Media please, women athletes are not sex objects
Ho Yock Lin
All Women's Action Society (Awam) is appalled at the sexist photo captions published by Mandarin daily Kwong Wah Yit Poh in its coverage of a synchronised swimming competition in the 16th Asian Games (Oct 21, page A32).
The full-page photo spread had lurid captions that translated reads, “legs spread so widely, have they not thought about the underage audience?”, “angels submerged in water, exposing their attractive figures”, “the angels possess beautiful legs that make you unable to restrain yourself from touching them”, “get you hooked with their stretched legs”, and “water ballet resembles a bevy of beauties in the bath”.
These photo captions objectify women by focusing only on their bodies and treating their bodies as sexual objects. Kwong Wah also demeaned not just these women as athletes, but also a competitive sport as a whole by reducing it to just a display of body parts.
Moreover, the caption “make you unable to restrain yourself” perpetuates a dangerous myth about sexual violence against women today. The implication is that sexual offenders are driven to commit sexual crimes because they are “unable to restrain themselves” and therefore victims are to blame. This places blame on the victims and not the perpetrators.
Kwong Wah is hardly the only media guilty of objectifying women athletes, who in the sexist arena of sport and sports coverage, must be prepared to be pictured as sex objects first before being treated as legitimate competitors. For example, professional women tennis players are often deliberately photographed to capture as much exposed leg as possible.
To survive in the media industry, Kwong Wah needs to consider its credibility as a newspaper. Meanwhile it has to be more sensitive and respectful in its coverage, and not resort to using offensive, sexist and sensationalised copy as a means to boost readership. Keep the focus of sports reporting on the competition and not women's bodies!
The writer is the deputy vice president of Awam
All Women's Action Society (Awam) is appalled at the sexist photo captions published by Mandarin daily Kwong Wah Yit Poh in its coverage of a synchronised swimming competition in the 16th Asian Games (Oct 21, page A32).
The full-page photo spread had lurid captions that translated reads, “legs spread so widely, have they not thought about the underage audience?”, “angels submerged in water, exposing their attractive figures”, “the angels possess beautiful legs that make you unable to restrain yourself from touching them”, “get you hooked with their stretched legs”, and “water ballet resembles a bevy of beauties in the bath”.
These photo captions objectify women by focusing only on their bodies and treating their bodies as sexual objects. Kwong Wah also demeaned not just these women as athletes, but also a competitive sport as a whole by reducing it to just a display of body parts.
Moreover, the caption “make you unable to restrain yourself” perpetuates a dangerous myth about sexual violence against women today. The implication is that sexual offenders are driven to commit sexual crimes because they are “unable to restrain themselves” and therefore victims are to blame. This places blame on the victims and not the perpetrators.
Kwong Wah is hardly the only media guilty of objectifying women athletes, who in the sexist arena of sport and sports coverage, must be prepared to be pictured as sex objects first before being treated as legitimate competitors. For example, professional women tennis players are often deliberately photographed to capture as much exposed leg as possible.
To survive in the media industry, Kwong Wah needs to consider its credibility as a newspaper. Meanwhile it has to be more sensitive and respectful in its coverage, and not resort to using offensive, sexist and sensationalised copy as a means to boost readership. Keep the focus of sports reporting on the competition and not women's bodies!
The writer is the deputy vice president of Awam
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