Chilly Scenes of the 1992 Winter Games: The Mass Media and the Marginalization of Female Athletes

Abstract

This article examines television’s portrayal of female athletes during the 1992 winter Games. Although women are depicted in physically challenging events that defy stereotypical notions of femininity, such as mogul skiing, luge, and the biathlon, rhetorical analysis suggests that the sports media reinforce a masculine sports hegemony through strategies of marginalization. These include the application of condescending descriptors, the use of compensatory rhetoric, the construction of female athletes according to an adolescent ideal, and the presentation of female athletes as driven by cooperation rather than competition.