Roller Derby as a Site of Resistance: Strategies for Countering Sexist and Homophobic Assumptions in Women’s Sports

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-151
Author(s):  
Rayanne Streeter
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Roller Derby ◽  
Contact Sports ◽  
Resistance Strategies ◽  
Athletic Status ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
A Site ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Depth Interviews

Previous research has demonstrated that female athletes draw sexist and homophobic remarks, especially in contact sports, which are more highly valued and dominated by men. As such, female athletes have used a variety of responses to combat stigma they face; however, these responses have reaffirmed sexist and homophobic assumptions rather than contest them. In the last decade roller derby has emerged as a contact sport which is female-dominated and whose members seek to complicate gendered assumptions about sport. Analysis of semistructured, in-depth interviews with 17 female flat-track roller derby players shows that although skaters face similar challenges of sexism and homophobia skaters resist these challenges in innovative ways including demonstrating the legitimacy of the sport, educating outsiders on the diversity of players, shrugging off or defending themselves, and adopting new uniforms. This study concludes by arguing that roller derby, as a unique sport within the particular historical moment of increased LGTBQ acceptance, has implications for altering women’s relationship to sport by resisting homophobic and sexist assumptions. The altered relationship includes skaters being more open to different expressions of sexuality and gender in sport, taking control over their athletic status, and fostering a more accepting place for female athletes. In addition, this resistance has the potential to impact female athletes in contact sports other than roller derby by identifying and adopting these resistive strategies creating larger change.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Jane Anna Gordon ◽  
Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Radical Politics ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Black Internationalism ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Historical Moment

The introduction outlines major periods in Richard Wright’s intellectual life, emphasizing the similarities between the historical moment in which he wrote and the post-Obama period in which this text is being published. It also explains the thematic organization of the text into five sections focused, respectively, on radical politics, sexuality and gender, black internationalism, the range of genres in which Wright wrote, and on using Wright’s ideas to address contemporary black political struggles. Running through the text is an exploration of how Wright thought one could build more inclusive forms of solidarity across gender and national lines through careful attention to the distinct but related expressions of capitalist and imperialist exploitation. For Wright, the starting point was always the life worlds of the black masses whose liberation it was the task of the black writer to advance.

scholarly journals Gender-collaborative training in elite university sport: Challenging gender essentialism through integrated training in gender-segregated sports

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022098014
Author(s):  
MF Ogilvie ◽  
Mark McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
Elite University ◽  
University Level ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Collaborative Training ◽  
Depth Interviews

Competitive teamsport at university level is predominantly segregated by gender in many western countries, despite concerns that gender segregation in sport can perpetuate sexism and gender inequality. While policies and activities seek to challenge sexism and gender inequality, the use of gender collaboration within a gender-segregated system as a method to achieve this has received little attention. In this article, we draw on a year-long ethnography of elite sport and 48 in-depth interviews with elite male and female athletes at a British university to explore the impact of various forms of gender mixing during training, which we call ‘gender-collaborative training’. While men’s and women’s teams competing against each other in practice matches resulted in gender-essentialist narratives attributing difference to biology, gender-integrated practices and workouts provided opportunities for men and women to train together without the gendered sport-specific associations that can reproduce sexism. We call for gender-collaborative training to be adopted by gender-segregated teams, and suggest that where there is resistance to any integration, teams start with mixed physical workouts and progress to mixed sport-specific training and then mixed competitive training.

scholarly journals “I Didn’t Come Here to Make Trouble”: Resistance Strategies Utilized by Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth in the Midwestern U.S.

Youth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Megan S. Paceley ◽  
Jacob Goffnett ◽  
April L. Diaz ◽  
Shanna K. Kattari ◽  
Jennifer Navarro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Resources ◽  
Resistance Strategies ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Interpersonal Level

Research on transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth demonstrates the negative outcomes associated with trauma and oppression based on gender identity and expression. Related research illustrates how TGD youth are resilient in the face of oppression through individual (e.g., navigating difficult relationships, seeking mental health support) and community (e.g., access to community resources) factors. However, this research is limited by an understanding of resilience as overcoming challenges rather than exploring the possibly unique ways that TGD youth resist oppression as a form of resilience. This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews with 19 TGD youth living in two Midwestern states, a region of the U.S. characterized by high levels of hostility and victimization toward TGD young people. Thematic analyses revealed the ways in which TGD youth engage in resistance strategies in the face of oppression. At an intrapersonal level, strategies included resisting oppressive narratives, affirming one’s own gender, maintaining authenticity, and finding hope. At an interpersonal level, strategies were standing up for self and others, educating others, and avoiding hostility. Finally, at a community-level, TGD youth were engaging in activism and organizing and enhancing visibility and representation. Findings are discussed and implications are identified.

Heteronormativity and sexuality politics in Singapore: the female-headed households of divorced and lesbian mothers

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawna Tang ◽  
Sharon Ee Ling Quah
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Lesbian Mothers ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
The Family ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Female Headed Households ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article explores the family practices of female-headed households in Singapore, specifically, those of lesbian and divorced mothers as they negotiate the entrenched normative orders of sexuality and gender in Singapore. In examining the non-normative lives of lesbian and divorced mothers, this article marshals two distinct fields of study to explore the profound effects of heteronormativity on all who stand outside its fold. Using empirical data collected from in-depth interviews with Singaporean lesbian and divorced mothers, this article provides insights into how the women lead, organise and practise family; identifies the challenges they face in an unfavourable policy and social environment in which heteronormativity is assumed at every turn; and asks after the hopes and aspirations of these women for their non-normative households. Based on these accounts, the paper outlines a broader vision for government policy positions on the family and for sexuality politics relevant for contexts deeply invested in a heteronormative ideal.

Minorities in the Contemporary Egyptian Novel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Youssef
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Robust Analysis ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Historical Moment

This book examines questions of identity, nationalism, and marginalization in the contemporary Egyptian novel from a postcolonial lens. Under colonial rule, the Egyptian novel invoked a sovereign nation-state by basking in its perceived unity. After independence, the novel professed disenchantment with state practices and unequal class and gender relations, without disrupting the nation’s imagined racial and ethno-religious homogeneity. This book identifies a trend in the twenty-first-century Egyptian novel that shatters this singular view, with the rise of a new consciousness that presents Egypt as fundamentally heterogeneous. Through a robust analysis of “new-consciousness” novels by authors like Idris ᶜAli, Bahaᵓ Tahir, Miral al-Tahawi, and Yusuf Zaydan, the author argues that this new consciousness does not only respond to predominant discourses of difference and practices of differentiation along the axes of race, ethno-religion, class, and gender by bringing the experiences of Nubian, Amazigh, Bedouin, Coptic, Jewish, and women minorities to the fore of Egypt’s literary imaginary, but also heralds the cacophony of voices that collectively cried for social justice from Tahrir Square in Egypt’s 2011-uprising. This study responds to the changing iconographic, semiotic, and formal features of the Egyptian novel. It fulfills the critical task of identifying an emergent novelistic genre and develops historically reflexive methodologies that interpret new-consciousness novels and their mediatory role in formalizing and articulating their historical moment. By adopting this context-specific approach to studying novelistic evolution, this book locates some of the strands that have been missing from the complex whole of Egypt’s culture and literary history.

Every Detail Counts: Robert Stoller, Perversion and the Production of Pornography

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Escoffier
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Pornographic Film ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Do So

After the publication of his pioneering book Sexual Excitement in 1979, Robert Stoller devoted the last 12 years of his life to the study of the pornographic film industry. To do so, he conducted an ethnographic study of people working in the industry in order to find out how it produced ‘perverse fantasies’ that successfully communicated sexual excitement to other people. In the course of his investigation he observed and interviewed those involved in the making of pornographic films. He hypothesized that the ‘scenarios’ developed and performed by people in the porn industry were based on their own perverse fantasies and their frustrations, injuries and conflicts over sexuality and gender; and that the porn industry had developed a systematic method and accumulated a sophisticated body of knowledge about the production of sexual excitement. This paper explores Stoller's theses and shows how they fared in his investigation.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Colm Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Sexual Part ◽  
The One ◽  
And Behavior

The introduction first sets out some preliminary definitions of sex, sexuality, and gender. It then turns from the sexual part of Sexual Identities to the identity part. A great deal of confusion results from failing to distinguish between identity in the sense of a category with which one identifies (categorial identity) and identity in the sense of a set of patterns that characterize one’s cognition, emotion, and behavior (practical identity). The second section gives a brief summary of this difference. The third and fourth sections sketch the relation of the book to social constructionism and queer theory, on the one hand, and evolutionary-cognitive approaches to sex, sexuality, and gender, on the other. The fifth section outlines the value of literature in not only illustrating, but advancing a research program in sex, sexuality, and gender identity. Finally, the introduction provides an overview of the chapters in this volume.

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