“Katie was Not Only a Girl, She was Terrible”: Katie Hnida, Body Rhetoric, and Football at the University of Colorado

Rhetorical scholars have given increasing attention to the body as a site for producing arguments. This essay examines possible limits to body rhetoric through the analysis of a controversy involving Katie Hnida, football, and the University of Colorado. In the midst of allegations of sexual misconduct and recruiting improprieties within the football program, Hnida's body was the central trope in a rhetorical contest over gendered norms and boundaries. Given the hostility that was directed at Hnida, this essay suggests that rhetorical critics should be cautious about overestimating the body's capacity for resistance. It also invites a closer consideration of how discourses within sport continue to marginalize women.