Abstract
This study examines how young female athletes understand and give meaning to pictures in the media based on their perceptions of what constitutes a valued body. A qualitative approach using visual methods (collecting photographs) and interviews is used. The participants are upper secondary school student athletes in Norway. The data are analysed with a focus on the discourse of ‘valued bodies’ and their representations. The results reveal that the young women’s constructions of valued bodies are primarily made with reference to health, beauty and dieting. The ‘beautiful body’ representation, portrayed in photographs as a fit but objectified female body, is revealed as the main representation of a valued body. The representation of ‘a body that can perform’ appears as a counter-representation and includes photographs of elite female athletes who possess powerful, sporty femininities that transgress discourses of traditionally feminine, docile bodies.
Current youth culture is dominated by an overwhelming focus on the body, and is emphasised through young people’s use of social media. A characteristic of social media is that it is dominated by pictures in which body ideals can be visualised. International research on body ideals reveals two dominating body ideals for youth. The female ideal centres on slenderness, appearance and fashion, while the male ideal body is constructed as muscular, strong, powerful and athletic (Grogan, 2017; Kvalem, 2007). However, numerous researchers have indicated that there has been a shift for women from the ultra-thin body ideal towards a more muscular and toned body ideal (Azzarito, 2010; Bruce, 2015; Bruce and Hardin, 2014). As such, the fit, athletic body has become a standard of beauty for women.
However, research shows that having too much muscle is a violation that is similar to having too much fat; both are perceived to be in conflict with the feminine ideal (George, 2005; Krane, 2001; Krane et al., 2004). This body ideal leads female athletes to monitor their bodies and strive for a balance between the amount of muscle needed to perform in sport and expectations of what their physiques should look like. Female athletes who violate ideals of femininity encounter social consequences and risk stigmatisation and devaluation. However, research also shows that by participating in sports, female athletes can negotiate and contest traditional feminine body ideals (Azzarito, 2010; Grahn, 2016).
While body image research shows that bodies are valued due to their appearance, bodies are also often valued due to their capacities and abilities (Hill and Azzarito, 2012). Despite this, current media coverage of athletes seems to have shifted from performance to appearance. Both female and male athletes are often presented in the media through objectified body ideals, though women are still presented in this way more often than men (Ross et al., 2013). Cooky (2011) argues that media images of female athletes show new forms of femininities, and that ‘the power chick’, who is strong and competitive, is also ‘heterosexy and feminine’. The marketing of female athletes has become even more sexualised and associated with what she calls ‘strip culture’. Kane et al. (2013) emphasise that little research has studied how such coverage is interpreted by individuals exposed to these images, including female athletes themselves. One of the purposes of this study is to fill this knowledge gap.
Based on the understanding that the bodies of female athletes are ‘contested ideological terrain’ (Messner, 1988) and that value given to bodies is socially constructed, the aim of this study is to apply discourse analysis to explore young female athletes’ constructions of valued bodies, and the representations from which young women draw in their constructions of valued bodies.
Theoretical perspective
This study is inspired by the work of Foucault (1980, 1993) and scholars who draw on his work when studying how sport and fitness discourses influence young people’s constructions of valued bodies (Azzarito, 2010; Frank, 1991, 1995; Hill and Azzarito, 2012; Markula and Pringle, 2006; Pronger, 2002). Particularly, research on how meaning produced in visual texts is taken up by young women in their identity work and how these meanings are used to construct their bodies has been an important inspiration (Azzarito, 2009; Hill and Azzarito, 2012; Oliver, 2010).
This paper specifically examines how young female athletes take up and give meaning to pictures in the media of what they perceive to be valued bodies. The notion of ‘valued bodies’ has previously been used by Hill and Azzarito (2012: 264), who argue that the notion is useful to explore the ways in which certain bodily appearances and performances or actions attain high status due to their value within a social context. This study does not aim to restrict ‘valued bodies’ to a single definition; the meaning of ‘valued bodies’ depends on the discursive contexts in which it is used. However, it should be emphasised that how and which bodies are valued is connected to cultural values and is context-dependent.
Foucault (1980) perceives the body as produced by and existing in discourses, and reminds us that meanings associated with bodies are always constituted socially in relation to power/knowledge. Foucault refers to the embodiment of power and knowledge relations as ‘governmentality’. This concept links the ‘technology of the self’ to technologies of domination, and stresses the organised practices (mentalities, rationalities and techniques) through which subjects are governed (Foucault, 1993). Here, Foucault modifies his earlier position, in which he had viewed subjectivity as primarily an issue of ‘docile bodies’, and argues that processes of discipline are dominant (Lemke, 2002). Markula and Pringle (2006) state that ‘technology of the self’ can also refer to techniques we use to manage the body – practices in which we engage to cultivate ourselves and construct our bodies by complying with and/or resisting ideals of the body.
Drawing on Foucault, Markula and Pringle’s (2006) study of the fitness discourse shows how the fitness discourse links knowledge from physiology and medicine with training praxes to ‘help’ citizens work out in specific ways to become ‘healthy’ citizens. Pronger (2002) focuses on ‘the technology of physical fitness’ and illustrates how the technology produces human life in controlled ways and plays a growing role in sculpting the body for a fashionable look – typically lean, muscular and youthful. He claims that ‘the technology of physical fitness’ constitutes a discourse on the body that seeks to limit its potential, disguising itself as a way of doing precisely the opposite (Pronger, 2002: 10).
Drawing on Foucault’s work on Discipline and Punish (1975), Frank (1991, 1995) reveals four types of body usage: the disciplined, the dominating, the mirroring and the communicative. Paechter (2003) applies these body usages in relation to sports and explains that the disciplined body usage focuses on obeying, the dominating focuses on winning, and the mirroring on the body as an object of display. The communicative body type is depicted as a future possibility more than a current reality; it is a body of potential, rather than one that must be feared or controlled. ‘The technologies of physical fitness’ seem to develop disciplined, dominating and mirroring bodies. In contrast, both Pronger (2002) and Frank (1991) ask for a greater focus on body usages that view the body as potential, and focus on the pleasure or the profound intrinsic experience of exercising.
Azzarito (2010) adds that Foucault’s (1980) notion of Panopticon has influenced feminist theory, leading to the notion of ‘woman-as-Panopticon’ (Bartky, 1990). The notion focuses on how cultural practices presented through the media are inscribed onto women’s bodies and how their consciousness becomes limited by patriarchal culture. Azzarito (2009: 21) writes that, understood through the principles of the Panopticon, women police and discipline themselves to achieve and maintain a specific shape, size and muscularity to attain the ideals of femininity. This leads to the production of feminine, docile bodies that are constrained and disciplined to adapt to dominant discourses of femininities (Azzarito, 2010).
Previous research on young women and sport
Wright (2016) states that there are two main themes underpinning most research on gender and youth sports: a concern with the lack of gender equality in sports, and a concern with sport as a site for the reproduction of traditional and limiting gender norms for girls and boys. However, recent research has also focused on young athletes as active agents who negotiate and transform norms of sex and gender in and through sports (Azzarito and Macdonald, 2016; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2016). While there have been changes in what constitutes accepted forms of masculinity and femininity, research suggests that the changes have been minor. Wright (2016) claims this is not only due to the practice of sport itself, but a consequence of images of athletes produced in and through media coverage of sport events, commentary on sports and athletes, and the marketing of sport products. She concludes that ‘these texts serve as discursive resources for how young people come to understand gender and how they constitute their own gender identity, both in relation to sports and in life more broadly’ (Wright, 2016: 279).
Global trends indicate that new heteronormative ideals of femininities are being normalised. These images display powerful, strong bodies and female athletes who are as successful as males in sports (Azzarito, 2010). Research on body ideals in Sweden indicates that muscles and thinness are equally important for young women (Lunde and Frisén, 2011). Similarly, Grahn’s (2016) study of young athletes shows that being muscular is perceived as the norm for female swimmers.
The Norwegian sport context
The data was sampled from young female athletes in Norway. Therefore, some comments on the Norwegian context of youth sport are needed. In the Routledge Handbook of Youth Sports, Green (2016) describes the Scandinavian countries, and Norway in particular, as countries where the youth’s sport participation patterns differ from the rest of the western world. More than 80% of young people in Norway participate or have previously participated in organised sport club activities (Strandbu et al., 2017). Green (2016) writes that Norway has displayed a substantial increase in sport participation among young people, and participation rates have tended to be markedly higher than in countries outside Scandinavia. This increase is mostly due to the popularity of leisure activities such as walking, jogging, cross-country skiing and exercising at fitness centres. The peak age of participation in sport and physical activities among the Norwegian youth is 16–19 years old, compared to 12–14 in most countries, indicating a later drop-out from physical activities than in most countries. Moreover, the gender gap in sport participation is small. By age 15, the level of participation among boys and girls has converged. Green (2016) explains this exceptionalism with socio-economic factors, class and gender parity, as well as the cultural traction of sports in Norway.
Although there are small gender differences in physical activity patterns for boys and girls, there are still differences concerning the participation rate in competitive youth sport, as well as differences in the gender connotations of various sports. The three most popular sports for boys and girls are football (soccer), handball and skiing (NIF, 2017). Despite football being the largest sport in terms of membership for both girls and boys, it is still perceived as a male sport, and young female athletes are still discriminated against (Skogvang, 2014). In contrast, handball is often perceived as ‘a sport for girls’. This is different from other European countries, where handball has masculine connotations. This might be explained by historical context, as handball was introduced to Norway in 1936 as an alternative to football for women (NHF, 2012), and because the national team for women has achieved great international success since the 1980s. Broch’s (2016) study of young female handball players illuminates how the players are re-socialised into performing new forms of femininities. The girls learn to perform with competitive toughness when playing handball. The study illustrates how girls must unlearn passivity and learn to dominate others on the handball court. Cross-country skiing, a sport with strong historical roots in Norway, is perceived as a more gender-neutral sport, even though the focus on male athletes has been stronger historically.
However, the most popular sport activity among the Norwegian youth is endurance and strength training at fitness centres; from the age of 16, more young people exercise at fitness centres than at sport clubs (Seippel et al., 2016). These activities are as popular among girls as boys, and the interest in these activities might be explained by a growing interest in shaping the body to fit a more toned body ideal.
Recent youth research also shows that young people, particular girls, report to experience more body dissatisfaction than before (Ungdata, 2015). As a result, the concept of kroppspress (the pressure of body ideals) has become a common term in the Norwegian vocabulary. Kvalem and Strandbu’s (2013) study of body ideals among the youth in Norway found class-related differences in preferred body ideals. Young people living in lower socio-economic areas preferred a larger and more muscular body ideal for men compared to boys from higher socio-economic areas, whereas the body ideal for young women in these areas seems to be similar.
Empirical context and methods
The data for this study was collected in collaboration with an upper secondary school in Norway. The young women who participated in this study were student athletes at this school (ages 16–18). In terms of ethnicity, the participants were white girls of majority background. 1 Because previous research indicates that young women are particularly vulnerable to body and femininity ideals presented in media, this study focused on female students. All of the participants had chosen the sport programme at the school, and they were all current or former athletes.
The goal of this study was to explore young women’s constructions of valued bodies. Based on this goal and on the idea that young women are influenced by pictures that they see in the media, a qualitative approach using visual methods and interviews was chosen. Visual methods are often used to explore a person’s subjective perception of visible things. The idea of seeing as being socially constructed is at the core of visual sociology (Harper, 2012). According to Phoenix (2010), visual methods include all research designs that produce visual data, such as pictures, webpages, posters and maps. In this study we used photography. Azzarito (2013) differentiates between three different approaches to using visual data: (a) the researcher produces the visual data; (b) the participants produce the visual data; and (c) the researcher and the participants produce the visual data in collaboration. In this study, the participants produced the visual data. In this way, the participants became central agents in the research process, thereby independently producing their own photographs to ‘speak for themselves’ about the issues that the researchers aimed to study.
Data collection
The six students who participated in the study were asked to send the researchers 10 photographs of what they perceived to be valued bodies. The only constraints were that the people in the photographs had to be wearing clothes and that, if the students took a photograph of another student, they had to obtain permission from the student prior to taking the picture. The students were given one week to fulfil this task. Later, one of the researchers met and conducted an individual interview with each of the students. The interview focused on the photographs that the students had sent, as well as other questions related to valued bodies in general. Focusing on the photographs during the interviews made the setting more comfortable for the participants, as using images seemed to be an inviting method for interviews with young people. Katzew and Azzarito (2013) write that many young people are uncomfortable in the ‘question-and-answer’ setting of purely oral interviews, and visual methods help young people to communicate thoughts, feelings and ideas that are otherwise difficult to put into words. They conclude: ‘at the same time, young people are flooded by images, and they learn to “read” them early on; images, then, are a language with which they are familiar and in which they are literate, thus providing them with an entry into the interviews’ (Katzew and Azzarito, 2013: 64). The researcher used a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews lasted between 45 and 60 minutes and took place at the participants’ school. All of the students decided to collect photographs from the Internet, and the researcher received 60 photographs. The interview conversations focused on why each student perceived the image she had collected to be an example of a valued body.
Discourse and discourse analysis
The interviews were analysed with a focus on the discourse of ‘valued bodies’. According to Foucault (1972), a discourse induces some statements to coalesce and produces a particular meaning or effect. Discourses define and produce the objects of knowledge; according to Hall (2001: 72), they ‘rule in’ certain ways that a topic can be acted and talked about. Simultaneously, discourses ‘rule out’, limit and restrict other ways of talking and acting regarding the same topic. Within a certain discourse, some statements (and practices) may appear to be normal, natural and meaningful, while others may not. Consequently, when the students say that a valued body is a healthy body, such a statement appears reasonable, obvious and understandable within a discourse on valued bodies. In contrast, if the students expressed that a valued body was an unhealthy body, this statement would presumably strike other students as strange and would likely be rejected. Moreover, a discourse may contain several sub-discourses. For example, Öhman and Quennerstedt (2008) have found that physical education in Sweden is dominated by an activity discourse. They have also identified three sub-discourses (a heath discourse, a social development discourse and a sport discourse) that are embedded in the activity discourse.
The discourse analysis in this study was conducted with reference to Neumann’s (2001) approach to discourse analysis in the social sciences. According to this approach, the first step in a discourse analysis is to delineate what is being studied. One such delineation is time. The goal of this study was to explore young female athletes’ constructions of valued bodies in the present time. As such, the study is limited to the present perspectives of female athletes at an upper secondary school in Norway. According to Neumann (2001), it is important not to delineate the discourse analysis, as the delineations made by the participants in the discourse are an important part of the discourse. As such, the researchers did not define or explain what a valued body is or could be.
After delineating the discourse, the study focused on mapping the discourse’s representations. A representation can be understood as socially reproduced ‘facts’. At this stage in the analysis, the task was to search out and identify these various representations and the possible asymmetries among them. To this end, the photographs and transcribed text from the interviews were coded and categorised according to emerging representations. According to Neumann (2001), a discourse usually contains a dominating representation of reality and one or more alternative representations. If a representation is relatively unchallenged by other representations and if the representation appears to be ‘natural’, this may be identified as hegemony. Maintaining a discourse’s position as hegemonic demands extensive discursive work.
Thirdly, these representations were discussed by the researchers in relation to their layering. Not all representations persist equally; they differ in historical depth, in variation, and in their degree of dominance or marginalisation in the discourse (Neumann, 2001). In this phase of analysis, the task was to study the relationships among the representations and to demonstrate the strengths, dominance or marginalisation of the different representations.
Ethics
Using data derived from the Internet raises the ethical dilemma of how visual images should be used when reporting research. Although photographs on the Internet can be perceived as public information and can therefore be used without the consent of the people in the images (National Committee for Research Ethnics in Social Science and the Humanities (NESH), 2014), the distinction between public and private is blurred when using photographs collected from the Internet. Quennerstedt (2013) argues that the greater the acknowledged publicity of the venue, the lesser the obligation to protect individual privacy, confidentiality, the right to informed consent, and so on. Accordingly, the first issue to be resolved when using photographs from the Internet is whether the photographs the researcher is using are public or private. When an image originates from a public press conference (Figure 6) or from a public event (Figure 7), we see fewer problems with showing photographs in which people can be identified. However, when it is uncertain whether those appearing in the photographs being used have themselves publicly displayed the visual images, individual privacy can be a concern. These concerns seem to correspond with the advice the researcher of this study received from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD). In terms of complying with the national standards of privacy, this study was reported to the NSD. The project was accepted with the comment that all photographs had to be anonymised, which implied that the photographs had to be blurred so that individuals could not be identified. The only exception to this rule was for photographs of elite athletes, in which it was apparent from the context that the athletes had voluntarily participated in the photograph. Moreover, when these pictures should be published in this journal we had to obtain copyright for the photos used in the article. By using ‘reverse image search’ in Google, we could find which pages the photos derived from, and obtain permission from the owner of the photos. In some cases where the pictures derived from international social media accounts, this was difficult. Therefore, some of the photos presented by the participants had to be replaced by similar ‘legal’ photos (photos 2, 3 and 5).
Emerging representations
In principle, there may be an unlimited amount of representations of a discourse (Neumann, 2001). However, based on this study’s limited sample, the analysis revealed four representations, that is, socially reproduced facts about a valued body. These representations were given the following subheadings: a healthy body, a beautiful body, a body that had lost weight, and a body that can perform. These representations are presented chronologically.
A healthy body
When the young women explained why they valued a particular photograph, one of the rationales was that the photograph represented a healthy body. Camilla presented the photograph shown in Figure 1 and asserted,
A healthy body (Photo: Helene Høimyr).
I think it looks like she has a healthy body, a body that is not too over-trained. It looks like she takes care of herself. She is not fat, and she is not too thin. You can see that she has some muscles, which might indicate that she exercises regularly. She looks healthy, she glows, and she looks motivated … I think she values her own body, because she is not at a fitness centre, where she is concerned about getting attention from others. She is alone. I think she is exercising for her own benefit.
Camilla said that she chose the photo (Figure 1) because it inspired her to be a healthier version of herself. She said, Yes, because this picture … I am not kidding … It looks likes she is the kind of person who fixes everything. Because there is so much energy, I read so much into this picture. She might be a mother of two who might be busy. She manages to do her shopping, exercise … she manages everything in her daily life, in addition to exercising. Without focusing too much on exercising, but enough to keep fit.
Camilla’s understanding of health focused on ‘taking care of oneself’, and she associated health with exercising and not being fat. She emphasised a body ideal that is not too thin but not too over-trained either. However, she stressed the importance of finding a balance in life and not being too obsessed with training. She also indicated that people who exercise at fitness centres are too concerned with appearance and receiving attention from others, indicating that ‘sculpturing the body’ is the main motivation for exercising at fitness centres (Pronger, 2002). In contrast, the woman in the photograph was exercising alone, outdoors in nature. In the Norwegian context, outdoor activities are associated with physical as well as mental health benefits. Camilla’s focus on ‘managing everything’ and ‘finding a balance in life’ seems to be more embedded in a holistic health discourse, where mental/physical health is integrated, and where the focus is on well-being (Leder, 1998).
Marie also talked about a healthy body as a valued body. However, her understanding of health was more linked to appearance. Marie presented the photograph shown in Figure 2. When asked why she chose this photograph, Marie said,
A pregnant body (Photo: Shutterstock).
I think a valued body is a body that is healthy enough to exercise when pregnant. The results from exercising are positive; you look better before, during and after the pregnancy. So, I think this picture [Figure 2] expresses health in today’s society. That the body is able to exercise even though it is pregnant … I think it is a good-looking pregnant body. Without the stomach, she looks really good. It could have been a normal, fit, not pregnant body, if you deleted the stomach.
Marie described the body, You can see that she has muscles in her arms and legs, but she is not too toned … It is just the right amount of muscles. You can see the muscles; there isn’t a lot of fat covering the muscles, but it is not too much muscle either. Her body fat percentage is not too low, and because she has some fat, she looks healthier.
Most of the young women expressed the opinion that a valued body is a healthy body. Marie showed the common link made between health, exercising, and having a body with muscles and little body fat. The idea that a pregnant body should not gain too much fat and should be fit is also present. The body ideal implies that the percentage of body fat should be so low that the muscles are visible. This understanding of ‘a healthy body’ emphasises the appearance of the body, and is in line with Jette’s (2006) findings based on her discourse analysis of a tips column for new and expectant mothers in a fitness magazine. Jette’s analysis revealed a discourse promoting a feminine body ideal that shows little evidence of weight gain other than the growing foetus, and the message that a woman can transform herself into a fit mother through appropriate disciplinary and consumer practices. Similarly, Rail and Lafrance’s (2009) study of popular media text revealed a ‘yummy mummy’ discourse that presents pictures of celebrity mothers and ‘Hollywood Hotties’. These findings indicate that even the bodies of pregnant women are ‘targeted’ and embedded in dominating beauty discourses.
This link between health and beauty is found in other studies on children and youth (Burrows, 2010; Oliver, 2010; Patton and Parker, 2013; Rail, 2009). For example, Rail (2009) demonstrates how young people connect health with outward appearance and notions of beauty. Health was created as something one does (exercise, eat healthily and avoid being fat), and the participants in Rail’s study had integrated the discourse of individual responsibility for health. Consequently, ‘at risk’ bodies were constructed as lazy bodies, with the result of blaming those who did not control their weight. Linking health to appearance is also problematic because it might lead to some practices that are not beneficial for the body (e.g. steroids and dieting).
The findings of this study also echo research on physical education teachers’ understanding of health. Numerous studies have shown that physical education teachers’ understanding of health draws on an exercise physiology discourse (Aasland et al., 2017; Larsson, 2004; Öhman and Quennerstedt, 2008). When working with health, the teachers focused on high-intensity training and fitness tests to obtain objective measurements of the students’ health. A more ‘holistic’ view on health (Leder, 1998) that focuses on mental health and well-being was not apparent. The young women participating in this study had chosen sport as a subject in school. The presence of the exercise physiology discourse in physical education and sport studies might have reinforced the young women’s focus on being strong and thin when describing healthy bodies.
A beautiful body
All of the young women said that a beautiful body was valued, and had fairly similar ideas of what a beautiful body looked like. Benedicte included a photograph from an ‘inspiration’ webpage (see Figure 3). Benedicte explained that the pictures posted on the webpage are supposed to inspire and motivate people. Regarding the photographs, she commented,
A fit body (Photo: Shutterstock).
They are fit; that’s not the problem. The problem is just that the women are showing off. You are supposed to be so perfect and to inspire others … This is the typical body ideal you see everywhere in the media: skinny and fit … It is my ideal too; everyone wants to have a beautiful body.
Cecilia chose a photograph (see Figure 4) of the famous American fitness model, Jen Selter. Cecilia said that this photo expresses young people’s typical idea of a beautiful body.
A beautiful body (Photo: Jen Selter).
She commented, She has a very sexy body. She has a very nice butt, and she is thin. She doesn’t really look strong; she looks mostly hot. It may not be my body ideal, but I know that a lot of people want to look like her. She is the expression of being sexy. A typical body ideal that we see a lot in the media. It is trendy for girls to have muscles, and I think that everyone would like to have a butt like hers, including myself, at least when I stop playing soccer. Maybe not now, but I would like to look like this when my focus is not on sports anymore. It looks like she has a lot of focus on her butt, something which is important today.
In her statements about a beautiful body, Cecilia made an explicit link between a beautiful body and a sexually attractive body. In terms of body ideal, she mentioned the importance of having very nice buttocks. The pose as seen in the photograph (Figure 4) is widespread in social media, as the position makes the buttocks appear larger and more fit (Elise, 2015). It can be argued that the pose and camera angles focusing on the buttocks sexualise the pictures and commodify the female body for the ‘male gaze’ (Kane et al., 2013; Krane et al., 2010). The girls did not present a critique of the way the women were posing.
Cecilia made an interesting distinction between the body ideal she has now as a soccer player and the body ideal that she will have when she stops playing soccer. This suggests that her position as a soccer player distanced her from the dominant ideal of a beautiful body as represented in the media. This finding indicates ‘struggles between representations’ (Neumann, 2001), and how body ideals and body images are dynamic and negotiated in and outside sports (Grahn, 2016).
A body that has lost weight
One of the participants, Maiken, said that bodies that have lost weight are particularly valued. She said that it is easy to respect these bodies when viewing before-and-after photographs. Maiken said that she was trying to lose weight and become more toned. However, she added that it was difficult and extremely demanding. Maiken used social media to gain inspiration. She chose a photograph (see Figure 5) from a weight loss profile on Instagram that she followed.
A body that has lost weight (Photo: Shutterstock).
Maiken said, I chose this picture [Figure 5] because she has worked hard. To be able to lose that much weight and get such a nice body is difficult and very demanding. It requires discipline and work … She has reached the goal, and that is inspiration for me and others. When you are results-oriented and focused, you will see results. You only have to work hard and give it time. I want to succeed because I want to feel good. I would feel better and have more self-confidence if I had a body like this.
Before-and-after photographs are common on weight loss webpages, and, as Maiken said, they are intended to inspire people to work hard and lose weight. Maiken linked her future weight loss to feeling good and gaining more self-confidence. The idea that weight loss can increase self-confidence has been reported in other studies (Furnham et al., 2002). The mantra that everyone can attain a beautiful body if they just work hard is present in her story, as it is also present in the media. In recent years, television channels have produced several programmes that present this idea to the audience. Wright (2009) claims that reality shows such as The Biggest Loser (NBC, 2004) promote the idea that change is absolutely necessary and that to not change is unthinkable and inexcusable. The competitors demonstrate for all to see that it is possible to lose large amounts of weight. However, Maiken stated that even though she tries hard, it is very difficult to lose weight.
A body that can perform
The young women also expressed that they value bodies that can achieve something, with a particular stress on sport performances. All of the young women included a photograph of the Norwegian cross-country skiing star Marit Bjørgen (see Figure 6).
The cross-country skier (Photo: Terje Visnes).
Camilla said, I picked a photo of Marit Bjørgen because she is so incredibly good at what she does. She focuses every day during the entire year on performing and winning competitions. She is more like a machine than a body. It’s like a machine that has to perform optimally when it competes … I think that everyone looks up to her and admires her for the work she does to be able to perform … I chose the photo [Figure 6] because she is so extremely muscular. It’s insane. She is ONLY muscle. There is nothing else. It is masculine on a female body, if I can put it that way. The muscles are incredibly toned, and you can see that the body is fit and shaped by hard work. It demands a lot of practice to get the body she has: not much fat and an incredible amount of muscle.
Another female athlete often mentioned by the young women was the Norwegian handball player Nora Mørk (see Figure 7). Mørk has been nominated as the world’s best handball player several times and is an enormously popular athlete in Norway.
The handball player (Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB scanpix).
Camilla said that she selected a photograph of Mørk (Figure 7) because she valued Mørk’s talent and performances. Camilla said that she identified with Mørk because she had recovered after a history of many sport injuries. Camilla said that returning after so many injuries requires a great deal of discipline and a drive towards performing. In addition, she commented on the link between the body’s appearance and performance.
I think her body is well proportioned. She has big arms, but I saw a photo of her wearing a sports bra, and she has a very fit stomach. So, all of her body parts fit with each other. She is very explosive; she needs to have big and fast muscles … and she is the type that pushes herself to the limits to get results. I know that there are thousands of hours of practice behind her.
In contrast to the other representation, the girls focused more on the capacity of the body when describing ‘a body that can perform’; the body is valued because of the amount of work it has undertaken and because the athletes are talented in their sport. This representation resembles Grahn’s (2016) findings from Sweden, where young female swimmers valued the functional body, describing it as a ‘V’. The Swedish girls negotiated traditional body ideals present among peers in school and the functional body ideal in swimming. Grahn found that the functional body seemed to be important for the girls to escape traditional gendered body ideals.
When the subjects of the present study were asked whether they considered these bodies (Figures 6 and 7) to be body ideals, the girls’ answers were mixed and underlined the tension between female athletes’ appearance and performance. Marie explained, In general, I value this body [Figure 6] because of how the body performs, not because of its appearance. It is not my body ideal … For me, the body is too masculine because of the amount of muscle. The torso is too big. I don’t want to look like that.
The finding that the bodies of female elite athletes are sometimes perceived to be too muscular and masculine is not new (Krane et al., 2004). However, this study shows that despite the development in the last few decades towards a new female body ideal that is more muscular and toned, young female athletes are still torn between the body ideals in and outside sports. Too much muscle is still perceived to be in conflict with body ideals outside sports.
However, it seems to be an important finding and an indication of change that all of the young women chose to include a photograph of this athlete (Figure 6), even though her amount of muscles created debate in the media when she wore a dress at an awards ceremony (NTB, 2012). The young women’s choice of photographs of these two female elite athletes supports previous findings indicating that there has been a shift in the female body ideal from thin to more muscular and fit (Azzarito, 2010; Markula, 2001). However, it should be noted that the data also stress that young women share a concern about avoiding becoming too muscular or too masculine, as having a body that is too muscular is still associated with being too masculine.
Still, these images might play an important role and contribute to the transgression of the discursive domination of the beautiful body ideal, because they may create critical awareness and media debate on the limitations of feminine body ideals, as was the case when the athlete (Figure 6) wore a dress revealing her muscular arms (NTB, 2012). This argument is supported by Ross, Barak and Krane, who have stated that through new images of female athletes who celebrate and portray various degrees of muscularity and athletic aptitude, a new vision of femininity may emerge that allows for strong bodies that vary in size (Ross et al., 2013: 117). Moreover, Ross et al. emphasise the potential that these photographs have, because authentic representations allow sportswomen to become role models who can encourage healthy body judgements, enhance confidence, increase commitment to sport and motivate young women towards high levels of athletic competence.
The concept of ‘valued bodies’ was used in this study with a focus on young female athletes’ constructions of valued bodies. The findings indicate that the concept is connected to a specific normative body appearance. Additionally, the findings illustrate that the concept is linked to proficient performance of sporting skills. As such, studying valued bodies, instead of body ideals, broadens the discussion and shows that bodies are not only valued due to their appearance.
The study is based on a small sample of young female athletes. However, the researcher argues that the findings might reflect a Norwegian youth discourse on valued bodies. The study demonstrates that the fitness discourse is an important sub-discourse of the valued body discourse. In Norway, previous research has identified exceptionally high youth involvement in sport and at fitness centres (Strandbu et al., 2017). These high numbers can be seen as examples of the strength of the fitness discourse in the Norwegian context. In line with Foucault (1980), it is likely that the young people embedded in this fitness discourse will share some of the same understandings of valued bodies.
Concluding discussion
The analysis revealed four representations of a valued body: ‘a healthy body’, ‘a beautiful body’, ‘a body that has lost weight’ and ‘a body that can perform’. When talking about a healthy body, a beautiful body and a body that has lost weight, the young women emphasised the appearance of the body. The beautiful body representation dominated and was typically presented as a fit and thin body. All of the young women agreed that it is important to find a balance within this ideal – neither becoming too thin (anorexic) nor too muscular (female bodybuilders). However, they all emphasised a body ideal that has toned muscles and a very low percentage of body fat. The photographs chosen by the women featured a combination of posed subjects, camera angles, sweat and nudity that constructed sexualised femininities whereby young women were portrayed as passive bodies commodified for the ‘male gaze’ (Kane et al., 2013).
Another construction in the young women’s stories was the idea that a beautiful body is a healthy body. This understanding is also seen in Burrow’s (2010) and Rail’s (2009) studies of children. Linked to this understanding is the discourse of individual responsibility for health. All of these understandings are embedded in the fitness discourse. Pronger (2002) and Markula and Pringle (2006) show how the fitness discourse equates health with beauty. The idea that everyone can and should obtain a beautiful body has led young people to engage in self-surveillance and disciplinary techniques at fitness centres. The analysis indicates that the fitness discourse is an important sub-discourse to the valued body discourse. The young women’s understandings of valued bodies are embedded within this discourse.
Based on the analysis of the data, the beautiful body representation appears to be the dominating representation of the valued body discourse. This representation is so strong that it is almost hegemonic (Neumann, 2001). The strength of the ‘beautiful body’ representation might be seen as surprising given that the young women are student athletes. However, the representation of the beautiful body as a valued body has strong historical roots. Historically, more so than men, women have been presented in the media with reference to their beauty or as sexual objects (Wykes and Gunter, 2005). As such, the current focus on the beautiful body in social media is just a continuation of this history. The massive dissemination of the beautiful body representation in social media can be analysed as an example of the amount of discursive work needed to maintain the hegemony of a representation (Neumann, 2001).
In addition to valuing a body because of its fit, thin and sexually attractive appearance, the study shows that young women also value bodies due to their sport skills and performances. When asked about valued bodies, all of the young women showed at least one photograph (out of 10) of a female elite athlete. Some of the young women emphasised that they identified with these athletes and that they valued these bodies because of their talent, their willingness to practise hard, their discipline and their drive towards performance. Some of these bodies were described as machines that had to perform optimally when competing. The assertion that a valued body is a body that can perform illustrates that the sport discourse is another central sub-discourse to the valued body discourse.
The analysis reveales discursive struggles between the sport discourse and the beautiful body discourse. For example, Marie said that she valued the body of the cross-country skier (see Figure 6) because of her performances, and not because of her appearance. Another struggle between these two sub-discourses is apparent in Cecilia’s statement. She said that the photograph of the beautiful body (see Figure 4) was a good example of a valued body but that this body was not an ideal for her while she still played soccer. However, she said that when she stops playing soccer, she will start working towards the beautiful body ideal. This illustrates how young female athletes negotiate between the functional body ideals within sports and societal body ideals. It also demonstrates how the functional body ideal reduces the power of the traditional feminine body ideal (Grahn, 2016). As such, the sport discourse seems to limit the influence of the beautiful body discourse and permit the young female athletes to become less disciplined by the beautiful body discourse.
In this study, the discursive struggle is over the young women’s bodies, body ideals and accepted forms of femininities. The beautiful body ideal seems sometimes to conflict with the demands of the female elite athlete’s body. As such, the dominance of the beautiful body representation might limit the power of female elite athletes as role models for younger athletes. The femininity ideals embedded in these two representations differ. While the participants’ selected photographs of the beautiful body were passive, sexualised and an ‘object of display’, the photographs of the elite athletes were not sexualised, but represented active, strong and powerful femininities in line with Azzarito’s (2010) descriptions of ‘Future Girls’ and new femininities presented in the media. There were no examples of the common eroticisation of elite athletes (Cooky, 2011). The discourses also differed in terms of women’s body usage (Frank, 1991, 1995; Paechter, 2003). The representations of the beautiful body focused on exercising as a way of shaping the body and ‘mirroring body work’ (Frank, 1991, 1995), and reproduced traditional forms of femininities. In contrast, the representations of the body that can perform promoted exercising as a basis for competing and ‘dominating body work’ (Frank, 1991, 1995).
That said, the beautiful body discourse and the sport discourse also share rationalities and logic. Both of the representations share a body ideal that is fit with a low percentage of fat. In both representations, the body is perceived as an object that must be controlled and monitored. As such, they are both embedded in what Pronger (2002) labels ‘the technology of physical fitness’, a discourse which produces human life in controlled ways; a discourse on the body that seeks to limit its potential, disguising itself as a way of doing precisely the opposite (Pronger, 2002: 10). In contrast, we support the view presented by Pronger (2002) and Frank (1991, 1995) that there is a need for body usages that view the body as potential, and to focus instead on the pleasure or the profound intrinsic experience of exercising. This might give young women more bodily choice and improve their psychological well-being (Gard, 2016).
The study illustrates that young women’s bodies are contested ideological terrain (Messner, 1988) in which competing representations of valued bodies, ideals of femininity and bodily activities confront each other. If sport participation should become ‘technology of the self’ (Foucault, 1993) that empowers young female athletes, the participation in sport and fitness activities must include critical awareness of how different discourses on the body might limit young women’s potential in and outside sport. The consequences of being embedded in different representations are not always obvious to young people. As such, this study argues that there is a need to involve young women in critical examinations of the influence of different representations of valued bodies on their perceptions of body ideals, femininities, health and sports.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.