Sport is often perceived as affected by heteronormativity; however, it also seems to facilitate the expression of nonconventional sexualities. In this article, the authors explore the narratives of 14 young Francophone sportswomen from Montreal (Quebec, Canada) who identify themselves as “ gaie,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” or refuse labels altogether. A feminist poststructuralist approach is used to examine their discursive constructions of gender, sexuality, and sport. More specifically, the article aims to investigate the coming out process and the expression of nonconventional sexualities in sport. In line with queer theory, the findings challenge the heterosexual/homosexual binary, the idea of a fixed sexuality, and the linearity of the coming out process. The results also suggest that the coming out process and the expression of nonnormative sexualities may be influenced by sport.

As reflected by the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, global women’s participation in sports seems to currently be at its highest levels ever. However, equality between men and women has not yet been reached when one examines how men and women involved in sports are represented in the media. Sportswomen have appeared to be typically portrayed as feminine individuals and not systematically referred to as ‘just athletes’. France’s women’s national football (soccer) team was followed during the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympic Games through two different French websites: the official website of the French football federation and a website devoted to sports news. Using a feminist Foucauldian discourse analysis, this paper presents how these important websites for the media coverage of football in France portrayed the women’s national team and its players during two major international competitions, oscillating between gendered individuals and ‘real’ or legitimate athletes. It also highlights how cultural context and nationalism contributed to such (re)presentations of Team France.

Several studies on the experiences of nonheterosexual women in sport have highlighted the development of lesbian subcultures in sport, while others have emphasized the scarcity of athletic contexts embracing sexual diversity. This article explores the narratives of 14 young Francophone sportswomen positioning themselves as “gaie,” lesbian, bisexual, or refusing labels altogether. Using a feminist poststructuralist perspective, we examine their discursive constructions of sport and argue that the discourses articulated in sport allow for the creation of a space of resistance to heteronormativity. We suggest that the sport space is constructed as a “gaie” space within which a normalizing version of lesbian sexuality is proposed. We investigate how in/ex/clusion discourses are inscribed in space and how subjects are impacted by and, in turn, impact these discourses.

In this article, we explore the narratives of 14 young Francophone women from Montreal (Quebec, Canada) competing in team sports and identifying as `gay', `lesbian', `bisexual' or refusing labels altogether. We seek to gain a better understanding of these young women's discursive constructions of gender and sexuality as well as of their performative acts in sport and in other milieus. We submitted their narratives to a thematic analysis which was followed by a critical discourse analysis inspired by poststructuralism. Our findings suggest that the participants generally positioned themselves as ` gaie' (as opposed to lesbian or queer), which seems specific to Quebec. By emphasizing the lightness of being gaie in sport, the participants relied on an alternative discourse that tends to be positive towards gaie sexuality. Moreover, by constructing gaie sexuality as a more `feminine', less visible and consequently less disturbing version of lesbian sexuality, these sportswomen also articulated dominant discourses that reproduce lesbo/butch-phobic ideas. We also show the participants' unstable and changing subjectivity as we highlight the contradictions in their discursive constructions of gender and sexuality.

No abstract