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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. The History, Culture and Sociology of Sports
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1226943
This article is part of the Research Topic Hip Hop and Sport: Interconnectedness, Synergies and Intersectionality View all 3 articles

Cruel words, moves and gazes: exploring harm-facilitated objectification in sexual representations of sports athletes and Hip Hop artists

Provisionally accepted
Carl Stefan Roth-Kirkegaard Carl Stefan Roth-Kirkegaard *
  • University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This article aims to shed light on a less-explored aspect of sexual representation and objectification. While existing literature has delved into the sexualization in cultural depictions, this article zeroes in on a facet of sexualization where harm plays a role in facilitating objectification, either by oneself or others. Through the examination of cases in the realms of sports and Hip Hop, it is suggested that this type of objectification could be a trend, highlighting its features and potential variations. This perspective proposes a shift in the study of sexualization in sports and music, moving beyond the current focus on objectification as either discriminatory or empowering, and towards a more detailed understanding of the forms of objectification.Importantly, it posits that harm in objectification processes should not only be seen as a result of these processes, but also occasionally as a fundamental constituent. It also draws attention to some ways in which such harm-facilitated objectification is surfacing as a form of sexualization in both sports and music and their context of media business interests.

    Keywords: objectification, Symbolic violability, Hharm-facilitated objectification, hip hop, Sport, Ssexual representations, Mmedia industrial complexes., Warning: Contains explicit text

    Received: 22 May 2023; Accepted: 01 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Roth-Kirkegaard. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carl Stefan Roth-Kirkegaard, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.