Today's Most Popular Video
Nov 10, 2009 10:47 pm US/Central
Good Question: Why Are We Drawn To Women Fighting?
(WCCO)
It is the viral video in its fifth day of circulation: a female college soccer player, pulling down her opponent by the ponytail. The video of Elizabeth Lambert is getting huge national media play. Why are we so drawn to video of women fighting?
"It's everywhere and it's intriguing," said Lisa Jack, who teaches a sports psychology class at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
Jack said part of the response is the cognitive dissonance created by seeing women fight.
"We still don't expect that girls are going to physically fight. That's a guy thing, it's not a girl thing," according to societal norms she said. "The rules are that women are more fragile and more sensitive. Is that accurate? No."
But cognitive dissonance doesn't explain everything, according to Jack. She believes there may be a sexual element at play, a titillation that some men get when they see women fight.
"Isnt' the one of most common fantasies that men have? Two women together?" asked Jack. Online, some of the commentary about the video included a YouTube video where a man called the soccer video "brutish but also kinda hottish."
"It's intriguing, we don't expect it, we often like to see that," said Jack.
According to the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota, media coverage of female athletics makes up just 6 to 8 percent of all sports coverage.
"Women get national news sports coverage when they behave outside of the societal norms for a woman," said Nicole M. Lavoi.
"Females can act aggressively as long as they are sexy," Lavoi wrote
on her personal website, "but if a real female athlete acts outside of the rules in real sport, she will be met with quick and severe sanctions…not only within her sport but will be berated by the public … while male athletes can 'act like men' with comparatively less fanfare."
Lambert has been suspended indefinitely from her team, while a Florida football player Brandon Spikes was suspended for one-half for a violent act caught on tape. Spikes shoved his fingers through another player's facemask.
"We're seeing a lot more physical behavior. The double standard of how females and women should behave in a sports setting is changing. They are behaving more and more because they have the same pressures as men," said Jack.
Jack acknowledges that video of males behaving badly on the athletic field also gets national attention, but not generally outside of the sports media, and not for this long of a period of time.
Augsburg College soccer player Whitney Holman said that if this were video of two male soccer players, it would be different.
"It would have been news, but not on the national media. It wouldn't be blown out of proportion, or this long," said Holman.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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