Title IX, Media, and The Professionalization of WomenÆs Sports have significantly broadened my understanding of women in sports and other forms of physical activity. One significant piece of knowledge I learned from all the articles is how our attitudes and values in society are a product of economics, the media, legislation, and the power of the status quo to maintain its values and attitudes as mainstream values and attitudes. Specifically, in Title IX, Lopiano describes the language of this Education Amendment Act of 1972 that represents an extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program of activity receiving federal financial assistance (1174).
Since Title IX, increasing numbers of women have crossed the male barrier in collegiate and professional sports because of this legislation.
Despite Title IX, however, we see that values and attitudes of women and sports reinforced in the media and by corporate sponsors led to the need for such legislation to help create a level playing field for male and female athletes. The need for such legislation is engendered by the negative portrayals of women in the media with respect to sports, particularly in the years before the passage of Title IX. Media portrayals of women often include a double standard with respect to sports. The very qualities that make males masculine tend to demasculinize females in the minds of Americans and the media. Such male-biased models of sport posit women in a dilemma based on gender bias and traditional views of the different roles between women and men. As Chandler writes:
When female athletes were able to attract media attention, they had of necessity to work within the model of sport designed by and for males. Yet females had at the same time to demonstrate that they h...