Media Framing of Transgender Athletes: Contradictions and Paradoxes in Coverage of MMA Fighter Fallon Fox

Love, Adam

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00804-8_10

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…For example, following the involuntary disclosure of her trans history, MMA fighter Fallon Fox's right to compete with other women was publicly questioned, including by fellow competitors who made public remarks about presumed advantages she may have due to having been assigned male at birth. Media coverage included depictions that pathologised and marginalised her identity in biologically reductionist ways (Love, 2019).…”

Section: Mobilising 'Science' and 'Neutrality' In Exclusionary Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TERF wars: An introduction

Pearce

Erikainen²,

Vincent

2020

The Sociological Review

190

102

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In the academic year of 2017-18, one of the editors of this volume convened a course on gender and sexuality at a UK university. The course elicited overwhelmingly positive feedback from students. However, following examinations an invigilator expressed concern, communicated via management, with the language some students used in their answers. Specifically, the invigilator took issue with students employing the acronym 'TERF' (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) to criticise a range of ideological positions, because they considered the acronym a misogynist slur. The course convenor's line manager subsequently asked whether the term was used within teaching materials. The convenor had not, in fact, used the TERF acronym at all in any of their teaching, nor explicitly engaged with questions of 'pro' or 'anti' trans 1 positions within feminism. A lecture on trans feminism had focused specifically on understanding transphobia as a manifestation of misogyny, drawing on the work of writers such as Julia Serano (2007), and media analysis of films, including Silence of the Lambs and Ace Ventura. It was the students themselves who applied what they had learned from contemporary popular discourse to their exam scripts. They had chosen to use the acronym to reference a series of increasingly fraught disputes over how feminism should conceptualise and respond to trans identities and experiences, and did so because 'TERF' was part of their everyday vernacular in discussing the politics of gender, sex and inclusion/exclusion in feminism. The invigilator's objection to the acronym, meanwhile, is indicative of wider

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Section: Mobilising 'Science' and 'Neutrality' In Exclusionary Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TERF wars: An introduction

Pearce

Erikainen²,

Vincent

2020

The Sociological Review

190

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In portraying Fallon Fox, for instance, media widely quoted the UFC heavyweight fighter Matt Mitrione's words that described Fallon Fox as "a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak" (Hendricks, 2013, para. 3) to pathologize the MMA fighter. Although media often include "contrasting" opinions to show "objectivity," the opinions pathologizing and marginalizing trans athletes' gender identity are often placed upfront of news stories with implicit priorities, which, again, limits trans athletes' access to sport (Love, 2019).…”

Section: Sports Media Representation Of Transgender Athletesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reflected in academia, media research focusing on trans athletes is highly limited, with most of them examining how trans athletes are represented in mass media. For instance, Love (2019) investigated the media framing strategies in covering a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) trans fighter—Fallon Fox, and he found that the frames of unfair advantages, wrong body discourse, and marginalization were salient in portraying Fallon Fox.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Competing as the First Out Transgender Female Olympian: A Twitter Network Analysis of Laurel Hubbard During the 2020 Tokyo Games

2022

Communication & Sport

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This study examines the Twitter network discussing the inclusion of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans woman Olympian, during the 2020 Tokyo Games. By analyzing the Twitter reactions, top opinion leaders, and the modularity of the network, this study uncovers that (a) the majority of the top 10 most-liked tweets and the top influential social actors hold a negative attitude toward Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the women’s category; (b) compared to traditional news agencies, social media influencers and newly launched digital media agencies play a more important role in facilitating the flow of information in this network; and (c) the observed Twitter network is highly clustered, indicating that individuals tend to interact with people more frequently within their segregated subgroup, whereas information diffusion across clusters is more restricted. This research contributes to the understanding of how Twitter users perceive the inclusion of trans athletes at international sporting events by empirically exploring the Twitter network of Laurel Hubbard, the first out trans female athlete in Olympic history.

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“…However, other studies have revealed a climate of outright transphobia and cissexism in MACS contexts. Love (2019) and McClearen (2015) found many contradictions in the media coverage of the trans woman fighter, Fallon Fox. Both the supporters and opponents of Fox's participation in MMA exaggerated the supposedly "natural" differences between men and women and by doing so, reproduced discourses of exclusion and marginalization of trans bodies (McClearen, 2015).…”

Section: Gender and Sexuality In Martial Arts And Combat Sportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite calls for safe and inclusive environments in MACS, as well as in sport in general (Channon, 2014;Phipps, 2019Phipps, , 2020, we still lack knowledge on how transgender inclusion can actually be achieved. Indeed, there is a considerable lack of scholarly work focusing on transgender issues in MACS, with a few notable exceptions, such as the studies conducted by Fischer and McClearen (2020), Greey and Barker-Ruchti (2019), Love (2019), andMcClearen (2015). The purpose of this article is therefore to enhance understandings of transgender experiences in MACS and to provide recommendations for research, policy and practice.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Just Existing Is Activism”: Transgender Experiences in Martial Arts

Kavoura

Channon

Kokkonen

2022

Sociology of Sport Journal

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This study focuses on transgender experiences in martial arts. Interviews with three Finnish and two British transgender martial artists were thematically analyzed, and findings were interpreted through the lens of queer theory. Two themes were identified related to the ways that transgender martial artists experience their sporting contexts, namely martial arts as an empowering and inclusive context and the challenges related to being transgender in martial arts. Two themes were also identified when it comes to participants’ strategies for coping with cis-/heteronormativity in martial arts. Whenever possible, participants employed social change strategies, whereas other times, they drew on self-care strategies. Following this, we suggest a need for context-specific, protective policies; nonbinary means of organizing sport; and gender diversity education for instructors to better cater for the specific needs of transgender people in sport.

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Media Framing of Transgender Athletes: Contradictions and Paradoxes in Coverage of MMA Fighter Fallon Fox

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

TERF wars: An introduction

TERF wars: An introduction

Competing as the First Out Transgender Female Olympian: A Twitter Network Analysis of Laurel Hubbard During the 2020 Tokyo Games

“Just Existing Is Activism”: Transgender Experiences in Martial Arts

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