What does a hockey player look like?: hybridity and representations of East Asian women hockey players in Canada

Asian women have historically been confined to hypersexualised media stereotypes, and in sports, they are problematically framed as robotic, small, and unassimilable. Research on Asian women in traditionally ‘masculine’ sports remains a burgeoning area of study. This article draws on two different methods to better understand the diasporic experiences of East Asian women in Canadian ice hockey. First, a discourse analysis was conducted to examine how elite hockey players Susana Yuen, Vicky Sunohara and Julie Chu have been represented by the media. Second, a photovoice/elicitation method was deployed with six East Asian recreational women hockey players in Canada to better understand how they would like to be represented to the hockey community. Observations from both methods challenge hegemonic representations of Asian women and offer insights into the hybridity of Asianness in the Canadian context.