The Heart of the Game

Girls, Sports and the Limits of 'Empowerment

Bibliographic Data

ID2349315
AuthorsDawn Heinecken (0000-0003-2246-5194, University of Louisville, KY, USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume45
Issue3
Pages251-271
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sport and Social Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0193-7235 • E-ISSN: 1552-7638
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0193723519898705
OpenAlexW2999569073
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

As one of the most widely celebrated documentaries about female athletes to date, The Heart of the Game remains an important text to examine for the ways it represents female athletic experience and encourages audiences to consider gender issues in sport. Such an investigation is particularly apt, given how sports documentaries authenticate particular viewpoints while being understood by audiences as historical reflections of reality. Although the film is praiseworthy for exposing the cultural construction of gender as well as some ways gender ideologies hamper female athletic success, this essay argues that The Heart of the Game's progressive agenda is ultimately undercut by its simultaneous reproduction of gender and racial ideologies that actually marginalize women and girls in sport

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Athletes · Empowerment · Gender relations · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Viewpoints · Visual arts · American Sports and Literature · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society