Whiteness and Sports Media

Abstract

It is the summer of the London Olympics and Paralympics. On the walk up to the campus, I meet a feminist colleague coming the other way. I haven’t seen since the end of term. ‘Been watching the Olympics?’ she asks. ‘Yeah, right,’ I reply with what I think is a sardonic tone (I actually don’t have a television and I haven’t watched any of it, so it’s a true response). ‘It’s great, isn’t it?’ she continues. I look at her to quickly see if she actually means what she is saying — she looks like she means it, and there were no tell-tale signs in the intonation. ‘Really?’ I ask, somewhat perturbed. ‘Yes, it’s been really exciting watching it all, I’ve got hooked’ she says as she heads past me. At that point I carry on walking, too. About a month later I am out on the hills with one of my closest friends. He’s an artist, quite famous in the world of fantasy art and comics — not a natural sports person. When we’re out walking or drinking together we talk about all sorts of rubbish, but never sport. And yet, when we’re struggling up a boggy path he says to me: ‘Did you watch the Olympics? It was incredible!’. ‘It was a big waste of money and a way for people to make money,’I reply. ‘Yeah, I know, but it was great, though, how it brought people together. And watching athletes from Britain do well. I liked the way we got to see sports that aren’t normally on TV. Made a change from football all the bloody time’. ‘It was a distraction,’ I reply, ‘just like the Queen’s jubilee. Make people happy, keep them in chains’.