Social media is well recognized as beneficial because it can enhance connections and serve as a forum to discuss important issues. But it’s also a platform for the dissemination of misinformation, hostile views and hate.
Similarly in sports, the widespread use of social media has enabled closer connections between fans and athletes while also providing a forum to spread misogyny, racism and homophobia. Online public shaming, or expressions of disapproval or hostility directed towards an individual or group, is one form of negative online interaction that typically occurs in response to perceived transgressions from norms.
Norms refer to guiding psycho-social and cultural principles that influence behaviour. They may be legal (criminal codes, for example), social (like unwritten social rules) or community-specific (faith-based rituals, for example).
In sports, norms may include physical appearances, uniforms, strong athletic performances and sport-specific rules and behavioural expectations of athletes. Numerous examples of online public shaming in response to perceived norm violations exist in contemporary sports.
Onslaught of hate
For example, when Serena Williams wore a catsuit at the 2018 French Open, a barrage of criticism and misogynistic comments were made online. Similarly, when National Football League player Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the American national anthem as a public protest against systemic racism, the result was an onslaught of online hate.
(AP Photo/Michel Euler)
The proliferation of social media use has enabled wide-ranging engagement in online public shaming that is aimed at humiliating, offending, denigrating and punishing the targeted person. For some, engaging in public online shaming serves to attract attention, provide a sense of importance and build a sense of identity.
Research evidence indicates that women and others from equity-denied groups are disproportionately targets of online shaming.
For example, when X (formerly Twitter) accounts of athletes involved in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were monitored prior to and during the Games, 70 per cent of targeted athletes were women, with women receiving 87 per cent of the hateful messages directed at athletes.
Imane Khelif
Gender-based public shaming of women athletes includes objectification of women, proliferation of sexist language, promotion of hyper-masculinity and use of victim-blaming in cases of sexual violence.
Two poignant examples of this kind of public shaming were observed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. One involved Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won a gold medal in the women’s welterweight division.
When Italian boxer Angela Carini received several powerful blows from Khelif, she withdrew from the match after just 46 seconds. An online hostile and discriminatory discourse immediately arose.
Specifically, as Khelif became the target of false claims of being biologically male, she experienced a hatred pile-on that was reinforced by some prominent public figures. In this case, public shaming occurred in response to Khelif’s perceived deviation from normative expectations for the physical appearance and physical strength of women.
Many social media posts included hostile claims that Khelif did not look like a woman and had a physical prowess that only a man could have.
In response to these false claims, Khelif submitted a formal complaint to France’s Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime, an organization that has begun an investigation on charges of “cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin.”
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Rachael Gunn
The second case of public shaming occurred in response to Rachael Gunn’s performance. Gunn, an Australian breakdancer also known as B-Girl Raygun, scored zero in the 2024 Olympic Games. Gunn is also an academic with a PhD in cultural studies, whose work focuses on the cultural politics of breaking and who has been published in The Conversation.
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She has published many academic articles, including on gender-based disparities in breakdancing culture and the possible impacts of the “sportification” of breaking through its inclusion in the Olympics.
Gunn’s Paris performance was widely considered by media and social media users as bizarre because of her movement choices (most notably, kangaroo hops).
She was accused of being well below the athletic standard expected at the Olympic Games. Some claimed she made a mockery of breakdancing, while others accused her of benefitting from white privilege, being a diversity hire and manipulating the system to gain a spot at the Games, a conspiracy that was countered by an Australian fact-checking organization.
Gunn quickly became the subject of widespread online criticism and public shaming for her behavioural transgression, specifically for a performance that was perceived by many viewers as below the high skill level expected at the Olympic Games.
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
However, many in the breaking community supported Gunn, noting that breaking is about self-expression and creativity, contrary to the masculine construction of performance success that is at the root of sports in the Olympic Games.
Gunn’s published work has cited concerns about how breakdancing’s inclusion in the Olympics decontextualizes viewers from long cultural histories — for example of the music genres that influenced breaking and the creativity central to the dance form.
Her pre-Olympic insights and Olympic experiences raise questions about online critics who may have little or no understanding or knowledge of breaking and the ways in which their criticisms interact with gender-based violence to perpetuate perceptions of harmful norms and assumed norm transgressions.
In recognition of the evidence of potential harms experienced by those targeted by online hostility, the World DanceSport Federation offered psychological support to Gunn.
Read more:
We need far stronger support systems in the fight against gender-based violence
Gender-based violence online
These two cases highlight the shaming that can occur when behaviours run contrary to norms, especially for women.
They also demonstrate the ways in which social media can be used by those involved in sport as a platform to commit acts of gender-based violence and reinforce and shape context-specific norms.
Specifically in the cases of Khelif and Gunn, norms were associated with appearance, physical prowess and skill level expected of women at the Olympic Games— one was accused of being too talented at her sport, while the other was accused of being sub-standard.
Preventing online public shaming is critical given the well-documented evidence of psychological, social and financial harms experienced by those targeted. To achieve more diverse and inclusive sport and dance environments, it is essential to prevent and appropriately respond to gender-based violence, including incidents of online public shaming.
