'We Got Next': Images of Women in Television Commercials during the Inaugural WNBA Season

Authors: Wearden S.T.; Creedon P.J.

Source: Sport in Society, Volume 5, Number 3, Autumn 2002 - Special Issue , pp. 189-210(22)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

The Women's National Basketball Association began its first season in 1997. If television coverage could approach the sport in a non-stereotypical way, it held the potential for dramatically shifting the landscape of gender-role socialization. As a package, television programming should not be separated from the commercial messages interspersed within it, which also speak powerfully to the audience. Consequently, this study examines commercials aired during WNBA games in terms of gender roles and sexism. The results suggest that, to some degree, commercials aired during WNBA games exhibit fewer sexist images than found in earlier studies. In fact, there was a greater number of non-stereotypical than stereotypical images shown during these commercials. However, these results are skewed by the fact that the least sexist commercials aired the greatest number of images. When image is the unit of analysis, the majority of images are non-stereotypical, but when the commercial is the unit of analysis, there is a greater number of commercials with predominantly sexist images.

Keywords: Women's National Basketball Association; television; advertising; gender roles; sexism; stereotypical imagery

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2002-09-01

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