Reflections and Realities
It was one of my life’s dreams, so when I finally made it to Olympia, Greece, it made sense to purchase a book about that famous archeological site to help my explorations. Imagine my reaction, though, upon opening the first page, to read this introduction: “Places, like men, have their destinies” (Andronicos, 2002: 5); later, about where the ancient Games took place, Olympia: The Archaeological Site and the Museum stated, “It was only natural that the new cult of the ‘father of men and gods’ should acquire a predominant place in the sacred grove and that the shrine should end by belonging mainly to him.”
Men, father, gods, him? Interested in reportage and representation(s) of women in sport in general, the Olympic Games in particular, this book concerns itself with the rhetoric surrounding female Olympians. Aware that the predominantly male standard focuses on “achievement” and the “hetero-normal,” and wanting to demystify the processes and people involved in this global sporting spectacle, it begins with an historical review of women’s role vis-à-vis the Games since their revival in 1896 by the Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Recall: His Victorian philosophy made its indelible mark on the proceedings with de Coubertin’s declaration that “Women have but one task, that of the role of crowning the winner with garlands.” Next, reconsidering mediations relative to sociocultural and political-economic issues (e.g., sexism, ageism, racism, amateurism, commercialism, sex-testing, Paralympians, and human trafficking), it becomes evident that a critical discourse analysis (CDA) offers new insight to gendered media/sport considerations.
The standard mantra about female athletes claims that they have been trivialized, marginalized, hypersexualized, hierarchically devalued, made invisible, inferior, and infantilized. Bruce, Hovden, and Markula (2010: ix), for example, declare that “Despite exponential growth in female sports participation, research over more than three decades consistently shows the invisibility of sportswomen in the global sports media.” Traditional critiques of their representations in sports media—whether visual or verbal—have depicted female Olympians as subordinate to their male counterparts, ranging from barely recognizable to blatantly pornographic in (even if sometimes unconscious) sexist reportage. Writing about 1960 Rome, David Maraniss (2008: 74) claimed that media in general, sportswriters in particular, held little regard for female Olympians who “felt constant pressure to conform to imposed standards of modesty even as they were portrayed as sex symbols.”
While traditionally women have participated in “feminine” sports (read: those that call for more grace than physical strength and aggression, such as figure skating, gymnastics, swimming, golf, and tennis), fortunately that syndrome is changing, as women venture into sporting arenas traditionally considered male-only. Once women’s pole vault was introduced in 2000, steeplechase in 2008, even boxing in 2012, women now compete in all Olympic sports, albeit if in fewer events within them; for example, 2012 London had men competing in 164 events, women in 124. Twelve Muslim-majority countries—Albania, Bahrain, Brunei, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Tajikistan, and Turkey—had women as flag bearers for the Opening Ceremonies, viewed by an estimated one billion people worldwide and Muslim women competed in about half of all London’s events. Amanda Wiedemann (ND) noted, “The IOC 1 should be commended for helping women compete in sports they are interested in and helping women earn the same national and international recognition as men.”
“From the start, the modern Olympics was a context for institutionalized sexism, severely hindering women’s participation,” Jennifer Hargreaves declared in 1994 (p. 209), adding that “The history of the Games starkly demonstrates women’s struggles, failures and success.” My emphasis here, however, is not a whining repetition of negativity relative to female Olympians; rather, by employing an historical mediatization, it aims to introduce new notions about these amazing athletes. Simultaneously realizing their struggle historically is related to existing participation and perceptions, my modus operandi is to recognize the self-discipline, the sacrifices, and the (limited) opportunities that female Olympians have had to apply to their natural and/or trained skills in sport. Another aim is to go beyond traditional, mainstream approaches to sport study, eagerly and hopefully, without discrimination, including female Olympians of varying religious, political, physical ability, and/or gender orientations. Helen Jefferson Lenskyj (2000, 2002, 2008, 2010, and 2013) has already performed an important service detailing social injustices perpetrated against women and minorities in host cities, alerting us to necessary reforms within the profit-making Olympics industry per se.
Some of the personalities highlighted here will be familiar to you, while others may open up entirely new notions about sportswomen. As a starter, check out Notable Female Olympians in Appendix 3, which includes an alphabetical list of some six dozen examples who will be initially fleshed out and expanded upon throughout, along with numerous others who you might know and so many who you should know. Olympics historian Allen Guttmann (2002: 4) reminds us how, based on thinking relative to fears of Amazonian women, “The games began as a festival for men, and if de Coubertin had had his way, women would have remained forever restricted to the role of admiring spectators.” Female athletes have clearly come a long way, so deserve celebration.
Describing women’s role in the Olympic Games—historically, politically, economically, socioculturally, and sport-specifically in terms of gender equity, with literature reviews demonstrating gendered binaries—this book takes into consideration issues such as access, cultural attitudes, changing technologies, and, most tellingly, a rhetoric on female Olympians that sees promise in the picture. For mega-sporting events such as the Games, analyses of sexism in representations and rhetoric are part of wider cultural concerns about discrimination relative to women’s roles both in sport and in society—hopefully moving them to a classification as first-class citizens.
Positioned on a timeline, think of it this way: In the ancient Games, male contestants performed in the nude and women were denied attendance. At 1896 Athens (GRE), 2 when the modern Olympics began, they were still excluded (Aaseng, 2001). By the time of 1984 Los Angeles, nine sports were still closed to female Olympians: biathlon, bobsled, boxing, ice hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, soccer, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling, but by 1988 Calgary, women participated in 18 of 23 sports and 71 of 150 events. At 2004 Athens, their number jumped to 40 %, and by the time of 2008 Beijing—viewed by 4.7 billion people, 70 % of the world’s population—it was 47 %. But the real news is that women actually outnumbered men at 2012 London.
2012 London, mediated for a global audience of 4.8 billion, changed everything in terms of being a gender equity milestone (Coleman, 2012; Killion, 2012; Mohammad, 2012; Shergold, 2012). “Most. Firsts. London brimmed with them, and they transcended mere trivia,” Frank Bruni (2012b) reported. This was the first time in the Olympic Games where women competed in all 26 sports—nearly all of the 204 nations, with the exception of only Barbados and Nauru, having at least one woman in their camps. Even former holdouts Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and Qatar submitted female competitors, once compromises on uniforms between religion and sports federations were reached. Plus, let us not forget that Queen Elizabeth made an unannounced, unprecedented appearance. “Those traditional old boys’ clubs caved this time,” Christine Brennan (2012b) cheered, “giving IOC president Jacques Rogge a clear victory in what has been an extremely uneven journey to some semblance of gender equity at an event that once was as discriminatory as Augusta National Golf Club.” With boxing open to women, at last, it meant another first: that they were competing in all 26 events.
Female Olympians from the USA (268) outnumbered their male counterparts (261) at 2012 London, former basketball player/coach Teresa Edwards was appointed chef de mission, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings remained “Queens of the Beach” with an historic Gold three-peat, and the stunning Williams sisters Venus and Serena defended their tennis crown. Other records were broken: Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix (who took Gold in the 200-m dash), Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter of Team USA took Gold in the 4 × 100-m relay; Sanya Richards-Ross repeated her Gold in the 4 × 400-m relay (3:16:87) with Dee Dee Trotter, Allyson Felix, and Francena McCorory and the 400-m. Four-time world champ long jumper Brittney Reese (USA) had an historic 7.23-m performance, while Jenn Suhr, ranked #1 American pole vaulter, won Gold, and Missy Franklin swam her way to victory in the 100- and 200-m backstroke, 4 × 200-m freestyle, and 4 × 100-m medley. Anita DeFrantz, chair of the International Olympic Women and Sport Commission, noted that more women had participated in both Summer and Winter Games from 1998 through 2010 than in all competitions from 1900 through 1984 combined.
Sally Pearson won the 200-m sprint hurdle by a record-breaking 12.35 s, but her homeland of Australia, we learned, booked its respective women’s basketball and soccer teams to fly coach while the men flew in business-class comfort—as did Japan. Boxing made its debut at 2012 London for female pugilists 3 and records were set in swimming, beach volleyball, fencing, tennis, basketball, athletics, water polo, taekwondo, and the 20-km walk. Shooting competitor Nur Suryani Mohammed Taibi, eight months pregnant, could not resist representing her country Malaysia. Rogge proudly boasted that the progress at London was a major boost for gender equality, equality and neutrality being two of the most important Games values, and some went so far as to call them “The Women’s Olympics.” While heptathlete Jessica Ennis was the home-team favorite, and she d...