title: "It's cheesy when they smile:" what girl athletes prefer in images of female college athletes.
abstract: Building on previous research in which we provided an opportunity for female college athletes to construct their own photographic portrayals, this study explored young female athletes' perceptions of the college athlete photographs. Fifty-two girls participated in focus group interviews where they viewed and discussed the images. The young athletes particularly liked images they perceived to show authentic athletes (e.g, in athletic settings, with appropriate sport attire), images they could relate to due to personal experiences, and images that reflected competent and passionate sportswomen. Images perceived as revealing a lack of motivation, poor sporting attitudes, and nonathletic poses generally were disliked. Images depicting multiple social identities (e.g., an athlete in a dress) were controversial and generated much discussion.
authors.affiliation: School of Human Movement, Sport, & Leisure Studies, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. vkrane@bgsu.edu
authors.forename: Vikki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Krane
authors.forename: Sally R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Montana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Kristy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ganoe
authors.forename: Cathryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucas-Carr
authors.forename: Katie Sullivan
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Barak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D010781:Photography; D012904:Smiling