Media Representations of Footballers' Wives - by J Bullen (Paperback)

About the Book

"Since the FIFA World Cup of 2006, footballers' wives have become a staple part of popular British culture, regularly appearing in glossy magazines, the tabloid press, reality shows and documentaries. Jen Bullen provides an analysis of how the media has created an exaggerated and stereotypical 'wag' (wife and girlfriend) figure. Wags are treated like royalty, living in a glamorous and fairy tale world and offering the aspiration of transformation to young women, while elsewhere they are denigrated as pathological and representative of a short-cut culture - gold-digging bimbos undeserving of their fame and fortune and, as such, subjected to symbolic violence based on their class and taste. Bullen examines such representations in relation to class, gender, celebrity and football"--

Book Synopsis

Representing a detailed analysis of footballers' wives and their role in contemporary British culture, this books explores how the generic and stereotypical 'Wag' has been created by newspaper and magazine coverage, auto/biographies and influential television programmes.

About the Author

The late Jen Bullen was a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK, between 2006 and 2010.