Being a girl athlete

Abstract

In this study, we examine data from young girls spontaneously talking about what it is like to be a girl athlete. During ten focus group interviews, the girls' (n = 52) often digressed and their conversations provide rich insight into their lived experiences as girl athletes. In this article, we portray these girl athletes' negotiations as they enact, transform, transgress, and combine gendered expectations about being both a girl and an athlete. Using a narrative approach and creative nonfiction, we present vignettes exemplifying the themes of performing girl, performing athlete; gendered sport lessons; sport friends; and sport mentality. Not surprising, these girls' experiences reveal how gender permeates all aspects of their sport experiences. Gender performance was a continuous negotiation with myriad potential outcomes. One could be sporty and girly girl, sporty and not girly girl, a girly girl cheerleader, or one could even be sporty and a cheerleader. We believe that the strong friendships among the girls provided the space in which they could experiment with these multiple gender performances. The strong bonds developed among teammates created space for exploring gender performances and provided a safety net for their daily identity negotiations. By being skilled girl athletes, they are destabilising gender and gendered expectations. At the same time, they are creating fluid and hybrid identities that are personally meaningful yet flexible enough to allow further exploration.

A meta-study of athletic identity research in sport psychology: Current status and future directions

“…Schinke et al (2012) analyzed boxers' tournament experiences and internal adaptation processes, interpreting their findings surrounding identity through narrative theory. Krane et al (2014) drew from feminist cultural studies and argued that gender permeated all aspects of girl athletes' experiences, and that they had to negotiate these potentially conflicting identities in their sport practices. Two studies positioned within cultural sport psychology examined the intersection of athlete and mother identities (McGannon, Curtin, et al, 2012) and team identity roles (McGannon, Hoffmann, et al, 2012).…”

Fragmenting Feminine-Athletic Identities: Identity Turning Points During Girls’ Transition into High School

“…For example, Kauer and Krane (2006) found that female collegiate basketball players were stereotyped into intersectional identities of gender and sexuality (i.e., masculine and lesbian), given their bodies' lack of conformity to hegemonic feminine stereotypes. These findings exemplify a personal-relational identity gap, which are "discrepancies between how an individual views [themselves] and [their] perception of how others view [them]" (Jung & Hecht, 2004, p. 268) When female athletes identify themselves as athletic they encounter identity sanctions (i.e., ascriptions of negative identity characteristics) that must be negotiated (e.g., Krane et al, 2014;Zanin et al, 2020b). This sanctioning and negotiation likely affect their willingness to continue to enact an athletic identity through their participation in athletics.…”

“…When female athletes identify themselves as athletic they encounter identity sanctions (i.e., ascriptions of negative identity characteristics) that must be negotiated (e.g., Krane et al, 2014; Zanin et al, 2020b). This sanctioning and negotiation likely affect their willingness to continue to enact an athletic identity through their participation in athletics.…”

“…Often, children must negotiate their identity in relation to peer-valued identity groups. Within this flux of identity development and negotiation, female athletes in particular face specific challenges related to puberty, gender bias, and stereotypes of femininity and athleticism (e.g., Evans, 2006; Krane et al, 2014; Lopez, 2019).…”

Girls and Young Women in Community Sport: A South Australian Perspective

“…Another barrier surrounds the conflicting gendered performances that girls must learn to navigate if they do decide to pursue sport. Krane et al (2014) suggest that girls can experiment with how they perform gender within sport if there are strong friendships and social support available to act as a "safety net" for negotiating gender. However, the capacity to explore the spectrum of gendered performance is inhibited by "peerpolicing, " whereby girls are actively involved in reinforcing sport as contexts for judgement and approval (or disapproval) of gendered behaviour (Metcalfe, 2018).…”