This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Harris, J. Articles by Clayton, B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Femininity, Masculinity, Physicality and the English Tabloid Press

The Case of Anna Kournikova

Southampton Institute, UK

Ben Clayton

Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, UK

This article is an examination of how femininity, masculinity and physicality are created and (re)presented within the English tabloid press. In identifying mechanisms for the construction and maintenance of (hegemonic) femininity and masculinity within sport, a gendered sports formula has been developed to analyse and explain sports coverage within this particular medium. Copies of the Sun and Mirror newspapers were collected and analysed over the course of the summer of 2000. The study highlights that idealized conceptualizations of femininity and masculinity are prevalent within the dominant narratives of both publications, not least through the disproportionate ratio of male/female sports coverage where only 5.9 percent of the sports reporting focused upon women’s sport. Our analysis of this mechanism is explicated through focusing upon one of the most photographed athletes in the world today, the Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova. Kournikova, we posit, is the most powerful symbol of the masculinity/femininity nexus within media sport and accounted for one-third of all articles on women’s sport. She is presented as the masculinists’ transcendent image of the idiosyncratic sportswoman, whereby masculinity is maintained through ideological representations of femininity. While the analysis does not focus exclusively on Kournikova, it is argued that she, more than any other athlete, epitomizes the gendered sports formula within the tabloid press.

Key Words: Anna Kournikova • femininity • masculinity • sexualization • tabloid press

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 37, No. 3-4, 397-413 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1012690202037004024


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Stone and J. Horne The Print Media Coverage of Skiing and Snowboarding in Britain: Does It Have To Be Downhill All the Way? Journal of Sport and Social Issues, February 1, 2008; 32(1): 94 - 112. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Harris Review Article: Gender Issues in Sport: M. Ann Hall, The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada. Ontario: Broadview, 2002, 284pp. ISBN 155111268X, $29.95 CAN$ (pbk). Ilse Hartmann-Tews and Gertrud Pfister (eds), Sport and Women: Social Issues in International Perspective. London: Routledge, 2003, 288pp. ISBN 0415246288, $45.00 US$ (pbk). Michael Messner, Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002, 239pp. ISBN 0816634491, $20.00 US{pound} (pbk) International Review for the Sociology of Sport, June 1, 2007; 42(2): 217 - 221. [PDF]

				J. Crossman, J. Vincent, and H. Speed `The Times They are A-Changin': Gender Comparisons in Three National Newspapers of the 2004 Wimbledon Championships International Review for the Sociology of Sport, March 1, 2007; 42(1): 27 - 41. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. Clayton and B. Humberstone Men's Talk: A (Pro)feminist Analysis of Male University Football Players' Discourse International Review for the Sociology of Sport, December 1, 2006; 41(3-4): 295 - 316. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Harris The Image Problem in Women's Football Journal of Sport and Social Issues, May 1, 2005; 29(2): 184 - 197. [Abstract] [PDF]