Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 34 No. 2, 2019.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.21464/sp34204
Sporting the Glass Jaw: Views on Women in Sports
Ana Maskalan
orcid.org/0000-0001-9969-1507
; Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Frankopanska ulica 22, HR–10000 Zagreb
Sažetak
Sport is still understood as a traditional bastion of masculinity that exalts physical qualities such as strength and speed, and psychological traits such as aggression and perseverance, deeming women’s participation undesirable and unnecessary. Nevertheless, women for decades, in strict separation from men or within so-called “women’s sports”, were achieving results worthy of the attention of even the fiercest sceptics. Because of its nature founded in physicality, sport is still relatively seldom the area of political struggle for gender equality, although female athletes have occasionally done more for positive outcomes of that struggle than is acknowledged. In this paper, I discuss the ambivalent nature of sport contributing, on the one hand, to the essentialisation of genders in their differences and the petrification of power relations between them, and containing, on the other, indications of destruction or at least of corruption of the traditional, hierarchically established gender norms. The paper consists of four parts. In the first introductory part, I explain the reasons for concentrating my discussion on formalised competitive sports and approaches I am using. While emphasising the biopolitical aspects of the subject, I start my analysis with the description of a proclaimed guiding principles of contemporary sports contained in the spirit of Olympism. In the second part, I discuss the ontology of sport contained in the ideas of the founder of the modern Olympic Games Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the consequential factors influencing women ‘s participation in sports. These range from the perception of women’s allegedly debilitating physical and psychological traits, through hypersexualisation of female athletes’ body, or the attitude that it is not feminine enough, to the accusations that female athletes harm their health jeopardising, for example, the basic feminine duty – that of motherhood. In the third part, I put de Coubertin’s arguments in the contemporary context emphasising the relevance the concept of hegemonic masculinity has on the contemporary understanding of masculinity and the role of sport in maintaining it. In the last, fourth part, I discuss emancipatory aspects of sports, concluding on their ability to disrupt both essentialised femininity and essentialised masculinity.
Ključne riječi
sport; women; women’s sports; Olympic spirit; Pierre de Coubertin; gender; emancipation
Hrčak ID:
232366
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.12.2019.
Posjeta: 3.810 *