This study examines how young female athletes understand and give meaning to pictures in the media based on their perceptions of what constitutes a valued body. A qualitative approach using visual methods (collecting photographs) and interviews is used. The participants are upper secondary school student athletes in Norway. The data are analysed with a focus on the discourse of ‘valued bodies’ and their representations. The results reveal that the young women’s constructions of valued bodies are primarily made with reference to health, beauty and dieting. The ‘beautiful body’ representation, portrayed in photographs as a fit but objectified female body, is revealed as the main representation of a valued body. The representation of ‘a body that can perform’ appears as a counter-representation and includes photographs of elite female athletes who possess powerful, sporty femininities that transgress discourses of traditionally feminine, docile bodies.
AaslandEWalsethKEngelsrudG (2017) The changing value of vigorous activity and the paradox of utilising exercise as punishment in physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy22(5): 490–501.
2.
AzzaritoL (2009) The Panopticon of physical education: Pretty, active and ideally white. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy14(1): 19–39.
3.
AzzaritoL (2010) Future girls, transcendent femininities and new pedagogies: Toward girls’ hybrid bodies?Sport, Education and Society15(3): 261–275.
4.
AzzaritoL (2013) Introduction. In: AzzaritoLKirkD (eds) Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods. London: Routledge, pp. 1–11.
5.
AzzaritoLMacdonaldD (2016) Unpacking gender/sexuality/race/ disability/ social class to understand the embodied experiences of young people in contemporary physical culture. In: GreenKSmithA (eds) Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport. London: Routledge, pp. 321-331.
6.
Barker-RuchtiNGrahnKLindgrenC (2016) Shifting, crossing and transforming gender boundaries in physical cultures. Sport in Society19(5): 615–625.
7.
BartkySL (1990) Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York: Routledge.
8.
BrochTB (2016) ‘Jentene våre er for snille’: forvandlingen fra småjenter til håndballjenter. In: SeippelØSisjordMKStrandbuÅ (eds) Ungdom og idrett. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, pp. 173-190.
9.
BruceT (2015) Assessing the sociology of sport: On media and representations of sportswomen. International Review for the Sociology of Sport50(4–5): 380–384.
10.
BruceTHardinM (2014) Reclaiming our voices: Sportswomen and social media. In: BillingsACHardinM (eds) Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media. New York: Routledge, pp. 311–319.
11.
BurrowsL (2010) Push play every day: New Zealand children’s constructions of health and physical activity. In: O’SullivanMMacPhailA (eds) Young People’s Voices in Physical Education and Youth Sport. London: Routledge, pp. 145–162.
12.
CookyC (2011) Do girls rule? Understanding popular culture images of girls power and sport. In: PrettymanSSLampmanB (eds) Learning Culture through Sports: Perspectives on Society and Organized Sports. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 210–226.
FoucaultM (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon Books.
15.
FoucaultM (1975) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
16.
FoucaultM (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books.
17.
FoucaultM (1993) About the beginning of hermeneutics of the self. Transcription of two lectures at Dartmouth on 17 and 24 November 1980, ed. BlasisM.Political Theory21: 198–227.
18.
FrankA (1991) For a sociology of the body: An analytic review. In: FeatherstoneMHepworthMTrunerB (eds) The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. London: SAGE, pp. 36–102.
19.
FrankA (1995) The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness and Ethics. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
20.
FurnhamABadminNSneadeI (2002) Body image dissatisfaction: Gender differences in eating attitudes, self-esteem, and reasons for exercise. The Journal of Psychology136(6): 581–596.
21.
GardM (2016) Everyday distortions: Youth sport and body images. In: GreenKSmithA (eds) Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport. London: Routledge, pp. 441–450.
22.
GeorgeM (2005) Making sense of muscle: The body experiences of collegiate women athletes. Sociological Inquiry75(3): 317–345.
23.
GrahnK (2016) Gendered body ideals in Swedish competitive youth swimming: Negotiating and shifting symbolic boundaries. Sport in Society19(5): 680–694.
24.
GreenK (2016) Youth sport in Norway. In: GreenKSmithA (eds) Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport. London: Routledge, pp. 72–83.
25.
GroganS (2017) Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children. London: Routledge.
26.
HallS (2001) Foucault: Power, knowledge and discourse. In: WetherellMTaylorSYatesSJ (eds) Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader. London: SAGE, pp. 72–81.
HillJAzzaritoL (2012) Representing valued bodies in PE: A visual inquiry with British Asian girls. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy17(3): 263–276.
29.
JetteS (2006) Fit for two? A critical discourse analysis of Oxygen fitness magazine. Sociology of Sport Journal23: 331–351.
30.
KaneMJLaVoiNMFinkJS (2013) Exploring elite female athletes’ interpretations of sport media images: A window into the construction of social identity and ‘Selling Sex’ in women’s sports. Communication & Sport1(3): 269–298.
31.
KatzewAAzzaritoL (2013) From media images to body narratives: Photo elicitation as a method for triggering young people’s ‘body talk’. In: AzzaritoLKirkD (eds) Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods. London: Routledge, pp. 62–75.
32.
KraneV (2001) We can be athletic and feminine, but do we want to? Challenging hegemonic femininity in women’s sport. Quest53(1): 115–133.
33.
KraneVChoiPYLBairdSM, et al. (2004) Living the paradox: Female athletes negotiate femininity and muscularity. Sex Roles50(5): 315–329.
34.
KraneVRossSRMillerM, et al. (2010) Power and focus: Self-representation of female college athletes. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise2: 175–195.
35.
KvalemIL (2007) Ungdom og kroppsbilde. In: KvalemILWichstrømL (eds) Ung i Norge. Psykososiale Utfordringer. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, pp. 33–50.
36.
KvalemILStrandbuÅ (2013) Body talk – group specific talk? A focus group study of variations in body ideals and body talk among Norwegian youth. Young21(4): 327–346.
37.
LarssonH (2004) Idrott och hälsa-vad är det?Svensk Idrottsforskning17(4): 4–8.
38.
LederD (1998) A tale of two bodies: The Cartesian corpse and the lived body. In: WeltonD (ed.) Body and Flesh: A Philosophical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 117–129.
39.
LemkeT (2002) Foucault, governmentality, and critique. Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture & Society14: 49–64.
40.
LundeCFrisénA (2011) Man mår bättre, får mer muskler och ser bätre ut. Svensk Idrottsforskning20: 24–28.
41.
MarkulaP (2001) Firm but shapely, fit but sexy, strong but thin: The postmodern aerobicizing female bodies. In: YiannakisAMelnickMJ (eds) Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, pp. 237–258.
42.
MarkulaPPringleR (2006) Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power, Knowledge and Transforming the Self. London and New York: Routledge.
43.
MessnerMA (1988) Sports and male domination: The female athlete as contested ideological terrain. Sociology of Sport Journal5(3): 197–211.
ÖhmanMQuennerstedtM (2008) Feel good – Be good: Subject content and governing processes in physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy13(4): 365–379.
51.
OliverK (2010) Images of the body from popular culture: Engaging adolescent girls in critical inquiry. Sport, Education and Society6(2): 143–164.
52.
PaechterC (2003) Power, bodies and identity: How different forms of physical education construct varying masculinities and femininities in secondary school. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning3: 47–59.
53.
PattonKParkerM (2013) ‘The stuff that I do’: Children’s views of and meanings assigned to physical activity. In: AzzaritoLKirkD (eds) Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods. London: Routledge, pp. 178–197.
54.
PhoenixC (2010) Seeing the world of physical culture: The potential of visual methods for qualitative research in sport and exercise. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise2(2): 93–108.
55.
ProngerB (2002) Body Fascism Salvation in the Technology of Physical Fitness. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
56.
QuennerstedtM (2013) Learning from YouTube. In: AzzaritoLKirkD (eds) Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods. London: Routledge, pp. 162–177.
57.
RailG (2009) Canadian youth’s discursive constructions of health in the context of obesity discourse. In: WrightJHarwoodV (eds) Biopolitics and the ‘Obesity Epidemic’ Governing Bodies. London: Routledge, pp. 141-156.
58.
RailGLafranceM (2009) Confessions of the flesh and biopedagogies: Discursive constructions of obesity on Nip/Tuck. Journal of Medical Humanities35: 76–79.
59.
RossSRBarakKSKraneV (2013) Out of focus: Sport media, women athletes, and media literacy. In: AzzaritoLKirkD (eds) Pedagogies, Physical Culture, and Visual Methods. London: Routledge, pp. 115–130.
60.
SeippelØSisjordMKStrandbuÅ (2016) Ungdom og idrett. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
61.
SkogvangBO (2014) «Herrefotballnormen» gir ulik status for kvinner og menn som spiller fotball på elitenivå. In: LippeGHognestadH (eds) Kjønnsmakt i idrett og friluftsliv. Oslo: NOVUS forlag, pp. 155–180.
62.
StrandbuÅGulløyEAndersenPL, et al. (2017) Ungdom, idrett og klasse: Fortid, samtid og framtid. Norsk Sosiologisk Tidsskrift1(2): 132–151.
WrightJ (2009) Biopower, biopedagogies and the obesity epidemic. In: WrightJHarwoodV (eds) Biopolitics and the ‘Obesity Epidemic’ Governing Bodies. London: Routledge, pp. 1-14.
65.
WrightJ (2016) Sexuality, gender and youth sport. In: GreenKSmithA (eds) Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport. London: Routledge, pp. 276-286.
66.
WykesMGunterB (2005) The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE.
