Men Can Fly
A Study on the Visual Language of Online Sports Edits
The central goal of this project is to form a deeper understanding of the message and themes present in online fan-made sports edits. The main research question is to understand if the athletes depicted within the edits represent an accurate depiction of the individual and what that depiction reflects says about their perception by both the individual author and general public. Edits are quick-cutting, music montage fan videos created to glorify or idolize a person, place or event, most often an athlete, politician or celebrity. A key element of the genre is the usage of preexisting clips compiled together, sometimes even taking clips from interviews, news broadcasts or completely unrelated media such as tv or movies. The research placed particular focus on the editorial artistic decisions and trends of the medium but also the broader social media ecosystem and how the genre reflects celebrity athlete and fan relations. The project focuses mainly on edits of NBA athletes found on Tiktok, while the genre has expanded to a variety of sports and platforms, edits are primarily found on Tiktok with the NBA being the most common sport for the genre.
The research for this project spans a variety of studies, communication, feminist studies, political science and sociology. The main objects of study will be studying feminist theorists who provide an account of gendered differences in bodily comportment, scholarship by several professors of communication analyzing celebrity athletes’ public activism and politics as well as parasocial fan relationships with celebrities and media studies scholars analyzing short form video and Tiktok edits.
As a social media based, fan created genre of content, the style, scope, themes and general presentation of these edits vary greatly but share several key elements. This paper will focus on three types of edits– while there are certainly some that do not fit neatly into one of the three categories, most can be identified clearly as one of the three. The first is the most straightforward, the “hype” edit, a heartfelt appreciation of an athlete or team and expression of their attitude. The edit is focused on an NBA player named John Wall, it features several intercut clips of him dancing with some highlights from his career, it presents the athlete at their best. These can sometimes even be comedic, reflecting some humorous sensibilities of the particular athlete. The second category is the sentimental or sad edit, these edits are backed by heartfelt, emotional music and are often made after an athletes retirement, mourning the end of their career with a celebration of their best moments, or a past reflection on certain tragedies or hardships in their life, contrasting them with their success on the court. The third group is in some ways the hardest to concretely define, the ironic edits, these often contain a certain degree of contempt or derision from the author and have the loosest definition of the three categories. These videos sometimes portray the athlete failing, showcasing their worst on and off the court moments while sometimes ironically portraying old highlights, subtly communicating the idea that the athlete is now past their best or “washed up”. Another strain of these will be the bait and switch edits where the video is set up presenting one player as the topic of focus only to cut to another player, establishing some hierarchy or preference by the author.
Boys Club: Perceived Gendered Capabilities of Bodily Transcendence and Comportment
Two of the central texts used in this study are Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Iris Marion Young’s Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Bodily Comportment Motility and Spatiality. Both texts analyze the social, psychological and phenomenological differences between men and women’s bodily comportment. Two concepts framed as fundamental differences of gender ontologically by Simone de Beauvoir are the male transcendence being restricted by female immanence. transcendence being the ability to act beyond the physical, imminent limitations of the body in order to achieve something greater than yourself, build a building, run a marathon or dunk a basketball. Beauvoir frames this as a physiological restriction, where women’s bodies are naturally predisposed to be more present in all activity, with menstruation and pregnancy serving as constant reminders of their physical immanence, restricting them to focus on their bodies more often than men. Iris Marion Young extrapolates on this notion by expanding the influences on women’s immanence to also include social influences, claiming they provide a psychological limit on what people believe women are physically capable of. Young frames the importance of bodily comportment and transcendence as the fundamental tool in intentional action and expression “The body is the first locus of intentionality, as pure presence to the world and openness upon its possibilities. The most primordial intentional act is the motion of the body orienting itself with respect to and moving within its surroundings. There is a world for a subject just insofar as the body has capacities by which it can approach, grasp, and appropriate its surroundings in the direction of its intentions.” (Young 6). This quote reflects the social significance of intentional bodily comportment whether an individual is capable of it, an individual is only able to justify their existence in the world through their ability to transcend the immanence of their body and comport themselves intentionally and directly.
Returning to edits, at a glance, the overwhelming gender disparity between the athletes featured in the videos is immediately apparent, with them being almost exclusively made focusing on male. While it is arguable that this is due to the fact that there is a much larger amount of male athletes than female, the growing popularity of female athletes across a multitude of sports suggest the difference in produced edits is also in part due to social understandings of women’s ability to transcend their body. It is difficult to quantify the exact ratio of male to female edits, with a search of the most popular edits of current WNBA star Caitlin Clark show that there are a large number traditional hype edits however the most popular one shows no clips of her competing at all and rather sexualizes her, cutting clips together of her tossing her hair and biting her lip. This provides a perfect example of the disparity in presentation and perception of female and male edits publicly through the medium of sports edits. Where the most popular representation of a female athlete, rather than focusing on their athletic abilities and their intentional bodily comportment and transcendence, it firmly grounds them in their immanence and focuses on their perceived attractiveness. This speaks to the forms ability to reflect individual and social perceptions of an individual or group. At the individual level, there are plenty of edits focused on female athletes presenting them with as much swagger and control as any male athlete. At the social level it echoes Young’s argument of the limited social perception of women’s physical capabilities.
Boys Can Cry: Sad Edits as Expressions of Social Understandings of Athletes
Recalling the initial research question, is the John Wall in the two different edits the same person? Professors Kevin Munger and Valerie Li published an article studying the philosophy of edits, focusing on edits on political figures. They provide an account of the base message behind these videos “These ‘edits’ are participating in a kind of– fandom. Rather than engaging in traditional rhetoric– their goal is immediately aesthetic: they want their favorite politician to look good.” (Munger and Li 2). This quote highlights a core aspect of the genre, the collage style production leads to an indirect message. An edit provides an aesthetic and emotional account rather than a directly intellectual one, allowing for a more subconscious and genuine expression. Iris Marion Young provides an account of transcendence that aligns very closely with the presentation of movement and action in the edits “The lived body as transcendence is pure fluid action, the continuous calling-forth of capacities that are applied to the world.” (Young 6). This quote highlights the abstract and constant nature of transcendent action showcased in the videos. The edits are never showcasing a full minute of a game, rather a constant streaming collage of instances, a pure, continuous, calling-forth. Rather than arguing that the featured player is the best or the greatest athlete, they are presented as what the author believes to be the athletes’ most genuine, most active and the most able to fully express themselves through their body.
This edit showcases the presentation of this transcendence perfectly. The video tells the story of John Wall’s experience with his father dying of cancer when Wall was only a child then connects it to his experience with a six year old fan who died of cancer as well. The edit– continuing to play the same music, cuts to some John Wall highlights. One would expect there to be some emotional dissonance between the two sections, however the viewer is left to contend with the conflicting emotional narratives and is left with some abstract catharsis. The video presents a through line connecting the two halves, presenting the athletics as some sort of response. The story told in the edit showcases this exact transcendence, an individual experiencing some grief or trauma, responded to with some seemingly unrelated action. De Beauvoir defines this transcendence as a necessary human act “Every individual concerned to justify his existence feels that his existence involves an undefined need to transcend himself.” (Beauvoir 27). This quote connects to the cathartic athletic moment in the edit and allows it to be framed as an example of transcendence, with the athlete justifying their existence in the face of trauma or grief. This places the edit as a simultaneous glorification of the athlete but also as a general affirmation of life. The athlete serves as an aspirational model, an example of the transcendence latent in all of us, an argument that all life is justifiable.
This represents not an intentional goal by the author of the edit but rather a key aspect in the genre of edits as a whole. Returning to Munger and Li, the end of the quote claims the author intends for the individual of focus to look good. This implies a certain intentionality behind the presentation that is not clearly evident. The framing of edits as different in intention from any other form of art implies some cynical, propagandistic desire on the part of the author. Reading edits as the same as any other piece of art or expression, they can rather be read as artistic expressions presenting a genuine belief.
Comparing the two different edits focused on John Wall, the argument can be made that these are not presenting the same version of the athlete. In highlighting certain aspects of him, the edits present two different John Walls. Both are speaking to some key character of what the author feels John Wall to be like. The different tonal presentations in the edit represent the author's emotional understanding of the athlete.
The Real Lebron: Ironic Edits as Mockery of an Athlete
Another example of edits providing a unique insight into the perception of an athlete is through the ironic edit. This edit in particular requires some explanation to fully understand its context and what is being communicated. The edit shown is a series of 50 distinct videos directed towards NBA athlete Klay Thompson, all created by the same individual. The videos have amassed nearly 65 million views in total with each following almost the exact same format. Each video begins with a clip of the tv show Ted which alludes to a character's homosexuality or un-masculine traits such as erectile dysfunction. This clip is then immediately interspersed with text of the word “gay” in large red text, a photo of a real cease and desist letter sent by Thompson’s lawyers to the creator of the videos demanding they take them down, clips of the video creator peeing on a printed copy of the cease and desist letters, photos of Thompson eating brunch and drinking mimosas, which is in reference to characters from Ted claiming that having breakfast for dinner is gay, all of these are intercut with genuine highlights from earlier in his career. Every video caption also reminisces on how good Thompson was when he was younger and in his prime. These edits provide a drastically different perspective from the previously discussed edits, while maintaining the core effect and energy. The most notable differences come from the clear mockery and derision driving the edit, prompting not one video but 50 in the exact same format.
Two aspects of this edit stand out as insightful elements to understand the character of edits as a medium. The first being the edits ironic presentation of past highlights as an inversion of the form as well as the exaggeration and heightening every aesthetic element of the video, creating an ironic dramatization of the form. The first is significant as it represents the cohesive visual language throughout the form. If taken out of context, the second half would be legible as a perfect example of another hype edit, portraying the athlete in a series of quickly cut instances of them competing. Only within the context of which the edit is created is the insight visible, are still using the same visual language and still presenting the same transcendent figure, except only in reflection. The athlete of focus– Klay Thompson, is still actively competing and the presentation of him five or ten years ago presents the message that Thompson used to be a transcendent figure and is no longer capable of acting as one. This observation connects to the previous concept of the separation of the athlete in the edit versus the athlete in real life. The athlete in the edit is only present in the moments of competition and transcendence and is only visible in the presentation of the edit. In the context of this ironic edit, the transcendent version of Thompson is no longer there, and the edit’s glorification of the athletes’ past contrasts the two different versions. The video begins with calling the athlete gay or having erectile dysfunction then cuts to their past highlights, providing a direct contrast between the author’s current and past perception of the athlete. This comparison serves as a reflexive critique of the current abilities of the athlete where the idolized, transcendent version has set a standard that cannot be met.
The other key element in understanding these edits is their over exaggerated and ironic presentation. While some aspects contain some obvious homophobia – the large text with the words “gay” or the clips from the show all containing moments of characters calling ideas or people gay, there is also a certain degree to which these elements, alongside most of the aesthetic decisions, are all done in service of a hyper-exaggerated, ironic presentation. The foundation of the study of these edits was based upon feminist conceptions of gendered distinction of bodily comportment. This also provides a lens for framing what is seen as bodily transcendence and fluid action is also seen as hyper masculine. The ironic edit presents the same hyper masculine swagger, intentionality and control of the previously discussed hype edits, with an intensified aesthetic presentation. The video is much more frenetically paced, with images flashing on the screen, several images and videos being played on top of each other and constant zooms and pans within the videos. These differences are a direct escalation of the aesthetic decisions of the previous edits, with the comparison of the past and current version of the athlete, extreme aesthetic decisions are made to contrast the differences. This escalation is also visible in the introduction of the video, with the contrast not merely being an accusation of the athletes athletic decline but also a question of their sexuality and masculinity. This frames the heightened aesthetic features as another example of the representative nature of the form, with the video presenting their physical decline as a decline of their masculinity and virility in equal measure.
Lebron You Betrayed Me: Ironic Edits as Moral Evaluation
Another form of the ironic edit is more ethically critical and exists entirely on aesthetic terms. This video presents an interview clip of NBA player Lebron James– where in a section not shown in the video, expressed respect for the country of Israel and a desire to visit some day, with the flag of Israel in the corner. The video then cuts to muslim NBA athlete Kyrie Irving wearing a keffiyeh– a common article of clothing worn in muslim countries and now in the west to show support for Palestine, then cuts to Irving’s NBA highlights with the flag of Palestine in the same corner of the screen. The context surrounding the video is that Irving has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian people and an advocate for their freedom and James’ comment in the interview being the athlete’s first public comments regarding Israel at all. This video is emblematic of the backlash to James’ comments by NBA fans, with this being one of many edits of a similar structure.
The video is initially presented in the same way as the typical hype edit only to have the focus inverted to a different athlete. This shares some similarities to the previous ironic edit, with the contrast and comparison between the two figures, only rather than a critique of the athletes' waning physical abilities, the video is a critique of James' moral failings. This however reverses the argument, where rather than the contrast being used to critique one perceived version of an athlete, it is used to praise the other, for their ability. The video frames Irving’s transcendent athletic ability as emblematic of his moral goodness. Rather than presenting any statements he has made in regards to the genocide, the edit chooses to focus on his transcendence as representative of his moral goodness. This version of the ironic edit also connects to the sad edit, where the transcendent figure is presented as aspirational. The video presents the transcendence as the embodiment of their goodness, their athleticism is proof of it.
Conclusion
In sum, sports edits exist as a medium of representing both individual and social perceptions of celebrity athletes. Upon the consultation with various scholars and visual analysis, edits can be read as examples of societal gendered perceptions of the capacity of bodily transcendence– through the uneven ratio of edits on male athletes to female athletes and the masculine aesthetics of the form, artistic expressions of an individual's emotional understanding and perception of an athlete by comparing different edits focused on the same athlete, presentations of bodily transcendence as a fundamental, life affirming and human effort by the responsive presentation of transcendence as contrasted with grief, mediums of reflecting the perceived demasculinization of an athlete through the contrast of exaggerated, hyper masculine highlights from their past with homophobic remarks representing the perception of their present as well as reflections of an athletes’ moral goodness with bodily transcendence being proof of their ethicality. Overall, the edits and categories discussed throughout this paper present the medium as a novel form of artistic expression which has a particular strength in reflecting individual and social perceptions of celebrity athletes through their aesthetic presentation of montage.
Copyright Statement
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