By Kyle Garratt and Abigail Funk
Ithaca College may be known by most athletic administrators as a top NCAA Division III athletic program. Last week, it also became a safe haven for people to talk about sexuality and homophobia in sport.
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Ithaca College broke new ground when its Department of Sport Management & Media hosted the Sport, Sexuality, & Culture Conference on campus this past week. Bringing together some of the country’s most well known advocates for equality, names like Pat Griffin, Helen Carroll, and keynote speaker John Amaechi headlined the speaking engagements and workshop panels. We attended the multi-day conference and have brought back some food for thought for our athletic director readers.
One of the highlighted sessions was a panel discussion on the role of media in sports, sexuality, and culture. The panel consisted of: Amaechi, an openly gay former NBA player, activist, and author of Man in the Middle; Christine Brennan, sports columnist for USA Today, and author of Best Seat in the House; and Ted Rybka, Director of Sports Media for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The panelists each talked about personal accounts of discrimination in the sports world. Rybka recounted being struck by the blatant homophobia and misogyny of his co-workers when he started his career interning as a sports journalist at a talk radio station. Brennan remembered being discriminated against while covering sporting events many times because of her gender. And Amaechi suggested that a negative locker room culture is nowhere near as damaging as the homophobia seen from team owners and upper-level management in the NBA.
Media representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes dominated much of the discussion, and the differing levels of attention and acceptance openly gay athletes received based on their gender was a big part of it. The panelists seemed to agree that in most cases, a male athlete coming out creates more of an uproar than a female, comparing Amaechi to WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes, who recently came out as a lesbian.
Amaechi was, by his own admission, a marginal pro player and came out after he retired. By contrast, Swoopes came out during her prime, and is one of the signature players in the WNBA. Yet Amaechi created a much larger buzz and garnered media attention for months, while Swoopes’s announcement drew far less of the media spotlight. You may need to think about how you can help each of your athletes feel safe in a different way because of this pattern.
All three panelists agreed that the tide is changing, albeit slowly, and they have seen athletic culture become more accepting of LGBT athletes. They urge those in leadership positions—including athletic directors—to work on creating a more tolerant atmosphere in regard to sexuality and sexual preference.
Another session earler in the conference focusing on media representations of female athletes featured several research projects from professor and graduate student teams at universities across the country. Two students from Bowling Green State University presented a project in which they asked female athletes on campus to set up their own photo shoots, including picking their clothes, hair, makeup, background, props, and so forth.
The overwhelming majority of athletes wore either their practice or game uniforms and all of them placed themselves in an athletic setting like the track, weightroom, or gymnasium. Few wore any makeup at all and most pulled their hair back in ponytails. The conclusion apparent to all who saw the photos was that female athletes want to be seen as just that: athletes.
This got us thinking about some of the media guides we've seen with "glamour shots" of team athletes on their bio pages. As an athletic director, have you ever asked yourself, "Is that really how my athletes want to be portrayed?" You may want to talk to them about these photos before planning your media guides next year.
Amaechi's keynote address drew the largest crowd, numbering in the hundreds. After taking a photo for his Twitter feed, Amaechi steered his talk toward the idea of identity. Using himself as an example, he talked about how him being black, gay, athletically gifted, and British (he has a neat accent) doesn't seem to work for a lot of people he meets. They either can't believe that he is gay because he doesn't "look" it or think he doesn't understand black culture and heritage because he's from Britain. "Like oil and water" were his words.
Amaechi connected this to how we think of all athletes. We'd likely be surprised by the number of gay men playing in the NBA—and other professional sports. So should we be surprised that there are likely more than a few gay athletes playing on high school and college athletic teams? Have you thought about those identities going hand-in-hand? If not, Amaechi urges you to.
Kyle Garratt and Abigail Funk are Assistant Editors at Athletic Management.
FEEDBACK
A Safe Place, Sexuality in Sport, and Back to the Mat – well done!
These issues and topics are the last hurdle to non-discriminatory
practices in Athletics. And it’s not just student-athletes who are
afraid to come out… it is the staff too, who often are not protected by
tenure like faculty are.
I have seen what my friends and family have gone through during
participation and working in athletics... and first hand, as a single
female in Athletics! Thank you for putting some light on this topic.
Aimee M. Brunelle, MS, ATC, EMT
Head Athletic Trainer/Adjunct Faculty – Physical Education Studies
Jamestown Community College
Jamestown NY 14701
www.sunyjcc.edu
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