The politics of sports in louise page's golden girls

The 1960s and the 1970s witnessed the transition in British sports from amateurism toprofessionalism. Thereafter, sportspersons have obtained material opportunities withsponsorships and attracted entrepreneurs. However, since sponsors in this new era havebeen using sportspersons to manipulate consumer behaviour, the vested interests ofcapitalists led to the misuse of the media and medical industry at the cost of the health ofsportspersons. The commodifcation of sports has put much pressure on sportspersons forsportive success. This pressure, on the other hand, has been tried to be circumvented bythe illegal use of doping. Although sportspersons in countries of the Iron Curtain were statesponsored, thus were not pressed by entrepreneurs for sportive success, they faced asimilar pressure by their states. To show their political superiority, countries of the IronCurtain forced their sportspersons to use doping. Louise Page in her Golden Girls (1984)criticises, in a light tone, the politics of sports in the Britain of the 1980s. She looks at theresult of the transformation of sports from amateurism to professionalism, deals with thefree use of doping in Iron Curtain countries to contrast it with the illegal use of doping incapitalist Britain, and focuses on the topical issues about British sportswomen and theoppression they have felt because of their gender by the male dominated world of sports.Therefore, this article will frst give a brief history of the development of athletics in Britainfrom the 1960s onwards, then the relationship between media and sports thatcommodifes sports in the Britain of the 1980s, and lastly the use and effects of doping asthey are refected in Golden Girls.