1. “Girls’ things” make headlines: menstruation in the media coverage of women’s tennis.
- Author
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Jakubowska, Honorata
- Subjects
- *
MENSTRUATION , *THEMATIC analysis , *TENNIS players , *FEMINISM , *TENNIS , *TABOO - Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze the news media discourse around menstruation in women’s sport by examining news media coverage of two tennis players, Heather Watson and Qinwen Zheng, who attributed their defeat in 2015 and 2022, respectively, to “girls’ things.” Using thematic analysis, the article analyses four themes: (1) breaking the menstrual taboo in sport, (2) specificity and marginalization of the female body, (3) the risk of a leaking body and (4) the wider context beyond the world of sport. The analyzed discourse is part of the broader changes observed since the mid-2010s regarding the greater presence of menstruation in public discourse. The most significant difference between the 2015 and 2022 corpora lies in the framing of menstruation as taboo. Whereas an open statement about menstruation in 2015 was perceived as something both brave and shocking, such discourse was practically absent in 2022. Despite this change, this discourse illustrates the tension between the public exposure of menstruation alongside efforts aimed at keeping it hidden. It can be read in the framework of neoliberal feminism by emphasizing the privileging of the male body and the current product-focused menstrual activism by highlighting the need to keep menstruation invisible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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