You Don't Look Like an Athlete: The Effects of Feminine Appearance on Audience Perceptions of Female Athletes and Women's Sports

Guided by gender schema theory, the researchers explored gender stereotypes of female athletes through a 2x2 experimental design. Participants, 267 undergraduate students from a large southern university, read one of four versions of an online news article (a short news story with a photo) in which female athlete appearance (masculine/feminine) and the type of sport played (masculine/feminine) were varied. Male participants reported lower interest in the article and the sport when female athlete appearance is incongruent with stereotypical appearance for her sport. Men were more interested in an article about volleyball (a feminine sport) and volleyball as a sport when a feminine female athlete rather than one with more masculine appearance — is pictured. In contrast, women reported higher interest in an article and the featured sport, regardless of sport type, when a more masculine female athlete was pictured. Results suggest that men respond more favorably to female athletes who conform to gender stereotypes for their sport, whereas women favor power in female athletes. Sex-typing of the sports, however, remains firmly entrenched in audience attitudes even immediately after being exposed to an image incongruent with gender stereotypes for that sport. These results shed light on how athlete appearance relates to audience interest in media messages and perceptions about sport.