Contact Sports and Violence Against Women
Another aspect of sports and women is the
violence against women associated with contact sports
like football, basketball, rugby, and ice hockey. The
case of O.J. Simpson has trained the spotlight on the
connection between male athletes and violence against
women.
Mariah Burton Nelson, in her book The
Stronger Women Get, the More Men Love Football, points
out that coaches of these sports often exhort players
to perform better by telling them not to be 6 4 sissies"
or "girls." She quotes rugby songs that describe violence
against women, and talks about women-degrading language
used by players of contact sports. Players ridicule the
opposing team by calling them "girls." Being good at these
sports, in other words, is associated with putting women
down. Women are not seen as fellow athletes to be respected.
While these athletes talk about women in
violent, degrading terms, are men athletes more likely
to commit violence against women? A recent study of student-athletes
at ten Division I universities showed that while male
athletes made up only 3.3% of the male university population,
they were 19% of the students reported for sexual assault.
Of the male student-athlete S reported for sexual assaults,
67% were football or basketball players.
Another study by Mary Koss and John Gaines
at the University of Arizona also suggests there is a
link between men athletes and violence against women.
According to a survey of 530 undergraduate men at the
University of Arizona, men college students who participated
in formal athletics were slightly more likely to feel
hostile towards women, and to engage in sexual aggression,
than other men. The best predictors of sexual aggression
and hostility to women were high alcohol and nicotine
use.56
Yet college and professional football players
who commit sexual assault are often given preferential
treatment by police, judges, and sports authorities, according
to a Washington Post article. For example, the NFL usually
does not suspend players who have been convicted of sexual
assault, domestic violence, or other violence, and these
players often do not lose lucrative endorsement contracts
either.57
By encouraging boys to become aggressive,
violent athletes, and by encouraging girls to cheer for
them, we perpetuate the cycle of male aggression and violence
against women.
(Empowering Women in Sports, The
Empowering Women Series, No. 4; A Publication of the Feminist
Majority Foundation, 1995)
