21 years later: Reflecting on femininity, masculinity, physicality and the English tabloid press

During the summer of 2000, Harris and Clayton examined how the English tabloid print sports media created and represented femininity, masculinity and physicality over the course of the men's European Football Championship and the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The predominantly qualitative content analysis described seven dominant themes, including the relative invisibility of women athletes, the emphasis of traditional masculine traits of men athletes, the contradictory reporting of pain and sacrifice of men and women athletes, the creation of (male) heroes and national identities, the coverage of ‘appropriate’ women's sporting roles, non-task relevant commentary for women athletes and the eroticising of women's bodies. The present research reconsiders the efficacy of these themes 21 years later during the confluence of the Euro 2020 and Wimbledon 2021 tournaments, following a deductive analysis of 2081 sports-related articles over 30 consecutive days of coverage in the Sun and the Mirror newspapers (11 June–11 July 2021). Findings suggest that while the re.lative invisibility of women athletes remains a significant issue, there is more limited evidence to support the existence of the other gendered themes.