Women are sexualized in every aspect of their life; from school, to work, to just walking around at the grocery store or parking lot, and even sometimes in their own homes by siblings, fathers, uncles, and trusted family friends. However, one major place where women cannot seem to survive without sexualization is in sports. It is hard enough being a woman in athletics already, constantly dealing with being compared to men; they are told that no one watches female sports, being told that women will never be as strong or as fast as a man. To make things worse, the sexualization of female athletes has become far too normalized.  

     It starts from the smallest level, their uniforms. Men constantly say that they need a reason to watch women’s sports and the uniforms are the only reason. This is disgusting because it demonstrates men only showing interest in women’s sports when they involve unnecessary immodest uniforms.  

     This all goes back to men’s viewpoints on women’s bodies, and how they always seem to have something to say about the way they physically appear instead of the way they perform. Skinny girls are too skinny, no matter how much they work out. Muscular girls are too masculine, no matter how well they perform in athletics. Bigger girls are unhealthy, no matter how strong they are. Men tend to base the appeal of a women around their bodies alone. Women’s sports idealize the idea of an eating disorder, while majority of male dominated sports have a place on the arena for anybody. For example, to do things such as cheerleading or dancing it is more common to have a shorter, frailer frame while for more male dominated sports such as wrestling, or football have different weight classes or positions majorly based around the athlete’s body type.  The body that women need for the sport that they play is often different than the one society wants them to have.  

     The uniforms themselves would not be a problem if it were not painfully obvious that the very purpose of the uniform is to sexualize women. Recently, in 2021, a Norwegian women’s handball team were given an imposed fine of 150 euros ($175) per player for wearing spandex shorts rather than their bikini bottoms during a game. People may think that if an athlete has a problem with the uniform, then they should have just never played, knowing what they are getting themselves into. However, during this court case, an official taking part in an International Handball Federation (IHF) stated that “all efforts will be taken in order to further promote the sport. This includes the ideal presentation of the sport and, by that, includes the outfit of the players.” 

     Along with this statement, the uniforms are not necessarily helping their performance either, as the male athletes get to wear unfitted shorts and tank tops while the women are in bikinis, proving that the uniforms the women have to wear are actually unnecessary to their performance. In this case, it shows that the quote is directly correlated to the IHF sexualizing the athletes as a way to appeal to a wider audience of men, showing that the very way in which they are run is rooted in their sexualization.  

     Though it starts small, the sexualization grows bigger. To make this worse, It is not uncommon for managers, coaches, and physical therapists to use their power over an athlete as a way to take advantage of them. Rather that be through sexual harassment or even assault. In fact, a study from the Czech Republic alone shows that 72 percent Elite level female athletes, 68 percent of non-elite competing, and 76 percent of non-competing female athletes have experienced sexual harassment. Making up 72 percent of female athletes in that area alone.   

     An individual case includes ten former San Jose State athletes filing claims as a part of a sexual abuse case involving a trainer and school officials, claiming to have faced sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination. 

     To addition, another case involves the possible victimization of 18,000 women, all abused by University Gynecologist George Tyndall. Lieff Cabrasers, the representative for the women, efforts led to a settlement for victims of $215 million. 

     Personally, I had never heard of these cases before researching for this paper, and I am willing to bet not many people have. However, this is just two of likely millions of disgusting cases that go undiscussed due to how normalized it is.  

     Women everyday have to fear the men in their lives. From strangers, to family, and even friends. However, coaches and doctors and people with this power over female athletes should be a safe space for them rather than the cause of their trauma.  

     As a female in a male dominated sport, I am around a lot of guys every day. As comfortable as I would like to be, since I spend more time with this group of people than I do most, there have still been cases where a teammate would make me uncomfortable, such as an inappropriate comment or last year a teammate touching me inappropriately on the sideline of a game.  

     If anything happened, I knew that I could tell my coaches and under some circumstances my own teammates have told me that I should call out one of our other ones, and every time the coaches proved how much they did care. Even throughout much of the season they would do smaller things as a way of making sure I am as comfortable and safe as I could be. 

     I am extremely lucky to have a great coaching staff, and I could not imagine being under the same circumstances that a lot of other female athletes have been. My coaches gave me the freedom of choosing my position and treating me like every other athlete while still making sure I was more comfortable, while I have been to other schools and met other women playing the same sport who were not blessed with the same treatment.  

     It would be easy to say that the problem was solely men, but that is not necessarily true. Many women have the internalized misogyny that cause them to see other women as somehow lower than men, believing that women being weaker and slower than men to always be true, women that blame women for the assault that they may experience.  

     Just like the men spoken about, the women are the same way, starting from the smallest level of how they speak about them, sexualizing the uniforms and bashing the women for wearing them, hearing about assault and harassment and finding some reason to blame the victim. An easy solution would be to blame men and ignore this fact, however that would be choosing to ignore how, sadly, many women are just as bad.  

     Women are oversexualized in every aspect of their lives, sports being a major one. Women should be allowed to express themselves in the athletics without dealing with the constant sexualization.  The solution to this problem does not start with major athletic corporations. It starts with everyday people simply changing the way they think about female athletes, from thinking women will never succeed in athletics the same way men do to blaming them for the assault they may experience. This change starts with every viewer of major sports and just the everyday people who have heard themselves or someone around them make comments like these.