Misogynoir in women’s sport media: race, nation, and diaspora in the representation of Naomi Osaka

Abstract

Overt and subtle misogynoir (anti-Black misogyny) pervade sport and sport media, as women in the Black diaspora are rarely in control of sporting regulations or their media representations. One recourse racialized athletes have at their disposal, however, is active resistance. This paper provides a textual analysis of the intolerable misogynoir aimed at tennis professional Naomi Osaka, and key moments in her media (mis)representations. Results revealed three main themes: (1) ongoing misogynoir and colorism of sport media and athlete sponsors; (2) racial, national and diaspora media (mis)representations; and (3) resistance to gendered racism through self-representation. After Osaka’s historic win at the 2018 US Open, narratives of her Japanese nationality and Asian identity became the story that rendered her Blackness invisible, and enabled her to be read against her opponent Serena Williams. Some information and communication technologies (ICTs), including social media, presented counter-narratives and a recognition of the mainstream media vilification and erasure of Black women. At times, ICTs disrupted racist dominant narratives, and counter-narratives of Osaka’s Blackness and position as part of the Haitian jaspora (diaspora) prevailed.

How Nissin Represented Naomi Osaka: Race, Gender, and Sport in Japanese Advertising

“…Few have yet to discuss multiracial sportswomen, perhaps due to their relative absence in the media. Scholars writing about Osaka observe through discourse analysis that Western mainstream media frequently portray her as Japanese while overlooking the complexity of her multiracial identity (Hiramoto, 2019; Razack & Joseph, 2021), whereas embedded in her public image are also national and commercial interests (Akita, 2020) and more recently, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activism (Fujita, 2020). These findings are interesting for they raise an important question of whether or not Japanese mainstream media also frame Osaka in similarly simplified terms as Japanese and monoracial.…”

“…First of all, representing Osaka with lighter skin simultaneously erases her multiracial identity and upholds normative feminine jun-nihonjin privilege. On the one hand, the erasure of Osaka’s Haitian Blackness could be read as a form of “misogynoir,” referring to “unique visual violence against Black women seen in popular culture” (Razack & Joseph, 2021, p. 7). Lightening Osaka’s skin in these animated advertisements is akin to enacting violence against her and reinforcing ideologies of colorism.…”

‘Mind Your Business and Leave My Rolls Alone’: A Case Study of Fat Black Women Runners’ Decolonial Resistance

“…Particularly relevant to the case studies presented below, social media has afforded many Black women an opportunity to directly engage with social activism online, rendering visible their experiences through "protesting misogyny, racism, and homophobia when they see it" [52] (p. 111), and "practicing self-care in active synchronous and asynchronous public ways" [53] (p. 367). Razack and Joseph's study focused on Japanese-Haitian-American tennis player Naomi Osaka's media representations and built on the concept of 'misogynoir' [54]. Razack and Joseph show that an athlete's own social media can provide insights regarding their body image and their resistance to dominant representations of race, gender, and the body, specifically using Twitter to offer "a comedic resistance against misogynoir" [54] (p. 12).…”

“…Razack and Joseph's study focused on Japanese-Haitian-American tennis player Naomi Osaka's media representations and built on the concept of 'misogynoir' [54]. Razack and Joseph show that an athlete's own social media can provide insights regarding their body image and their resistance to dominant representations of race, gender, and the body, specifically using Twitter to offer "a comedic resistance against misogynoir" [54] (p. 12). Building on these studies, we examine the intersection of anti-fat, anti-woman, and anti-Black bias, using the (social) media of two women runners who turn their invisibility and misunderstandings of their identities into hypervisibility through imagery and text.…”

A Decolonial Africa(n)-Centered Psychology of Antiracism

“…The categorization of who is male and female imposes life-altering decisions upon marginalized individuals. This is known as misogynoir, the combination of sexism and racism (Bailey, 2016) that targets Black women around the world, from Dianne Abbott in the United Kingdom (Palmer, 2020) to Naomi Osaka in the United States and Japan (Razack & Joseph, 2021). Transmisogynoir, in particular, brings race and class supremacy together with white cis-patriarchy in the murder of thousands of Black transwomen (Krell, 2017; Lugones, 2007).…”