It is also a sneaker that I have noticed has never had a specific women’s release. There are women’s variations of the sneakers but they seem to be an afterthought. Especially when some of them look like a regular Air Jordan with pink laces and highlights on the mid sole to indicate a gender difference. The shoe was created for basketball legend Michael Jordan, and basketball itself is a sport dominated by men and the sneakers that are designed specifically for basketball reflect this.
The Air Jordan is no exception to this rule, while the design of the shoe itself may have evolved from the very first Air Jordan, it’s air of masculinity remains the same. The colour palettes on the shoes continues to use white, black, red and blue and the designs themselves are usually high tops and quite chunky sneakers. However as I currently browse the site I can’t see any female variations of the sneaker. Women play basketball too and as such would need dedicated basketball footwear, which I know exists but why is there such an absence of the Air Jordan for women? Upon further exploration I was able to find some female Jordan’s on Sneaker Freaker. The sneakers reflect the usual stereotypes; pink dominating the shoe, or just being used for highlights.
It makes me wonder though, has there been no dedicated women’s release of the Jordan because they are comfortable with women wearing any Jordan? Or is it because there hasn’t been a female equivalent to Michael Jordan? I am not very familiar with any aspect of basketball, the only name I can think of that could potentially be the female Jordan is Lauren Jackson, maybe she isn’t as marketable as the jumpman.
Like many sports that are predominantly played by men the sneakers created for them usually reflect the masculinity that is encountered in those sports. Subsequently the women’s options of those shoes become a slapdash effort, put some pink here, there, some white over there and make them in a smaller size rather than dedicating any real time or effort into considering what women really want out of a sneaker. Women need to start realising that the choices out there for women in sneaker culture are extremely restricting, and they continue to perpetuate stereotypes and gender inequality. The lack of a female range of Air Jordan’s are further proof of this.
It's interesting that of all the sports that are watched on TV and supported by fans are all played by males - football, soccer, rugby, and cricket. The only sport I can think of that is televised where women are involved is tennis and netball (although only aired on ABC). A major aspect of discussion surrounding female tennis players are the fashions involved, more so than the male players. It's often a major topic of conversation, 'what was she wearing?', I doubt the same dialogue exist when talking about the male players, it's more about their skills...
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed that you rarely find a sportswoman endorsing a product? It is always men from shaving products to shoes... The only time I can think of a sportswoman in a campaign is Stephanie Rice, swimmer. Sportswomen I guess are considered more butch and aren't seen as a commodity that could be used to pitch a product... I may be just forgetting a whole lot of ads but none really come to mind.
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