Respect her game

Dr Gabrielle Jamela Hosein

A NEW report, launched by UNICEF, Plan International and UN Women, reviewed how adolescent girls’ lives have changed in the last 30 years since the Beijing Platform for Action was endorsed by 189 governments in 1995. Its key message is: 30 years of uneven progress for adolescent girls.

Women and girls continue to be sexualised in sport, sexually harassed and represented in sexualised ways by the media. There’s a global movement challenging this.

Think of the recent case of former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales, found guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.

In 2021, the Norwegian national team was fined 1,500 euros for wearing bike shorts instead of bikini bottoms as required by beach handball rules. The shorts were considered “improper clothing” because they were “not according to the Athlete Uniform Regulations.”

Sexualisation of women and girls goes beyond the sporting field and can also be found online and includes how women’s bodies are discussed and photographed. This has impacted the greatest of athletes, from tennis legend Serena Williams to multi-gold medalling gymnast Simone Biles.

When track athlete Tara Davis won the women’s long jump event in January 2022, the clip was slowed down and layered over a sensual song in a viral TikTok. The comments included men saying she “knows what she is doing;” in other words that her intention was sex appeal at this moment to which she had dedicated her lifelong training.

Unlike male athletes, representation of women athletes can overshadow their on-field performance. Presented in suggestive poses and clothing, or even nude, the media often projects a “woman first, athlete second” attitude. Think of covers of magazines like Sports Illustrated.

The world is highly contradictory and there are many women athletes who monetise their beauty, femininity and sexuality for sponsorship deals and social media followers. Those who oppose sexualisation can face societal and peer criticism, and lose support, money, and camaraderie for not conforming to the status quo.

Besides minimising athletic accomplishments, sexualisation reduces women and girl athletes’ self-esteem and identity. It’s dehumanising as it frames athletes within confining gender ideals, both those who conform and those who do not fit.

It also prevents sport from being one of the few spaces where girls can develop a healthy body image, free from expectations to be attractive to men and boys. Indeed, body image is one of the reasons many girls avoid sports in the first place. Research has found that young women exhibit more self-objectification and negativity towards their own physical appearances when they view images of sexualised athletes than images focused on performance.

The sexual objectification of young girls and women contributes to mental health issues but also towards rape culture and violence against women. This is important for us in a society where one in five women have experienced non-partner sexual violence, and where the risk of sexual harm begins from childhood in girls’ lives and never ends. In our society, currently, girl athletes see, hear and experience sexualisation before they even know what it is.

When did we decide as a culture it was acceptable to sexualise girls?

In TT, women and girls in sports face the harmful effects of sexualisation, often reflected in explicit, objectifying music at events. This alienates families, sends the wrong message to boys, and amplifies validation of sexual rather than sports skills. Such music undermines respect among athletes, regardless of gender.

For International Women’s Day 2025, along with corporate partners, the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, The UWI, has started the Respect Her Game campaign to promote empowering, gender-sensitive music that encourages athletes, particularly girls, to value their strength and capability over what they hear played on airwaves, including at sports events. This is because sports enables girls to improve their health, build confidence, defy gender stereotypes, and break into male-dominated areas.

Respect Her Game challenges the sexualisation of girls in sports, and is centred in child rights and protection, gender equity, girls’ empowerment, and healthy, safe and respectful youth athlete development.

The campaign comprises a national Youth Sports Music Mix competition to provide playlists for sport events. This immediately creates the alternatives we want to hear. It includes outreach to corporate bodies, who sponsor sporting events with youth athletes, to sign on to Respect Her Game. This creates commitment to immediate change.

Join in. Corporate sponsors, sporting associations, clubs, parents, coaches, and DJs can all accelerate action toward the world that girl athletes still need us to create.

Diary of a mothering worker

Entry 551

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