SPORT IN SOCIETY, 2018 VOL. 21, NO. 7, 10961111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2017.1310202 Confronting the female athlete paradox with humor and irony: a thematic analysis of SoccerGrlProbs YouTube video content Jefrey W. Kassing School of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA ABSTRACT Comprised of three former collegiate female soccer players, SoccerGrlProbs initially built a large Twitter following before they began producing popular YouTube videos in 2012. Subsequently, SoccerGrlProbs has grown into a lifestyle brand, producing over 70 videos, and creating a complete line of apparel – designed ‘to establish a sense of unity and sisterhood in the female soccer community’. This study considers how the amusing videos produced by SoccerGrlProbs confront the female athlete paradox endured by competitive female soccer players. An analysis of a purposive sample drawn from the group’s YouTube channel video content revealed that SoccerGrlProbs addresses the female athlete paradox by ironically and humorously tackling femininity, competitiveness and aggression, and dedication and commitment. he proliferation of new media platforms and user-generated content has allowed for the development of outlets that cater to niche audiences. One such outlet for fans of women’s soccer is SoccerGrlProbs, which produces intentionally entertaining and clearly comical YouTube videos that capture the complications and contradictions of being a competitive female soccer player. Given the potential impact of these videos and the sizeable viewership (cresting 5 million views), the intention of this study is to determine how SoccerGrlProbs uses humour and irony to address the female athlete paradox. Doing so responds to the call to ‘investigate spaces of interruption to mainstream media narratives’ that allow for ‘creative representations of gender’ and the cultivation of ‘communities of interest’ (Bruce 2013, 132). SoccerGrlProbs began with a simple Twitter feed (a social media platform that afords users the ability to send out abbreviated content that is limited to 140 characters or less to a cohort of followers) on which 3 former collegiate athletes aired complaints about being female soccer players. Later they produced a widely viewed set of humorous videos that are now compiled on their YouTube channel. Carly Beyar, Shannon Fay and Alanna Locast are from Long Island, New York and attended Fairield University in Connecticut. his is where they began producing videos while they were still playing collegiately. hey have subsequently built a website, produced dozens of videos, and developed an apparel line. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Jeffrey W. Kassing jkassing@asu.edu