“We All Play Pretty Much the Same, Except. . .”: Gender-Integrated Quidditch and the Persistence of Essentialist Ideology

We use the case of a recreational college Quidditch class to examine the consequences of gender-integrated sport for gender essentialist ideology. Data include ethnographic observations and course journal data from 23 first-year undergraduates playing Quidditch over four months. While a gender-integrated sport provided numerous opportunities for participants to witness similarities in performance among men and women, we found only limited challenge to gender essentialist ideas. Despite rules intended to reduce competitiveness and physical contact, play became increasingly aggressive over time, particularly among men, and an emergent positional segregation located women in less central defensive positions. Students frequently understood these trends as the “natural” result of gender difference. Ultimately, participants’ experiences in Quidditch often drew on and solidified ideas about women’s athletic inferiority to men.

Racial Tasking and the College Quarterback: Redefining the Stacking Phenomenon

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if positional segregation continues at the quarterback position in college football. To determine its existence, we examined differences in run and pass plays executed by African American and White quarterbacks over four different seasons in the NCAA DI-FBS (N = 548). Results revealed significant differences such that African American quarterbacks rushed the ball more and averaged fewer pass attempts than their White counterparts. Likewise, the percentage of rush attempts made by African Americans nearly doubled that of Whites, while White quarterbacks passed the ball 12% more often than their African American counterparts. We argue that these findings support that a new form of discrimination and positional segregation, one we define as racial tasking, may exist.

Beyond the Racial Binary: Stacking in Women’s Collegiate Softball

Differential treatment by race has been documented in sport, including the opportunity to occupy specific positions. Few researchers have examined the theoretical fit of stacking in women’s sport contexts. Moreover, the three published studies of stacking in women’s athletics were examinations of positional segregation for white and African American women only. Binary conceptions of race are no longer sufficient to explain the complexity of power relations that are visible through phenomena such as stacking. This study focused on the stacking of four major racial groups in NCAA Division I softball. Based upon the results, we suggest that stacking of racial-ethnic minority women may occur in patterns different from those identified in previous stacking studies.

Maori Women and Positional Segregation in New Zealand Netball: Another Test of the Anglocentric Hypothesis

In order to test Hallinan’s “Anglocentric Hypothesis,” New Zealand head coaches of female netball union teams completed two mailed questionnaires. The statistical analysis was based on 177 European (69.1%) and 79 Maori (30.9%) players. An overall chi-square for Race x Playing Position was nonsignificant, χ2(6) = 8.40. Specifically, Europeans were nonsignificantly overrepresented at center, the most central, highest interacting position. Occupancy of the most tactically important playing position, goal defense, also did not significantly vary by race. Lastly, goal shoot, the position judged by the coaches as being highest in outcome control, also did not favor either race. The results are discussed in terms of the historical record of Maori women’s participation in netball, majority–minority relations in New Zealand, and several methodological issues and concerns that attend “stacking” investigations.

The “Economic” Hypothesis of Positional Segregation: Some Further Comments

It is shown that the Medoff economic hypothesis of stacking, based on free choice induced by income differentials and training cost differentials, cannot generate unambiguous predictions. Latin American players in baseball are given as a counterexample. Means to ascertain the training costs relative to each position are suggested, as well as means to predict the evolution of positional segregation in baseball through time, using the uncertainty thesis of discrimination put forth by Blalock and previously applied to ice hockey.