Elite Women Athletes and Feminist Narrative in Sport

ABSTRACT

A number of sport philosophers have noted the potential of sport as meaningful narrative and storytelling. While these arguments are convincing, they fail to acknowledge that not all athletes experience sport in the same way, and that, in fact, many are marginalized based on their identity. This essay focuses on the marginalization of women athletes, in particular elite women athletes, in the narrative of sport. The most common athletic narratives serve to exclude women and remind female athletes of their secondary status. First, I establish the role of narrative and storytelling in sport. Secondly, I argue that gendered narratives pose a problem for women athletes—including both narratives intended to empower female athletes and narratives intended to compare male and female athletes. Finally, I conclude that because of this, feminist narratives in sport are necessary in order to better advance sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminism
• professional sport
• meaningful narrative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Fox News is a politically conservative American news media outlet and Watters is a commentator for the network. Watters’s reactions were prompted by Rapinoe’s statement that she would not visit the White House and US President Donald Trump provided that the team won the World Cup (and received an invitation to attend). Rapinoe’s statements were publicly supported by several of her teammates.

2. Around the same time (and not in response to this survey) Serena Williams actually participated in an online video where male challengers (as part of a fun segment) attempted to return Williams’s serve—unsuccessfully. Even in a five-on-one scenario, they could not score a point. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzA8_7X9uLQ.

3. To be sure, some famous male athletes have questioned women’s abilities in comparison to men’s capabilities. For example, John McEnroe clumsily claimed that, while he thought that Serena Williams was a great player, she would never make it through the men’s circuit (ABAD-SANTOS 2017).