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“We’ve … had to Make Ourselves more Visible Because … the Media hasn’t Done it for us”: Theorising a Visibility Bind in Relation to the Growing Prominence of Women’s Sport

Hannah Thompson-Radford Orcid Logo, Michael Skey Orcid Logo

Communication & Sport

Swansea University Author: Hannah Thompson-Radford Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/21674795251324846

Abstract

Women have been traditionally excluded from sport, and recent work has argued for the need to increase the visibility of both women’s sport and female athletes in order to secure public attention and commercial opportunities and encourage the next generation to participate. In this paper, we introdu...

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Published in: Communication & Sport
ISSN: 2167-4795 2167-4809
Published: SAGE Publications 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69125
Abstract: Women have been traditionally excluded from sport, and recent work has argued for the need to increase the visibility of both women’s sport and female athletes in order to secure public attention and commercial opportunities and encourage the next generation to participate. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the visibility bind to offer a more nuanced understanding of these debates. Here, we note that growing visibility may often operate as a double-edged sword for women operating in ‘traditional’ male domains and, largely unregulated, online spaces. Drawing on interviews with elite athletes from professional cricket in England, we show that visibility may not only lead to abuse and stereotyping, both overt and covert, but also places an added burden on players who are often expected to carry out unpaid physical and emotional labour. Finally, we draw attention to the benefits of being in a team sport where colleagues can provide advice, support and levity when dealing with such challenges.
Keywords: visibility; women's sport; cricket; online misogyny; media labour
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: This research was supported by the Economic & Social Research Council (UK) (2106607).

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