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Mediated Moral Panics: Trans Athlete Spectres, the Haunting of Cisgender Girls and Politicians as Moral Entrepreneurs in 2021

aAthlete Ally, USA
bUniversity of Stirling, UK

Justice for Trans Athletes

ISBN: 978-1-80262-986-6, eISBN: 978-1-80262-985-9

Publication date: 5 December 2022

Abstract

In the months leading up to, and during, the 2021 legislative session – the most dangerous for trans athletes in the history of the United States – 1,224 news articles, public statements and opinion pieces were published through online sources about trans people having access to sport. Conducting a textual analysis of those mediated articles, we conclude that trans athletes are being used by conservative political forces to instigate a social, moral panic. We identified three primary framings being used to instil a moral panic in articles published between 1 December 2020, and 1 June 2021, inflaming the debate over trans athletes. First, trans athletes have been positioned as spectres haunting the future of sport. Second, narratives of fear frame trans women as psychologically malevolent. Finally, conservative politicians are creating a moral panic to paint themselves as protectors of cisgender girls in sport. We conclude by describing the ways fears about trans athletes are being politicized by larger conservative forces that may have especially harmful ramifications for both trans athletes and cisgender women athletes.

Keywords

Citation

Baeth, A. and Goorevich, A. (2022), "Mediated Moral Panics: Trans Athlete Spectres, the Haunting of Cisgender Girls and Politicians as Moral Entrepreneurs in 2021", Greey, A.D. and Lenskyj, H.J. (Ed.) Justice for Trans Athletes (Emerald Studies in Sport and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-985-920221009

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023 Anna Baeth and Anna Goorevich. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited