Proud: Examining the Social Media Representation of Ibtihaj Muhammad

Abstract

The media portrayals of sportswomen especially Black and Muslim women tend to be monolithic, focusing only on oppression of the body and the barriers they face for entry into sport. Using the fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad as a case study, with an eye toward transnational feminism, this multimodal discourse analysis study found her social media representation provides complex insight into what it means to Black, Muslim, and a woman in a traditionally white and elitist sport. Muhammad seems to typify the many contradictory images one associates with white, Western sportswomen on social media; combining empowerment and commodification while leaving out one of the main visages often epitomized with it, the sexualization of the sportswomen form. As more scholars study sportswomen’s presence on social media and their activism, how athletes use these digital spaces to construct their identity is sure to have implications for how researchers also study collegiate athletes’ use of marketing and branding in the new era of name, image, and likeness. As Muhammad shows, sportswomen who historically have been exploited by the big business of sport because they are Black or Muslim, can now be assured a space for economic empowerment.