scholarly journals Strong is beautiful(?): A multimodal analysis of strength and beauty in female and male sports commercials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Ihnat
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Television Commercial ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Beauty Myth ◽  
Representations Of Women

Taking inspiration from Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, this major research paper examines the ways in which strength and beauty are constructed in female and male sports commercials. Building off of themes such as the sport-media complex, encoding and decoding models of communication, media representations of women and post-feminism, this paper is concerned with exposing the disparities between media representations of female and male athletes. Using the Women’s Tennis Association’s “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign in tandem with AT&T’s “Paul George Strong” ad, the questions that guide this major research paper are: • How does strength act as a reductive concept? • How is the word “beautiful” encoded in the “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign? • At what level (i.e. connotative or denotative) do the words “strong” and “beautiful” operate in the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial? • At what level does the word “strong” operate in the “Paul George Strong” television commercial? And finally, what does the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial and the “Paul George Strong” television commercial communicate about the beauty myth in sport? What do these commercials say about post-feminism in sport? Employing social semiotic theory and multimodal analysis, this paper concludes that strength is applied universally to the female athletes in the “Strong is Beautiful” commercial which solidifies the term as a male standard. As a result, the term has an oppressive connotation when used to describe female athletes thereby contradicting the very notion of what a female athlete should be: empowered.

scholarly journals Strong is beautiful(?): A multimodal analysis of strength and beauty in female and male sports commercials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Ihnat
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Television Commercial ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Beauty Myth ◽  
Representations Of Women

Taking inspiration from Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, this major research paper examines the ways in which strength and beauty are constructed in female and male sports commercials. Building off of themes such as the sport-media complex, encoding and decoding models of communication, media representations of women and post-feminism, this paper is concerned with exposing the disparities between media representations of female and male athletes. Using the Women’s Tennis Association’s “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign in tandem with AT&T’s “Paul George Strong” ad, the questions that guide this major research paper are: • How does strength act as a reductive concept? • How is the word “beautiful” encoded in the “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign? • At what level (i.e. connotative or denotative) do the words “strong” and “beautiful” operate in the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial? • At what level does the word “strong” operate in the “Paul George Strong” television commercial? And finally, what does the “Strong is Beautiful” television commercial and the “Paul George Strong” television commercial communicate about the beauty myth in sport? What do these commercials say about post-feminism in sport? Employing social semiotic theory and multimodal analysis, this paper concludes that strength is applied universally to the female athletes in the “Strong is Beautiful” commercial which solidifies the term as a male standard. As a result, the term has an oppressive connotation when used to describe female athletes thereby contradicting the very notion of what a female athlete should be: empowered.

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 The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Nationality in Sport: Media Representation of the Ogwumike Sisters

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel R. Zenquis ◽  
Munene F. Mwaniki
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Basketball Players ◽  
Sports Media ◽  
Black America ◽  
Black African ◽  
Sport Media

The diversity of Black America in general, and how it pertains to gender in particular, remains understudied in analyses of sports media. To get a better understanding of the Black female athlete in our society today, this project addresses the intersections of race, gender, and nationality/ethnicity in U.S. media. To do this, we use critical discourse analysis to examine the sports media representations of professional basketball players Nnemkadi and Chinenye Ogwumike. As relatively successful second-generation Black African female athletes, we find that the sisters represent a compelling site of analysis as a nexus of crisscrossing power relations. Our discussion focuses on the manipulations of foreign female Blackness to maintain White supremacy by media in the United States specifically, and the West more broadly.

Shot in Black and White: Visualized Framing in ESPN’s The Body Issue

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Cranmer ◽  
Alexander L. Lancaster ◽  
Tina M. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Black Female ◽  
The Body ◽  
Black Athletes ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Intellectual Capacity ◽  
The Media

The disparity in framing in sport media based on athlete race has historically garnered extensive attention. In the past, the media promoted historical stereotypes of Black athletes that emphasized their physical prowess and diminished their intellectual capacity. However, recent research provides evidence that these traditional frames are changing and that recent media coverage is more racially equitable or even contradicts old patterns. Advancing this critique further, the current study examined novel visual frames (i.e., the emphasis of athleticism, sporting context, and sexualization) of White and Black athletes in ESPN’s The Body Issue. The findings contradict historical patterns of representations of Black athletes through the identification of a shift in the framing patterns for Black male athletes, whereas Black female athletes still face frames that portray them in a stereotypical manner. This study recognizes these tensions while successfully illustrating the importance of examining the intersections of difference for revealing and confronting the unique portrayals of Black female athletes.

“Coaching Girls”: A Content Analysis of Best-Selling Popular Press Coaching Books

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. LaVoi ◽  
Erin Becker ◽  
Heather D. Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Coach Education ◽  
Youth Athletes ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
Self Help

Given the lack of nationalized and required coach education programs for those involved with youth sports, self-help coaching books are a common source of knowledge. With the exception of critiques of young adult sports fiction (Kane, 1998; Kreigh & Kane, 1997), sport media research has lacked investigation of mediums that impact non-elite youth athletes and adolescent girls, and youth coaches and parents of young female athletes. The purpose of this study is to examine ‘coaching girls’ books–specifically how differences between female and male athletes are constructed. A content analysis was performed on selective chapters within a criterion sampling of six best-selling, self-help ‘coaching girls’ books. Results indicate coaching girls books are written from a perspective of inflated gender difference, and represent a simplified, stereo-typed account of coaching girls. Four first-order themes emerged from analysis: Problematizing Coaching Girls, Girls Constructed As “Other,” Ambivalence, and Sustaining the Gender Binary. Implications of these themes are discussed.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Kinematic Analysis of the Lower Limbs during the Chasse Step in Table Tennis Athletes

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 703
Author(s):  
Xiaoyi Yang ◽  
Yuqi He ◽  
Shirui Shao ◽  
Julien S. Baker ◽  
Bíró István ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
External Rotation ◽  
Rotational Velocity ◽  
Knee Extension ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Table Tennis ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Analysis System ◽  
Hip Flexion ◽  
Hip Internal Rotation

The chasse step is one of the most important footwork maneuvers used in table tennis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the lower limb kinematic differences of table tennis athletes of different genders when using the chasse step. The 3D VICON motion analysis system was used to capture related kinematics data. The main finding of this study was that the step times for male athletes (MA) were shorter in the backward phase (BP) and significantly longer in the forward phase (FP) than for female athletes (FA) during the chasse step. Compared with FA, knee external rotation for MA was larger during the BP. MA showed a smaller knee flexion range of motion (ROM) in the BP and larger knee extension ROM in the FP. Moreover, hip flexion and adduction for MA were significantly greater than for FA. In the FP, the internal rotational velocity of the hip joint was significantly greater. MA showed larger hip internal rotation ROM in the FP but smaller hip external rotation ROM in the BP. The differences between genders can help coaches personalize their training programs and improve the performance of both male and female table tennis athletes.

scholarly journals Mortality of Japanese Olympic athletes in 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e000896
Author(s):  
Taro Takeuchi ◽  
Yuri Kitamura ◽  
Soya Ishizuka ◽  
Sachiko Yamada ◽  
Hiroshi Aono ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Women Athletes ◽  
Japanese Population ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Proportional Hazards Model ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Handgrip Strength ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards Model ◽  
Smoking History ◽  
Male Athletes

ObjectivesTo compare the mortality of Japanese athletes in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games with that of the Japanese population, and to elucidate factors associated with their mortality.MethodsWe obtained from the Japan Sport Association study subjects’ biographical information, information on lifestyles and medical data. Missing data were obtained from online databases. Standardised mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated to compare athletes’ mortality with the Japanese population. Cox proportional hazards model was applied to estimate the HR for each category of body mass index (BMI), smoking history and handgrip strength. This analysis was limited to male athletes due to the small number of female athletes.ResultsAmong 342 (283 men, 59 women) athletes, deaths were confirmed for 70 (64 men, 6 women) athletes between September 1964 and December 2017. Total person years was 15 974.8, and the SMR was 0.64 (95% CI 0.50 to 0.81). Multivariate analysis performed on 181 male athletes. Mortality was significantly higher for BMI≥25 kg/m2 than for 21–23 kg/m2 (HR: 3.03, 95% CI 1.01 to 9.07). We found no statistically significant associations between smoking history and mortality; the HR (95% CI) for occasional and daily smokers were 0.82 (0.26 to 2.57) and 1.30 (0.55 to 3.03) compared with never smokers. We also found no statistically significant associations between handgrip strength and mortality (P for trend: 0.51).ConclusionJapanese athletes in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games lived longer than the Japanese population. BMI≥25 kg/m2 was associated with higher mortality, but smoking history and handgrip strength were not associated with mortality.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document