This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article forthcoming for publication in JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIAL ISSUES, copyright SAGE: http://Jss.sagepub.com/content/early/recent. Gender, Media and Mixed Martial Arts in Poland: The Case of Joanna Jędrzejczyk Honorata Jakubowska Institute of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland Alex Channon School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK Christopher R. Matthews School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK Corresponding Author: Dr. Alex Channon, School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK Tel: (+44)1273 643746 Email:
[email protected] 1 Gender, Media and Mixed Martial Arts in Poland: The Case of Joanna Jędrzejczyk Honorata Jakubowska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland Alex Channon, University of Brighton, UK Christopher R. Matthews, University of Brighton, UK Abstract Recent growth in the media visibility of female combat sport athletes has offered a compelling site for research on gender and sport media, as women in deeply masculinized sports have been increasingly placed in the public spotlight. While scholars in the Anglophone West have offered analyses of the media framing of this phenomenon, little work has been done outside these cultural contexts. Thus, in this paper we offer a qualitative exploration of how Joanna Jędrzejczyk, a Polish champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has been represented in Polish media. Our findings reveal a relatively de-gendered, widely celebratory account, primarily framed by nationalistic discourse – findings we ascribe to both the particularities of the sport of mixed martial arts as well as the historic nature of Jędrzejczyk’s success.