“The Question I Would Never Have Asked Federer Or Nadal”: The Sexualisation Of Sportswomen In British Contemporary Print Media

The sexualisation of sportswomen was well documented by sport sociologists and feminist media scholars alike in the 1980s and 1990s (Creedon 1994; Lenskyj 1998). However, in the 2000s research claimed that a shift was taking place in sports media. Amidst cries of increasing gender equality in sports coverage, this paper explores whether claims of significant inequality in the form of the sexualisation of sportswomen continues to exist at the end of the first decade of the new millennia. Using five British Sunday newspapers over 24 months (Jan 2008-Dec 2009) this paper attempts to construct a comprehensive categorisation of how sportswomen are sexualised by British contemporary print media. The sexualisation of sportswomen is classified into five categories which consider: 1) sexualised bodies in text and images, 2) a specific and singular type of sexuality, 3) stripping and nudity, 4) sexed bodies and sexual partners, and 5) flirting as sexiness.