Stereotyping by omission and commission: Creating distinctive gendered spectacles in the televised coverage of the 2015 Australian Open men’s and women’s tennis singles semi-finals and finals

Abstract

This paper explores the way in which announcers created spectacle in the Eurosport coverage of the men's and women's tennis singles semifinals and finals at the Australian Open 2015. This was an event where gender representations were under global social media scrutiny after two female players were asked to 'twirl' for the audience. We used a two-phase thematic analysis. Semantic thematic analysis showed that more personal descriptions were directed at women than men and these often described off-court features. Descriptions of men included detailed and specific portrayals of physical characteristics, while women's bodies were seldom referred to specifically. Discourse analysis showed that men's games were spoken of as physical clashes between titans. In contrast, women's matches were described in aesthetic rather than physical terms and 'divalike' personalities and relationships were important features of women's game narratives. While male bodies were described in specific detail where relevant to technical features of the game, women's bodies were only described indirectly and non-specifically. For the women's game, this dialogical repression of specific body talk in combination with a strong focus on aesthetic judgements invoked stereotypes by omission, simultaneously reinscribing gender stereotypes and

Anything Can Happen in Women’s Tennis, or Can It? An Empirical Investigation Into Bias in Sports Journalism

“…However, there is a sharp distinction between the narrative of such uncertainty and unpredictability in men’s and women’s divisions. In the cases of surprising results in men’s sports, journalists, fans, and some researchers generally talk about the “clashes of titans,” “more competitiveness,” and “more close equality in quality”; while in women’s sports, the unpredictability is more often attributed to female emotional instability and used as argument for the lower maturity and therefore the lower status of women’s sport (Domeneghetti, 2018; Kian & Clavio, 2011; Magnus & Klaasen, 2010; Quayle et al, 2019). This can be also illustrated by the results of our analysis that, from a certain perspective, allow for interpreting the lower predictability in men’s tennis not as a sign of the “anything can happen” effect in men but as a sign of their “equality in quality.” However, such different perspectives and treatments pose a problem.…”

“…At the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, Charlotte Cooper became the first ever female Olympic champion (Fuller, 2018), with lawn tennis, later tennis, being one of the few "acceptable" sports for women. Although tennis holds a special position with both the women's and men's games enjoying similar amounts of media coverage, especially as the biggest events share the same venues (Bissell, 2006;Bruce, 2012;Domeneghetti, 2018;Fuller, 2018;Kian et al, 2013;Kian & Clavio, 2011;Kian, Fink, & Hardin, 2011), the balanced quantity of media coverage does not translate into equal quality (Bissell, 2006;Quayle et al, 2019;Vincent et al, 2007;Yip, 2018). Women's tennis remains "the other," while "the standard" of tennis is the men's game (Messner, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993;Vincent, 2004).…”

“…Between these extremes there sprawls a sultan's seraglio of other vixens, all tanned and trained to appeal the most jaded appetites. (p. 443) More than 15 years later, Quayle et al (2019) speaks not only about typical media stereotyping of female tennis players through fixation on physical appearance and dependence on traditionally "feminine" descriptors to evaluate performance. They also acknowledge the increase in media stereotyping by omission, whereby a complete lack of evaluative description of female athletic effort not seen in the male domain perpetuates antiquated notions of gender difference (Quayle et al, 2019).…”

“…(p. 443) More than 15 years later, Quayle et al (2019) speaks not only about typical media stereotyping of female tennis players through fixation on physical appearance and dependence on traditionally "feminine" descriptors to evaluate performance. They also acknowledge the increase in media stereotyping by omission, whereby a complete lack of evaluative description of female athletic effort not seen in the male domain perpetuates antiquated notions of gender difference (Quayle et al, 2019). Omission may also be caused by journalists' self-censorship embedded in the uncertainty of what is and is not acceptable to be said about women players.…”

“…While male tennis players are acknowledged as tough warriors, fighting until the very end, women are “more likely to be framed as failures due to some combination of nervousness, lack of confidence, lack of being ‘comfortable’, lack of aggression, and lack of stamina” (Messner et al, 1993, p. 130). “[M]entality is constructed as a weakness in the women’s matches,” adds Quayle et al (2019, p. 15). These findings resonate with the results of analyses by Bissell (2006), Vincent (2004), and Yip (2018) that also found female players to be represented as more psychologically fragile and less mentally resilient.…”