Sonja Edström-Ruthström och Sixten Jernberg. Mediala representationer av den kvinnliga och den manliga idrottskroppen

• Sonja Edström-Ruthström and Sixten Jernberg: Media Representation of the Female and the Male Athlete’s Body. In this article I argue for the relevance of sport for the study of cultural and historical constructions of gender and nation. Using two articles from the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, on cross-country skiers Sixten Jernberg and Sonja Edström-Ruthström, I explore how male and female bodies are represented in different ways. The comparison highlights how the male athlete’s body is represented as a strong, disciplined and working body, while the female athlete’s body is marked as non-muscular, feminine and heterosexually attractive. In this way the potential challenge to gender relations, and thereby social stability, that the female athlete might have presented is negotiated and ultimately neutralised.

Keyword

gender

sport

media

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)