Abstract
Over the last four decades, feminist sports media research has developed into an established transdisciplinary branch of research that contributes to highlighting the contradictions and unevenness of social change at the level of women's sports and its positioning in society. In this context, the increasing media visibility of athlete mothers as an expression of an emerging social phenomenon provides an opportunity to examine and reflect on the patterns of media portrayal of sportswomen. This article focuses on the media representations of Gloria Kotnik, the Slovenian snowboarder and bronze medalist at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Through textual analysis, it attempts to identify how Kotnik was portrayed in selected Slovenian media and what role her motherhood, in particular, played in this. While ambivalence was identified as a predominant pattern in the media representations of Kotnik, the role of motherhood was presented both as something seemingly incompatible with the role of an elite athlete and in a way that perceived these two roles as compatible. Due to the reproduction of traditional gender ideologies and hierarchies, the article problematizes both patterns and concludes by linking the desire for social change with the need to redefine the ethics of care.
Introduction
February 8 is a work-free day in Slovenia. Named after the famous Slovenian poet Prešeren, it is a central cultural and national holiday. In 2022, according to some Slovenian media, February 8 has become something more: “not only a Slovenian cultural holiday, but also a Slovenian sports holiday” (JB, 2022). On this day, the mixed team of Slovenian ski jumpers was awarded the Olympic gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and two Slovenian snowboarders, Gloria Kotnik and Tim Mastnak, also won Olympic medals. For a country with a population of just over 2 million, where sport has historically been an important means of (re)affirming national identity internally and asserting the country on the international stage (Doupona Topič and Coakley, 2010), these successes were significant.
Kotnik, an otherwise experienced snowboarder competing in her fourth Olympic Games, won her first medal at a major international competition, finishing third. As someone who returned to elite sport after health problems and the birth of a child and went relatively unnoticed by the media before winning the Olympic medal, she subsequently, as one Slovenian journalist described it, set the media circles on fire /…/ In order to realize her Olympic dream, the young mommy left her son Maj at home after a very difficult and then very beautiful time in her life, succeeded and became a Slovenian media sensation. (Miljković, 2022b)
This article begins with a brief reflection on the social positioning of women's sports in general and the role of the media in reproducing, negotiating, and challenging dominant ideologies and messages about it. We will then attempt to answer the questions of how Kotnik was portrayed in selected Slovenian media, what role motherhood in particular played in this, and what meanings were conveyed to the public through these representations. In analyzing the media representations of Kotnik, we will reflect on the existing gender hierarchies and the diversity of gender representations in this sociocultural context and try to outline a way that could fill the media representations of athlete mothers with more emancipatory potential.
Sport, women, and media representations of sportswomen
Women's sport, thought Baron de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, contradicts the “laws of nature,” it is “the most unaesthetic sight human eyes could contemplate”—while women can participate in the Olympic Games as spectators of their husbands and sons, this competition must otherwise be “reserved for men” and serve as a polygon for the display of male athleticism (de Coubertin in Hargreaves, 1994: 209). In this conviction, which can also be understood as an illustration of the historical anchoring of the link between sport, physicality, and the hegemonic form of masculinity, de Coubertin remained unshakeable until his death in 1937 (Hargreaves, 1994: 209). Although in contemporary Western societies, it is relatively safe to assume that such ideas would be rejected by the majority, from the beginning of the development of modern sport in the 18th century and throughout the 19th century, they were an expression not only of the predominant public sentiment of the time, but also of the prevailing science, which used the discourses of biological determinism and social Darwinism to legitimize otherwise patriarchal social relations (Hargreaves, 1994). Modern sport was perceived and manifested as a masculine activity. It was developed as a “male domain” aimed at reinforcing the superiority of the male body over the female, culturally affirming naturalized gender differences and consolidating the central role of men in public life (Messner, 2017).
Almost a century later, and largely thanks to the women's movements and emancipation efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, progress and shifts from such cultural definitions of femininity and significant social changes for women in sports are undeniable—with the obligatory addition. The marginalization of women's participation in sport and their achievements, various paradoxes, and contradictions are a reality and a context that women athletes still have to navigate. Namely, unlike other social institutions in contemporary Western societies, sport is not only sex-segregated at the level of its organizational structure, but remains simultaneously “male-dominated,” “male-controlled,” and “male-identified” (Cooky, 2018). Although there are differences between different sports and socio-geographical contexts, at a professional level, for example, salaries, awards, and sponsorships for women are often still significantly lower than for men. Gender stereotypes and conservative ideologies still influence women's participation in sports, which is also internally divided between different groups of women (Jeanes et al., 2016). Furthermore, women are rarely found in influential decision-making, leadership, and management positions in various sports organizations, franchises, governing bodies, and sports media (Bernstein, 2021). In other words: “Even when women successfully challenge male definitions and male control of sport, the result is that women's sport is very often either ignored or trivialized” (Cooky, 2023: 910).
In this context, sports media represent an area where the “uneven social change” (Cooky et al., 2015) outlined above is quite clear and evident. Having attracted the attention of feminist scholars, feminist sports media studies have developed over the last four decades into a well-established transdisciplinary branch of research combining the fields of feminist media studies, sports communication, and the sociology of sport (Antunovic, 2023). This scholarship has been at the forefront of identifying and understanding gender relations and gendered power relations, examining sports media representations, norms, and culture of the sports media industry, and aspects of sports consumption through a feminist lens (Antunovic, 2023; Antunovic and Whiteside, 2018). At the level of representational practices, contributions mostly focus on the quantity and quality of media coverage of women's sports (e.g. Cooky et al., 2021). In general, this research highlights both the persistence of some long-standing patterns of underrepresentation and other mechanisms of trivializing the importance and value of sportswomen's achievements, with such “narratives of failure” or inequality being complemented by their coexistence with “narratives of progress” that have recently emerged in some media and some geographical settings (Bruce, 2016; Cooky and Antunovic, 2022; Pope et al., 2023).
To capture the range of past, current, and emerging patterns in media portrayals of women's sports, Bruce (2016) synthesized existing research findings into 15 dominant “rules.” Within research focusing on the differences in coverage of men and women, she has identified “five older rules” ((1) lower broadcast production values, (2) gender marking, (3) infantilization, (4) non-sport-related aspects, and (5) comparisons to men's sport) and “four persistent rules” ((6) sportswomen don't matter, (7) compulsory heterosexuality and appropriate femininity, (8) sexualization, and (9) ambivalence) (Bruce, 2016: 365–367). Furthermore, Bruce (2016: 367–368) refers to “four current rules” ((10) athletes in action, (11) serious athletes, (12) model citizens, and (13) us and them) that emphasize the perceived similarities between the coverage of sportswomen and sportsmen. Searching for research opportunities that could cover the previously unexplored experiences of sportswomen, Bruce was then led to the insights of third-wave feminism, which at the level of women's sport “examines the simultaneously empowering and problematic elements of sport practice and popular cultural representations” (Bruce, 2016: 368). From this, she derived two new rules of media representations that focus on the previously neglected agency of women athletes ((14) our voices and (15) pretty and powerful) (Bruce, 2016: 369–370).
Thus, although there have been relatively few major changes at the level of media representation of women's sports despite notable societal changes and progress, given the changing media landscape and even the visibility of some feminisms in some geographical areas (Cooky and Antunovic, 2022), it is important not to overlook the shifts that have nevertheless taken place. Indeed, in recent years, studies focusing on the marginalization, trivialization, and symbolic annihilation of women athletes have been supplemented by studies focusing on the positive shifts in the media representation of sportswomen, as well as by the so-called bottom-up approaches. With the identification of “new sporting femininities” (Toffoletti et al., 2018) and the desire for a more complex understanding of the various (self-)representations of sportswomen, feminist sports media scholars began to incorporate the insights of various contemporary forms of feminism (Banet-Weiser et al., 2020) into their work. Although the studies in this context suggest that women athletes’ acceptance of the “heterosexy image” could be understood as a potential form of personal empowerment, they also caution against ignoring the context and sociocultural conditions by which sportswomen are informed and which operate in complex and subtle ways (Antunovic and Whiteside, 2018; Thorpe et al., 2017; Toffoletti, 2016; Toffoletti and Thorpe, 2018). The self-defined empowerment of sportswomen may indeed lead to new forms of media sexism, but with a twist that simplistically presents new forms of femininity as their choice without considering the broader structural conditions.
Media representations of sportswomen in the Slovenian context
The intersection of sport and media in the Slovenian context is relatively sporadically and under-researched (Poteko, 2024). Before we look at previous studies on the portrayal of sportswomen in the Slovenian media, it therefore seems useful to briefly outline the context and media system of the country. Roughly speaking, the Slovenian media system consists of the public media sector, in which there are two public service providers (RTV Slovenia and the Slovenian Press Agency), and the private media sector, which consists of various differently organized and financed print, television, radio, and online media. Similar to other countries in Central Eastern Europe in the post-socialist period, the functioning of the Slovenian media system since the country's independence after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991 has been characterized by the lack of a media policy based on analyses, public debates, and strategic orientations: The imitation of media practices of Western European countries in the transition period /…/ has led to a turn toward market liberalization, privatization and commercialization and thus to a dubious process of democratization of the media in Slovenia. (Pajnik and Petković, 2017: 615)
Regarding the focus on gender and media representations of sportswomen, early studies have found differences between women's and men's sports in terms of the quantity and quality of coverage (Bon and Doupona Topič, 2004; Lavrinc and Doupona Topič, 2006). A more recent study analyzing the Slovenian press confirms the marginalization of women's sports, but also notes a change in the quality of coverage, with fewer articles trivializing the achievements of sportswomen (Ličen and Bejek, 2019). Two studies focusing on the context of the Olympics found gender differences in Slovenian broadcast commentary (in terms of quantity and quality) (Ličen and Billings, 2013), and more recently a gender imbalance was identified in relation to nationalism and media content posted on the public media Facebook profile (Antunovic and Bartoluci, 2023)—women were only given space on this platform if they represented their home country.
The study by Antunovic and Bartoluci (2023) is particularly interesting on a comparative level, especially considering that the increase in coverage of women's sport was not as pronounced here as in some other countries, as well as considering the identification of gender inequality in the context of the Olympics, which otherwise have the potential to temporarily limit gendered discourses due to national interest. Indeed, scholarship consistently shows that major international sporting events can temporarily disrupt the continuity of otherwise gendered discourses and sexism. In certain geographic settings, sportswomen may receive more media attention during such events (Bruce, 2016; Cooky et al., 2021; Markula, 2009), and their successes are framed primarily through the perspective and meaning of national identity (Bruce, 2009). However, studies are cautious about simultaneously claiming gender equality (Antunovic and Bartoluci, 2023; Bruce, 2009) and criticize unrecognized “spillover effects” of such events and greater attention to women's sports in routine coverage (Cooky et al., 2021; Pope et al., 2023).
Media representations of motherhood and sport
The various contradictions highlighted in the previous sections seem to become even more apparent in the media's portrayal of sportswomen who are also mothers. The context of sports media has already been highlighted as one in which patterns of “compulsive heterosexuality and appropriate femininity,” “sexualization,” and “ambivalence” have been identified (Bruce, 2016), manifested in various ways through the media's greater preference for portraying women in relationships with men (i.e. girlfriends, wives, and mothers) or by emphasizing traditional, supposedly feminine and emotional attributes associated with conventional forms of femininity—of which the role of motherhood seems to be the ultimate evidence (Markula, 2009; Pope et al., 2023; Velloso, 2023). Some of the studies mentioned above (e.g. Cooky et al., 2015, 2021) suggest that with the gradual retreat of the portrayal of sportswomen as sexualized objects, such representations are now being replaced by a tendency to portray them as mothers. Through respectful commentary, the embedding of sportswomen in a familial context may represent a certain qualitative progress in relation to offensive sexualized narratives of earlier times. However, such representations also have the effect of symbolically reproducing traditional ideologies, subtly conveying gender asymmetries, and marginalizing lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer athletes (Cooky et al., 2021).
In order to understand the media representations of athlete mothers, it is worthwhile highlighting some aspects of the broader social context as well as the specifics of the sporting environment in which sportswomen navigate and which also informs media coverage of them. Several studies point to the constraints faced by (sports)women, which are particularly related to two dominant, narrowly defined, and complementary discourses on motherhood, namely the “discourse of essential motherhood” and the “discourse of the good mother” (McGannon et al., 2015; Waldron and Mullin, 2023). The first discourse assumes monomaternalism and grounds the role of motherhood on the biological bond between mother and child. The second discourse is characterized by what has been termed the “ethics of care” and functions as reproducing stereotypical gendered expectations and division of family labor that impose on women the sacrifice of their own needs and the primary satisfaction of the needs of other family members, positioning their role as primary caregiver as “natural” and them as best suited to caring for children and performing domestic tasks (Bernstein, 2021; McGannon et al., 2015; Waldron and Mullin, 2023).
Such an interweaving of sociocultural narratives about motherhood at the intersection with sports ethics, the specific demands, and the relatively unique structure of the sports environment confronts sportswomen with additional obstacles that are co-productive to their experiences and decisions regarding pregnancy and motherhood. It is no coincidence that the combination of these two identity roles, which requires a variety of biological, psychological, material, social, and ethical adjustments, has historically been perceived as incompatible and associated with career-ending (McGannon et al., 2012, 2023; Tekavc et al., 2020). Given the need for all these adjustments, it is also less surprising that the increasing media visibility of athlete mothers is an expression of a relatively new, emerging social phenomenon (Villalon and Weiller-Abels, 2018; Pullen et al., 2023). However, although the two identity roles are no longer necessarily perceived as mutually exclusive (Cosh and Crabb, 2012; McGannon et al., 2012, 2017, 2023; Pullen et al., 2023) and although some sportswomen report that motherhood can have a positive impact on their experiences in the sporting environment (Bernstein, 2021; Tekavc et al., 2020; McGannon et al., 2015; Waldron and Mullin, 2023), athlete mothers still encounter various challenges and obstacles. Due to the ideals of motherhood, some experience feelings of guilt and anxiety when meeting the demands of sport (Bernstein, 2021; McGannon et al., 2022, 2023; Pullen et al., 2023). It can be difficult for sportswomen to find childcare (McGregor et al., 2023), while at the same time, sports governing bodies often do not provide pregnant athletes with pre- and postpartum training guidelines and adequate support (Tekavc et al., 2020; Pullen et al., 2023). Sportswomen can also lose funding and sponsorships and face financial insecurity when they stay away from athletic fields and competitions (Pullen et al., 2023; Scott et al., 2022).
Previous studies that have specifically examined the intersection of elite sport, motherhood, and media representations of athlete mothers have identified different frames, discourses, and narratives in the media that place athlete mothers in different subjective positions. Roughly speaking, representations of athlete mothers can be categorized either in the “either/or” frame, that is, the frame in which representations articulate the identities of athletes and mothers as mutually exclusive, in conflict, or in the “both” frame, that is, the frame in which representations articulate these identities as compatible. In the first case, athlete mothers were described by articulations in which their athletic career was subordinated to motherhood, the need to embrace their “natural” role and follow the ethics of care, leading to potential conflicts related to the demands of an athletic career (Cosh and Crabb, 2012; Dashper, 2018; McGannon et al., 2012, 2015, 2023). Such portrayals of athlete mothers have the effect of reproducing traditional gender roles and ideologies (Cosh and Crabb, 2012; McGannon et al., 2017). In the second case, the combination of both roles was presented in the media as a compatible, balanced whole, that is all the more appreciated when sportswomen shine on the sports field. Athlete mothers have been portrayed here as “superwomen” or “supermoms,” as women who manage to do both (Dashper, 2018; McGannon et al., 2012, 2015, 2017; Velloso, 2023). Such representations may be beneficial because they negate the perception that sportswomen must choose between a professional career and a family life. Moreover, the role of motherhood may enrich them with an additional perspective from which to evaluate their athletic endeavors, relieve them of the performance pressure, or even encourage them to engage in activism (Bernstein, 2021; Kulkarni et al., 2023; McGannon et al., 2012, 2023; Velloso, 2023). However, studies remain cautious in asserting the emancipatory potential of these patterns, not only because they typically exclude alternative forms of femininity (and motherhood) and the experiences of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer athletes (Antunovic, 2019; Waldron and Mullin, 2023). Indeed, they can serve to reproduce both traditional gender roles and hierarchies 1 and their more modern rearticulations. Of particular note here is the so-called “woman who can have it all” narrative, which places athlete mothers in the context of neoliberal feminism's problematic ultimate ideal, that is, the happy workfamily balance (Rottenberg, 2018), individualizing social and structural obstacles and generally obscuring the fact that such ideals are difficult and virtually unattainable without adequate social and structural support.
To date, the Slovenian media landscape has not been the subject of research that has examined the portrayals of athlete mothers. While the present study attempts to fill this gap to a modest extent, attention to a relatively unexplored national context might also be useful given the global inequalities identified at the level of knowledge production (Antunovic, 2023). In this sense, it contributes to the potential expansion, diversification, and subsequent integration of knowledge within and between locations.
Method, sample, and research questions
This study, which is largely situated in the context of feminist sports media research, is based on a textual analysis of 140 articles about Gloria Kotnik published in Slovenian mainstream print and online media in the period from 27 January to 27 February 2022. The period covered the duration of the Olympic Games and articles in the week before and after the Olympics. For the qualitative analysis, five leading print media (Delo (broadsheet), Dnevnik (broadsheet), Večer (broadsheet), Slovenske novice (tabloid), and Ekipa (sports daily)) and four news websites (24ur.com, siol.net, rtvslo.si, and n1info.si) were selected. The sampling was based on the keyword Gloria Kotnik with all its variants and—following the example of similar studies (e.g. Pušnik and Jontes, 2022)—was conducted by the main Slovenian press clipping agency Kliping. Textual analysis was chosen to identify, interpret, and contextualize the meanings and discourses that emerged in the articulations of Kotnik at the intersection of elite sport and motherhood. In the spirit of such analysis, our intent was not to present a single “correct” interpretation of the articles analyzed, but rather to make an informed or “educated guess” about some of the interpretations that seemed most likely (McKee, 2001).
In the absence of studies on the Slovenian media landscape focusing on the media portrayal of motherhood in the context of elite sport, and following research that examines the patterns of representation in the sports media, the main aim of this study was to answer the question: How was Gloria Kotnik portrayed in selected Slovenian media? In particular, what role did motherhood play in the portrayals of Kotnik as an elite athlete and what meanings and narratives were conveyed to the public by the media in these articulations?
From the analysis of all 187 originally identified media articles, we first excluded duplicates, schedules, scoreboards, lists of Olympics participants, statistics and rankings that were not part of a journalistic article, and brief front-page announcements. We also excluded radio and television articles and videos that were sometimes embedded in the text on some websites and that were mostly repeats of content from radio and television broadcasts (not the subject of this study). One hundred and forty articles remained.
To organize them and develop an initial set of articulations, we began coding by consulting previous research in sports media and feminist sports media studies (e.g. Bruce, 2016; Cooky et al., 2021), as well as studies that specifically addressed the relationship between elite sport and motherhood in the context of media representation (e.g. Bernstein, 2021; Dashper, 2018; McGannon et al., 2012, 2023). In this regard, the analysis of the data was systematic using initial categories, while remaining open to the identification and development of new categories. When analyzing the media articles, we paid attention to the dominant articulations of Kotnik as an elite athlete (e.g. serious, emotional, and ambivalent) and to the dominant articulations of Kotnik as a mother (e.g. traditional motherhood and supermum). The articles were analyzed in Slovenian, while the examples that the authors mutually agreed were most representative and best suited for illustration in the Results and discussion section were translated into English.
Results and discussion
The first discrepancy identified in relation to the portrayals of Kotnik in the media analyzed was between the articles that reported on her before and after her success at the Olympic Games. In the week before the start of the Olympic Games and before Kotnik won the bronze medal, she was almost completely overlooked by the media. Apart from the two articles that put Kotnik in the spotlight, her name was only mentioned in passing in 20 articles, where the focus was on other Slovenian athletes, especially those who were considered medal favorites. Kotnik was mentioned in these articles as someone who, although competing in the Olympics, is relatively unimportant due to unremarkable results in the past and her return after the birth of her child. When addressed by more than just her first and last name, she was singled out as someone who “knows the tracks in China best,” but at the same time patronizingly framed in the context of motherhood, with her sporting ambitions and goals at the Olympics either completely overlooked or subordinated to the role of motherhood and family life. For example, in response to a note she shared on her Instagram profile before her departure, the “Slovenian public” is said to have wished her “good luck at the Games, but above all good luck in family life” (JZ, 2022).
After winning the Olympic medal, Kotnik became a “media sensation.” She received significantly more attention in all the media analyzed and her name appeared in articles that can be roughly divided into two groups: One group consists of articles (n = 75) that either focus exclusively on Kotnik or in which she is the center of attention together with other Slovenian athletes (mostly Mastnak and/or other Slovenian medalists). The second group contains articles (n = 43) that focus on a different event or topic (e.g. corona measures at the athletes’ reception; upcoming competitions; various award ceremonies after the Olympics; and upheavals in the Slovenian Ski Association). While the mentions of Kotnik in the second group were relatively marginal and she was primarily addressed as an Olympic medalist and thus as a competent athlete, the first group of contributions was the most relevant for our research questions, where the articulations about Kotnik were also the most extensive and on which the following analysis is based.
Competent athlete, but first and foremost a mother
Regardless of the type of media (whether tabloid or broadsheet,
2
website of a public broadcaster (rtvslo.si) or commercial news website), the predominant pattern of representation was the one that portrayed Kotnik ambivalently (Bruce, 2016). Thus, on the one hand, she was portrayed respectfully, in a way that emphasized her strength and addressed her as athletically competent: she was an “experienced/best Slovenian snowboarder,” “Slovenian snowboarding/Olympic/bronze heroine,” who “performed outstandingly” and “proved a masterpiece.” At the same time, Kotnik was addressed in a way that emphasized her weakness and/or her emotional qualities and placed her in the context of traditional femininity by addressing her as a heterosexual partner and mother. Kotnik, for example, who now “gave hope for success even to colleagues who were not striving for the highest” (Bauman, 2022), accompanied her achievement with a “stream of tears” (Bauman, 2022), which she “could not hide in any way” (Pogačar, 2022), and was so moved that she could not even speak, but could only say that she was grateful to everyone who stood by her side even in the most difficult moments of her career, and that her greatest happiness and achievement in life was waiting for her at home, keeping her little son in mind. (MM, 2022)
The discourse of motherhood was heavily pronounced in these articles. Kotnik was repeatedly addressed and framed as a mother, with frequent references to her son and her partner (e.g. “If anyone is in a hurry to get home after a performance at the Winter Olympics, it is certainly Gloria Kotnik. Into the embrace of her partner Željko Stevič and her one-year-old son Maj”; Pavčnik, 2022). The role of motherhood in combination with the role of a top athlete was presented in both ways: as (a) something seemingly contradictory (e.g. it was said that when Kotnik first burned out, she was “warned to ask herself which is more important to her, whether she ever wants to have a family or whether she prefers a career?” (Ena na ena, 2022)) or something where sporting achievement has value above all if Kotnik primarily fulfils the traditional expectations of a “good mother,” as well as (b) in a way that presented both roles as compatible. In relation to the first, we have identified articulations that characterized her success as “surprise,” a story “from the movie screen,” also due to her return after pregnancy and motherhood (“Can you imagine that she achieved the greatest success of her career only one year after the birth of her son?” (Teran Košir, 2022)). The role of motherhood was emphasized as the most important (“our Gloria moved us” with her story and with “what is most important and awaits her at home” (Jaklič, 2022)), it was presented as something that fulfils a woman and—together with the understanding of caring for a child—as a mother's primary task. For example, in an interview with her partner (significant in itself), a journalist asked: “Who takes over her role these days when mommy is in Beijing?” (JK, 2022).
Such naturalization and normalization of maternal care for the child represented the inscription of normative gender expectations at the level of media representations, reproducing the “discourse of essential motherhood” and the prevailing ideas about what it means to be “the good mother” (McGannon et al., 2015; Waldron and Mullin, 2023). The reproduction of the myth of maternal bliss was further illustrated by Kotnik's statements (e.g. “I have achieved my life's goal with the birth of a child” (Kotnik in Kresnik, 2022)), as well as by articles that emphasized the discourse of motherhood and femininity through headlines, (family/emotional) photos, and by additionally highlighting her statements regarding the role of motherhood and caring for the child (e.g. “I know exactly what is important. And that is not to win the game, but that my child is happy, healthy and content” (Kotnik in Gramc, 2022)). One of the most vivid illustrations of the articulation of traditional notions of motherhood and the division of gender roles was the following case of a sports newspaper lead: All gender theories, in one way or another, all equality too. With all due respect to everyone, only a mother can know what it means to leave a child at home and go to the other side of the world at the end of maternity leave. For all of us who do it as fathers, it's different. (Miljković, 2022a)
By reviving conservatism and unreflectively reproducing common sense, the lead not only promoted the retraditionalization of gender roles, but also devalued academic and activist efforts in this area by implicitly calling for the perpetuation of inequality and the consolidation of gender hierarchies. Although this was perhaps the most transparent expression of traditional motherhood discourse in the context of the representations analyzed, it differed from the other articulations not so much by its nature or type, but primarily by its “political incorrectness” and the salient verbalization of ideology that was also present in most of the other articles, implicitly or explicitly communicating hegemonic social expectations and asymmetrical gender norms.
“Girls, wives, mothers. And Elite Athletes”
Something similar could be observed in representations of Kotnik which portrayed the roles of athlete and mother as compatible (Dashper, 2018; McGannon et al., 2015, 2017) and Kotnik as a “supermom” who had “the courage to take both” (Miljković, 2022b). In some cases, “both” was transformed into “everything”: “Now she has everything, a happy family story and an Olympic medal” (Jerič, 2022). Such formulations saw the combination of athlete and mother as feasible, but ultimately re-established traditional ideologies and gender roles by reinforcing the expectation that women want and should have children. Motherhood and heterosexual relationships were a central part of her identity and in some places, motherhood was seen as a prerequisite for success: “It is interesting that Kotnik won bronze in Beijing just over a year after giving birth to her son Maj. Could there be a better advertisement for motherhood?” (Hrastar, 2022). While representations that see the combination of both roles as feasible hold some progressive potential, at least in relation to perceptions that see them as mutually exclusive, by framing sportswomen within narrow heteronormative ideals of acceptable femininity, they also fail to affirm the diversity of social relationships, different forms of femininity, and the experiences of non-heterosexual sportswomen (Antunovic, 2019; Waldron and Mullin, 2023). In these representations of Kotnik, there was no place for sportswomen who could “remain” women, even if they were not girlfriends, wives, or mothers and did not conform to the ideal of white, heterosexual, able-bodied femininity.
Although this analysis does not allow for any generalization of the absence of various forms of motherhood and femininity due to the focus on articles about Kotnik, references to “appropriate femininity and compulsory heterosexuality” (Bruce, 2016) could be found in articles such as the one in which Kotnik and other sportswomen were portrayed through the title (“Girls, Wives, Mothers. And Elite Athletes”) and throughout the text as those who “can be girls, wives, and mothers. And they can be athletes who wear Olympic medals around their necks. Behind them are boys, husbands and fathers who support them,” (Hacler, 2022). Even if such media representations attempt to acknowledge the legitimacy of both women's sports and the possibility of balancing family and career, and even if they treat sportswomen with more respect than previous practices of infantilization and sexualization, they do so, as described elsewhere (e.g. Cooky et al., 2021), in a way that simultaneously symbolically locks them into narrow ideals of femininity, excludes all others, and also communicates existing gender hierarchies and asymmetries (e.g. “And if you say it's different for women—I definitely agree” (Miljković, 2022b)). While the focus on Kotnik also does not allow us to generalize the comparison between the representations of sportswomen and sportsmen, it was nevertheless possible to identify several examples that confirm the idea that “it's different for women” in depictions that simultaneously exposed both Kotnik and some other athletes. For example, when Delo reported on Kotnik's and Mastnak's successes on the front page (Družnik and Uroševič, 2022), Kotnik was placed in the context of her previous health problems, the birth of her child and life with her partner, while Mastnak's achievement was accompanied by a description of his last run. Similar gender asymmetries were also identified in articles in which the possessive adjectival form was used when referring to sportswomen. Such language use is considered sexist and is particularly problematic because it addresses a person as an object rather than a subject (see Kalin Golob et al., 2018). It is never used to address (sports) men—Kotnik, for example, was often addressed as “Kotnikova,” while Mastnak was never “Mastnakov.”
The implications of ambivalent representations
Following Bruce's (2016) categorization of the prevailing global patterns and rules for the representation of sportswomen in the media, the representations of Kotnik in the media highly reflected the pattern of “ambivalence” and therefore conveyed contradictory and opposing messages about her through a combination of positive and (subtly) negative articulations. Within this ambivalence, we identified patterns of the “serious athlete” and the “athlete in action” interwoven with those of “compulsive heterosexuality and appropriate femininity” and, to a much lesser extent, examples of “infantilization” and “sexualization.” While the analysis confirms some of the findings of a recent study that analyzed the Slovenian press and found changes in the quality of coverage of sportswomen (Ličen and Bejek, 2019), caution is needed in explaining the progress. As has been shown, beneath the surface of the messages that addressed Kotnik as athletically competent, as someone who “has it all” after winning the Olympic medal, there were messages that reinforced socially normalized and naturalized discourses about motherhood and the ideal form of femininity, ultimately leading to the perpetuation of existing gender hierarchies and the reinforcement of gender asymmetries. As a partner and mother, Kotnik was presented to the audience as familiar, framed within narrow heteronormative ideals, possibly precluding the possibility of affirming other forms of gender performance. The perception of the progressiveness of such representations can therefore only be apparent—as if the representations change so that they can ultimately remain the same.
Moreover, the implications of the ambivalent representations appear even more significant considering that the analysis was embedded in the context of the Olympic Games, that is, the context that simultaneously embedded the athletes in the discourse of nationality. Although we did not devote the main attention to it here, this discourse was anchored in the articulations of the successes of both Kotnik and other Slovenian athletes. In this regard, it seems important to emphasize that the articulations about Kotnik were not such as to temporarily suspend or limit gendered patterns (e.g. Bruce, 2009, 2016; Pope et al., 2023) and therefore potentially add an additional dimension to the studies that have already identified “gendered nationalism” in this geographical space (e.g. Antunovic and Bartoluci, 2023).
Concluding remarks
“Motherhood has given me mental stability /…/ Through my son I have learned to plan less, I no longer have to schedule my day to the end, I am not stressed” (Kotnik in Gramc, 2022). Similar to Kotnik, motherhood has become an important part of many athletes’ lives and alongside general efforts to create a supportive sporting environment, it is crucial that it is recognized as compatible with an elite athlete's career (Cosh and Crabb, 2012; McGannon et al., 2017, 2023; Pullen et al., 2023). When analyzing the media portrayal of athlete mothers, however, attention must be paid to different patterns of representation, various nuances, and their implications. While this study extends research on media representations of sportswomen by focusing on the Slovenian context and analyzing the meanings and implications of the representations of one athlete mother, the focus on one athlete admittedly has certain limitations and would benefit from further analysis. Future studies limited to the Slovenian context could aim to extend the analysis to the representations of other athlete mothers and examine other media not covered in this article (e.g. TV broadcasts). In this way, and with the potential focus on routine coverage, which generally differs from coverage of mega sporting events, the studies could provide a more nuanced understanding of this research topic. On a broader level, feminist sports media studies could also gain from comparative cross-national research: Although this approach has its own limitations, it has been highlighted as a potential avenue that “could bring together sport scholars invested in studying gender issues in order to avoid overgeneralizing and instead identify specific similarities and differences” (Antunovic, 2019: 81–82).
While what we have termed the “both” frame above has the potential to portray physical strength (the role of the athlete) and femininity (the role of the mother) as complementary, this study shows that representations of sportswomen do not necessarily simultaneously weaken traditional articulations or challenge traditional notions of gender difference. “Having it all” was understood rather narrowly by the selected Slovenian media, as a combination of a successful career and a narrowly defined ideal of a happy family life, thus reproducing existing gender hierarchies and social expectations. Although we can only speculate about the media's production processes and decisions based on this textual analysis, the framing of Kotnik's success was likely also related to the media's commercial interests, to which the representations emphasizing heterosexuality, the attractiveness of women athletes and/or their maternal role may contribute (Cooky et al., 2015). It was probably easier and more convenient to use the context of the Olympics in conjunction with the emotional and dramatic atmosphere to shape the story “like in a Hollywood movie” through an unreflected affirmation of the existing social status quo than to deal in detail with other aspects, for example with the possible structural obstacles Kotnik encountered in the course of her sporting career. In this sense, the following can also be added: while the choice for motherhood is the legitimate right of every sportswoman, the emancipatory potential of media representations, which could help create a more favorable environment for them, is lost when the broader structural and social obstacles are individualized or ignored.
The importance of support from family and other members of her social network was sometimes made clear, particularly through Kotnik's statements. Less frequently mentioned, however, was her desire for employment and more favorable financial conditions, but even when this was the case, it remained unspoken in detail. With one exception, perhaps—the sports daily Ekipa, for example, also gave space to Kotnik's coach, who somewhat balanced out other accounts in his commentary (Sitar, 2022) and made her achievement less “surprising.” From describing her exceptional talent as an athlete who has performed consistently well throughout her sporting career, to contextualizing her story, describing problems with injuries and efforts to obtain funding. The discourse of motherhood remained problematic and traditional in this piece, but it was anything but dominant. Given the sociocultural narratives of motherhood intertwined with the demands of the sporting environment, similar framings and emphases could potentially lead us to redefine the ethics of care (Kulkarni et al., 2023) and embed it within the context of necessary social change. In a context, then, that is sensitive to the existing bio-psycho-social and structural constraints of athlete mothers, as well as to alternative forms of femininity (and motherhood), and in which the media representations not only look different on the surface, but are also different in their essence and potential impact.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
