By: Piper Winton, Isabelle Abadie and Charlotte Halloway
Haley Jones doesn’t post bikini pictures.
The Stanford basketball star is one of the best players in the country and has endorsement deals with brands such as Nike and SoFi which earn her six figures.
Her social media presence helped land those deals, and she’s not afraid to show her body, but she’s chosen to present herself as a student-athlete, not a sex symbol.
“That’s not the top topic type of content that I want to post, and my audience isn’t looking for that for me,” Jones told The New York Times last fall.
It hasn’t stopped her from receiving comments, and she considers the objectification unavoidable.
“You can go outside wearing sweatpants and a puffer jacket, and you’ll be sexualized,” she said. “I could be on a podcast, and it could just be my voice, and I’ll face the same thing. So, I think it will be there, no matter what you do or how you present yourself.”
What is Sexualization?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to sexualize something is “to endow with a sexual characteristic or cast.”
Sexualization is frequently linked to the objectification of women, and less commonly, men. According to the American Psychology Association, sexualization ties a person’s value to solely their sexual appearance or behavior, disregarding their other characteristics.
Often when a person is sexualized and objectified they are viewed as a tool or object for entertainment rather than a person. The fact that they have emotions and opinions is overlooked.
Also according to the American Psychology Association girls who are viewed, portrayed, and treated as objects are often led to self-objectify which causes the development of many mental health issues.
“You can go outside wearing sweatpants and a puffer jacket, and you’ll be sexualized.”
Haley Jones
Studies have also shown that the sexualization of young girls is becoming increasingly more common. This can have devastating effects on many aspects of their lives. It can cause major body dissatisfaction and lead to eating disorders, also many mental health problems such as depression and anxiety spur from sexualization and objectification.
The sexual objectification of young girls and women not only contributes to these mental health issues but also towards rape culture and violence against women.
Sexualization in women’s athletics
A major portion of sexualization of women comes from athletics.
According to a study published by the Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 34% of female athletes have been sexually abused by a coach, medical personnel or trainer.
Women athletes are frequently scrutinized in regards to their appearance, rather than skill. Whether it’s coaches, teammates, or fans their bodies are constantly studied and judged.
Many women’s sports teams are required to wear very little amounts of clothing, which adds to pre existing issues of objectification
A major example of this comes from womens gymnastics. For decades, the standard for women’s gymnastics uniforms has been tight, bikini-cut leotards, but in an effort to push back against the sexualization of these uniforms, one team took a stance.
In April of 2021, the German women’s gymnastics team wore leotards that covered their legs at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. They wore these uniforms to protest against
Many women’s sports teams are required to wear very little amounts of clothing, which adds to pre existing issues of objectification
“Every time you don’t feel safe it’s distracting you from what you want to perform. I think that feeling safe and not thinking about what other people can or cannot see is quite relieving when you can compete like that.”
Sarah Voss
A major example of this comes from women’s gymnastics. For decades, the standard for women’s gymnastics uniforms has been tight, bikini-cut leotards, but in an effort to push back against the sexualization of these uniforms, one team took a stance.
In April of 2021, the German women’s gymnastics team wore leotards that covered their legs at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. They wore these uniforms to protest against Gymnastics uniforms and the culture of the sport has allowed for abuse and sexualization of young girls and women.
Even despite these uniforms women are sexualized and objectified constantly.
“Every time you don’t feel safe it’s distracting you from what you want to perform. I think that feeling safe and not thinking about what other people can or cannot see is quite relieving when you can compete like that” said 23 year old German Olympic gymnast Sarah Voss.
Not all women let the comments get to them, though. Some have even taken this bad aspect of being a female athlete and turned it into something they can use to leverage their career. According to New York Times article many collegiate level athletes are putting emphasis on themselves and are gathering a large social media following in order to increase their presence and monetary value. This is all possible due to new rules that allow college athletes to sign their name, image, and likeness deals.
There are different ways female athletes can choose to build up their presence. Some athletes, like Jones, choose not to highlight their sex appeal and focus their content solely on their sport. But others, like Louisiana State University Gymnast Olivia Dunne, choose to highlight their bodies and femininity.
Dunne earns more than many professional athletes thanks to her Instagram and Tiktok content, where she models clothes, dances, and lip syncs. By showing off her body and playing into her femininity, she is making a much larger profit than she would otherwise.
Dunne told The New York Times that she earns seven figures from NIL deals. “That is something I am proud of,” she said. “Especially since I’m a woman in college sports.”
Sexualization in high school sports
Sexualization in women’s sports isn’t restricted to just professional athletes though. For many high school female athletes hearing comments about their body is routine.
“Of course I’ve experienced sexualization [as a woman in sports], I think we all have,” said swimmer Megan Pepper.
Sophomore soccer and football player Zoe Cordell agrees.
“I feel like I saw and experienced sexualization before I even knew what it was,” she said.
“It’s very disheartening,” said senior volleyball player Janika Bunch.
Despite an underlying common ground, every scenario in which student-athletes experience sexualization looks different.
Pepper sees it in the rules written for swim competitions.
“In swim specifically, there is a rule allowing a female swimmer to be disqualified for having her bathing suit ride up too far,” said Pepper. “It’s unfair in itself because when you’re swimming, you’re focused on the sport. The suit is going to ride up a little bit. People are so focused on your body and not so much on what you’re actually doing.”
Junior dancer Leila Perjes notices it in student evaluations.
“Some of my club dance teammates, I’ve seen them told that they weren’t enough because maybe they weren’t skinny enough,” said Perjes. “They didn’t have the body most dancers have or stereotyped to have.”
Cordell hears comments from the crowd during games.
“I hear it happening more often as a bystander, in the stands,” said Cordell. “Are you supposed to speak up? Because it’s not you but it doesn’t feel right to hear.”
Bunch has experienced it on the court during volleyball games from fans.
“Some people are very “old generation” about it and make rude comments,” said Bunch. “[They] don’t think of it as body shaming because some girls are bigger than others.”
No matter how small the event seems, the toll it can take is real.
“It leads to a low morale or self esteem as they grow up,” said Perjes.
“People are making women feel like they aren’t good enough just because they don’t look a specific way,”
Janika Bunch
Pejes believes that many female athletes will become discouraged and feel that they aren’t worthy because of comments. It can have a big negative impact on mental health, and even spark athletes to hate the sport they used to love.
“Unfortunately, it can influence you to not participate in certain sports or change the way you express yourself,” said Pepper. “All because you’re afraid of how people will look at you.”
Cordell believes it’s enough to drive athletes away from a sport.
“It can take their mind out of the game, if they feel like they are being watched for other reasons besides their performance,” said Cordell. “It can even steer them away from their sport, if they are like ‘oh people only watch me because of how I look.’”
Even without experiencing it, and just hearing about it second hand, many females with lots of athletic potential refrain from playing sports in high school to protect themselves.
“People are making women feel like they aren’t good enough just because they don’t look a specific way or aren’t a specific size that is preferred, and that’s why most athletes don’t play now,” said Bunch. “There are a lot of good athletes in the school, but they hear about how players are treated and don’t want to go through that.”
A Systemic Issue
For 28 years, Larry Nassar worked for the USA Gymnastics first as an athletic trainer and later as the team doctor. He used his position to exploit and sexually abuse over 250 young girls and women. Since the 90’s many gymnasts had made complaints about his inappropriate behavior but it wasn’t until 2015 that USA Gymnastics took action against him.
Previous Olympic gymnasts Jeanatte Antolin, Jessica Howard, and Jamie Datzcher who were all sexually abused by Nassar have said that the conditions in USA Gymnastics training camps and facilities were emotionally abusive and gave people like Nassar the opportunity to abuse young girls and made them afraid to speak up against the abuse.
A similar situation occurred in Durham at Bull City Gymnastics.
On February 16, 2021 owner Stephen Maness was arrested for three charges of indecent liberties with a minor and sexual battery. The first alleged abuse dated back to August of 2012 and lasted until March of 2020, the other two from January of 2015 to November of 2019.
“I did gymnastics for nine years at Bull City Gymnastics,” said Pepper. “We had a lot of different coaches, but it was recently disclosed that the head coach and owner had been molesting girls on the team for years.”
“There were a lot of awkward encounters with him,” said Pepper. “We was a little too touchy and his behavior with us was so weird. Then when you find out that he’d been molesting girls for so long, you look back and rethink every interaction you’ve ever had with him. Was that him being weird?”
In March of 2022 Maness was offered a plea deal that would reduce 6 felonies to 7 misdemeanors, which included assault on a child, assaulting a female and misdemeanor child abuse. But as of December 22, 2022 that plea deal was redacted due to more potential abuse victims coming forward.
Raising Awareness
Scenarios like this aren’t uncommon, but often aren’t reported because it is so normalized.
“I didn’t think about it much until 2020 when COVID started and things like that became more prominent on social media,” said Perjes.
Cordell and Bunch both had a similar experience.
“Actually, this year I was introduced to what sexualization was because I just grew up thinking it was normal,” said Bunch. “I feel like I didn’t understand what that term meant until like a year or so ago but obviously it was still happening,” said Cordell.
More and more female athletes are taking the steps to help make a better future for young athletes by speaking out against inappropriate behavior and changing uniforms so that they are comfortable and not distracted by their appearance and how they are being perceived by viewers.
“I feel like as a young society we need to do better in helping future generations not be so low on body types,” says Perjes.
Bunch agrees.
“You’d think people would be positive because we are all just trying to play a sport but no.”
While there is no real solution to sexualization and objectification there are steps that can be taken towards making a better future for female athletes.
Whether it’s through raising awareness, acknowledgment, or education, there is so much more that can be done to help female athletes feel safe and seen.
One Comment on ““Of course I’ve experienced sexualization”: New era brings same challenges for female athletes”