ONCE UPON A SUBCULTURE

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, professional women tennis players have been among the most highly visible female athletes. In the 1990s, high-profile celebrity women tennis players such as Steffi Graf and Monica Seles earn millions of dollars in prize winnings and endorsements. But this was not always the case. In the early years of the “open era” of tennis, professional women tennis players commonly earned only a fraction of the prize winnings awarded to men. This was until a specific conjunctural moment in women's tennis history when key events produced the celebrity space in which professional female athletes now flourish. Using Hebdige's subcultural theory, the author contends that meanings of the subculture of professional women's tennis are revealed in distinctive styles that emerged beginning in the 1970s.