%0 Journal Article
%T Stereotyping by omission and commission: Creating distinctive gendered spectacles in the televised coverage of the 2015 Australian Open men¡¯s and women¡¯s tennis singles semi
%A Alanna Wurm
%A Dearan McGrath
%A Dylan Mernagh
%A Emma Ryan
%A Erin Beal
%A Harley Barnes
%A Mairead Fallon
%A Michael Quayle
%A Monika Pilch
%A Peter Wall
%A Rachel Flynn
%A Ran Wei
%A Roseanne McKenna
%A Sarah Walsh
%A Thomas Barr
%J International Review for the Sociology of Sport
%@ 1461-7218
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1012690217701889
%X This paper explores the way in which announcers created spectacle in the Eurosport coverage of the men¡¯s and women¡¯s tennis singles semi-finals and finals at the Australian Open 2015. This was an event where gender representations were under global social media scrutiny after two female players were asked to ¡®twirl¡¯ for the audience. We used a two-phase thematic analysis. Semantic thematic analysis showed that more personal descriptions were directed at women than men and these often described off-court features. Descriptions of men included detailed and specific portrayals of physical characteristics, while women¡¯s bodies were seldom referred to specifically. Discourse analysis showed that men¡¯s games were spoken of as physical clashes between titans. In contrast, women¡¯s matches were described in aesthetic rather than physical terms and ¡®diva-like¡¯ personalities and relationships were important features of women¡¯s game narratives. While male bodies were described in specific detail where relevant to technical features of the game, women¡¯s bodies were only described indirectly and non-specifically. For the women¡¯s game, this dialogical repression of specific body talk in combination with a strong focus on aesthetic judgements invoked stereotypes by omission, simultaneously reinscribing gender stereotypes and emphasizing their importance by communicating taboo. These gendered commentaries created distinctive gendered spectacles for the men¡¯s and women¡¯s events
%K commentatary
%K announcers
%K gender
%K media
%K sex differences
%K spectacle
%K television broadcasting of sports
%K tennis
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690217701889