Over the years women have not faired well in support or “protagonist” roles in sport films. However, there have been some subtle changes in the depictions and characterizations, storylines, and number of sport films featuring female athletes since the latter decades of the 20th century. The purpose of this content analysis study was to trace and highlight salient socio-cultural aspects pertaining to the representation of female athletes in American sport films released during the new millennium. This inquiry was relevant because research suggests (Caudell, 2008; Messner & Cooky, 2010; Pearson, 2010) that role modeling and emulation are often impacted via media depictions (or the lack thereof).
Method:
Content analysis and archival research methodologies were employed to systematically identify, examine, and code all American sport films depicting sport “heroines” from 2000-2014 (N=16), as well as the analysis of published critical reviews of each sport film from “reputable” media sources (e.g., New York Times, Roger Ebert.com, Rotten Tomatoes, etc.). The reviews were a viable data collection source and provided key insight into various aspects within certain sport films. They also served as a form of “data-source triangulation” for reliability and validity purposes (Pitney & Parker, 2009).
Analysis/Results:
Descriptive results indicate that of the 95 sport films released during the new millennium 16 (17%) depicted female protagonists. Of the 16 sport films 3 (19%) depicted African Americans, while only 1 (6%) depicted Hispanic females. The sport most represented was basketball (4), which comprised 25 percent of the films depicting female athletes. It was followed closely by boxing (3) and soccer (3) respectively. Interestingly, only one sport film depicted a female in a leadership capacity. And, as previously noted, several films depicted females in non-traditional sport roles.
Conclusions:
Our research concurred with other pre-millennium studies addressing female athlete representation in sport films, yet differed also: a) few female depicting sport films were released; b) paucity of “bio-pics” featuring notable female sport figures (e.g., Billie Jean King, Babe Didrikson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, etc.); c) very limited depiction of females in leadership roles; d) pervasiveness of comedic storylines; and e) the depiction of females in non-traditional sport roles. Thus, even though Title IX led to an exponential increase in female sport participation, their depiction via various media outlets has been limited. According to Bartyzel (2013), Hollywood has an obsession with real-life sport stories but this rarely extends to women.