Talent alone does not suffice: erotic capital, media visibility and global popularity among professional male and female tennis players

Following Catherine Hakim's notion of the increasing significance of 'erotic capital' in contemporary society, this paper addresses the effects of erotic capital in the realm of professional sports. Erotic capital may be closely related to popularity and thus represents a key marketin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of gender studies 2019-01, Vol.28 (1), p.3-17
Main Authors: Konjer, Mara, Mutz, Michael, Meier, Henk Erik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ability
Athletes
Erotic capital
Eroticism
Females
Gender
gender discrimination
Hegemony
Incentives
Males
Marketing
Masculinity
Mass media
media visibility
Modern society
Physical attractiveness
Popularity
Professional sports
public attention
Search engines
Sex discrimination
Sexism
Sexualization
Sports
Tennis
Visibility
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Summary:Following Catherine Hakim's notion of the increasing significance of 'erotic capital' in contemporary society, this paper addresses the effects of erotic capital in the realm of professional sports. Erotic capital may be closely related to popularity and thus represents a key marketing asset, in particular for female athletes facing a predominantly male audience. These ideas are examined here through analysing the media visibility of top tennis players in the German print media, as well as their global popularity (measured by search engine queries). The results provide further evidence of gender discrimination in sport since they show that the popularity of female athletes depends on their physical attractiveness whereas such a relationship does not exist for male athletes. Given gender-discriminatory consumer and print media preferences, female athletes face strong incentives to adapt to a sexualized sports culture that reinforces hegemonic masculinity.
ISSN:0958-9236
1465-3869
DOI:10.1080/09589236.2017.1365696