ABSTRACT
For the purpose of transparency, this chapter identifies as a 'feminist sports sociologist' in academic spaces (example: faculty websites, professional narratives, academic biographies) and on social media (twitter). It provides an overview of the three major levels of analysis such as: production level, content level and reception level of research on media text/representations. The chapter also provides a brief discussion of the field of feminist cultural studies and theoretical frameworks. It then examines the representation of female athletes in media, primarily mainstream news media in the United States. The chapter offers insights into broader issues regarding feminist concerns of the ways in which the media texts/representations constitute and are constituted by bodies that are gendered, raced, classed, and sexualized. Feminist cultural studies is a theoretical and methodological orientation to understand how cultural images/texts/artifacts produce the category 'woman' or 'girl', and thus articulate gender, gender difference, and gendered hierarchies of power.
