Book reviews

An invited collection of writing from emerging and established scholars offering a rich variety of perspectives and insights

October 2, 2024

Christoph Wagner
Université Gustave Eiffel

*Laurel Walzak, Danica Vidotto & Francesco Collura* (eds.)
**Sport Media Vectors: Gender and Diversity, Reconstructing the Field**
167 pages, paperback, ill
Champaign, IL: Common Ground 2023
ISBN 978-1-86335-260-4

The 2024 Olympics in Paris were Seine-sational, according to IOC president Thomas Bach. For the first time in its modern history, the Olympics have reached gender parity, i.e. there were as many women as men competing during the Games. However, on a quantitative side this may well be, but on a qualitative side things seem not to have improved much. The case of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer whose gender was questioned by the boxing federation IBA during the 2023 world championships, has surprised the IOC and was considered to be a Russian attack on the Games, as Weinreich argues.[1] The German state broadcaster ARD received harsh criticism for introducing the German swimmer Isabel Gose as the “ex-partner” of Lukas Mertens during an interview, mere minutes after she broke the German record over 400m freestyle swimming. The field reporter added insult to injury by asking the athlete about the performance of Mertens, whose medal ceremony was underway during the interview. The broadcaster and reporter added their side to the story, but this drew only more criticism.[2] It seems, that “[s]port culture is not welcoming for women” (p. 54). This may sound like a bold statement written in the heat of the moment, yet it bears much truth, and Sport Media Vectors highlights some excellent examples and insights to underline this statement. According to Jaime Schulz, women account for around 40% of participants in sports in the United States, yet they receive only 4% of media coverage.[3]

Possibly the biggest name the book deals with appears in chapter two: Megan Rapinoe, the captain of the US Women’s Soccer Team that won the 2019 World Cup in France.

It is exactly these moments and this institutionalised sexism that the contributors of this book aim to highlight and, more importantly, hope to change. The editors, Walzak, Collura and Vidotto bring together an invited collection of writing from emerging and established scholars about sports, sports media and equity. This includes work from undergraduates and Masters students to doctoral candidates from Canada and Ireland. Their common goal and passion is to bring change about in sports and sports media to make sports more equitable. The aim is to share the narratives of marginalized sporting communities such as Black Muslim women, the self-presentation of women on social platforms, and the media presentation of female swimmers.

There are eight chapters in this book, each highlighting a different issue. In the first chapter, Analisa Raimondo examines the use of the platform Instagram by Eugenie Bouchard, a Canadian tennis player. From the beginning, it is clear that the authors are not content with the current state of media, which in their view is male-dominated and considers women of secondary importance. Despite being more active on the platform, women are subject to the dominant ideologies inherent in mainstream sports media (p. 6). She, Bouchard, mixes sports with non-sportsrelated content on her profile. In doing so, Raimondo concedes that Bouchard adheres to the established female/athlete paradox: being an athlete and all that entails while also being a woman and presenting herself but also drawing negative comments from mostly men.

Possibly the biggest name the book deals with appears in chapter two: Megan Rapinoe, the captain of the US Women’s Soccer Team that won the 2019 World Cup in France. The analysis by Grace Esford looks at a short, 50-second video published on the video platform YouTube. In this clip Rapinoe speaks about winning the 2019 World Cup but more importantly the issue of equal pay for equal play. The majority of the comments to the video clip examined express negative views about women’s football and their demand for equal pay, expressing the view that this is not desired and the demand thus futile. However, the women’s demand proved successful as the Equal Pay Act of 2022 decreed that athletes who represent the United States in soccer should be paid equal compensation, regardless of their gender. Here Esford argues that YouTube and the mother company, Alphabet, fail their own rules, according to which discriminatory comments are not allowed and will be deleted. Yet, by letting people post negative comments, the platform has created an echo chamber in which these comments reverberate amplified.

The following two chapters look at the in/visibility of Black Muslim Sportswomen. These sections highlight the diversity of Hijab within the global Muslim community and how this is often the source of confusion and brings to light the ignorance of mainstream media when being confronted with appearances that are disruptive to the normative sports narrative. A local study into the experiences of Muslim Women presents the Hijab Ballers, which is a local sports community in Toronto. It offers a safe space for Muslim women to engage in sports but also to exchange and socialise. The aim is to explore the experiences of Muslim women within sports culture in Toronto via an intersectional study. However, Hijab Ballers did not commission the study, which was further impeded by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Another issue was that of a po-tential outsider/insider conflict as the authors identified as white, non-religious female athletes and thus this may have had an influence on their findings. The main conclusions however are that there are many positives but also many challenges for Muslim Women in Toronto.

Megan Rapinoe, 2019. (Shutterstock/Jose Breton- Pics Action)

Chapter five focuses on individual athletes like Jamad Fiin, a Somalian basketball player, Nadia Nadim, an Afghan football player and Fadumo Olow, a sports journalist. Shireen Ahmed demonstrates their use of the platforms and thus the shaping of their own narratives. She, Ahmed, asks “what narratives are Muslim athletes perpetuating or promoting on social media?” And how they use their online presence to “debunk myths and crush tropes” used in mainstream media (p. 79). By showing these examples Ahmed demonstrates that it is possible for Muslim women in sports not only to network but to also be able to shape the narrative. This requires not only athletes to showcase their skills but also journalists who have the ability to represent them. Ahmed introduces Fadumo Olow, like Fiin a woman of Somalian heritage; both speak of it proudly and publicly (p. 83). Olows role allows her to “select the headlines”, which provides her with a different level of power to “craft a message that is not reductive or sexist” (p.83). It is important to note that those persons portrayed and Eugenie Bouchard in chapter one are in charge of their own narrative, unlike the case of Megan Rapinoe cited in chapter two.

The opposite is true for Women’s Basketball in North America – Dana Daschuk contends that it has been silenced by the NBA and male dominance in the sport. She highlights the differences between the men’s and the women’s game: the men create far bigger revenue than their female colleagues. Women’s professional basketball began in 1978 and the path into the 21st century was not an easy one. It is the story of cessation, a new setup and dependence. The WBL, the Women’s Basketball League, was established in 1978 following the gold medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. WBL folded in 1982 due to financial problems. A period of unsuccessful attempts to establish the game followed, but not until in 1996 with the financial backing of the NBA, the men’s game, a longlasting organisation was created. This, however, created dependencies that the WNBA has not gotten rid of.

In chapter 7 Lydia Ferrari Kehoe examines the coverage of men’s and women’s swimming in the British newspaper The Guardian during the 2016 Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro. Though limited in scope – only one paper is examined – it reveals the difference in the quantity and quality of the coverage. In terms of quantity, there was no discrepancy, yet there was in terms of quality: women were subject to “gendered, sexist and unequal coverage” (p. 121).

The final chapter is the personal story of Devon Gotell, a Canadian paralympic swimmer, who recounts his and his sister’s stories as swimmers. He uses the monomyth, or hero’s journey, a pattern of mythology developed in 1949 by Joseph Campbell. According to this principle, there are 17 stages in this journey, of which Gotell delves into six: “the call to adventure”, the discovery of his ability to swim and perform at a high level; “the mentors” – their parents, coaches and family which aligns with the proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’; “the trials” deals with the thought that people like him have to overcome their disability, even though non-normative athletes have not overcome their condition but live with them just as other people do; “The Dragon” is the public perception of non-normativity and deals with the mainstream media discourse; “The Temptations” are thoughts of an “easier life” than that of an athlete; and “the ultimate boon” is partly winning in competitions but mostly it was the journey (p. 148) he was on for 12 years as an athlete and all that that encompasses.

If I have a point of criticism it is the language. The language used in this book is very academic, which makes reading it at times difficult and may limit its accessibility for a broader non-academic audience. On the positive side, the inclusion of a wide range of contributors, from undergraduates to doctoral candidates, ensures a rich variety of perspectives and insights. The examples chosen offer many opportunities for further research into the topics presented in this volume.