Because the media story of the exploits of sportswomen at the Olympics is steeped in sexism

Certain headlines referring to female athletes competing in the Paris Olympics are examples of sexism.And they reflect stereotypes about the role of women.

• The Italian media very often report the exploits of female athletes with sexism and, during an event like the Olympics, the opportunities to notice this are multiplied.
• By describing the fact that the athlete in question is a wife or mother, the owner shifts the focus from the sporting enterprise to the role of women in society.
• The media also often has a tendency to sexualize female athletes, praising or criticizing their physical characteristics.

Rossella Fiamingo won the gold medal in women's épée at Paris Olympics.The fencer born in 1991 is one of our strongest athletes and is already in her third Olympic presence but, beyond this, she is a person with a name and surname, with an identity.In Italian newspapers, however, before the sporting aspect, in recent days the spectacularization of his life has often prevailed: “Gregorio Paltrinieri's girlfriend”, “Diletta Leotta's friend”.As if the story of her career and her performance as a sportswoman, in itself, were not enough to make her deserve a title or a place on the home page.We agree that certain information serves to contextualize, of course:it is a fact that the athlete is engaged to the swimmer and friends with the presenter, but perhaps it should not be the main information contained in the title or summary.Unfortunately, in Italy this often happens when we talk about female sporting successes:many newspapers and journalists just can't tell women's sporting exploits for what they are.They tend to season them with other details, often belonging to private life such as mother, girlfriend or wife of, friend of, or relating to physical appearance (Extremely beautiful, sinuous and so on).A few weeks ago the web lit up with another headline, this time referring to the tennis player Jasmine Paolini, to which a “You are beautiful” was dedicated on the front page.

Because there is no need to specify that an athlete is also a mother

For so little, many will say.The so little however, it constitutes one of the many pieces that make up the patriarchal culture in which we are immersed and which then leads to difficulty in declaring professions to be female and in relating to the successes of women as such.In many cases, women's sporting exploits are told with a exceptional character (“The first woman to do this, the first woman to do that”), as if to underline that a woman is capable of doing the same things as a man but only if she puts in an extraordinary effort.And again, specify that an athlete is also a mother it means underlining what we believe to be its role in society.How many times have we read an expression like "mother and athlete” and how many "fathers and athletes"?It's still:how many times in interviews with sportswomen do we read questions about their children ("How do you reconcile your life as an athlete with taking care of your children?"), while no man is asked who takes care of his children while he is busy at the Olympics .Be amazed at how a woman can manage to reconcile the role of mother with any other activity means taking it for granted that that must be his number one priority, his role in society, and that his ability to excel in other things is completely exceptional, the result of favorable conditions or extreme willpower .The fact that there is also a partner, husband/wife or ex who is there is not taken into consideration he shares the load equally with her care of the home and children.

Years ago, after giving an interview to a newspaper about an athlete that reached his fifth participation in the Games at thirty-five, I was asked why I hadn't asked her what she intended to do about the maternity.When I replied that I thought it was in focus with respect to the topic of the interview, I was told:“But people care about this.Find out if at thirty-five she will give up her sporting career to try to be a mother Before it's too late”.I was shocked and continued to think that question was inappropriate, but this is:of women society is interested in this, in what way they intend to fulfill the role of wives and mothers. This attitude on the part of the media manifests itself in all fields, not only in sport, but during an event like the Olympics the opportunities to notice it are multiplied.This does not mean that, during the rest of the year and between one edition and another, sexism in sports reporting disappears from the media.

Sexism during the Olympics commentary

“Well, the women just finished.You know how women are... they go around wearing makeup."This sentence cost the Australian commentator his career Bob Ballard at the end of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay which earned her country's team gold. Eurosport he fired him on the spot.In fact, this edition of the Olympic Games sees gender equality as a focus:not only is the number of athletes identical (5,250 women, 5,250 men) but the Olympic broadcasting services have also introduced specific guidelines to avoid the excessive sexualisation of female bodies during the filming of competitions.Another case that was much talked about, and for which Rai took action by initiating a disciplinary dispute, dates back to last year.When, during the competitions of the World Water Sports Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, the commentators Lorenzo Leonarduzzi And Massimiliano Mazzucchi expressed themselves with inappropriate, sexist and racist comments during the women's synchronized diving final:like “Dutch girls are big” and “But in bed they are all the same height”.Leonarduzzi was also the protagonist of another embarrassing episode in 2020, taking the surname of the Estonian driver Otto Tanak as inspiration to say the unfortunate joke "Donna nanak all Tanak".That of sexualization of female athletes it is in fact another topic:bodies are bodies and, especially during a sporting performance, they should be told for what they are capable of making the athlete do in that moment.In women's competitions, much more than in men's ones, the focus often shifts to whether or not people are pleasant to watch, comment on and write about.

Olympic committees and broadcasters are taking action by issuing guidelines or countermeasures to be taken in the most sensational cases, read under Ballard, Leonarduzzi and Mazzucchi.But, as long as we continue not to read intrinsic sexism in apparently harmless titles (such as "You are beautiful" or "Gold for Diletta Leotta's friend, her mother etc."), we will contribute to fueling a culture that always sees women as something else:not athletes but objects of desire, not athletes but mothers, not athletes but wives. Language is a very powerful tool, because it gives shape to our thoughts:starting to give a different linguistic form to the way we talk about female athletes is a way to undermine certain atavistic beliefs, to at least ensure that they encounter obstacles.Otherwise, the German sprinter Alica Schmidt we will always continue to say that she is the sexiest athlete in the world, that Serena Williams is masculine or that Rossella Fiamingo is Gregorio Paltrinieri's girlfriend.