Dansk kvindehåndbold i medierne: Fra "jernhårde ladies" til småpiger

Sine Agergaard: Danish women’s handball and the media: from iron ladies to little girls The media have been interested in the Danish national women’s handball team since the beginning of the 1990s because the team has brought back international victories. However, an analysis of the two latest international sports events in women’s handball reveals a shift in the depiction of the Danish national team. At the European championships (Euro 2002), the media constructed a strong national sentiment that helped to support the Danish handball ladies, while at the World Cup in 2003, the same media produced ironical reports about the physically andmentally weak Danish handball girls. Using Wuthnow’s and Zeuner’s studies of the written, spoken and ritual contributions to discourses, this analysis compares one Danish newspaper’s and one TV-channel’s depiction of the two international sports events. In the first event, the media constructed a national community of discourse with written and spoken reports from Euro 2002 as a ritual course of events for the Danish handball ladies. In the second event, the media produced different national, physiological and psychological discourses to explain the defeated girls. The article also discusses the media’s tendency to focus on gender stereotypes when discussing top female athletes, such as masculine strength or feminine weakness instead of gender variety.