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

Abstract

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.

The Kung Fu Family: A metaphor of belonging across time and place

“…This has been achieved by Channon and Jennings (2013) Channon and Phipps, (2017) with their combined findings on women's experiences of combat sports. While George Jennings set up interviews and observations with British TCMA practitioners in England (2006England ( -2010, Veronika Partikova worked in Hong Kong (2015-18).…”

Navigating the Rocky Road: Elite Female Boxers’ Perceptions of Their Boxing Journey

“…The lack of support depicts the social struggle female boxers experience whilst pursuing their athletic careers. Traditional gender ideologies place females in nurturing roles whereas men hold the more masculine positions such as being assertive and powerful [Channon and Phipps 2017]. Deviating from these social norms may consequently lead to social disapproval from society, family members or even a romantic partner.…”

“…Dissatisfaction refers to how the boxers felt once they had excelled in their career; consequently, reaching the peak was not what they had expected in terms of training and competing as an elite female boxer. A number of boxers discussed the lack of some coaches' readiness to train female boxers during the first ever GB female training camp, with Hannah and Gemma explaining: 'There was a lack of understanding about [Channon and Phipps 2017]. However, the boxers discussed the strategy of reframing to a positive mind-set, a common strategy utilised more by female athletes, especially when the stressor appears to be beyond the athlete's control [Dias, Cruz and Fonseca 2010].…”

“…Moreover, Ming et al [2016: 38] explored how twelve female athletes experienced, interpreted, accepted, tolerated and resisted the contradictory role adopted through participation in power and performance sports such as rugby, boxing and MMA, with findings demonstrating that participants enjoyed the physical intensity and mental strength associated with these sports. In combat sports more widely, sex-integration has been investigated [Channon 2014], in addition to the gendered significance of women's participation in combat sports [Channon and Phipps 2017] and women's participation in mixed martial arts in Norway and Sweden [Alsarve and Tjønndal 2019], to name just a few.…”

Editorial

“…While Bowman does not suggest that any single methodological approach should dominate the emerging field, he offers a strong critique of 'scientism' in all its forms. Alex Channon and Catherine Phipps, in an article titled 'Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes', ask what martial arts studies can tell us about the construction and performance of gender roles in modern society [Channon and Phipps 2017]. Their ethnographic study focuses on the ways that certain symbols and behaviors, when paired with achievements in the realm of fighting ability, are used to challenge and rewrite an orthodox understanding of gender.…”