The Media and The Postmodern Athlete: A Political Economic Analysis of Mia Hamm and David Beckham

Abstract

Sport has become so deeply in engrained in Western culture that society’s understanding of it has become permeated with common sense. Deromanticizing the idea of sport, researchers have recently come to study sport as a cultural formation, asking that it be understood as an institution with a complex historical background. At its core, sport can be understood as an institution that is problematic. This idea opens the door for researchers to critically analyze the structure of sport and the power relations at play in sport and consumer culture. The central focus of the project examines the political economic structures and processes that have led to the complex conditions of the commodification of the professional athlete in twenty-first century Western society. As such, this project will address how athletes, such as soccer stars Mia Hamm and David Beckham, have been utilized as commodities to reach niche markets, represent multiple identities, and to maintain normative ideas of sport and society. In its entirety, this project will address how social, cultural, and historical processes converge to shape twenty-first century Western sport.