‘You Had to Cover Nadia Comaneci’: ‘Points of Change’ in Coverage of Women’s Sport

Abstract

In the 1970s, women’s sport underwent significant change in the United States resulting in an increase of participation opportunities and funding at the interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional and international levels. Yet, media outlets continued to ignore women and, at best, portray them in gender stereotypical ways. Considering the lack of progress for women in sports media coverage, this study employs sport historian Jaime Schultz’s ‘points of change’ framework in order to identify those moments that constituted an ideological shift in the process of covering women’s sport. Drawing upon oral history interviews with journalists who wrote about women’s sport in the 1970s and 1980s, this research provides a deeper look into how journalists experienced and addressed the shifting gender ideologies of the time period. Journalists’ memories, accompanied by their articles, reveal how media practitioners negotiated meanings about femininity and athleticism in response to events that challenged deeply embedded assumptions about gender and its intersections with ethnicity, race and sexuality. This exploratory research, thus, identifies several ‘points of change’ – or points of struggle, conflict and resistance – and calls for a re-periodization of the history of women’s sports coverage.     

‘Tri-ang Strong Toys’: Lines Brothers and British Motor Sport in the Inter-War Period

This article explores the confluence of British motor sport, toy car manufacture and leisure during the period from 1919 to 1939. Mass-production toy-making had been bound up with the manufacture of sporting and fancy goods from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. Motorised transport benefitted from many of the same practices and light engineering techniques honed in cycle manufacture. The fashionable Brooklands circuit was established before the First World War as a proving ground for aeronautical and motorised transport. However, as motor racing resumed during peacetime, especially at Brooklands, a certain upper-class glamour attached to car ownership, whether for racing, leisure or pleasure. The most significant producer of a range of toy vehicles, Lines Brothers, began as family woodworking firm in the 1870s and could legitimately claim to be the largest toy multinational in the world by 1950. Its ‘Tri-ang’ brand of ‘strong toys’ were engineered using similar principles to the mass-produced automotive industry. By the 1930s the toy pedal car would become the ultimate child's accessory, with models of racing marques and other leisure vehicles available at a range of price points. The vehicles allowed children to sit inside and pedal their way around, allowing a degree of freedom and exploration. Manufacturers therefore referenced the sport and leisure practices of adults in creating aspirational pedal cars for child consumers. This raises the question of the extent to which these objects socialised children into ‘adult’ worlds, not just of sport and leisure but also urban and suburban consumer culture and how this, in turn, affected notions of play.     

Securing the Sports ‘Miracle’: The Stasi and East German Elite Sport

Given the political and social importance of East Germany's elite sports system, the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) constructed a comprehensive and invasive system of surveillance to protect the clandestine state doping programme, to prevent flight to the West by sportspeople, to ensure the smooth running of sports events, and in general to help maintain the country's status as a sporting superpower. While the Stasi enjoyed much success in its mission, thanks in no small part to the deployment of several thousand informers, its authority and capabilities were constrained by the magnitude of its many other security operations, the autonomous actions of sports fans and performers, the defection of high-profile individuals, and internecine rivalries between major sport-political and bureaucratic organisations such as the DTSB and the Dynamo Sports Associations. The collapse of the East German communist system and the declassification of state and Party materials opened up both the top-performance sports system and the Stasi to critical enquiry, triggered bitter disputes over the appropriateness of the judicial, moral and political reckoning with East Germany's sporting legacy, and highlighted the convergent paths of elite sport across the Iron Curtain.     

The ‘British World’, other worlds,and the five rings: possibilities for trans-imperial histories and historical ‘what ifs’

In the early 1890s an ardent British imperialist proposed a ‘Pan-Britannic Olympics’ that included not only the British Empire but the USA in a plan to use sport to unite the English-speaking peoples of the globe into a world-ruling coalition. While that proposal was eventually bested by the Baron Pierre de Coubertin's movement that created an even more inclusive modern Olympics, the sentiments of the ‘Pan-Britannic’ scheme became in embroiled in debates over the national and imperial uses of international sport. Pondering the role of Coubertin's Olympics in forging a variety of imperial and national identities within the British Empire while also employing speculative alternative histories reveals the complex transnational and trans-imperial dimensions of the Olympics in modern global history.     

‘Vivid and Realistic’: Edwardian Sport on Film

This article is an evaluation of the Edwardian sporting films in the recently restored Mitchell & Kenyon Collection held by the National Film and Television Archive in London. The collection reveals snapshots of the everyday life of the working class at work, play and going about their daily business, watching football, both association and rugby, participating in civic and religious events and enjoying a range of leisure activities. This article is an attempt to place these films within the sporting and social context of the age in which they were taken. It explores how different sporting activities became a major factor in developing an audience for the institution of cinema.     

The Decline of the ‘Elite’ Sport Officials and the Dissolution of the Israeli Sport Association

This historical study will examine the rise of a hegemonic group of sports officials in Israel during the period between 1948 and 1996. The formation of this group is a unique phenomenon of the Israeli sport society. The main argument of the study is that officials of rival sport centres, ‘Hapoel’ and ‘Maccabi’, founded a joint elite group as a side effect of the ‘fifty-fifty’ agreement, signed in 1951. The agreement stated that the Israeli Sport Association, the National Olympic Committee and the Israeli Football Association would be mutually led by officials of both organizations. The members of this elite group, who enjoyed access to economic resources and other benefits, adopted a hedonistic lifestyle, in contrast to the social ethos of Israeli society in the first and second decades of the State. Three events dismantled the group in the middle of the 1990s. The first one was the establishment of the Elite Sport Department in 1984. The second was the establishment of independent Federations by Yadin Machnes. The third was the Maliniak Commission Report. These three events led to the collapse of the Israeli Sport Association in 1996 and to the fall of the Israeli hegemonic group.     

The 2012 Olympic Badminton Scandal: Match-Fixing,Code of Conduct Documents,and Women’s Sport

Abstract

At the 2012 Olympic Games, eight badminton players were disqualified from the women’s doubles tournament for intentionally losing matches in the group stage. The incident marks the largest mass disqualification of athletes from multiple countries for match-fixing at the Olympic Games in the twenty-first century. Significantly, it is also the first time that female athletes have been disqualified from a Summer Olympic Games for match-fixing not related to betting or gambling. This essay weaves together two interdependent arguments. First, it is suggested that the incident can be understood through the lens of three separate but interconnected issues: the history of match-fixing, the growth of code of conduct documents in sports, and the regulation of women’s bodies in sports. Second, it is argued that the athletes’ gender is a critical element of the incident. The primary aims of the article are to position the 2012 badminton scandal as a key moment in the history of match-fixing and to suggest that the incident is important for future research and policy creation.     

‘Physical Education’s First Lady of the World’: Dorothy Sears Ainsworth and the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Women and Girls

Abstract

Dorothy Sears Ainsworth has received wide acclaim for her pioneering efforts in international relations that enhanced collaboration among female physical educators in the decades following World War II. As Director of Physical Education for Women at Smith College (1926–1960), Ainsworth became a global figure, traveling extensively and organizing the first international conference on physical education for women and girls in Copenhagen in 1949. This resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW), today counting over 400 members from 45 different countries. In this paper we (re)consider the largely hagiographical accounts of Ainsworth’s career and re-examine her contributions to the international stage in light of her maternalist views on female sport and physicality. Indeed, women’s difference from men dominated the discourse of many international women’s movements at this time. We consider what IAPESGW’s long-term governance by primarily white and wealthy women may have meant in terms of the organization’s focus and globalizing efforts and conclude that though Ainsworth’s essentialist approach ignored earlier feminist sporting movements, and would not outlast the more progressive winds of change in the 1970s, neither should her early contributions to establishing bonds among female physical educators globally be minimized.     

Performance Enhancement and Politicisation of High-Performance Sport: The West German ‘air clyster’ Affair of 1976

While the politicisation of high-performance sport is perceived to represent one of the driving forces behind doping, we know not much how exactly the cold war in sports has affected sporting misconduct in western societies. Therefore, we propose here to distinguish between ideological and institutional politicisation and explicit and implicit acceptance of dubious practices. We apply our framework to analyse the West German ‘air clyster’ affair of 1976 in order to examine to what extent the politicisation of high-performance sport during the cold war affected the search for innovation in performance enhancement. We find that political pressure for improved competitiveness in West German sport had served to create a semi-autonomous high-performance sport sector in West Germany where blurred lines of accountability allowed questionable practices to prosper. While the public despised the use of questionable methods, sportive nationalism served to eclipse dubious practices. West German sport leaders adopted insofar a permissive attitude towards questionable practices as sporting misconduct was not sanctioned. Thus, our results strongly suggest that sport's politicisation during the cold war facilitated the search for performance-increasing methods in western societies.     

Women’s Sport as a Symbol of Modernity: A Case Study in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has a distinctive position with regard to its geography and history among Muslim countries. Particular features are its secular system and far reaching modernization processes particularly with respect to the ‘emancipation’ of women. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze sport and body politics as part of the modernization processes in Turkey and to explore in particular the multiple roles of different groups of women in the reforms initiated by the Turkish Governments. A focus will be on the intersecting influences of gender and social class. The famous archaeologist Halet Çambel will be used as an example of the ‘modern’ woman who embodied reformist ideologies. Çambel was the daughter of an elite family; she was born in Berlin where her father was an attaché at the Turkey embassy. She studied in France and participated in the Olympic Games in 1936. She and another Turkish fencer were the first women from a Muslim country to participate in the Olympic Games. Later she became the most famous archaeologist in Turkey and she stayed physically active all her life. In particular, horse riding became a favourite activity as she travelled to archaeological sites on horseback.     

The Rise of ‘The World's Largest Sport and Athletic Outfitter’: A Study of Gamage's of Holborn, 1878–1913

This essay explores the evolution of modern sporting goods retailing through the development of Gamage's (A.W. Gamage Holborn Ltd.) before the First World War. The essay examines how Gamage's exploited new models of fashionable consumerism to create a unique retail environment that directly targeted young male consumers enjoying modern forms of sporting and recreational activities. By the end of the nineteenth century, the so-called ‘People's Popular Emporium’ purported to be the ‘world's largest sport and athletic outfitter’. The essay considers Gamage's rise to prominence in a crucial period in the development of commodity culture. It examines the changing cultural form of shops and shopping in relation to the desires of a burgeoning mass market that sought to express and visibly display its economic, sporting, and social status.     

‘Not Merely an Isolated Game’: Women’s Association Football in Australia

ABSTRACT

Australia has participated in the world-wide growth of women’s football particularly since the 1970s, but long before that the game was played recreationally and competitively by women in Australia. Women have struggled to overcome active opposition to their taking part in the sport and neglect of their achievements which are considerable. This article provides an outline of the history of the game both nationally and in its international context. It also tries to capture the experience of some of the pioneers of the women’s game and its modern practitioners, revealing some of the ways in which overt and covert discrimination still hinders recognition of their achievements.     

‘What about the community impact?’: The Corpus Christi ‘hook’

This case study draws on theory in the following areas (1) public financing of sport facilities and in particular, the method of bonds and the impact on and involvement of local taxpayers, (2) community impact of minor league sport teams, and (3) leveraging of sport teams and facilities. This case is centered on Justin Drew, the president of the Corpus Christi Hooks, who must work with city officials to ensure that his minor league baseball team does not lose local support. The city of Corpus Christi helped finance the Hooks’ stadium a few years prior, and now with new members on City Council, tough economic times, and a history of folded professional sports teams in the city, Drew must be proactive in seeing that the Hooks do not meet a similar fate.The case presents a common challenge confronted by communities that host professional sport teams. In many cases, cities must provide some level of public financing for sport facilities in order to attract or retain a team. To gain public support, various promises are made about the potential for the team to transform the community. However, once public funding is secured and a team and facility is in place, it is unclear who has the responsibility for delivering on these promises. The situation presented in this case is not unique. In fact, similar claims are made about the impact of a sports team, regardless of the size of the host community or the type of team. This case gives students the opportunity to measure impact and also think critically about how to leverage a sports team to create value for the community. Although the characters in the case are fictitious the case draws upon actual facts and data from public records regarding Corpus Christi and their minor league baseball team, the Hooks; thus, providing students with a realistic dilemma to consider. The case is intended for use in Sport Finance/Economics and Sport Policy courses, but could also be adapted for other courses such as Sport Marketing, Sport Communication, Facilities and Event Management or even Research Methods.     

Art Works as Sources for Sport History Research: The Example of ‘Sports Allegory/The Crowning of the Athletes’ by Charles Louis Frédy de Coubertin

Abstract

Sport historians rarely use works of art as sources for their research. The main challenge they face is the difficulty to draw information and insights from the paintings that lie beyond what is apparent at first glance. This paper introduces the art historical methodology of iconological analysis that is of benefit to sport historians. This three-step approach is a tool for interpreting art works and contextualizing them with relevant biographical and societal information that influenced the artist’s life and work. The art work analyzed in this paper is the painting ‘Sports Allegory/The Crowning of the Athletes’ by Pierre de Coubertin’s father, the artist Charles Louis Frédy de Coubertin (1822–1908). This painting was chosen because of its relevance and importance to Olympic history. Up to now this piece has not been critically analyzed in sport history, and hence hardly any documentation on it can be found.