Gender, Media, and Mixed Martial Arts in Poland

Abstract

Recent growth in the media visibility of female combat sport athletes has offered a compelling site for research on gender and sport media, as women in deeply masculinized sports have been increasingly placed in the public spotlight. While scholars in the Anglophone West have offered analyses of the media framing of this phenomenon, little work has been done outside these cultural contexts. Thus, in this paper we offer a qualitative exploration of how Joanna Jędrzejczyk, a Polish champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has been represented in Polish media. Our findings reveal a relatively de-gendered, widely celebratory account, primarily framed by nationalistic discourse -findings we ascribe to both the particularities of the sport of mixed martial arts as well as the historic nature of Jędrzejczyk's success.

'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes': exploring 'alternative' femininity in women's combat sports

“…In a context of increasing mainstream visibility for women in highprofile combat sports [e.g., Cain 2105;Hope 2015;Jakubowska et al 2016], and amidst on-going public debate over the appropriateness of using normative feminine imagery to promote sport participation to women [e.g., Sanghani 2014;Fullagar and Francombe-Webb 2015], we argue that findings such as these stand to make an important Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes Alex Channon and Catherine Phipps MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES 33 martialartsstudies.org contribution to the way in which femininity is understood within martial arts studies. While we do not deny that pressure to conform to feminine norms is often exerted on athletic women, nor that such a process can be restrictive or harmful to the development of their abilities and thus damaging to the gender-subversive potential of MACS (among other, related activities), we nevertheless argue that, in other cases, the exact opposite may be true: women can choose to be feminine, doing so on their own terms and in ways which potentially work in subversive directions.…”

The ‘male preserve’ thesis, sporting culture, and men’s power

“…Regarding professional combat sports, the Ultimate Fighting Championship likewise took until 2012 to introduce women to its roster of professional fighters. Public reception of these athletes has, however, been largely positive -both within subcultural spaces built around the sports, and in more mainstream media coverage (Godoy-Pressland, 2015;Jakubowska et al, 2016;Woodward, 2014). The high-profile exploits of women fighting has provided ample opportunity for the construction of discourses challenging orthodox ideals of gender, arguably weakening the symbolic value of these sports as male preserves.…”

Re-establishing the ‘outsiders’: English press coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup

“…Specifically, we consider how, in relation to the success of the English women's team, 'established' discourses on football were negotiated and struggled over in the English press (Duemmler, 2015;Jakubowska et al, 2016). It is to examining these 'struggles' that we now turn.…”