Men Vs Women's sports

The discussion we had in class about the desparity in fan attendance for mens sports vs. womans sports interested me. As a class, it seemed that we came to the conclusion that men's sports is more interesting to watch because they are more "athletic" and play the sport at a higher level than the woman. I wondered if this was actually the case or if no matter how well the woman's teams play, the men's team will have a higher fan base. I think that the reason people support men's teams over woman's teams is because not only until a few hundred years ago have woman played professional sports. People have been watching men play sports for much longer than watching a woman play. I think this tradition is what people are grown up doing and continue to do as they get older. For me, I have grown up watching the men's Northwestern basketball team. I have been to many of their games yet I have never seen a woman's game. I think that because for generations people have been watching men play sports, that this has continued on into modern day.

Mens, Girls, Kids

When shopping online for clothing, as a customer, you expect to find tabs on the top of the web site where you can categorize the clothing by Mens Clothing, Woman's Clothing, and Kids or Children's Clothing. I was surfing threw clothing websites and came across Etnies.com. The site sells skate shoes and apparel for young adults and kids. I was shocked to find that instead of the normal "Men's, Woman's or Children" option, it was "Mens, GIRLS, and Kids." Astonished, i clicked on the Girls tab to find it was in fact clothes and shoes for woman, not girls. In class we discussed discrimination in corporate America against woman. This is a prime example of a company putting woman down and not even recognizing them as adults. In my own experience, i had never really witnessed discrimination based on gender in the real world. I knew it existed, but i wasn't aware it was as prevalent as it is. This type of advertisement should not be accepted in our modern society. 
Should Etnies change their website? For a woman working at Etnies, should she feel degraded by her company?

Sports Illustrated Cover Controversy

I recently came across an article which was in response to the cover  photo of the February issue of Sports Illustrated. The photo is of a female athlete on the USA Olympic skiing team. Critics of the photo say it is too provocative and that she shouldn't be portrayed as a sex symbol, but an athlete. In my opinion, the photo isn't racy at all. I think it is appropriate for the type of magazine that Sports Illustrated is and does not portray her in a negative way. I think that it is interesting that there is controversy over her being on the cover just because she is an athlete. The heading of the photo even portrays her as "America's Best Woman Skier Ever". I wonder why being an athlete sets her apart from other woman who have been on the cover. There have never been objections to other covers of the magazine which portray woman in a much more negative way than this photo. Many athletes, female and male, take advantage of the endorsements they can receive even if they are based on the way they look. For example, Anna Kornikova has been portrayed as a sex symbol ever since she started playing professional tennis. Why is she different from the skier being portrayed in a similar way? Is it because of the way she acts or presents herself or even the sport she plays that makes it less of a controversy?