This article examines the evolving portrayal of abusive coaching relationships in contemporary occidental cinema, particularly through the lens of five biographical films: The Little Queen, The Tale, Slalom, Service vole and Floodlights. Released between 2014 and 2022, these films highlight the complex power dynamics and psychological impacts of coach-athlete relationships within the sports context. By utilizing a biopic format, they not only enhance public awareness of these abusive dynamics but also facilitate a transnational dialogue ignited by the #MeToo movement's exposure of sexual misconduct across various industries. This article contributes to a broader discourse on the intersection of sports, cinema, and social justice, highlighting how film can be a powerful tool for social change by amplifying voices that have historically been silenced and by promoting an informed and empathetic understanding of abuse and recovery in sports.
AbitbolSAnizonE (2020) Un si long silence [Such a Long Silence]. Paris: Plon.
2.
ArmstrongEAGleckman-KrutMJohnsonL (2018) Silence, power, and inequality: an intersectional approach to sexual violence. Annual Review of Sociology44: 99–122.
BauerTLeconteMP (2020) Sport history and biopics: genre, truth, and ethics. The International Journal of the History of Sport37(10): 831–837.
6.
BauerTLinS (2021) Ping-pong at the cinema: humor, love and more. Sport in Society25(10): 1–16.
7.
BeaujourM (1980) Miroirs d’encre : rhétorique de l’autoportrait [Ink Mirrors: The Rhetoric of the Self-Portrait]. Poétique. Paris: Seuil.
8.
BérardJ (2014) Dénoncer et (ne pas) punir les violences sexuellesLuttes féministes et critiques de la répression en France de mai 68 au début des années 1980 [Denouncing and (not) punishing sexual violence? Feminist struggles and critiques of repression in France from May 1968 to the early 1980s]. Politix107(3): 61–84.
9.
BordwellD (1985) Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
10.
BrackenridgeCKirbyS (1997) PLAYING SAFE: Assessing the risk of sexual abuse to elite child athletes. International Review for the Sociology of Sport32(4): 407–418.
11.
BurchN (2016) L’amour des femmes puissantes : Introduction à la viragophilie [The Love of Powerful Women: an Introduction to Viragophilie]. Paris: Epel Éditions.
12.
CarrierC (1992) L’Adolescent champion : contrainte ou liberté [The Teenage Champion: Constraint or Freedom?]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
13.
ConnellRW (2013) Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. John Wiley & Sons.
Damian-GaillardB (2011) Les romans sentimentaux des collections Harlequin : Quelle(s) figure(s) de l’amoureux ? Quel(s) modèle(s) de relation(s) amoureuse(s) ? [Sentimental novels in the Harlequin collections: what figure(s) of the lover? What model(s) of love relationship(s)?]. Questions de Communication: 317–336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/questionsdecommunication.2130.
17.
DenhollanderR (2019) What Is a Girl Worth?: My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics. New York: Tyndale Momentum.
EnguluFCHarrisKA (2017) Spanking, ethnicity, gender, and religion: the development of a spanking scale. International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity19(1): 1–22.
FastingKBrackenridgeCSundgot-BorgenJ (2003) Experiences of sexual harassment and abuse among Norwegian elite female athletes and nonathletes. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport74(1): 84–97.
24.
FavierC (2020) « Slalom », pour briser l’omerta des violences sexuelles dans le sport [“Slalom”, breaking the omerta of sexual violence in sport]. Sport Stratégie, 9 November. 651.
25.
FortéL (2018) Les effets socialisateurs de la blessure : de l’érosion au renforcement des vocations athlétiques de haut niveau [The socialising effects of injury: from erosion to reinforcement of high-level athletic vocations]. Sciences Sociales et Sport12(2): 85–111.
26.
FraysseMMennessonC (2009) Masculinités hégémoniques et féminités : les modèles de genre dans une revue de VTT [Hegemonic asculinities and femininities: gender models in a mountain bike magazine]. Sciences Sociales et Sport2(1): 25–53.
27.
GilmoreL (2023) The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women. New York: Columbia University Press. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/gilm19420 (accessed 19 June 2024).
28.
GravelA (2008) affaire Jeanson: l’engrenage [Jeanson affair: the spiral]. Montréal: Voix Parallèles. Available at: http://archive.org/details/isbn_9782923491127 (accessed 17 April 2024).
29.
HanmerJ (1978) Violence and the social control of women. Power and the State11: 217.
30.
HeiseLEllsbergMGottmoellerM (2002) A global overview of gender-based violence. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics78: S5–S14.
31.
HirigoyenM-F (1998) Le harcèlement moral: la violence perverse au quotidien [Moral Harassment: Everyday Perverse Violence]. Paris, France: Syros.
LinS (2023) L’image des sportives au XXIe siècle dans les cinémas français et chinois [the image of the female athlete in the 21st century in french and chinese cinemas]. Thèse de doctorat. Université de Limoges, Limoges.
38.
LiotardP (1999) L’entraîneur, l’emprise [the coach, the grip]. In: Sport et Virilisme. Montpellier: Éditions Quasimodo & Fils, pp.125–140.
39.
Luneau-DaurignacP-E (2021) L’Entraîneur et l’enfant : Les Abus Sexuels Dans Le Sport [The Coach and the Child: Sexual Abuse in Sport]. Paris: Seuil.
40.
MennessonC (2005) Être Une Femme Dans Le Monde Des Hommes : Socialisation Sportive et Construction Du Genre [Being a Woman in a Man's World: Sports Socialization and Gender Construction]. Sports en société. Paris: L’Harmattan.
MoineR (2011) Le genre biopic [the biopic genre]. In: Biopic : de la réalité à la fiction. Rémi Fontanel. CinémAction 139. Paris: Charles Corlet, pp.22–27. Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3692214 (accessed 2 January 2021).
43.
MulveyL (1989) Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In: MulveyL (ed) Visual and Other Pleasures. Language, Discourse, Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp.14–26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19798-9_3 (accessed 27 March 2022).
44.
NielsenJT (2001) The forbidden zone: intimacy, sexual relations and misconduct in the relationship between coaches and athletes. International Review for the Sociology of Sport36(2): 165–182.
45.
PalmerDFeldmanV (2017) Toward a more comprehensive analysis of the role of organizational culture in child sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Child Abuse & Neglect74: 23–34.
46.
PaludiMABarickmanRB (1991) Academic and Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Resource Manual. SUNY Press.
PonterottoD (2014) Trivializing the female body: a cross-cultural analysis of the representation of women in sports journalism. Journal of International Women’s Studies15(2): 94–111.
49.
ProjanskyS (2001) Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture. New York: NYU Press.
RadwayJA (1991) Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807898857_radway (accessed 23 June 2022).
52.
RussoNFPirlottA (2006) Gender-based violence: concepts, methods, and findings. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences1087(1): 178–205.
53.
SchaefferJ-M (1999) Pourquoi La Fiction? [Why Fiction?]. Paris: Seuil.
54.
TanvierC (2007) Déclassée: De Roland-Garros au RMI [Demoted: from Roland-Garros to Welfare]. Paris: Editions du Panama.
WangL (2011) Introduction. In: WangL (ed) Chinese Women’s Cinema: Transnational Contexts. Columbia University Press, pp.1–44. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wang15674.4 (accessed 12 April 2024).
59.
Yahoo News (2024) Leicester : accusé d’avoir eu une relation avec une joueuse, le coach des Foxes viré du club [Leicester: Foxes coach sacked after being accused of having an affair with a player]. Available at: https://fr.news.yahoo.com/leicester-accus%C3%A9-d-avoir-eu-104616042.html (accessed 1 April 2024).
