The Construction of Women’s Positions in Sport: A Textual Analysis of Articles on Female Athletes in Finnish Women’s Magazines

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riitta M. Pirinen
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Women's Magazines ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Gender Hierarchy ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Ideological Construction

This study analyzed the treatment of female athletes in Finnish women’s magazines. The purpose was to examine how media representations constructed hierarchic relations between women. Furthermore, the aim was to examine how the construction and legitimation of the hierarchy between women and the gender hierarchy are interwoven with each other. Finally, the study discussed the possibilities to challenge, resist, and transform the ideological construction of these hierarchic relations. Briefly, the study demonstrated the ways in which media texts may both construct disempowering positions and also offer recourses of empowering positions for women.

scholarly journals ‘Battle of the sixes’: Investigating print media representations of female professional golfers competing in a men’s tour event

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 664-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Bowes ◽  
Niamh Kitching
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Media Representation ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Professional Golfers

In May 2018, the men’s European Tour invited five female professional golfers to compete in its GolfSixes event in England, against 27 professional male players. This was significant, particularly given the female struggle for equality of access, participation, employment and decision making in golf settings. This research investigates the print media representation of these five female professional golfers competing in this male domain. Using the Nexis database, data were collected from print newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland over six days before, during and after the event. Following thematic analysis, findings highlight a double-edged sword with regard to media coverage of female athletes competing against men: women received greater media coverage when in the male sport spotlight, but the coverage was framed by gendered discourses. The results document a slow shift towards more equal and equitable print media coverage of female athletes, whilst drawing attention to the problematic ways in which sportswomen are represented.

Analyzing Media Representations of Sportswomen—Expanding the Conceptual Boundaries Using a Postfeminist Sensibility

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Toffoletti
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Female Athlete ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Third Wave Feminism ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Women In Sport ◽  
Media Institutions ◽  
Media Research

This article seeks to expand the conceptual boundaries of sport media research by investigating the utility of a postfeminist sensibility for analyzing depictions of women in sport. Rosalind Gill’s (2007) notion of a postfeminist sensibility is situated within UK-led feminist critiques of gendered neoliberalism in popular culture and offers a conceptual lens through which sports scholars might interrogate the complex and contradictory media landscape that often simultaneously marginalizes and empowers sportswomen. In highlighting postfeminism as a sensibility, this article makes visible the ways in which depictions of sportswomen as sexy and strong reorients responsibility for the sexualization of female athletes away from media institutions and toward the female athlete themselves. It also explains how a postfeminist sensibility differs from third wave feminism—a related framework popular among sports feminists seeking to respond to ambivalent and complex renderings of contemporary sporting femininity.

Intercollegiate Media Guides as Contested Terrain: A Longitudinal Analysis

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Kane ◽  
Jo Ann Buysse
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Title Ix ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
Representations Of Women

In the aftermath of the passage of Title IX, Michael Messner laid the theoretical groundwork for what was at stake as a result of this landmark legislation. He argued that women’s entrance into sport marked a quest for equality and thus represented a challenge to male domination. He further argued that media representations of athletic females were a powerful vehicle for subverting any counterhegemonic potential posed by sportswomen. Scholars should therefore examine “frameworks of meaning” linked to female athletes because they have become “contested terrain.” Our investigation addressed Messner’s concerns by examining the cultural narratives of intercollegiate media guides. We did so by analyzing longitudinal data from the early 1990s through the 2003–04 season. Findings revealed an unmistakable shift toward representations of women as serious athletes and a sharp decline in gender differences. Results are discussed against a backdrop of sport scholars in particular—and institutions of higher education in general—serving as agents of social change.

scholarly journals Class Struggle in Contemporary Films: "Hunger Games" vs. "Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon"

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dal Yong Jin
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Hunger Games ◽  
Bow And Arrow ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Texts

By critically engaging with Marxist notion of class struggle in contemporary films utilizing the bow and arrow as their signifier, this paper textually analyzes two films in order to find distinctive characteristics of Western movies and non-Western movies. Since the textual analysis becomes very important to understanding how media texts might be used in order to make sense of the world we live in—meaning it is significant to contextualize it within our life and/or society, this paper investigates the ways in which the major themes have developed and what their representations are. It therefore compares and contrasts these movies in terms of their major themes, in particular the ways in which these two films portray capitalism, either internally or externally. It especially examines how the bow and arrow symbolize class struggle either within a country or between countries in order to map out the major differences that the arrows represent.

scholarly journals ‘On me bed, son’: The (Re)presentation of (emphasised) femininity in English ‘tabloid’ newspaper coverage of Euro 2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 873-887
Author(s):  
Roger Domeneghetti
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Popular Press ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Female Sports ◽  
European Football

This study explores the gendered narratives constructed in the coverage of the 2016 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European Championship football tournament in selected English newspapers. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study tests the efficacy of three established classifications and draws them together with a new, fourth classification thereby creating a typology of the (re)presentations of emphasised femininity. The analysis suggests that despite the increasing prevalence of female sports journalists and the increasing coverage of female athletes in a variety of sports, including football, the reporting of men’s football in the English popular press continues to cast women in subordinate and sexualised roles. Furthermore, women who challenge these roles, particularly those who establish their own voice within the event’s discursive space, are criticised.

State Versus Professional: A Case Study of How Chinese New Media Construct Elite Female Athletes

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-150
Author(s):  
Qingru Xu ◽  
Peggy J. Kreshel
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Reform Initiative ◽  
Web Portals ◽  
Professional Athlete ◽  
Fourth Theme

In this case study, the authors examined media representations of two Chinese female athletes—state athlete Ding Ning and professional athlete Li Na—in China, a nation undergoing social transformation and a sport-reform initiative. Analyzing stories from two Chinese web portals (i.e., Sina and Tencent), the authors analyzed how (a) gender, (b) nationalism, and (c) the individualism–collectivism continuum entered into media representations of these two female athletes. Notable differences emerged in all three conceptual areas. A fourth theme, which the authors have identified as the commercialized athlete, also emerged. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

Yoga and Female Objectification: Commodity and Exclusionary Identity in U.S. Women’s Magazines

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandini Bhalla ◽  
David Moscowitz
Keyword(s):  
Media Framing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women's Magazines ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Contemporary Media

Using textual and visual media framing analysis, this research examines contemporary depictions of yoga in U.S. general interest women’s magazines. Critique of narrative and images from three leading magazines demonstrates how the representation of yoga depicts and positions tropes of female objectification that reify values of commodity, consumerism, and divisive exclusionary identity. Narrative and images dominated by bodies of slim, White, upper-class women perpetuate not only the commodification of yoga but also media framing of its appropriation and negotiation to support a multimillion-dollar industry. Two threads of research dominate this study: (1) how do today’s media representations of yoga practice in the United States foster critical and cultural understanding in light of yoga’s long history, and (2) how does the objectification of women’s bodies in this context contribute to ongoing conversations about commodification, exclusion, and identity in contemporary media depictions of women?

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