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NEW FEMININITIES IN
DIGITAL, PHYSICAL AND SPORTING CULTURES

Sportswomen’s
Apparel in the
United States
Uniformly
Discussed

Edited by
Linda K. Fuller
New Femininities in Digital, Physical and
Sporting Cultures

Series Editors
Kim Toffoletti
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Deakin University
Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Jessica Francombe-Webb
Department for Health
University of Bath
Bath, UK

Holly Thorpe
School of Health
University of Waikato
Hamilton, New Zealand
Palgrave’s New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures
series is dedicated to exploring emerging forms and expressions of femi-
ninity, feminist activism and politics in an increasingly global, consumer
and digital world. Books in this series focus on the latest conceptual,
methodological and theoretical developments in feminist thinking about
bodies, movement, physicality, leisure and technology to understand and
problematize new framings of feminine embodiment. Globally inclusive,
and featuring established and emerging scholars from multi-disciplinary
fields, the series is characterized by an interest in advancing research and
scholarship concerning women’s experiences of physical culture in a vari-
ety of cultural contexts.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15874
 Linda K. Fuller
Editor

Sportswomen’s
Apparel in the
United States
Uniformly Discussed
Editor
Linda K. Fuller
Communications Department
Worcester State University
Worcester, MA, USA

ISSN 2522-0330     ISSN 2522-0349 (electronic)

New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures
ISBN 978-3-030-45476-0    ISBN 978-3-030-45477-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45477-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 This volume is dedicated to the following female American sportswear
owners: runner Sally Bergesen (Oiselle), surfer Alana Blanchard (My
Bikinis), yoga practitioners Jodi Gruber Brufsky and Michelle Wahler
(Beyond Yoga), swimmer Sarah Buxton (TUTUblue), runner Leigh
Cockram (RaesWear), triathlete/Ironman Nicole de Boom (SkirtSports),
sustainability activist Ellie Dinh (Girlfriend Collective), swimmer Alecia
Elasser (RipSkirtHawaii), basketball player Rachelle Fitz (FitzUDesign),
surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton-Dirks (Crush
Sunglasses), recreationalist Taylor Haney (OutdoorVoices), Julie Foudy
leadership assistant Briana Holland (bre33), Muslim activist Fatimah
Hussein (Asiya), roller derby player Micki Krimmel (Superfit Hero), fitness
buff Denise Lee (Alala), cyclist Lea Leopold (Zuma Blu), marathon runner
Lara Mead (Varley), gymnast Shannon Miller (SMLifestyle), fencer Ibtihaj
Muhammad (Louella), Olympic cyclist Beth Hernandez Newell (Keirin
Cut Jeans), racer Danica Patrick (Warrior), captain of the National
Women’s Soccer league Megan Rapinoe (Re, Inc.), basketball player
Tywanna Smith (The Athlete’s NeXuss), rock climber Pam Theodosakis
(prAna), gymnast Katie Valleau (Valleau Apparel), and tennis players
Serena Williams (Signature Statement) and Venus Williams (EleVen).
 Preface

Uniformly
Uniform (noun): a special set of clothes worn by people belonging to an
organization to show others that they are members of it. Cambridge
Dictionary

Uniform (adjective): consistent in conduct or opinion. Merriam-Webster

Dictionary

Uniformly, it would seem, both sporting and nonsporting publics have

opinions about what girls and women should wear while engaging in
athletic forays, both private and professional. Titillating or tortuous,
appealing or atrocious, skimpy or serious, those uniforms that sports-
women wear have long been under scrutiny in terms of their interpreta-
tion, mediation, and simple comfort. Sometimes they are not even
uniforms per se, as proscribed by a particular sporting organization, but
instead might be individual choices by individual athletes. Sometimes
they are dictated by societal notions such as Victorian modesty, some-
times they need to conform to particular religious protocol or patriarchal
control, and sometimes “uniforms” might be determined by peer pres-
sure. Or not.
The fitness industry in the United States continues to grow, many
women using at-home treadmills costing more than $4000 (as well as

vii
viii Preface

monthly fees of $39 for streaming classes) or training apps (e.g., Jefit,
Booya Fitness, Beachbody, SWEAT) or going to expensive health clubs,
like SoulCycle, and using personal trainers. The fitness company Peloton
recently reported reaching the four-billion-dollar mark and has added
new categories of classes that include live music. The Mirror fitness
device, which retails for $1495, along with a $39/month subscription
fee, has become the darling of celebrities ranging from Alicia Keys to
Ellen DeGeneres. Rent the Runway, a New York City-based “rotating
closet” that allows customers continually new outfits, is based on the
notion that “The average American buys sixty-eight items of clothing,
eighty percent of which are seldom worn” (Schwartz 2018, p. 44).
Anecdotally, my friends report that family get-togethers like
Thanksgiving or Easter see guests dressed in casual outfits by companies,
like Juicy Couture sweat suits or various velour combinations. Lululemon
predominates. The ZOZOSUIT, a stretchy bodysuit, enables a 3D body
scan, and Reebok’s PureMove sports bra uses motion-sensing technology
to adapt to users’ movements in real time. Bralettes, with or without
blouses, are dominating another niche.
American novelist/academic Alison Lurie (1981, p. 3) knew about
this; drawing on French structuralist Roland Barthes (2006), she wrote
about the semiotics of dress, arguing that “Clothing is a language, if part
of a nonverbal system of communication, with its own vocabulary and its
own grammar.” Seeing what we wear as a “sign system,” she labeled the
uniform “The extreme form of conventional dress, the costume totally
determined by others” (p. 17), something “determined by external
authorities” (p. 18). At its extreme, “Constant wearing of official costume
can so transform someone that it becomes difficult or impossible for him
or her to react normally” (ibid.) We question that here.
Introducing the topic of sportswomen’s apparel here will include a
brief history, the economics of the industry, and some sociocultural
implications. Although I have written elsewhere that “The standard man-
tra about female athletes claims that they have been trivialized, marginal-
ized, hypersexualized, hierarchically devalued, made invisible, inferior,
and infantilized” (Fuller 2016, p. 2), in fact, that notion has been chal-
lenged by recent studies and realities. Nevertheless, we know of far too
many cases of gender inequity in the sporting world generally (see Hanson
 Preface ix

2012; Cooky and Messner 2018) as well as in specific worlds such as

baseball/softball (Shattuck 2107), cycling (Nordland 2016), equestrian
(Thompson 2016), golf (Pemberton 2002), ice hockey (Avery and Stevens
1997), soccer (Grainey 2012), and tennis (King 2008), among others.
When women make up 40% of athletes but only appear in 4% of cover-
age, it behooves us to bring them to the fore.
Since some contributors here (e.g., Deirdre Clemente and Nancy
G. Rosoff) deal with a historical perspective on sportswomen’s clothing,
suffice it to say that we have come a long way from hoop skirts and pet-
ticoats, crinolines and corsets, since the concept of sportswear was devel-
oped in the 1930s. Just thinking back to Winslow Homer’s 1877 painting
In the Mountains: Women with Walking Sticks, Annie Londonderry’s
“Women on Wheels” bicycle images, and/or the long skirts and restric-
tive clothing our foremother tennis players and golfers wore, it is evident
we have come a long way since Title IX both in civil/social reform and
comfort in clothing. “It was sports that brought women out-of-doors
into new activities that took them away from their housebound roles,”
Patricia Campbell Warner’s (2006, p. 5) has written, adding, “It was
sports that encouraged their latent competitive instincts. It was sports
and exercise that changed their way of thinking about themselves.” Some
of those narratives are available at the Smith College Historical Clothing
Collection in Northampton, MA—“an anthropological road map traces
the story from Gibson girls to the Western Front to the Dust Bowl to
bringing home the bacon and onward.”
Sportswear began as a middle-class/leisure American institution
according to Richard Martin (1985), curator of the Costume Institute of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see also Arnold 2008; Lockwood
2012). “From baseball skirts to hydrodynamic swimsuits,” Adena
Andrews of espnW (2015) has written—providing pictorial contrasts in
softball, basketball, skiing, track, tennis, swimming (e.g., Sarah Spain’s
2019 sexist reportage about a 17-year-old Alaskan state champion dis-
qualified for how her swimsuit fit), skating, racing, gymnastics, golf, and
soccer, uniforms continue to change. How appropriate is it that the US
women’s soccer team has recently announced that they will soon start
competing under their own brand or that for the Miss America pageant
candidates will no longer need to be judged in bikinis? Are we at last
x Preface

making inroads from objectification and the male gaze to nonjudgmental

assessments of performers’ performances alone?
Today, when “loungewear” is a category unto itself, the trend known
as “Athleisure-wear,” an outgrowth of our propensity to wear comfortable
exercise clothing as fashion, made possible due to numerous technologi-
cal improvements, has become a major market—estimated at $83 billion
in 2016. Think fleece jackets or cashmere track pants, $40+ exercise
classes, $320 workout tights, $1000 yoga mats. Starting at the bottom,
take the sports sneaker (or trainer), which has gone from being simply a
rubber-soled shoe to becoming part of a designer culture whereby special
models can cost upward of $1000 (Milnes 2016). While denim flares,
shirts, and jackets still are popular, lingerie leader Victoria’s Secret, which
features the skimpy and the sexy in an anachronistic holdout that objecti-
fies women, has seen its sales continue to crater such that its annual tele-
vision spectacle has recently been removed from network television after
a two-decade run. And then there is the newly offered “Woman’s World”
by Cher line—“matching lacy thong and bra sets,” for trans women.
Consider what has happened to J. Crew, whose “Not too trendy, not
too girly” Madewell line soon outshone its parent company. While fash-
ion has forever been political, concerns about sustainability continue to
grow such that the Californian firms North Face and Patagonia are on
board—the former’s “Clothes the Loop” initiative repurposing and recy-
cling unwanted clothing and the latter aiming to be carbon neutral by
2025 and developing a “Worn Wear” program. Pierre-Louis (2019)
reports that the latest data from the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) show that the United States “generated 11.9 million tons—or
about 75 pounds per person—of textile waste, most of which ended up
in landfills.” All part of the “fast fashion” movement, which encourages
frequent purchase of inexpensive, easily disposable clothing, this is why
we scholars see sporting apparel as worthy of investigation.
As e-commerce platforms for fashion sportswear continues to escalate,
Morgan Stanley has predicted it to have global sales of $350 billion by
2020. Underwear blogger Guy Trebay (2019) has noted the following:

Fashion has had a long love affair with sports of all kinds, and it is easy
enough to trace an arc from the genteel sports of the leisured classes of the
 Preface xi

19th century to the more crazily individualistic ones of today. Since the
1990s, at least, extreme and adventure sports have excited designers, who
imported to their runways superficial elements of gear created for street
lugers, off-piste snowboarders, artic surfers and, lately, those who push the
outer limits of athletic pursuit.

Fabletics, a $330-million online subscription line selling women’s

sportswear and “lifestyle sneakers,” cofounded by American movie star
Kate Hudson, also has more than 22 brick-and-mortar stores and plans
to quadruple that number. Fellow actress Jessica Biel has become the
ambassador to yoga/active balance company Gaiam, both with Colorado
roots. Then again, they have worry about Trump’s tariffs.
You may not be familiar with sports-related websites such as The Chic
Fashionista, Stiletto Sports, or Sweaty Betty, but we are encouraged by
dancers taking up “Beyoncercise” (named for the singer/performer
Beyoncé), young female activists such as those with buzz cuts leading the
#Never Again movement, LGBTQ spokespersons, those speaking out
against body-shaming and advocating for “body positivity,” and other
“sheroes” in our midst (see Toffoletti et al. 2018). Decrying the lack of
(positive) media representation of sportswomen, Toni Bruce (2015,
p. 382) figured out that “The imbalance persists despite exponential
increases in women’s sport participation and achievements in the past 60
years and exists independently of commercial considerations.”

Discussed
No matter the sport, when it’s a team event we’re talking about, uniforms
and equipment are a key part of the conversation. For starters, we want to
look good … So we all have to think about what it takes to protect our
bodies from whatever hazards are unique to our sports–all while looking
good … When you dress well, you play well. Uncategorized,
WomenTalkSports.com (May 4, 2018)

“Words matter” is a common refrain in the United States these days

relative to vitriolic language emanating from the White House. Rhetoric,
xii Preface

Michael L. Butterworth (2017, p. 11) reminds us, is “arguably the oldest

of academic disciplines (whose) origins date back to the sixth cen-
tury BCE.”
Whether print, electronically, or one-to-one, the subject of sport is
ubiquitous. It might take place literally at the watercooler—or its more
recent manifestation of social media. Sportstalk takes place on more than
24/7 radio and television stations, so as a daily reminder of gendered rela-
tions, it begs examination. Poststructuralist analysis argues that, despite
heightened sensitivities to the dangers of sexist language, the language of
sport still contains rhetorical variations that are neither random nor
indiscriminate but are, in fact, structured and discriminatory—direct
consequences of the structured social variations found in gender relations
in general and, as such, contributory factors to the perpetuation of gen-
der inequality itself. What follows here is a review of the literature on the
language of sport relative to the single aspect of sportswomen’s apparel,
followed by a discussion on theoretical frameworks by which to better
understand that phenomenon.

Literature Review

Numerous autobiographies and biographies have dealt with the issue of

what women athletes wear, and many disparate articles have been written
about those outfits. Along with Joan Ryan’s Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
(2000), about elite gymnasts and figure skaters, there are numerous other
examples of sport-specific requirements:

• Female bodybuilders, Debra Merskin (2010) has noted, are often

reduced to having decorative or sexualized value.
• Susan Burris (2006, p. 92) has pointed out how basketball players in
the WNBA struggle with media preferences to portray them as “one of
two general characters: a wife/mother or a sexual object.”
• Frances E. Willard’s 1895 classic How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle has
her in a long dress on the cover.
• “The manly art” of boxing, despite having women participants dating
to the eighteenth century, was long associated with the scantily clad
 Preface xiii

“ring-card girl” who carried placards announcing numbers of upcom-

ing rounds (Gat 2010).
• As a rugby player, Jessica Hudson (2010) has reported peoples’ reac-
tions to her as “deviant,” “un-girly.”
• Runners, Amby Burfoot (2016, p. xiii) reminds us, might be “leggy
teens with ribbons in their ponytails (or) women in their 20s and 30s
who like they just stepped out of a CrossFit class or a triathlon training
session,” pregnant women, or “leaner, gray-haired women.”
• Christine Brennan (2013) of USA Today has written about the flashy
outfits of figure skating.
• Competitive or recreational, Leanne Shapton’s Swimming Studies
(2016) introduces “technical suits, track blocks, false-start rules.”
• In accordance with Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB)
rules of compulsory adherence to uniform specifications (basically
bikinis), Michael Cantelon (2010, p. 15) has said that the volleyball
uniform issue “is a graphic example of the patriarchal nature of much
of international sport, also demonstrating the relentless drive to ‘sell’
particular images of female sport to the media.”

Still, to date, only the above-cited 2006 Warner book When the Girls
Came Out to Play offers a historical perspective—discussing such topics
as public/private spheres, how women’s clothing was for “courting” pur-
poses, and the amazing adoption of trousers as a turning point for female
athletes. This volume aims to fill that gap.

Gendered Critical Discourse Analysis (GCDA)

Key is the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which examines

linguistic qualities of texts and their discursive social context, linking lan-
guage and power across disciplines. Its central tenets, which are concerned
with social power, dominance, and inequality, include notions of discourse
shaped and constrained by social structures and culture. Linda K. Fuller,
Female Olympian and Paralympian Events (2018)
xiv Preface

This section and its companion 16-chapter volume, Sportswomen’s

Apparel Around the World: Uniformly Discussed (Palgrave Macmillan,
2020), aims to outline my developing theory of Gendered Critical
Discourse Analysis (GCDA). Feminist sport studies (Markula 2005)
encourage the researcher’s personal experience and voice to be involved,
and while there are any number of theoretical ways of analyzing the social
power of gender/sport, mine is through language. Specifically, it involves
extending basic notions of critical discourse analysis, an interdisciplinary
means of studying language as a social practice. “Motivated by goals of
social emancipation and transformation, the critique of grossly unequal
social orders characterizes much feminist scholarship and, in regard to
discursive dimensions of social (in)justice, research in critical discourse
analysis (CDA),” Michelle M. Lazar (2007, p. 141) has written, bringing
feminist studies into the discussion. My notion is to add the term “gen-
der” to the language of sportstalk, drawing on Eckert and McConnell-­
Ginet (2013, p. 6), where the dynamic performance of gender is a “social
construction—as the means by which society jointly accomplishes the
differentiation that constitutes the gender order.”
Beyond biology, the psychosocial determination of gendered thoughts
and actions is often witnessed in our everyday speech, as well as in our
conscious and subconscious writings. Relative to sport, GCDA might
analyze the amount of airtime for male vs. female athletes by sports
announcers; gender markings such as “”defensemen,” “workmanlike ori-
entation,” Ladies Final, and other delineators of sexist sports language
(Segrave et al. 2006; Fuller 2009). It also has application in reportage on
appearance through both live-action descriptions and on various social
media. Facilitated by fourth-wave feminism, which focuses on (in)justices,
the hope is that reportage and representations of sportswomen by groups
such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube will move beyond
being self-identifying merely as platforms to realizing that they also have
socio-legal responsibilities.
Darija Omrčen (2017, p. 143) has introduced the notion that “Gender-­
sensitive language, gender-neutral language, gender-inclusive language,
gender-free language and gender-fair language are terms used in English
to refer to the usage of a tactful and respectful selection of vocabulary
devoid of unfounded, unfair and discriminatory reference to women in
contrast with men.” ExcelleSports.com (Linehan 2016) cites tennis player
 Preface xv

Serena Williams: “We are constantly reminded we are not men, as if it is

a flaw … People call me one of the ‘world’s greatest female athletes.’ Do
they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer?
What not?” More recently, returning to the game after having a baby to
her first French Open match since 2016, Williams wore a form-fitting
black bodysuit that, she said, “represents all the women that have been
through a lot mentally, physically with their body to come back.” Fashion
writer Vanessa Friedman (2019) has this insight:

For most of the history of women’s tennis, the “dress”—once upon a time
a long skirt, now more of a wisp of an idea—has symbolized the feminine
side of the game in its most retrograde sense, and it has been used as a
means of gender stereotype, self-expression, and eyeball-attracting market-
ing. It has flirted with the tropes of fashion-as-decoration, and fashion as
an extension of a personal brand, but only within well-behaved bounds.
Finally, however, in the hands of Serena Williams, it has become a politi-
cal tool: an unabashed statement of female empowerment and indepen-
dence not just for herself, but for all.

Imagine being a four-time Olympic Gold medalist and then, at age 37,
being a star at New York’s “Fashion Week” (Goodman-Hughey 2019).
Although Serena lost the US Open final, that same week her “S” line (for
“shine,” “strong,” “saucy,” and “spectacular”) debuted, Williams declaring
that, “It’s important to be yourself in fashion. In designing or on the
court, I want to be expressive. You have to be true to yourself.” The media
had to comment on 2-year-old daughter Olympia, if adding that “this
collection is her baby.”
Whether by directly quoting athletes or analyzing media commentary,
it is encouraging that discourse analysis is being used in sports research.
The work of the late philosopher/social theorist Michael Foucault, which
focuses on societal power relationships expressed through language, has
stimulated case studies on many different topics relevant here: feminist
sexuality (McNay 1992; Thorpe 2008), women’s body images (Duncan
1994), sociology of sport (Harvey and Rail 1995), the fitness publishing
industry (Maguire 2002), hegemonic masculinity (Pringle 2005; Pringle
and Markula 2005), exercise (Markula and Pringle 2006), snowboarding
(Thorpe 2008).
xvi Preface

Introduction to American
Sportswomen’s Apparel
Analyzing gender norms and gender binaries in terms of uniforms, it turns
out, provides a valuable means for understanding societal attitudes toward
sporting females. Linda K. Fuller, Female Olympians (2016, p. 71)

As we continue to challenge traditional sexist barriers about female

athletes’ appearances, these chapters loosely fall into categories of histori-
cal, sociopolitical, sociocultural, and sport-specific perspectives.
Specifically, you will be enlightened here by chapters in these
subdivisions:

Historical Perspectives

Nancy G. Rosoff traces athletic clothing for American women from 1880
to 1920, while Deirdre Clemente and Evan M. Casey introduce us to the
tennis dresses, golf sweaters, and bicycling shorts that college women
wore from 1890 to 1960 (clue: they are a far cry from Kim Kardashian
West’s thigh-length Lycra numbers).

Sociopolitical Perspectives

Meredith M. Bagley and Judy Liao discuss WNBA uniform politics in

protests such as the Black Lives Movement, and Molly Yanity examines
the absence of military promotion in women’s team sports.

Sociocultural Perspectives

Dunja Antunovic and Kellee Clay scrutinize female sportscasters’ profes-

sional clothing, Kate Harman offers a gendered critique of magazine cov-
ers depicting female athletes, Caitlyn Hauff and Christy Greenleaf explore
how plus-size apparel is a social justice issue, Leelannee K. Malin analyzes
FloJo fashion as cultural appropriation, and Claire M. Williams uses the
SkirtSports to check intersections of running, flirting, and fashion.
 Preface xvii

Sport-Specific Perspectives

Colleen English and Heidi Mau undertake a “clothes’ textual analysis of

female roller derby participants; Elizabeth Fairchild and Elizabeth
A. Gregg report on collegiate women gymnasts’ reflections on their uni-
forms; Elizabeth A. Gregg, Elizabeth A. Taylor, and Robin Hardin report
how the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) dress code polices
players; Caitlyn Hauff, Christina Gipson, Nancy L. Malcom, and Hannah
Bennett bring us badass CrossFit women; and Leandra Hinojosa
Hernandez analyzes women climbers’ clothing vis-à-vis the social con-
struction of thinness through cyberbullying media discourses.

Reflections
Uniformly, any of my friends can confirm that I am clearly not a fashioni-
sta, even if I have always been intrigued by fabric and textures. My grand-
mother’s Singer Sewing Machine has helped me produce everything from
my bridal gown to bedspreads and curtains and, more recently, quilts and
simple repairs. Mainly, though, I adore costumes, constructed lately for
Armenia, Cuban, Tanzanian, and other dinner parties we have hosted. It
probably wasn’t until meeting Mary Peacock, coeditor of the 1970s’
counterculture magazine Rags that I became sensitized to the notion that
clothing could make such bold statements.
A word about the Dedication. My first thought was to honor the
Williams sisters for their contributions to my tennis wardrobe, but the
more I determined how many female athletes have their own sportswear
lines, it seemed appropriate to cite them. All that, of course, doesn’t even
take into consideration celebrity lines such as Beyonce’s Ivy Park or Jessica
Biel’s Gaiam, or Kate Hudson’s Fabletics, and names of other such entre-
preneurs are welcome. With the encouragement of Lough and Geurin’s
(2019) proclamation that women’s sport is breaking ground both eco-
nomically and socially, never mind Mattel’s gender-neutral Barbie doll,
the time should be right for this study.
xviii Preface

Thanks to a recent panel on “The problem of appearance for women

journalists and athletes” at a Women, Sports and Media conference at the
University of Maryland, this project began to take its own form. As we
are positioned in an age of the #MeToo movement, overarching concerns
about gender parity, discrimination, and sexual exploitation demand our
attention. Nowhere are these issues more relevant, it turns out, than in
women’s sportswear—whether that be bloomers, sports bras, thongs, ten-
nis “whites,” wet suits, studio socks, unitards, hijabs, plus-size pants,
cashmere loungewear, and/or athleisurewear.
Just before submitting this book it was my pleasure to have chaired a
panel on “Women’s sportswear relative to social justice” with several of its
contributors at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the
Sociology of Sport (NASSS). Clearly, while rhetorical activism can help
fulfill many goals, our main one here is to sensitize the sportswear buying
public to its many sociopolitical implications.

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