Features of femininity: sportswomen in the Spanish sporting press, 1893 – 1923

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the visual discourses of Spanish sport newspapers during the initial era of modern sport in Spain. Employing a critical feminist framework, the research focuses on the representation of sportswomen and the construction of visual discourses of femininity. The study identifies a broad range of femininities: from characteristics symbolic of the most traditional image of the feminine, to completely transgressive versions of femininity. Femininity also appears associated with certain sports, and, in contrast to the discourses of the era, it is an active femininity, with the majority of images capturing sporting actions. We conclude that the most traditional femininities live alongside transgressive femininities, and that active movement is an accepted feature of femininity in the context of sport during the period under consideration.