Moving towards Inclusion: An Analysis of Photographs from the 1926 Women's Games in Gothenburg

Abstract

The 1920s was characterised by a struggle over the social acceptance and inclusion of women's track and field disciplines into international organisations. The debate was particularly heated between Alice Milliat, the then president of the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale, and the members of the International Athletic Federation and International Olympic Committee. Underlying the debate were differing assumptions about gender ideals and the role of women in society. While Milliat's efforts have been crucial and recognised in developing women's track and field, little research has examined how visual representations of track and field athletes related to gender norms. In this paper, we examine a corpus of professional sports photographs taken during the 1926 Women's Games in Gothenburg to gain understanding of how female athletes' media representations were part of negotiations over gender ideals. Placing the material within the notion of ‘gender dispositive’, our analyses reveal a process of negotiation between the ‘new’ woman ideal that included characteristics such as autonomy and self-control, as well as the mechanisation of women's bodies and traditional notions of femininity.

Avanzando hacia la inclusión: análisis de fotografías de los Juegos Femeninos de Goteborg (1926)

La década de 1920 se caracterizó por el conflicto en torno a la aceptación social y la inclusión de las disciplinas femeninas del atletismo en los organismos internacionales. El debate fue especialmente acalorado entre Alice Milliat, por entonces presidenta de la Fédération Sportive Féminine International, y algunos miembros de la International Athletic Federation y del Comité Olímpico Internacional. En la raíz del debate se hallaban concepciones diferentes sobre los ideales de género y el papel de las mujeres en la sociedad. Si bien los esfuerzos de Milliat fueron cruciales y reconocidos en el desarrollo del atletismo femenino, apenas se ha estudiado cómo se representaban visualmente las atletas en relación con las normas de género vigentes por entonces. En este artículo examinamos un corpus de fotografías deportivas profesionales tomadas durante los Juegos Femeninos de 1926 en Goteborg con el objetivo de mejorar nuestra comprensión sobre cómo las representaciones de las atletas en la prensa formaban parte de la negociación de los ideales de género. Nuestro estudio sitúa el material en el marco de la noción de “dispositivo de género” y revela un proceso de negociación entre el nuevo ideal femenino, que incorporaba características como la autonomía y la autogestión pero también la mecanización de los cuerpos femeninos, y las nociones tradicionales de feminidad.

Auf dem Weg zur Einbeziehung: eine Analyse von Fotografien der Spiele der Frauen 1926 in Göteborg

Die 1920er Jahre waren von einem Kampf um gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz und Integration der leichtathletischen Disziplinen der Frauen in internationale Organisationen gekennzeichnet. Zwischen Alice Milliat, der damaligen Präsidentin der Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale und den Mitgliedern des Internationalen Leichtathletikverbandes und des Internationalen Olympischen Komitees war die Debatte besonders scharf. Hinter der Debatte standen unterschiedliche Annahmen über Gender-Ideale und die Rolle der Frauen in der Gesellschaft. Während Milliats Bemühungen entscheidend und anerkannt in der Entwicklung der Leichtathletik der Frauen waren, haben nur wenige Forschungen untersucht, wie visuelle Darstellungen von Leichtathletinnen mit Gender-Normen in Beziehung standen. In diesem Artikel untersuchen wir eine Sammlung professioneller Sportfotografien, die während der Spiele der Frauen 1926 in Göteborg aufgenommen wurden, um zu verstehen, inwiefern die Mediendarstellungen von Athletinnen Teil der Verhandlungen über Gender-Ideale waren. Das Material unter den Begriff ”Gender-bestimmt“ stellend zeigen unsere Analysen einen Verhandlungsprozess zwischen dem ”neuen“ Frauenideal, das Eigenschaften wie Autonomie und Selbstkontrolle einschloss, aber auch die Mechanisierung der weiblichen Körper und traditionelle Vorstellungen von Weiblichkeit.

Movendo-se em Direção da Inclusão: uma análise de fotografias dos Jogos Femininos de 1926 em Gotemburgo

A década de 1920 foi caracterizada pela luta por aceitação e inclusão social das disciplinas de atletismo feminino em organizações internacionais. O debate era especialmente quente entre Alice Milliat, a então presidente da Fédération Sportive Féminine International, e membros da Associação Atlética Internacional e do Comitê Olímpico Internacional. Por trás do debate havia presunções divergentes sobre ideais de gênero e sobre o papel da mulher na sociedade. Ainda que os esforços de Milliattenham sido cruciais e reconhecidos no desenvolvimento do atletismo feminino, poucas pesquisas examinaram como as representações visuais das atletas se relacionavam com suas normas de gênero. Neste trabalho, examinamos um corpus de fotografias profissionais de esportes feitas durante os Jogos Femininos de 1926 em Gotemburgo para compreender melhor como representações midiáticas de atletas femininas foram parte das negociações sobre os ideias de gênero. Articulando o material junto à noção de “dispositivo de gênero”, nossa análise revela um processo de negociação entre o “novo” ideal de mulher que incluía características como autonomia e autocontrole, assim como a mecanização dos corpos femininos e noções tradicionais.

逐步接纳：对1926年哥德堡妇女运动会照片的分析

挑战社会接纳的容忍度，促使国际组织接受女性参加田径比赛，成为二十世纪二十年代的一个特点。时任国际女性体育联合会主席的爱丽丝·米丽亚特与国际田径联合会和国际奥委会成员之间的争论尤为激烈。而争论背后的问题是对性别理想与社会女性角色定位的不同理解。虽然米丽亚特在发展女性田径运动方面付出的努力得到了认可且至关重要，但鲜有研究能将田径运动员与性别规范之间的关系视觉再现。本文考察了1926年哥德堡妇女运动会上拍摄的职业体育照片文集，来理解女性运动员的媒体代表如何成为一种性别理想争议。采用“性别决定性”的概念来分析这些语料，研究认为，争议的过程发生在以自治、自控和女性身体构造为特点的新女性理想与传统的女性化概念之间。

逐步接纳：对1926年哥德堡妇女运动会照片的分析

女性の陸上競技の社会的認知と国際団体への受け入れをめぐる争いは、１９２０年代を特徴付ける出来事のひとつである。とりわけ熱い議論が展開されたのが、当時の国際女性スポーツ連盟会長アリス・ミリアと、国際陸上競技連盟及び国際オリンピック委員会のメンバーとの間であった。この議論の背景には、ジェンダーの理想像と社会における女性の役割に関する考えの相違がある。ミリアの努力が女性の陸上競技の発展において極めて重要であり、また認知されてきた一方で、陸上競技の視覚表象がジェンダー規範にどのように関与したかについてはほとんど研究がなされていない。本稿では、１９２６年にイェーテボリで開かれた女性競技会で、プロが撮影したスポーツ写真を資料として検討し、女性アスリートのメディア表象が、いかにしてジェンダーの理想像をめぐる争いの一部となるかを理解する。本研究は、資料を「ジェンダーディスポジティブ」の概念の中に置くことで、自律や自制といった特色を含む「新たな」女性像と、女性身体の機械化や伝統的な女性性の概念との間の争いの過程を明らかにする。

Keywords::

• 1926 Women's Games
• sports photographs
• track and field
• gender dispositive

Acknowledgements

This research was partly funded by the Swedish ‘Centrum för Idrottsforskning’ (Centre for Sport Research). We are also grateful to the two reviewers who have provided important feedback.

Notes

^1. For useful examples, see the works by Hargreaves, Sporting Females; McCrone, Sport and the Physical Emancipation; Pfister, “Sport - die Befreiung”; “Zur Geschichte des Körpers”; “Die Frauenweltspiele”; “Die grossen Frauen”; “Olympische Spiele nur für Männer?” 110–36.

^2.Rosol, “Pour une participation”; “Le sport vers le féminisme”; Drevon, Alice Milliat; Carpentier and Levèvre, “Modern Olympic Movement”; Pfister, “Die Frauenweltspiele”; “Die grossen Frauen”; Terret, “From Alice Milliat to Marie-Thérèse Eyquem”.

^3.Rosol, “Pour une participation”; “Le sport vers le féminisme”; Drevon, Alice Milliat; Carpentier and Levèvre, “Modern Olympic Movement”; Pfister, “Die Frauenweltspiele”; “Die grossen Frauen”; Terret, “From Alice Milliat to Marie-Thérèse Eyquem”.

^4. For useful examples, see the works by Drevon, Alice Milliat; Tolvhed, “Damolympiaden”.

^5. A text that has included photographs of the Games, although without specifically analysing these, is the work by Tolvhed, “Damolympiaden”.

^6. For useful examples, see the works by Booth, “Visual Materials”; Maasen, Mayerhauser, and Renggli, Bilder als Diskurse.

^7.Cowan and Sicks, Technik, Krieg und Medien, 23.

^8.Huggins and O'Mahony, Visual in Sport; “Prologue: Extending Study of the Visual”.

^9. Osmond, “Photographs, Materiality and Sport History”; Kinsey, “Australian Women Cyclists”; “Reading Photographic Portraits”; Schmidtke, Körperformationen; “Sportstudentin beim Diskuswurf”; Walther, Siegertypen; “Nichts vermag mit dem unangenehmen Eindruck”; Weber and Barker-Ruchti, “Bending, Floating, Flirting, Flying”.

^10.Kinsey, “Reading Photographic Portraits,” 1121.

^11.Duval, “Development of Women's Track,” 25.

^12.Edwards and Hart, Photographs Objects Histories, 11.

^13. Osmond, “Reflecting Materiality,” 342.

^14.Freeman, Photographer's Vision, 102.

^15. The Hasselblad company is a Gothenburg-based enterprise. From 1940 onwards, it produced various cameras, including the famous Hasselblad 500C in 1957.

^16. Personal communication with Agne Ågren, a retired camera shop owner from Gothenburg, a photography enthusiast and an antique photographic equipment collector.

^17.Booth, “Visual Materials”; Osmond, “Reflecting Materiality”; Philipps, O'Neill, and Osmond, “Boardening Horizons”.

^18.Philipps, O'Neill, and Osmond, “Boardening Horizons,” 280.

^19. (our emphasis).

^20.Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 104.

^21.Foucault, Dispositive der Macht.

^22.Foucault and Rabinow, Foucault Reader, 262.

^23.Maasen, Mayerhauser, and Renggli, Bilder als Diskurse, 21.

^24.Maasen, Mayerhauser, and Renggli, Bilder als Diskurse, 15 (our translation).

^25.Cowan and Sicks, Technik, Krieg und Medien, 23.

^26.Weber and Barker-Ruchti, “Bending, Floating, Flirting, Flying”. In their study, the authors showed how the acrobatic performance trend of women's artistic gymnastics influenced visual representations. Although most photographs and written texts continued to represent gymnasts in traditionally feminine ways (e.g. in terms of eroticism and sexual availability), photographs that captured gymnasts in flight (e.g. somersault) provided viewers with new imaginations of what girls and women are capable of. They can be seen to have at least challenged traditional ideals of femininity.

^27.Bührmann, “Die Normalisierung der Geschlechter.”

^28.Pilarczyk and Mietzner, Das reflektierte Bild; Schmalriede, “Zwischen Dokumentation und Inszenierung”. Pilarczyk and Mietzner see iconography to serve the description of and classification of depicted motifs. Iconology, on the other hand, synthesises the iconographic information as sources and evidence for a wider social, political and cultural analysis of the time in which the image was produced.

^29.Schmalriede, “Zwischen Dokumentation und Inszenierung,” 21.

^30.Heinemann, Einführung in die Soziologie des Sports, 85–116.

^31.Tolvhed, “Damolympiaden,” 95.

^32.Hofmann, “Ein hürdenreicher Weg,” 173.

^33. “Överlägsen engelsk seger,” Göteborgs Tidningen, 1 (our translation).

^34. “Överlägsen engelsk seger,” Göteborgs Tidningen, 1 (our translation).

^35. Ibid.

^36. Ibid.

^37. “Nya världs- och Svenska rekordtitle,” Dagens Nyheter, 14. ‘Daggstänkta berg, fallera’ is a section of a traditional Swedish song lyrics for folk dance and can be translated to ‘dewy mountain, fallera’.

^38. “Nya världs- och Svenska rekordtitle,” Dagens Nyheter, 14 (our translation). We realise that the writing style of the 1920s differs from that of today. The translations we made were made in an effort to keep as close to the original text as possible. Unfortunately, Leepin's first name could not be located.

^39. “Nya världs- och Svenska rekordtitle,” Dagens Nyheter, 14 (our translation).

^40. Ibid.

^41. We assume here that the text given in the caption is accurate and that the newspaper journalist changed this information.

^42.Barker-Ruchti, “Media as an Authorising Practice,” 226.

^43. “Två Svenska flaggor i topp,” Göteborgs Tidningen, 1 (our translation).

^44. “Två Svenska flaggor i topp,” Göteborgs Tidningen, 1 (our translation).

^45. Eric Lemming (1880–1930) was a Swedish athlete who competed in a variety of events. He won a total of seven Olympic medals over three Olympic Games including four gold medals. In 1912, he won the javelin title.

^46.Cowan and Sicks, Technik, Krieg und Medien, 15.

^47.Pfister, “Sport - die Befreiung,” 213.

^48. Ibid.

^49.Hargreaves, “Playing Like Gentlemen,” 46.

^50.Pfister, “Sport - die Befreiung,” 221.

^51.Tinkler and Krasnick Warsh, “Feminine Modernity,” 132.

^52.Terret, “From Alice Milliat to Marie-Thérèse Eyquem,” 1161.

^53.Cowan and Sicks, Technik, Krieg und Medien, 20.

^54.Pfister, “Sport - die Befreiung,” 227.

^55. Ibid., 238.

^56. Ibid., 239.

^57. Ibid., 241.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natalie Barker-Ruchti

Natalie Barker-Ruchti is a senior lecturer at the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg. She mainly teaches and researches on issues relating to sport coaching. Her interests, however, include the history of women in sport. Natalie cycles past the ‘Slottskogsvallen’ stadium where the 1926 Women's Games were held on her way to work.

Karin Grahn

Karin Grahn is a senior lecturer at the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg. She mainly teaches on and researches gender issues in sport coaching and youth sport. She is also interested in discourses of gender represented in text books and media; this includes the sample of newspaper articles printed during the 1926 Women's Games.

Claes Annerstedt

Claes Annerstedt is the head of the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg. He mainly teaches and researches on issues relating to physical education and sport coaching, but his interests also include the history of women's sport. For a book he published on the development of women's sports in Sweden (1983), he had the opportunity to interview Ruth Svedberg, one of the Swedish athletes who competed in the 1926 Games.