Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Sports are a primary zone of masculinity and sports films are a popular genre. One is hard pressed to find many leading female roles as athletes in male-dominated sports storylines. The cinematic portrayal of women athletes represents social attitudes and values and whether or not the women's movement has been able to influence representations and, concomitantly, social understandings of women and athleticism. My discussion of films featuring female athletes begins with National Velvet (1944) and ends with Whip It (2008). By examining select sports films centered on all female teams, co-ed teams and individual female athletes, I show how their storylines and resolutions do or do not capitulate to patriarchal ideology. I find a general capitulation, with some concessions to women's equality. I conclude with a call for a degendering of sports and a redefinition of strength, competitiveness and aggression as human, not masculine.

Extent

vii, 115 p. : ill. (some col.)

Comments

by Vividiana Lieberman.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Vividiana Lieberman.

Identifier

FADT3342205

Format

pdf

Download

Share

COinS