Women’s sports in the media: From ‘sex sells’ to ‘feminism sells’

Katie Taylor
Nottingham Trent University

Women’s sport continues to gain more media coverage than ever, yet how much has changed in how academics write about the topic? Serving Equality’s fundamental aim is to ‘tell stories differently’. The authors argue that traditional ways of analysing media coverage of men’s sports using the lens of hegemonic masculinity result in missed opportunities to examine how feminism shapes women’s sport media narratives. Consequently, their central question is, what does feminism in sports media look like? Through a series of case studies, Cheryl Cooky and Dunja Antunovic argue that liberal feminist narratives, with their focus on equality, have missed how forms of oppression have been maintained. The authors seek to look for where feminism occurs in media spaces. They call for new methodological and theoretical approaches that do not just focus on inequalities in sports media but also look for where feminism occurs in these spaces.

Both authors bring considerable knowledge and expertise to this area. Cooky’s work has long explored how the media presents female athletes, while Antunovic focuses on sports communication research. As they articulate in the introduction, the differences in their perspectives result in a more robust analysis. Within the introduction, both authors explore how their backgrounds have influenced their work through feminist reflexivity to understand how their positionality impacts their work.

The authors employ a paratext analysis where they explore reviews of the movies and interviews with actors to see how they feed into broader articulations of feminism.

Chapter 1 focuses on articulations of feminism in sports media and sports media research. The chapter covers some of the critical arguments given by academics for the low levels of coverage of women’s sports. Cooky and Antunovic focus on how academic narratives shape how the media discuss the same issues and inequalities. They explore the impact of liberal feminism and challenge us as readers to view the topic differently.

The focus of Chapter 2 is on the articulations of feminism in sports broadcasting. The authors explore which narratives gain traction and those which are sidelined. They argue that narratives of progress about women who break the so-called glass ceiling fail to discuss structural and institutional change or explore who gets hired and how they conform to conventional femininity. They also focus on the “first woman” narrative and how the linear progress that the media often espouse is not the reality for women in this space.

Chapter 3 focuses solely on coverage of the Olympic Games and how feminism is articulated in media reports. Much like in previous chapters, this one explores the celebratory, liberal feminist narratives that the media regularly employ and argues that there needs to be a more critical feminist narrative that will investigate persisting gender inequality.

A focus on athlete activism is at the heart of Chapter 4. Cooky and Antunovic re-centre sportswomen in athlete activism and explore how this type of feminism has become popular. They look at examples of athlete activism, including the WNBA’s involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement and the US Women’s National Soccer Team and their fight for equal pay. The authors explore how women’s activism does not get the same media coverage or is situated alongside male athletes’ activism, even if theirs has occurred earlier.

The theme of feminism as increasingly popular continues into Chapter 5, where the authors explore how feminism is increasingly used as a promotional tool for women’s sports. Cooky and Antunovic analyse various campaigns, including the WNBA’s Take a Seat. Take a Stand and the US Open’s Women Worth Watching campaigns. They trace a shift in promotional culture from ‘sex sells’ to ‘feminism sells’.

Through an analysis of Battle of the Sexes and I, Tonya, Chapter 6 focuses on how feminism is articulated in women’s sports films. The authors employ a paratext analysis where they explore reviews of the movies and interviews with actors to see how they feed into broader articulations of feminism. They explore the ways that people receive the films and how it is informed by feminist theoretical engagements.

The final chapter explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the media wrote about women’s sports. Sports media argue that the dominant narrative was about how women’s sports struggled, especially as sponsors started withdrawing their support. However, the authors explain that the absence of discussions about how race, class, and disability also impacted the athletes was an integral piece missing from the narratives. The authors also discuss the innovative ways that women’s sport has tried to increase interest in their activities.

The book achieves its goal of ‘telling stories differently’ and provides a comprehensive review of the literature in the field. Each chapter explores what has been written in the field thus far to provide a context for these different stories. Consequently, it is a valuable book for students and academics of both sports and media. Undergraduate students will gain a greater understanding of the field, while the new theoretical models will help postgraduate students and scholars think differently about the type of work they undertake. It challenges us all to think differently about how we approach analysing media narratives of women’s sports and being more critical in our approaches. The book will be one that I return to frequently in my work to ensure that I think beyond the traditional way.

Copyright © Katie Taylor 2023