Catherine Phipps | University of Greenwich (original) (raw)
Papers by Catherine Phipps
This article considers the gendered significance of women's participation in combat sports, with ... more 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 maneuvering 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.
Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports, 2015
9 the examination of gender issues using this theoretical framework. The second section of the me... more 9 the examination of gender issues using this theoretical framework. The second section of the methodological issues section will focus on the research methods used within this study, explaining and justifying qualitative research methods, sampling, data collection and data analysis, ethical issues, issues of involvement-detachment and trustworthiness of the data. The conclusion of this chapter includes a table which outlines some basic information and experience levels of each participant interviewed. An extensive review of the literature will then be provided, followed by the results and discussion section which explores several themes which arose within the interviews. Finally, a conclusion, references and appendices will be provided. I will start by giving an overview of figurational sociology.
Conference Presentations by Catherine Phipps
Drawing on interview data taken from two separate research projects (one conducted in the English... more Drawing on interview data taken from two separate research projects (one conducted in the English East Midlands, the other with participants based throughout the UK), this paper discusses British female kickboxers' discursive constructions of femininity/ies. Much previous theoretical handling of sportswomen's engagement with 'femininity' has framed this as a constraining or conservative phenomenon, suggesting that the empowering and transformative potentials of sport are undermined when gendered social norms and practices dictate the terms of women's athletic embodiment. This is seen to particularly be the case in so-called 'masculine' sports, wherein women are effectively pressurised into compensating for a perceived 'femininity deficit', often at the cost of sporting achievement. However, our data suggests that women involved in various kickboxing disciplines – sports with a decidedly 'masculine' public image – have complex, active, and varied relationships with femininity, which bear further examination beyond this 'social constraint' model. By focusing particularly on the signifying practice of wearing pink boxing gloves, we discuss the potentially transformative meanings of kickboxers' selectively performed femininities, as described by the women themselves. While noting that some iterations of femininity can indeed constrain or limit women's advancement in and through such sports, we suggest that femininity might also be interpreted as subversive of traditional gender norms, particularly when deployed in ways which signify 'woman' without precluding or restricting the embodiment of physical power.
Books by Catherine Phipps
Issue 3 of Martial Arts Studies
This article considers the gendered significance of women's participation in combat sports, with ... more 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 maneuvering 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.
Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports, 2015
9 the examination of gender issues using this theoretical framework. The second section of the me... more 9 the examination of gender issues using this theoretical framework. The second section of the methodological issues section will focus on the research methods used within this study, explaining and justifying qualitative research methods, sampling, data collection and data analysis, ethical issues, issues of involvement-detachment and trustworthiness of the data. The conclusion of this chapter includes a table which outlines some basic information and experience levels of each participant interviewed. An extensive review of the literature will then be provided, followed by the results and discussion section which explores several themes which arose within the interviews. Finally, a conclusion, references and appendices will be provided. I will start by giving an overview of figurational sociology.
Drawing on interview data taken from two separate research projects (one conducted in the English... more Drawing on interview data taken from two separate research projects (one conducted in the English East Midlands, the other with participants based throughout the UK), this paper discusses British female kickboxers' discursive constructions of femininity/ies. Much previous theoretical handling of sportswomen's engagement with 'femininity' has framed this as a constraining or conservative phenomenon, suggesting that the empowering and transformative potentials of sport are undermined when gendered social norms and practices dictate the terms of women's athletic embodiment. This is seen to particularly be the case in so-called 'masculine' sports, wherein women are effectively pressurised into compensating for a perceived 'femininity deficit', often at the cost of sporting achievement. However, our data suggests that women involved in various kickboxing disciplines – sports with a decidedly 'masculine' public image – have complex, active, and varied relationships with femininity, which bear further examination beyond this 'social constraint' model. By focusing particularly on the signifying practice of wearing pink boxing gloves, we discuss the potentially transformative meanings of kickboxers' selectively performed femininities, as described by the women themselves. While noting that some iterations of femininity can indeed constrain or limit women's advancement in and through such sports, we suggest that femininity might also be interpreted as subversive of traditional gender norms, particularly when deployed in ways which signify 'woman' without precluding or restricting the embodiment of physical power.