Motherboard

The image above is not property of American Apparel. It’s one of the “beautiful/shy” Guo Jingjing, Chinese gold-medalist diver. (Although she’d make a nice model for the company, eh?)

Pirkko Markula, professor of socio-culture studies, uses JingJing as an example for the unequal treatment she believes the media places on women during the Olympic Games

After comparative research of male vs. female media coverage before, during and after the 2004 Olympics, the results show that media coverage of males during the Olympics fell from 88 percent to 40 percent, whereas female coverage rose from 5 percent to 25 percent. Markula points out that media coverage of female athletes is based mainly on their “body shape and appearance” rather than their athletic abilities.

I’m hoping they took into consideration how much of the female body is covered in the more graceful sports like synchronized swimming, ice-skating and gymnastics. Also, isn’t the body the focus of most sports?

Although it’s easy and fun to point the finger at creepy Greek cameramen, the group of researchers analyzed international newspaper coverage in their study. In other words, the Olympics isn’t just about global unity around sports. It’s about global sexism in sports coverage too!

As a woman, I have to admit that I’m personally more likely to watch sports during the Olympic games rather than watching football with the boys. I’d bet this is true of many women, internationally. And I’m also more likely to watch ice-skating or synchronized swimming, the girlier of Olympic sports.

Let me do a quick front flip: The winter games of 2010 will be taking place in Vancouver, which should mean more male coverage and less Olympic cleavage (sorry boys).