Moving the Goalposts: American Sports Coverage in Newspapers and the Construction of Gender, Race and Sexuality in the Olympics in 1928, 1932, 1936.

Author

Jacob Havers, Clemson UniversityFollow

Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Chair/Advisor

Amanda Regan

Committee Member

Abel Bartley

Committee Member

Archana Venkatesh

Abstract

This thesis takes an in-depth look at the media coverage of women in the Olympics in 1928, 1932 and 1936. Specifically following the track athletes Kinue Hitomi, Louise Stokes, Tidye Pickett and Mildred “Babe” Didrikson the thesis explores how by being athletic women they had their identities as feminine figures heavily questioned and scrutinized in newspapers at the global level. The harshest of these critics was often the American media, who held strict standards of race, gender and sexuality in the late 1920s-mid 1930s. They sought to uphold these standards at the global scale, and the American media’s interrogation of these women’s identities and speculation on their sexuality helped cause a global questioning of acceptable femininity tied to women’s health and social acceptability concerns.

Throughout the three Olympics covered, the women involved had their identities placed on blast at every opportunity. They were accused of being men, they had their builds overexamined and their sexuality and private lives exposed to the public simply for partaking in sports. In addition to this social concern, physical educators and media members feared for the women’s health. They raised concerns regarding their menstrual health, and overall physical ability compared to male athletes, and worried that sports would cause women to become less feminine and potentially lead to death due to menstrual complications. They often ignored the success these athletes brought to their countries and continued to push the globe back to where women could not run track and field.

This thesis finds that while these concerns came from a genuine place, they had incredibly harmful impacts. In 1928, media panic combined with pre-existing anxiety about women’s sports led to the eight-hundred-meter race being removed until 1960, and also implemented harsh sex-testing policies for many years. While the media did not create these fears over women in sports, they worsened them. They continued to echo them and exaggerate them, stirring up more fear in the American (and global) public, created more barriers against women in sports. The conclusion of the thesis shows that despite wider participation for women in sports in the modern day, American media outlets still create harmful barriers to women’s participation, highlighting the particular relevance of this thesis.

Recommended Citation

Havers, Jacob, "Moving the Goalposts: American Sports Coverage in Newspapers and the Construction of Gender, Race and Sexuality in the Olympics in 1928, 1932, 1936." (2025). All Theses. 4464.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4464