Abstract
This qualitative analysis of mediated discourses produced in and by US media throughout August 2016 unpacks how postfeminist sentiments were used to frame two Muslim sportswomen who represented Team USA during the 2016 Rio Olympics: Ibtihaj and Dalilah Muhammad. Findings suggest that whilst both women were positively framed in and through a range of “individual willpower” and “empowerment” discourses, media articulations of their individualised femininity and feminist politics also consolidated a range of established myths about the Muslim female subject, and the superiority of Westernised forms of femininity. While Ibtihaj was sensationalised as a “hijab-wearing” heroine, Dalilah was depicted as an uncovered, self-assured, (athletic) “queen”. Hence, while Ibtihaj’s veiled success further corroborated notions of American neoliberal superiority, Dalilah’s uncovered success was an emblematic celebration of the superior forms of Western freedoms awaiting those who transcend religious and cultural affiliations.
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- 1.
In December 2015, Trump proposed a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the USA (Johnson, 2016). In July 2016, Trump made crude remarks about Islam’s treatment of women after the speech from a Gold Star family in which the grieving mother of the Muslim US Army captain, who died in the line of duty in Iraq, remained sombre and silent. “Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say” commented Trump (Haberman & Oppel, 2016). Throughout the campaign trail, President Trump asserted that American Muslims did not assimilate, “don’t fit in” and that “Islam hate(d) non-Muslims and Americans” (Johnson & Hauslohner, 2017).
- 2.
According to Hutcheson, Domke, Billeaudeuax, and Garland (2004) mass communication media printed more stories that affirmed American values and ideals of individualism, liberty and equality, emphasising national unity within diversity to discourage protest and dissent, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
- 3.
The final collection of 60 US media sources examined in our study included feature stories and briefs on the two athletes as well as commentary and first-person opinion pieces printed in Wire/News Services and College Press. Briefs in which the two women were not necessarily the primary focus of the story, but in which testimonials about their performance at Rio or their own sporting experiences were presented to audiences, were included in our review. Stand-alone listings, briefings and opinion pieces that made reference to themes and testimonies already identified in other articles, were excluded from analysis but we recognise that these are important in demonstrating the tactics utilised by media sources to emphasise, accentuate and strengthen the impact of certain messages.
- 4.
In a speech criticising Trump’s right wing desire to both curb immigration and ban Muslims from entering the USA so as to preserve and protect “White” America, former US Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton not only praised Ibtihaj for being an emblematic symbol of America’s diversity, but questioned if someone like her “would … even have a place in Donald Trump’s America” (Blake, 2016).
- 5.
Lead author for this article, Rick Maese, also produced a feature article on Ibtihaj drawing attention to the fencer’s paradoxical desires to be “seen” and heard, while hiding beneath a “mask” and a “h ijab.”
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Samie, S.F., Toffoletti, K. (2018). Postfeminist Paradoxes and Cultural Difference: Unpacking Media Representations of American Muslim Sportswomen Ibtihaj and Dalilah Muhammad. In: Toffoletti, K., Thorpe, H., Francombe-Webb, J. (eds) New Sporting Femininities. New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72481-2_5
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