Sports-Politics is a four-year research project funded by the Spanish Ministry (Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2024) that seeks to explore Sports audiovisual productions as drivers and promoters of social values and healthy practices, while also analyzing the gender inequality and its broader social impact.
Sports-Politics seeks to address key social challenges related to gender dimension, the dominance of audiovisual consumption, public health concerns,
risky behaviors, and physical inactivity.
Research Objectives
Explore television fiction as a driver and promoter of social values and healthy practices, analyzing how narratives and representations contribute to shaping social behaviors and attitudes.
Analyze the gender dimension within television fiction and its social impact, focusing on how gender roles, stereotypes, and inequalities are portrayed and potentially challenged or reinforced.
Disaggregate the study by age groups—adults, youth, and adolescents—and evaluate the influence of television fiction on each group, particularly regarding social challenges like gender inequality, audiovisual consumption patterns, health issues, risky behaviors, and physical inactivity.
Context
The disruption of sports as the last bastion of supposed male superiority was promoted between 2018 and 2020 through initiatives by institutions, federations, and television productions. Its impact on audiovisual fiction has been sporadic, but it is worth examining whether it could have broader influence. Women’s sports predate
their visibility, despite often being framed as “pioneering” or even prohibited.
Study Rationale
The polarization between feminist advances and the rise of machismo (incel antifeminism, the manosphere, gender violence denialism, tradwives) highlights the need for gender and feminist studies. Sports, including its fictional representation,
remain a contested space between the heteropatriarchal system and minorities striving for inclusion.
Project PID2024-161316OB-I00 funded by:
