Athletic intruders: ethnographic research on women, culture, and exercise

Abstract

The title of this collection of nine ethnographic studies is taken from one of the contributors who refers to her African American participants as “athletic intruders” because they participate in predominantly white team contexts. The editors borrow this term to refer to all female athletes because they are considered intruders in the domain of athletics, which is still dominated by men. The studies cover a variety of athletic and sports activities, including aerobics, cardiovascular workouts, body building, diet and exercise fads, intercollegiate sports (soccer being the only one tangentially named), co-ed softball, rugby, triathlons, and motorcycling. The introduction and closing chapter by the editors present a theoretical overview of past research on women’s participation in the field of athletics, and each of the studies included contains an extensive theoretical discussion and research summary related to the particular activity examined. The collection aims to explore women’s physical activity based on a broad definition of sports, and examines the social constraints affecting such activity as well as the impact of somatic experience on women’s self perceptions and their perceived role in society. The nine selections all provide a feminist perspective and seek to address the way in which somatic experiences transform women’s lives. While some of the researchers found that physical activity can be transformative and lead to deconstruction of gendered roles (motorcycling and body building primarily), others found that physical activity can, instead, be put to the service of maintaining traditional notions of femininity (aerobics, diet fads)

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