Exploring Elite Female Athletes’ Interpretations of Sport Media Images

Scholars have produced a body of evidence demonstrating media portrayals of sportswomen emphasize femininity/heterosexuality versus athletic competence and argue that such coverage trivializes women’s sports. Little research attention has been given to how these portrayals are interpreted by various audiences, including female athletes. This study explores how elite female athletes respond to the ways they are represented within sport media. We employed reception research where viewers deconstruct the meaning of texts and how that meaning impacts their feelings toward a subject. We examined the subject of sportswomen’s dual identities to determine how they wished to be portrayed. Thirty-six team and individual sport athletes were shown images ranging from on-court competence to off-court soft pornography and asked to choose which image best represented themselves and their sport, as well as increased interest/respect for their sport. Results indicated that competence was the overwhelming choice for best “represents self/sport” and “increases respect.” Forty-seven percent of respondents picked soft porn to best “increase interest.” This latter finding reflected participants’ belief that “sex sells” women’s sports, particularly for male audiences. Results were analyzed using critical feminist theory to unpack sport media and its relationship to gender, privilege, and power.