A Brief History of Sexism in TV Coverage of the Olympics

Now that the XXII Olympics Winter Games have come to a close in Sochi, take a look at this illuminating piece on sexism in American TV’s coverage of Olympic events through the ages:

Last week, in one of the bigger dust-ups, NBC skiing analyst Steve Porino said, in a segment about how extreme the courses are for skiers, that the female athletes do “all of that while in a Lycra suit, maybe a little bit of makeup—now that is grace under pressure.”The Washington Post rounded up tweets of upset viewers, who felt the remark paid unnecessary attention to athletes’ appearance, while Josh Levin at Slate wrote that onlookers should be “pretty angry” because “everyone knows there’s a double standard with regard to female athletes and how they’re expected to look pretty while performing amazing athletic feats.”

But the double standard Levin mentions isn’t a new phenomenon. For years, academics and scholars have analyzed the way Olympic television coverage treats female athletes, from commentary just like Porino’s remarks, to less obvious metrics like visibility and screen time in certain events. Below are some of the most notable findings from several studies.

Full piece here.