Feminist Looking Glass

The British Daily Mail Online reports that, at the Wimbeldon tennis championships, the BBC relegated Senera Williams to a less desirable court than Centre Court because they deemed her to be not as attractive as 28th seed Sorana Cirstea.

A spokesman for Wimbledon said that “Good looks are a factor” and that “It’s not a coincidence that those (on Centre Court) are attractive.”

Such decisions apparently are influenced by the BBC so that they will get better television ratings.  A BBC source said

It’s the Wimbledon play committee, not us who decides on the order of play.  But obviously it’s advantageous to us if there are good-looking women players on Centre Court.  No one has heard of many of the women now, so if they are pretty it definitely gives them an edge.  Our preference would always be a Brit or a babe as this always delivers high viewing figures.

It’s very surprising that Wimbledon and the BBC would make those statements.  But it’s not surprising at all that sports promoters and television executives routinely take attractiveness into account.

I’ve been a sports fan all of my life.  I follow a lot of men’s and women’s sports.  It’s fairly obvious when watching sports on TV or reading articles in magazines that TV and marketing take attractiveness into account when deciding, for example, who to show on TV, who to put in advertisements for events or for the entire sport, or who to appear at media events.  Everything is about marketing and money and if the decision makers (who obviously are mostly white men) think that the sport, event or product will get higher attendance, have higher TV ratings, or sell more products if an “attractive” person (in their minds) is played up, that will happen.

Even in the “amateur” sports, where there is not as much money to be made, the sport is still very interested in promoting itself and takes attractiveness into account.  As just one example (and one that is more about the attractiveness of celebrity rather than looks), think about the United States archery team of a few Olympics ago.  All of the press was about Geena Davis trying to make the team.  It would have been strange indeed for the archery association not to have played her up.

Of course, the same types of marketing decisions are made for factors other than attractiveness, for example race.  If there are white athletes who can be promoted by a sport or event, they will be over equally talented black athletes.  Even in the WNBA, where there are more good black than white players, my perception is that there is a disproportionate promotion of the good white players.

So sports should not be singled out, since marketing decisions based on attractiveness and race are almost universal.  Attractiveness and race almost always get a preference.

Filed under: Advertising, Sports Tagged: | Advertising, Sports