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One yard shy of empowerment

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Date Issued:
2012
Summary:
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.
Title: One yard shy of empowerment: cinematic portrayals of female athletes.
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Name(s): Lieberman, Vividiana.
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 2012
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
Extent: vii, 115 p. : ill. (some col.)
Language(s): English
Summary: 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.
Identifier: 794749323 (oclc), 3342205 (digitool), FADT3342205 (IID), fau:3876 (fedora)
Note(s): by Vividiana Lieberman.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012.
Includes bibliography.
Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subject(s): Women athletes -- United States
Feminism and sports
Competition (Psychology)
Minorities in motion pictures
Sex discrimination against women
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3342205
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU