“I Would Just Like to be Known as an Athlete”: Managing Hegemony, Femininity, and Heterosexuality in Female Sport

Meân, Lindsey J.; Kassing, Jeffrey W.

doi:10.1080/10570310802038564

Cited by 91 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…However, this does not necessarily mean that heterosexual female athletes are now completely unaffected by the suspicion of lesbianism often attached to female masculinity. maintain assumptions about the inherent superiority of the male body and the status of sport as a male preserve [Krane 2001;Meân and Kassing 2008]. In addition, it also shores up the notion that women ought to be sexually desirable to men if they are to be socially valued [Engh 2011], a phenomenon LA Jennings [2015] recently referred to in her historical study of women's combat sports as 'the centrefold imperative'.…”

Section: Martial Arts Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes': exploring 'alternative' femininity in women's combat sports

Channon

Phipps

2017

Martial Arts Studies

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This article considers the gendered significance of women's participation in combat sports, with a specific focus on the performances of femininity by female combat athletes. Against lines of argument which posit that women's enactment of femininity is the result of restrictive, coercive, and ultimately conservative cultural pressures, respondents in two separate studies suggested that a purposeful, selective enactment of femininity, when understood in combination with their fighting ability, signified an important challenge to orthodox understandings of gender. As such, our data suggests that manoeuvring within normative cultural parameters of gender may, ironically, help to stimulate change in its structure of meanings, given that the feminine performances of these fighters ultimately posed symbolic challenges to cultural constructions of ('normal') women as inevitably weaker and inferior athletes compared to men. We therefore advocate that scholars with an interest in exploring the subversion of gender remain mindful of the possibility that such subversive impulses might occur via the appropriation, and re-signification, of some of its more orthodox norms.

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Section: Martial Arts Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes': exploring 'alternative' femininity in women's combat sports

Channon

Phipps

2017

Martial Arts Studies

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“…The women in this study have to negotiate the management of their gender and gendered understandings while also using these to account for their own and other women's wider experiences in football. The complexity of managing established discourses and orthodoxies evidenced in similar contexts (Meân & Kassing, 2008;Walsh, 2001) were again apparent in the rhetorical and discursive strategies deployed by the women participants in this study as they both re/produced and resisted the normative gendered masculinist definitions and entitlements.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Similarly while deploying normative masculinist practices has the potential to promote inclusion of the individual, the participants risk reinforcing hegemonic order (Welford, 2011). This highlights the multiple risks that these women managed within their accounts, as evidenced elsewhere (Meân & Kassing, 2008;Walsh 2001). As participants on an entry-level coach education course, the women are peripheral members of the football category in two intersecting ways, as women and entry-level.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To minimize the threat of such gender disruption, women in a category naturalized as male often deploy the female apologetic (Davis-Delano, Pollock & Ellsworth Vose, 2009) as part of the continued reproduction of dominant discourses, practices, and associated identities. In sport these strategies by women have been noted in a number of ways such as: the denial of the importance of women's sporting endeavors (Felshin, 1974); the emphasis of women athletes on their hegemonic, heterosexual femininity (Caudwell, 2007;Meân & Kassing, 2008); distancing from behaviors and ideologies that may be perceived as masculine (Krane, 2001) or feminist (Meân & Kassing, 2008). These practices undermine the emancipatory potential of women's sporting participation and prevent their achievements from being "held up" by women or "by feminists as exemplars" (Woodhouse, 2002, p.58).…”

Section: Managing Gender and Identities In Sport Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women Training to Coach a Men’s Sport

Fielding‐Lloyd

Meân

2016

Communication & Sport

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Despite increasing female participation in English football (aka soccer), the sport remains rooted in the values and discursive practices of orthodox masculinity. This is exemplified by the English Football Association (FA), which has been criticized for its ineffective responses to addressing the inclusion and progression of women as players and workers within the organization. Female membership in male-dominated organizations is not readily achieved, given the dominance of masculinist discourses and the risks of overtly challenging these. In this study, we explored the discursive management of gendered and/or footballing identities from interviews with participants in an English regional FA’s women-only football coach education program. All of the participants described the peripheral positioning of women in English football. Analysis identified evidence of both collaboration with and resistance to the dominant masculinist discourses in the accounts of their experiences in football, while also reproducing the most valued footballing identities and knowledge as male. We connect this to the complexities of negotiating and managing gendered identities for women in male-dominated organizations. All of the participants described the value and benefits of women-only coach education and the majority noted they would prefer women-only coach education in future.

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“…However, in the United States young females are at greater risk for not getting enough physical activity compared to young males (Crouter, 2007), and gender inequities in sports continue to exist. Although there are more women involved in the realm of sports, females face societal challenges associated with the male hegemony of sport, including issues of identity, media coverage, fan support, and opportunities such as in the job market of coaching and broadcasting (Mean & Kassing, 2008;Kennedy, 2009;Krane et al, 2004). There are also issues of disparities in availability of forums to disseminate the expertise of women in the field compared to their male counterparts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational factors related to female participation in collegiate sports

Pacheco¹,

Más²,

Olivárez³

et al. 2012

JHSE

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Pacheco LA, Soto F, Olivárez A, Avila M. Motivational factors related to female participation in collegiate sports. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 783-793, 2012. Despite the many health benefits, physical activity trends in females have been consistently reported to be lower than that of males. Other demographic variables may also be related to sport participation. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that motivate college females to participate in sports. This was a cross sectional, causalcomparative survey study. Eight motivational factors were explored: fitness, skill/mastery, enjoyment, affiliation/recognition, team factors, ego/competition, parental support, and external rewards. Female college athletes (N=82) from two post-secondary institutions were surveyed using the 35-item Modified Sports Motivation Survey. Results indicated that all factors were important to participants with significant differences found according to eligibility in the motivational factor of fitness. This study represents one of the most comprehensive to date looking into the multifaceted and complex interactions of motivational factors that influence female collegiate sports participation in the United States, yet future research is needed to better understand the adherence to physical activity into adulthood.

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“I Would Just Like to be Known as an Athlete”: Managing Hegemony, Femininity, and Heterosexuality in Female Sport

Cited by 91 publications

References 20 publications

'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes': exploring 'alternative' femininity in women's combat sports

'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes': exploring 'alternative' femininity in women's combat sports

Women Training to Coach a Men’s Sport

Motivational factors related to female participation in collegiate sports

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