“So Tight in the Thighs, So Loose in the Waist”

Abstract

While a wide range of research documents how media continue to devalue female athletes, negatively affecting female body image and perceptions of female athletic ability, new media technologies are allowing athletes to potentially challenge these representations. This essay focuses on @SoccerGrlProbs, the Twitter handle of an anonymous group of soccer players, and their interaction with over 180,000 followers. Examining how @SoccerGrlProbs constructs female athletic identity, it considers how this identity is taken up by girls and young women in their own self-constructions as athletes. It argues that @SoccerGrlProbs enables young female athletes to negotiate the conflicting demands of emphasized femininity and athleticism by inspiring self-constructions that allow them to claim athletic “somebodiness” while simultaneously subverting sports discourses emphasizing self-mastery and female athletes' (hetero)sexual attractiveness.

Keywords::

• sports
• social media
• gender
• carnivalesque
• bodies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. See, for example, the widespread outrage after college soccer player Elizabeth Lambert pulled an opponent's hair during a match (Andy Clayton 2010).

^2. This participatory model contrasts to the “spectator” orientation found in male-dominated sports blogs (Antunovic and Hardin 2013a, 1388). While @SoccerGrlProbs and followers express enthusiasm for the fun and enjoyment of playing on a sports team, they rarely mention issues in the larger sports world or specific competitions. Despite posting congratulations to Abby Wambach for achieving the all-time international scoring record, they and their followers do not analyze events in any serious or sustained way. Commentary is limited to brief notices about upcoming games, shout outs to winning teams, general admiration for various USWNT players, and lustful remarks about male players like David Beckham.

^3. While a handful of followers post photos of themselves dressed as refs for Halloween, their tweets are about the humor of cross-dressing versus parodying male behavior.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dawn Heinecken

Dawn Heinecken is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville. Her publications focus on gender representations and bodies in popular culture. E-mail: [email protected]