Selling Skin
Part 4: We're In This Together, Sister
In an
effort to move away from stereotypes about women and body
image, race, and gender, the latest marketing tactic for
companies like Nike and Reebok is "to celebrate the
connection women have with each other," said Barbano
of Reebok.
During
the 1999 Women's World Cup Soccer tournament, Nike featured
an ad with the U.S. women's team. "The team members were
in the waiting room of a dentist's office," said Reith of
Nike. "One of them comes out and says, 'I had two fillings.'
[Soccer star] Mia Hamm then stands up at attention and says,
'Then I will have two fillings.' At the tournament, there
were signs in the stadium, 'I will have two fillings.' It
tapped into really the emotional core of what an athlete
or a sport is about," said Reith.
For
young women, the roles these athletes play and the messages
they send out is crucial, said Barbano, whose company claims
to promote "the sisterhood message." When young women talk
about Venus Williams, Barbano said, "they speak about the
fact that they don't see Venus as a tennis player, but as
a woman who has defied the odds. With the younger female
athletes, it's exciting that they have a role model that
is working hard out on the courts."
"Athletes
like Venus Williams, [soccer star] Julie Foudy, and [Olympic
pole vaulter] Stacy Dragila have been pioneers in this defiance,"
said Barbano. "Venus Williams represents what it means to
succeed against all odds and defy convention. She came from
the L.A. projects where tennis was not played. Julie Foudy
defied convention by taking what soccer was- which was male
dominated-and turned this sport into something little girls
love to follow."
Allison
Butler, a teaching fellow at New
York University who has researched women and sports,
talked to young minority women in inner-city schools in
New York City about the female athletes they admire. Seeing
minority athletes in ads was something the girls -- mostly
of African-American, Latin and Asian background -- appreciated,
said Butler. The WNBA's Cynthia Cooper in a Nike advertisement
was among their favorite. "They appreciated seeing not only
women, but also women of their own color," she said.
| "Magazines
also must work harder to accept more body images" |
"These
young women just want the ads to be honest," said Butler.
"Their definition of 'honest' was the idea of these ads
appearing real for them."
Does
sisterhood defy, or define how women of different races,
body shapes and images are portrayed unequally? And does
this sisterhood exist through the symbol of the "average
woman," who marketers try to capture for the popular imagination?
Though
ad campaigns like Avon's are a significant breakthrough
for athletes who have never been allowed into the world
of white femininity, these breakthroughs are still few.
"We
need a lot more evidence than an exception here and there
before we can be confident that women of color are going
to be appreciated for their athletic prowess and market
their bodies in the same way that white women have been
able to do," said Steiner of Rutgers
University. "One or two exceptions don't prove anything."
Hilliard,
an African-American woman formerly of the Women's Sports
Foundation, agreed that there is still need for drastic
change.
"The
Williams sisters are exceptional; but there's a lack of
black athletes that have opportunities for these endorsements,"
she said.
Magazines
also must work harder to accept more body images, said Hilliard.
"They definitely have the chance to represent a wider range
of physiques. It's not just about model fitness but athletic
fitness, and that there are athletes that may be bigger.
It's about taking it one step further."
Hilliard
realizes that many more minority athletes and athletes who
used to fall outside of a marketer's ideal femininity "have
been able to get recognition. There's somewhat more variety
in the athletes." But, she added, "we still have a long
way to go with that."
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