good images for the kids to draw, but had to apologise to all the girls in the class that I was unable to find images for them of women doing sport.
So now where do I go, I have images myself, I take photographes of women on bikes all the time, but I still don't understand why it is so hard to find women playing sport. I know they do it, we all do. We have some very successful sports women in this country, and still they get overshadowed constantly by the men.

There are people out there doing what they can to help women in their sporting endeavors. One such group is the WomensCycling.net, they make a point of following women's cycling and reporting on their racing. If you want to find out about which women are riding where, then their blog is the place for you. It is really good and great to see only women being covered.

I'd like to say that I do the same, but I don't, however I do try and be fair. Though, it is hard when you go to a race meet and see that the girls/women race in less races, or race shorter distances and don't get the same amount of prize money. On big event nights, like the Revolution nights, I've also seen music played right through the women's races, which I found really rude, it showed a lack of respect to the women. It was like the organisers were saying that the women weren't as important, and if they don't think they are important then what message does that send to the audience.

Last weekend we saw a big weekend of cycling. Friday night was the madison and Sid Patterson Grand Prix. There was a invitational race, but only for the j17 boys, no girls. Whereas on Saturday night at Revolution 6 the Future stars were invited, both girls and boys, good to see.

It is also interesting to note that the most entertaining race of the night, and the one most people seemed to be talking about the next day, was the sprint between Anna Meares and Nathan Carrigan-Matella.
The race had all the things you would expect to see in Match Sprinting. They were track standing, Anna was forcing him up the track and there was head butting, a great race. Unfortunately Anna didn't win it, but she helped make it very entertaining and everyone had a great time watching it.

I'm also pleased to say that one of my favourite photos from the evening was from a women's race. It was the Keirin and the woman leading here, Fatehah Mustapa, went on to win the race. I love the way she is coming out the fog or the blur. I have been getting a few of these that work. It is taking a lot of practice, but hopefully they will get better.

The answer to the question posed here, I don't know, I suppose if we all start supporting women's sport a lot more, then the powers that be will have to start taking it more seriously as well, and I can't help wondering why men aren't more interested in watching women wearing lycra.