Online Sexualization an Increasing Problem For Female Student Athletes From Junior High to University
The problems of voyeurism and sexual harassment of female athletes reached the mainstream via Kyodo News' reporting in the fall of 2020. KN's Risa Kamata reports, "Just doing track and field is enough to make you a target of sexualization. The live comments on the broadcast site of a national competition were full of obscene comments. When young women see that it can be enough to keep them away from the sport." Kyodo News' reporting on the damage caused by voyeuristic filming of female athletes and the spread of sexually explicit comments and images of them on social media had a major impact. When the initial reporting on sexualized imagery of female athletes hit the mainstream, a wave of retrospective verification of the reality of the problem hit, and opinions started to fly in the media. "They streamed the National University Track and Field Championships live, right?" said one athlete who had competed in the meet. "There was a lot of obscene s...