Editorial Sally Johnson
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AM REALLY PLEASED to be able to present such a substantial issue of the Psychology of Women Section Review for the autumn. Most of the issue is taken up with a special feature on sport which Helen Owton has worked extremely hard in putting together, and I’m sure you will agree, has done an excellent job. Please see her Guest Editorial below for details of this feature. In the ‘Agora’ section I am pleased to include a report by Nikki Hayfield, Sophie Gray and Rebecca Jones on the one-day ‘Feminism in Action’ seminar held in Bristol in July 2011 and organised by Victoria Clarke and Helen Malson. The focus of this day was on how research can be of socially and practically relevant to activists and, in turn, how activist agendas can inform research. Following on from this seminar, in the spoken piece entitled ‘Thinking global, acting local: A conversation with feminist activists’, Nikki Hayfield introduces her conversation with Bristol feminist activists Helen Mott, Sian Norris and Anna Brown. A further report of a POWS-funded one-day seminar ‘Barriers and enablers to feminist research’ held in Leeds in November 2011 is reported by Heidi Bjorgan and Pauline Whelan. The aims of this seminar were to identify and explore the barriers and enablers to feminist research, to discuss strategies for overcoming barriers and to develop some common goals and collaborative feminist possibilities. Also included in this issue is a paper by Hasida Ben-Zur and Keren Michael entitled ‘Threat, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events: Gender differences in Israel’. In this paper Beh-Zur and Michael present research on gender reactions to stressful life events from a more traditional
psychological perspective whilst highlighting the cultural context, particularly in Israel, and problems with sex difference research. The ‘Research Review’ section contains a thoughtful appraisal by Mei Lan Fang of the article ‘The role of gender in mental illness stigma: A national experiment by Wirth and Bodenhausen’ (2009). In the ‘Book Reviews’ section I am pleased to include four thoughtful reviews; two continuing the special feature theme of sport. In the first, Gareth Wiltshire reviews Sport and Physical Activity for Mental Health by David Carless and Kitrina Douglas (2010). In the second, Joanne Hill reviews The World of Physical Culture in Sport and Exercise: Visual Methods for Qualitative Research edited by Cassandra Phoenix and Brett Smith (2011). In the third, Johanna Spiers reviews Flesh Wounds: New Ways of Understanding Self-Injury by Kay Inckle (2010). The final review, by Diana Bretherick, is of The Gender and Media Reader edited by Mary Celeste Kearney (2012). Finally, it is with some regret that I have decided to step down as Editor of POWSR. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of editing the publication. However, I am pleased to announce that Jane Callaghan will be taking over as Editor. My thanks to Jane for assisting with the editing of this issue. Jane will welcome submissions for future editions. Details of how to contact Jane can be found on the inside back cover of this issue. I am also pleased to announce that Helen Owton will be taking over as Book Reviews Editor. As always many thanks to the contributors. Sally Johnson Editor
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Guest Editorial: Special feature on Sport Helen Owton
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FEEL EXTREMELY PRIVILEGED to be Associate Editor for this special feature on sport commissioned to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics. The call for papers for a feature on sport was met with an overwhelming response and is centred on the following three themes: Sport feminism, Gender in sport, and Taboos in sport. Whilst London was busy staging the Olympic Games, we have been behind the scenes of sport in this edition to tap into some of the more controversial and intricate aspects that are often ignored. So why not just take a few minutes out of your day to settle down, take a deep breath and soak up the following excellent pieces we have lined up for you. The special feature starts with papers on the highly debated ‘F word’ in sport, Sports feminisms, with a critical piece from Jayne Caudwell entitled ‘Theorising women’s sport participation: Debating sport feminisms’. In this paper, Jayne considers (with caution) how sport feminists have theorised (and continue to do so) the complex power relations of gender and sexuality in sport. She makes reference to the recent preferences made by the International Amateur Boxing Association for women boxers to enter the ring wearing skirts. Within this theme, I am also delighted to include ‘Heteronormative landscapes: Exploring sexuality through elite women athletes’ by Kerrie Kauer and Vikki Krane who provide an insightful review using a transnational, queer feminist analysis to explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, race, social class, and nation and examine how these combine to perpetuate heterosexism and homonegativism in women’s sport. Through contemporary incidents in elite women’s sport, they reveal the contradictions in lived experiences with binary categorisations of gender and sexual orientation. 2
The next theme, Gender and sport, includes three theoretically analytical papers. The first is ‘Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad: Locating athletes’ bodies within the discursive practices of elite sporting environments’ by Suzanne Cosh and Shona Crabb. Within the context of sport, this paper critiques existing literature on the Female Athlete Triad and disordered eating and draws on previous studies of interactions from routine body composition testing. The second paper is ‘The construction of gendered bodies within competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspective’ by Brittany Johnson and Kate Russell. The aim of this paper is to understand the processes by which athletes construct their gendered body within competitive swimming through a Foucauldian framework. Key findings suggest various technologies, including surveillance, discipline and physical modifications that help to classify the swimmer as an acceptable sporting body by employing a ‘swimmers gaze’. Finally, Emma Seal’s paper on disability, ‘Understanding complexity: The potential of critical realism and intersectionality’, addresses the potential of bridging feminist scholarship and disability scholarship and is discussed in relation to its application within disability sport research together with the exploration of women’s experiences within this domain. Taboos in sport is the final gritty section in this sports feature, which includes four intense and somewhat ‘risky’ papers, which I am inspired by. I am pleased to include another contribution from Suzanne Cosh and Shona Crabb which is entitled ‘Motherhood within elite sport discourse: The case of Keli Lane’. This paper sensitively discusses the tensions between ‘mother’ and ‘athlete’ highlighting the invisibility of motherhood in elite sport through an analysis of 326
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media reports of the case of Keli Lane. Following on, the next paper sensitively explores ethical issues concerning telling, hearing, and witnessing taboo tales through a story telling approach. Therefore, I am delighted to include ‘Taboo tales in elite sport: Relationships, ethics, and witnessing’ by Kitrina Douglas and David Carless. Douglas and Carless argue that despite the challenges, the kinds of relationships ‘insider’ status offers, leads to valuable and even unique insights by allowing individuals to voice taboo issues which are too often unseen or silenced. Following on suitably, the next paper by Michael Hartill voices some of these taboo issues that are often unseen and silenced in sport. I am thrilled to include Harthill’s paper entitled ‘‘I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes’: Narratives of male-athleticism and the sexually-abused male child athlete’, which focuses on the intersection between the ‘abuse narrative’ and the masculinist narrative of male-sport and its impact on the sexually-abused male child. Finally, Trisha Leahy offers a brief critical summary of current knowledge on sexual abuse in sport, and proposes a signifi-
cant gatekeeper role for psychologists working with athletes in ‘Sexual abuse in high performance sport: Implications for the sport psychologist’. In this paper, Trisha crucially highlights the need for the sport psychology profession to be at the forefront of cross-disciplinary efforts to promote athletes’ welfare and safety and to develop a culture of dignity, respect, and safety in sport for all athletes. I am very honoured to be part of this special sports feature, which has so many reputable experts in the field of sport who all contributed so enthusiastically towards making this valuable collection of papers possible. I would also like to thank all the reviewers for your conscientious hard work and beneficial feedback to the authors. It has been a pleasure to work with you all. I hope that this special feature stimulates your thoughts about the exciting possibilities involved in sports research. Helen Owton Associate Editor Sports Feature, University of Exeter. Email:
[email protected]
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Sport feminism
Theorising women’s sport participation: Debating sport feminisms Jayne Caudwell Women’s boxing, for the first time, will be an Olympic event at London 2012. This is cause for celebration for many women involved in sport, including boxers, and those studying gendered power relations in sporting contexts. However, the International Amateur Boxing Association, in the now-familiar style of patriarchal sport governing bodies, recently announced their preference – and potential advocacy – for these elite athletes to enter the ring wearing skirts! In this short essay, I briefly consider the ways sport feminists have and continue to theorise the complex power relations of gender and sexuality in sport. In particular, I explore the usefulness of adopting the (traditional-) feminist historical model; feminist waves of theory (first wave, second wave and third wave). I caution against such an approach on two fronts. One is the implicit assumption of a logic of progression, and, two is the suppositions made by many so-called third wavers.
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N 20 JANUARY 2012, the International Working Group on Women and Sport, supported by European Women and Sport, Women Sport International and International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women, wrote to the President of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA). Their written statement carefully outlines their deep concerns, dissatisfactions and objections to potential changes to the Technical and Competition Rules of Boxing: Changes that might officially endorse the skirt as competitive attire for boxers (women). In 2011, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) had similarly suggested skirts, arguing that ‘the dress code is necessary to make athletes appear more feminine, thereby reviving flagging interest in the sport from fans and corporate sponsors’ (Hill, 2011). For sport feminists, this recent emphasis on the skirt, in elite competitive sport, is both familiar and startling. It is familiar because for many years we have seen a myriad of social-, cultural-, discursive- and symbolic-sporting processes that seek to blatantly mark and inscribe women’s bodies as normatively gendered and sexualised. It is startling, because many of us thought these 4
very public and dominant processes had become less obvious. At the first London Olympics in 1908, women were allowed to take part in four events: archery, ice-skating, sailing and tennis. Their permitted active involvement made up a meagre two per cent of overall participation. In Beijing 2008, a century later, women competed in 27 sports, men competed in 28. There were a total of 302 events: 10 mixed, 127 open to women and 165 to open to men. For example, women can now – and since 1976 – take part in sports such as rowing, but they cannot enter coxed pairs and lightweight coxless fours events. The exclusions are subtle and the discrepancies less marked. Nevertheless, they continue to exist and remain fiercely protected by an International Olympics Committee (IOC) that can operate outside national and international equal opportunities legislations and human rights discourses. Recently, this was evidenced in the IOC’s refusal to allow women to participate in ski jumping at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. This is despite appeals by the Canadian Government on behalf of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (Travers, 2011).
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The above Olympic-based exemplars demonstrate how gendered sporting regimes affect women’s participation, embodiment and representation. Similar issues are also prevalent at grassroot and recreation levels. The treatment of women and girls in sporting contexts clearly warrants feminist scrutiny. In this short essay, I explore how the model of feminist waves of theory and a concomitant emerging third wave might jeopardise a more nuanced theorisation of women, sport, gender and sexuality.
Sport feminisms In many ways (Western) sport feminists from predominantly English-speaking countries such as the US, UK, northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, have established sport feminism as a legitimate critical lens through which to investigate (Western) sports’ myriad cultures and practices. Over the last five decades, sport feminism – or more appropriately, ‘sport feminisms’ – has become a significant, developed and developing mode of critical inquiry within the academy. Currently, students studying sport can complete individual modules and papers, and in-depth dissertations and theses on specific issues relevant to (usually Western) feminist concerns. In this reputable field of study, scholars contributing to sport feminisms have described, outlined, defined and explained their subject. This reflexive task usually aims to document the changing and dynamic nature of feminist theory and politics. Some scholars are keen to break down the entirety of feminisms and as a consequence they seek to provide clear delineations. For example, writers discuss ‘waves’ of theory (Scraton & Flintoff, 2002) and ‘stages’ of development (Birrell, 2000) as well as feminisms’/feminists’ four-decade ‘journey’ (Hall, 2005). Such approaches help in understanding the vastness and scope of feminisms. However, these endeavours to capture the complexities of feminisms do operate in particular ways; they produce accounts of sport feminisms, which tend to align with a broader rhetoric of ‘progression’.
In more recent work (Caudwell, 2011a), I caution against writing sport feminisms in the now-familiar style of feminist waves/ stages of theory: First, Second and Third. This cautionary approach took shape after reading a short dialogue between two authors in the journal Feminist Theory (Hemmings, 2005, 2007; Torr, 2007). The original article, written by Hemmings (2005), sought to reflect, critically, on the ways the history of feminist theory is told and re-told. In particular, how (usually Western) feminist storytelling fixes in place dominant and stable accounts of feminist theoretical development. Hemmings convincingly, and eloquently, argues that this teleology is underpinned by ‘an insistent narrative that sees the development of feminist thought as a relentless march of progress or loss’ (p.115). Her précis of these processes is thus: …we move from a preoccupation with unity and sameness, through identity and diversity, and on to difference and fragmentation. These shifts are broadly conceived of as corresponding to the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s respectively, and to a move from liberal, socialist and radical feminist thought to postmodern gender theory. A shift from the naïve, essentialist seventies, through the black feminist critiques and ‘sex wars’ of the 1980s, and into the ‘difference’ 1990s and beyond, charts the story as one of progress… (pp.115–116) Hemmings challenges the usefulness of this established and dominant feminist narrative; she is not alone in her questioning. McRobbie (2009) also critiques ‘…the use of the waves in the writing of feminist histories’ (p.151) and she argues that ‘[a] critical debate about the limitations of what we might call the waves model of feminism is also long overdue’(p.156). For McRobbie (2009), it is not only the linear narrative evident within such a model that is troublesome; additionally, it is the emergence of a generationally-led narrative of progress. Within this generational model, it is apparent that generations of women are
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often pitted against each other to establish temporality and a sense of new discovery. This is sometimes the case in sport studies (e.g. Heywood, 2008; Heywood & Dworkin, 2003; Thorpe, 2008). More specifically, individual feminists are frequently tied to specific dates and/or decades and specific ways of theorising. They have been linked to dates of birth, for example, Heywood and Drake (1997) fix birth and ‘coming of age’ to ‘generationally second wave’ (p.7) or ‘generationally third wave’ (p.13). Within such generational models, ‘second wave’ sport feminism is described as an ‘objectification thesis’ (Heywood & Dworkin, 2003, p.12). That is, ‘second wave’ sport feminists are only concerned with oppression, patriarchy and the objectification of women athletes. And, that objectification is fixed to an era; it is an historically located feminist concept. More generally, sport feminisms have been recounted – by third wavers and nonthird wavers in the field (e.g. Scraton & Flintoff, 2002) – as a 1980s focus on liberalism and/or separatism and a 1990s concern with difference and diversity (e.g. Hargreaves, 2000). Although such descriptions might be useful to sport studies students these types of delineations must be treated as artificial. Clearly, the compartmentalisation of feminist theory has encouraged what Hemmings refers to as an ‘insistent narrative’ underscored by a ‘relentless march of progress…’ (2005, p.115). As others have suggested, such modelling – ‘stifles the writing of the kind of complex historical genealogy of feminisms…’ (McRobbie, 2009, p.156), which could, otherwise, lead to more open, nuanced accounts. For example, Hemmings (2005) asks: ‘How might feminist theory generate a proliferation of stories about its recent past that more accurately reflect the diversity of perspectives within (or outside) its orbit?’ (p.130).
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Boxing women Women boxers offer a potent challenge to men and boys’ constructed entitlement to sport. A powerful filmic representation of this contest, quite literally, is played out in Karyn Kusama’s film Girlfight (2000). On the independent film circuit, Girlfight was widely acclaimed. Moreover, it won Director’s Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The independent film is Kusama’s debut production. She cast an unknown actress, Michelle Rodriguez, as the protagonist Diana Guzman and Rodriguez won Best Debut Performer in the Independent Spirit Awards. In the film, Guzman’s desire to box involves a long process of persuading men to let her participate: Hector (Jaime Tirelli) to train her; Tiny (Ray Santiago), her brother, to remain silent about her activities; the gym owner to let her compete; and Adrian (Santiago Douglas) to spar with and compete against her. In the end, Guzman does fight. She has an official and sanctioned fight with Adrian, the young man she is shown to fall in love with. In the film, this heteroromance subplot ensures the narrative recuperation of heterosexuality. And, she has a spontaneous, extremely physical fight with her father, which in many ways represents a symbolic dismantling of patriarchy. Both of these boxing moments are hugely symbolic representations in terms of women’s participation in sports, especially sports that are heavily defined by, and in, male terms. They are filmic moments. However, they remain significant because we are not usually offered these versions of boxing, gender and sexuality on the screen. Tolchin (2007) makes this point, in relation to Guzman, ‘the audience grows mesmerised not by the classic parts of breasts and buttocks but by eyes, brow, jaw, and fists’ (p.188). As with boxing, football is contested terrain. Sexism and misogyny are enduring and common occurrences. There are numerous and wide ranging examples in both sports of how women and girls’ are
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gendered and sexualised to fit heteronormativity and how this feeds popular imaginaries – wearing a skirt to box is just one example. In an effort to establish sport feminisms in critical football (soccer) studies, I recently (2011b) explored the value of recognising and moving between, at the edges and overlaps of different feminist emphases, which in this instance involved a consideration of the ‘category of woman’, the ‘category of gender’ and the ‘category of femininities’. Clearly, the categories are artificial and their orbits reach beyond the boundaries of their seemingly compartmentalisation. This simple model (‘woman’, ‘gender’ and ‘femininities’) intends to capture some of the histories of feminist theoretical development and available modes of feminist analyses. The ‘category of woman’ reflects feminist thinking during the so-called second wave (1970s and 1980s) and is based on the foundational premise that sex and gender are distinct. The term – ‘category of woman’ – indicates the value of commonality, shared oppressions and political solidarity. However, this ‘category’ is criticised (perhaps too heavily) for universalising and essentialising women. The ‘category of gender’, reflects the impact Judith Butler’s work has on feminism and on the theorising of gender, and sex. Butler’s contribution helped denaturalise sex and destabilise the sex–gender distinction. Lloyd (2008), in her discussions on reform, emancipation, diversity, deconstruction and différence feminisms, pays tribute to Butler, acknowledging her immense contributions to feminist theory. The ‘category of femininities’ captures a traditional concern with ‘femininity’, as the root cause of women’s subordination, as well as contemporary feminist engagement with a so-called postfeminist era and the proliferation of popular cultural and/or media cultural articulations of femininities. These articulations are effectively re-centring ‘both heterosexuality and whiteness, as well as fetishising a young, able-bodied, ‘fit’ (understood as both healthy, and in its more
contemporary sense as ‘attractive’) female body’ (Gill, 2007). Gill’s arguments concerning the proliferation of feminine sexiness are extremely relevant to sport feminisms, especially in the lead up to London 2012. This is because women’s athletic bodies will be sexualised to advertise the event. Gill claims women and girls are no longer sexual objects in a traditional sense, they are not presented as mute and passive (e.g. the boxer and/or Guzman). Drawing on Radner’s (2009) ‘technologies of sexiness’, Gill shows how governmentality and disciplinary practices produce and regulate dominant forms of femininity and sexual subjectivity. In particular, how these dominant versions, with their basis in white-heterosexual femininity, persist in Western cultures. Gill identifies strong relationships between technologies of sexiness, individualism and neoliberalism. Other feminist writers also draw our attention to neoliberal ideology, femininity and, in addition, resurgent patriarchy. Renold and Ringrose (2008) and McRobbie (2009), argue that resurgent patriarchy re-orders Butler’s heterosexual matrix in new, but nevertheless heteronormative, ways. This argument is easily applied to sport governing bodies such as the AIBA, BWF and IOC and political and cultural discussions of this nature are crucial to critiques of third wave feminism.
The final bout Recently, two teenage boxers have appeared in the Western press. Like many young athletes, these young women have aspirations to compete at the London 2012 Olympics. In itself, this is marvellous and indeed newsworthy; however, the reasons why they are receiving media coverage are more likely a result of their ‘unusual’ circumstances. Shabham Rahimi (19 years) and Sadaj Rahimi (18 years) live in Kabul, Afganistan. They train in a gym at the Ghazi stadium. This venue, as many journalists have pointed out, was previously used by the Taliban during their regime rule (1996 to 2001), to
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publicly execute, stone to death and mutilate women, and men. As Flak and Sadat (2012) have reported (www.guardian.co.uk), the young women are aware of this past: ‘My family fled to Iran during the Taliban… but I heard that women used to be killed here and sometimes when I exercise alone inside the stadium I panic’, Sadaf said. Sadaf and Shabham as well as the other young women they train with are clearly confronting the socially constructed limits of gender and femininity in their own countries. Their struggles reflect discontinuities with women boxers in the UK. And yet, the comment made by their coach Mohammad Saber Sharifi – ‘We want to show the world that Afghan women can be leaders, too, that they can do anything, even boxing’ (in Flak & Sadat, 2012), might be applied to women and girls in the UK. In the Olympic qualifying rounds (May 2012), the Afganistan women’s boxing team must compete against China. If successful, and if the International Amateur Boxing Association makes the rule change they are considering, then Sadaf and Shabham will be expected to wear skirts to enter the Olympic boxing rings in London. Like many women badminton players, who believe in Islam and follow Muslim culture and traditions, the (short) skirt for most Afghan women is not (and never has been) part of their way of life. If the suggested skirt ruling becomes operational, then, to participate, these sportswomen must comply with Western and heteronormative gendered cultural practices. It is these processes of – what we might refer to as – Western ‘technologies of sexiness’, which require critical feminist scrutiny. In other words, there is a need for critical analysis from post-colonial sport feminism.
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Third-wave feminism has been justifiably criticised for overly celebrating strong, seemingly powerful (white)women and their apparently productive femininities. In many ways, the woman boxer might stand as iconic for a third wave sport feminist agenda. However, as the experiences of women boxers suggest, gender and sexuality are far more complex and intricate. Not only do we need to draw on feminisms from the past and make links between different foci of critical analyses (e.g. ‘women’, ‘gender’ and ‘femininities’), more importantly, we need to reach further than white Western women’s theories and testimonies. The IOC is shown to be male dominated and Western orientated (Caudwell, 2012), however, we are yet to see post-colonial feminism – and its links with existing feminist theories and concepts – gain real recognition within sport feminisms in the UK.
Correspondence Jayne Caudwell University of Brighton. Email:
[email protected]
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References Birrell, S. (2000). Feminist theories for sport. In J. Coakley & E. Dunning (Eds.), Handbook of sport studies (pp.61–76). London: Sage. Caudwell, J. (2012). Sex watch: Surveying women’s sexed and gendered bodies at the Olympics. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Watching the Games: Politics, power and representation in the London Olympiad (pp.151–164). London: Routledge. Caudwell, J. (2011a). Sport Feminism(s): Narratives of linearity? Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 35(2), 111–125. Caudwell, J. (2011b). Gender, feminism and football studies. Soccer and Society, 12(3), 323–329. Flak, A. & Sadat, H. (2012). Afghan girls throw punches, aim for Olympic gold. Reuters, Monday 2 January. Accessed 1 February 2012, from: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/ 10020551, ) Gill, R. (2007). Post-feminist media culture: Elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies 10(2), 147–166. Hall, A.M. (2005). From pre- to post-feminism: A four decade journey. In P. Markula (Ed.), Feminist sport studies. Sharing experiences of joy and pain (pp.45–61). Albany, NY: SUNY. Hargreaves, J. (2000). Heroines of sport: The politics of difference and identity. London: Routledge. Hemmings, C. (2007). What is a feminist theorist responsible for? Response to Rachel Torr. Feminist Theory, 8(1), 69–76. Hemmings, C. (2005). Telling feminist stories. Feminist Theory, 6(2), 115–139. Heywood, L. (2008). Third-wave feminism, the global economy, and women’s surfing: Sport as stealth feminism in girls’ surf culture. In A. Harris (Ed.), Next wave cultures: Feminism, subcultures, activism (pp.63–82). New York: Routledge. Heywood, L. & Drake, J. (1997). Third-wave agenda: Being feminist, doing feminism. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press Heywood, L. & Dworkin, S.L. (2003). Built to win: The female athlete as cultural icon. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press
Hill, A. (2011). Skirts-for-women edict splits world of badminton. UK sport minister Hugh Robertson condemns ‘damaging attempt to sex up the game’. The Guardian, Friday 27 May. Lloyd, M. (2008). Judith Butler. Cambridge: Polity Press. McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism. Gender, culture and social change. London: Sage Radner, H. (2009). Compulsory sexuality and the desiring woman. Sexualities, 11(1–2), 94–100. Renold, E. & Ringrose, J. (2008). Regulation and rupture. Mapping tween and teenage girls’ resistance to the heterosexual matrix. Feminist Theory, 9(3), 313–338. Scraton, S. & Flintoff, A. (2002). Sport feminism: The contribution of feminist thought to our understanding of gender and sport. In S. Scraton & A. Flintoff (Eds.), Gender and sport: A reader (pp.30–46). London: Routledge. Torr, R. (2007). What’s wrong with aspiring to find out what has really happened in academic feminism’s recent past? Response to Clare Hemmings’ ‘Telling feminist stories’. Feminist Theory, 8(1), 59–67. Thorpe, H. (2008). Feminism for a new generation: A case study of women in the snowboarding culture. In C. Obel, T. Bruce & S. Thompson (Eds.), Outstanding. Research about women and sport in New Zealand. Waikato: The University of Waikato. Tolchin, K.R. (2007). ‘Hey, killer’: The construction of a macho latina, or the perils and enticements of Girlfight. In M. Mendible (Ed.), From bananas to buttocks. The latina body in popular film and culture (pp.183–198). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Travers, A. (2011). Women’s ski jumping, the 2010 Olympic Games, and the deafening silence of sex segregation, whiteness, and wealth. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 35(2), 126–145.
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Heteronormative landscapes: Exploring sexuality through elite women athletes Kerrie Kauer & Vikki Krane While much progress has been made towards increased acceptance of sexual and gender diversity in women’s sport, there also are myriad examples where adversity abounds for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender athletes. Even within inclusive sport environments, the reproduction of white normativity and the marginalisation of people of colour and transgender athletes often exist. In this review, we use a transnational, queer feminist analysis to explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, race, social class, and nation and examine how they combine to perpetuate heterosexism and homonegativism in women’s sport. Using contemporary incidents in elite women’s sport, we highlight the confluence of these multiple axes of oppression. Our review also reveals the contradictions in lived experiences with binary categorisations of gender and sexual orientation. While challenges and disruptions of homonegative and heterosexist environments provide hope to future generations of LBT athletes, there is a continued imperative to critique heteronormative, homonormative, and international representations of LBTs in sport as well as the treatment of all women in sport.
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HERE ARE MORE openly lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) female elite athletes than ever before. For example, Sarah Vaillancourt is on the Canadian women’s hockey team, Erika Holst plays hockey on the Swedish national team, Ireen Wüst competes in speed skating for Netherlands, Vibeke Skofterud is a crosscountry skier from Norway, Lauren Lappin is on the US Softball Olympic team, and Katja Nyberg and Gro Hammerseng play handball for Norway. Kye Allums, a basketball player for a US university, and professional golfers Mianne Bagger and Lana Lawless are openly transgender or transsexual. At the same time, longstanding discrimination against LBT athletes continues. In Nigeria, the coach of their 2011 world cup football team, Eucharia Uche, reportedly has ‘used religion in an attempt to rid her team of homosexual behaviour, which she termed a “dirty issue”, and “spiritually, morally very wrong” ’ (Longman, 2011, p.2). In 2005, a high profile women’s university basketball coach in the US, Rene Portland, had a lawsuit filed against her for discrimination based on 10
sexual orientation. The suit was settled out of court and in 2007 Coach Portland resigned. While much progress has been made towards increased acceptance of sexual and gender diversity in women’s sport, heterosexist and homonegative climates still persist. The contemporary sporting landscape for girls and women is diverse, ranging from inclusive to hostile. And, even within inclusive sport environments, the reproduction of white normativity and the ensuing marginalisation of people of colour and transgender athletes often exist. Outside of these spaces of inclusion, where both subtle and overt forms of heterosexism and homonegativism endure, critical analysis should attend to various forms of exclusion, transnationality, and the politics of gendered, sexualised, and racialised bodies. Consequently, in this paper, we employ a transnational, queer feminist perspective. As Nagar and Swarr (2010) defined, transnationalism is ‘an intersectional set of understandings, tools, and practices that can attend to racialised, classed, masculinised, and heteronormative
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logics and practices of globalisation and capitalist patriarchies’ (p.8). The cornerstone of this perspective is intersectionality, which is acknowledges and explores the relationships among multiple social identities as well as considers how various identities combine to create inequality. Our approach is in response to recent calls for new directions in conceptualising queer issues in sport. King (2008) argued for an interrogation of the structural boundaries that position (white) heterosexuality as the norm and a focus away from singular LBT identities. She further expressed that homonormative research in the sociology of sport needs to be destabilised; the narrow, predominantly white Eurocentric conceptualisations must be expanded to include more robust and nuanced understandings of privilege from multiple axes of identity. Homonormativity refers to the normalising or stabilising of all LBT identities that often serves to reproduce normal white liberal standards. As many of the examples provided in this paper demonstrate, using a transnational, queer feminist lens in our conceptualisation of sport allows us to consider the impact of heteronormativity and homonegativism on diversely gendered, sexualised, and racialised bodies. Using these frameworks requires us to interrogate multiple and intersecting identities to fully illustrate how forms of oppression around race, sexuality, and national origin simultaneously reproduce oppressive sport spaces (McDonald, 2006). Probing women’s sport in this manner will shed light on the intersections of multiple forms of oppression. This approach avoids collapsing multifaceted lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities into a ‘progressive individualism’ that often is seen through a gay, white, male perspective (Eng et al., 2005). Thus, in this review, we employ our transnational, queer feminist perspective to: (a) explore the ways in which gender, racial, and sexuality policing becomes normalised 1
in sporting contexts, and how privilege and oppression intersect to maintain the status quo; and (b) use contemporary examples of inequity in elite women’s sport to draw attention to the complexity of acceptance and discrimination around sexuality for women in sport.
Contemporary understandings of queer sport Hall (1996) argued that research on women’s sport had neglected climates for female athletes outside dominant white, Western perspectives. Recently, a more global exploration of heterosexism and homonegativism has emerged. In the first known investigation of sexual orientation in sport conducted in Japan, Iida and colleagues (2010) found that sexual minority participants (274 female, male, and transgender) described heteronormative sport environments where they commonly heard offensive remarks and felt pressure to be feminine (females) or masculine (males). Participants also expressed being ignored and/or ridiculed because of their sexuality and gender expression. Studies in Taiwan had similar results. Shang and Gill (2012) found that Taiwanese athletes who identified as non-heterosexual perceived their sport and physical activity climates as hostile. In addition, female athletes in Taiwan perceived their coaches’ attitudes to be more negative toward sexual minorities than they did their peers. In a second study by Shang and Gill (2011), top-level university athletes often heard anti-gay jokes or comments on their teams and one-fourth of the female athletes expressed that violence occasionally occurs because of one’s gender expression or sexual orientation. When these incidents did occur, it was reported that one third of the time no one intervened. Although there can be a tendency to consider all of the Global South1 as oppressive toward LBTs in sport, we caution that
The Global South refers to countries previously considered third world and includes countries in Central and Latin America, Africa, and most of Asia; the Global North is assumed to be democratic, technologically inventive, and wealthy, whereas the Global South presumably are the opposite (Odeh, 2010).
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painting such a broad portrait of hostility toward LBTs is an inaccurate portrait. Interpreting international research consistent with our transnational, queer feminist lens exposes the importance of intersectional understandings of heteronormativity and exposes the nuances of sexuality and gender cross-culturally. In fact, understanding the construction of gender and sexuality in global cultures might point to a broader range of identities that are not confined merely to binary oppositions (e.g. male/ female, heterosexual/homosexual). As Mitra (2011) noted, Hijras, also known as the third sex, are a recognised social group in India as are the Kathoeys in Thailand. In many ways, Hijras, with what may be considered gender variant identities, are more accepted than in Western societies (Armbrecht, 2008). It also is important to note that hostile climates are hardly exclusive to the Global South or Eastern societies. As Symons et al. (2010) found, a majority of the athletes in their comprehensive study of LGBT sport in Australia experienced discrimination in sport, such as verbal homophobia that typically went unchallenged. Approximately 10 per cent of the lesbian athletes in this study acknowledged refraining from playing a particular sport due to the uncomfortable or hostile climate toward lesbians. Symons and colleagues concluded that in sports considered socially accepted for women or perceived as traditionally feminine, ‘women suspected of being lesbian were singled out, shamed and excluded by other players’ (p.7). For women who participated in sports perceived as traditionally masculine, ‘whole teams of players were regarded as lesbian and were subjected to abuse regardless of individual participants’ sexuality’ (p.7). Tellingly, in an Australian national survey on sexual orientation and health, Hillier, Turner and Mitchell (2005) found that same-sex attracted young people (aged 14 to 21) described feeling ‘least safe at sporting events.’ Unfortunately, some contemporary examples of hate and degradation demon12
strate how homophobia, sexism, nationalism, and racism collide to create hostile and violent spaces for women in sport. A horrific example of violence against women perceived as lesbians reveals these intersections. In South Africa, corrective rape occurs at an alarming rate and is disproportionately aimed at black lesbian athletes (Shaap & Gim, 2010). Corrective rape is based on the misperception that a sexual relationship with a man, even when forced, can change a woman’s sexual orientation. Yet, it also is used to send a chilling message, as in the case of Eudy Simelane, a coach and former national soccer team member, who was raped, tortured, and murdered because she was lesbian. What has happened in the dominant discourse around Eudy Simelane’s murder reeks of xenophobia and privilege among Western commentators who sought to explain such forms of violence and homonegativism as problems that exist with the Other and that have no parallel, and especially no place, in the Global North. These narratives work to perpetuate ideologies that the West in general, and the US specifically, is the only nation-state that guarantees freedom and exceptional human rights (Eng et al., 2005). Instead of connecting forms of violence and oppression to unabashed heternormativity and heterosexism that exists on an international scale, demonising black and brown people becomes the central focus to these narratives, thus creating hierarchies of good and evil, civilised and savage that serve to reproduce hate and discrimination without addressing the larger issues of discrimination based on sexuality or gender expression. Future research in this area can attend to the intersections of identity through a transnational feminist lens to alleviate Western capitalist and racist discourses of these issues and to broaden the understanding of how heteronormativity operates globally for women in sport. The occurrence of corrective rape, along with other less abhorrent prejudice against LBT athletes, reinforces the need to
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examine the intersections of sexuality, gender, race, social class, and nation. This is apparent in the highly publicised cases where athletes of color were commanded to undergo sex testing. Two contemporary examples are track athletes Caster Semenya of South Africa and Shanti Soundarajan of India. Sex testing no longer is mandatory for all international female competitors as it had been from the 1960s through the 1990s (Ljungqvist et al., 2006). However, if an athletes’ sex is challenged, then she can be required to undergo a myriad of tests to determine her sex (IOC, 2003). In recent years, the only athletes whose gender has been questioned publicly have been athletes of colour from poor, rural towns in countries with lower human development indexes2. Soundarajan and Semenya both competed in the 800m race, were challenged after winning at international championships, and were held suspect because they appeared ‘too masculine’ (Schulz, 2011). As Schultz argued, concepts of the ‘natural body’ became coded with Western ideologies around how a female athlete (body) should look and behave. The intersections of nationalism, politics, race, gender, and sexuality were being policed by predominantly Western people in powerful positions in sport (e.g. International Olympic Committee (IOC) or International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), officials and media). These cases emphasise the need for ‘an intersectional analysis that included queer and trans perspectives, as well as antiracist and anti-imperialist ones’ (Nyongo, 2010, p.96). The bodies of Soundarajan and Semenya became sites where privileged Western discourses concerning white hegemonic femininity, sexuality, and race were inscribed. Contemporary problematic incidents situated in the Global North (or the West) also benefit from a transnational analysis. Parallel to what may be perceived as ‘distant’ examples of homonegativism in the Global 2
South, cases in the Global North also illustrate the benefit of transnational and intersectional analysis. The Rene Portland and Jennifer Harris case at Pennsylvania State University provides an example of how race has framed common discourse related to homonegativism in the US. Harris sued Portland after being released from her US university team because she was perceived to be a lesbian. Newhall and Buzuvis (2008) revealed how Harris’ race was largely erased from the conversation surrounding her dismissal and Portland’s longstanding discrimination toward lesbian or lesbianperceived athletes. Yet, only through an intersectional analysis does it become apparent that Harris’ discrimination had as much to do with her blackness and (white) gender nonconformity as well as her perceived lesbianism (e.g. wearing baggy pants and hair in cornrows). Similarly, homonormativity and the exclusion of the black body is evidenced in the framing of Kye Allums (Lucas-Carr, 2011). Allums typically is described as a black transgender male competing on a women’s university basketball team in the US. The media have constructed Allums as a normal guy, who is accepted by his teammates and coach. As Lucas-Carr explained, the discourse of homonormativity is inseparable from citizenship (i.e. national origin), consistent with our transnational perspective. Homonationalism is invoked as current, progressive, US political conversations about inclusion of various gender identities serve to show him as a normal citizen. Yet, consistently, Allums’ race is absent from these conversations. It is through an intersectional analysis, that these absences become visible. Such narratives work to reproduce political ideologies that portray the Global North/ West as the inclusive, progressive-minded proprietor of freedom, and the Global South as deviant trespassers. In other words Georgetown University and all of women’s basketball (in the US and even all of the Global North) is
The human development index, used by the United Nations, is based on the standard of living, education, and life expectancy (United Nations, 2011).
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open to a self-identified male playing for the team (Kye Allums), whereas South Africa is depicted as the deviant Other who enters known men into women’s competitions at the elite level (Caster Semenya). This is the type of contradiction that a transnational, queer feminist perspective reveals and opens to additional analysis and ultimately more precise intervention. Interrogation of the stories of Caster Semenya or Eudy Simelane further highlight the need to employ a queer framework that destabilises whiteness and Westernised bodies. While these cases illustrate how the black female athlete is both gendered and sexualised, dominant narratives of these two South African women run the risk of perpetuating ideologies of the West as progressive and civilised, while the Global South is dichotomously referenced as backwards and uncivilised. In other words, dominant narratives move us away from understanding how gender, race, nationality, and sexuality are interlocking and risk perpetuating other forms of oppression and discrimination (e.g. Eurocentrism, racism). This is particularly true for women in sport who face gender oppression and still largely are seen as trespassers in a predominately male industry.
Playing in binaries Much of the reported discrimination against LBT women in sport is grounded in traditional gender roles or expectations surrounding femininity, revealing the confluence among gender and sexuality. Further, these expectations are grounded in a Western lens of heterosexuality and whiteness. Layering both transnational and queer feminist analysis of the gender binary in sport reveals the ways in which privilege and oppression occur within LBT experiences. Eng’s (2008) exploration of Norwegian lesbian athletes revealed the impact of heteronormativity from the perspective of traditional Western notions of masculinity and femininity. Additionally, media framing of elite female athletes as national heroes served to strengthen the likelihood that they 14
remained in the closet, further maintaining the silence around LBT identities. Ravel and Rail’s (2007) examination of Francophone women athletes with nonconventional sexualities showed discursive tendencies to normalise gaie sexuality while silencing other sexualities, such as butch, bisexual, or ambiguous sexuality. The stereotypically feminine image of gaie was less visible or, to use their words, lesbian light (p.413) and possibly more easily accepted within mainstream sport. Gaie was discursively constructed in opposition to butch in that dominant views of femininity and gender were reproduced; ‘gaie was constructed to mean more ‘feminine’… [and] less disturbing version of being lesbian’ (2006, p.407). In contrast, butch was described pejoratively as older, archetypically masculine, fat, vulgar and unattractive. Such a stance relied upon customary (Western) stereotypes of gender, masculinity, and femininity. Using the term gaie, as opposed to lesbian or queer, for example, served to normalise this non-conventional sexuality as it relied upon accepted gender conventions comparable to heterosexuality and thus downplayed differences between heterosexual and non-heterosexual. Ravel and Rail (2006) described the positioning of both gender and sexuality on a continuum: yet the continuum still reflects binary constructions of sexuality. This link among lesbians, power, muscles and physicality (i.e. stereotyped masculine characteristics) is not unusual, especially within the context of highly physical sports (e.g. Choi, 2000; Kauer & Krane, 2006; Russell, 2006). Caudwell (2007), in her examination of members of a lesbian-identified football (soccer) team, also recognised the distinction players made in their stereotyping of femme and butch lesbian athletes. In contrast to the Canadian Francophone women’s experiences, within the context of the football team, butch was associated with being strong and capable and was a celebrated position. Here, Caudwell emphasised the intersection of gender and sexuality in
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her description of team discourse and interactions. This categorisation of butch is quite different from other sport settings in which masculine-perceived athletes often are disparaged and purported to mar the ‘image’ of women’s sport (Kauer & Krane, 2006). On the team Caudwell studied, butch players were perceived as requisite to being successful on the field whereas the femme players were stereotyped as less physical and thus marginalised and dismissed as less-than adequately skilled players. Within the particular space of this team, being a forceful, physical player was privileged, contrary to many women’s sport teams, including those that are lesbian dominated. Likewise, Travers’ (2006) examination of a lesbian softball team revealed their acceptance of butch or masculine-appearing lesbians, yet trans-identified players were marginalised. Using an intersectional and transnational perspective reveals the variations of privilege and marginalisation within lesbian sport teams, and unpacks the assumption that the climate is positive for all LBT athletes.
Queering the athletic landscape While we agree with Brackenridge and colleagues’ (2008) conclusion that, homonegativism can limit participation, and create fear, mistrust, and even violence within sport, LBT athletes also are finding welcoming and comfortable spaces in which they can compete and be open about their sexual identities (e.g. Drury, 2011). It is important to further scrutinise these seemingly positive situations, as they often are more complicated than what appears on the surface. While the presence of LBT women in sport is queering what previously has been considered a strongly heterosexist context, it also is not without constraints and contradictions. For example, members of the Toronto Front Runners club, the largest Canadian LGBT running club, appreciated that it was a safe and welcoming space for queer runners (van Ingen, 2004). Though, as van Ingen noted, the club lacked racial and ethnic diversity, which is a common theme
across queer sport geographies. Further, trans invisibility or transnegativism is palpable in many queer sport settings (Travers, 2006; van Ingen, 2004). By being open and visible, lesbian athletes disrupt and contest the heteronormativity found in traditional sport settings. Demers (2006) conducted interviews with lesbian coaches and athletes in Canada, and found that the team environment was relatively open for lesbians. In Symons et al.’s (2010) study, the female athletes expressed that being accepted by their heterosexual teammates was one of the best experiences they had in sport. About one-third of the athletes who participated in mainstream sport clubs described them as very welcoming to non-heterosexual people. Additionally, the female athletes who were open about their sexual identities noted individual and team characteristics that aided in supporting inclusive sport. Individuals who were self-confident about their sexual and sporting identities felt comfortable being open on their team. Also, when other athletes already were open about varied sexual identities, the club was perceived as supportive and friendly for all team members. Stoelting (2011) interviewed US college athletes who revealed their sexual identities to their teammates. She found that the primary reasons the athletes disclosed their sexual identities were to be honest, to corroborate and increase self-acceptance, and to normalise their identities. These athletes no longer wanted to lie to their teammates or to themselves; they wanted to be ‘real’ and for their teammates ‘to know who they really were’ (p.1194). US university coaches who were out, or openly lesbian, in their sport settings expressed that the ways they made their sexuality visible differed across audiences and settings (Kauer, 2009). At times they implicitly or explicitly acknowledged partners, specifically talked with teams about their sexuality, or displayed obvious markers of non-heterosexuality (e.g. a rainbow sticker). These coaches negotiated
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their visibility and were able to effect positive change within their sport environments. They emphasised socially just sport climates, challenged unjust language and behaviours, and generally confronted heteronormative boundaries in sport. Yet, recruiting remained a constraining and restrictive sphere and seems to maintain its stronghold on heteronormativity (Kauer, 2009). Within US women’s university sport, negative recruiting is a common practice in which coaches tell prospective athletes and their parents that a rival coach or her team members are lesbian. Regardless of the truth, the goal is to play on stereotypes and fears regarding sexual orientation and discourage players from joining a rival team. The bisexual and lesbian coaches interviewed by Kauer often worried that parents or athletes will question their marital status or other social markers of sexual identity and avoid playing for their team (Kauer, 2009). Symons et al. (2010) questioned their participants about their involvement in queer-identified sport. Sixteen per cent of these athletes competed in clubs such as the Bent Kranks mountain bike riders, Glamourhead Sharks swim team, Bent Boards surf club, Melbourne Spikers volleyball club, and Melbourne frontrunners. Symons reported that all responses regarding participation in these clubs were very positive. The settings were supportive, affirming, and empowering. In fact, when participants were asked to describe their very best experiences in sport, many occurred in these settings. As they described, they valued the ability to be themselves, feel safe, and be supported as LBT athletes. These positive experiences also included feeling solidarity with a larger community. Symons and colleagues concluded that the most inclusive sport settings are those created by and for LBTs.
Conclusion We have applied a transnational, queer feminist lens to examine the contemporary landscape of elite women’s international sport. This approach, which foregrounds an inter16
sectional analysis, challenges taken-forgranted assumptions which privilege some women and silence or oppress others. Overall, the climate of sport for LBT athletes ranges from wholly accepting to perilous and violent. Attitudes toward sexual and gender diversity in women’s sport seem to be changing, yet at vastly different paces. Common media discourse surrounding athletes such as Caster Semenya and Eudy Simelane, often present narratives that can be interpreted dichotomously: in the Global North (or developed Western world), women’s sport is civilised and progressive whereas in the Global South (or undeveloped world), women’s sport is the contrary. However, a whole different interpretation can occur through a transnational lens. Using examples that have received national and international media attention we uncovered many contradictions in the discourse surrounding elite female athletes that often can be traced back to differences in nation, race, and class. Even when some LBT athletes describe their sport settings as accepting, it is very likely that they are not perceived that way by all LBT athletes. Deeper analysis of these settings often reveals an erasure of racial identities and lack of acceptance of transgender athletes. Accordingly, surface acceptance or cursory descriptions of sport environments fail to recognise the privileged stance of the welcomed LBT athletes. A conceptual layering or critical analysis at the intersections of sexuality, gender, race, social class, and nation reveals implicit biases in the framing of contemporary discrimination in sport. Using a lens of homonormativity can complicate yet remarkably inform future analyses. We believe that it is important to continue to give LBT sportswomen a voice, while simultaneously critiquing the broader dimensions of these sport environments. It also is important to acknowledge the contradictions in athletes’ lived experiences with binary categorisations of gender and sexual orientation. Not only does what is considered feminine and masculine vary,
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what is applauded as ideal sporting characteristics, (often described in terms of masculinity and femininity) are not resolute or unyielding. Whereas one team may encourage a feminine gender presentation, others may value a butch or more masculine comportment. Notably, much of the discourse around butch/femme and masculine/feminine is situated within white Western language that largely excludes women of colour who may use different language and constructs of sexuality and gender identification (e.g. ‘stud’) (Wilson, 2009). As female athletes compete on a global stage, it becomes necessary to recognise as well as disentangle multiple forms of oppression and discrimination. As discussed throughout our paper, homonegativism rarely is monolithic. Therefore, critical analyses of women’s sport should unravel the multiple layers of oppression if change is to be successfully enacted. Acknowledging and addressing the embedded sexism, racism, classism, ethnocentrism, and likely additional oppressions will further disrupt and challenge homonegative and heterosexist environments. At the same time, such an integrated approach to social change in sport is more likely to be perceived as inclusive and empowering to a broad range of women in sport.
Correspondence Kerrie Kauer Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840. Email:
[email protected]
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Kauer, K.J. (2009). Queering lesbian sexualities in collegiate sporting spaces. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13, 306–318. Kauer, K.J. & Krane, V. (2006). ‘Scary dykes’ and ‘feminine queens’: Stereotypes and female collegiate athletes. Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 15(1), 43–55. King, S. (2008). What’s queer about (queer) sport sociology now? A review essay. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25, 419–442. Ljungqvist, A., Martínez-Patiño, M.J., Martínez-Vidal, A., Zagalaz, L., Díaz, P. & Mateos, C. (2006). The history and current policies on gender testing in elite athletes. International SportMed Journal, 7, 225–230. Longman, J. (2011). In African women’s soccer, homophobia remains an obstacle. New York Times, 21 June. Retrieved from: www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/sports/soccer/ in-african-womens-soccer-homophobia-remainsan-obstacle.html?pagewanted=all Lucas-Carr, C. (2011). An impossible subject? Kye Allums and the processes of homonormativity. Presentation at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference, Minneapolis. Nagar, R. & Swarr, A.L. (2010). Introduction: Theorising transnational feminist praxis. In A.L. Swarr & R. Nagar (Eds.), Critical transnational feminist praxis (pp.1–22). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Nyong’o, T. (2010). The unforgivable transgression of being Caster Semenya. Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 20, 95–100. McDonald, M.G. (2006). Beyond the pale: The whiteness of sport studies and queer scholarship. In J. Caudwell (Ed.), Sport, sexualities and queer/theory (pp.33–45). London: Routledge. Mitra, P. (2011). Xclusion: Raising the intersex debate in sports (with examples from India). Presentation at the Girls & Women in Sport and Physical Activity 2011 Conference: Creating Change. Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, University of Minnesota. Newhall, K.E. & Buzuvis, E.E. (2008). (e)Racing Jennifer Harris: Sexuality and race, law and discourse in Harris v. Portland. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 32, 345–368. Odeh, L.E. (2010). A comparative analysis of global north and global south economies. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 12, 338–348. Ravel, B. & Rail, G. (2006). The lightness of being ‘gaie’: Discursive constructions of gender and sexuality in Quebec women’s sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41, 395–412. Ravel, B. & Rail, G. (2007). On the limits of ‘gaie’ spaces: Discursive constructions of women’s sport in Quebec. Sociology of Sport Journal, 24, 402–421.
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Symons, C., Sbaraglia, M., Hillier, L. & Mitchell, A. (2010). Come out to play: The sports experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Australia. Retrieved from: www.vu.edu.au/sites/default/files/Come%20 Out%20To%20Play%20May%202010.pdf Travers, A. (2006). Queering sport lesbian softball leagues and the transgender challenge. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41, 431–446. United Nations (2011). Human Development Index. Human Development Reports. Retrieved from: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi/ van Ingen, C. (2004). Therapeutic landscapes and the regulated body in the Toronto Front Runners. Sociology of Sport Journal, 21, 253–269. Wilson, B. (2000). Black lesbian gender and sexual culture: Celebration and resistance. Culture, Health, and Sexuality, 11(3) 297–313.
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Gender in sport
Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad: Locating athletes’ bodies within the discursive practices of elite sporting environments Suzanne Cosh & Shona Crabb The Female Athlete Triad is understood to be a sporting-specific health concern, seen almost exclusively amongst female athletes, and is regarded within the sport literature as consisting of a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis or osteopenia. Within the sport psychology literature, the Female Athlete Triad has typically been considered as a pathology residing within the individual. However, such pathology cannot be isolated from the sporting context in which body surveillance and regulation are ubiquitous. Indeed, the discursive practices surrounding such surveillance normalise and even privilege behaviours that might otherwise be considered pathological, ultimately producing an appropriate female athlete as one who engages in potentially harmful and pathological behaviours. This paper critiques existing literature on the Female Athlete Triad and disordered eating within the context of elite sport and draws on previous studies of interactions from routine body composition testing in order to contribute to, and challenge, existing understandings of the Female Athlete Triad.
T
HE BODIES of elite athletes typically attract considerable societal and cultural interest (Johns & Johns, 2000) and are also an integral part of identity as an athlete (Phoenix & Sparkes, 2006). Athletes are also vulnerable to experiencing psychopathology around their bodies. Athletes have a higher prevalence of disordered eating than the general population (Sundgot-Borgen & Klungland Torstveit, 2004) and female athletes are uniquely vulnerable to the Female Athlete Triad. The Female Athlete Triad is the name that has been given to a combination of three disorders: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis or osteopenia1 (a precursor to osteoporosis involving loss of bone density or the failure to gain optimal bone density), a combination that is seen almost exclusively 1
2
amongst females who are athletes. For female athletes with disordered eating, the resulting reduced energy intake, in combination with large energy expenditure from intense training schedules, can lead to amenorrhea2 (the absence of three or more menstrual cycles, or delayed menarche). Osteopaenia or osteoporosis often results from amenorrhea (Bouchard, 2007; Hawley & Burke, 1998; Yeager et al., 1993). The combination of these conditions, the Female Athlete Triad, can result in serious health concerns for female athletes. During sporting careers, the Female Athlete Triad can cause stress fractures and other injuries and, in the long term, it can lead to ongoing and irreversible health consequences (Bouchard, 2007; Yeager, et al., 1993).
This is not to suggest that we engage in this labelling but, rather, to clarify what the Female Athlete Triad is defined as in the medical and sport literature. Although amenorrhea can be a symptom seen in Anorexia Nervosa, due to high energy expenditure from training schedules, amenorrhea occurs sooner for athletes and with lower levels of disordered eating.
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Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad
Female Athlete Triad literature The extant sport literature typically examines the Female Athlete Triad from a biomedical perspective, viewing the triad as caused by an individual pathology located within the individual female athlete. The social context and the discursive practices within which athletes are located, thus, are overlooked. Indeed, definitions of the Triad and its aetiology remain rooted in medical terminology and focus on the hormonal mechanisms through which the Triad conditions occur (e.g. Mendelsohn & Warren, 2010). Specifically, the development of the Female Athlete Triad is explained in terms of energy (im)balance (i.e. amount of energy expenditure versus energy intake); the broader context in which this imbalance occurs is not typically considered. For instance, Mendelsohn and Warren (2010) suggest that ‘unhealthy athletes may have reduced energy availability because they are restricting their diet and energy intake, because they are suffering from an actual clinical eating disorder, or because of prolonged periods of increasing energy expenditure through exercise without increasing dietary energy intake’ (p.160). Here, the cause of the triad is located within the individual and their behaviours (e.g. ‘they are restricting their diet’), without any attention paid to why athletes may be engaging in such behaviours. Furthermore, it is suggested that prevention and treatment of the Triad lies in improving nutrition and athletes’ understanding of nutrition. The treatment for the Female Athlete Triad is argued to be ideally conducted by a team consisting of a physician, a dietician and a mental health practitioner. As such, the Triad remains conceptualised as a biomedical condition and produces the athlete as a pathological subject, even requiring input from a mental health professional. Although some acknowledgement of the role of the coach (and other people working with athletes) in the development of the Female Athlete Triad is made in the position paper by Yeager et al. (1993), their recommenda-
tions for prevention and treatment of the Triad also predominantly lie in a biomedical understanding of the Triad. Yeager et al. (1993) suggest that sport physicians provide information to athletes in order to prevent and treat the Triad. Additionally, Yeager et al. (1993) propose compiling a specific psychological profile of athletes who are at risk of developing the Triad, thereby, again, locating the Triad within the individual psyche of the female athlete. Moreover, the body of research examining the Triad and its component conditions has, over the past two decades (since it was first named and addressed in the research literature), typically explored relationships between internal individual factors and development of the Triad conditions. For instance, Milligan and Pritchard (2006) explored relationships between self-esteem, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviours amongst US college athletes in order to identify predictors of eating disorders amongst athletes and to inform interventions. Relationships between internal traits such as perfectionism, optimism, selfesteem and disordered eating behaviours have also been explored (Brannan et al., 2009; Haase, Prapavessis & Owens, 2002). Thus, Female Athlete Triad research remains focussed on locating the aeitology in individual factors of the female athlete rather than examing the broader social and discursive contexts in which athletes live. Although we do not wish to suggest there is no merit in such biomedical approaches to understanding conditions such as the Female Athlete Triad, we argue that attending to the social and discursive world of female athletes is essential in further understanding, and addressing, the condition. Indeed, a body of research exploring eating disorders in the general population has worked to challenge traditional understandings of eating disorders as an individual pathology, locating such eating practices within the discursive and socio-cultural contexts in which women’s bodies are located (e.g. Hepworth, 1999; Malson, 1998). However, the extant
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sport literature remains rooted in an individualist and biomedical approach. Such an approach to exploring the Female Athlete Triad has gone largely unchallenged.
The sport context As with eating disorders in the general population, the Female Athlete Triad may be better understood when viewed in relation to the social context and discursive practices in which athletes are located. Indeed, the practices within sporting settings can surely not be overlooked in examining the Female Athlete Triad. Within elite sport settings, there is typically a strong emphasis on athletes’ body shapes and the policing of athletes’ bodies is routine (Wilmore, 1992). For instance, the practice of skinfold testing (which measures body fat percentage) is routinely administered within a range of sport settings including with junior and subelite level athletes (Hawley & Burke, 1998). Such practices, which are ubiquitous within elite sport settings, go largely unquestioned and such a context has typically been overlooked in the Female Athlete Triad literature. Studies that have examined body-related practices within elite sport suggest that discourses which engender body surveillance are prevalent within this context (Chapman, 1997; Johns & Johns, 2000) and that practices of body regulation are normalised (Shogan, 1999). Moreover, it has been suggested that such an emphasis on surveillance may lead to eating disorders (Jones, Glintmeyer & McKenzie, 2005; Papathomas & Lavallee, 2006). Although these examinations remain in the minority within the field of sport research, they point to the importance of considering disordered eating and the Female Athlete Triad within the context in which they occur.
Discursive practices in elite sport Through examining interactions taking place during practices of body regulation amongst junior elite (predominantly female) athletes within one sport context in Australia, it can be seen that the discursive 22
practices surrounding elite athletes may leave female athletes vulnerable to the Female Athlete Triad. Using a fine-grained analysis of the detail of interactions occurring during routine skinfold testing, we have previously shown that athletes are made accountable to the sport institute for their bodies (Cosh et al., 2012). That is, in each interaction examined, athletes were asked, by an exercise physiologist conducting the test, about the changes the athlete had made to their eating and exercising behaviours since their last test. Such questioning made evident the athlete’s accountability to the institute for her actions and her body. Moreover, in routinely asking about changes that the athletes had made to their eating and exercising behaviours since the previous testing, exercise physiologists oriented to, and made relevant, an ideal of athletes needing continually to improve body composition (i.e. in this context, to reduce body fat). Not to produce an account of improvement was also treated as highly problematic in these interactions, functioning to reinforce the imperative on athletes to engage in ongoing improvement (Cosh et al., 2012). Thus, although the over-reduction of body fat can result in the development of the Female Athlete Triad, requests for accounts of change position athletes as needing to engage in ongoing ‘improvement’ in body composition (i.e. the reduction of body fat). Moreover, in problematising failure to make ‘positive’ changes to behaviour, engaging in body regulation becomes part of being a ‘good’ athlete. Indeed, within the interactions we have analysed previously (see Cosh et al., 2012), it was evident that athletes worked to manage their identities and present themselves as good athletes, further suggesting that body regulation can be seen as a key part of an appropriate identity as an athlete. Moreover, further analysis of these skinfold testing interactions has also highlighted that exercise physiologists did not deliver news of poor skinfold results in the typical way in which ‘bad’ news is delivered in other
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similar contexts (e.g. see Maynard, 2003; Mycroft, 2007). Rather, exercise physiologists treated these interactions as routine and ordinary, thereby normalising such practices of body regulation (Cosh et al., submitted). Furthermore, within these interactions, athletes were positioned as compliant, with sport staff positioned as ‘expert’. When athletes improved their skinfold result, they typically assessed the news as positive. By contrast, exercise physiologists typically downgraded the news, thereby treating improvements as insufficient. As such, athletes were routinely positioned as needing to work continuously towards ‘improved’ body composition and, thus, to engage in ongoing regulation of their bodies. As the above study has highlighted, engaging in body regulation can be seen as part of being a ‘good’ athlete, in the everyday discursive context of athletes’ lives. To demonstrate this point further, we provide here two extracts previously presented in Cosh et al. (submitted), and briefly offer some new analysis. These extracts are taken from interactions between an exercise physiologist (EP) and a female athlete (A), during routine skinfold testing. Extract 1 EP: ok so one eleven point three A: so that’s down, great thank you (EP) EP: good. you’re doing the right things, keep it up Extract 2 EP: fourteen point one you happy to see these today Sarah A: yep (EP calculating total score) EP: ninety seven point two A: (claps) a[mazing EP: [you’re under the ton good girl (.) might reassess that target now In both of these extracts, the exercise physiologists depict the need for athletes’ ongoing improvement (see Cosh et al.,
submitted). Of interest here, however, are the moral assessments of the athletes’ behaviour. In Extract 1, the exercise physiologist talks about the athlete as doing the ‘right things’ in order to improve her body composition; in Extract 2, the exercise physiologist depicts improved body composition as part of holding an appropriate athlete identity by offering the assessment ‘good girl’. In offering the assessments of ‘good girl’ (Extract 2) and doing the ‘right things’ (Extract 1), the exercise physiologists orient to moral dimensions around the athletes’ behaviour. That is, in designing talk to demonstrate the ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ of behaviours, the speakers perform moral work (Drew, 1998). In the above interactions (as was seen throughout the corpus of skinfold testing interactions collected), the assessments from the exercise physiologists demonstrated that reducing body fat was appropriate and good for these athletes. Prescribing which behaviours are morally acceptable (and, by implication, which behaviours are not) works to construct identity (Davies & Harré, 1990). Thus, being an athlete is constructed, in this everyday discursive context, as necessarily involving the regulation of the body and the reduction of body fat. Such constructions of athletes can potentially function to constrain behaviour and make alternate actions (i.e. not engaging in ongoing acts of body regulation) difficult to access (Burr, 1995; Edley, 2001). Not participating in ongoing selfsurveillance and reduction of body fat can be seen as indicative of failure to act as a good and appropriate athlete. We suggest that this discursive context of the elite sporting environment needs to be considered in understanding the extreme reduction of body fat and development of the Female Athlete Triad in some athletes. In particular, there are a number of potentially problematic implications of the focus on self-regulation and continual bodily improvement as features of a ‘good’ athlete identity. For example, in constructing an appropriate athlete identity as one who
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engages in ongoing body regulation and improvement, having a ‘drive for thinness’ becomes normalised and privileged. However, the development of the ‘drive for thinness’ has been associated with disordered eating behaviours (Gustafsson et al., 2010; Sands, 2000). This drive is thought to be triggered by a perceived discrepancy between one’s actual body and the ‘ideal’ body (Sands, 2000; Wiederman & Pryor, 2000), with such a discrepancy potentially leading to Social Physique Anxiety (Sands, 2000) and, ultimately, the Female Athlete Triad. Furthermore, the orientation to ongoing improvement towards an ‘ideal’ can also be seen to reproduce perfectionistic ideals in athletes. Although perfectionistic tendencies can be adaptive (even necessary) for elite athletes, perfectionism can also be maladaptive: A link between perfectionism and the development of eating disorders has been well established in the literature (see Franco-Paredes et al., 2005). Thus, the social and discursive emphasis on continual improvement for athletes’ bodies may contribute to a context in which bodies are perceived to be divergent from the ideal, and in which the ‘drive for thinness’, disordered eating and the Female Athlete Triad are more likely to occur.
Conclusion Given the discursive and social practices embedded within elite sport settings, we argue that the Female Athlete Triad, and its component conditions, should not be viewed solely as an individual pathology attributable to the athlete themselves. Rather, the Triad can be better understood by attending to the sporting context within which it occurs. Within this sporting context, there is a continued emphasis on decreasing body fat, and on discursive practices (for example, in skinfold testing interactions)
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that normalise and reproduce a need for ongoing surveillance around the body, as well as reproducing and constructing the identities of athletes as necessarily engaging in ongoing body regulation. With an appropriate athlete identity constructed as requiring continued body regulation, to act in other ways would constitute being a ‘deficient’ athlete, thereby reinforcing body regulation as the correct way of being. The Female Athlete Triad, therefore, cannot be separated from the social and discursive practices in which it occurs. To view the Female Athlete Triad as an individual pathology is to overlook and obscure the sport context and the discursive practices surrounding athletes. In doing so, fault is placed with the individual athlete, and the female athlete becomes viewed as the ‘problem’, while potentially problematic regulatory and discursive practices go unchallenged and unquestioned. In shifting examination to the discursive and social practices surrounding athletes’ bodies, how practices may, or may not, leave athletes vulnerable to the Female Athlete Triad can be examined. To examine the Female Athlete Triad in isolation of social and discursive practices is to limit understanding of this phenomenon. Therefore, exploration of the Triad needs to move beyond biomedical models that view it as an individual pathology and also examine the discursive and social practices in which athletes’ bodies are located.
Correspondence Suzanne Cosh School of Psychology. The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia. Email:
[email protected]
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Gender in sport
The construction of gendered bodies within competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspective Brittany Johnson & Kate Russell The purpose of the study was to understand, through a Foucauldian framework, the processes by which athletes construct their gendered body within competitive swimming. The study identified a number of discourses central to this process, extending our understanding of how sport can regulate acceptable forms of gender through discipline and surveillance. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with six competitive swimmers in New South Wales, Australia. The findings revealed a number of Foucauldian concepts playing a fundamental role in gendered body construction. The findings emphasise the concealment and invisibility of the swimming body, rendering it hidden and perhaps resistant to substantial gendering processes in the swimming context. Yet in the social context, these processes are far more active. Other key findings suggest various technologies, including surveillance, discipline and physical modifications which help to classify the swimmer as an acceptable sporting body by employing a ‘swimmers gaze’. Foucauldian ideas enabled the researcher to gain an understanding of how competitive swimmers come to construct their gendered body in contemporary Australian culture.
R
ESEARCH ON GENDER includes a range of focuses, including historical investigations (e.g. Vertinksy, 1988), social theories of participation (e.g. Coakley, 1997), through to critical feminist examinations (e.g. Sabo & Messner, 1990) and specific analyses of feminism and the sporting body (e.g. Hall, 1996). Gender has been explored by examining the perceived masculinity of female athletes (Merz, 2002), the recognition of ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ sports (Engel, 1994) and the feminisation of male athletes who engage in ‘feminine’ sports (Anderson, 2005; Risner, 2009). However, more recent analyses have used post-structural approaches to sport and gender, permitting an understanding of the constitution of the sporting body itself and the construction, production and normalisation of certain sporting discourses (Garrett, 2004). Post-structuralism considers how subjects take in socially constructed knowledge (Garrett, 2004) by being an active subject in the social world (Davies, 2003).
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This paper specifically uses Foucauldian theory to examine the world of competitive swimming; an area under researched in the sporting literature. Foucault’s ideas (1972, 1978, 1988) provide an analytical tool to study how individuals construct knowledge about themselves (Markula & Pringle, 2006) as a swimmer.
Foucault and sport Three of Foucault’s concepts – discipline, surveillance and the panopticon and technologies of the self – will be examined in reference to discourses present in the construction of gendered bodies in competitive swimming.
Discourse Foucault first referred to discourse as ‘practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak’ (Foucault, 1972, p.54). It involves the development of the knowledge of meaning, which operates to restrain, control and associate individuals with partic-
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ular behaviours or identities (Markula & Pringle, 2006). A number of researchers have been successful in applying this understanding of discourse to a range of activities including rugby (Markula & Pringle, 2006), fitness (Markula, 2003), high performance athletes (Johns & Johns, 2000; Shogan, 1999), rowing (Chapman, 1997), gymnastics (Barker-Ruchti & Tinning, 2010), running (Hanold, 2010), snowboarding (Thorpe, 2008) and bodybuilding (Wesley, 2001). While this work extends our understanding of the production of docile bodies in a number of areas there is limited examination of the swimming pool.
Discipline Discipline acts to separate, define and control society, and to prepare or instruct bodies to ensure maximum capability (Dostie, 1988, cited in Rail & Harvey, 1995). Discipline can be related to practices focused on creating acceptable ways of being feminine. Sport scholars agree that female athletes are often encouraged to acknowledge their femininity by ensuring feminine markers, such as styled hair and dresses are visible (Cox & Thompson, 2000; George, Hartley & Paris, 2001; Merz, 2002; Dworkin & Messner, 2002; Shilling, 2003). Not only does this feminisation emphasise these females as heterosexual (and, therefore, ‘normal’) (Duncan, 2006), it also serves to highlight the structures of power used to control and arrange sporting bodies (Hargreaves, 1994; Rail & Harvey, 1995). These athletes are encouraged to abide by an intelligible femininity (Butler, 1993), reconfiguring and rearranging representations of their femaleness to reflect what is socially understood to be feminine (Renold, 2010). Discipline has the ability to mark an athletic body as male or female (Johnston, 1996), often occurring through the practice of marginalisation (Klein, 1988), sexualisation and objectification (Shugart, 2003).
Surveillance and the panopticon Surveillance and the panopticon can be applied to the development and disciplining of docile and obedient athletic bodies (Magdalenski, 2009). Defined by Foucault (1978) as the ‘existence of a whole set of techniques and institutions for measuring, supervising and correcting the abnormal’ (p.199), the concept of the panopticon acknowledges that subjects engage in surveillance methods of themselves and others (Rail & Harvey, 1995; Duncan, 2006). Compulsory heterosexuality can be described as one such practice. First explained by Rich (1980), as ‘something that is imposed, managed, organised, propagandised and maintained by force’ (Rich, 1980, p.648), compulsory heterosexuality preserves and upholds male power within society, through challenging the validity of any alternative, this being homosexuality (Fuss, 1991). Cox and Thompson (2000) note a potential conflict for female athletes in this regard. On the one hand, sporting discourses identify that to be athletically successful; one must be physically strong and powerful. On the other hand, heterosexual discourses see that masculinity is powerful and dominant, femininity as weak, and subordinate. Sporting discourses regulate and discipline docile bodies towards a state of ‘normalness’ (Markula & Pringle, 2006), where heterosexuality is often ‘invisible and unexamined’ (Renold, 2006, p.492) regularly subordinating female athletes. Even though the panopticon functions on the assumption that power is most effective when hidden from public view (Danaher, Schirato & Webb, 2000), it may be possible for this power to circulate through sporting discourses in ways that are visible (Markula, 2003). Lang’s (2010) study of surveillance within swimming makes a pertinent contribution to understanding Foucault’s ideas. She emphasises that certain swimming practices act to discipline swimmers, creating docile, submissive and disciplined bodies
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(i.e. through acceptance of a swimming culture). This observation of the self and others (Rail & Harvey, 1995) encourages the employment of the ‘gaze’ (Lang, 2010). Since the ‘gaze’ is ubiquitous, its silent existence (Foucault, 1978) encourages athletes to discipline themselves and to become a swimmer (Lang, 2010). The internalisation of this ‘swimmers gaze’ sees swimmers selfregulating/monitoring their actions (Shogan, 1999), for example, performing the correct swimming technique regardless of whether the coach is present or not (Lang, 2010). This internalisation is concerned with those ‘coercions that act upon the body, a calculated manipulation of its elements, its gestures, its behaviour’ (Foucault, 1978, p.138). The ‘gaze’ coerces swimmers into abiding by the ‘rules’ of the swimming environment, including aspects such as the physical transformation into a swimmers body (Lang, 2010). This panoptical control has the athletes developing ‘…a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ (Foucault, 1978, p.201) with athlete’s acting as his or her own supervisor or manager (Rail & Harvey, 1995). The ‘gaze’ produces social control because the disciplinary action needed to govern behaviour (Lang, 2010) creates a docile, obedient and compliant body (Shogan, 1999).
Technologies of the self Technologies of the self are most commonly understood to: Permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immorality (Foucault, 1988, p.147). Foucault (1984, cited in Smart, 2002) maintained the subject does not simply exist figuratively within the social world, but is developed, created and transformed through actual practices. These ‘technolo28
gies’ are a process whereby the self is produced (Johns & Johns, 2000; Burkitt, 2002; Thorpe, 2008), transformed or modified into a socially acceptable body (Markula & Pringle, 2006). Technologies of self can be related to the construction of masculinity and femininity in which they are not defined in relation to the hegemonic nature of gender and society (Kimmel, 1994), but in relation to the other gender (Paechter, 1998). This difference is upheld (Buysse & Embser-Herbert, 2004) to create a gendered space that separates masculinity and femininity, leading to questions concerning how a sporting environment may influence this constructive process (Johnston, 1996). Swimming, is a sport which openly displays the sporting body (though minimal sporting attire) and has, therefore, the potential to extend our understanding of the processes by which athletes construct their gendered body and the disciplinary practices that frame it.
Method Six semi-structured interviews were undertaken with competitive (New South Wales State and Australian National) swimmers. All participants (three female, three male) were white, aged between 21 and 31 years, and have been involved in competitive swimming for a minimum of five years. Topics of discussion included the ways in which participants thought gender was constructed both in and out of the swimming context; how sexuality is expressed through the body and how swimming shaped experiences and identity. Consistent with Strauss and Corbin’s (1997) grounded theory approach to analysis, transcripts were coded according to emerging themes, which were subsequently examined for similarities and differences. At this point, a post-structuralist lens was applied to the data analysis, enabling the researcher to consider how participants ‘consume’ different (sporting) discourses (Davies, 2003). Since sport is an arena that functions so prominently in the development, construction and understanding of
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the body (Birrell, 2003), Foucault provides us with a suitable theoretical framework to analyse such processes, since we can identify where ‘power is literally incorporated or invested in the body’ (Hargreaves, 1986, p.13).
Analysis Foucault’s notions of discipline, surveillance and technologies of the self were found to be prominent discourses in the interviews and guided the subsequent interpretation of the data. The analyses presented here focus on the role of discipline and surveillance predominantly.
Technologies of the self The interviews suggested that individuals engaged in methods to both recognise: Stephanie: Everyone started to recognise me and be like ‘she’s good at swimming’, so I started to be seen as a swimmer and considered myself a serious swimmer. and also modify the self (Rail & Harvey, 1995) to become an acceptable swimming body: Sam: I have to discipline my body, like through our sets, and weights and cardio, so I can be successful. If I didn’t do these, I would: (a) be shit at swimming; and (b) I don’t think people would take me as seriously as a swimmer. Amanda: The most likely way I train my body is by training on a consistent basis… I engage in healthy eating most of the time… to sort of complement my training. These technologies not only enable athletes to transform and discipline their bodies to produce a socially accepted swimming body but ones that are also docile. Their actions become self-serving; to develop a body that is both technically valid and socially recognisable.
Surveillance and the panopticon Surveillance and the panopticon are concerned with the social workings of power, which is enforced through subjects disci-
plining themselves to produce a docile and controllable social body (Magdalinski, 2009). Sam argues that: Self-discipline is important to swimming success. Being disciplined helps me to achieve my swimming goals in a more efficient manner. Sam identifies this disciplinary process includes ‘getting up early to train’, ‘weights and cardio’ and ensuring his ‘technique is done properly’. Sam recognises he has ‘disciplined himself’ into producing an acceptable swimming body; in doing so, his self-surveillance allows him to monitor his body and training (Lang, 2010) in a manner that permits himself and others to classify him as a swimmer. Self-surveillance creates discourses of power (Taunton, 2008). It has the ability to mark an idea and ‘define what is accepted as ‘truth’’ (Lang, 2010, p.21) and in this instance, this truth functions to classify what a swimmer is understood to be. The truth produced from such power/knowledge discourses is also evident by athletes’ acceptance of the physique (e.g. broad shoulders) many female swimmers embody since, ‘you would probably be judged more harshly by other swimmers if you don’t have those muscles or characteristics seen in the sport’ (Natalie). Natalie makes a strong argument here for the ‘functionality’ of the sporting body (Russell, 2004) as a primary motivator for engagement in these practices, perhaps in the same way Lang (2010) argues for the acceptance of extensive training drills. The normalness and support/enabling of these swimming qualities (both physical and attitudinal) is implicated within structures that act to create ‘permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ (Foucault, 1978, p.201). The surveillance and disciplinary practices engaged in by these athletes produce a swimmer that is obedient, compliant and acceptable enough to be classified as a swimmer (Lang, 2010). In this way, the athletes could be said to have internalised the ‘swimmer’s gaze’; to become their own body inspector (Rail & Harvey, 1995).
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Further examination identifies a counter discourse where it can be suggested these athletes have reached a point whereby they are no longer aware of their own and others bodies within the sporting context. Various participants noted a lack of contestation around female athletes, the sporting body and socially determined notions of femininity: Sam: Some of the girls at carnivals have big shoulders and look manly. I don’t really notice it, coz it’s sort of expected for girls to be like that if they are swimmers. Patrick: If you see a swimmer with really big shoulders in the pool, you sort of notice their big shoulders, or actually I don’t think you notice them. Michael: I don’t even think swimmers notice these manly traits on female swimmers coz it’s just accepted. Whilst the swimmers actively produce the notion of ‘large shoulders’ as ‘manly’, they also contest the notion that this is problematic in the swimming context. Here, the swimming panopticon ensures the surveillance and disciplining of the self as an acceptable body inside the sport, however, when outside this context, the self is represented differently (Young & Dallaire, 2008). Female swimmers may experience difficulty in disciplining their bodies in a way that successfully contributes to their athletic performance, yet maintaining what it means to be intelligibly feminine (Butler, 1993) in the social world: Patrick: But they [Leisel Jones and Libby Trickett] usually scrub up alright, like when they have awards… They have huge muscles and when they are dressed up… it sort of accentuates their body and not always in a good way. Nicole: When females swim, they have this body that lets them perform well and compete successfully. But when they go outside this swimming place, they are seen as something different, like they aren’t seen as a female in a sense, because of their muscles. 30
When in the sporting environment, their muscularity is not questioned because of the function the body needs to perform the female athletic body is valued simply and not questioned (Russell, 2004). Outside this sporting environment, the discrepancy between female athleticism and traditional femininity (Merz, 2002) can produce difficulties between being identified as an athlete and a female. For both the men and women interviewed this difficulty was placed on the athlete by observers and experienced as negative by the athletes, although this was only noted in relation to the female swimmers; suggesting that the male swimming body simultaneously matches socially constructed notions of male attractiveness?
Discipline Female athletes are often subject to a variety of disciplinary practices (both overt and hidden, initiated by the self and others) to ensure femininity is ever present, heterosexy and subordinate (Markula & Pringle, 2006). A number of swimmers commented on Serena Williams: Patrick: She puts on this girly demeanour so people will react to it. Stephanie: She’s probably doing it [jewellery and uniform] for show… She’s doing it to broadcast herself and make her more attractive to men. Natalie: Her muscles are insane and people don’t know how to react so society dress her up as a girl to focus the attention on her clothes or femininity rather than her sporting ability. The swimmers perhaps reflect here the complex way in which female athletes are positioned within society. Serena is seen to be both reinforcing and contesting heteronormative femininity by her athleticism and presentation. Duncan (2006) acknowledges that female athletes often employ a range of disciplinary practices to ensure their femininity is promoted. To be a successful female athlete, she must be attractive to both females and males (Dworkin & Messner, 2002) and yet her physicality, her muscu-
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larity challenges this. In effect, female athletes are constrained by the ideological workings of gender, hegemony and masculinity (Theberge, 2000), experiencing contradictory discourses that govern their behaviour to become a successful athlete, but all the while remembering they are, first and foremost, a female. And yet, this belies the very nature of competitive sport, which promotes the body as its tool, to be shaped and worked for a purpose regardless of the essential aesthetic quality of that. The physical exposure of the swimmers’ body can also discipline the body to produce acceptable forms of masculinity or femininity. The sporting body is often exposed, yet the swimming body is largely invisible to those involved (Scott, 2009): Natalie: They [swimmers] have to show their body. But it’s acceptable, so there isn’t anything wrong with that. Amanda: On Stephanie Rice and Eamon Sullivan in the Davenport underwear campaign: It was seen as normal and not bad because they wear similar outfits when competing… for swimmers, it’s [showing the body] considered normal and encouraged. Michael: I don’t think swimmers focus on the body as a site of sexuality… I think it’s more outsiders that do this… for swimmers, I guess they probably don’t notice the body on display. One must ask, do swimmers not notice the partial nakedness of the body because it is simply a sporting requirement, or do swimmers not notice it because they have been disciplined into accepting the swimmers body and, therefore, contestation is not necessary? Sport is the arena in which for the focus and attention is placed on the body (Choi, 2001; Woodward, 2007), however, what has emerged in this study is a paradoxical process of both emphasis and invisibility of the swimmers body. On one hand, the limited amount of clothing worn whilst competing or training reveals (Doyle, 2005) and renders the body as a spectacle, but this appears to be the focus of observers.
For swimmers, the immersion in the nature of the sport and its physical requirements ensures that the body as sexual (and gendered) is invisible; it lacks contestation because the requirements of the sport supersede external (societal) drives to judge. The water within the pool is a metaphorical barrier for the concealment of one’s body (Parker, 2010), where the body is invisible to those within the swimming environment. Consequently, this can also explain why there is a lack of contestation among female swimmers in their attainment of typical masculine characteristics; the water separates the body to reduce its visibility to other swimmers (Scott, 2009). The body is separated from the outside world by the discourses of the swimming pool. Only when swimmers remove themselves from beneath this water ‘barrier’, do they become a site for the observation of sexuality, masculine/feminine characteristics and the acknowledgement of their gendered athletic body.
Conclusion The purpose of this study was to employ Foucault to help understand the processes by which athletes construct their gendered body within competitive swimming. The most significant finding from this study concerns the complexity and contradictions in the visibility and invisibility of the swimming body and the many ways it is, and is not, gendered and sexualised through that practice. The swimming pool served as a place for a number of disciplinary and surveillance practices that support the development of a docile and productive body. The internalisation of the ‘swimmers gaze’ helped athletes endorse the value of a swimming physique for both women and men, while the pool itself was considered a metaphorical barrier to render the swimming body invisible and therefore immune from gendering practices applied to the social body for women. While Foucault never explicitly addressed sport or physical activity in his work (Markula & Pringle, 2006), his material on the relation of power to discipli-
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nary practices provides researchers with an opportunity to understand the complex world of the sport and in this particular context, swimming.
Correspondence Kate Russell Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Email:
[email protected]
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Understanding complexity: The potential of critical realism and intersectionality Emma Seal Disability studies is a dynamic, hotly debated and evolving research body. Traustadóttir and Kristiansen (2004) assert it is a discipline with strong roots in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US and is now gaining momentum in Europe and the Nordic countries. This paper will address the potential of combining feminist scholarship and disability scholarship consistent with recent developments in disability research. Feminists who work in the field of disability studies have increasingly written about the importance of ideas in feminist theory being applied within disability theory, analysis and politics (e.g. Morris, 1991; Thomas, 1999, 2004; Wendell, 1996). Furthermore, Thomas (1999) argues that disability studies can learn a great deal from the work of feminist authors. Narratives within this context have broken through ‘giving voice’ to disabled women in scholarly writing.
T
HE THEORETICAL BRIDGE between feminist and disability scholarship will be discussed in relation to its application within disability sport research and the exploration of women’s experiences within this domain. The specific focus of these deliberations are disabled female athletes. Heavy scrutiny has been directed towards the attentiveness of scholars concerning gender and women’s narratives within this body of work. For instance, Schell and Rodriquez (2001) have pointed out a general neglect of gender aspects in current disability sport research. They have stressed that gender is a key factor that should be considered when examining disability sport. Female bodies, like ‘broken bodies’ are believed to be restrictive and incapable of meaningful corporality, including participation in sport. Thomas (2003) extends this critique to wider levels of disability theorisation within a sport and physical recreation context; ‘despite the intensification of debates on disability, relatively little attention has been paid, in the UK at least, by disabled activists to disability sport, perhaps because it provides such an overt and often visual illustration of the significance of impairment’ (p.108). This article aims to address these 34
debates through highlighting the gendered nature of disability and the need for new theoretical approaches when researching the experiences of disabled female athletes. These considerations are significant as the possibilities have not been fully developed or investigated in this specific area. This article is related to my own, current work within the field as I intend to use the outlined theoretical perspectives to foster greater understandings of the identity development and negotiation of female Paralympians. Furthermore, these founding ideas allow for individual experiences to be heard.
Disability debates It is important to situate the contextual relevance of the essay and the theoretical concepts developed here through recognising the diverse debates and controversies within the field of disability research and disability studies specifically. Thomas (2006) suggests that in recent decades and on a global scale, disabled people have achieved a great deal in the struggle for civil rights, equality and social inclusion. This corresponds with the increasing recognition that disability is about social exclusion.
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Historically, literature within the realm of disability studies has been dominated by work founded upon individualist ‘medical’ perspectives. This model is ground in notions that emphasise individual impairment, rehabilitation of the body, professional power and oppression (Söder, 2009). The (bio) medical view of disability and its focus upon ‘normality’ deems those individuals outside the ‘normal range’ as deviant. Thomas (2007) suggests that the social deviance lens is what medical sociologists often theorise chronic illness and disability through. Furthermore, disability is often related to an individual’s ability to make economic contributions; to functionally sustain the economy, family life and other core fibres of the social organism (Wendell, 1996). During the past couple of decades a number of approaches have been presented to challenge and offer vehement critiques of the classic biological/impairment orientated model of disability (Brittain, 2004). These all have common features that shift attention away from the fixation upon personal tragedy and the impairment to the impact of social, cultural and environmental barriers. The British social model of disability, developed in the 1970s, is arguably the most widely known approach. Influential figures such as Mike Oliver, Vic Finkelstein and Colin Barnes were at the heart of the original development of this movement (Barnes, 1991; Finkelstein, 1980; Oliver, 1990, 2004). The rapid growth of disability studies has led to theoretical diversification from materialist to phenomenological perspectives. Thomas (1999) suggests, in particular, materialist and post-structuralist perspectives have dominated the social interpretation of disability. Materialist outlooks distinguish between impairment and disability. Scholars adopting this theoretical allegiance argue that disability is caused by the environment, which restricts people with impairments by presenting them with social barriers, ultimately oppressing them (Barnes, 1991; Barnes & Mercer, 2003; Campbell & Oliver, 1996). Post-structuralist writers focus upon
the discursive and linguistic, thus, there is no essential biology or pure body prior to discourse. Therefore, the argument is focused upon the culturally and discursively constructed nature of both impairment and disability (Corker, 1998; Corker & French, 1999). Dissuasion from the aforementioned theoretical stances, particularly within a sporting context, becomes the point of departure here. Feminists have been amongst the strongest critics of strong social perspectives that fail to fully acknowledge the experience of living with impairment and disablism (Reeve, 2002). Disabled feminist researchers have strongly criticised the distinction made between impairment and disability, ultimately, the core argument has been that societal oppression and barriers are not an adequate interpretation of their lived experiences (Garland-Thompson, 1994; Morris, 1992, 1996; Thomas, 1999; Wendell, 1996). Thus, it has been alleged that the personal experience of living with a disability has been excluded. Crow (1996) has suggested that impairment does cause some restrictions on activity. Furthermore, many writers feel that key aspects of feminism have great relevance in demonstrating how individuals experience oppression and discrimination. Thomas (1999) argues for the need to develop feminist disability studies as a major subgenre within feminism; pivoting upon a social relational understanding of disability with emphasis upon ‘impairment effects’ and the psycho-emotional dimensions of disability. This approach avoids the reductionist dualisms of body and culture by viewing the body as simultaneously biological, material and social in character (Sparkes & Smith 2011). Thus, this interlude provides the backdrop for the assertion of the implementation of feminist approaches when empirically studying the experiences of disabled women in sport. It is not possible here to fully analyse and present the history of tensions and debates within disability studies.
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However, this overview provides one with an insight into the origins of feminist approaches and understandings within this domain. The intersection of disability and gender and its application within a sporting context will now be discussed in more detail.
Gender, disability and feminism Congruent to feminist developments within disability studies there is a growing body of literature indicating that disability is always gendered (e.g. Barron, 1997; Morris, 1993; Thomas, 1999; Traustadóttir & Kristiansen, 2004). Thomas (2004) argues that the prism of gendered locations and gender relations invariably refracts the forms and impacts of disablism. Feminist scholars and activists have shown that the social processes that construct, mould and shape gender and disability are closely interlinked. In previous work gender and disability were posited as interacting to create a ‘double disadvantage’ (e.g. Habib, 1995; Lloyd, 1992). For instance, Lonsdale (1990) states, ‘for women the status of ‘disabled’ compounds their status of being ‘female’ to create a unique kind of oppression’ (p.82). This suggests a layering of discrimination onto a female body. However, this does not incorporate the complexity of the relations and interactions between gender and disability in constructing an individual’s experiences. Morris (1996) asserts that such writings do not empower her as a disabled woman as individuals’ are positioned as the passive victims of oppression. Vernon (1999) utilises the term ‘multiple oppression’ to describe the effects of being attributed to several stigmatised identities (e.g. black, disabled, female) and argues that these effects can be experienced simultaneously and singularly depending on the context. There is now an increasing amount of scholarly work diverting away from the ‘double oppression’ stance. This literature analyses the dynamic intersection of gender and disability. Traustadóttir and Kristiansen (2004) suggest that these two fields of study have had a parallel and mostly separate existence but both draw on analysis charac36
terised by social exclusion, power relations and other issues related to marginalisation. Disability scholars have criticised the portrayal of disabled people as weak, inferior and victims of ‘tragedy’ (Shakespeare, 2004). Similarly, feminist scholars have drawn attention to the ways in which women’s voices have been excluded and marginalised in certain contexts within society. Thus, the combination of these two fields can potentially enhance understandings of how individuals’ everyday lives are affected by both gender and disability. Despite these exciting undertakings and advancements in disability studies focusing upon the gendered experiences of women; there is little work within the realm of sport and physical activity reflective of these progressions. Research investigating women’s participation in disability sport has focused upon a broad range of areas including; how women manage and negotiate their identities and the role of physical activity within this context (Guthrie, 1999; Guthrie & Castelnuovo, 2001; Sands & Wettenhal 2000); how women are socialised into sport and physical activity/leisure pursuits and the support mechanisms they utilise (Anderson et al., 2008; Ruddell & Shinew, 2006); the perceived opportunities and barriers to participation (Hargreaves & Hardin, 2009; Odette at al., 2003; Rolfe et al., 2009) and how women overcome constraints to participation (Anderson & Bedini 2005; Ashton-Shaeffer et al., 2001; Goodwin & Compton, 2004; Henderson et al., 1995). These studies have predominantly utilised quantitative approaches and have implemented theories and approaches adopted from various disciplines. However, they have not addressed and incorporated critical literature from disability studies focusing upon the individual and their unique ‘self’ and social perceptions. In spite of the centrality of disabled women there has been a failure within these studies to explore the dynamic relationship between disability and gender and how this mediates an individuals’ embodiment of
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identity. Furthermore, the personal experiences and voices of these women have been left unheard within the sporting context. Schell and Rodriquez (2001) assert that without such personal accounts important insights will continue to be overlooked regarding the multifaceted experiences of female athletes with disabilities. Thomas (1999) argues that narratives inform us very powerfully about the intersection of disability and gender, as well as about the significance of impairment effects, in the fabric of individual lives. The epistemic stance adopted here alludes to the importance of experience. Experiential accounts can act as windows to the social world and can be harnessed to understand the ideological, material and discursive texts in which life is lived out (Thomas, 1999). Thomas (2002) further suggests that the lived experience of disability involves not only struggling with the social barriers but also the material body, the psycho-emotional dimensions and the effects of impairment. Historically, sport as an institution has been reflective of dominant norms, standards and ideologies prevailing within society. Arguably, this is still the case in sport and culture today. DePauw (1997) asserts that sport as a place where physicality is admired has presented a challenge for disabled female athletes; their active participation in sport has appeared to be a contradiction. Huang and Brittain (2006) argue that sport is one of the arenas in which the social struggle for control of the physical body occurs, processes of identity formation are conducted, and multiple notions of identity are embodied. It provides a rich environment in which to explore the intersection of gender and disability and foster an understanding of the experiences of disabled women in this context. I will now draw on the concept of intersectionality as a theoretical tool and its potential implementation in the sporting realm in order to capture how disability and gender interact to inform the life conditions and identities of this group.
Intersectionality Intersectionality as a concept has developed and grown in popularity in recent years. Shields (2008) argues that it is now a central tenet of feminist thinking and has transformed how gender is conceptualised within research. The approach aims to explore and analyse the interaction of various social differentials, such as race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or religion and how these diversifications influence the living conditions and experiences of individuals’. Björnsdóttir and Traustadóttir (2010) suggest that intersectionality has developed into a vast inter-disciplinary framework for the analysis of diversity. There are now a wide variety of approaches that differ by discipline, methodology, epistemology and theoretical stance. Söder (2009) made a distinction concerning the departure point for scholars applying intersectional perspectives. This distinction simplifies discussions about the approach but is helpful for emphasising the founding principles integral for understanding the combination of gender and disability. The first perspective is a structural one focusing upon power and stratification. The emphasis in this approach is upon understanding how axes such as gender, class and ethnicity operate to create stratified groups organised around concepts of power and oppression. The second perspective is subjectivist in nature and the focus is upon identity. This is the form of intersectional analysis that is most appropriate for understanding more fully how different identity categories combine and the fluid nature of identity development. It suggests the categorical belongings form the building bricks for the person’s identity (Söder, 2009). This appropriation envelops notions of stability and change and signifies an endless process of becoming when applied to how one develops a sense of ‘self’ (Oleksy 2011); the significance is upon understanding the unique identity created out of the intersections. Ultimately, the formation and maintenance of identity categories is an active process in which the individual is engaged
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and one category takes it meaning in relation to another category (Shields, 2008). In relation to gender and disability one could suggest that it is imperative to consider an individual’s lived experience of being a women and having an impairment to explore how this specific subject position creates oppression but also opportunities. Traditional approaches to intersectional scholarship usually emphasise and incorporate a greater range of social variables and categories. There is still great debate concerning what power axes or categories should be included when it comes to this form of analysis. Scholarly work in the field has concentrated on a diverse range and combination of intersecting variables, from the intersection of gender, race, class and disability (Meekosha, 2006); gender, race and social class (Hanis-Martin, 2006) to gender, race and disability (Peterson, 2006). Furthermore, Söder (2009) suggests that most authors want to include gender, class and ethnicity as the central dimensions. However, the argument here is for an analysis founded upon the underlying principles grounding intersectional perspectives. The exploration of disability and gender based upon concepts of fluid, multiple and intersecting social identities has not been approached within a sporting context specifically focused upon the experiences of female disabled athletes. It has been argued that intersectionality first and foremost reflects the reality of lives. The facts of our lives reveal there is no single identity category to describe adequately how we respond to our social environment or are responded to by others (Shields, 2008). The emphasis upon lived realities intertwines with feminist epistemologies, which explore women’s subjective experiences from their everyday lives. Knowledge production is described as relational in nature, therefore it should be situated and contextualised (Kristiansen, 2004). The significance of this context specific knowledge further highlights the need to consider the experiences of female disabled athletes in a sporting 38
world. One could suggest that the literature addressing women’s disabled sport from a variety of disciplines (e.g. sport, leisure, physical recreation) should incorporate aspects of disability ‘feminisms’ to explore this intersection. New knowledge can then be generated concerning the intricate webs of disadvantage and exclusion (Thomas, 2006). Furthermore, the theoretical bridging of these two varied disciplines will enable one to foster deeper insights into the multiple social identities operating to potentially influence and effect individuals’ participation in sport and experience of sport.
Conclusion This article has specifically addressed how the combination of feminist developments and philosophies in disabilities studies together with key principles of intersectionality can enhance understandings of disabled female athletes experiences. It has aimed to demonstrate how the gendered nature of disability and disability sport has not been fully analysed. The fields of gender studies and disability studies have evolved and grown to address the oppression, subordination and marginalisation of individuals’ within society. However, the fusion of these scholarly bodies in various ways is increasingly being recognised as a powerful tool to analyse the dynamic and fluid interaction of gender and disability. It has been argued that feminist insights provide key epistemological advances through arguing that knowledge is a social product, bearing the marks of time, place and social positioning’s (e.g. Thomas, 1999; Wendell, 1996). In employing a feminist approach the aim is to draw out a better understanding of the lived experience and unravel the complex social, political, cultural, emotional and psychological factors that operate. If one views these narratives through an intersectional lens then new insights can be garnered at specific intersections and social locations. This will provide a deeper comprehension of the construction and adoption of various social identities at these localities.
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Understanding complexity: The potential of critical realism and intersectionality
The combination of feminist approaches and intersectionality is not a new concept, however, its application and implementation within empirical work to understand the gendered experiences of disabled female athletes has not been fully navigated. This could have practical implications in regards to providing information on how these athletes become involved in sport and could feed into knowledge concerning how to maintain disabled female athletes’ participation levels. It will also highlight the role of the impaired body in this process and the external social processes that stand to mediate their personal experiences and motivations in sport. Furthermore, the insights gained within this specific sport context could potentially inform ongoing work focused upon combining gender and
disability. This article is not based upon empirical research that has been completed, however, it formulates the building blocks for future work within this field that I will be conducting. It aims to take forward the sophisticated philosophical debates currently ongoing within disability studies and apply them within a disability sport and leisure context, specifically, the potential of an intersectional analysis.
Correspondence Emma Seal PhD Education, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY. Email:
[email protected]
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Emma Seal Hargreaves, J.A. & Hardin, B. (2009). Women wheelchair athletes: Competing against media stereotypes. Disability Studies Quarterly, 29(2), 2–11. Henderson, K.A. Bedini, L.A. Hecht, L. & Schuler, R. (1995). Women with physical disabilities and the negotiation of leisure constraints. Leisure Studies, 14, 17–31. Huang, C, & Brittain, I. (2006). Negotiating identities through disability sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 23, 352–375. Kristiansen, K. (2004). Madness, badness and sadness revisited: Ontology control in ‘mental health land’. In R. Traustadóttir & K. Kristiansen (Eds.) Gender and Disability research in the Nordic countries (pp.365–393). Sweden: Studentlitteratur. Lloyd, M. (1992). Does she boil eggs? Towards a feminist model of disability. Disability, Handicap and Society, 7(3), 207–221. Lonsdale, S. (1990). Women and disability. London: Macmillan. Meekosha, H. (2006). What the hell are you? An intercategorical analysis of race, gender, ethnicity and disability in the Australian body politic. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 8(2), 161–176. Morris, J. (1991). Pride against prejudice: Transforming attitudes to disability. London: The Women’s Press. Morris, J. (1992). Personal and political: A feminist perspective on researching physical disability. Disability, Handicap and Society, 7(2), 157–166. Morris, J. (1993). Feminism and disability. Feminist Review, 43, 57–70. Morris, J. (1996). Encounters with strangers: Feminism and disability. London: The Women’s Press. Odette, F. Israel, P. Li, A. Ullman, D. Colotonio, A. Maclean, H. & Locker, D. (2003). Barriers to wellness activities for Canadian women with physical disabilities. Health Care for Women International, 24, 125–134. Oleksy, E.H. (2011). Intersectionality at the cross roads. Women’s Studies International Forum, 34, 263–270. Oliver, M. (1990). The politics of disablement. London: Macmillan. Oliver, M. (2004). The social model in action: If I had a hammer. In C. Barnes & G. Mercer, (Eds.) Implementing the social model of disability: Theory and research (pp.18–31). Leeds: The Disability Press. Petersen, A. (2006). An African-American women with disabilities: The intersection of gender, race and disability. Disability and Society, 21(7), 721–734. Reeve, D. (2002). Negotiating psycho-emotional dimensions of disability and their influence on identity constructions. Disability and Society, 17(5), 493–508.
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Taboos in sport
Motherhood within elite sport discourse: The case of Keli Lane Suzanne Cosh & Shona Crabb Motherhood and participation in elite sport have traditionally been viewed as at odds with each other. However, mothers competing at the pinnacle of sport are becoming more common. Despite such trends, motherhood often remains invisible and taboo within the sphere of elite sport and little research has addressed athletes who are mothers. In order to explore popular accounts of motherhood and elite sport, we examined 326 media reports of the case of Keli Lane, an Australian water polo player who was convicted of murdering her infant in order to pursue her sporting goals. We draw on a social constructionist and critical approach to discursive analysis in order to explore repeated patterns of constructions of athlete identity and motherhood. We argue that within these media accounts, the identities of ‘elite athlete’ and ‘mother’ were depicted as mutually exclusive. Moreover, the role of the broader context of elite sporting culture and organisations in influencing the combination of motherhood and elite sport participation was rendered invisible within these accounts. The implications for female athletes, especially mothers, are discussed.
S
PORT is well recognised as a typically gendered activity, with less women participating in sport as a leisure activity than men (Miller & Brown, 2005; Palmer & Leberman, 2009). Moreover, being a mother has been reported to have a further impact on sporting participation, with women who have children thought to be less likely to be involved than women without children (Miller & Brown, 2005). The reasons for these differences are undoubtedly complex, but can be considered within the broader context of competing and constraining cultural constructions, or ideologies, of the ‘good mother’ (Goodwin & Huppatz, 2010a; Hays, 1996; Johnston & Swanson, 2003, 2006). As Johnston and Swanson (2006) write, the ideology of ‘intensive mothering’, as described by Hays (1996), remains salient in contemporary culture, with an emphasis on the needs of the child over the needs of the mother. The extent to which mothers participate in elite sporting competition, however, does appear to be changing, with mothers competing at the pinnacle of sport
becoming more common. To compete at an elite and Olympic level is increasingly being seen as possible while also a mother; there are numerous instances of highly successful athletes who are mothers (Farber, 2008, cited in Palmer & Leberman, 2009). Indeed, Pedersen (2001) has argued that mothers competing in elite sport are a rising social phenomenon. Despite this shift, however, a tension between the identities of ‘mother’ and ‘athlete’ appears to persist (Palmer & Leberman, 2009; Pedersen, 2001), and sporting organisations are often poorly set up to support mothers (Palmer & Leberman, 2009). Indeed, motherhood often remains invisible and even taboo within the sphere of elite sport. To date, minimal research has been concerned with examining the specific topic of athletes who are mothers. Two of the relatively rare studies (Palmer & Leberman, 2009; Pedersen, 2001) both used in-depth interviews to explore the negation of women’s identities as mothers and athletes. Palmer and Leberman (2009), for example, drew on a symbolic interactionist approach
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in order to examine how identities of mother and athlete were managed in the interview talk of nine New Zealand women. Although the participants all talked positively about their identities as an athlete and a mother, they also identified barriers to managing their multiple identities, including time, guilt, and organisational barriers. For example, many participants reported receiving only limited organisational support to facilitate their dual roles, and some reported that they were expected to retire from sport once announcing they were pregnant (Palmer & Leberman, 2009). Thus, it appears that despite the increase in numbers of athlete mothers, such women still face considerable challenges in attempting to combine these roles. To build on the very small existing literature in this area, the current paper aims to explore how motherhood is constructed within elite sporting discourse in the mass media. The mass media is an influential site at which the dominant cultural discourses are (re)produced, negotiated and challenged (Lyons, 2000). Indeed, there is an extensive literature examining various representations of mothers in the media: young mothers, old mothers; choice around when to become a mother; working vs. stay-at-home mothers; ‘yummy’ mummies; breast-feeding vs. formula-feeding mothers; single mothers, and so on. The media can also provide a valuable source of data on contemporary representations of athletes and mothers. In this paper, we aim to examine the media representations of motherhood in relation to the identity of being an athlete. Specifically, we take as our focus a case study: the media reporting of Keli Lane. Keli Lane was an Australian water polo player convicted (in December 2010) of murdering her two-day-old baby (Tegan, born in 1996) and sentenced (in April 2011) to 18 years imprisonment. Lane’s motive for murdering her child was allegedly that she wanted to pursue her sporting goal of competing at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 (the first Olympic Games at which 42
women’s water polo was an included event). During a period of five years, Lane is reported to have carried three pregnancies to term without anyone – including her team mates, family or boyfriend – knowing. Two of the children were adopted, and Lane was convicted of murdering the middle child. She is also reported to have terminated two pregnancies. Lane subsequently had a fourth child, which she kept. There was extensive media coverage of Keli Lane’s case in Australia, providing a rich source of data specifically on the topic of being a mother and an elite athlete, within the relatively intense context of a murder trial. Limited studies have examined media accounts of mothers on trial for murdering their children outside of the sporting context. Robson (2005), for example, argued that in media representations of a mother on trial for the starvation death of her infant in a homeless shelter in Canada, the media served to position the defendant as a ‘bad mother’, thereby locating responsibility for the death with the mother and overlooking social factors such as poverty and a lack of resources or support. In doing so, Robson also argued that the media reproduced notions of ‘good mothering’, such as the mother as selfless and sacrificing her goals for her child (see Ladd-Taylor & Umanksy, 1998) and motherhood as natural and instinctive (Connolly, 2000). Moreover, in an analysis of the case of a mother convicted of drowning her five children, depicting motherhood as natural and requiring self-sacrifice again served to downplay external factors such as a lack of social support in locating blame for the deaths of the children (West & Lichtenstein, 2006). Thus, building on Goodwin and Huppatz’s (2010b) edited collection of research examining a diversity of ‘good mother’ constructions, and constructions of motherhood evident in media examinations of mothers on trial for murdering their children (Robson, 2005; West & Lichtenstein, 2006), examining the media coverage of Keli Lane’s case provides us with an
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avenue to look at how the ideal of the ‘good mother’ is constructed in relation to athlete identity.
Method This paper takes as its data 326 articles from eight widely-read Australian newspapers – The Australian, The Advertiser, The Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Telegraph, The Age, Herald Sun, The West Australian, and The Courier Mail. These newspapers include both national and a variety of different state-based publications; they also represent a mixture of broadsheet and tabloid publications, and a mix of media ownership. The articles analysed were published between 2004, when Keli Lane was first accused of the murder, through to 2011, when she was sentenced. The media coverage was not consistent during this time; there were certain periods, even dates, on which there was an increase in coverage. This is reflected in the data presented below. Typically, these peaks in coverage related to a new development in the case, such as Lane’s sentencing. The collected articles were initially coded into broad themes, relating to dominant presentations of Keli Lane, athletes and mothers. From there, a representative subset of each major pattern was sampled for the purposes of more in-depth analysis. In particular, we draw on a social constructionist and critical approach to discursive analysis, focussed on the socially-constitutive and action-oriented nature of language (e.g. Edwards & Potter, 1992; Potter, 1996; Wetherell, 1998). Specifically, we focus on examining repeated patterns and representations in the articles – especially those constructing certain versions of athlete identity and motherhood, and the relationship between the two – and on considering what the text is accomplishing and constructing, rather than treating the accounts merely as reports or descriptions of real events.
Analysis The analysis we present here focuses on the ways in which Keli Lane was constructed within the media accounts under analysis. In particular, we examined how Lane was positioned as a mother and athlete, and how motherhood was represented in relation to elite sport. Although these identity categories were worked up within the relatively unique context of reporting around an alleged murder, we suggest that the specific ways in which the categories were constructed is still of interest. Indeed, it was by virtue of the significant context of the murder trial that Keli Lane’s role as a mother and an athlete were called into question, providing rich data on culturally dominant meanings. We argue that, typically, the identity categories of ‘elite athlete’ and ‘mother’ were depicted as mutually exclusive, functioning to reproduce the social context in which it remains difficult for women to combine both roles. Furthermore, we also note the invisibility of the sporting context in these news articles, with Keli Lane’s case largely attributed to individual, rather than social, factors. Thus, the analysis is structured in two parts: firstly, the examination of the representation of the categories ‘mother’ and ‘athlete’; and secondly, an exploration of the causal factors associated with Keli Lane’s case. Mother vs. athlete In examining the descriptions of Keli Lane in the news media under analysis, we suggest that Keli Lane was typically positioned as either a mother or an athlete. Indeed, the tension between these roles was cited as central in Lane’s motivation to commit the murder. As will be discussed, this motive was not condoned in the media accounts and was frequently depicted as indicative of some individual misperception or even pathology. However, the media accounts themselves arguably functioned to reproduce an incompatibility between motherhood and elite sporting participation. This is particularly clear in reports of Lane’s relationship with the daughter she continues to parent now.
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Motherhood and sport as mutually exclusive Throughout the articles concerned primarily with the accusation of murder and the adoption of her other children, Keli Lane was overwhelmingly described in terms of her identity as an athlete, and not ascribed positioning as a mother. This was particularly evident in the person reference terms used explicitly to depict Lane: Sports star killed her baby, court told. (10 August 2010, The Advertiser) An athlete wept, cuddled and kissed her first baby during access visits but was determined to have the infant adopted, a jury has been told. (17 August 2010, The Advertiser) In both these typical instances, Keli Lane was described, first and foremost, as an ‘athlete’ and as a ‘sports star’, rather than as a ‘mother’. Other descriptions included ‘sporting champion’, ‘golden girl’, ‘water polo champion’, and ‘water polo player’. Furthermore, although Lane’s status as a mother is implied by the references to ‘her (first) baby’ (extracts above, emphasis added) and the category-bound activity (Sacks, 1992) of ‘cuddling and kissing’, typically associated with the identity category ‘mother’, the ultimate weight of the statements above arguably lies with activities that violate the category of ‘mother’: being ‘determined to have the infant adopted’ and ‘kill[ing] her baby’. Indeed, Lane was rarely described overtly as a ‘mother’ in these articles. Further, throughout the media accounts, an incompatibility between being a mother and being an elite athlete was particularly salient in the descriptions of Lane’s alleged motive for the murder of her child (as well as for having her other children adopted and pregnancies terminated). Lane is represented as wanting to pursue her sporting goals and, in particular, her dream of competing in the 2000 Olympics. The following provide some examples of the ways in which this motive was described: She said it was her goal to play water polo for Australia in the Sydney Olympics in 44
2000 and having a child would prevent her from doing so. (21 June 2005, The West Australian) The crown has alleged she kept three pregnancies secret – adopting out two infants and murdering Tegan - because she wanted to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. (25 August 2010, The Advertiser) At her trial, prosecutors argued the water polo champion murdered Tegan in 1996, two days after the baby’s birth, to pursue her sporting ambitions. (15 December 2010, Sydney Morning Herald) Lane’s motivation was clearly presented here as being ‘to pursue her sporting ambitions’ (first extract above). Although the steps she took in pursuing these goals (‘adopting out two infants and murdering Tegan’, third extract above) were clearly not condoned in the media coverage, a tension between motherhood and elite sporting success was oriented to here. Moreover, it was specifically motherhood – rather than, for example, pregnancy – that was represented as problematic for Lane’s success and continued identity as an athlete. For example: The Crown alleges that, with her sights set on competing for Australia at the 2000 Olympics, the national representative did not want her ambitions derailed by having to bring up a child. (11 August 2010, Sydney Morning Herald) ‘She said she didn’t feel in a position to care for her baby because she had certain goals and things she wanted to achieve. She told me she was a competitive water polo player and her ambition was to compete in the Sydney 2000 Olympics,’ she [a social worker] said. (13 August 2010, The Age) Here, ‘bringing up’ or ‘caring’ for a child was depicted as ‘derailing ambitions’ and preventing the achievement of goals. Thus, it was the social role of mothering that was presented as the issue in these accounts; the physical challenges of competing during pregnancy and recovering from labour and
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childbirth were not raised. Indeed, Keli Lane continued to compete throughout her pregnancies (in one instance, she is reported to have played a grand final game, before commencing labour later the same day). Lane was also repeatedly depicted as experiencing a dilemma between the options available to her: …the crime was committed out of desperation arising ‘from a sense of entrapment and isolation’… The judge said that despite her ‘golden girl’ exterior, beneath the surface Lane had been a very ‘troubled young woman’ who was ‘deeply conflicted as to the proper direction for her life to take’. (16 April 2011, Courier Mail) Again, implied in this description of Lane as trapped and uncertain about her life’s direction is the notion that she had to choose between contrasting options: motherhood or sport. Mother as possible now Following the pregnancies that Keli Lane had while competing as an athlete, she subsequently gave birth to another child, which she kept in her care. The construction of Lane in the reporting around this child is in clear contrast to the other depictions, described above. Here, her role and identity as a mother is much more salient, if not dominant. Moreover, she is depicted as a good, loving and devoted mother: Former water polo champion Keli Lane… convicted of murdering one of her three secret babies, was a ‘very balanced, excellent mother’ to her fourth child. (19 March 2011, The Advertiser) …the love and devotion that has grown between Lane and her nine-year-old daughter has transformed her into a woman widely admired for her parenting skills and involvement in her local community. (16 April 2011, The Sydney Morning Herald) Keli Lane is the kind of mother who doesn’t just arrange a birthday party, she
makes them the most fun ever. She doesn’t hire clowns or outsource the entertainment, she meticulously plans the games, makes the props and runs the action herself. Barefoot in the backyard, she has 30 kids joyously transfixed, as other parents look on in amazement at her drive and enthusiasm. That’s because her child is Lane’s whole world. (16 April 2011, Daily Telegraph) These extracts provide examples of the kinds of ways in which Lane’s mothering, subsequent to the end of her athletic career, was reported in the media. Lane is constructed not only as an ‘excellent’ mother, but as someone whom others recognise and admire for her ‘parenting skills’, ‘drive and enthusiasm’. She is positioned as personally fulfilled, but also as giving to others, as a result of embracing the role of mother. Her role as an athlete (or former athlete) is no longer the focus here, and she is arguably constructed as reformed: She has been ‘transformed’ by her relationship with her daughter. Indeed, the contrast (often implicit, but explicit in the second extract above) between the representations of Keli Lane the athlete who was convicted of murdering her child, and Keli Lane the loving mother, is striking. This contrasting positioning in the media accounts can be seen to construct the ‘good mother’ and athletic competition as mutually exclusive activities and identities. Many accounts depicted Lane as now able to be a (good) mother, when she previously was unable. For example: It seems that, when she fell pregnant with this daughter in 2001, in Lane’s mind she could now finally have the child she couldn’t before. (16 April 2011, The Age) Lane has grown in the joy of the love of her child -- a love she once believed she couldn’t have. (16 April 2011, Daily Telegraph) These kinds of representations construct Lane as unable to have a child (and the associated ‘joy’ and ‘love’) while an athlete, functioning to position motherhood and being
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an athlete as incompatible roles. While pregnant and an athlete, Lane is depicted as making a choice between keeping the child and pursuing her sporting goals; once she stopped competing, she is described as being able to embrace and enjoy motherhood. Causal factors Within the media articles around the case of Keli Lane, there were, of course, accounts of the causal factors that led to the tragic events. A notable absence in these accounts, however, was any discussion of the context and culture of sporting competition within which Lane’s actions took place. Instead, those factors discussed largely tended to present the problem as an individual one. Some rare accounts did also mention the possibility that the experience of abortion and the barriers to adoption may have played a role. These will be considered below. Individual factors As discussed, Lane was depicted as perceiving that becoming a mother would impede her goals as an athlete. In terms of the dilemma she faced between motherhood and competitive sport, Lane was represented as feeling that she did not have an option: She had to, she claimed, give up her baby Tegan. (12 March 2011, Daily Telegraph) …she illogically felt trapped. (16 April 2011, Courier Mail) From her perspective, irrational though it was, there was simply no way out. (16 April 2011, The Australian) In these kinds of representations, Lane’s sense that there was ‘no way out’ was presented as irrational, erroneous or illogical. Such a construction functions to locate the problem within her, as an individual, while overlooking or obscuring any social factors which may have contributed to or shaped her perceived lack of options. That is, despite literature suggesting that combining the roles of athlete and mother continues to be highly challenging (e.g. Palmer & Leberman, 2009), Lane’s ‘irra46
tional’ ‘perspective’ is constructed as an individual deficit, and attention is deflected away from structural barriers (e.g. organisational support) to competing while a mother. Similarly, in some accounts, Lane’s secrecy and isolation around her pregnancies were presented as having some causal relationship with the subsequent crime. Once again, these were depicted as individual factors, for example: It is a tragedy… for whatever reason, Keli Lane could not tell her mother all those years ago of the secret births of her three children… the tragic circumstances underlying the present trial could have been avoided, obviously enough, if Keli could have brought herself to reveal her secrets to her mother. (16 April 2011, The Advertiser) In Palmer and Leberman’s (2009) study, female athletes reported that becoming pregnant was considered by others to denote retirement from competition. Announcing a pregnancy, therefore, may not be an easy decision for an athlete not wanting to retire. However, in accounts of Keli Lane’s experience, such as that presented above, this broader context of sporting culture is rendered invisible, with the focus instead of Lane as an individual. Abortion trauma and barriers to adoption Where media articles did attend to broader factors that may have affected the case of Keli Lane was in relation to considering trauma of terminating a pregnancy, as well as cultural stigma around making a child available for adoption. Such accounts were rare, but worth mentioning here. The following extracts provide two examples: The barriers faced by young women who want to adopt out their unwanted babies explain why adoption in Australia has fallen to record lows… The anti-adoption industry has done its job well, stigmatising adoption as some sort of social crime, far worse than abortion -- of which Australia has 90,000 a year -- and worse, in Keli Lane’s eyes, even than
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killing her baby. (16 December 2010, Herald Sun) Cook [the national director of Abortion Grief Australia] said the public contempt for Lane would be better directed towards the medical profession, which had failed to address the psychiatric aftermath of the abortion procedure. ‘Lane’s replacement pregnancies following her first abortion, heavy drinking, and partying lifestyle fit the profile of a woman struggling with unresolved abortion grief and trauma’, Cook said. ‘The fact that Keli carried three pregnancies to term after her abortions, knowing she was unable to keep these children, is an indication of a struggle with enormous grief.’ (18 December 2010, Daily Telegraph) Both of these examples from the data set provide a focus on broader social factors contributing to this case, rather than constructing the problem as solely located within Keli Lane herself. It is not the goal of this paper to discuss in any depth the representations here of abortion or adoption. Rather, we would highlight that, even here, the social context surrounding sporting competition and motherhood remained invisible.
Discussion This brief analysis has focussed on examining Australian media reporting around the case of Keli Lane. In examining repeated patterns and constructions in this series of news media articles, we argue that these media accounts function simultaneously to (re)produce motherhood and athletic competition as being at odds with one other, while also locating the problem of that belief within Keli Lane as an individual. The present media case thus contrasted with previous media representations of mothers on trial for murder, where the women were depicted as irrevocably ‘bad mothers’ (Robson, 2005; West & Liechtenstein, 2006). In the present case, Lane is depicted as a ‘bad mother’ while still an athlete, engaging
in the ultimate form of ‘bad mothering’ by murdering her child. However, she is depicted as subsequently redeeming her role as a ‘good mother’, once she was no longer an athlete. Although she was constructed as a ‘bad mother’ largely due to the alleged murder and adoption of her first children, the ways in which this category was worked up and made sense of – that is, primarily in relation to her motivation and role as an elite athlete – functions to reproduce notions of the ideal ‘good’ mother – one who is self-sacrificing and does not put her own ambitions and desires before that of her child. Thus, in creating this contrast, the tension between the roles of athlete and mother is further reproduced. Notably, the role of the sporting environment in facilitating (or constraining) the combination of sport and motherhood remained invisible in the data analysed here, despite previous research (Palmer & Leberman, 2009) indicating this may be a barrier for women attempting to carry out both roles. Indeed, in other cases of women accused of murdering their children (Robson, 2005; West & Lichtenstein, 2006), media accounts deflected attention from the social factors and located blame within the woman. In the present case, Lane is depicted as choosing her sporting career over motherhood, thus locating responsibility with Lane herself and overlooking the role of the sporting environment in allowing the two pursuits to be combined. Women experiencing or, like Keli Lane, predicting difficulty in combining motherhood and elite sport are thus positioned as individually responsible for managing such difficulties. Thus, the sporting mother is constructed as possible within contemporary society, but to be a good sporting mother (see Goodwin & Huppatz’s (2010a) description of different types of ‘good mothers’), is represented as dependent on the individual. Keli Lane, in these media accounts, is positioned as failing to be a good sporting mother, due to specific individual factors.
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This argument runs in parallel with those that have been made previously around working mothers (e.g. Chesterman & RossSmith, 2010; Johnston & Swanson, 2006). Women who are both employed and mothers are now the norm in Western contemporary society, and it is very common for employers to have equity and familyfriendly policies, which seek to provide opportunities for women to combine roles. Yet, writers such as Chesterman and RossSmith (2010) have demonstrated how, in practice, there remains a clear contradiction between the dominant cultural notions of a good worker and a good mother. Within this context, it is ‘women themselves who frequently assume responsibility for managing their work arrangements and accepting the consequences of making changes. The organisation is largely absolved from any responsibility for such decisions’ (Chesterman & Ross-Smith, 2010, pp.38–39). In the sporting context, a similar situation might be seen to exist: Although it is increasingly normal for women to combine the roles of motherhood and sporting competition, the onus seems to be on individual women, rather than sporting organisations, to manage the challenges which persist and to become good sporting mothers.
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Following other writers (e.g. Goodwin & Huppatz, 2010a; Johnston & Swanson, 2006), it is worth noting that the range of motherhood identities possible in contemporary culture is ‘unprecedented’ (Johnson & Swanson, 2006, p.510). Mothers who are also elite athletes are one example of an identity previously unavailable to women. And yet, ‘motherhood remains a site of intense governmental control and regulation’ (Goodwin & Huppatz, 2010a, p.7). Thus, although increasing numbers of women are taking up identities of both ‘mother’ and ‘athlete’, it is important to examine cultural understandings around this combination and their implications for women seeking to engage in both these spheres. This paper aimed to contribute to the scholarly work in this area.
Correspondence Suzanne Cosh School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia. Email:
[email protected]
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Motherhood within elite sport discourse: The case of Keli Lane
References
Chesterman, C. & Ross-Smith, A. (2010). Good executive, good mother: Contradictory devotions. In S. Goodwin & K. Huppatz (Eds.), The Good Mother: Contemporary motherhoods in Australia (pp.25–50). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Connolly, D. (2000). Homeless mothers: Face-to-face with women and poverty. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Edwards, D. & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage. Goodwin, S. & Huppatz, K. (2010a). The good mother in theory and research: An overview. In S. Goodwin & K. Huppatz (Eds.), The Good Mother: Contemporary motherhoods in Australia (pp.1–24). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Goodwin, S. &Huppatz, K. (Eds.) (2010b). The Good Mother: Contemporary motherhoods in Australia. Sydney: Sydney University Press. Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven: Yale University Press. Johnston, D. & Swanson, D. (2003). Invisible mothers: A content analysis of motherhood ideologies and myths in magazines. Sex Roles, 49, 21-34. Johnston, D. & Swanson, D. (2006). Constructing the ‘good mother’: The experience of mothering ideologies by work status. Sex Roles, 54, 504–519. Ladd-Taylor, M. & Umansky, L.(1998). ‘Bad’ mothers: The politics of blame in 20th-century America. New York: New York University Press.
Lyons, A.C. (2000). Examining media representations: Benefits for health psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 5(3), 349–358. Miller, Y.D. & Brown, W.J. (2005). Determinants of active leisure for women with young children – an ‘ethics of care’ prevails. Leisure Sciences, 27(5), 405-420. Palmer, F.R. & Leberman, S.I. (2009). Elite athletes as mothers: Managing multiple identities. Sport Management Review, 12, 241–254. Pedersen, I.K. (2001). Athletic career: ‘Elite sports mothers’ as a social phenomenon. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 36(3), 259–274. Potter, J. (1996). Representing reality: Discourse, rhetoric and social construction. London: Sage. Robson, K. (2005). ‘Canada’s most notorious bad mother’: The newspaper coverage of the Jordan Heikamp Inquest. Canadian Review of Sociology, 42(2), 217–232. Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation. Vols. I & II. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. West, D.A. & Lichtenstein, B. (2006). Andrea Yates and the criminalisation of the Filicidal Maternal Body. Feminist Criminology, 1(3), 173–187. Wetherell, M. (1998). Positioning interpretive repertoires: Conversation analysis and poststructuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society, 9, 387–412.
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Taboos in sport
Taboo tales in elite sport: Relationships, ethics, and witnessing Kitrina Douglas & David Carless The traditional (positivist) paradigm within psychological research typically requires a separation between the researcher/s and the participant/s on the basis that any kind of involvement would bias the research, disturb the natural setting, or contaminate the results. Even researchers who work within interpretive paradigms are often advised against conducting research with friends or acquaintances. Against this view feminists have argued that the researcher must enter into a relationship with a participant if she is to gain a rich understanding of another’s experience. Issues concerning researcher-participant relationships have come to the fore in our research with elite and professional athletes, highlighting how reciprocity, supportiveness, and care are critical – particularly when it comes to sharing taboo tales. Through a storytelling approach we explore how relational characteristics between the lead researcher and participants influenced how the research progressed, the insights that were gained, and the ethical implications that arose. We suggest that, despite the challenges they can create, the kinds of relationships ‘insider’ status offers lead to valuable and even unique insights by allowing individuals to voice taboo issues which are too often unseen or silenced. We conclude that if research is to improve psychological support for elite female athletes then this kind of approach has an important contribution to make. Keywords: Elite sport; insider; narrative; relationships; transition; well-being.
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of turning a reflexive gaze on their own ethical dilemmas, experiences, research relationships and research practice (Etherington, 2004). Given that writing is a both method of discovery as well as analysis, and that through the writing process, ‘we discover new aspects of our topic and our relationship to it’’ (Richardson, 2000, p.923), writing in different ways provides a means through which a researcher to can become both reflexive and reflective (Etherington, 2003, 2007). While we have incorporated an element of critical reflexivity through creative writing practices in other research (see, for example, Carless, 2010, in press; Douglas, 2009, in press; Douglas & Carless, 2010), we have not brought the same level of transparency to our longitudinal research with women in elite sport. While there are many factors that account for this omission, one factor has perhaps been the impact for the lead researcher of emotionally revisiting stories that were traumatic to hear.
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Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012 © The British Psychological Society ISSN 1466–3724
N THIS PAPER we explore issues to do with telling, hearing, and witnessing taboo tales – stories that are difficult to share because they contravene cultural expectations or assumptions in some way. By doing so, we ask some ethical questions concerning the relationships that exist or are established between researcher/s and participant/s. Particularly when it comes to taboo tales, the nature and history of these relationships affect the kinds of experiences that may be shared and, therefore, the understandings and insights generated. A recurring theme in feminist research has been how the relationship between researcher and participant is obscured through traditional scientific methods (e.g. Behar, 1993; Fine et al., 2000). In recent years, set against the backdrop of a ‘crisis of representation’ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000), qualitative researchers have turned to alternative ways of writing (which include stories, songs and poetic representations) as a means
Taboo tales in elite sport: Relationships, ethics, and witnessing
As narrative scholars we share the understanding that narrative inquiry has much to offer psychology in that it can provide ‘a more sophisticated appreciation of people as active social beings and focus attention on the way personal and cultural realities are constructed through narrative and storytelling’ (Sparkes & Partington, 2003, p.293). For us, a storytelling approach allows us to recreate, in an evocative and embodied way, pivotal experiences and moments. We do this here through an autoethnographic account (written by Kitrina) that recreates events with one particular participant which stimulated reflection on the impact and diversity of taboo stories that arose with other participants during longitudinal research into the lives of female professional golfers (Carless & Douglas, 2009; Douglas, 2004, 2009; Douglas & Carless, 2006, 2008a, 2008b, 2009a, 2009b; Sparkes & Douglas, 2007). This approach allows us to highlight the dilemmas researchers can face when conducting longitudinal qualitative research, as well as the promise this approach offers when it comes to getting behind the veneer of the cross-sectional studies more typical in sport psychology.
A re-storied remembering Here I am with one the world’s most wellknown golfers. She arrived, eyes red from crying, and made little eye contact. I have already felt an uncomfortable squeeze, trying to walk in someone else’s shoes, but how can I reach out and share now? Do I even want to share more? I ask myself: What is going on here? We hug and say little. Tom says a brief hello and, sensing that this is not his place anymore, leaves and lets us use his house. She has travelled hours to see me. I’m working away from home delivering seminars all over the UK, staying with Tom because this week’s seminars were near his home. I’m tired, giving workshops has been draining, the male golf coaches who make up the delegate list are demanding and too often sexist, elitist, aggressive…
When I started to explore our lives in sport, to probe other women’s lives, what stories did I expect? When I dared to ask questions, what responses was I anticipating? Perhaps it wasn’t the questions that did it. I listened… I was open and now I am in tears with these women. How can I tell their stories? The PhD study that started all this off – What’s the drive in golf? Motivation and persistence in women professional golfers – sounds a straightforward enough area of academic study. It started with Leanne, telling me about throwing up before every round of golf. Yes, being sick, vomiting and, she said, ‘That was normal for me’. A very talented child, but not wanting to be there, she said, ‘It nearly cost me my sanity.’ Then there was her cheating and throwing events to get away from the pressure. Imagine a golfer throwing an event because she couldn’t stand the pressure. And who was there to help her? But it didn’t stop there. Years of self-harm, scratching and hitting herself with golf clubs, she said, ‘You see this knuckle?’ pointing to the raised lump on the middle of her hand. ‘I got that from hitting my hand with my putter. I had to punish myself for being there.’ Didn’t anyone notice? Where were the selectors who chose her to represent their country? Where were the parents, the captains, the coaches? Didn’t anyone notice? Didn’t I notice? Sure, she says me and some other players helped her leave, but that was after years of self-harm. Did I really care? Was I too concerned with where my little white ball was going? My mind came back to the present as Anna began to talk. ‘I was sexually abused’, she said, taking a few sips from the mug of tea, ‘when I was 12,’ once again twisting the rapidly disintegrating tissue, eyes facing nowhere, trying to find the words. This is what she had driven hundreds of miles to tell me. Her text the previous day was short: ‘Please read your emails, don’t call me I can’t talk’. Now we sat opposite each other, she curled in the corner of one sofa, looking tiny, me as relaxed as it was possible to be,
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attentive, aware, mind racing – how to react? – analysing my every movement, facial expression, minute gesture. What to say? How to respond? I had no words. All I have to offer is love – how can I help? – but I don’t say the words. Again, I ask myself: What is going on here? She continues: A man I couldn’t get away He made me I can still smell his, His breath His strength I didn’t tell my mum They had problems She wondered why I had been so long at the shop But she didn’t… I wonder, why now, 30 years on? I’m depressed Ronnie’s been great Called me everyday on the phone He just lets me cry for hours He keeps saying I should see someone I said I need to see you first And I wonder, why me? I wonder what I should be doing and remember Tom’s words before Anna arrived and he left – that I am not a counsellor, that she needs professional help. I want to sort the problem out. I can’t sort this problem out. I am helpless like she. She continues: ‘That’s why I always had problems with relationships.’ Now my mind is making links with our discussions during some of the interviews, she wanted to get married, have children, it appeared her golf came first, it appeared that’s what was important. Remember Mike? He would grab me He was very physical It reminded me of… He would kiss me like… It brought back… I would be physically sick There were only seven women interviewed in my PhD, plus two ‘pilot’ interviews. One of these was Hannah. She said, ‘I set fire to a row of buses – I was never ever out of trouble 52
with the police.’ She talked about her disaffected childhood, she’s now a player the world reveres – of course, no-one remembers that. ‘I maimed a girl’ – no-one remembers that either. Perhaps the girl still does? Shame is engraved on Hannah’s face – she still remembers the violence that marked her childhood, until she found golf. ‘Oh I don’t mind if anyone knows who I am’, she said. One of Europe’s most well known golf heroines – does she realise what she is saying? That I should not use a pseudonym? How would the press tell this one? But that means I am deciding – is that right? Am I using my power to silence her voice? She describes her body now, maimed and disfigured by a surgeon’s knife, conveniently removing her opportunity for motherhood, whipping it out to make everything in sport alright, you know, solve the ‘woman’s problems.’ It would be alright, the surgeon said she’d be ‘back to normal’ in a few weeks, back to her powerful, strong winning ways. ‘I feel like Mrs Doubtfire’s body double’, she said, making a joke. ‘I can’t talk or I’ll fill up with tears.’ And so I change the subject, wary of pushing the boundaries. She continued, ‘Sometimes I just drive away somewhere on my own, and just sit for hours. They said it would all heal up. They said… and it’s just hanging… I can’t share a room – I don’t want anyone to see.’ You can’t hide your body when you are a professional in sport, everyone sees. I look back at Anna and say, ‘I know someone I’d like you to see, a counsellor, I think she could really help.’ I feel I’m taking an easy way out, passing the buck. I’m useless at everything I didn’t do very well at school My dad, I think he shook me coz I didn’t understand my homework I think he… I know… …he did How long have you been like this?
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Berni was another participant chasing the dream sold in sport culture. I asked some hard questions – of a player who had played for several years and who had won at best £1000 a year. Why did she do it? She wanted to win. She wanted to show people she was good enough. ‘What will it mean if you never win?’ I asked. ‘I’d be worthless,’ she replied, lowering her watery eyes, her face flushed. I can remember thinking should I ask ‘the’ follow-up to this? As I weighed up what being a good social science researcher was, the words came out of my mouth: ‘And what would being worthless mean to you?’ ‘That I can’t contribute to those around me. That it would have been better off if I had not been here. There have been some fleeting moments… like putting a gun to my head… it is humiliating.’ And then Debbie, one of her country’s most successful young players: ‘I’d have huge highs, dashing around doing lots of housework and stuff. Then I’d come crashing down and I couldn’t do anything… on valium for three months, shaking, hearing voices, terrible… I was suicidal… I overdosed… couldn’t cope, it was awful, inside, seeing what people were like with severe depression… the white coats… locked up like monkeys. And all because I thought my golf was failing… I’m a failure.’ How can so many women feel so worthless? Isn’t sport supposed to be healthy? Don’t we say to young people that sport is good? ‘After my mother’s death I became severely depressed’, Kandy said. ‘My mother was very religious, I watched her turn her back on God. I got very thin, I wasn’t hungry, I smoked – a lot. I couldn’t sleep. I have a friend who is a psychiatrist, she put me on medication. It took a long time. That tournament win was important – I had to win for my mother – it was like closing the book. She made me play golf. I hated it – was bullied by the boys.’ Kandy wasn’t the only one to talk about death. ‘I couldn’t be there for her’, Hannah said, ‘when my father died. It’s different for
me you see Kitrina, I’m not like you, I don’t believe what you do. For me, when my dad died it was the end. And I couldn’t be there for my mother, I couldn’t get back from Spain. But, I’ve thrown events too – tell Leanne – after my dad died. I shouldn’t have played but, but everyone was saying it was what he would have wanted. Then coming down the last I realised I could never again share anything with him. How could anyone possibly have known what my dad would have wanted? Then I realised I just didn’t want it, not at that moment, the golf course was not the place to be. So I purposefully hit bad shots on the last hole and threw the event I was leading. But I can’t tell anyone. I don’t want Heather to think she hasn’t ‘really’ won or that she only won because I deliberately hit so many bad shots on the last hole.’ Anna carries on: I was always sensitive about being butch I had to prove I wasn’t lesbian So I had sex with After, I felt so used… So, there was no… After a long time, half sentences and explanations, we had another cup of tea. ‘Look’, I said, ‘I wasn’t educated when I stopped playing, I didn’t have A-levels either, but I love learning, I wanted to do a degree. All the other students were 20 years younger than me, all with A-level maths. I felt a little stupid at times but when I didn’t know something I got help – there’s no shame in being ‘uneducated’, it’s OK not to be good at something, its OK not be good, it is fun learning. Is any of this helping?’ We go for a walk along the canal. Anna spots a kingfisher, bright blue skimming the water and hiding. We stand and silently observe in awe – its beauty, speed, colour. I sense we are different, though. I am not competitive, some people say I must be, people who’ve never met me before actually try and tell me that I am! You cannot believe the number of people that try to tell me what I must feel. ‘Come on Kitrina,’ they say in frustration, ‘so you won a dozen times on
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tour and you weren’t competitive? Yeah right!’ they mock. ‘I am’, Anna says, ‘I love competition.’ ‘Well I’m not’, I say. ‘Let me tell you what I love…’ We walk on in silence. She reflects on my list and says, ‘Maybe I would be better off looking for work outside of golf.’ We go back to Tom’s house, drink more tea. Tom, after hours walking on the moors, returns to his home. We make plans for dinner, friends come round, Anna stays and joins in, laughs for what probably is the first time in a long while. And then, rising to the occasion, the champion golfer takes centre stage, and like a dog with a bone she finds something the others will laugh at and won’t let it alone. Of course, it is me whom the joke is pointed at and me the mickey is taken out of all evening. I get upset within, inside, at her insensitivity but attempt to allow her healing to put me down. I recognise the typical jock behaviour and reaffirm my dislike of it all. I wonder, am I like that too? I’m disappointed it has happened like this but see in her behaviour that she’s feeling better and, strangely, I am glad and relieved. She leaves after dinner. What do I do with all of this? Where does all this fit with sport research? Tom sits down after everyone has left and, knowing why Anna was here, it’s his first chance to ask how I am. Like a relay team member I pass the baton on, glad to download.
Reflections While we resist forcing a summary or resolution on the preceding story, we would like to reflect on two particular questions which loom large. The first concerns a disjuncture between the kinds of stories participants shared in our research, and the kinds of representations of elite athletes’ lives that are typically found in sport psychology, sport sociology, and sport literature. Ken Plummer (1995, p.120) writes, ‘Stories can be told when they can be heard. There is usually no point in telling a tale without a receptive and appreciative listener, and one who is usually part of a wider 54
community of support.’ This understanding points to one reason why these stories may not have been told: the women had simply never perceived the presence of a receptive, supportive, and appreciative listener. That women experienced their tales as untellable for this reason informs us about not only the individual teller but also, as Michele Crossley (2000) notes, the culture in which they live. More specifically, the stories – and their silence until now – tell us about the prevailing interests, assumptions, and values of others within sport culture. It sometimes seems to us, in the midst of more than a decade’s narrative research with elite athletes, a kind of ‘grand illusion’ occurs in sport culture where the realities of athletes’ lives are obscured by a façade of performance outcomes and technicalities. Lost is the human-ness – replaced by a mechanistic portrayal gained from distanced and measurement-oriented methodologies. Stories not perceived to fit this performancefocussed template, are frequently missed, shunned, disbelieved, or rejected. As scientific portrayals feed the perspectives and interests of others in sport, are we in danger of creating a culture of blindness – a shared silence – regarding critical issues in athletes’ lives, in the mistaken belief that all that matters are performance outcomes? The story portrays how silence is broken – or redressed – through the presence of a researcher in whom participants confide. What is it, though, that leads participants to judge Kitrina a receptive and appreciative listener? The nature of the relationship that exists, or is established, between her and the participants seems critical (see also Brackenridge, 1999). Several relational characteristics are evident in the story, prominent though is reciprocity. Reciprocity is demonstrated by the participant ‘giving’ to the researcher (her stories, her time) as she ‘gives’ care and help to the participant in a time of need. On the face of it, Kitrina’s and Anna’s purposes for the interaction differ: one seeks to research; the other seeks help, guidance,
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or support. Yet, in the event, both purposes seem to at times be satisfied: Kitrina hears stories which progress the research as Anna – and other participants too – tell untold stories to potentially therapeutic ends (see Sparkes & Douglas, 2007). At this moment, a narrative research process which elicits and supports untold stories – with the purpose, in Peter Clough’s (2002, p.67) terms, ‘of ‘turning up the volume’ on the depressed or inaudible voice’ – has much in common with John McLeod’s (1997, p.95) perspective on therapy: ‘The experience of telling, of giving voice to areas of experience that have been silenced, seems to me to be at the heart of any kind of therapy.’ At other times, Anna’s and Kitrina’s needs are in tension – leading the researcher to put aside her agenda in order to attend to the participant’s needs. This ethical and moral stance perhaps gets closest to defining the relationship required to support participants in telling taboo tales: Kitrina puts Anna’s needs above the research in order to care and offer support. A genuine sense of reciprocity – specifically, recognising and acting on the researcher’s debt or obligation to the participant/s – seems to us unusual in sport psychology research. Yet in our work, a commitment to reciprocity – as a consequence of a caring relationship established through being an insider to the population – importantly influenced the kinds of tale that participants were able and willing to share. A second question concerns what to do with taboo tales once they have been told and heard. This is a question we and others wrestle with (e.g. Brackenridge, 1999; Smith, 2002), and the story reveals some of the difficulties Kitrina experienced. Arthur Frank (1995, p.137) suggests witnessing to be an important role, which means assuming ‘responsibility for telling what happened. The witness offers testimony to a truth that is generally unrecognised or suppressed.’ The act of bearing witness, Frank argues, implicates others because, ‘the witness makes a witness of others; a particular quality of the word witness is its movement outward…
to concentric circles of witness. When someone receives testimony of another, that person becomes a witness, and so on’ (p.142). This is the spirit in which we offer to you this witness account – as testimony of Kitrina’s experience and reflections on the taboo tales she has been told. Telling a story in this way shares the responsibility for action – and sharing is necessary because the problems are large, beyond any one person’s abilities. Crossley (2000, p.37) writes that a central problem of psychology has been its tendency to, ‘locate ‘causes’ and ‘cures’ of problematic experiences within individuals. This, in turn, led to ‘ignoring or minimising social context’’. Sharing stories is ultimately an act of witness which invites others to engage and respond. Instead of seeing the individual as ‘the problem’, ‘the problem’ is instead repositioned in culture thereby implicating us all, sharing the burden of responsibility, and calling for socio-cultural change within sport.
Acknowledgements We offer our sincere thanks to the women who have taken part in this research. Without their willingness and consent for us to share stories of their lives this work would not have been possible. Our thanks are also extended to delegates at the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences Annual Conference and the two anonymous reviewers for their responses to an earlier version of this manuscript.
Correspondence Kitrina Douglas PhD 91 Fedden Village, Nore Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8EJ. Email:
[email protected]
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References Behar, R. (1993). Translated woman: Crossing the border with Esperanza’s story. Boston, MA: Beacon. Brackenridge, C. (1999). Managing myself: Investigator survival in sensitive research. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 34(4), 399–410. Carless, D. (2010). Who the hell was that? Stories, bodies and actions in the world. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 7(4), 332–344. Carless, D. (in press). Negotiating sexuality and masculinity in school sport: An autoethnography. Sport, Education and Society. Carless, D. & Douglas, K. (2009). ‘We haven’t got a seat on the bus for you’ or ‘All the seats are mine’: Narratives and career transition in professional golf. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 1(1), 51–66. Clough, P. (2002). Narratives and fictions in educational research. Buckingham: Open University Press. Crossley, M. (2000). Introducing narrative psychology: Self, trauma and the construction of meaning. Buckingham: Open University Press. Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2000). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin, & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), The handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp.1–28). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Douglas, K. (2004). What’s the drive in golf? Motivation and persistence in professional tournament golfers. Doctoral dissertation, University of Bristol. Douglas, K. (2009). Storying my self: Negotiating a relational identity in professional sport. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 1(2), 176–190. Douglas, K. (in press). Signals and signs. Qualitative Inquiry. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2006). Performance, discovery, and relational narratives among women professional tournament golfers. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 15(2), 14–27. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2008a). Using stories in coach education. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 3(1), 33–49. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2008b). The team are off: Getting inside women’s experiences in professional sport. Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, XXV:I, 241–251.
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Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2009a). Exploring taboo issues in high performance sport through a fictional approach. Reflective Practice, 10(3), 311–323. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2009b). Abandoning the performance narrative: Two women’s stories of transition from professional golf. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 21(2), 213–230. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2010). Restoring connections in physical activity and mental health research and practice: A confessional tale. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 2/3, 336–353. Etherington, K. (Ed.) (2003). Trauma, the body and transformation: A narrative inquiry. London: Jessica Kingsley. Etherington, K. (2004). Becoming a reflexive researcher. London: Jessica Kingsley. Etherington, K. (2007). Ethical research in reflexive relationships. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 599. Fine, M., Weis, L., Weseen, S. & Wong, L. (2000). For whom? Qualitative research, representations, and social responsibilities. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln, The handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp.107–131). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Frank, A. (1995). The wounded storyteller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McLeod, J. (1997). Narrative and psychotherapy. London: Sage. Plummer, K. (1995). Telling sexual stories. London: Routledge. Richardson, L. (2000). Writing as a method of inquiry. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln, The handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp.923–948). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Smith, B. (2002). The invisible wound: Body stories and concentric circles of witness. Auto/Biography, X(1 & 2), 113–121. Sparkes, A.C. & Douglas, K. (2007). Making the case for poetic representations: An example in action. The Sport Psychologist, 21(2), 170–189. Sparkes, A.C. & Partington, S. (2003). Narrative practice and its potential contribution to sport psychology: The example of flow. The Sport Psychologist, 17, 292–317.
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‘I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes’: Narratives of male-athleticism and the sexually-abused male child athlete Michael Hartill Research into the sexual abuse of children in sport has a relatively short history and it is only within the last decade that sports organisations have begun to take preventative measures against sexual violence and child sexual abuse. To date, empirical and theoretical work within sport studies has concentrated on the male perpetrator and female victim. In this paper, drawing briefly upon interviews with male survivors of sexual abuse in sport, I focus on the intersection between the ‘abuse narrative’ and the masculinist narrative of male-sport and its impact on the sexually-abused male child.
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WO CASES (or ‘scandals’) in the US have re-ignited debate around the sexual abuse of children in sport. The first was in swimming: under the headline ‘Sex abuse pervasive in USA swimming’, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) reported in April 2010 that Andy King, a 62-year-old coach, had been convicted of multiple counts of molestation and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for abuse spanning at least 30 years. USA Swimming has apparently banned 46 coaches in recent years, mainly over sexual misconduct, but it now faces multiple lawsuits alleging cover-ups within the organisation. This case resonated with many in the UK following our own ‘watershed’ moment in 1997 when British Olympic swimming coach, Paul Hickson, was convicted for 17 years for rape and sexual assault (followed a few years later by his boss, Mike Drew, for sexual offences against boys). In the second case at Penn State University, ex-assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, has recently been ‘found guilty of 45 counts of serial paedophilia’ (Pilkington, 2012). Investigations continue into the alleged failure of senior university officials to report an earlier allegation of abuse against Sandusky.
Over 10 years ago, the eminent sport sociologist Peter Donnelly (1999, p.108) argued that ‘sport organisations have, until recently, acted as if such things could not possibly occur in the pristine world of sport.’ Whether this is still the case largely depends upon where in the world the organisation resides. In England a central body (The Child Protection in Sport Unit) with regulatory powers has responsibility for child protection across all centrally funded sports and is the first of its kind. However, acknowledging that sexual abuse occurs within sport (especially when faced with incontrovertible evidence) and subsequently implementing child protection procedures is one thing, but to consider that the values and cultural practices upon which that social field has been built are, in fact, a fundamental part of the problem, is something else entirely. Yet this is the direction that feminist research and theory on child sexual abuse has clearly advocated for some years (e.g. Etherington, 1995) and this work has influenced my own investigation of the sexual abuse of boys in sport (Hartill, 2009). Herman (1990, p.188) illustrates the feminist approach: ‘issues of power and exploitation must be addressed explicitly… organised male groups which foster tradi-
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tional sexist attitudes should be considered high risk, since such misogynist attitudes have been shown to be associated with sexually exploitative behaviour.’ Thus, feminist perspectives provided clear grounds for critical theorists of sport to develop contextualised, gendered critiques of sexual exploitation and abuse. Following this line of thought, in this paper, I want to briefly address the silence that surrounds childhood sexual abuse CSA in sport through an examination of the dominant narratives of boyhood sexual abuse, and of male-athleticism, that confront the male-child athlete who is being subjected to sexual activity with an adult male in a sports context.
Sexual abuse in sport research Within sport studies, feminist perspectives have been central to the consideration of sexual harassment and abuse of athletes (e.g. Brackenridge 1994; Brackenridge & Fasting, 2005; Kirby, Greaves & Hankivsky 2000). As in the wider field of CSA studies, this persuasion has manifest in an early focus on the female-athlete (victim) and the malecoach (perpetrator) (e.g. Brackenridge 1997, 1998; Douglas & Carless, 2009; Fasting, Brackenridge & Walseth, 2007; Tomlinson & Yorganci, 1997) yet studies reveal the sexual abuse of male children is also a major social problem (e.g. Finkelhor, 1994; Gilbert et al., 2009). According to an Australian study ‘21 per cent of male athletes reported experiencing sexual abuse at some time in their lives. Of these… 29 per cent had been sexually abused within the sports environment’ (Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002, p.16). Donnelly (1999) and Brackenridge (2001) have drawn attention to the implications for victim impact and disclosure that the particular constructions of masculinity prevalent within many sport contexts may hold: ‘in the homophobic world of macho sport it is easy to feel that one’s peers would believe that one should have been able to prevent it, and that failure to prevent it must mean that it was consensual’ (Donnelly, 1999, p.121). Dominant, essentialised, 58
mytho-poetic, notions of masculinity, especially athletic masculinities, have had a deleterious effect on the extent to which ‘sexual abuse victim’ has been a plausible claim for young males. Nevertheless, much is now known about the dynamics of malechild sexual abuse and its effects (see Hunter, 1990; Spiegel, 2003). Within sport studies there has been some engagement with theoretical models of sex offending in order to develop contextualised explanations of sexual exploitation in sport (Brackenridge & Kirby, 1997). Such work draws critical attention to the ‘hypermasculinist culture’ of sports within a patriarchal context rather than simply the shortcomings or ‘deviance’ of individual male offenders (see Brackenridge, 2001). There is now an established feminist perspective within the literature regarding the sexual harassment and abuse of female athletes (including but not exclusive to those under the age of eighteen). The sexual abuse of male (child-) athletes has not received similar empirical or theoretical attention; Brackenridge (2001, p.77) states ‘we know very little about boys’ experiences of sexual exploitation in sport’ and Fasting et al. (2007, p.430) argue ‘we cannot assume that responses to sexual harassment in sport would be the same in different gender and sexuality mixes (e.g. male athlete/male harasser…).’ My research has focused on these issues.
Theoretical approach In the remainder of this paper I utilise Jerome Bruner’s ideas on ‘narrative’ as shaping and structuring forces of perceptual experience (e.g. Bruner, 1987) to consider the accounts given within qualitative interviews by men who had experienced CSA in a sports context (see Hartill, 2011). As Alvesson and Skoldberg (2009, p.7) state: a ‘distinguishing feature of qualitative methods is that they start from the perspective and actions of the subjects studied.’ Like other research in this field (e.g. Brackenridge, 2001; Leahy et al., 2002) I felt it was extremely important that my preliminary
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research into this issue centred on the testimony of (and dialogue with) men that had experienced boyhood sexual abuse in sport. Implicit to my approach is the importance of context for understanding the accounts disclosed. For Lawler (2002) the significance and value of the narrative approach is its ability to link the past to the present, and the individual to the social. In particular, I draw attention to the way my research participants ‘story’ the emotional impact of the abuse. In focusing on narrative models, I illustrate the relation between dominant public narratives of sexual abuse, male-athleticism, and the silence that surrounds the sexual abuse of the ‘sportsboy’. In the discussion below I draw briefly on the interview accounts of two adult male survivors of CSA in sport. Will (a pseudonym) captained his school rugby team and was abused by his coach/teacher for over a year, aged 11, whilst Sheldon Kennedy, who went on to compete at the highest level in ice-hockey, was abused by his coach throughout his teenage years. Sheldon has published an autobiographical account of his experiences which I also draw upon (see Kennedy, 2006) in addition to interview material. Sheldon and Will are typical of adolescent boys who are subjected to sexual activity by other (older) males – they keep it secret. If they do disclose, it is usually many years later.
Narratives of abuse, guilt and shame The shame and guilt associated with CSA is well documented and it is widely postulated that this shame may be even more severe for males than for females, and play a significant role in the under-reporting of abuse. For Will, abused by his rugby teacher: I mean for me, for me, you know ejaculation – the first time I’ve ever ejaculated – I’m sorry to use these terms – but the first time I ever ejaculated was at the hands of this man. Whatever one 1 2
says, the process of orgasm is quite pleasurable. And, of course, when that happens – you know, you have this immense guilt that comes with it. You know… are you encouraging the man? Are you? I mean – I felt complicit, and that silenced me. The heteronormativity underpinning Will’s account is no doubt a highly useful tool for men who engage boys in sexual activity, perhaps especially so in the context or social space of traditional team sports where homophobia is frequently normalised and boys are persistently and publically ‘measured’ for their conformity to heterosexist norms and ideals (Messner & Sabo, 1994). In such an environment, homosexual activity is fundamentally deviant and, thus, unspeakable.1 It certainly does not seem unreasonable to suggest that if the adult in Will’s account had been a female, the ‘immense guilt’ he experienced may not have materialised, or at least not in the same manner.2 According to Sheldon: I was plagued by all kinds of irrational fears. Did the fact that Graham chose me mean that I was gay? It was obvious that he wasn’t giving this special attention to the other boys, so why had he chosen me? ... by saying no to one form of sex but allowing another to happen, was I really showing a preference and therefore giving Graham my consent? (Kennedy, 2006, p.40). The boys were all raised in families, communities and cultures that were deeply supportive of their proclivity for sport. In Canada, male achievement in hockey is held in extremely high regard (as are those that can facilitate access to this world). There was no dissent in the boys’ childhood years from the powerful messages they received about their enthusiasm and skill in sport – it was every boy’s dream. Yet for Sheldon it was just the opposite:
Eric Anderson (2010) has recently argued that the culture of male sport may now be less homophobic. However, this is not to suggest that other adverse effects would not be experienced.
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…the first time it happened to me, when I was abused for the first time I wanted to get out of there – I didn’t want anything to do with sport, I hated it… [but] I felt like I had no choices after being abused… I felt trapped. I’d like to suggest that the ‘abuse narrative’ that dominates public understanding, whereby an ‘evil paedophile’ molests a ‘victim’ for whom the impact is devastating (and traumatic), does not provide a context (or narrative) that the sportsboy can relate to or identify with. ‘In the homophobic world of macho sport’ (Donnelly, 1999, p.121) it is not unreasonable to assume that the narrative of male-to-male abuse – centred on deviance, victimhood, trauma, paedophilia, homosexuality – may be so contrary to the narratives that structure male sports, that the sportsboy is thoroughly silenced by the disjuncture (see also Alaggia, 2005). The centrality of the father-son relationship to this masculinist narrative is highlighted by Sheldon: It’s hard to say what my mom and dad would have done if I’d told them… but it was partially my fear of my father that made it so hard for me to tell anybody. I was afraid that dad would be ashamed of me. I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes. I was afraid that he would somehow blame me for bringing this shame on myself and the family by not being strong enough to resist…
Discussion The narratives that run through male-sport define contemporary boyhood – to be a sportsboy means to be an ideal boy: physical and strong, courageous, and (perhaps above all) heterosexual. The dominant narratives of male-sport are the narratives of masculinism, including a masculinism that prioritises males as the rightful protectors of women and children (Young, 2003). Brittan (2001, p.53) argues: Masculinism is the ideology that justifies and naturalises male domination. As such, it is the ideology of patriarchy. 60
Masculinism takes it for granted that there is a fundamental difference between men and women, it assumes that heterosexuality is normal, it accepts without question the sexual division of labour, and it sanctions the political and dominant role of men in the public and private spheres. The masculinist narrative does not include abuse, victimhood, vulnerability or homosexuality. The boy who is abused in sport by his coach is simultaneously being taught the rules of masculinism – you don’t cry, you don’t give in, you don’t let others get the better of you; you are strong; are a winner, not a loser. In an environment where strength and victory really matters, weakness and submission matters even more; within the phallocentric narrative of masculinism, weakness equates to the feminine. It is because of this narrative that sport is such a pervasive choice for parents of male children. It is why fathers send their boys to football or rugby or cricket, at increasingly younger ages. It is from these constituents of masculinism that the sportsboy must then assemble his life narrative (Bruner, 1987). These are the narrative markers and tools at his disposal, from which he forges his identity and character. For the sportsboy, then, the abuse narrative, that insists he is a victim, is anathema. Woodiwiss (2009, p.22) suggests ‘it may turn out to be that it is our contemporary storying of CSA, with its emphasis on perceived damage, secrecy and guilt, that is traumatic, possibly more traumatic than the abuse itself…’ Nevertheless, the ‘abuse narrative’ (from which has emerged a ‘survivor narrative’ based on a rejection of victimhood) is exceptionally important and has been crucial to establishing the problem within policy-making agendas. Children who are subjected to sexual activity are damaged by it and they need to know that what they are being subjected to is indeed abusive (regardless of whether or not they perceive it as unwanted) and that they do not have to tolerate it and should not feel guilty for
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rejecting it, nor indeed ashamed for disclosing it. The establishment of the ‘survivor narrative’ has undoubtedly been a crucial step in recognising childhood sexual abuse, the profound effects it can have, and the process of ‘recovery’. However, there is perhaps a gendered dimension only now being recognised. According to Hunter (2009, p.403): …women are more likely to find the victim and survivor discourses empowering, whereas men are more likely to find them stigmatising and unhelpful… this may enable more women than men to have a voice and to work through their experiences more openly, leading to better long-term adjustment than for male sexual abuse victims. In the hypermasculinist world of competitive sport, it is a reasonable assumption that this will be especially true. This indicates the limitations of the dominant ‘storying’ of CSA (which underpins much of the child protection agenda) and that a core problem in addressing this issue may be the nomenclature we provide for our children to comprehend their experiences. But more fundamentally, ‘it is important to stress that public narratives are powerful in structuring the kinds of things that can be said (and, conversely, foreclosing certain kinds of story)’ (Lawler, 2002, p.252). In this manner, I have tried to illustrate how the narratives of child sex abuse and male-athleticism combine to engender the silence of the sportsboy who is subjected to sex by an adult male.
At a conservative estimate, 15 per cent of boys in wealthy nations experience sexual abuse of some kind. If we want these children, including children who are successful in sports, to tell their stories of abuse, when it happens rather than years later (if at all), the crucial role of academics and activists in questioning the ‘canonical life narratives’ (Bruner, 1987, p.15) that we offer our children through popular culture is clear. Given the masculinist emphasis within male-athleticism, this endeavour is perhaps especially urgent within the field of sport.
Correspondence Michael Hartill Edge Hill University, Lancashire. Email:
[email protected]
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References Alaggia, R. (2005). Disclosing the trauma of child sexual abuse: A gender analysis. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 10, 453–470. Alvesson, M. & Sköldberg, K. (2009). Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research (2nd ed.). London: Sage. Anderson, E. & McGuire, R. (2010). Inclusive masculinity theory and the gendered politics of men’s rugby. Journal of Gender Studies, 19(3), 249–261. Brackenridge, C.H. (1994). Fair play or fair game: Child sexual abuse in sport organisations. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 29, 287–299. Brackenridge, C.H. (1997). ‘He owned me basically’: Women’s experience of sexual abuse in sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 32, 115–30. Brackenridge, C.H. (1998). Healthy sport for healthy girls? The role of parents in preventing sexual abuse in sport. Sport, Education and Society, 3, 59–78. Brackenridge, C.H. (2001). Spoilsports: Understanding and preventing sexual exploitation in sport. London: Routledge. Brackenridge, C.H. & Fasting, K. (2005). The grooming process in sport: Narratives of sexual harassment and abuse. Auto/Biography, 13, 33–52. Brackenridge, C.H. & Kirby, S. (1997). ‘Playing safe?’ Assessing the risk of sexual abuse to young elite athletes. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 32, 407–418. Brittan, A. (2001). Masculinities and masculinism. In S.M. Whitehead & F.J. Barrett (Eds.), The masculinities reader (pp. 51–55). Cambridge: Polity. Bruner, J. (1987). Life as narrative. Social Research, 54, 11–32. Donnelly, P. (1999). ‘Who’s fair game?’: Sport, sexual harassment, and abuse. In P. White & K. Young (Eds.), Sport and gender in Canada (pp.107–128). Ontario: Oxford University Press. Douglas, K. & Carless, D. (2009). Exploring taboo issues in professional sport through a fictional approach. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 10, 311–323. Etherington, K. (1995). Adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Brighton: Pavilion Publishing. Fasting, K., Brackenridge, C. & Walseth, K. (2007). Women athletes’ personal responses to sexual harassment in sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19, 419–433. Finkelhor, D. (1994). The international epidemiology of child sexual abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect, 18, 409–417.
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Gilbert, R., Spatz Widom, C., Browne, K., Fergusson, D., Webb, E. & Janson, S. (2009). Child maltreatment 1: Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries. The Lancet, 373, 68–81. Hartill, M. (2009). The sexual abuse of boys in organised male sports. Men and Masculinities, 12, 225–249. Hartill, M. (2011). The sexual subjection of boys in organised male sport. Unpublished PhD thesis. Edge Hill University. Herman, J.L. (1990). Sex offenders: A feminist perspective. In W.L. Marshall, D.R. Laws & H.E. Barbaree (Eds.), Handbook of sexual assault: Issues, theories and treatment of the offender (pp.177–193). New York: Plenum Press. Hunter, M. (Ed.) (1990). The sexually-abused male (Vol.1): Prevalence, impact and treatment. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Hunter, S.V. (2009). Beyond surviving: Gender differences in response to early sexual experiences with adults. Journal of Family Issues, 30, 391–412. Kennedy, S. [with Grainger, J.] (2006). Why I didn’t say anything: The Sheldon Kennedy story. Toronto: Insomniac Press. Kirby, S.L., Greaves, L. & Hankivsky, O. (2000). The dome of silence: Sexual harassment and abuse in sport. London: Zed Books. Lawler, S. (2002). Narrative in social research. In T. May (Ed.), Qualitative research in action (pp.242–258). London: Sage. Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2002). Prevalence of sexual abuse in organised competitive sport in Australia. The Journal of Sexual Aggression, 8, 16–36. Messner, M.A. & Sabo, D. (1994). Sex, violence and power in sports: Rethinking masculinity. California: The Crossing Press. Pilkington, M. (2010). Jerry Sandusky found guilty of Penn State sexual abuse. The Guardian. Accessed 25 June 2012, from: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/23/ jerry-sandusky-convicted-penn-state? INTCMP=SRCH. Spiegel, J. (2003). Sexual abuse of males: The SAM model of theory and practice. New York: BrunnerRoutledge. Tomlinson, A. & Yorganci, I. (1997). Male coach/ female athlete relations: Gender and power relations in competitive sport. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 21, 134–55. Woodiwiss, J. (2009). Contesting stories of childhood sexual abuse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Young, I.M. (2003). The logic of masculinist protection: Reflections on the current security state. Signs, 29, 1–25.
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Sexual abuse in high performance sport: Implications for the sport psychologist Trisha Leahy Organised competitive sport forms a social institution in many countries which addresses Articles 29 and 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – the directives that respectively, every child has the right to play and that children’s talents, mental and physical abilities be developed to their fullest potential. However, the documentation of the occurrence of sexual harassment and abuse in sport in a number of countries has challenged our consensus vision of competitive sport as a positive, empowering environment for gifted young people. This has led to a more critical analysis of the sporting environment as a socio-cultural system and its impact on young people. Both human rights frameworks and the scientific biopsychosocial paradigm are underpinning the development of preventative policy and practice. In this article, I provide a brief summary of current knowledge on sexual abuse in sport, and propose a gatekeeper role for psychologists working with athletes.
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ITH STRONG empirical evidence pointing to the public health benefits of physically active and sporting lifestyles, it is not surprising that sport development constitutes an important policy priority in many countries (Leahy, 2010a). Within that policy framework organised competitive sport constitutes an important social institution, in which multiple public health, and community development goals are embedded. The documentation of the sexual abuse of athletes within sport systems has, however, challenged the commonly accepted view of sport as an unproblematic facilitator of public health policy initiatives. Critiques from mainstream psychology literature are almost non-existent, and even within the sport psychology literature, have been slow to emerge. The primary discourse has consistently come from the sport sociology, and feminist cultural studies sector (e.g. Brackenridge, 2001; Kirby, Greaves & Hankivski, 2000). It is only relatively recently, that researchers in sport psychology have begun publish research documenting the links between systemic power structures in organised competitive sports systems and the maintenance of an environment that
appears to facilitate, rather than inhibit, the abuse of power which is one of the core elements of sexual abuse (e.g. Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2004; Vanden Auweele et al., 2008). Until very recently, sport was not considered in discussions of children’s human rights and thus escaped critical investigation as a possible site for violence against children (David 2005). However, organised competitive sport is a permitted social institution obliged by the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), in which 37 of the 42 substantive provisions apply directly to sport (David, 2005). These include the provision that children have the right to play and to recreation (Article 31), and the right to have their talents, mental and physical abilities developed to their fullest potential (Article 29). The UNCRC explicitly recognises in Articles 19 and 34, the right of children to be protected from sexual abuse. Obligations under the UNCRC apply to the State, parents and ‘any other person who has care of the child’ (UNICEF, 2005, p.5). Therefore, all personnel involved in sport, including psychologists working with
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athletes are obliged to ensure that it is a safe, violence-free domain for children. According to the UNCRC definition, the term children includes all young people under the age of 18. A biopsychosocial framework of elite sports development provides a platform for psychologists working with athletes, to act in the role of gatekeeper in promoting bestpractice sports environments, that are safe for young athletes. The biopsychosocial paradigm posits individual development as a function of the interaction between, biological, psychological and social factors. Internationally, Sports Institutes which deliver elite sport development programmes, generally operate within a biopsychosocial, integrated support system framework, centrally providing for athletes’ medical and physiological, psychological, social support and welfare needs (Leahy, 2008). A multi-disciplinary scientific support team approach is a core feature of the biopsychosocial paradigm, and support team members, including coaches, medical and scientific personnel, and psychologists often travel with teams to local and overseas training and competition venues. The team psychologist is often the first point of contact for athletes in distress. Within the biopsychosocial model therefore, team psychologists are key frontline members of the athletes’ multi-disciplinary support team and have an important role in monitoring the quality and safety of the sports environment and in providing early interventions in cases of sexual abuse. In the following section I provide a summary of the key features of sexual abuse in sport that psychologists need to be aware of in order to be able to act as gatekeepers of athlete safety and to provide effective therapeutic interventions where sexual abuse has occurred.
Understanding sexual abuse in sport The occurrence of sexual abuse in sport has been systematically documented internationally (e.g. Brackenridge et al., 2008; Fasting et al., 2008; Kirby et al., 2008; Leahy et al., 64
2002, 2008; Vanden Auweele et al., 2008) with reported prevalence rates varying according to the definitions and methodologies used, and the different sample groups participating. Rates ranging from two per cent (Tomlinson & Yorganci, 1997), to 17 per cent (Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002) to 22 per cent (Kirby et al., 2000) have been reported. Studies also indicate that perpetrators within sports systems are primarily persons in positions of authority, trust or guardianship, including officials, coaches, and, less frequently, support staff, and other athletes (e.g. Brackenridge et al., 2008; Kirby et al., 2000; Leahy et al., 2002). In both research and practice literature, a trauma framework is commonly used to understand the psychological impact of sexual abuse. The trauma framework includes the concepts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation as primary responses to trauma (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). Those manifesting core post-traumatic symptoms, generally also appear to develop a complex set of other interrelated, or secondary trauma-based symptoms, particularly where the abuse is prolonged and repeated and perpetrated by those in positions of trust, guardianship or authority, as is typically the case in sport contexts (Brackenridge et al., 2008; Courtois, 2004; Kirby et al., 2000; Leahy et al., 2002). The term ‘complex trauma’ has been developed to explain the sometimes confusing post-traumatic, dissociative and related secondary symptom clusters (Courtois, 2004). Empirical evidence about the psychological sequelae associated with sexual abuse in athlete populations has been almost completely absent from mainstream and sport psychology literature. One group of researchers has investigated the long-term effects on athlete survivors of child abuse using a trauma framework, and their research provides evidence supporting its applicability to understanding athletes’ needs for intervention and recovery (Leahy et al., 2008). In a contextualised investiga-
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tion of multiple forms of childhood abuse experience among athletes, Leahy et al. (2008) found that there were generally strong correlations between childhood abuse variables and that post-traumatic and dissociative symptomatology were observed among both male and female athletes who had experienced such abuse. In terms of the secondary trauma symptom clusters, seven areas of functioning have been identified in the literature (Courtois, 2004). Qualitative reports from athlete survivors of sexual abuse reflect these seven areas. The first area is affect dysregulation (inability to regulate the intensity of affective responses) and is indicted in the following statement by an athlete violently sexually assaulted at a sports event: Everything that was happening was extraordinarily intense, uhm… on some days I was fantastic… but, uhm [pause], on other days I was, uhm, just shit [long pause, weeping], you know I just couldn’t go on… (Leahy et al., 2003, p.663). The second area of functioning affected by the trauma of sexual abuse includes alterations in attention and consciousness leading to dissociative symptoms. This is illustrated by an athlete sexually abused by his coach throughout his junior athlete years: I can’t really remember my junior career, its like a big blank, like even though we achieved so much, and we were the best team and we trained, and we used to joke around with each other, but I don’t know, I just felt like I wasn’t there a lot of the time (Leahy 2001, p.386). A self-perception embedded in a sense of guilt, shame, and responsibility for the abuse is commonly reported by survivors. One athlete sexually abused by the coach said, 10 years after the abuse had stopped, ‘I don’t know, I guess I was too trusting, and [pause] I really didn’t see what was coming, and then didn’t stop it quick enough… sometimes I think I must have been stupid then, you know, but I was just a kid… (Leahy, 2001, p.402).
Traumatised attachment to the perpetrator (described in more detail below), incorporating the perpetrator’s belief system is the fourth area of functioning affected by sexual abuse. It is, succinctly reflected by a female athlete abused by her coach, ‘To us at that time his word was like gospel’ (Leahy, 2011, p.258). Relational difficulties with trust and intimacy are also reported by survivors. This is evident in a comment by a male athlete who had been sexually abused by his coach for many years as a young boy: …you know since my son’s been born, I’ve just put this iron blanket over him, like no one’s ever going near him and, uhm, but in doing that I’ve [pause] like I’ve left his mum, and that’s really weird ‘cause she’s like the best thing that’s ever happened to me but I just ran away from it (Leahy, 2001, p.395). Somatisation and medical conditions frequently reported in the sexual abuse trauma literature have also been observed in athlete survivors. For example, a female athlete survivor said of the impact of her abuse: I was tired. Sick… I was coming off my most successful competition ever in my career, and at a training competition, I just passed out, and that was it. From that competition on, it was, uhm [pause], like I had problems with my sinuses, infections, and I don’t know if it was psychosomatic or not, but I had to really cut down my training because I’d break down (Leahy, 2001, p.396). The seventh area of functioning within the complex trauma conceptualisation concerns attributions centring on hopelessness and despair (Briere, 2004). As poignantly expressed by a female athlete abused for many years by her coach, ‘It was hard because I felt like I was just this disease. I really felt like I had no control over what was going on with the coach… I didn’t realise there was another way out (pause) or there was another option for me’ (Leahy, 2001 p.283).
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The above athlete’s accounts point to the appropriateness of a trauma-based understanding of sexually-abused athletes recovery needs. However, when considering interventions with athletes, effective abuse–related therapy must be integrated into the athlete’s social context (Leahy, 2010b). It is, therefore, important that psychologists working with athletes are aware of sport environment –specific issues in order to be able to engage in healing therapeutic relationships with sexually-abused athletes and to effectively act as gatekeepers of athletes’ safety. Two sport environment issues, perpetrator methodology and the bystander effect, require understanding and attention.
Perpetrator methodology in sport environments Leahy et al. (2004), reported athletes’ experiences of perpetrator methodology within sporting environments. A key strategy of the perpetrator methodology was to engender feelings of complete powerlessness in the sexually abused athlete, and conversely, to present the perpetrator as omnipotent. The perpetrator successfully maintained this imposed reality by controlling the psychological environment, silencing and isolating the athlete from potential sources of support through emotional manipulation and psychological abuse. There are predictable psychological consequences for a victim under these circumstances. The repeated imposition of a powerful perpetrator’s worldview in an environment characterised by high emotional volatility, and unpredictable psychological abuse, and the lack (due to isolating and silencing strategies) of alternative reference points, can result in the victim being entrapped within the perpetrator’s imposed reality. This in turn, can engender a feeling of extreme dependence on the perceived omnipotent perpetrator (Herman, 1997). This is known as traumatic attachment and is described by one female athlete sexually abused by her coach for many years,
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…my coach was very well respected as a good coach, ‘cause he was. But, uhm, to us… like if we had anything to say, we’d say it to him, whether its regarding sport or life, whatever, and, he made it so that we had no options… Like I just wasn’t aware (long pause), like I was just in this little dream world that he was the only male, but uhm (pause), that nothing really mattered except for my coach (Leahy, 2001 p.359). Where there is traumatic attachment to the perpetrator, disclosure is extremely unlikely, and common expectations regarding distress indicators may not be apparent. Silencing is an integral, part of the experience achieved through aspects of the perpetrator’s methodology which keep the athlete in the state of traumatised entrapment (Leahy, 2011). The perpetrator’s success in maintaining such an environment raises challenging questions for psychologists who work in sport, and our role as bystanders.
The bystander effect The bystander effect refers to the situation where the victim perceived that others, who knew about, (or suspected) the sexual abuse, did not do anything about it. Leahy et al. (2003), described a pervasive bystander effect within the sports environment, which appeared to compound long-term psychological harm for sexually-abused athletes. As described by one athlete sexually abused by her coach for over six years: …he was in such a powerful position that no one interfered. I think no one questioned what he was doing. But now when I speak to people they do say he stepped over the line with us… But they didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to interfere with him. Yeah, and I am a bit angry about that you know, ‘cause when people now say, you know, ‘We knew, you he was stepping over the line’, and I’m just like, well why didn’t you interfere? (Leahy, 2001, p.410). Athletes’ experiences of the bystander effect, point to the apparent lack of systemically
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sanctioned accountability in relation to the power of the coach-perpetrator which allowed the abuse to continue for many years unchallenged by other adults in the system (Leahy, 2010a). Such systemic vulnerabilities in the socio-cultural structures in organised competitive sports systems have previously been documented as creating an environment which facilitates sexual abuse in sport (Brackenridge, 2001; Leahy et al., 2004).
Conclusion Individuals who have been sexually abused, inevitably form a proportion of the population of athletes with which psychologists working in sport, will come in contact. There is evidence that the impact of sexual abuse on athletes, and their recovery needs can be understood from a trauma-based framework. Psychologists working with athletes should, therefore, equip themselves with the training and skill sets necessary to be able to recognise and intervene in suspected sexual abuse cases. In competitive sport, and particularly at the elite level, the prevalence of the bystander effect and the related perceived power of the coach, together constitute a systemic vulnerability in the socio-cultural context of sporting systems. Individual level psychological interventions that do not take these broader socio-cultural elements into consideration do not accord with the biopsychosocial framework. Additionally, they do not address the responsibility of psychologists working with athletes to safeguard children in sport environments according to the obligations of the UNCRC.
The influential role of sport in the physical, psychological and social development of individuals and its positive impact on communities is well documented. If these aims are to be achieved, sport as a social institution must offer a safe, violence-free environment for children. The sport psychology profession should be at the forefront of cross-disciplinary efforts to promote athletes’ welfare and safety and to develop a culture of dignity, respect, and safety in sport for all athletes (IOC Medical Commission, 2007).
Correspondence Trisha Leahy, PhD Chief Executive, The Hong Kong Sports Institute, 25 Yuen Wo Road, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR. Email:
[email protected]
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References American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Text revision. Washington DC: Author. Brackenridge, C.H. (2001). Spoilsports: Understanding and preventing sexual exploitation in sport. London: Routledge. Brackenridge, C.H., Bishopp, D., Moussalli, S. & Tapp, J. (2008). The characteristics of sexual abuse in sport: A multidimensional scaling analysis of events described in media reports. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 385–406. Briere, J. (2004). Psychological assessment of adult posttraumatic states: Phenomenology, diagnosis, and measurement (2nd ed). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Courtois, C.A. (2004). Complex trauma, complex reactions: Assessment and treatment. Psychotherapy: Theory research, practice, training, 41, 412–425. David, P. (2005). Human rights in youth sport: A critical review of children’s rights in competitive sports. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Fasting, K., Brackenridge, C.H., Miller, K.E. & Sabo, D. (2008). Participation in college sports and protection from sexual victimisation. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 427–441. Herman, J.L. (1997). Trauma and recovery. From domestic abuse to political terror (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books . IOC Medical Commission, (2007). Consensus statement on sexual harassment and abuse in sport. Retrieved 17 August 2008, from: http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/ en_report_1125.pdf , Kirby, S., Greaves, L. & Hankivsky, O. (2000). The dome of silence: Sexual harassment and abuse in sport. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing. Kirby S.L., Demers, G. & Parent, S. (2008). Vulnerability/prevention: Considering the needs of disabled and gay athletes in the context of sexual harassment and abuse. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 407–426. Leahy, T. (2001). Sexual abuse and long-term traumatic outcomes in a non-psychiatric sample of adult Australian athletes. Unpublished raw data. Leahy, T. (2008). A biopsychosocial approach to sports excellence at the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Journal of Youth Studies, 11, 50–58.
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Leahy, T. (2010a). Sexual abuse in sport. Implications for the sport psychology profession. In T.V. Ryba, R.J. Shinke & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), The cultural turn in sport psychology (pp.315–334). Morgontown. WV: Fitness Information Technology. Leahy, T. (2010b). Working with adult athlete survivors of sexual abuse. In S.J. Hanrahan & M.B. Andersen (Eds.), Routledge handbook of applied sport psychology (pp.303–312). Oxford: Routledge. Leahy, T. (2011). Safeguarding child athletes from abuse in elite sport systems: The role of the sport psychologist. In D. Gilbourne & M.B. Andersen (Eds.), Critical essays in applied sport psychology (p.p.251–266). Champaign. IL: Human Kinetics. Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2002). Prevalence of sexual abuse in organised competitive sport in Australia. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 8, 16–35. Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2003). Childhood sexual abuse narratives in clinically and non-clinically distressed adult survivors. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 34, 657–665. Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2004). Perpetrator methodology as a predictor of traumatic symptomatology in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 521–540. Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2008). A contextualised investigation of traumatic correlates of childhood sexual abuse in Australian athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 366–384. Tomilson, A. & Yorganci, I. (1997). Male coach/ female athlete relations: Gender and power relations in competitive sport. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 2, 134–155 UNICEF (2005). UN human rights standards and mechanisms to combat violence against children. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. Vanden Auweele, Y., Opdenacker, J., Vertommen, T., Boen, F., Van Niekerk, L., De Martelar, K. & De Cuyper, B. (2008). Unwanted sexual experiences in sport: Perceptions and reported prevalence among Flemish female student athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 354–365.
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Bridging the divide between feminist activism and academia: A report on ‘Feminism in Action’ Nikki Hayfield, Sophie Gray & Rebecca Jones
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HE ‘FEMINISM IN ACTION’ seminar was held on 11 July 2011. It was a free one-day event, organised by Dr Victoria Clarke and Dr Helen Malson from the University of the West of England (UWE) as part of the Gender Studies Research Group’s programme of events for 2011 (‘News and Events’, 2011), and funded by the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Psychology of Women Section (POWS) seminar competition. As three postgraduate researchers, all with personal and scholarly interests in feminism, we were excited to be invited to report on the day. Around 70 people attended, with representatives and speakers from academic and activist organisations, as well as many participants from Bristol and beyond with personal and/or professional interests in feminism. The presentations reflected the title of the day’s seminar, with a specific focus on how academic research can have social and practical relevance for feminist activists, as well as how activist agendas can inform academic research. The range of participants, and the local and international speakers reporting on activist and academic activities from around the world, made this a truly international and refreshingly inclusive event. To begin the day Sian Norris and Anna Brown from the Bristol Feminist Network (BFN) community group (‘Bristol Feminist Network’, n.d.) provided an engaging and informative presentation entitled ‘Feminist Activism Today and its Future’. BFN was started in 2007 by a small group of women who participated in a local Ladyfest festival
celebrating women’s experiences and creativity. Subsequently, they decided that there was a need for more feminist activism in Bristol. Since its beginning, BFN has remained informal and unfunded but it has grown in size to include hundreds of members, most of whom are local women. Norris and Brown discussed the ongoing lack of gender equality within Bristol and the UK more broadly and highlighted that they often deal with similar issues to those encountered by second wave feminists in the early 1970s, such as domestic abuse, reproductive rights, and equal pay. Much of BFN membership and activity is internet-based and they use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as their website to coordinate and organise their activities. BFN have been active in protesting against local and national gender inequality. For example, they recently objected to the opening of an outlet of the US-owned restaurant chain ‘Hooters’ in Bristol. The restaurant chain has been nicknamed a ‘breastaurant’ due to the company’s requirement for its female staff to dress in what has been argued to be a ‘revealing’ uniform (‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’, n.d.). Other examples of their activism have included flyer campaigns objecting to how ‘lads mags’ portray women as sex objects, and a number of ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches (‘About Reclaim the Night’, n.d.). They have also worked on activist projects in collaboration with other organisations, such as ‘Representations of Women in the Media’ (n.d.) with the Bristol Fawcett Society. They also host
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regular events including themed discussions, film nights, and a book group. BFN tries to appeal to a wide audience by organising a diverse range of events and a recognition that being as accessible and inclusive is an ongoing challenge and necessity. Norris and Brown also discussed the advantages and limitations of embracing ‘The F Word’ (aka. ‘feminism’) in their interactions with the mainstream media, where there has seemingly been a move away from the notion that ‘feminism is dead’ towards a ‘backlash against feminism’. It was inspiring to see just how much an unfunded local organisation had been able to achieve during its four years of existence and the seminar participants were very interested in the BFN’s activities. Local action was also the focus of the presentation by Dr Helen Mott from the ‘Bristol Fawcett Society’ (BFS) (n.d.). While the BFS is part of the national Fawcett Society (‘What We Do’, n.d.) it is nonetheless a voluntary organisation that receives minimal funding. Mott discussed a number of examples from the campaigning and lobbying work that BFS engage with locally in order to support the work of the national Fawcett Society. For example, in 2004 the BFS led a hugely successful campaign for a Rape Crisis Centre in Bristol. By 2009, Bristol City Council had invested in a Rape Crisis Service and a Sexual Assault Referral Centre called ‘The Bridge’ was in operation (see ‘Welcome to the Bridge’, n.d.). Other BFS campaigns have focused on the law surrounding sexual entertainment venues. BFS are also keen to monitor women’s issues within local and national politics to ensure that women’s interests are represented and that the impact of government policies on women are recognised and addressed. The day’s programme also included international speakers from Iceland and New Zealand. Feminist psychologist Dr Annadis Rúdólfsdóttir discussed the Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST) at the University of Iceland. Rúdólfsdóttir is Studies Director on this 20-week programme (partly funded by the Icelandic 70
government). The programme invites professionals and members of organisations from developing and post-conflict countries to engage theoretically and practically with matters of gender equality and policy development, so that new knowledge and understandings can be taken back to their home countries. The five gender equality themes which run through the course are gender and governance, economy, security, social capital and environment. While men are invited, the majority of GESTs attendees have been women, most recently from Uganda, Mozambique, Palestine and Afghanistan. Throughout the presentation there was a striking, but deliberate exclusion of the ‘F word’. Rúdólfsdóttir made clear that the programme was founded on feminist principles, and she explored the ways in which feminism was both integral to, but unstated in, the promotion of the course. She discussed using the term ‘gender equality’ to avoid the negative connotations of the ‘F word’, and to open a dialogue with people who don’t identify with feminism, particularly those who see feminism as only in the interests of white, middle class, western women. Rúdólfsdóttir’s presentation was followed by a lively discussion about who identifies with feminism, who it is for, and how we do or do not use the ‘F word’ to make our work accessible and meaningful to those with whom we hope to engage. As one delegate put it, we may sometimes need to introduce feminism through ‘the backdoor’. In ‘Feminist Adventures beyond the Ivory Tower’, Dr Virginia Braun (from the Department of Psychology at The University of Auckland, New Zealand) discussed her academic work as a critical feminist psychologist, in particular her feminist analyses of Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) (e.g. Braun, 2009, 2010; Braun & Tiefer, 2010). There has been a recent increase in the popularity of FGCS, which Braun argued was partly due to surgeons actively marketing the practice, and the mainstream mass media’s (initially uncritical) coverage of the topic. In her critique of FGCS Braun empha-
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sised the negative sociocultural messages that women receive about their vaginas, and suggested that pornographic images of hairless women with so-called ‘perfect’ vulvas have become increasingly visible and normative. These factors feed into the notion that women’s genitalia are in need of improvement, which in turn perpetuates the normalisation of cosmetic surgery. The feminist implications of these issues are far reaching, and include women’s ‘choice’ (versus obligation) to take responsibility for continual selfimprovement (often in the interest of men), the objectification and judgemental scrutiny of women’s genitalia. Through her engagement with FGCS in her academic work Braun has become involved with the educational and activist New View Campaign (NVC) (‘Sex for Our Pleasure of Their Profit?’, 2008). The campaign was instigated by New York based feminist and sexuality researcher Leonore Tiefer in 2000, and now includes many academics and activists. It aims to highlight and critique biological reductionist models of human sexuality and the creation of new (so-called) ‘sexual difficulties’ in need of pharmaceutical and surgical treatments. The ‘New View Campaign’ has mobilised through direct protest activities such as street theatre, an interactive art exhibition (in celebration of female genital diversity), letter writing campaigns, and conferences. Braun also discussed her experience of presenting her critique of FGCS at the surgical conference ‘Global Symposium on Genital Cosmetic Surgery’ (see Braun, 2011), where the audience mainly consisted of pro-FGCS surgeons. She was shocked but pleased to hear the NVC being mentioned by other critics of FGCS who were also present at the event. The final presentation of the day was ‘Sexual Violence Prevention and the Problem of Pornography’ given by Dr Nicola Gavey who was also from the Department of Psychology at The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Gavey’s research interests have predominantly been in the area of sexual violence, however, more recently she has
become interested in the complex social issues surrounding pornography. She argued that some dominant mainstream forms of pornography form part of ‘the cultural scaffolding of rape’. In other words, the ways in which cultural understandings of sex, gender and heterosexuality sustain a society in which sexual crimes are legitimised and the victims of rape are routinely dismissed as being responsible for what has happened to them (e.g. Gavey, 2005). Drawing on the work of sexologists, Gavey explored the ways in which women had typically been positioned as sexually passive and gatekeepers to men’s sexuality, whilst men were seen as having active and uncontrollable sexual drives. She argued that more recently, within what is often described as a post-feminist culture, women are seen to be sexually empowered by ‘choosing’ to appear in sexualised ways. Pornographic images, that help shape understandings of how men and women should behave, have become readily accessible within mainstream culture. Gavey argued that unpicking gender binaries is essential if academics and activists are to create a culture where rape is seen as unacceptable. She maintained that despite the existence and accessibility of pornography in western society, there is little place for critical debate about the impact of pornography, and that it is crucial to move beyond overly simplistic readings of the broad domain of ‘pornography’. She was keen to emphasise the intricacies of the topic and made clear that not all forms of pornography necessarily contribute to the cultural scaffolding of rape. Instead feminists need to consider specific content within various forms of pornography and the role that these materials have within societies. The day’s presentations initiated a number of lively discussions and debates among delegates, and the atmosphere was both passionate and reflective. The different generations of feminists present (from those who were active during the second wave to those born after the 1970s) reflected on the recent resurgence in feminism largely
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mobilised through the internet and new media. There was further debate about the strategic use of the words ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’. One opinion was that these words could alienate those who do not identify with ‘feminism’ and, therefore, their use may be antithetical to hopes of engaging a wide membership and audience when undertaking feminist work. Others argued that to omit ‘the F word’ is to risk perpetuating the invisibility of, and negativity surrounding, feminism. It was clear that academic and activist feminism remain alive and well in Bristol and beyond, and there was much enthusiasm and encouragement for the future of feminist agendas and for continued collaboration between academics and activists. We all thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the wide range of feminist and activist work taking place locally and globally, and we left the day feeling invigorated by the experience of meeting such passionate and enthusiastic feminist researchers and activists.
Correspondence Nikki Hayfield is a part-time lecturer and research assistant, and a member of the Centre for Appearance Research in the Psychology Department at the University of the West of England. Her recently completed PhD lies at the intersection of critical feminist psychology and LGBTQ studies, and focuses on bisexual women’s visual identities, biphobia and the meanings of bisexuality. Sophie Gray is a postgraduate student studying for her MSc in Research Methods at the University of the West of England. For her dissertation, she is using story completion tasks to explore perceptions of teaching non-heterosexual sex and relationships in schools. Rebecca Jones is a PhD student within the Centre for Appearance Research in the Psychology Department at the University of the West of England. Her research focuses on lesbians’ experiences of anorexia and bulimia.
References ‘About Reclaim the Night’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from: www.bristolfeministnetwork.com/about-rtn.html Braun, V. (2011). Petting a snake? Reflections on feminist critique, media engagement and ‘making a difference’. To be published in Feminism & Psychology [online first pre-print]. Retrieved 11 May 2012, from: http://fap.sagepub.com/content/early/ 2011/11/18/0959353511427089.full Braun, V. (2010). Female genital cosmetic surgery: A critical review of current knowledge and contemporary debates. Journal of Women’s Health, 19(7), 1393–1407. Braun, V. & Tiefer, L. (2010). The ‘designer vagina’ and the pathologisation of female genital diversity: Interventions for change. Radical Psychology, 18(1). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from www.radicalpsychology.org/ vol8-1/brauntiefer.html Braun, V. (2009). ‘The women are doing it for themselves’: The rhetoric of choice and agency around female genital ‘cosmetic surgery’. Australian Feminist Studies, 24(60), 233–249.
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‘Bristol Fawcett Society’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk ‘Bristol Feminist Network’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.bristolfeministnetwork.com Gavey, N. (2005). Just sex? The cultural scaffolding of rape. Hove, London and New York: Routledge. ‘News and Events’ (2011). Retrieved 1 August 2011, from: www.uwe.ac.uk/research/groups/ gender-studies/index.shtml ‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.bristolfeministnetwork.com/hooters.html ‘Representations of Women in the Media’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/ MediaRepresentation.html ‘Sex for our pleasure or their profit?’ (2008). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.newviewcampaign.org ‘Welcome to the Bridge’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.turntothebridge.org ‘What We Do’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from: www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
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Thinking global, acting local: A conversation with feminist activists Nikki Hayfield
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T HAS BEEN widely recognised that over the last few years there has been a resurgence in feminism and feminist activism (e.g. Calvini-Lefebvre et al., 2010; Dean, 2010). This has been partly due to new social media providing excellent platforms for networking and organisation. Bristol is one city that exemplifies this resurgence; feminists who were part of the second wave, as well as younger feminists, are coming together in Bristol to be actively involved in feminism and protests against inequality. Helen Mott, Sian Norris, and Anna Brown are feminist activists in Bristol who spoke at the Feminism in Action (FIA) seminar at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol in July 2011. This one-day event was organised by the UWE Gender Studies Research Group and funded by the British Psychological Society (BPS) Psychology of Women Section (POWS). The seminar brought together local and international activists and academics, to discuss their activism and their research with the aim of strengthening existing links between academic research and activist agendas (see, Hayfield, Gray & Jones, this issue). After the FIA event Helen, Sian and Anna joined me for a discussion about the organisations they represent, the actions that they are currently engaged in, and the links between feminist scholarship and feminist activism. Our discussion also covered some of the contemporary issues that they and their organisations encounter, many of which are ongoing issues for feminist activists.
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Dr Helen Mott (HM) is the co-ordinator of Bristol Fawcett (‘Bristol Fawcett Society’, n.d.), an unfunded campaigning and awareness raising organisation based in Bristol that is made up of local members of the national Fawcett Society (‘Fawcett’, n.d.). Fawcett is named after the suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who campaigned peacefully for votes for women at the turn of the 19th century. Fawcett is currently the main campaigning organisation for equality between women and men in the UK. Sian Norris (SN) and Anna Brown (AB) are co-ordinators of the Bristol Feminist Network (BFN) which is an activist and awareness raising organisation. BFN receives no formal funding, but they sometimes fundraise and occasionally receive private or charity donations. As a network they also work closely with Bristol Fawcett, Bristol City Council and the Council’s partnership organisations such as Bristol Women’s Forum (which closed in June 2011) and ‘Safer Bristol’ (n.d.), as well as with various other local charities and activist groups such as ‘IndyMedia’ (IndyMedia UK, n.d.). I (NH) began by asking them about their experience of the FIA seminar1: NH: So to begin with I wondered how you all felt about ‘Feminism in Action’? SN: We loved it, and there was a really good mix of people in the audience as well. HM: I want to raise how appreciative we are of the opportunities to do linked up work between feminist activist and academic communities. The papers were all incredibly
Helen, Sian and Anna have read and agreed with the final version of the transcript.
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interesting and exciting. The intersection between academia and activism is where it’s at; it’s a really important space, we wish we could do more of it.
Introducing Bristol Fawcett and the Bristol Feminist Network NH: So Helen, perhaps you could tell me about the membership of Bristol Fawcett? HM: Bristol Fawcett is a group of about 50 people who are active in their feminism and about 25 of those members are present at our monthly meetings. For a long time we were a very small group, but in recent years we have grown quite rapidly in size. We look at frameworks and policies for national campaigns, and the regional picture, and take a view on what we’d like to be taking local action on. We also have a database of contacts who have asked us to keep in touch with them and that includes about 150 individuals (or groups) who have an interest in feminism, and those who are members of organisations such as equality based networks, feminist groups, the Women’s Institute, University research groups, and so on. NH: Has the membership of the Bristol Feminist Network (BFN) also grown recently? SN: The last year we’ve grown a lot and I think our influence has grown a lot in that people turn to us for advice, or news stories, or want to know what our opinions are. We’ve seen a lot more grass roots activism campaigns within the last year, beyond the two main projects of ‘Reclaim the Night’ and ‘Representations of Women in the Media’. For example, we’ve done a few events around female genital mutilation, some members have organised activism around the sex industry, and there was the antiHooters2 campaign, which was a joint effort between BFN and Fawcett. We’re also about 2
to have a workshop in September 2011 with the ‘No Women No Peace group’ (n.d), so there’s lots going on. AB: Bristol Fawcett and BFN are closely linked but Bristol Fawcett is focused on campaigning directly, almost a lobby group, and they have quite an influence over the local council and groups like that. Whereas with BFN you can come to a meeting about feminism in relationships and never come back again, and that’s fine. But having said that, we had a meeting recently about ‘Reclaim the Night’ (RTN) (‘About Reclaim the Night’, n.d.) where we specifically asked people to make a commitment and see it through, which we haven’t really done before. NH: I know a lot of BFN activities are internet-based, so how many members do you have? SN: We currently have nearly 400 members on our Facebook page, and we also have a mailing list of about 150. In terms of active members, that’s really difficult to gauge because there are so many different ways that people get involved. When we run discussion groups we get anything from five to 15 people turn up, but we had over 100 people attend the ‘Where are the Women’ event (‘Bidisha: Where are the Women?’, March 2011) we held at the Watershed media centre. At events like ‘Reclaim the Night’ we can get 500 people, so our size really varies with how you define our membership. In terms of organisation there’s a core co-ordinator group of eight women who take responsibility for certain things, but in terms of day-to-day running that’s really myself and Anna.
Activism and academia NH: I’d like to talk about the relationship between activism and academia. Do Bristol Fawcett and BFN have a largely academic membership?
‘Hooters’ is an American-style restaurant chain, which recently opened a branch in Bristol. Their restaurants have been nicknamed ‘breastaurants’ due to their requirements for female staff to dress in a revealing uniform. Since this discussion Hooters in Bristol has closed down (see ‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’ and ‘Hooters in Bristol: They Came, Bristolians Did Not Support Them, They Closed Down’ for further information about Hooters and the campaign).
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HM: Fawcett has always been associated with ‘blue stocking women’, which is an image that brings to mind older, white, educated middle-class women. It might be less the case with National Fawcett, but within Bristol Fawcett more than a third of our members have PhDs, which is quite a strange statistic. The kind of work that the Fawcett Society does mean it will inevitably attract people who have more of an academic focus. We have a lot of members who work at the universities in Bristol, or who have been engaged in academia at some point or another, so quite a lot of the work that we do will be informed from that. SN: In BFN we have some academic members. They don’t dominate, but we’ve worked closely with academics. NH: So do you see links between feminist academia and feminist activism as positive? SN: It’s always been really useful having academic knowledge and understanding around some of the key issues that we work on, like violence against women and sexualisation. Because then you’ve got your feminist arguments, you’ve got your feminist rage, but also the evidence behind it through the research and reports that academic colleagues have access to. For example, when we were campaigning about the Dita von Teese situation3 some members had access to academic research on how sexualised images of women impact on sexism and violence against women, and on the self esteem of young people. And we worked closely with the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol (‘Centre for Gender and Violence Research’, n.d.). They were able to support our campaign by providing us with a body of evidence. So for example, there is statistical evidence to suggest that images impact on levels of violence in teen relationships. I would say that it’s important that academics 3
consider how accessible their work is to a wider population, and that they avoid inadvertently using language that doesn’t easily transfer beyond an academic setting. And there are certain areas, particularly around the sex industry, where activists feel really angry about the sex industry, and recognise how violent it is. I think that’s a really interesting ‘disconnect’, where sometimes academics might primarily see issues from a theoretical place whereas activists are more likely to see them from a practical place. HM: I want to pick up on that. In Bristol Fawcett meetings there are some members who enjoy engaging with theory and are less keen on the practical stuff – which is also incredibly important. So, in answer to your question about whether the link between feminist academia and activism is a positive thing, yes and no. Sometimes young women have come to Bristol Fawcett meetings and have given feedback that they won’t be coming back because they found the meetings quite dry, or found the shorthand we use quite impenetrable. For example, using acronyms such as SEV [sex entertainment venues] or relying on a shared knowledge of concepts. There’s an expectation that we all know what the arguments are, and it does slow us down if we need to stop and explain. But there’s a real need to have a space to stop and explain. I think that we’re lucky in Bristol to have different organisations where different people can find where they feel more comfortable. NH: So do you see feminist activism and feminist academia feeding into each other or do you see them as operating quite separately? HM: I think there’s a very long and very proud tradition of feminist academics doing activist work and indeed feminist activists turning to academia. For example, women practitioners working in the violence against
A number of local groups criticised Bristol city council’s decision to allow burlesque dancer Dita von Teese to perform at a council run art gallery in Bristol. They argued that the event was demeaning and that this form of entertainment objectifies women for the titillation of men (see, ‘Dita von Teese Bristol burlesque dance: For and against’ and ‘Striptease Event in Publicly Owned Building’.)
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women sector realised that an evidence base had to be built, and so they went into academia to do that. There’s always been an overlap and permeable boundaries between academia and activism. I sometimes wish that academic work, so much of which is so brilliant and informative and important, was more accessible to non-academics. It really hit home for me when I submitted my PhD and I lost my subscriptions to the journals that I had through being a student at the university. Suddenly I can’t keep up with any feminist research unless I pay multiple subscriptions to numerous journals. It would be really good to think that feminist academics strive to ensure that they disseminate their research in not only in accessible language but also in accessible formats.
Broadening the membership of feminist organisations: The intersections of feminist identities NH: Earlier in our conversation you referred to the issue of having predominantly white, middle class membership in your organisations. There has been lots of anger from black feminists about racism and white privilege in the feminist movement and from lesbian feminists about heterosexism and heterosexual privilege. Do you think these divisions persist? HM: Feminism is for everybody. A perpetual problem is that often the women who are seized upon by the media to be ‘representatives of feminism’ tend to be far less diverse than the women who are actually out there doing it on the ground. AB: I hope academic ideas about intersectionality inform our practice as activists. I’m a black woman and there have been things I’ve read occasionally which have made me feel quite left out of the story. bell hooks (1981) in ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ was really critical of white feminists but she comes to the conclusion that she needs to call herself a feminist and not break away, because we’re all stronger together. We’re better as one large group rather than six different groups all trying to say the same thing in a slightly 76
different way. If you look at the F-word blog (‘The F-Word Blog’, n.d.) a lot of the comments people make will be along the lines of ‘check your privilege, you’re coming across as quite racist, you’re coming across as quite homophobic’. So the space that we create is something that a black person, a gay person, a disabled person can come into and not hear things that are going to offend them, they’re going to feel welcome, they’re going to be able to participate and want to come back. And when we’re planning our events, for example, our route for the ‘Reclaim the Night’ march, we consider issues like is it level access throughout, is it accessible, can people with buggies, mobility impairments use it? And in the march itself we have women only space so that women who might not be able to mix with men for cultural, religious, or personal reasons can participate. SN: It’s about having those conversations and finding out what we can do to make places welcoming.
The F-word NH: We’ve perhaps seen a move away from a ‘feminism is dead’ narrative to almost a ‘backlash against feminism’. One topic which I’m keen to talk about, particularly following the discussions at FIA, is the way that the word feminism is often associated with negative connotations, and I wondered whether you strategically negotiate your use of the F-word? SN: Someone asked me about this the other day. He said ‘so you identify as a feminist’ and I said ‘yes’, obviously, and he said ‘well don’t you think they should rebrand it?’ At the ‘Feminism in London’ conference in 2010, feminist activist and researcher Finn MacKay (‘Finn Mackay: Feminist Activist & Researcher’, n.d.) said that people always want us to rebrand feminism as if feminism is something to be ashamed of. She went through everything that feminism has achieved from women being able to vote, domestic violence shelters, help lines, rape crisis centres, the right to equal pay, and we
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she highlighted that we should not be ashamed of feminism, we don’t need to rebrand feminism, because what feminists have achieved is brilliant. I think people are keen to disavow the achievements that feminism has made because we still have so far to go, but I feel proud to say I’m a feminist, and the word needs reclaiming because we’ve achieved so much. HM: Having said that, it’s sometimes politic not to deliberately go out of your way to use the words ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ at every opportunity. Some feminists think that first and foremost you identify as a feminist and you never ever deviate from saying proudly ‘I am a feminist and this is feminist work that I’m doing’. While there are other people who might say ‘if we’re looking at what our aims and our goals are, and if we’re going to be able to get from A to B easier and quicker by framing this in some other way then that’s what we’re going to do’. It is interesting and it is difficult. AB: I really agree. There are so many stereotypes around the F-word, I work in a really male dominated environment and if I bring up that I run a local community group they’ll say ‘what’s that around?’ and depending on who they are I’ll either say ‘it’s a feminist group’ or I’ll say ‘it’s a women’s rights group’ and then we can have a conversation about what that means. But some people will say ‘oh, you’re one of them are you?’ SN: That’s why I think ‘Reclaim the Night’ always works really well because whether you identify as a feminist or not, you’re hopefully pretty angry about the levels of violence against women and girls and we can bring people to that march and we can have feminist aims, but we don’t necessarily treat it as an explicitly feminist event in our publicity. HM: That’s why groups like the Women’s Institute are good as well, for engaging in women’s rights activism but without using the word feminist.
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The politics of choice NH: And Helen you referred earlier to concepts within feminism. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the notion of ‘choice’ AB: That’s a really interesting issue, particularly in relation to the crossover of academia and activism. I’m going to raise a question: how free is your choice when you’re existing in a patriarchal culture where ‘choice’ can be repackaged and sold to you as something that you’re ‘choosing’ as an independent, empowered woman? That’s where it can be really difficult as an activist and an academic, because our understanding of something can rely on academic terminologies. HM: A lot of times since I read Angela McRobbie’s (2009) book The Aftermath of Feminism I’ve felt like photocopying chapters of it and sending it to people (laughs). I just cannot tolerate the empowerment argument. AB: We’ve covered this topic in BFN reading group, when we read Living Dolls by Natasha Walter (2010). It’s all about what the outcomes of our choices are further down the line. Why are you making those choices, what’s being sold to you, what are you believing is the outcome of this choice? Which is bringing the debate down to a more accessible level. Some girls believe that they’re going to be Jordan4 if they become a glamour model or get a ‘boob job’, but that’s not realistic. SN: What comes across really well in Natasha Walter’s book is the idea that a lot of the time we don’t have a choice. She reports this heartbreaking interview that she did with a 17-year-old girl who is quite alternative, and she doesn’t like the glamour lifestyle, she doesn’t want a ‘boob job’, she doesn’t wear make-up. This girls feels completely isolated because her entire cultural landscape revolves around the idea that you are an object who performs a version of sexuality, involving a ‘boob job’, lots of make-up, hair extensions and so on. And she doesn’t see
Jordan is a British former glamour model who has become a media celebrity.
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herself as having a choice not to be that. The whole idea that lap dancing or pole dancing or prostitution are choices, well, what does that choice mean when you don’t have any other kind of cultural markers? All the advertising that we see, all of the media is selling you this idea of what is empowering, and it doesn’t give you an alternative choice. If you’re working in prostitution and you’ve got a drug habit, or you don’t have any way of escaping it, then you don’t have any choices at all. The feminist writer Kat Banyard (2010) talks about how people say ‘no one’s pointing a gun at your head’ but that doesn’t necessarily mean women have a free choice. When we talk about the sex industry we talk a lot about trafficking. Because trafficking is the nadir of not having a choice, but then it’s easy to forget that other women working in the sex industry don’t have choices, even if it’s not to the same extent.
Picking your battles NH: Feminism has often been accused of not picking its battles well, or of focusing on issues which aren’t considered important enough to warrant attention; so how do your organisations pick their battles? HM: I think that’s another one of those red herrings that drives me absolutely mad because the people who say ‘you’re fighting the wrong battle, and what it is you should be doing is…’ are often the people who are not active themselves. I’m thinking about, for example, people who comment on articles that are published on our local paper’s website. Their comments can undermine feminists by saying ‘you haven’t picked your battles wisely’. But I’m interested in the fact that you called feminism an entity, ‘feminism doesn’t pick its battles well’. Feminism isn’t a single entity, we’re so diverse, and there are so many strands to what feminists are doing. Just thinking about national Fawcett, it is incredibly strategic about which battles to pick. NH: So how do you go about making those choices locally and nationally? 78
HM: How do you go about making those choices? Well, it depends whether you’re looking in the short, medium, or long term. Something that national Fawcett has always campaigned on, and will always campaign is the political representation of women, and more broadly the representation of women in public life, because everything flows from that. In Bristol Fawcett we get together every six months and think about strategy. We can only afford to take a maximum of three strategic focuses at any one time, because otherwise we’d be spreading ourselves too thinly. So we agree what those three issues are, and then we set ourselves some objectives to achieve in the next six months. SN: I think it’s as much about perception. It’s not the fault of feminists that the media are more likely to report issues where they get to stick pictures of scantily clad women on the front page. The last time an article about Hooters went in the Bristol Evening Post people kept saying ‘What are you doing about FGM, why aren’t you doing anything about that?’ or about any number of other subjects. I suggested that people looked on our website, then they can see that people are doing actions on all of these issues, it’s just that that they don’t all get much attention, they don’t all make the headlines; but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. What gets presented in the media as what feminism the entity is doing, is a narrow view of what feminists are actually doing. AB: I’ll be a bit more specific about how I make choices myself. So in March 2011 BFN organised an event where we got the journalist Bidisha to talk about representations of women in the media and I drove that forwards myself. I didn’t think about outcomes or strategy; it was driven by what I think is important and what I can do that will reach as many people as possible. The metaphor being of a pebble in a pond and then the ripples go and go and go. Lots of people will say ‘Oh I think you should do that and I think you should do this’ and I’m not saying I don’t think those issues are important. But you need to do what you think
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is important, and I think the representation of women in the media is important.
Strategies for change NH: That leads me into another area that I am really interested in. How do you go about organising your activism, and what strategies you use? And do you actively aim to use more innovative strategies, as well as more traditional ones? SN: BFN do a mix of innovative and traditional stuff. ‘Reclaim the Night’ is obviously a traditional march, it’s got a lot of history and I think it’s important that at ‘Reclaim the Night’ you feel connected with that history, connected with the waves of feminism. But then we did ‘Guerrilla Nutz’ that was quite different. Jenny Rintoul, the BFN member who organised it, is an artist and she really wanted to do something that was edgy and fun. Members were very silly, and pretended to be undercover spies to highlight the issues of sloganism and objectification of women, and to highlight that ‘lads mags’ offer a one-dimensional view of sexuality that harms men and women. Members made fake lads mags covers which inverted gender, so it was two men, instead of women, and then we went and flyered them all over shops and filmed it, and put it on YouTube (Rintoul, 2008). But then our discussion groups are a much more traditional thing, which lead from the consciousness raising groups of the 1970s. HM: When we think about academic feminism we often think about innovation and theory, but for me it’s about being able to identify practically how much you can do, and what you can do. It’s really important to me that Bristol Fawcett meetings are business like and have objectives. It sounds patriarchal but if you can see a course from A to B, you set yourself some goals and you can see that you’ve made a difference; I find that really satisfying and energising. I think feminist energy can ebb and flow, so it’s great when you come away from something that you’ve done and are profoundly energised by the experience.
The current climate NH: The recent resurgence in feminism has led to lots of networks and organisations being created. What have you learnt from BFN and Fawcett that you would pass on to others? SN: One thing that I think we would do differently is that we have only just started to write ‘position papers’, and we’ve gone through a long consultation process where people can give feedback. But I think that would have been something really good to do at the beginning, because then you have an identity to start off with and you can say this is what we believe, this is who we are, these are the things that we want to campaign on. NH: So finally, it seems important to consider the current political climate, where we’ve seen lots of protests and activism in response to the cuts to the public sector. Do you feel that this climate has impacted on your organisations? AB: We have certainly grown very quickly lately. There’s research around what happens to people in times of difficulty and it impacts on things like domestic violence. So I think there’s a lot more people standing up for their rights and having their voices heard, and saying ‘we’re not standing for this anymore’. More and more women are thinking ‘I am sick of this’ and coming along to our meetings and trying to engage more. SN: The last year has seen such a step backwards in so many ways, and that includes the Government’s spending policies hitting women really hard. This last year, every day you feel like something else has happened to attack women. A lot of people who perhaps felt that equality had been achieved for women are suddenly feeling like ‘well hold on a second, it’s not fine now, it’s changing’. We can say ‘it’s always been like this’, but there is a real step towards things getting worse for women, and people are becoming more politically aware or angry. There’s all this political energy and there’s all this anger and what we really need to do is start making the change and making it happen!
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The Authors Anna Brown is one of the co-ordinators of the Bristol Feminist Network and has been a feminist activist since 2006. She has coorganised three Bristol ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches and co-runs the BFN book group. Anna has also proposed and co-ordinated a number of one-off events for the network. Email:
[email protected]. Nikki Hayfield is a lecturer and a member of the Centre for Appearance Research in the Department of Psychology at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her research lies at the intersection of critical feminist psychology and LGBTQ studies, and focuses on bisexuality and biphobia. Email:
[email protected]
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Helen Mott divides her time between feminist activism, gender equality consultancy work and parenting. She is the co-ordinator of Bristol Fawcett, a group for active local members of the Fawcett society, which has been campaigning for gender equality in Bristol since 2001. Her PhD was a feminist investigation of the social psychology of sexual harassment. Email:
[email protected] Sian Norris is one of the co-ordinators of the Bristol Feminist Network. She writes a successful feminist blog, ‘Sian and Crooked Rib’, and has written for a range of publications and websites, including: The Guardian, The Fresh Outlook, Liberal Conspiracy and The F-Word. She has published two books, Greta and Boris and The Lightbulb Moment: The Stories of Why We Are Feminists through her publishing company Crooked Rib Publishing. She has spoken at a range of conferences on feminist activism. Email:
[email protected]
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References Banyard, K. (2010). The equality illusion: The truth about women and men today. London: Faber & Faber Ltd. ‘Bidisha: Where are the Women?’ (2011, March). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/2807/ bidisha-where-are-the-women ‘Bristol Fawcett Society’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk Calvini-Lefebvre, M., Cleall, E., Grey, D.J.R., Grainger, A., Hetherington, N. & Schwartz, L. (2010). Rethinking the history of feminism. Women: A Cultural Review, 21(3), 247–250. ‘Centre for Gender and Violence Research’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/people/group/ sps_centres/2983 Dean, J. (2010). Rethinking contemporary feminist politics. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. ‘Dita von Teese Bristol burlesque dance: For and against’. Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/ people_and_places/arts_and_culture/ newsid_8646000/8646406.stm]. ‘Fawcett’ (n.d.). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/ ‘Finn Mackay: Feminist Activist & Researcher’ (n.d.). Retrieved 6 August 2011, from: http://finnmackay.wordpress.com/ Hayfield, N., Gray, S. & Jones, R. (this issue). Bridging the divide between feminist activism and academia: A conference report on Feminism in Action.
hooks, bell (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press. ‘Hooters in Bristol: They Came, Bristolians Did Not Support Them, They Closed Down’ (2012, February). Retrieved 22 February 2012, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/Commercial%20 Sexualisation%20%26%20Hooters.html ‘IndyMedia UK’ (n.d). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.indymedia.org.uk/ Rintoul, J. (2008). Guerilla Nutz. You Tube [video] 8 November. Retrieved 12 August 2011, from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxtoyE7xoko McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism: Gender, culture and social change. London: Sage. ‘No Women No Peace’ (n.d.). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.nowomennopeace.org ‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’ (n.d). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.bristolfeministnetwork.com/hooters.html ‘Representations of Women in the Media’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/ MediaRepresentation.html ‘Safer Bristol’ (n.d.). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.bristol.gov.uk/page/safer-bristol ‘Striptease Event in Publicly Owned Building’ (n.d). Retrieved 5 August 2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/StripteaseinPublic Building.html ‘The F-Word Blog’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August 2011, from: www.thefword.org.uk/blog/ Walter, N. (2010). Living dolls: The return of sexism. London: Virago Press Ltd.
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Feminist Seminar: Barriers and enablers to feminist research Heidi Bjorgan & Pauline Whelan
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E HAD CIRCULATED the call for delegates for the feminist seminar at Leeds Metropolitan University on 3 November 2011 to every feminist group and women’s studies centre we could collectively think of (or that Google could find for us). We initially had an enthusiastic response from more than 40 keen seminar-goers. However, as the day approached the ‘unfortunately I cannot attend…’ emails flooded in. A few days before the seminar we had some bad news from a member of our organising team, Wendy Lowe, who had to pull out of the seminar because of a sudden family illness. It was, therefore, with some trepidation that we set up the classroom in Leeds Metropolitan University on the grey morning of 3 November, wondering if anyone at all would show up. But delegates soon arrived and the day began.
Seminar structure The aims of the day were to identify and explore the barriers and enablers to feminist research, to discuss strategies for overcoming the barriers identified and to develop some common goals and collaborative feminist possibilities. Each of the three major sessions of the day was structured around one of these aims and the day kicked off with half-an-hour of research speeddating, which was intended to shorten the personal introductions required within the group sessions. The small group discussions fed into larger group discussions at the end of each session. We had decided on this format to try to intervene in the usual conference arrangement where keynote/ invited speakers are afforded special status 82
and where questions and discussions are limited to a few minutes at the end. Our goal was to try to collapse the usual academic hierarchies and to create an environment where the majority of time was spent getting to know each other by sharing our feminist work, experiences and research in a friendly and supportive environment. The format of the rest of the day involved small group discussions structured around a set of questions related to the three major aims of the day that were prepared in advance from the attendees’ submitted abstracts. In this short review, we offer a flavour of the discussions we had during the seminar. This report was circulated to all seminar delegates for their review and revision.
Feminist research In the first session of the day, we discussed the barriers and enablers to feminist research. We tackled this by offering and problematising definitions of feminist research. In seeking to answer what feminist research involves, we talked about the importance of engaging with women’s voices, as well as considering the ethical questions around taking women as the object of an academic study which may never be directly useful to them in their day-to-day lives. We spoke of how feminist work is not purely about researching ‘with a gender focus’ but about engaging explicitly from a politically feminist perspective. We also considered what form this politics might take, for example, whether through collaborative work across university departments key issues of feminist research emerged as criticality, reflexivity and ethical engagement, particu-
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larly focusing on who we are as researchers and what position or responsibility we have within the work. Identifying the barriers to feminist research, we talked about the problem of the ‘feminist’ label devaluing the presentation of our research in certain contexts and of the popular and unhelpful conception of feminists as man-hating lesbians. We talked about the inaccessibility of the language of some academic feminists, as well as of the necessity of articulating in particular ways within particular contexts to get our feminist work accepted. In terms of the enablers of our feminist work, we spoke about the role of other feminists in supporting us in our research practice, of the opportunities afforded by funded research, of supportive conferences, activist networks and of the need to keep building on and working with these enablers. We spoke also of the role of feminist ‘waves’ in both uniting and dividing women. Possibly, the transition between each wave was not seamless and asked women to identify with time or movement.
Intersectionality and silences After lunch, during the second section, we explored strategies for overcoming barriers, which included describing the ‘silences’ within and outside feminism and the function of silences; such as lack of general dialogue, or feeling ‘unsafe’ to discuss their views or ask questions. Race was discussed as a crucial issue for contemporary feminists to address and we acknowledged the need for white feminists to become educated about race and, specifically, to address racism within feminism. We spoke of the importance of naming problems, as a first step to tackling them, and in other notable silences we talked about how ableism and classism are also frequently ignored in feminist discussions. Has ‘intersectionality’ come to act as a smokescreen that obscures oppression? We wondered, for example, if an abstract theoretical allegiance to ‘intersectionality’ might serve to gloss over concrete enactments of racism, sexism, ableism and
classism both within and outside feminist contexts? We also talked about the difficulty of being aware of and being an ‘expert’ in all intersections of ‘womanhood’ and the impossibilities of this. We also discussed motherhood and the maternal as being silenced particularly within malestream contexts. In the discussions around intersectionality, we spoke from a general understanding of the term through contemporary feminist work. The discussion focused on talked whether researchers have a ‘right’ to do research on people who are different from them and of the need to constantly be aware and critically interrogate our own power within our research relationships. In our feminist work we need to constantly examine our own power and privileges, so that we can work more effectively to end all forms of oppression.
New connections In terms of enablers to research, we considered the importance of finding and working with other feminist researchers, and talked about what to do when other researchers seem disinterested in your work! We identified the need for face-to-face contact, rather than relying purely on email exchanges, and how seminars like this one helped facilitate new connections and opportunities. We shared ideas about useful feminist conferences, events and online resources. The Psychology of Women Section Annual Conference was mentioned as a useful, accessible feminist space to facilitate collaborations and share resources. We also discussed funded research projects, where and how to secure funding and whether we needed funding for our feminist work or not. As a result of current and pending budget cuts, we reviewed the importance of getting creative with funding, making interdisciplinary and cross-departmental and cross-institutional bids and of coteaching to free up some time to conduct research. Getting creative and working with ‘non-feminists’ did not mean reneging on
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ethical feminist commitments. Other enablers included finding critical feminist places and like-minded people.
Feminist archives We were joined throughout the day by Katherine Kirkham from Feminist Archive North (www.feministarchivenorth.org.uk/). Katherine told us with great enthusiasm how the archive collects and stores a massive range of feminist material from the late 1960s to present day. Archives such as photographs from marches and newspaper clippings deemed important for the time can be found. Our notes from the seminar day will also be stored with Feminist Archive North. For feminists in the north, this is not only a valuable historical resource recanting how cultures, politics and feminist waves have shifted over time, but also a place to bring any feminist notes, journals, information. Do not just throw them out!
Working creatively To give us all a break from group discussions and to wake us up from the afternoon dip, Terry Wragg came along at 3.00 p.m. to tell us about the Leeds Animation Workshop (www.leedsanimation.org.uk/), which has been in existence since the 1970s. Terry introduced and showed numerous clips from the fabulous animated films that the workshop has created over the years. The films were wonderfully insightful and witty – a true example of the power of appropriating multiple media for feminist purposes, and a testament to the potential for disseminating feminist ideas in engaging and creative ways. It was sad to hear that the workshop is struggling to secure funding. What we had not expected, when we had invited Terry to give a talk for us, was how Terry’s knowledge of feminism through the decades would be such a valuable contribution to the barriers and enablers discussion we were having in the rest of the seminar. Terry’s comments gave a real insight into the ‘felt experience’ of being a woman and a feminist in the late 1970s and early 1980s in 84
Leeds. Her talk indicated that some of the journey travelled since then has produced positive change for (some) women, but that now we are in a time of massive recuperation for patriarchal power in the UK. As she spoke through the introductions to the various feminist films, Terry’s off-the-cuff remarks about contemporary feminist activism were so wonderfully perceptive and thought-provoking, and so saturated with the wisdom of experience, that some of us found ourselves returning to her comments and asides again and again over the following days.
Summary Our worries that no one would show up on the day were thankfully unfounded, as 16 delegates turned up in the end, and we found the day a stimulating, thoughtprovoking and inspiring experience. The feedback from other delegates, expressed on the day and in emails afterwards, was similarly enthusiastic and positive. We think that the feminists who attended appreciated having a space to share their knowledge, experiences, ideas, struggles and strategies in a relaxed and friendly environment. We are now starting to take the discussion forward into tangible, collaborative and creative feminist activities. If you would like to be part of these projects and the continuing conversations, email us at
[email protected] (Pauline Whelan) or
[email protected] (Heidi Bjorgan) for more information.
Acknowledgements Thanks to Ruth Cross, Brenda Hollweg, Katherine Kirkham, Terese Jonsson, Jean Laight, Rebecca Lawthom, Carol Taylor and Lucy Thompson, who co-authored, or contributed to, this report. Our sincere thanks to Wendy Lowe, who was with us from the beginning of this project but who, for circumstances beyond her control, could not attend on the day itself. We missed her gentle facilitation skills and sense of fun very much. We are grateful
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to the Psychology of Women Section for funding the event, which allowed us to host the event free of charge and to cover travel expenses for seminar delegates who requested it. Thanks also to all the seminar delegates, to Feminist Archive North and to the Leeds Animation Workshop for making the day such a success.
Correspondence Heidi Bjorgan, PhD candidate Developmental Psychology/ Women Studies Department, Graduate Center, City University of New York. Email:
[email protected] Pauline Whelan Centre for Social and Educational Research across the Life Course, Leeds Metropolitan University. Email:
[email protected] www.wphe.org
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Gender coping and affect
Threat, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events: Gender differences in Israel Hasida Ben-Zur & Keren Michael The present research focused on gender differences in reactions to stressful life events in Israel. The sample of Study 1 consisted of 350 individual participants, 56.3 per cent women and 43.7 per cent men, who completed questionnaires assessing their cognitive appraisals and affective reactions to the most stressful life event they encountered during the two years prior to the study, and the strategies they used to cope with the event. Women scored higher than men on threat appraisals, negative affective reactions, and the use of emotional expression and support seeking strategies in coping with the stressful event. Threat appraisals and emotional expression/support seeking coping strategies mediated the effects of gender on negative affective reactions to the stressful event. Study 2 which consisted of 151 married couples, each couple assessing the same stressful event, replicated the Study 1 results in regard to gender. Wives were more threatened by the stressful events and reported higher negative affect and more frequent use of emotional expression/support seeking coping and avoidance coping, compared with their husbands. In both studies, women and men did not differ on problem-focused coping, challenge appraisals and positive affective reactions. The results support the cognitive model of stress and coping. Keywords: Gender; affect; coping; stressful life events.
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HE PRESENT STUDY, based on the cognitive model of stress and coping (e.g. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lazarus, 1999; Moos & Schaefer, 1993), and conducted in Israel, was aimed to assess whether there are gender differences in the appraisals and coping strategies used to deal with stressful life events, and what are their potential effects on affective reactions to these events.
Gender and distress Findings regarding women’s and men’s emotional reactions to stressful life events are consistent: Women, in response to stressful events, are found to be more depressed and anxious and show higher psychological symptoms levels than men (e.g. Matud, 2004). In coping with cancer (Hagedoorn et al., 2008) women report more distress whether as patient or spouse partner. Women also show higher post-trau86
matic stress disorder (PTSD) levels, although they report experiencing lower frequency of traumatic events (Gavranidou & Rosner, 2003; Tolin & Foa, 2006). A review of 160 disaster studies by Norris et al. (2002) suggested that among demographic variables, females were at particular risk for psychological impairment such as postdisaster stress and distress. Israeli women also show high levels of distress in a variety of contexts. For example, Israeli female students were found to be more stressed by academic events than their male counterparts (Zeidner, 1992), and Israeli women reported higher levels of negative affect than men in everyday life (Ben-Zur, 2009). Furthermore, in most studies conducted in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict Israeli women show higher levels of anxiety and distress than men (e.g. Ben-Zur & Gilbar, 2009; Zeidner, 2007; see also Sa’ar, Sachs & Aharoni, 2011)
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Threat, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events: Gender differences in Israel
as well as post-traumatic symptoms (Sever, Somer & Ruvio, 2008). Following exposure to video films depicting a series of terror acts in Israel, women reported higher levels of threat and higher loss of personal resources than men (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 2011). However, there are exceptions, and there are also studies showing men and women to be similar in outcomes such as everyday anxiety and depression (Ben-Zur, 1999), negative affect in response to supervisor abuse (Yagil, Ben-Zur & Tamir, 2010), and post-traumatic symptoms following the disengagement from Gaza in 2005 (Ben-Zur, 2008).
Gender and coping It has been argued that coping represents behavioural and cognitive efforts to deal with stressful encounters (e.g. Lazarus, 1999; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Terry, 1994). Lazarus and Folkman (1984) classified coping modes by function: problem-focused coping is aimed at dealing mainly with the problem and finding solutions that will manage or eliminate it, for example, learning how to prepare for an important job interview which is stressful, or finding an experienced physician for treating one’s serious illness, etc. Emotion-focused coping, in contrast, is aimed at dealing with the problem’s emotional outcomes such as anxiety reactions and physiological outcomes (e.g. high levels of blood pressure and heart rate, excessive sweating, etc.). Examples of emotion-focused coping are: ventilating, going to the movies to take one’s mind of the problem, drinking alcohol to feel better or turning to friends for emotional support. In investigations of gender differences in coping, women are found to seek emotional support, ventilate their feelings and use positive self-talk more than men (Tamres, Janicki & Helgeson, 2002); they turn to friends for emotional support, or sometimes refuse to believe that the stressful event happened (Eaton & Bradley, 2008; Howerton & Van Gundy, 2009). Gender and coping have been found to interact in several studies. Thus,
in coping with stressful life events, women were found to be more depressed (Blalock & Joiner, 2000) but only if coping in a cognitive avoidance mode which is the denial or minimisation of the stressfulness of the event. Another study showed that as women more frequently coped by turning to friends for emotional support or letting feelings out, their depressive mood was lessened, while for men the opposite was true (Howerton & Gundy, 2009). Several Israeli studies report that women tend to use emotion-focused coping strategies such as ventilation of feelings or searching for emotional support more than men in a variety of settings (e.g. Ben-Zur, 2002, 2009). However, there are exceptions, and some Israeli studies conducted during the Gulf War (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 1996) or during threat of terrorist attacks (Sever et al., 2006) find women to be more active and utilise all variants of coping strategies more than men, including problem-focused coping strategies.
Theoretical explanations of gender differences in distress and coping Various hypotheses have been offered for gender differences in distress and coping. The differential socialisation hypothesis (Matud, 2004; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978; Olff et al., 2007) suggests that stressful life events affect women more than men in terms of both distress and coping reactions due to socialisation processes. Most cultures assign women a gender role of being dependent and emotional whereas men are taught to be autonomous and confident (Matud, 2004), and teach women to rely on passive and emotion-focused coping strategies such as letting feelings out or turning to friends for emotional support. These strategies are less vigorous and are also considered less effective than active coping, especially in the long run (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989). Thus, culture may modulate gender role expectations which may lead to different reactions to stressful encounters of men and women as demonstrated by comparisons of
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post-traumatic symptoms between Mexico and US citizens (Norris et al., 2001). A different approach to gender differences is Barnett’s scarcity hypothesis (1993) which suggests that women in modern society have multiple roles; roles drain energy; and this may lead to conflicts and negative wellbeing (Barnett, 1993). Indeed, women usually take on the burden of household management, child rearing and caregiving to the ill and aged in their families, often in addition to working outside the house. However, more recently, this approach was abandoned in favour of an expansionist theory of gender, family and work (Barnett & Hyde, 2001), claiming that multiple roles add to well-being and mental health of both men and women, a claim that was corroborated in recently conducted research (Nordenmark, 2004). Current criticisms regarding gender differences research reflect a variety of view points. For example, it has been argued that research which focuses on gender differences diverts attention from the similarity between men and women in many areas (Rutherford, 2007). For example, Hyde (2005) conducted a meta-analysis of metaanalytic studies of gender differences in a variety of areas and concluded that the data revealed a strong evidence for similarities between genders, that is, 78 per cent of the gender differences were small or close to zero. Another suggestion made recently is that sex differences research is inadequate because there is an attempt to investigate biological and trait differences between women and men and ignore women’s social and economic conditions. Thus, Sa’ar, Sachs and Aharoni (2011) concluded, based on a quantitative research of a representative sample of Israeli women during political violence period that ‘the connections between women’s susceptibility to genderbased violence, their vulnerability to political violence, their economic vulnerability and their social role as emotional caretakers resulted in a low level of well-being and a high level of stress and anxiety’ (p.64). 88
The present study was aimed to assess women’s tendency to exhibit high levels of negative affect during times of stress using the cognitive model of stress and coping.
The cognitive model of stress and coping The cognitive model of stress is based on the assumption that people’s feelings, thoughts and actions during stressful encounters are affected by the way they cope, which, in turn, depends on their appraisals of the encounter (e.g. Lazarus, 1999; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). According to Lazarus’s model (1999), in primary appraisal the situation is perceived as either a loss/threat or a challenge, and in secondary appraisal, people assess what they can do in order to manage the problem and its accompanying emotional experience. Lazarus (1999) argued that these cognitive processes depend on personal, social and environmental resources, and are related to emotional outcomes such as anxiety or anger and behavioral outcomes such as making errors in one’s work or risk taking while driving. For example, in the context of adjustment to abortion, high levels of preabortion threat (e.g. being worried or stressed by the abortion) were shown to be related to post-abortion distress based on anxiety, depression and hostility symptoms (Major et al., 1998). In another study, appraising a stressful community event as negative and threatening was related to negative feelings such as being upset and ashamed whereas appraising it as challenging and controlled was related to positive affect such as feeling strong and enthusiastic (Ben-Zur, Yagil & Oz, 2005). Such cognitive processes of threat and challenge appraisals are also assumed to affect coping strategies. Studies have examined the associations between appraisals, coping strategies, and distress and affective reactions (Ben-Zur et al., 2005; Major et al., 1998). For example, Ben-Zur et al. (2005) showed that appraising a stressful community event as challenging
Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012
Threat, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events: Gender differences in Israel
and as controlled was related positively to problem-focused coping whereas appraising it as threatening and negative was related positively to emotion-focused coping. Additionally, a variety of empirical studies indicated that emotion-focused coping is positively correlated with high levels of distress and anxiety (e.g. Ben-Zur, Gilbar & Lev, 2001; Penley, Tomaka & Wiebe, 2002; Zeidner, 2007). The present work focused on coping and affect, based on studies that showed problem-focused strategies to relate positively to positive affect, while the reverse pattern was found for variants of emotionfocused coping and affect (e.g. Ben-Zur et al., 2005; Gaudreau, Blondin & Lapierre, 2002; Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1998).
Research aims and hypotheses The present study aim was two-fold: (a) to compare women and men on appraisals, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events, and demonstrate differences as well as similarities in these reactions; and (b) to show that appraisals and coping strategies mediate some of the effects of gender on affective reactions to stressful events. Two studies were conducted to test these premises. The first study tested the associations of gender with appraisals, coping strategies and negative and positive affective reactions in a sample of men and women who referred to a stressful life event occurring up to two years before the study was conducted. However, events and the persons experiencing these events differ in many characteristics. If we do find gender differences in reactions to stressful events, these differences may be the result, at least in part, of gender differences in demographic characteristics such as marital and socioeconomic status as well as differences in the reported events. To control for this point, the second study tested gender differences in a sample of married couples who were asked to refer to the same stressful event. Within married couples, women and men are characterised by similar socioeconomic status and shared experiences, and thus may be more similar
in their coping strategies (Jordan & Revenson, 1999). Therefore, testing the same hypotheses within married couples presents a more rigorous test of gender differences in the context of identical stressful events. Based on Lazarus and Folkman (1984), cognitive appraisals were defined as two types of cognitions, that is, estimating the stressful event as either negative and threatening or as controlled and challenging. Based on the empirical classification by Carver et al. (1989), the study assessed three coping strategies: (1) Problem-focused coping based on strategies of active coping, planning, and suppression of competing activities; (2) Emotion/support coping which is an emotion-focused coping type of strategy, based on instrumental and emotional support and ventilation; and (3) Avoidance coping, which is a different type of emotion-focused type of coping, based on mental and behavioral disengagement and denial. Finally, positive and negative affective reactions were tested as the outcomes of appraisals and coping with the stressful event, that is, participants were asked to selfreport their emotional reactions to the event using both negative (e.g. afraid, tense) and positive (e.g. strong, attentive) feelings. The hypotheses were: Hypothesis 1: Women will report higher levels of threat, negative affect and emotionfocused coping more than men; women and men will not differ on challenge, positive affect and problem-focused coping. Hypothesis 2: Appraisals and coping strategies will mediate the effects of gender on affective reactions to stressful life events.
Study 1 Method Sample and procedure. Respondents were recruited by graduate students based on a quota sampling of equal numbers of men and women aged 30 to 70. This convenience sample included 350 persons consisting of 43.7 per cent men and 56.3 per cent women;
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most born in Israel (79.9 per cent); 62.4 per cent married and the rest single (23.7 per cent) or divorced/widowed (13.9 per cent). Men and women differed significantly in family status (χ2 [2, N=350]=6.40, p
