Misogyny & Anti-Black Racism in Sport and Sport Media

Black, Japanese, and More Than the Sum of Our Parts: Misogynoir in Women’s Sport Media 

We are pleased to participate as a co-sponsor.

February 1, 2023 |4:00-5:30 PM

Room 208N, Munk School, University of Toronto, 1 Devonshire Pl.

Janelle Joseph Assistant Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education; Founder and Director of the IDEAS Research Lab: Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity, and Anti-racism in Sport, University of Toronto

Chair: Takashi Fujitani Dr. David Chu Chair in Asia-Pacific Studies, Professor of History, and Director of the Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies

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Overt and subtle misogynoir (anti-Black misogyny) pervade sport and sport media, as women in the Black diaspora are rarely in control of sporting regulations or their media representations. One recourse racialized athletes have at their disposal, however, is active resistance. This presentation provides a textual analysis of the intolerable misogynoir aimed at tennis professional Naomi Osaka, and key moments in her media (mis)representations. Results of a study co-authored with Dr. Sabrina Razack revealed three main themes: (1) ongoing misogynoir and colorism of sport media and athlete sponsors; (2) racial, national and diaspora media (mis)representations; and (3) resistance to gendered racism through self representation.

After Osaka’s historic win at the 2018 US Open, narratives of her Japanese nationality and Asian identity became the story that rendered her Blackness invisible, and enabled her to be read against her opponent Serena Williams. Osaka’s use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including social media, disrupted racist dominant narratives, and provided counternarratives that reveal her, and other mixed-race sportswomen to be more that the sum of our parts. Osaka’s identities align with Blackness as a political and racial category and position her Japaneseness part of the Haitian jaspora (diaspora).