Female Athletes in the Media

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Reflection

This project gave me a great insight on how female athletes are portrayed in the media. The first time I realized that females were not portrayed in the same light as men was in the Rio 2016 Olympics. But what may people do not understand is that the difference in portrayal goes beyond how female athletes were presented in the Olympics. I learned that depending on the frame you put female athletes in, you may not think the portrayal is wrong. For some, looking at movies female athletes are given main roles and represented as strong and independent. For others, they believe female athletes are just sexualized by men. After doing a semesters worth of research I believe that female athletes are represented in the media and in film, unfortunately athletes are framed in a negative light. To me, the argument that female athletes are not represented is invalid, yet I do believe they are not represented in the right light. 

There is a lot to still be researched on this topic I think I would want to look further into why there are certain frames around female athletes. My theory is that by sexualizing female athletes news broadcasters will have more viewership than if they talked about their abilities. I also think looking into why some female athletes are okay with being sexualized and some are not would be interesting. Learning from the perspective of athletes would give more insight. This project would benefit from more interviews with the actual sources and seeing more perspective. To conclude, I would like to focus on something similar to this in thesis because I believe there is a lot of research I could conduct myself to contribute to this topic. 

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Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes pre fight video. The video goes through their training and their previous fights. The video frames the athletes as just that, athletes, not sexualized beings.

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When you realize female athletes actually have skill... 

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A clip from the movie She's The Man, starring Amanda Bynes. In this final scene Bynes is shown preparing for a goal kick that could potentially win the game. The goalie demeans her by telling her “don’t kick like a girl” and other things to make him seem more dominant over Bynes. Bynes takes the shot and scores winning her team the game, showing that women are just as capable as men. Score one for female athletes!

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Women can have muscle too.

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BePowerFULL

Jessica Oar is an entrepreneur whose business promotes positive body image for female athletes. Oar opened up her own business, Be Powefull, after working in the corporate world of radio for eleven years. Be Powerfull targets working women and mothers to tailor their diets and workouts to best suit their bodies. Oar is an advocate for women’s bodies and promotion of strong beautiful women. Oar stated, “I am very proud to rock big muscles that don’t fit into shirts. It’s just more about your mental power that connects with this physical power that is the most important part, instead of slimming down just to look good.” Oar believes that media has a negative impact on women’s lives by giving them an unrealistic view on what a body should look like.

Because of Oars background in Marketing and Business she understands the needs for media to sell, and sex sells. She is trying to break this model of framing female athletes by shows that it is okay to be strong, while also being feminine. The focus of this project has been the effects of media on female athletes, mainly focusing on the ways in which media frames these athletes, if at all. By discussing real life examples one can understand the different ways film, broadcast media, and social media present female athletes. This interview gives an interesting, inside point of view on how the media’s framing affects female athletes.

  Ashley Fazzino: So lets start off with how did you decide to start your own business?

Jessica Oar: I was working in corporate America for ten plus years, eleven years, and worked my way up the corporate ladder. I then had children and I had a thought one day thinking ‘what’s the point of having children, at least for me, I am not able to spend time with them’. I actually was fired from my last position in corporate America, but it was an opportune time for me to look at if I was really following my true life’s passion. I did a little bit of interception and realized that being active, going back to my athletic side, and showing others how to achieve a level of fitness could be something that I could build a business on. From there I started going on retreats, seminars, and got my certification. I am now two years into owning an online business where I help women to get fit and to learn how to eat for their bodies, yes to get physique goals that they want, but to eat the best that they can and the healthiest they can. I feel like I am making such a difference and I feel like I am making as much, if not more of a difference, than I was in corporate America.

AF: You started to touch on it, but can you explain a little bit more about your business itself. I know you said that you work with women to achieve body goals and feel good about themselves, but what is a typical day of work look like for you?

JO: Sure, so my business is called BePowerfull and it is technically an online brand. The best way to describe it is I am an online blogger and most of my business happens online. I work with women all over the country and the world. I am a hormonal fat loss coach so I help them to understand how their body responds to food so that they can get the results that they are looking for. For some of them it is performance, some is for weight loss. A typical day, I run several online groups through Facebook and social media so I hop into my social media, answer questions, pose questions to get people talking. I then write, I have to set aside some time to dig deep and write about my experience as it relates to nutrition and fitness. Going back a little bit, I start my day by coaching two thirty-minute classes, one at 6am and the other at 9:30am. I am working with women primarily, the 6am group, those are women who are working and are hitting the gym, which is my garage, before they go to work. The 9:30am group is a bunch of moms who bring their children and I have a daycare while the moms come and get their workout in.

AF: Can you describe the type of women that come into your business? I know you said a lot of moms and working women but what are they like? What are their overall motivations to come in and to work out and change their diet?

JO: Many of us have some body issues and we carry those things with us from a very early age. Most of the women that come to me are moms and they lead busy lifestyles, whether they work or not. Being a mom is a full time job as well and most of the women that come in are trying to invite fitness back into their life in a more consistent way. They are coming to me because I offer efficient solutions. My classes are a half an hour, I teach women how to work out intensely for better results so that they can ditch… most of them are coming to me after doing three hours worth of cardio a day and they haven’t been able to get the results that they want. I will have to say that most of them want to slim down and to leaner, and thinner, to shrink their bodies. Most of them are doing so after having children and their bodies have changed a bit.

AF: I just want to back track a little bit here, you were describing how you are doing a lot of online blogging and you are tracking your results as well as what you do with the women who come in, how do you differentiate yourself from all these different blogs. I know recently there has been a lot on social media and the broadcast media about all these people who started a blog to get themselves fit. How would you differentiate yourself from them?

JO: I think I would differentiate myself because I don’t think my story is unlike others, but my story is unique to me. The reason for my blog is that I want to connect with women on the level where I am being completely authentic. It is interesting because I come from a marketing background, I went to school for business and I was a marketing major. Early on I approached my online business in the sense that I need to find the niche that’s not being covered and go after that niche. But really when I dropped that mentality of business first and started to be more authentic about my weaknesses, the times where I restricted my diet just to lose weight and then went off on binges of food I restricted after. That helps women to understand that they are not alone and that their story is not something they need to hide, they don’t need to have that shame. The more authentic I am about me in particular, the more people that come to me and the more people I am able to help. That’s why I think there is this whole revolution of blogs, I am probably not going to appeal to everybody and that’s okay with me. I seriously start everyday doing a little bit of a meditation being like ‘I hope that I am able to reach people who want to hear my message in particular’. Who ever is supposed to hear my message, I want to put as much information out there as possible so that I can help them to not feel alone through their struggles.

AF: Absolutely, so what do you think the role of media is in the women’s lives who come to see you, maybe before, during, or after?

JO: I am connected to a network of…one of the reasons I love what I do is because there is a host of amazing women that are doing what I am doing, speaking their authentic stories and telling the stories that are so powerful. There is this women, Eren Brown, and she is a body love activist, a feminist. There are a lot of us speaking out about the way that media portrays women as sex symbols. Specifically you go through the grocery line and look at the cover models, these models are so far from normal life. So my clients that are walking through the door and have a normal life, children to feed, and all sorts of pressures on them, they don’t have the time or the resources to starve themselves like the women on those covers. Its an unrealistic view of how women’s bodies should actually be. Most of the women who come into my garage are moms and their bodies have shifted and changed to give life and their hips have widened and they probably will never get back to their pre baby body. They can get stronger, but our bodies shift for a specific purpose. I guess the role of media is that they give this unrealistic view for what a women’s body should look like. When women are working with me I think they realize that lift weights number one, won’t make them look bulky and number two, who cares if it does? I am very proud to rock big muscles that don’t fit into shirts and its just more about your mental power that connects with this physical power that is the most important part, instead of slimming down just to look good.

AF: That’s very interesting because part of the project that I am working on right now is looking into media and how they want to frame female athletes. I mean I consider anyone who is working out an athlete and a lot of things that you see are very negative. It’s women should be sexualized, be wearing makeup, and look perfect all the time when in reality that truthfully is not feasible. It is interesting especially when you see it first hand.

JO: Yeah I mean I just came from a photo shoot. I want my online business to look professional and I just came from a photo shoot where I did my makeup and wore jewelry, and did my hair. These are professional images but since most of my business is about my day to day life. People see that in day to day life that I have my hair up, I haven’t washed my hair for three or four days because I am busy, and I am working out in my garage getting gritty but I don’t have a problem with mixing muscles with feminism. Media wants to make it more of the ladder.

AF: Do you feel like you have to put on makeup, and jewelry while taking these photos because that is what is the norm for media now? Is that something that you felt personally want to do?

JO: It is personally what I wanted to do because I am new to my business and getting professional photos done is… I want to look my best. I love the way I look when I do myself up. It is not because I feel like I am going to get more business, it is just because I want to use the tools that I have always have and look my best to take pictures. I think what bothers me about what the media does is the only time it is acceptable for somebody to get photos done without being completely done up is when they are doing a very specific article on bare faces or like a series of famous actresses and look at how pretty they are without makeup on. I find it so much nicer to look through my social media feed and see big powerful women lifting big weights without caring about the way that they look.

AF: Absolutely, now we’ve kind of touched on social media but what is your take on media’s representation of female athletes in film. Do you feel like they are represented or not?

JO: To be honest I can’t think of a specific film to reference but I think what I think about with female athletes in the media… I follow and really appreciate Lindsey Von because I used to race in high school and college but she has received a lot of bad press mostly from female athletes that are her peers in the fact that she has put on a bikini and let media look at her body instead of her performance. I think of people like that, I think of Anna Kournikova, she makes more money from her endorsements than she actually does from her performance. That’s not a knock on her performance but it is the fact that she is a pretty woman with long blonde hair, who fits the ideal for a very attractive women. I think that’s played up, and I were her that would be frustrating to be a tennis player who trains and am focused on more for my looks. I think that is a big challenge.

AF: Absolutely, So when you think about these female athletes you think about real female athletes? Let me explain, the first film that comes to mind is Miracle where they have these male hockey players, the USA team, who are so athletic and work so hard, but you don’t necessarily see that for women. Is that something you see as well or do you feel like female athletes are represented?

JO: That is a good point, just the fact that there aren’t movies about women that have… I honestly can’t think of a movie that is about a female sports team overcoming instrumental odds. I think that what happens are commentators talk down about female athletes. The people that are covered the most prior to the last summer Olympics, I can’t think of her name but she is a pole vaulter and also a Sports Illustrated model. She was covered more than a female track star who was said to get a gold in every match that she was up against. It is less about if someone is at the peak of their performance and unfortunately about who looks good.

AF: Yeah. So I just have one more question for you. Going back a little bit, how would you compare your work with what our media culture says about female athletes?

JO: I think there’s a shift happening. I have this pack of women that I am good friends with from a fitness event. There are a lot of female focus events that are coming to light and I love that there is a lot of women in my line of work, I don’t see it as competition, I see it as we can all be the change together. I actually don’t see myself in combating media, I see myself on the forefront of this pack of women trying to bring strength, power, mental capacity, and confidence to the forefront rather than let women believe that they need to shrink or get smaller to be the ideal or seen as attractive. Two of my friends have to put together a program that’s launching in January and it is called The Bigness Project it is all about getting big and gaining muscle, to do what most women are afraid of, to build muscle. I hope to see tons and tons of people in that program because to me muscle is beautiful. I chose beautiful not sexy because I think trying to have aesthetic goals, there is not a problem with that. I also get so much clarity and mental power from my fitness that I hope I can bring more people along in this new train of thought so that young girls growing up now, I think of my niece. I want her to grow up and know that her body is capable and strong and all she needs to do is focus on how she feels when she is playing her sport, not how she looks.

AF: Absolutely, I think that is an important and great message to be sharing in this day and age where everyone wants to promote women as sex symbols.

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An interview with Mark Simone and Bo Dietl on Fox News discussing the issue of female Olympians and why they should wear makeup. 

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Women, Attractive or Athletic?

Most media outlets talk about female athletes’ looks or family accomplishments. Those media outlets frame women as having sex appeal and criticize them when they don’t fit into the typical standard of beauty. Few media outlets focus on the athletic abilities of the athletes themselves. However, some celebrate those skills and praise female athletes for being just as dominant in their respective fields as their male counterparts. This paper will describe the two dominant frames media use to describe female athletes, the ability of female athletes; and their sexualization in the media. The paper will also analyze examples like the 2016 Rio Olympics, ESPN Body Issue, the comparison of male to female athletes, and professional female athletes brand image.

While there are many media outlets that report, for the most part, on the accomplishments of athletes within their sport it is not the entirety of media reporting. Media outlets report to gain viewership and to do so they must pique the interest of their audience. Media viewers want to know what is going on in an athlete’s life both on and off the field. Lewis and Weaver (2015) dictate society's obsession for information not only on the athlete's actions on the field, but off it as well, when they state, “In an age of constant media consumption, the actions of athletes are monitored not only by sports media but also by the media consumers as well,” (p. 2). By framing athletes in an interesting light, both by their athletic ability and sexualization, the news outlets give the viewer more to think about and a more rounded way to develop opinions on each specific athlete. A study done by both Lewis and Weaver examined why media outlets go beyond the athletic ability of these professionals. Their results show that viewers had more pleasant evaluations of athletes when understanding more about their lives. When focusing on female athletes to get a more well rounded view, media outlets find it beneficial to paint them as a mother or wife, even as a beautiful down to earth woman. It gives the athlete more of a story and brings a human element rather than simply being successful in a sport (Lewis & Weaver, 2015, pg 11).

Athletes of global abilities all gathered in Rio this year to compete against each other and recognize the importance of sport. However, alternate storylines always surface during international competition. Media outlets had variety coverage during the games. Female athletes’ sexuality and the way they looked while competing were included. A New York Times article examined multiple news stations and what they had to say about different athletes (Kroger, 2015). There were several examples where female athletes were snubbed of fair coverage from many media outlets. Stretching from the referral of a female medalist as merely the wife of an NFL player, all the way to reporters completely forgetting about female Olympic legacies such as the Williams sisters’. The article asks whether or not these are just media hiccups or if they are outright sexist, calling on researchers at Cambridge and Penn State for some context. This is important to think about. These women are professional athletes and people cannot see past their bodies (Rogers, 2016). This becomes a difficult media topic when male athletes are covered in the media solely on their athletic abilities.

To understand how female athletes are sexualized, you have to look at male athletes as well. A British study examined national newspaper coverage of both male and female athletes competing at the Olympic Games from 1948 to 2004.  The results were heavily in favor of the male athletes. According to King (2007), “ Of the 202 headlines written in The Times, 109 (54%) were devoted to male athletes and 63 (31%) were devoted to female athletes. The remaining 30 (15%) headlines were defined as gender neutral,” ( p. 190). Through the fifty six years of coverage most headline papers reported on male athletes. The media used the idea of agenda-setting to show that male athletes were more important to follow, rather than females. When females did happen to get coverage the media framed them to be sexual beings. This could have been because that is how the media outlets would get the most attention on their articles and broadcasts.                                      

A recent focus the media has taken regarding female athletes is whether or not they should be wearing makeup while competing. The Telegraph details a short debate held on Fox News in which the male guests deemed it crucial that the athletes wear makeup, as the end goal of competing in the Olympics is gaining endorsements. One of the guest hosts, Mr. Dietl, on Fox News made his points clear, “ ‘When you see an athlete, why should you have to look at some chick's zits?" he said. "I like to see a person that wins that gold medal go up there and look beautiful,’”  (Millward, 2016). The guest host was making his points clear that when reporting on female athletes he was more concerned with how they presented themselves, rather than their athletic abilities.

           While this framing typically happens within professional athletics there has been an increase with collegiate athletes as well. The scholarly article What’s the Best Exposure? Examining Media Representations of Female Athletes and the Impact on Collegiate Athletes’ Self-Objectification examines the link between sports media exposure and the negative effect on body perceptions of young girls and women. The study exposed collegiate athletes to three separate photos of professional athletes and relate those photos to their tendency to self-objectify. The results found that due to media framing these athletes as having a perfect body image that begins to fall on the young women who look up to those athletes. Less self-objectification occurs and greater body satisfaction is achieved when images of performance athletes are viewed, suggesting a need for more of these images in mainstream media (Smith, 2015, pg. 11). This study shows the younger athletes are exposed to different types of framing in the media, the more they are prone to objectify their bodies in that same way.

While a lot of media outlets frame woman by their physical appearance there are some that focus on female athletes physical abilities within their sport. For example ESPN uses an entire issue of their magazine to focus on athletes’ physical abilities. While they show females in a provocative picture they are accompanied by an article describing how much work these athletes have to put in to get to where they are in the profession. A Huffington Post article praised ESPN for their work in showing female athletes in a positive light. (Jackson, 2015). According to Jackson, “ESPN Magazine’s “Body Issue,” features nude female and male athletes and depicts women athletes of all body types in generally active, gender-neutral poses. This treatment of women athletes is a huge breath of fresh air compared to how women athletes are styled, sexualized and posed as if on display in magazines,” (Jackson, 2012). The body issue supports all female athletes for their athletic accomplishments. The magazine puts a focus on their journey rather than accomplishments that have nothing to do with their sport. The articles go into depth on how the athletes train and work towards their goals. They emphasize their hard work rather than the way their bodies look. The photos associated are supposed to emphasize the strength and training each athlete has put in, no matter what their body type is. ESPN makes their focus a gender-neutral report on all athletes and their ability to work their bodies and constantly improve.

ESPN not only puts out the Body Issue once a year praising athletes for their accomplishments, but also generally writes about athletes abilities not their personal lives. For example UFC, a generally male dominated sport, has recently been taken over by female fighter, Amanda Nunes. ESPN followed her recent fights writing articles for each one. One article explains Nunes take down of another female fighter, Miesha Tate. The entire article explains Nunes training and how she got to where she was. Campbell cited career points such as, “Nunes, 28, becomes the UFC's first female Brazilian champion. She entered the bout as the hottest fighter in the division and the No. 4-ranked women's bantamweight by ESPN. She won her fourth straight fight and improved to 6-1 since making her UFC debut in 2013,” (Campbell, 2016). Despite the debate around women's UFC fighting ESPN continues to post articles that solely reflect on the women’s athletic abilities, rather than their looks. Not only is this an example of a type of framing, but also it goes deeper into episodic framing. Episodic Framing describes when an issue is presented in the news providing specific examples, case studies, or oriented reports. Usually this is presented through a story of a specific person (Gross, 2008). Episodic framing is usually implemented using events that can be compared to the news they are reporting. The news focused on UFC fighter Amanda Nunes and her journey to success. Within UFC fighting ESPN follows Nunes’ career with every fight reported and her training reported. By reporting on Nunes’ career and accomplishments it furthers the sport in the public eye. Reporting specifics of a broader topic makes it settle with viewers more, as they can identify people to the sport.

One could argue that some of this framing also falls under thematic framing, which is identified as news reporting within a broader context (Gross, 2008).  Instead of telling a story of one specific person it presents as issue as a whole, the big picture. This could be UFC fighting as whole and the way that it is generally portrayed in the media. Currently women’s UFC is beginning to be covered more often. There are comparisons to men’s UFC and how the sport itself is developed. For example, a Vice article explained how women’s MMA and UFC fighting is benefiting UFC as a whole by bringing in more viewership and giving women the chance that they deserve. The article stated, “women’s MMA is not just becoming an accepted part of the sport but that it’s becoming a necessary part of the sport,” (Rosenblatt, 2013). In this article it is framed in a way that makes an overview of particular benefits of the sport, rather than telling a story of one specific fighter.

The media frames female athletes in certain ways to get their viewers to think about the issue and develop their own opinions. While the media is allowing viewers to create their own opinions on public issues they also present issues in certain ways to get viewers to question exactly what they are watching. The news outlets report to gain an audience and to do that they frame issues in ways that would attract debate amongst viewers. There was a research study conducted to explore the idea of how certain ways of framing make audiences react in different ways. Participants were given four different images of female athletes published by the media. The photos consisted of in action shots and posed sexual shots. The results showed that women identified themselves more with the in-action shots rather (Kane, LaVoi, & Fink, 2013, p. 14). This study shows that women would rather see more stories and photos of female athletes who are accomplishing something rather than looking like society's ideal body, yet most news stations report on women by sexualizing them not praising their accomplishments.  

           The media frames female athletes in two majors ways; by their physical appearance and their physical ability. It is important to examine both sides of these techniques to understand why media decide to focus on two different aspects of female athletics. Framing is used to let the viewer decide how they want to interpret an issue. Without having multiple frames to look at the viewer would not be able to formulate their own opinions. Media strategically picks these topics within female athletics to make the viewer truthfully think about the information being placed in front of them. 

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Female Athletes Fight for Fame

Katniss Everdeen strikes a chord and invigorates many women today. They are drawn to her strength because historically women have not had that level of confidence in very many cinematic roles. Her tenacity is refreshing and is becoming more popular in the media overall. The spreading of this type of empowered female character is noticed the post-feminists. The post-feminist movement comes from people who believe and promote various ideologies surrounding feminism but believe feminism has since been achieved. Post feminists believe that feminism does not have a place in today’s society and there are many examples of how females have become empowered, specifically in media (Toffoletti, 2016). There has been a focus on strong lead female athletic characters arising in movies. In line with the post-feminism argument, female athletes appearing in contemporary film and television shows are seen as empowered. This paper will describe female athletes portrayed in movies and advertisements from the point of view of the post feminism movement.

Many of the ideas that surround the post-feminist movement arise from the transformation of gender roles within the media. In the film She’s the Man, Violet Hastings is a high school girl who’s soccer team gets cut simply because it is a girl’s team. When she tries to be on the men’s soccer team she is laughed about by the coach and told that girls can’t beat boys it’s a scientific fact. The sexist comments lead Viola to pose as her twin brother Sebastian and try out for a rival men’s soccer team. She makes the team and ends up beating her schools soccer team while pretending to be a man. While it is comical to watch Viola become a man, her reasoning behind it is extremely serious. Carlin (2016) describes the movies as a“ powerful transformation that proves that masculine and feminine are all in the eyes of the beholder.” Not only does Viola struggle with the idea of being able to play a sport but also with being feminine enough for the people around her.

Viola’s mother is a stuck up debutant women who is more concerned with pageants than the relationship with her daughter. One could argue that Viola’s whole transformation came from the idea that she is not able to express herself in front of her own mother without being told she is wrong. The entire movie the only time that Viola is able to be herself is when she pretends to be her brother. By the end of the movie Viola reveals to everyone that she had been posing as her brother the entire time and her mother finally realizes the gender norms that she held her daughter to. In line with the idea authors Vered and Humphreys (2014) discuss how post-feminism emphasizes common representations of gender and other formal narrative ideas and gives a way to think about mainstream media. The idea behind their argument is that while post-feminism is represented in the media you need to address the gender roles to be able to understand how women, specifically female athletes, have begun to make a stand in film.

This idea is represented in She’s The Man by Viola struggling to show her family she doesn’t want to be a typical girl who wears dresses and skirts. The article ties into the movie by creating a conversation on typical gender roles and overcoming those as a strong female lead character. The lead character shows that girls are just as capable as guys and with a little push society will accept that. Viola can be a star athlete while still acting like a girl, women do not have to be either athletic or pretty there is an option for both. She’s the Man steers away from the idea that female athletes have to be manly and aggressive. This idea has crossed athletic boarders into other sports as well and addressed many misconceptions of female athletes in films.

The movie Bring it On Again goes through the lives of cheerleaders competing across the country while trying to be taken seriously as athletes and not just snobbish girls who can scream. The movie stars all female leads and makes light of them as athletes, not as dumb girls. The article, Bring it on again (and again): Post-feminism and the ‘new cheerleader’ media icon breaks apart the movie for its idolization of cheerleaders as athletic and hardworking (2011). It demonstrates that a strong female lead can be more than either pretty or smart, not both. This idea is in line with the post-feminist movement in the sense that women are getting the opportunity to be lead athletes in movies that do not involve sexualizing or demeaning them. This movie represents female athletes as strong and independent and doesn’t just sexualize them in the media.

The article discusses how cheerleaders have become a cultural icon for female athletes in the sense that they can be the representative image of American femininity. Originally cheerleaders were seen as extremely attractive, sidekicks to men, and had a large sex appeal (2011). The movie Bring it On releases cheerleaders from the stigmatized view and captures them as independent and able to achieve all their goals. The film has a team of cheerleaders made fun of at their school for their promiscuous looks and their peppy attitudes. Regardless of the views their peers hold, those athletes demonstrate a strong dedication and a passion for their sport, ultimately finding success in winning their largest competition of the year. That drive does not stem from their need to be seen as feminine supporters of their male counterparts, rather highly competitive athletes who are not dependent on anybody else. The film represents post-feminism by transforming the idea of what a typical cheerleader is represented as. For any young viewer this represents that women are just as athletic and independent if they work hard enough to achieve that goal.

Not only has film transformed the stereotypes around cheerleading but also figure skating and the idea that it is a girly sport. The film Ice Princess makes an interesting point about female empowerment through their female lead role. The main character, Casey, is destined for an Ivy League school and her mother couldn’t be more proud, yet all she wants to do is figure skate. The movie goes through the struggles of how the main character either has to be smart or athletic or cannot choose both worlds. In the end she is able to both figure skate and get into a great college and shows her mother that a women can fulfill all their dreams if they work hard. This falls into line with post-feminism because Casey has to show her world that women do not have to choose between the things they love. Being an athlete does not mean you cannot be successful. Casey’s mother has an old-fashioned idea of feminism as a rejection of feminine beauty in favor of academics (Lo Paro 2015). To be a glitzy figure skater in her mind you cannot also be smart. The movie emphasizes the notion that wanting to be beautiful does not mean you’re not smart. This movie is a great representation of how female athletes can be main characters and do not have to be dumb to be athletic.

Not only have there been more movies out with strong female leads, but also media has finally seen a strong action movie franchise with a female lead. The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence, is a movie series that takes place in a dystopia world where young children fight for their lives to serve their district. The main character, Katniss, is a teenage girl who is the provider for her family and much of her district. Jennifer Lawrence does an amazing job representing the athletic female who does not fit the mold of a typical woman. The entire movie she is seen providing for her family and friends, while fighting for her life against some of the toughest males. There is even a point in the movie where people do not take her archery seriously because she a women, she then shoots an arrow right at the people watching just close enough that it doesn’t hit them, bows and walks away. She does not take being a female as an excuse for not being notice by others. The Hunger Games is the first female franchise movie to earn $2.5 billion in box office earnings (Ecarma 2015).  This franchise is a big step in the post-feminist movement within film because, while the main character is a woman, she is also extremely athletic and does not fit into any typical feminine mold. Jennifer Lawrence is the first female to carry an action franchise. In line with the post-feminist movement, The Hunger Games series shows how a female can star in a large set of films and also display non-conforming gender roles.

While Hollywood has began to show female athletes in a different light, that was not always the case. Throughout the decades of film there has been a major transformation of how female athletes are portrayed, if portrayed at all. The article The history of Women Athletes in American Cinema discusses how female athletes used to be rarely seen in film without their male counterparts. There was little opportunity for female athletes to make their debut on screen, especially without looking dainty and extremely feminine. One particular actress paved the way for female athletes everywhere. Esther Williams was an actress who encompassed all parts of being both feminine and athletic, never sacrificing either for the other. As Smith (2016) describes, “while the films certainly exaggerated her femininity, the offered her the opportunity to demonstrate strength and resilience,” Hollywood has adapted female athletes roles immensely as time has progressed. While athletes used to be extremely underrepresented and helpless the article makes light of some of the most famous movies that show a strong female lead, who is athletic and not solely sexualized.

While many argue that post-feminism has a place in media studies there are still others who believe that not all the ideas behind post-feminism are supportive of the movement. King (2012) does an interesting study on the female athlete Rebecca Romero and her representation in a Powerade commercial. Romero is pictured riding a bicycle naked while consuming the Powerade, some see the commercial as empowering for female athletes and others see it as over sexualizing. The advertisement sparked controversy about using female’s bodies to attract viewership but the idea behind the article is that these images empower women.  Though some may see this as empowering the article also talks about how empowerment to women is denied through re-sexualization of bodies (King, 2012). Post-feminism in media is in the eye of the beholder, what one expert or viewer may watch can be completely different from another.

Post-feminism has successfully made its way into the film industry over the years, enough so that female athletes now are seen in staring roles. In today’s society and there are many examples of how females have become empowered, specifically in media. Having female athletes in staring roles changes the ideas that people have surrounding those athletes. Women are beginning to gain a reputation in films that they are strong, independent, and do not necessarily need to follow specific gender roles. By examining films through the post-feminism movement one can gain insight on how females, specifically athletes, are portrayed equally and fairly in films.