![]() ![]() This article examines the constructions of women’s sexuality, gender and celebrity scandal in mainstream media coverage of this event. The scandal began with the publication of a pixellated photograph in the popular Australian women’s magazine, Woman’s Day, of a naked and apparently unconsenting Bingle in the shower, which was allegedly taken by Fevola during a brief affair years previously and distributed via his mobile phone. Over the period of a few short weeks in 2010 Australian media coverage and public discussion was dominated by news of a ‘sex scandal’ involving two high-profile celebrities – Lara Bingle (model and then fiancée of the vice-captain of the Australian cricket team Michael Clarke), and the Australian rules football ‘bad boy’ Brendan Fevola. ![]() It is worth noting that certain articles referencing Victoria were the only challenge – in this study – to the hegemonic patterns apparent in the image of the footballer's wife. A further typology was developed to incorporate the most media‐visible of all footballers' partners, Victoria Beckham, whose ‘image’ is both complicit and contradictory. Adopting a critical feminist perspective, two principal typologies were developed to explore this role: the beautiful, erotic woman and the devoted and supportive woman, both of which, we argue, are complicit to the stalwart hegemonic project happening in English football. The focus of this examination was not the footballers per se, but the women implicated in their ‘off the pitch’ lives, whose media image, we posit, is constructed in accordance with a traditionally feminine, hetero‐sexy, and ‘expressive/supportive’ role. Media accounts of the heterosexual practices of a number of elite football players were examined. More specifically, a textual analysis of multiple media sources was conducted, the results of which connect media portrayals of, and narratives about, the image of football players' partners with the social (re)production of masculine hegemony. ![]() This article is concerned with the media image of some of the women associated with professional football players in England. ![]()
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January 2023
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