Redefining Strength of the Female Athletes in Contemporary Philippine Cinema
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/ajywe.v5i1.7788Keywords:
Athletic Strength, Coping Resilience, Discipline Biopower, Female Athletes, Gender Representation, Philippine Sports CinemaAbstract
The study examines how the strength of women as athletes is portrayed in modern-day Filipino film through the mediums of Thelma (2011), Sunshine (2024), and Friendly Fire (2024). In particular, it focuses on the types of pressures faced by the female protagonists as well as their coping mechanisms, the physical, emotional, familial, institutional and digital pressures they encounter and how the films redefine strength through other means besides winning and performance. The study adopted a qualitative content analysis approach with selected scenes, dialogues, character actions, conflicts and visual representation based on the concepts of Pierre Bourdieu (capital, habitus and field), Michel Foucault (discipline and biopower), and Gaye Tuchman (symbolic annihilation). Results show that the athletes’ athletic identities are produced through different access to resources, familial responsibilities, institutional control, bodily control and media visibilities. They cope by enduring, regulating emotions, disciplining them, negotiating and resisting in an adaptive way. In each of the three films, strength is defined not so much in terms of dominance or recognition but as the ability to act, to endure and to redefine oneself in the face of unequal systems of power. The study proposes that the Philippine sports cinema is a critical space through which the interplay of gender, body, class, and control of institutions can be explored in relation to the construction of female athletic identity.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Imperial, Darryl S, Garcia, Mary Ilovem CG G., Eltagunde, KC Mel E., Abapo, Ashley C.
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