Bourdieu, Gender Reflexivity, and Physical Culture: A Case of Masculinities in the Snowboarding Field (original) (raw)

Pierre Bourdieu’s “Masculine Domination” Thesis and the Gendered Body in Sport and Physical Culture

Sociology of Sport Journal, 2006

This paper explores the central thesis of one of Pierre Bourdieu’s last texts before his death in 2001, La Domination Masculine (1999). This text was subsequently translated and published in English in 2001 as Masculine Domination. I present the view that this text is not merely his only sustained commentary on gender relations but a potentially important intellectual contribution to the way in which we might view the embodiment of gender relations in sport and physical culture. Accordingly, I examine Bourdieu’s relational thesis of masculine domination as a three-part process of observation, somatization, and naturalization. I then give consideration to how sociologists of sport might use such critical analytical tools to render more transparent what Bourdieu refers to as the “illusio” of this phenomenon that is constructed by the practical everyday embodied enactments of gender relations in sport and physical culture.

Negotiating the ‘F-Word’ in the Field: Doing Feminist Ethnography in Action Sport Cultures

Sociology of Sport Journal, 2011

This paper examines the potential of social theory for enhancing researcher reflexivity and praxis in the ethnographic field. More specifically, we advocate the potential of feminist interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “regulated liberties” for helping critical ethnographers navigate some of the embodied political and ethical tensions and challenges encountered in male-dominated physical cultures. Drawing upon examples from our fieldwork in surfing and snowboarding cultures, we illustrate some of the strategies we employ to subtly subvert problematic cultural norms and values within these action sport cultures. Engaging the work of poststructural feminist and Bourdieusian scholars, we raise some of the ethical questions and concerns we have experienced as cultural members and feminist researchers while engaging with participants in the waves and on the slopes.

Gender dissimilarity in motor performance and women’s rapid progression in freestyle snowboarding; an analysis with Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, habitus and field

Since the early 2010s, there appears to be a rapid progression in motor performance in women’s freestyle snowboarding. However, the rate of progression and the motor performance is not similar to men’s freestyle snowboarding. The main research questions were therefore 1) why there recently is a rapid progression in women’s freestyle snowboarding, and 2) why this progression is not similar to men’s progression. To understand this dissimilarity, the purpose of this paper was to examine this dissimilarity in progression in motor performance between men and women’s freestyle snowboarding, despite women’s rapid progression, with Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, habitus and field. It was hypothesized that differences in capital, habitus and field accounted for the dissimilarity in progression. A literature study considered the differences in capital, habitus and field throughout history by which it was implied that a continuous reflexing habitus and an increased number of female participants, combined with increased motor performance due to grouping caused a more critical reflection in the core snowboard field with the appearance of outstanding performances of fellow female snowboarders. This caused a change in the habitus-field relation. However, this change is not fully accepted as the gained capital is still not similar to men’s. Together with a larger number of men participating in snowboarding, this might explain the differences in progression between men and women. It is concluded that the hypothesis that differences in capital, habitus and field account for the rapid progression might be verified. NOTE: I am a student writer, not a professional one. This paper was part of a course Sport & Society in which I had to address a sociological issue in sports. Despite my interest in snowboarding, I am freshmen in this area as well. So, any comment for improving this paper and sharing knowledge is very welcome.

Foucault, Technologies of Self, and the Media: Discourses of Femininity in Snowboarding Culture

Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 2008

This article draws on Foucault's concepts of discourse and technologies of self to analyze the relationship between young women and the media. More specifically, it sheds light on the various discursive constructions of femininity in the snowboarding media and examines the conditions under which female snowboarders learn to recognize and distinguish between different types of media discourses. It also examines the different ways in which women act on this knowledge, including the production of their own media forms. The article evaluates sexist discourses in the media and their effects on women's snowboarding experiences and considers women-only media forms as a foundation for wider social transformation. Ultimately, Foucault's unique conceptualization of power enables an account of the mundane and daily ways in which power is enacted and contested in snowboarding culture and allows an analysis that focuses on the female snowboarder as both an object and a subject of media power relations.

The construction of gendered bodies within competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspective

New emerging sports such as snowboarding reflect the possibility for a range of femininities and masculinities to be embodied by participants and in so doing have the potential to be more egalitarian that traditional sports. This article draws on a study conducted on snowboarding to extend the body of knowledge relating to female experiences of sport by focusing on the ways in which gendered performances are negotiated through the practice of 'jibbing' to suggest the ways in which such 'new sports' may facilitate participation based on factors other than gender. It explored how men and women negotiate the use of snow for jibbing, how this practice reflects wider understandings of gender in sport generally and in new and emerging sports specifically. The study adopted Butler's notion of gender performativity to evaluate the ways in which participants adopted repetitive acts Á the 'performance' Á of both girl and boy jibber. Findings suggest male participants often employ paternalistic ways of regulating female participation; 'performing' girl jibber is seen as less skilful than boy jibber, reinforcing male dominance on the snow. It was also found that while jibbing provides opportunities for women to participate, this was often in the apprentice or protégé role. Jibbing does have a criterion for acceptance, albeit covert, which ultimately works to exclude some participants. In jibbing, however, this was not based on gender.

Masculinities and sexualities in sport and physical cultures: three decades of evolving research

Journal of homosexuality, 2011

This article traces the foundation of the study between sport and physical cultures and masculinities and sexualities principally by examining the homophobic zeitgeist by which the academic discipline was formed. I show that the intense homophobia of the mid-1980s waned throughout the 1990s, and that during the new millennia, researchers found more inclusive forms of heterosexuality. Indeed, research on masculinities and homophobia today shows that, even in the traditionally conservative institution of sport, matters have shifted dramatically. This has resulted not only in improved conditions for sexual minorities, but it has also promoted a culture of softer, more tactile and emotional forms of heterosexual masculinities. These studies, alongside those within this special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality, highlight the necessity of developing new ways of theorizing the changing dynamics between masculinities, sexualities, and physical cultures in the next decade.

‘Buff boys’ with brooms: shifting representations of masculinity in Canadian men’s curling

NORMA, 2017

This paper explores a shift in masculine sporting identities associated with the sport of curling in Canada. We argue that as curling has become increasingly professionalized, there has been a corresponding shift in representations of male curlers that valourizes youth, strength and aggression, in contrast to a previous emphasis on maturity and sportsmanship. After a review of the history and context of curling's popularity as a sport in Canada, we recount these representational shifts, drawing on official documents of curling associations and media coverage of the sport. At the same time, we suggest that extending conventional forms of sporting masculinity to curling sits uneasily beside new initiatives to encourage lifelong participation in sport. We draw on critical masculinity studies and sport studies to argue that age needs to be taken into account when mapping the diversity of masculinities. We further argue that sport is an important context for understanding complex intersections of age and gender, especially as physical activity is increasingly posited as essential to 'successful aging'. We suggest that curling provides an instructive and under-studied example of how these issues conjoin in constructing aging male embodiment, and suggest some directions for further study.

A battle for control: exchanges of power in the subculture of snowboarding

This article uses a Gramscian perspective to explore the subculture of snowboarding, suggesting that cultural power is both resisted and reproduced. It examines the impact of commercialization on a snowboarding subculture from a participant perspective, gained from semi-structured interviews with boarders and skiers at a resort in British Columbia, Canada. The paper discusses new ways that snowboarders differentiate themselves from wider sporting cultures, in addition to how they do not outrightly reject the ideologies of mainstream sport but instead attempt to involve themselves more in the snowboarding industry. Through linking themselves with traditionally nonsnowboarding institutions and creating alternatives to them, snowboarders become actively involved in the organization of snowboarding.

Big and Pumped: Embodied Masculinity in HomosocialSporting Environments

2013

Queering male homosocial sporting environments and the relationship to masculinity and the body, is a multidimensional under-researched area of knowledge which experiences particular Queered epistemological challenges. This thesis aims to consider the relationship that men have with their bodies in homosocial sporting environments. Acknowledgement is given to the bonds that men make in defining their masculinity; this includes the role of the body and the iii