reconceptualising the female athlete triad: locating athletes’ bodies within the discursive...

IAM REALLY PLEASED to be able topresent such a substantial issue of thePsychology of Women Section Review for the

autumn. Most of the issue is taken up with aspecial feature on sport which Helen Owtonhas worked extremely hard in puttingtogether, and I’m sure you will agree, hasdone an excellent job. Please see her GuestEditorial below for details of this feature.

In the ‘Agora’ section I am pleased toinclude a report by Nikki Hayfield, SophieGray and Rebecca Jones on the one-day‘Feminism in Action’ seminar held in Bristolin July 2011 and organised by Victoria Clarkeand Helen Malson. The focus of this day wason how research can be of socially and prac-tically relevant to activists and, in turn, howactivist agendas can inform research.Following on from this seminar, in thespoken piece entitled ‘Thinking global,acting local: A conversation with feministactivists’, Nikki Hayfield introduces herconversation with Bristol feminist activistsHelen Mott, Sian Norris and Anna Brown. A further report of a POWS-funded one-dayseminar ‘Barriers and enablers to feministresearch’ held in Leeds in November 2011 isreported by Heidi Bjorgan and PaulineWhelan. The aims of this seminar were toidentify and explore the barriers andenablers to feminist research, to discussstrategies for overcoming barriers and todevelop some common goals and collabora-tive feminist possibilities.

Also included in this issue is a paper byHasida Ben-Zur and Keren Michael entitled‘Threat, coping and affective reactions tostressful life events: Gender differences inIsrael’. In this paper Beh-Zur and Michaelpresent research on gender reactions tostressful life events from a more traditional

psychological perspective whilst highlightingthe cultural context, particularly in Israel,and problems with sex difference research.

The ‘Research Review’ section contains athoughtful appraisal by Mei Lan Fang of thearticle ‘The role of gender in mental illnessstigma: A national experiment by Wirth andBodenhausen’ (2009).

In the ‘Book Reviews’ section I ampleased to include four thoughtful reviews;two continuing the special feature theme ofsport. In the first, Gareth Wiltshire reviewsSport and Physical Activity for Mental Healthby David Carless and Kitrina Douglas (2010).In the second, Joanne Hill reviews The Worldof Physical Culture in Sport and Exercise: VisualMethods for Qualitative Research edited byCassandra Phoenix and Brett Smith (2011).In the third, Johanna Spiers reviews FleshWounds: New Ways of Understanding Self-Injuryby Kay Inckle (2010). The final review, byDiana Bretherick, is of The Gender and MediaReader edited by Mary Celeste Kearney(2012).

Finally, it is with some regret that I havedecided to step down as Editor of POWSR. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge ofediting the publication. However, I ampleased to announce that Jane Callaghan willbe taking over as Editor. My thanks to Janefor assisting with the editing of this issue. Jane will welcome submissions for futureeditions. Details of how to contact Jane canbe found on the inside back cover of thisissue. I am also pleased to announce that Helen Owton will be taking over as BookReviews Editor. As always many thanks to thecontributors.

Sally JohnsonEditor

Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012 1© The British Psychological Society ISSN 1466–3724

EditorialSally Johnson

2 Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012© The British Psychological Society ISSN 1466–3724

Guest Editorial: Special feature on SportHelen Owton

IFEEL EXTREMELY PRIVILEGED to beAssociate Editor for this special feature onsport commissioned to coincide with the

London 2012 Olympics. The call for papersfor a feature on sport was met with an over-whelming response and is centred on thefollowing three themes: Sport feminism,Gender in sport, and Taboos in sport. WhilstLondon was busy staging the OlympicGames, we have been behind the scenes ofsport in this edition to tap into some of themore controversial and intricate aspects thatare often ignored. So why not just take a fewminutes out of your day to settle down, takea deep breath and soak up the followingexcellent pieces we have lined up for you.

The special feature starts with papers onthe highly debated ‘F word’ in sport, Sportsfeminisms, with a critical piece from JayneCaudwell entitled ‘Theorising women’s sportparticipation: Debating sport feminisms’. Inthis paper, Jayne considers (with caution)how sport feminists have theorised (andcontinue to do so) the complex power rela-tions of gender and sexuality in sport. Shemakes reference to the recent preferencesmade by the International Amateur BoxingAssociation for women boxers to enter thering wearing skirts. Within this theme, I amalso delighted to include ‘Heteronormativelandscapes: Exploring sexuality through elitewomen athletes’ by Kerrie Kauer and VikkiKrane who provide an insightful review usinga transnational, queer feminist analysis toexplore the intersections of sexuality,gender, race, social class, and nation andexamine how these combine to perpetuateheterosexism and homonegativism inwomen’s sport. Through contemporary inci-dents in elite women’s sport, they reveal thecontradictions in lived experiences withbinary categorisations of gender and sexualorientation.

The next theme, Gender and sport,includes three theoretically analyticalpapers. The first is ‘Reconceptualising theFemale Athlete Triad: Locating athletes’bodies within the discursive practices of elitesporting environments’ by Suzanne Coshand Shona Crabb. Within the context ofsport, this paper critiques existing literatureon the Female Athlete Triad and disorderedeating and draws on previous studies ofinteractions from routine body compositiontesting. The second paper is ‘The construc-tion of gendered bodies within competitiveswimming: A Foucauldian perspective’ byBrittany Johnson and Kate Russell. The aimof this paper is to understand the processesby which athletes construct their genderedbody within competitive swimming througha Foucauldian framework. Key findingssuggest various technologies, includingsurveillance, discipline and physical modifi-cations that help to classify the swimmer asan acceptable sporting body by employing a‘swimmers gaze’. Finally, Emma Seal’s paperon disability, ‘Understanding complexity:The potential of critical realism and inter-sectionality’, addresses the potential ofbridging feminist scholarship and disabilityscholarship and is discussed in relation to itsapplication within disability sport researchtogether with the exploration of women’sexperiences within this domain.

Taboos in sport is the final gritty sectionin this sports feature, which includes fourintense and somewhat ‘risky’ papers, which Iam inspired by. I am pleased to includeanother contribution from Suzanne Coshand Shona Crabb which is entitled ‘Mother-hood within elite sport discourse: The caseof Keli Lane’. This paper sensitively discussesthe tensions between ‘mother’ and ‘athlete’highlighting the invisibility of motherhoodin elite sport through an analysis of 326

media reports of the case of Keli Lane.Following on, the next paper sensitivelyexplores ethical issues concerning telling,hearing, and witnessing taboo tales througha story telling approach. Therefore, I amdelighted to include ‘Taboo tales in elitesport: Relationships, ethics, and witnessing’by Kitrina Douglas and David Carless.Douglas and Carless argue that despite thechallenges, the kinds of relationships‘insider’ status offers, leads to valuable andeven unique insights by allowing individualsto voice taboo issues which are too oftenunseen or silenced. Following on suitably,the next paper by Michael Hartill voicessome of these taboo issues that are oftenunseen and silenced in sport. I am thrilled toinclude Harthill’s paper entitled ‘‘I wasafraid of looking weak in his eyes’: Narrativesof male-athleticism and the sexually-abusedmale child athlete’, which focuses on theintersection between the ‘abuse narrative’and the masculinist narrative of male-sportand its impact on the sexually-abused malechild. Finally, Trisha Leahy offers a briefcritical summary of current knowledge onsexual abuse in sport, and proposes a signifi-

cant gatekeeper role for psychologistsworking with athletes in ‘Sexual abuse inhigh performance sport: Implications forthe sport psychologist’. In this paper, Trishacrucially highlights the need for the sportpsychology profession to be at the forefrontof cross-disciplinary efforts to promoteathletes’ welfare and safety and to develop aculture of dignity, respect, and safety in sportfor all athletes.

I am very honoured to be part of thisspecial sports feature, which has so manyreputable experts in the field of sport who allcontributed so enthusiastically towardsmaking this valuable collection of paperspossible. I would also like to thank all thereviewers for your conscientious hard workand beneficial feedback to the authors. It hasbeen a pleasure to work with you all. I hopethat this special feature stimulates yourthoughts about the exciting possibilitiesinvolved in sports research.

Helen OwtonAssociate Editor Sports Feature,University of Exeter.Email: [email protected]

Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012 3

Guest Editorial: Special feature on Sport


ON 20 JANUARY 2012, the Inter-national Working Group on Womenand Sport, supported by European

Women and Sport, Women Sport Interna-tional and International Association of Phys-ical Education and Sport for Girls andWomen, wrote to the President of the Inter-national Amateur Boxing Association(AIBA). Their written statement carefullyoutlines their deep concerns, dissatisfactionsand objections to potential changes to theTechnical and Competition Rules of Boxing:Changes that might officially endorse theskirt as competitive attire for boxers(women). In 2011, the Badminton WorldFederation (BWF) had similarly suggestedskirts, arguing that ‘the dress code is neces-sary to make athletes appear more feminine,thereby reviving flagging interest in the sportfrom fans and corporate sponsors’ (Hill,2011). For sport feminists, this recentemphasis on the skirt, in elite competitivesport, is both familiar and startling. It isfamiliar because for many years we have seena myriad of social-, cultural-, discursive- andsymbolic-sporting processes that seek toblatantly mark and inscribe women’s bodiesas normatively gendered and sexualised. It isstartling, because many of us thought these

very public and dominant processes hadbecome less obvious.

At the first London Olympics in 1908,women were allowed to take part in fourevents: archery, ice-skating, sailing andtennis. Their permitted active involvementmade up a meagre two per cent of overallparticipation. In Beijing 2008, a centurylater, women competed in 27 sports, mencompeted in 28. There were a total of 302events: 10 mixed, 127 open to women and165 to open to men. For example, womencan now – and since 1976 – take part insports such as rowing, but they cannot entercoxed pairs and lightweight coxless foursevents. The exclusions are subtle and thediscrepancies less marked. Nevertheless,they continue to exist and remain fiercelyprotected by an International OlympicsCommittee (IOC) that can operate outsidenational and international equal opportuni-ties legislations and human rights discourses.Recently, this was evidenced in the IOC’srefusal to allow women to participate in ski jumping at the 2010 Vancouver WinterOlympics. This is despite appeals by theCanadian Government on behalf of theCanadian Human Rights Commission(Travers, 2011).

Sport feminism

Theorising women’s sport participation:Debating sport feminismsJayne Caudwell

Women’s boxing, for the first time, will be an Olympic event at London 2012. This is cause for celebrationfor many women involved in sport, including boxers, and those studying gendered power relations insporting contexts. However, the International Amateur Boxing Association, in the now-familiar style ofpatriarchal sport governing bodies, recently announced their preference – and potential advocacy – for theseelite athletes to enter the ring wearing skirts! In this short essay, I briefly consider the ways sport feministshave 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 (firstwave, second wave and third wave). I caution against such an approach on two fronts. One is the implicitassumption of a logic of progression, and, two is the suppositions made by many so-called third wavers.

The above Olympic-based exemplarsdemonstrate how gendered sporting regimesaffect women’s participation, embodimentand representation. Similar issues are alsoprevalent at grassroot and recreation levels.The treatment of women and girls insporting contexts clearly warrants feministscrutiny. In this short essay, I explore how themodel of feminist waves of theory and aconcomitant emerging third wave mightjeopardise a more nuanced theorisation ofwomen, sport, gender and sexuality.

Sport feminismsIn many ways (Western) sport feminists frompredominantly English-speaking countriessuch as the US, UK, northern Europe,Australia and New Zealand, have establishedsport feminism as a legitimate critical lensthrough which to investigate (Western) sports’myriad cultures and practices. Over the last fivedecades, sport feminism – or more appropri-ately, ‘sport feminisms’ – has become a signifi-cant, developed and developing mode ofcritical inquiry within the academy. Currently,students studying sport can complete indi-vidual modules and papers, and in-depthdissertations and theses on specific issues rele-vant to (usually Western) feminist concerns.

In this reputable field of study, scholarscontributing to sport feminisms havedescribed, outlined, defined and explainedtheir subject. This reflexive task usually aimsto document the changing and dynamicnature of feminist theory and politics. Somescholars are keen to break down the entiretyof feminisms and as a consequence they seekto provide clear delineations. For example,writers discuss ‘waves’ of theory (Scraton &Flintoff, 2002) and ‘stages’ of development(Birrell, 2000) as well as feminisms’/femi-nists’ four-decade ‘journey’ (Hall, 2005).Such approaches help in understanding thevastness and scope of feminisms. However,these endeavours to capture the complexi-ties of feminisms do operate in particularways; they produce accounts of sport femi-nisms, which tend to align with a broaderrhetoric of ‘progression’.

In more recent work (Caudwell, 2011a), I caution against writing sport feminisms inthe now-familiar style of feminist waves/stages of theory: First, Second and Third.This cautionary approach took shape afterreading a short dialogue between twoauthors in the journal Feminist Theory(Hemmings, 2005, 2007; Torr, 2007). Theoriginal article, written by Hemmings(2005), sought to reflect, critically, on theways the history of feminist theory is told andre-told. In particular, how (usually Western)feminist storytelling fixes in place dominantand stable accounts of feminist theoreticaldevelopment. Hemmings convincingly, andeloquently, argues that this teleology isunderpinned by ‘an insistent narrative thatsees the development of feminist thought asa relentless march of progress or loss’(p.115). Her précis of these processes is thus:

…we move from a preoccupation withunity and sameness, through identity anddiversity, and on to difference andfragmentation. These shifts are broadlyconceived of as corresponding to thedecades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990srespectively, and to a move from liberal,socialist and radical feminist thought topostmodern gender theory. A shift fromthe naïve, essentialist seventies, throughthe black feminist critiques and ‘sex wars’of the 1980s, and into the ‘difference’1990s and beyond, charts the story as oneof progress… (pp.115–116)

Hemmings challenges the usefulness of thisestablished and dominant feminist narrative;she is not alone in her questioning.McRobbie (2009) also critiques ‘…the use ofthe waves in the writing of feminist histories’(p.151) and she argues that ‘[a] criticaldebate about the limitations of what wemight call the waves model of feminism isalso long overdue’(p.156). For McRobbie(2009), it is not only the linear narrativeevident within such a model that is trouble-some; additionally, it is the emergence of agenerationally-led narrative of progress.

Within this generational model, it isapparent that generations of women are


Theorising women’s sport participation: Debating sport feminisms

often pitted against each other to establishtemporality 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, indi-vidual feminists are frequently tied tospecific dates and/or decades and specificways of theorising. They have been linked todates of birth, for example, Heywood andDrake (1997) fix birth and ‘coming of age’to ‘generationally second wave’ (p.7) or‘generationally third wave’ (p.13). Withinsuch generational models, ‘second wave’sport feminism is described as an ‘objectifi-cation thesis’ (Heywood & Dworkin, 2003,p.12). That is, ‘second wave’ sport feministsare only concerned with oppression, patri-archy and the objectification of womenathletes. And, that objectification is fixed toan era; it is an historically located feministconcept.

More generally, sport feminisms havebeen recounted – by third wavers and non-third wavers in the field (e.g. Scraton &Flintoff, 2002) – as a 1980s focus on liber-alism and/or separatism and a 1990sconcern with difference and diversity (e.g.Hargreaves, 2000). Although such descrip-tions might be useful to sport studiesstudents these types of delineations must betreated as artificial. Clearly, the compart-mentalisation of feminist theory has encour-aged what Hemmings refers to as an‘insistent narrative’ underscored by a ‘relent-less march of progress…’ (2005, p.115). Asothers have suggested, such modelling –‘stifles the writing of the kind of complexhistorical genealogy of feminisms…’(McRobbie, 2009, p.156), which could,otherwise, lead to more open, nuancedaccounts. For example, Hemmings (2005)asks: ‘How might feminist theory generate aproliferation of stories about its recent pastthat more accurately reflect the diversity ofperspectives within (or outside) its orbit?’(p.130).

Boxing womenWomen boxers offer a potent challenge tomen and boys’ constructed entitlement tosport. A powerful filmic representation ofthis contest, quite literally, is played out inKaryn Kusama’s film Girlfight (2000). On theindependent film circuit, Girlfight was widelyacclaimed. Moreover, it won Director’sAward and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000Sundance Film Festival. The independentfilm is Kusama’s debut production. She castan unknown actress, Michelle Rodriguez, asthe protagonist Diana Guzman andRodriguez won Best Debut Performer in theIndependent Spirit Awards.

In the film, Guzman’s desire to boxinvolves a long process of persuading men tolet her participate: Hector (Jaime Tirelli) totrain her; Tiny (Ray Santiago), her brother,to remain silent about her activities; the gymowner to let her compete; and Adrian(Santiago Douglas) to spar with and competeagainst her. In the end, Guzman does fight.She has an official and sanctioned fight withAdrian, the young man she is shown to fall inlove with. In the film, this heteroromancesubplot ensures the narrative recuperation ofheterosexuality. And, she has a spontaneous,extremely physical fight with her father,which in many ways represents a symbolicdismantling of patriarchy.

Both of these boxing moments arehugely symbolic representations in terms ofwomen’s participation in sports, especiallysports that are heavily defined by, and in,male terms. They are filmic moments.However, they remain significant because weare not usually offered these versions ofboxing, gender and sexuality on the screen.Tolchin (2007) makes this point, in relationto Guzman, ‘the audience grows mesmerisednot by the classic parts of breasts andbuttocks but by eyes, brow, jaw, and fists’(p.188).

As with boxing, football is contestedterrain. Sexism and misogyny are enduringand common occurrences. There arenumerous and wide ranging examples inboth sports of how women and girls’ are

6 Psychology of Women Section Review – Vol. 14 No. 2 – Autumn 2012

Jayne Caudwell

gendered and sexualised to fit heteronorma-tivity and how this feeds popular imagi-naries – wearing a skirt to box is just oneexample.

In an effort to establish sport feminismsin critical football (soccer) studies, I recently(2011b) explored the value of recognisingand moving between, at the edges and over-laps of different feminist emphases, which inthis instance involved a consideration of the‘category of woman’, the ‘category ofgender’ and the ‘category of femininities’.Clearly, the categories are artificial and theirorbits reach beyond the boundaries of theirseemingly compartmentalisation. Thissimple model (‘woman’, ‘gender’ and ‘femi-ninities’) intends to capture some of thehistories of feminist theoretical developmentand available modes of feminist analyses.

The ‘category of woman’ reflects feministthinking during the so-called second wave(1970s and 1980s) and is based on the foun-dational premise that sex and gender aredistinct. The term – ‘category of woman’ –indicates the value of commonality, sharedoppressions and political solidarity. However,this ‘category’ is criticised (perhaps tooheavily) for universalising and essentialisingwomen. The ‘category of gender’, reflectsthe impact Judith Butler’s work has on femi-nism and on the theorising of gender, andsex. Butler’s contribution helped denatu-ralise sex and destabilise the sex–genderdistinction. Lloyd (2008), in her discussionson reform, emancipation, diversity, decon-struction and différence feminisms, paystribute to Butler, acknowledging herimmense contributions to feminist theory.The ‘category of femininities’ captures atraditional concern with ‘femininity’, as theroot cause of women’s subordination, as wellas contemporary feminist engagement with aso-called postfeminist era and the prolifera-tion of popular cultural and/or mediacultural articulations of femininities. Thesearticulations are effectively re-centring ‘bothheterosexuality and whiteness, as well asfetishising a young, able-bodied, ‘fit’ (under-stood as both healthy, and in its more

contemporary sense as ‘attractive’) femalebody’ (Gill, 2007).

Gill’s arguments concerning the prolifer-ation of feminine sexiness are extremelyrelevant to sport feminisms, especially in thelead up to London 2012. This is becausewomen’s athletic bodies will be sexualised toadvertise the event. Gill claims women andgirls are no longer sexual objects in a tradi-tional sense, they are not presented as muteand passive (e.g. the boxer and/orGuzman). Drawing on Radner’s (2009)‘technologies of sexiness’, Gill shows howgovernmentality and disciplinary practicesproduce and regulate dominant forms offemininity and sexual subjectivity. In partic-ular, how these dominant versions, with theirbasis in white-heterosexual femininity,persist in Western cultures. Gill identifiesstrong relationships between technologies ofsexiness, individualism and neoliberalism.Other feminist writers also draw our atten-tion to neoliberal ideology, femininity and,in addition, resurgent patriarchy. Renoldand Ringrose (2008) and McRobbie (2009),argue that resurgent patriarchy re-ordersButler’s heterosexual matrix in new, butnevertheless heteronormative, ways. Thisargument is easily applied to sport governingbodies such as the AIBA, BWF and IOC andpolitical and cultural discussions of thisnature are crucial to critiques of third wavefeminism.

The final bout Recently, two teenage boxers have appearedin the Western press. Like many youngathletes, these young women have aspirationsto compete at the London 2012 Olympics. Initself, this is marvellous and indeed news-worthy; however, the reasons why they arereceiving media coverage are more likely aresult of their ‘unusual’ circumstances.Shabham Rahimi (19 years) and SadajRahimi (18 years) live in Kabul, Afganistan.They train in a gym at the Ghazi stadium.This venue, as many journalists have pointedout, was previously used by the Talibanduring their regime rule (1996 to 2001), to



publicly execute, stone to death and mutilatewomen, and men. As Flak and Sadat (2012)have reported (www.guardian.co.uk), theyoung women are aware of this past: ‘My family fled to Iran during the Taliban…but I heard that women used to be killedhere and sometimes when I exercise aloneinside the stadium I panic’, Sadaf said. Sadafand Shabham as well as the other youngwomen they train with are clearlyconfronting the socially constructed limits ofgender and femininity in their owncountries. Their struggles reflect discontinu-ities with women boxers in the UK. And yet,the comment made by their coachMohammad Saber Sharifi – ‘We want to showthe world that Afghan women can be leaders,too, that they can do anything, even boxing’(in Flak & Sadat, 2012), might be applied towomen and girls in the UK.

In the Olympic qualifying rounds (May2012), the Afganistan women’s boxing teammust compete against China. If successful,and if the International Amateur BoxingAssociation makes the rule change they areconsidering, then Sadaf and Shabham willbe expected to wear skirts to enter theOlympic boxing rings in London. Like manywomen badminton players, who believe inIslam and follow Muslim culture and tradi-tions, the (short) skirt for most Afghanwomen is not (and never has been) part oftheir way of life. If the suggested skirt rulingbecomes operational, then, to participate,these sportswomen must comply withWestern and heteronormative genderedcultural practices. It is these processes of –what we might refer to as – Western ‘tech-nologies of sexiness’, which require criticalfeminist scrutiny. In other words, there is aneed for critical analysis from post-colonialsport feminism.

Third-wave feminism has been justifiablycriticised for overly celebrating strong, seem-ingly powerful (white)women and theirapparently productive femininities. In manyways, the woman boxer might stand as iconicfor a third wave sport feminist agenda.However, as the experiences of womenboxers suggest, gender and sexuality are farmore complex and intricate. Not only do weneed to draw on feminisms from the pastand make links between different foci ofcritical analyses (e.g. ‘women’, ‘gender’ and‘femininities’), more importantly, we need toreach further than white Western women’stheories and testimonies. The IOC is shownto be male dominated and Western orien-tated (Caudwell, 2012), however, we are yetto see post-colonial feminism – and its linkswith existing feminist theories andconcepts – gain real recognition within sportfeminisms in the UK.

CorrespondenceJayne CaudwellUniversity of Brighton.Email: [email protected]


Jayne Caudwell

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Caudwell, J. (2011b). Gender, feminism and footballstudies. 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, )

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References

THERE ARE MORE openly lesbian,bisexual, and transgender (LBT)female elite athletes than ever before.

For example, Sarah Vaillancourt is on theCanadian women’s hockey team, Erika Holstplays hockey on the Swedish national team,Ireen Wüst competes in speed skating forNetherlands, Vibeke Skofterud is a cross-country skier from Norway, Lauren Lappin ison the US Softball Olympic team, and KatjaNyberg and Gro Hammerseng play handballfor Norway. Kye Allums, a basketball playerfor a US university, and professional golfersMianne Bagger and Lana Lawless are openlytransgender or transsexual. At the sametime, longstanding discrimination againstLBT athletes continues. In Nigeria, thecoach of their 2011 world cup football team,Eucharia Uche, reportedly has ‘used religionin an attempt to rid her team of homosexualbehaviour, which she termed a “dirty issue”,and “spiritually, morally very wrong”’(Longman, 2011, p.2). In 2005, a highprofile women’s university basketball coachin the US, Rene Portland, had a lawsuit filedagainst her for discrimination based on

sexual orientation. The suit was settled outof court and in 2007 Coach Portlandresigned. While much progress has beenmade towards increased acceptance ofsexual and gender diversity in women’ssport, heterosexist and homonegativeclimates still persist.

The contemporary sporting landscapefor girls and women is diverse, ranging frominclusive to hostile. And, even within inclu-sive sport environments, the reproduction ofwhite normativity and the ensuing marginal-isation of people of colour and transgenderathletes often exist. Outside of these spacesof inclusion, where both subtle and overtforms of heterosexism and homonegativismendure, critical analysis should attend tovarious forms of exclusion, transnationality,and the politics of gendered, sexualised, andracialised bodies. Consequently, in thispaper, we employ a transnational, queerfeminist perspective. As Nagar and Swarr(2010) defined, transnationalism is ‘an inter-sectional set of understandings, tools, andpractices that can attend to racialised,classed, masculinised, and heteronormative


Sport feminism

Heteronormative landscapes: Exploringsexuality through elite women athletesKerrie Kauer & Vikki Krane

While much progress has been made towards increased acceptance of sexual and gender diversity inwomen’s sport, there also are myriad examples where adversity abounds for lesbian, bisexual, andtransgender athletes. Even within inclusive sport environments, the reproduction of white normativity andthe marginalisation of people of colour and transgender athletes often exist. In this review, we use atransnational, queer feminist analysis to explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, race, social class, andnation 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 ofoppression. Our review also reveals the contradictions in lived experiences with binary categorisations ofgender and sexual orientation. While challenges and disruptions of homonegative and heterosexistenvironments provide hope to future generations of LBT athletes, there is a continued imperative to critiqueheteronormative, homonormative, and international representations of LBTs in sport as well as thetreatment of all women in sport.

logics and practices of globalisation andcapitalist patriarchies’ (p.8). The corner-stone of this perspective is intersectionality,which is acknowledges and explores the rela-tionships among multiple social identities aswell as considers how various identitiescombine to create inequality.

Our approach is in response to recentcalls for new directions in conceptualisingqueer issues in sport. King (2008) argued foran interrogation of the structural boundariesthat position (white) heterosexuality as thenorm and a focus away from singular LBTidentities. She further expressed that homo-normative research in the sociology of sportneeds to be destabilised; the narrow,predominantly white Eurocentric conceptu-alisations must be expanded to include morerobust and nuanced understandings of privi-lege from multiple axes of identity. Homo-normativity refers to the normalising orstabilising of all LBT identities that oftenserves to reproduce normal white liberal stan-dards. As many of the examples provided inthis paper demonstrate, using a transna-tional, queer feminist lens in our conceptu-alisation of sport allows us to consider theimpact of heteronormativity and homonega-tivism on diversely gendered, sexualised, andracialised bodies. Using these frameworksrequires us to interrogate multiple and inter-secting identities to fully illustrate how formsof oppression around race, sexuality, andnational origin simultaneously reproduceoppressive sport spaces (McDonald, 2006).Probing women’s sport in this manner willshed light on the intersections of multipleforms of oppression. This approach avoidscollapsing multifaceted lesbian, bisexual,and transgender identities into a ‘progres-sive individualism’ that often is seen througha gay, white, male perspective (Eng et al.,2005). Thus, in this review, we employ ourtransnational, queer feminist perspective to:(a) explore the ways in which gender, racial,and sexuality policing becomes normalised

in sporting contexts, and how privilege andoppression intersect to maintain the statusquo; and (b) use contemporary examples ofinequity in elite women’s sport to draw atten-tion to the complexity of acceptance anddiscrimination around sexuality for womenin sport.

Contemporary understandings of queer sportHall (1996) argued that research onwomen’s sport had neglected climates forfemale athletes outside dominant white,Western perspectives. Recently, a moreglobal exploration of heterosexism andhomonegativism has emerged. In the firstknown investigation of sexual orientation insport conducted in Japan, Iida andcolleagues (2010) found that sexual minorityparticipants (274 female, male, and trans-gender) described heteronormative sportenvironments where they commonly heardoffensive remarks and felt pressure to befeminine (females) or masculine (males).Participants also expressed being ignoredand/or ridiculed because of their sexualityand gender expression. Studies in Taiwanhad similar results. Shang and Gill (2012)found that Taiwanese athletes who identifiedas non-heterosexual perceived their sportand physical activity climates as hostile. Inaddition, female athletes in Taiwanperceived their coaches’ attitudes to be morenegative toward sexual minorities than theydid their peers. In a second study by Shangand Gill (2011), top-level university athletesoften heard anti-gay jokes or comments ontheir teams and one-fourth of the femaleathletes expressed that violence occasionallyoccurs because of one’s gender expressionor sexual orientation. When these incidentsdid occur, it was reported that one third ofthe time no one intervened.

Although there can be a tendency toconsider all of the Global South1 as oppres-sive toward LBTs in sport, we caution that


Heteronormative landscapes: Exploring sexuality through elite women athletes

1 The Global South refers to countries previously considered third world and includes countries in Central andLatin America, Africa, and most of Asia; the Global North is assumed to be democratic, technologicallyinventive, and wealthy, whereas the Global South presumably are the opposite (Odeh, 2010).

painting such a broad portrait of hostilitytoward LBTs is an inaccurate portrait. Inter-preting international research consistentwith our transnational, queer feminist lensexposes the importance of intersectionalunderstandings of heteronormativity andexposes the nuances of sexuality and gendercross-culturally. In fact, understanding theconstruction of gender and sexuality inglobal cultures might point to a broaderrange of identities that are not confinedmerely to binary oppositions (e.g. male/female, heterosexual/homosexual). AsMitra (2011) noted, Hijras, also known asthe third sex, are a recognised social groupin India as are the Kathoeys in Thailand. Inmany ways, Hijras, with what may be consid-ered gender variant identities, are moreaccepted than in Western societies(Armbrecht, 2008). It also is important tonote that hostile climates are hardly exclu-sive to the Global South or Eastern societies.As Symons et al. (2010) found, a majority ofthe athletes in their comprehensive study ofLGBT sport in Australia experienceddiscrimination in sport, such as verbal homo-phobia that typically went unchallenged.Approximately 10 per cent of the lesbianathletes in this study acknowledgedrefraining from playing a particular sportdue to the uncomfortable or hostile climatetoward lesbians. Symons and colleaguesconcluded that in sports considered sociallyaccepted for women or perceived as tradi-tionally feminine, ‘women suspected ofbeing lesbian were singled out, shamed andexcluded by other players’ (p.7). For womenwho participated in sports perceived as tradi-tionally masculine, ‘whole teams of playerswere regarded as lesbian and were subjectedto abuse regardless of individual partici-pants’ sexuality’ (p.7). Tellingly, in anAustralian national survey on sexual orienta-tion and health, Hillier, Turner and Mitchell(2005) found that same-sex attracted youngpeople (aged 14 to 21) described feeling‘least safe at sporting events.’

Unfortunately, some contemporaryexamples of hate and degradation demon-

strate how homophobia, sexism, nation-alism, and racism collide to create hostileand violent spaces for women in sport. A horrific example of violence againstwomen perceived as lesbians reveals theseintersections. In South Africa, corrective rapeoccurs at an alarming rate and is dispropor-tionately aimed at black lesbian athletes(Shaap & Gim, 2010). Corrective rape isbased on the misperception that a sexualrelationship 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 andformer national soccer team member, whowas raped, tortured, and murdered becauseshe was lesbian. What has happened in thedominant discourse around Eudy Simelane’smurder reeks of xenophobia and privilegeamong Western commentators who soughtto explain such forms of violence andhomonegativism as problems that exist withthe Other and that have no parallel, andespecially no place, in the Global North.These narratives work to perpetuate ideolo-gies that the West in general, and the USspecifically, is the only nation-state that guar-antees freedom and exceptional humanrights (Eng et al., 2005). Instead ofconnecting forms of violence and oppres-sion to unabashed heternormativity andheterosexism that exists on an internationalscale, demonising black and brown peoplebecomes the central focus to these narra-tives, thus creating hierarchies of good andevil, civilised and savage that serve to repro-duce hate and discrimination withoutaddressing the larger issues of discrimina-tion based on sexuality or gender expres-sion. Future research in this area can attendto the intersections of identity through atransnational feminist lens to alleviateWestern capitalist and racist discourses ofthese issues and to broaden the under-standing of how heteronormativity operatesglobally for women in sport.

The occurrence of corrective rape, alongwith other less abhorrent prejudice againstLBT athletes, reinforces the need to


Kerrie Kauer & Vikki Krane

examine the intersections of sexuality,gender, race, social class, and nation. This isapparent in the highly publicised caseswhere athletes of color were commanded toundergo sex testing. Two contemporaryexamples are track athletes Caster Semenyaof South Africa and Shanti Soundarajan ofIndia. Sex testing no longer is mandatory forall international female competitors as it hadbeen from the 1960s through the 1990s(Ljungqvist et al., 2006). However, if anathletes’ sex is challenged, then she can berequired to undergo a myriad of tests todetermine her sex (IOC, 2003). In recentyears, the only athletes whose gender hasbeen questioned publicly have been athletesof colour from poor, rural towns in countrieswith lower human development indexes2.Soundarajan and Semenya both competedin the 800m race, were challenged afterwinning at international championships,and were held suspect because theyappeared ‘too masculine’ (Schulz, 2011). AsSchultz argued, concepts of the ‘naturalbody’ became coded with Western ideologiesaround how a female athlete (body) shouldlook and behave. The intersections ofnationalism, politics, race, gender, and sexu-ality were being policed by predominantlyWestern people in powerful positions in sport (e.g. International OlympicCommittee (IOC) or International Associa-tion of Athletics Federation (IAAF), officialsand media). These cases emphasise the needfor ‘an intersectional analysis that includedqueer and trans perspectives, as well as anti-racist and anti-imperialist ones’ (Nyongo,2010, p.96). The bodies of Soundarajan andSemenya became sites where privilegedWestern discourses concerning white hege-monic femininity, sexuality, and race wereinscribed.

Contemporary problematic incidentssituated 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

South, cases in the Global North also illus-trate the benefit of transnational and inter-sectional analysis. The Rene Portland andJennifer Harris case at Pennsylvania StateUniversity provides an example of how racehas framed common discourse related tohomonegativism in the US. Harris sued Port-land after being released from her USuniversity team because she was perceived tobe a lesbian. Newhall and Buzuvis (2008)revealed how Harris’ race was largely erasedfrom the conversation surrounding herdismissal and Portland’s longstandingdiscrimination toward lesbian or lesbian-perceived athletes. Yet, only through anintersectional analysis does it becomeapparent that Harris’ discrimination had asmuch to do with her blackness and (white)gender nonconformity as well as herperceived lesbianism (e.g. wearing baggypants and hair in cornrows).

Similarly, homonormativity and the exclu-sion of the black body is evidenced in theframing of Kye Allums (Lucas-Carr, 2011).Allums typically is described as a black trans-gender male competing on a women’suniversity basketball team in the US. Themedia have constructed Allums as a normalguy, who is accepted by his teammates andcoach. As Lucas-Carr explained, thediscourse of homonormativity is inseparablefrom citizenship (i.e. national origin), consis-tent with our transnational perspective.Homonationalism is invoked as current,progressive, US political conversations aboutinclusion of various gender identities serve toshow him as a normal citizen. Yet, consistently,Allums’ race is absent from these conversa-tions. It is through an intersectional analysis,that these absences become visible. Suchnarratives work to reproduce political ideolo-gies that portray the Global North/ West asthe inclusive, progressive-minded proprietorof freedom, and the Global South as devianttrespassers. In other words GeorgetownUniversity and all of women’s basketball (inthe US and even all of the Global North) is



2 The human development index, used by the United Nations, is based on the standard of living, education, andlife expectancy (United Nations, 2011).

open to a self-identified male playing for theteam (Kye Allums), whereas South Africa isdepicted as the deviant Other who entersknown men into women’s competitions atthe elite level (Caster Semenya). This is thetype of contradiction that a transnational,queer feminist perspective reveals and opensto additional analysis and ultimately moreprecise intervention.

Interrogation of the stories of CasterSemenya or Eudy Simelane further highlightthe need to employ a queer framework thatdestabilises whiteness and Westernisedbodies. While these cases illustrate how theblack female athlete is both gendered andsexualised, dominant narratives of these twoSouth African women run the risk of perpet-uating ideologies of the West as progressiveand civilised, while the Global South isdichotomously referenced as backwards anduncivilised. In other words, dominant narra-tives move us away from understanding howgender, race, nationality, and sexuality areinterlocking and risk perpetuating otherforms of oppression and discrimination (e.g.Eurocentrism, racism). This is particularlytrue for women in sport who face genderoppression and still largely are seen as tres-passers in a predominately male industry.

Playing in binaries Much of the reported discrimination againstLBT women in sport is grounded in tradi-tional gender roles or expectationssurrounding femininity, revealing theconfluence among gender and sexuality.Further, these expectations are grounded ina Western lens of heterosexuality and white-ness. Layering both transnational and queerfeminist analysis of the gender binary insport reveals the ways in which privilege andoppression occur within LBT experiences.Eng’s (2008) exploration of Norwegianlesbian athletes revealed the impact ofheteronormativity from the perspective oftraditional Western notions of masculinityand femininity. Additionally, media framingof elite female athletes as national heroesserved to strengthen the likelihood that they

remained in the closet, further maintainingthe silence around LBT identities.

Ravel and Rail’s (2007) examination ofFrancophone women athletes with non-conventional sexualities showed discursivetendencies to normalise gaie sexuality whilesilencing other sexualities, such as butch,bisexual, or ambiguous sexuality. The stereo-typically feminine image of gaie was lessvisible or, to use their words, lesbian light(p.413) and possibly more easily acceptedwithin mainstream sport. Gaie was discur-sively constructed in opposition to butch inthat dominant views of femininity andgender were reproduced; ‘gaie wasconstructed to mean more ‘feminine’…[and] less disturbing version of beinglesbian’ (2006, p.407). In contrast, butch wasdescribed pejoratively as older, archetypicallymasculine, fat, vulgar and unattractive. Sucha stance relied upon customary (Western)stereotypes of gender, masculinity, and femi-ninity. Using the term gaie, as opposed tolesbian or queer, for example, served tonormalise this non-conventional sexuality asit relied upon accepted gender conventionscomparable to heterosexuality and thusdownplayed differences between hetero-sexual and non-heterosexual. Ravel and Rail(2006) described the positioning of bothgender and sexuality on a continuum: yetthe continuum still reflects binary construc-tions of sexuality. This link among lesbians,power, muscles and physicality (i.e. stereo-typed masculine characteristics) is notunusual, especially within the context ofhighly physical sports (e.g. Choi, 2000; Kauer& Krane, 2006; Russell, 2006).

Caudwell (2007), in her examination ofmembers of a lesbian-identified football(soccer) team, also recognised the distinc-tion players made in their stereotyping offemme and butch lesbian athletes. Incontrast to the Canadian Francophonewomen’s experiences, within the context ofthe football team, butch was associated withbeing strong and capable and was a cele-brated position. Here, Caudwell emphasisedthe intersection of gender and sexuality in



her description of team discourse and inter-actions. This categorisation of butch is quitedifferent from other sport settings in whichmasculine-perceived athletes often aredisparaged and purported to mar the‘image’ of women’s sport (Kauer & Krane,2006). On the team Caudwell studied, butchplayers were perceived as requisite to beingsuccessful on the field whereas the femmeplayers were stereotyped as less physical andthus marginalised and dismissed as less-thanadequately skilled players. Within the partic-ular space of this team, being a forceful,physical player was privileged, contrary tomany women’s sport teams, including thosethat are lesbian dominated. Likewise,Travers’ (2006) examination of a lesbiansoftball team revealed their acceptance ofbutch or masculine-appearing lesbians, yettrans-identified players were marginalised.Using an intersectional and transnationalperspective reveals the variations of privilegeand marginalisation within lesbian sportteams, and unpacks the assumption that theclimate is positive for all LBT athletes.

Queering the athletic landscapeWhile we agree with Brackenridge andcolleagues’ (2008) conclusion that,homonegativism can limit participation, andcreate fear, mistrust, and even violencewithin sport, LBT athletes also are findingwelcoming and comfortable spaces in whichthey can compete and be open about theirsexual identities (e.g. Drury, 2011). It isimportant to further scrutinise these seem-ingly positive situations, as they often aremore complicated than what appears on thesurface. While the presence of LBT womenin sport is queering what previously has beenconsidered a strongly heterosexist context, italso is not without constraints and contradic-tions. For example, members of the TorontoFront Runners club, the largest CanadianLGBT running club, appreciated that it wasa safe and welcoming space for queerrunners (van Ingen, 2004). Though, as vanIngen noted, the club lacked racial andethnic diversity, which is a common theme

across queer sport geographies. Further,trans invisibility or transnegativism ispalpable in many queer sport settings(Travers, 2006; van Ingen, 2004).

By being open and visible, lesbianathletes disrupt and contest the heteronor-mativity found in traditional sport settings.Demers (2006) conducted interviews withlesbian coaches and athletes in Canada, andfound that the team environment was rela-tively open for lesbians. In Symons et al.’s(2010) study, the female athletes expressedthat being accepted by their heterosexualteammates was one of the best experiencesthey had in sport. About one-third of theathletes who participated in mainstreamsport clubs described them as verywelcoming to non-heterosexual people.Additionally, the female athletes who wereopen about their sexual identities notedindividual and team characteristics thataided in supporting inclusive sport. Individ-uals who were self-confident about theirsexual and sporting identities felt comfort-able being open on their team. Also, whenother athletes already were open aboutvaried sexual identities, the club wasperceived as supportive and friendly for allteam members.

Stoelting (2011) interviewed US collegeathletes who revealed their sexual identitiesto their teammates. She found that theprimary reasons the athletes disclosed theirsexual identities were to be honest, tocorroborate and increase self-acceptance,and to normalise their identities. Theseathletes no longer wanted to lie to theirteammates or to themselves; they wanted tobe ‘real’ and for their teammates ‘to knowwho they really were’ (p.1194). US universitycoaches who were out, or openly lesbian, intheir sport settings expressed that the waysthey made their sexuality visible differedacross audiences and settings (Kauer, 2009).At times they implicitly or explicitly acknowl-edged partners, specifically talked withteams about their sexuality, or displayedobvious markers of non-heterosexuality (e.g.a rainbow sticker). These coaches negotiated



their visibility and were able to effect positivechange within their sport environments.They emphasised socially just sport climates,challenged unjust language and behaviours,and generally confronted heteronormativeboundaries in sport. Yet, recruitingremained a constraining and restrictivesphere and seems to maintain its strongholdon heteronormativity (Kauer, 2009). WithinUS women’s university sport, negativerecruiting is a common practice in whichcoaches tell prospective athletes and theirparents that a rival coach or her teammembers are lesbian. Regardless of thetruth, the goal is to play on stereotypes andfears regarding sexual orientation anddiscourage players from joining a rival team.The bisexual and lesbian coaches inter-viewed by Kauer often worried that parentsor athletes will question their marital statusor other social markers of sexual identity andavoid playing for their team (Kauer, 2009).

Symons et al. (2010) questioned theirparticipants about their involvement inqueer-identified sport. Sixteen per cent ofthese athletes competed in clubs such as theBent Kranks mountain bike riders, Glamour-head Sharks swim team, Bent Boards surfclub, Melbourne Spikers volleyball club, andMelbourne frontrunners. Symons reportedthat all responses regarding participation inthese clubs were very positive. The settingswere supportive, affirming, and empow-ering. In fact, when participants were askedto describe their very best experiences insport, many occurred in these settings. Asthey described, they valued the ability to bethemselves, feel safe, and be supported asLBT athletes. These positive experiencesalso included feeling solidarity with a largercommunity. Symons and colleaguesconcluded that the most inclusive sportsettings are those created by and for LBTs.

ConclusionWe have applied a transnational, queer femi-nist lens to examine the contemporary land-scape of elite women’s international sport.This approach, which foregrounds an inter-

sectional analysis, challenges taken-for-granted assumptions which privilege somewomen and silence or oppress others.Overall, the climate of sport for LBT athletesranges from wholly accepting to perilous andviolent. Attitudes toward sexual and genderdiversity in women’s sport seem to bechanging, yet at vastly different paces.Common media discourse surroundingathletes such as Caster Semenya and EudySimelane, often present narratives that canbe interpreted dichotomously: in the GlobalNorth (or developed Western world),women’s sport is civilised and progressivewhereas in the Global South (or undevel-oped world), women’s sport is the contrary.However, a whole different interpretationcan occur through a transnational lens.Using examples that have received nationaland international media attention we uncov-ered many contradictions in the discoursesurrounding elite female athletes that oftencan be traced back to differences in nation,race, and class.

Even when some LBT athletes describetheir sport settings as accepting, it is verylikely that they are not perceived that way byall LBT athletes. Deeper analysis of thesesettings often reveals an erasure of racialidentities and lack of acceptance of trans-gender athletes. Accordingly, surface accept-ance or cursory descriptions of sportenvironments fail to recognise the privilegedstance of the welcomed LBT athletes. A conceptual layering or critical analysis atthe intersections of sexuality, gender, race,social class, and nation reveals implicit biasesin the framing of contemporary discrimina-tion in sport. Using a lens of homonorma-tivity can complicate yet remarkably informfuture analyses. We believe that it is impor-tant to continue to give LBT sportswomen avoice, while simultaneously critiquing thebroader dimensions of these sport environ-ments. It also is important to acknowledgethe contradictions in athletes’ lived experi-ences with binary categorisations of genderand sexual orientation. Not only does what isconsidered feminine and masculine vary,



what is applauded as ideal sporting charac-teristics, (often described in terms ofmasculinity and femininity) are not resoluteor unyielding. Whereas one team mayencourage a feminine gender presentation,others may value a butch or more masculinecomportment. Notably, much of thediscourse around butch/femme and mascu-line/feminine is situated within whiteWestern language that largely excludeswomen of colour who may use differentlanguage and constructs of sexuality andgender identification (e.g. ‘stud’) (Wilson,2009).

As female athletes compete on a globalstage, it becomes necessary to recognise aswell as disentangle multiple forms of oppres-sion and discrimination. As discussedthroughout our paper, homonegativismrarely is monolithic. Therefore, criticalanalyses of women’s sport should unravel themultiple layers of oppression if change is tobe successfully enacted. Acknowledging andaddressing the embedded sexism, racism,classism, ethnocentrism, and likely addi-tional oppressions will further disrupt andchallenge homonegative and heterosexistenvironments. At the same time, such anintegrated approach to social change insport is more likely to be perceived as inclu-sive and empowering to a broad range ofwomen in sport.

CorrespondenceKerrie KauerAssistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard,Long Beach, CA 90840.Email: [email protected]



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THE BODIES of elite athletes typicallyattract considerable societal andcultural interest (Johns & Johns, 2000)

and are also an integral part of identity as anathlete (Phoenix & Sparkes, 2006). Athletesare also vulnerable to experiencingpsychopathology around their bodies.Athletes have a higher prevalence of disor-dered eating than the general population(Sundgot-Borgen & Klungland Torstveit,2004) and female athletes are uniquelyvulnerable to the Female Athlete Triad. TheFemale Athlete Triad is the name that hasbeen given to a combination of three disor-ders: disordered eating, amenorrhea, andosteoporosis or osteopenia1 (a precursor toosteoporosis involving loss of bone density orthe failure to gain optimal bone density), a combination that is seen almost exclusively

amongst females who are athletes. Forfemale athletes with disordered eating, theresulting reduced energy intake, in combi-nation with large energy expenditure fromintense training schedules, can lead to amen-orrhea2 (the absence of three or moremenstrual cycles, or delayed menarche).Osteopaenia or osteoporosis often resultsfrom amenorrhea (Bouchard, 2007; Hawley& Burke, 1998; Yeager et al., 1993). Thecombination of these conditions, the FemaleAthlete Triad, can result in serious healthconcerns for female athletes. Duringsporting careers, the Female Athlete Triadcan cause stress fractures and other injuriesand, in the long term, it can lead to ongoingand irreversible health consequences(Bouchard, 2007; Yeager, et al., 1993).


Gender in sport

Reconceptualising the Female AthleteTriad: Locating athletes’ bodies within thediscursive practices of elite sportingenvironmentsSuzanne Cosh & Shona Crabb

The Female Athlete Triad is understood to be a sporting-specific health concern, seen almost exclusivelyamongst female athletes, and is regarded within the sport literature as consisting of a combination of threeconditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis or osteopenia. Within the sport psychologyliterature, the Female Athlete Triad has typically been considered as a pathology residing within theindividual. However, such pathology cannot be isolated from the sporting context in which bodysurveillance and regulation are ubiquitous. Indeed, the discursive practices surrounding such surveillancenormalise and even privilege behaviours that might otherwise be considered pathological, ultimatelyproducing an appropriate female athlete as one who engages in potentially harmful and pathologicalbehaviours. This paper critiques existing literature on the Female Athlete Triad and disordered eatingwithin the context of elite sport and draws on previous studies of interactions from routine body compositiontesting in order to contribute to, and challenge, existing understandings of the Female Athlete Triad.

1 This is not to suggest that we engage in this labelling but, rather, to clarify what the Female Athlete Triad isdefined as in the medical and sport literature.

2 Although amenorrhea can be a symptom seen in Anorexia Nervosa, due to high energy expenditure fromtraining schedules, amenorrhea occurs sooner for athletes and with lower levels of disordered eating.

Female Athlete Triad literature The extant sport literature typically exam-ines the Female Athlete Triad from abiomedical perspective, viewing the triad ascaused by an individual pathology locatedwithin the individual female athlete. Thesocial context and the discursive practiceswithin which athletes are located, thus, areoverlooked. Indeed, definitions of the Triadand its aetiology remain rooted in medicalterminology and focus on the hormonalmechanisms through which the Triad condi-tions occur (e.g. Mendelsohn & Warren,2010). Specifically, the development of theFemale Athlete Triad is explained in terms ofenergy (im)balance (i.e. amount of energyexpenditure versus energy intake); thebroader context in which this imbalanceoccurs is not typically considered. Forinstance, Mendelsohn and Warren (2010)suggest that ‘unhealthy athletes may havereduced energy availability because they arerestricting their diet and energy intake,because they are suffering from an actualclinical eating disorder, or because ofprolonged periods of increasing energyexpenditure through exercise withoutincreasing dietary energy intake’ (p.160).Here, the cause of the triad is located withinthe individual and their behaviours (e.g.‘they are restricting their diet’), without anyattention paid to why athletes may beengaging in such behaviours. Furthermore,it is suggested that prevention and treatmentof the Triad lies in improving nutrition andathletes’ understanding of nutrition. Thetreatment for the Female Athlete Triad isargued to be ideally conducted by a teamconsisting of a physician, a dietician and amental health practitioner. As such, theTriad remains conceptualised as a biomed-ical condition and produces the athlete as apathological subject, even requiring inputfrom a mental health professional. Althoughsome acknowledgement of the role of thecoach (and other people working withathletes) in the development of the FemaleAthlete Triad is made in the position paperby Yeager et al. (1993), their recommenda-

tions for prevention and treatment of theTriad also predominantly lie in a biomedicalunderstanding of the Triad. Yeager et al.(1993) suggest that sport physicians provideinformation to athletes in order to preventand treat the Triad. Additionally, Yeager etal. (1993) propose compiling a specificpsychological profile of athletes who are atrisk of developing the Triad, thereby, again,locating the Triad within the individualpsyche of the female athlete.

Moreover, the body of research exam-ining the Triad and its component condi-tions has, over the past two decades (since itwas first named and addressed in theresearch literature), typically explored rela-tionships between internal individual factorsand development of the Triad conditions.For instance, Milligan and Pritchard (2006)explored relationships between self-esteem,body dissatisfaction and disordered eatingbehaviours amongst US college athletes inorder to identify predictors of eating disor-ders amongst athletes and to inform inter-ventions. Relationships between internaltraits such as perfectionism, optimism, self-esteem and disordered eating behaviourshave also been explored (Brannan et al.,2009; Haase, Prapavessis & Owens, 2002).Thus, Female Athlete Triad research remainsfocussed on locating the aeitology in indi-vidual factors of the female athlete ratherthan examing the broader social and discur-sive contexts in which athletes live. Althoughwe do not wish to suggest there is no merit insuch biomedical approaches to under-standing conditions such as the FemaleAthlete Triad, we argue that attending to thesocial and discursive world of female athletesis essential in further understanding, andaddressing, the condition. Indeed, a body ofresearch exploring eating disorders in thegeneral population has worked to challengetraditional understandings of eating disor-ders as an individual pathology, locatingsuch eating practices within the discursiveand socio-cultural contexts in whichwomen’s bodies are located (e.g. Hepworth,1999; Malson, 1998). However, the extant


Reconceptualising the Female Athlete Triad

sport literature remains rooted in an individ-ualist and biomedical approach. Such anapproach to exploring the Female AthleteTriad has gone largely unchallenged.

The sport contextAs with eating disorders in the general popu-lation, the Female Athlete Triad may bebetter understood when viewed in relation tothe social context and discursive practices inwhich athletes are located. Indeed, the prac-tices within sporting settings can surely notbe overlooked in examining the FemaleAthlete Triad. Within elite sport settings,there is typically a strong emphasis onathletes’ body shapes and the policing ofathletes’ bodies is routine (Wilmore, 1992).For instance, the practice of skinfold testing(which measures body fat percentage) isroutinely administered within a range ofsport settings including with junior and sub-elite level athletes (Hawley & Burke, 1998).Such practices, which are ubiquitous withinelite sport settings, go largely unquestionedand such a context has typically been over-looked in the Female Athlete Triad literature.

Studies that have examined body-relatedpractices within elite sport suggest thatdiscourses which engender body surveillanceare prevalent within this context (Chapman,1997; Johns & Johns, 2000) and that prac-tices of body regulation are normalised(Shogan, 1999). Moreover, it has beensuggested that such an emphasis on surveil-lance may lead to eating disorders (Jones,Glintmeyer & McKenzie, 2005; Papathomas& Lavallee, 2006). Although these examina-tions remain in the minority within the fieldof sport research, they point to the impor-tance of considering disordered eating andthe Female Athlete Triad within the contextin which they occur.

Discursive practices in elite sportThrough examining interactions takingplace during practices of body regulationamongst junior elite (predominantlyfemale) athletes within one sport context inAustralia, it can be seen that the discursive

practices surrounding elite athletes mayleave female athletes vulnerable to theFemale Athlete Triad. Using a fine-grainedanalysis of the detail of interactions occur-ring during routine skinfold testing, we havepreviously shown that athletes are madeaccountable to the sport institute for theirbodies (Cosh et al., 2012). That is, in eachinteraction examined, athletes were asked,by an exercise physiologist conducting thetest, about the changes the athlete had madeto their eating and exercising behaviourssince their last test. Such questioning madeevident the athlete’s accountability to theinstitute for her actions and her body. More-over, in routinely asking about changes thatthe athletes had made to their eating andexercising behaviours since the previoustesting, exercise physiologists oriented to,and made relevant, an ideal of athletesneeding continually to improve bodycomposition (i.e. in this context, to reducebody fat). Not to produce an account ofimprovement was also treated as highly prob-lematic in these interactions, functioning toreinforce the imperative on athletes toengage in ongoing improvement (Cosh etal., 2012). Thus, although the over-reductionof body fat can result in the development ofthe Female Athlete Triad, requests foraccounts of change position athletes asneeding to engage in ongoing ‘improve-ment’ in body composition (i.e. the reduc-tion of body fat). Moreover, inproblematising failure to make ‘positive’changes to behaviour, engaging in bodyregulation becomes part of being a ‘good’athlete. Indeed, within the interactions wehave analysed previously (see Cosh et al.,2012), it was evident that athletes worked tomanage their identities and present them-selves as good athletes, further suggestingthat body regulation can be seen as a keypart of an appropriate identity as an athlete.

Moreover, further analysis of these skin-fold testing interactions has also highlightedthat exercise physiologists did not delivernews of poor skinfold results in the typicalway in which ‘bad’ news is delivered in other


Suzanne Cosh & Shona Crabb

similar contexts (e.g. see Maynard, 2003;Mycroft, 2007). Rather, exercise physiolo-gists treated these interactions as routineand ordinary, thereby normalising such prac-tices of body regulation (Cosh et al.,submitted). Furthermore, within these inter-actions, athletes were positioned ascompliant, with sport staff positioned as‘expert’. When athletes improved their skin-fold result, they typically assessed the news aspositive. By contrast, exercise physiologiststypically downgraded the news, therebytreating improvements as insufficient. Assuch, athletes were routinely positioned asneeding to work continuously towards‘improved’ body composition and, thus, toengage in ongoing regulation of theirbodies.

As the above study has highlighted,engaging in body regulation can be seen aspart of being a ‘good’ athlete, in theeveryday discursive context of athletes’ lives.To demonstrate this point further, weprovide here two extracts previouslypresented in Cosh et al. (submitted), andbriefly offer some new analysis. Theseextracts are taken from interactions betweenan exercise physiologist (EP) and a femaleathlete (A), during routine skinfold testing.

Extract 1EP: ok so one eleven point threeA: so that’s down, great thank you (EP) EP: good. you’re doing the right things,

keep it up

Extract 2EP: fourteen point one you happy to see

these today SarahA: yep

(EP calculating total score)EP: ninety seven point twoA: (claps) a[mazingEP: [you’re under the ton good girl (.)

might reassess that target now

In both of these extracts, the exercise physi-ologists depict the need for athletes’ongoing improvement (see Cosh et al.,

submitted). Of interest here, however, arethe moral assessments of the athletes’ behav-iour. In Extract 1, the exercise physiologisttalks about the athlete as doing the ‘rightthings’ in order to improve her body compo-sition; in Extract 2, the exercise physiologistdepicts improved body composition as partof holding an appropriate athlete identity byoffering the assessment ‘good girl’. Inoffering the assessments of ‘good girl’(Extract 2) and doing the ‘right things’(Extract 1), the exercise physiologists orientto moral dimensions around the athletes’behaviour. That is, in designing talk todemonstrate the ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’of behaviours, the speakers perform moralwork (Drew, 1998). In the above interactions(as was seen throughout the corpus of skin-fold testing interactions collected), theassessments from the exercise physiologistsdemonstrated that reducing body fat wasappropriate and good for these athletes.Prescribing which behaviours are morallyacceptable (and, by implication, whichbehaviours are not) works to constructidentity (Davies & Harré, 1990). Thus, beingan athlete is constructed, in this everydaydiscursive context, as necessarily involvingthe regulation of the body and the reductionof body fat. Such constructions of athletescan potentially function to constrain behav-iour and make alternate actions (i.e. notengaging in ongoing acts of body regula-tion) difficult to access (Burr, 1995; Edley,2001). Not participating in ongoing self-surveillance and reduction of body fat can beseen as indicative of failure to act as a goodand appropriate athlete. We suggest that thisdiscursive context of the elite sporting envi-ronment needs to be considered in under-standing the extreme reduction of body fatand development of the Female AthleteTriad in some athletes.

In particular, there are a number ofpotentially problematic implications of thefocus on self-regulation and continual bodilyimprovement as features of a ‘good’ athleteidentity. For example, in constructing anappropriate athlete identity as one who



engages in ongoing body regulation andimprovement, having a ‘drive for thinness’becomes normalised and privileged.However, the development of the ‘drive forthinness’ has been associated with disor-dered eating behaviours (Gustafsson et al.,2010; Sands, 2000). This drive is thought tobe triggered by a perceived discrepancybetween one’s actual body and the ‘ideal’body (Sands, 2000; Wiederman & Pryor,2000), with such a discrepancy potentiallyleading to Social Physique Anxiety (Sands,2000) and, ultimately, the Female AthleteTriad. Furthermore, the orientation toongoing improvement towards an ‘ideal’ canalso be seen to reproduce perfectionisticideals in athletes. Although perfectionistictendencies can be adaptive (even necessary)for elite athletes, perfectionism can also bemaladaptive: A link between perfectionismand the development of eating disorders hasbeen well established in the literature (seeFranco-Paredes et al., 2005). Thus, the socialand discursive emphasis on continualimprovement for athletes’ bodies maycontribute to a context in which bodies areperceived to be divergent from the ideal,and in which the ‘drive for thinness’, disor-dered eating and the Female Athlete Triadare more likely to occur.

ConclusionGiven the discursive and social practicesembedded within elite sport settings, weargue that the Female Athlete Triad, and itscomponent conditions, should not beviewed solely as an individual pathologyattributable to the athlete themselves.Rather, the Triad can be better understoodby attending to the sporting context withinwhich it occurs. Within this sporting context,there is a continued emphasis on decreasingbody fat, and on discursive practices (forexample, in skinfold testing interactions)

that normalise and reproduce a need forongoing surveillance around the body, aswell as reproducing and constructing theidentities of athletes as necessarily engagingin ongoing body regulation. With an appro-priate athlete identity constructed asrequiring continued body regulation, to actin other ways would constitute being a ‘defi-cient’ athlete, thereby reinforcing bodyregulation as the correct way of being. TheFemale Athlete Triad, therefore, cannot beseparated from the social and discursivepractices in which it occurs.

To view the Female Athlete Triad as anindividual pathology is to overlook andobscure the sport context and the discursivepractices surrounding athletes. In doing so,fault is placed with the individual athlete,and the female athlete becomes viewed asthe ‘problem’, while potentially problematicregulatory and discursive practices gounchallenged and unquestioned. In shiftingexamination to the discursive and socialpractices surrounding athletes’ bodies, howpractices may, or may not, leave athletesvulnerable to the Female Athlete Triad canbe examined. To examine the FemaleAthlete Triad in isolation of social anddiscursive practices is to limit understandingof this phenomenon. Therefore, explorationof the Triad needs to move beyond biomed-ical models that view it as an individualpathology and also examine the discursiveand social practices in which athletes’ bodiesare located.

CorrespondenceSuzanne CoshSchool of Psychology.The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.Email: [email protected]



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References

RESEARCH ON GENDER includes arange of focuses, including historicalinvestigations (e.g. Vertinksy, 1988),

social theories of participation (e.g. Coakley,1997), through to critical feminist examina-tions (e.g. Sabo & Messner, 1990) andspecific analyses of feminism and thesporting body (e.g. Hall, 1996). Gender hasbeen explored by examining the perceivedmasculinity of female athletes (Merz, 2002),the recognition of ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’sports (Engel, 1994) and the feminisation ofmale athletes who engage in ‘feminine’sports (Anderson, 2005; Risner, 2009).However, more recent analyses have usedpost-structural approaches to sport andgender, permitting an understanding of theconstitution of the sporting body itself andthe construction, production and normalisa-tion of certain sporting discourses (Garrett,2004). Post-structuralism considers howsubjects take in socially constructed knowl-edge (Garrett, 2004) by being an activesubject in the social world (Davies, 2003).

This paper specifically uses Foucauldiantheory to examine the world of competitiveswimming; an area under researched in thesporting literature. Foucault’s ideas (1972,1978, 1988) provide an analytical tool tostudy how individuals construct knowledgeabout themselves (Markula & Pringle, 2006)as a swimmer.

Foucault and sportThree of Foucault’s concepts – discipline,surveillance and the panopticon and tech-nologies of the self – will be examined inreference to discourses present in theconstruction of gendered bodies in competi-tive swimming.

DiscourseFoucault first referred to discourse as ‘practices that systematically form the objectsof which they speak’ (Foucault, 1972, p.54).It involves the development of the knowl-edge of meaning, which operates to restrain,control and associate individuals with partic-


Gender in sport

The construction of gendered bodieswithin competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspectiveBrittany Johnson & Kate Russell

The purpose of the study was to understand, through a Foucauldian framework, the processes by whichathletes construct their gendered body within competitive swimming. The study identified a number ofdiscourses central to this process, extending our understanding of how sport can regulate acceptable formsof gender through discipline and surveillance. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sixcompetitive swimmers in New South Wales, Australia. The findings revealed a number of Foucauldianconcepts playing a fundamental role in gendered body construction. The findings emphasise theconcealment and invisibility of the swimming body, rendering it hidden and perhaps resistant tosubstantial gendering processes in the swimming context. Yet in the social context, these processes are farmore active. Other key findings suggest various technologies, including surveillance, discipline andphysical 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 competitiveswimmers come to construct their gendered body in contemporary Australian culture.

ular behaviours or identities (Markula &Pringle, 2006). A number of researchershave been successful in applying this under-standing of discourse to a range of activitiesincluding rugby (Markula & Pringle, 2006),fitness (Markula, 2003), high performanceathletes (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 understandingof the production of docile bodies in anumber of areas there is limited examina-tion of the swimming pool.

Discipline Discipline acts to separate, define andcontrol society, and to prepare or instructbodies to ensure maximum capability(Dostie, 1988, cited in Rail & Harvey, 1995).Discipline can be related to practicesfocused on creating acceptable ways of beingfeminine. Sport scholars agree that femaleathletes are often encouraged to acknowl-edge their femininity by ensuring femininemarkers, such as styled hair and dresses arevisible (Cox & Thompson, 2000; George,Hartley & Paris, 2001; Merz, 2002; Dworkin& Messner, 2002; Shilling, 2003). Not onlydoes this feminisation emphasise thesefemales as heterosexual (and, therefore,‘normal’) (Duncan, 2006), it also serves tohighlight the structures of power used tocontrol and arrange sporting bodies (Harg-reaves, 1994; Rail & Harvey, 1995). Theseathletes are encouraged to abide by an intel-ligible femininity (Butler, 1993), reconfig-uring and rearranging representations oftheir femaleness to reflect what is sociallyunderstood to be feminine (Renold, 2010).Discipline has the ability to mark an athleticbody as male or female (Johnston, 1996),often occurring through the practice ofmarginalisation (Klein, 1988), sexualisationand objectification (Shugart, 2003).

Surveillance and the panopticon Surveillance and the panopticon can beapplied to the development and discipliningof docile and obedient athletic bodies(Magdalenski, 2009). Defined by Foucault(1978) as the ‘existence of a whole set oftechniques and institutions for measuring,supervising and correcting the abnormal’(p.199), the concept of the panopticonacknowledges that subjects engage in surveil-lance methods of themselves and others(Rail & Harvey, 1995; Duncan, 2006).Compulsory heterosexuality can bedescribed as one such practice. Firstexplained by Rich (1980), as ‘something that is imposed, managed, organised, propa-gandised and maintained by force’ (Rich,1980, p.648), compulsory heterosexualitypreserves and upholds male power withinsociety, through challenging the validity ofany alternative, this being homosexuality(Fuss, 1991).

Cox and Thompson (2000) note a poten-tial conflict for female athletes in this regard.On the one hand, sporting discourses iden-tify that to be athletically successful; onemust be physically strong and powerful. Onthe other hand, heterosexual discourses seethat masculinity is powerful and dominant,femininity as weak, and subordinate.Sporting discourses regulate and disciplinedocile bodies towards a state of ‘normalness’(Markula & Pringle, 2006), where heterosex-uality is often ‘invisible and unexamined’(Renold, 2006, p.492) regularly subordi-nating female athletes.

Even though the panopticon functionson the assumption that power is most effec-tive when hidden from public view(Danaher, Schirato & Webb, 2000), it may bepossible for this power to circulate throughsporting discourses in ways that are visible(Markula, 2003).

Lang’s (2010) study of surveillancewithin swimming makes a pertinent contri-bution to understanding Foucault’s ideas.She emphasises that certain swimming prac-tices act to discipline swimmers, creatingdocile, submissive and disciplined bodies


The construction of gendered bodies within competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspective

(i.e. through acceptance of a swimmingculture). This observation of the self andothers (Rail & Harvey, 1995) encourages theemployment of the ‘gaze’ (Lang, 2010).Since the ‘gaze’ is ubiquitous, its silent exis-tence (Foucault, 1978) encourages athletesto discipline themselves and to become aswimmer (Lang, 2010). The internalisationof this ‘swimmers gaze’ sees swimmers self-regulating/monitoring their actions(Shogan, 1999), for example, performingthe correct swimming technique regardlessof whether the coach is present or not(Lang, 2010). This internalisation isconcerned with those ‘coercions that actupon the body, a calculated manipulation ofits elements, its gestures, its behaviour’(Foucault, 1978, p.138). The ‘gaze’ coercesswimmers into abiding by the ‘rules’ of theswimming environment, including aspectssuch as the physical transformation into aswimmers body (Lang, 2010). This panop-tical control has the athletes developing ‘…astate of conscious and permanent visibilitythat assures the automatic functioning ofpower’ (Foucault, 1978, p.201) with athlete’sacting as his or her own supervisor ormanager (Rail & Harvey, 1995). The ‘gaze’produces social control because the discipli-nary action needed to govern behaviour(Lang, 2010) creates a docile, obedient andcompliant body (Shogan, 1999).

Technologies of the self Technologies of the self are most commonlyunderstood to:

Permit individuals to effect by their ownmeans or with the help of others a certainnumber of operations on their ownbodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, andway of being, so as to transformthemselves to attain a certain state ofhappiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, orimmorality (Foucault, 1988, p.147).

Foucault (1984, cited in Smart, 2002) main-tained the subject does not simply exist figuratively within the social world, but is developed, created and transformedthrough actual practices. These ‘technolo-

gies’ are a process whereby the self isproduced (Johns & Johns, 2000; Burkitt,2002; Thorpe, 2008), transformed or modi-fied into a socially acceptable body (Markula& Pringle, 2006). Technologies of self can berelated to the construction of masculinityand femininity in which they are not definedin relation to the hegemonic nature ofgender and society (Kimmel, 1994), but inrelation to the other gender (Paechter,1998). This difference is upheld (Buysse &Embser-Herbert, 2004) to create a genderedspace that separates masculinity and femi-ninity, leading to questions concerning howa sporting environment may influence thisconstructive process (Johnston, 1996).

Swimming, is a sport which openlydisplays the sporting body (though minimalsporting attire) and has, therefore, thepotential to extend our understanding of theprocesses by which athletes construct theirgendered body and the disciplinary practicesthat frame it.

MethodSix semi-structured interviews were under-taken with competitive (New South WalesState and Australian National) swimmers. Allparticipants (three female, three male) werewhite, aged between 21 and 31 years, andhave been involved in competitive swimmingfor a minimum of five years. Topics of discus-sion included the ways in which participantsthought gender was constructed both in andout of the swimming context; how sexualityis expressed through the body and howswimming shaped experiences and identity.

Consistent with Strauss and Corbin’s(1997) grounded theory approach toanalysis, transcripts were coded according toemerging themes, which were subsequentlyexamined for similarities and differences. Atthis point, a post-structuralist lens wasapplied to the data analysis, enabling theresearcher to consider how participants‘consume’ different (sporting) discourses(Davies, 2003). Since sport is an arena thatfunctions so prominently in the develop-ment, construction and understanding of


Brittany Johnson & Kate Russell

the body (Birrell, 2003), Foucault providesus with a suitable theoretical framework toanalyse such processes, since we can identifywhere ‘power is literally incorporated orinvested in the body’ (Hargreaves, 1986,p.13).

Analysis Foucault’s notions of discipline, surveillanceand technologies of the self were found to beprominent discourses in the interviews andguided the subsequent interpretation of thedata. The analyses presented here focus onthe role of discipline and surveillancepredominantly.

Technologies of the selfThe interviews suggested that individualsengaged in methods to both recognise:

Stephanie: Everyone started to recogniseme and be like ‘she’s good at swimming’,so I started to be seen as a swimmer andconsidered myself a serious swimmer.

and also modify the self (Rail & Harvey,1995) to become an acceptable swimmingbody:

Sam: I have to discipline my body, likethrough 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 asseriously as a swimmer. Amanda: The most likely way I train mybody is by training on a consistent basis…I engage in healthy eating most of thetime… to sort of complement mytraining.

These technologies not only enable athletesto transform and discipline their bodies toproduce a socially accepted swimming bodybut ones that are also docile. Their actionsbecome self-serving; to develop a body that isboth technically valid and socially recognis-able.

Surveillance and the panopticonSurveillance and the panopticon areconcerned with the social workings of power,which is enforced through subjects disci-

plining themselves to produce a docile andcontrollable social body (Magdalinski,2009). Sam argues that:

Self-discipline is important to swimmingsuccess. Being disciplined helps me toachieve my swimming goals in a moreefficient manner.

Sam identifies this disciplinary processincludes ‘getting up early to train’, ‘weightsand cardio’ and ensuring his ‘technique isdone properly’. Sam recognises he has ‘disci-plined himself’ into producing an accept-able swimming body; in doing so, hisself-surveillance allows him to monitor hisbody and training (Lang, 2010) in a mannerthat permits himself and others to classifyhim as a swimmer.

Self-surveillance creates discourses ofpower (Taunton, 2008). It has the ability tomark an idea and ‘define what is accepted as‘truth’’ (Lang, 2010, p.21) and in thisinstance, this truth functions to classify whata swimmer is understood to be. The truthproduced from such power/knowledgediscourses is also evident by athletes’ accept-ance of the physique (e.g. broad shoulders)many female swimmers embody since, ‘youwould probably be judged more harshly byother swimmers if you don’t have thosemuscles or characteristics seen in the sport’(Natalie). Natalie makes a strong argumenthere for the ‘functionality’ of the sportingbody (Russell, 2004) as a primary motivatorfor engagement in these practices, perhaps inthe same way Lang (2010) argues for theacceptance of extensive training drills. Thenormalness and support/enabling of theseswimming qualities (both physical and attitu-dinal) is implicated within structures that actto create ‘permanent visibility that assuresthe automatic functioning of power’(Foucault, 1978, p.201). The surveillance anddisciplinary practices engaged in by theseathletes produce a swimmer that is obedient,compliant and acceptable enough to be clas-sified as a swimmer (Lang, 2010). In this way,the athletes could be said to have internalisedthe ‘swimmer’s gaze’; to become their ownbody inspector (Rail & Harvey, 1995).



Further examination identifies a counterdiscourse where it can be suggested theseathletes have reached a point whereby theyare no longer aware of their own and othersbodies within the sporting context. Variousparticipants noted a lack of contestationaround female athletes, the sporting bodyand socially determined notions of femi-ninity:

Sam: Some of the girls at carnivals havebig shoulders and look manly. I don’treally notice it, coz it’s sort of expectedfor girls to be like that if they areswimmers. Patrick: If you see a swimmer with reallybig shoulders in the pool, you sort ofnotice their big shoulders, or actually Idon’t think you notice them. Michael: I don’t even think swimmersnotice these manly traits on femaleswimmers coz it’s just accepted.

Whilst the swimmers actively produce thenotion of ‘large shoulders’ as ‘manly’, theyalso contest the notion that this is problem-atic in the swimming context. Here, theswimming panopticon ensures the surveil-lance and disciplining of the self as anacceptable body inside the sport, however,when outside this context, the self is repre-sented differently (Young & Dallaire, 2008).Female swimmers may experience difficultyin disciplining their bodies in a way thatsuccessfully contributes to their athleticperformance, yet maintaining what it meansto be intelligibly feminine (Butler, 1993) inthe social world:

Patrick: But they [Leisel Jones and LibbyTrickett] usually scrub up alright, likewhen they have awards… They have hugemuscles and when they are dressed up…it sort of accentuates their body and notalways in a good way. Nicole: When females swim, they havethis body that lets them perform well andcompete successfully. But when they gooutside this swimming place, they areseen as something different, like theyaren’t seen as a female in a sense,because of their muscles.

When in the sporting environment, theirmuscularity is not questioned because of thefunction the body needs to perform thefemale athletic body is valued simply and notquestioned (Russell, 2004). Outside thissporting environment, the discrepancybetween female athleticism and traditionalfemininity (Merz, 2002) can produce diffi-culties between being identified as an athleteand a female. For both the men and womeninterviewed this difficulty was placed on theathlete by observers and experienced asnegative by the athletes, although this wasonly noted in relation to the female swim-mers; suggesting that the male swimmingbody simultaneously matches sociallyconstructed notions of male attractiveness?

DisciplineFemale athletes are often subject to a varietyof disciplinary practices (both overt andhidden, initiated by the self and others) toensure femininity is ever present, heterosexyand subordinate (Markula & Pringle, 2006).A number of swimmers commented onSerena Williams:

Patrick: She puts on this girly demeanourso people will react to it. Stephanie: She’s probably doing it[jewellery and uniform] for show… She’sdoing it to broadcast herself and makeher more attractive to men. Natalie: Her muscles are insane andpeople don’t know how to react so societydress her up as a girl to focus theattention on her clothes or femininityrather than her sporting ability.

The swimmers perhaps reflect here thecomplex way in which female athletes arepositioned within society. Serena is seen tobe both reinforcing and contesting hetero-normative femininity by her athleticism andpresentation. Duncan (2006) acknowledgesthat female athletes often employ a range ofdisciplinary practices to ensure their femi-ninity is promoted. To be a successful femaleathlete, she must be attractive to bothfemales and males (Dworkin & Messner,2002) and yet her physicality, her muscu-



larity challenges this. In effect, femaleathletes are constrained by the ideologicalworkings of gender, hegemony andmasculinity (Theberge, 2000), experiencingcontradictory discourses that govern theirbehaviour to become a successful athlete,but all the while remembering they are, firstand foremost, a female. And yet, this beliesthe very nature of competitive sport, whichpromotes the body as its tool, to be shapedand worked for a purpose regardless of theessential aesthetic quality of that.

The physical exposure of the swimmers’body can also discipline the body to produceacceptable forms of masculinity or femi-ninity. The sporting body is often exposed,yet the swimming body is largely invisible tothose involved (Scott, 2009):

Natalie: They [swimmers] have to showtheir body. But it’s acceptable, so thereisn’t anything wrong with that. Amanda: On Stephanie Rice and EamonSullivan in the Davenport underwearcampaign: It was seen as normal and notbad because they wear similar outfitswhen competing… for swimmers, it’s[showing the body] considered normaland encouraged. Michael: I don’t think swimmers focus onthe body as a site of sexuality… I think it’smore outsiders that do this… forswimmers, I guess they probably don’tnotice the body on display.

One must ask, do swimmers not notice thepartial nakedness of the body because it issimply a sporting requirement, or do swim-mers not notice it because they have beendisciplined into accepting the swimmersbody and, therefore, contestation is notnecessary? Sport is the arena in which for thefocus and attention is placed on the body(Choi, 2001; Woodward, 2007), however,what has emerged in this study is a paradox-ical process of both emphasis and invisibilityof the swimmers body. On one hand, thelimited amount of clothing worn whilstcompeting or training reveals (Doyle, 2005)and renders the body as a spectacle, but thisappears to be the focus of observers.

For swimmers, the immersion in the natureof the sport and its physical requirementsensures that the body as sexual (andgendered) is invisible; it lacks contestationbecause the requirements of the sport super-sede external (societal) drives to judge. Thewater within the pool is a metaphoricalbarrier for the concealment of one’s body(Parker, 2010), where the body is invisible tothose within the swimming environment.Consequently, this can also explain whythere is a lack of contestation among femaleswimmers in their attainment of typicalmasculine characteristics; the water sepa-rates the body to reduce its visibility to otherswimmers (Scott, 2009). The body is sepa-rated from the outside world by thediscourses of the swimming pool. Only whenswimmers remove themselves from beneaththis water ‘barrier’, do they become a site forthe observation of sexuality, masculine/femi-nine characteristics and the acknowledge-ment of their gendered athletic body.

ConclusionThe purpose of this study was to employFoucault to help understand the processesby which athletes construct their genderedbody within competitive swimming. Themost significant finding from this studyconcerns the complexity and contradictionsin the visibility and invisibility of the swim-ming body and the many ways it is, and isnot, gendered and sexualised through thatpractice. The swimming pool served as aplace for a number of disciplinary andsurveillance practices that support the devel-opment of a docile and productive body. Theinternalisation of the ‘swimmers gaze’helped athletes endorse the value of a swim-ming physique for both women and men,while the pool itself was considered ametaphorical barrier to render the swim-ming body invisible and therefore immunefrom gendering practices applied to thesocial body for women. While Foucault neverexplicitly addressed sport or physical activityin his work (Markula & Pringle, 2006), hismaterial on the relation of power to discipli-



nary practices provides researchers with anopportunity to understand the complexworld of the sport and in this particularcontext, swimming.

CorrespondenceKate RussellFaculty of Education and Social Work,University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Email: [email protected]



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THE THEORETICAL BRIDGE betweenfeminist and disability scholarship willbe discussed in relation to its applica-

tion within disability sport research and theexploration of women’s experiences withinthis domain. The specific focus of thesedeliberations are disabled female athletes.Heavy scrutiny has been directed towards theattentiveness of scholars concerning genderand women’s narratives within this body ofwork. For instance, Schell and Rodriquez(2001) have pointed out a general neglect ofgender aspects in current disability sportresearch. They have stressed that gender is akey factor that should be considered whenexamining disability sport. Female bodies,like ‘broken bodies’ are believed to berestrictive and incapable of meaningfulcorporality, including participation in sport.Thomas (2003) extends this critique towider levels of disability theorisation within asport and physical recreation context;‘despite the intensification of debates ondisability, relatively little attention has beenpaid, in the UK at least, by disabled activiststo disability sport, perhaps because itprovides such an overt and often visual illus-tration of the significance of impairment’(p.108). This article aims to address these

debates through highlighting the genderednature of disability and the need for newtheoretical approaches when researchingthe experiences of disabled female athletes.These considerations are significant as thepossibilities have not been fully developed orinvestigated in this specific area.

This article is related to my own, currentwork within the field as I intend to use theoutlined theoretical perspectives to fostergreater understandings of the identity devel-opment and negotiation of female Para-lympians. Furthermore, these foundingideas allow for individual experiences to beheard.

Disability debatesIt is important to situate the contextual rele-vance of the essay and the theoreticalconcepts developed here through recog-nising the diverse debates and controversieswithin the field of disability research anddisability studies specifically. Thomas (2006)suggests that in recent decades and on aglobal scale, disabled people have achieved agreat deal in the struggle for civil rights,equality and social inclusion. This corre-sponds with the increasing recognition thatdisability is about social exclusion.


Gender in sport

Understanding complexity: The potentialof critical realism and intersectionalityEmma 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 isnow gaining momentum in Europe and the Nordic countries. This paper will address the potential ofcombining feminist scholarship and disability scholarship consistent with recent developments in disabilityresearch. Feminists who work in the field of disability studies have increasingly written about the importanceof 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 canlearn a great deal from the work of feminist authors. Narratives within this context have broken through‘giving voice’ to disabled women in scholarly writing.

Historically, literature within the realm ofdisability studies has been dominated by workfounded upon individualist ‘medical’perspectives. This model is ground in notionsthat emphasise individual impairment, reha-bilitation of the body, professional power andoppression (Söder, 2009). The (bio) medicalview of disability and its focus upon‘normality’ deems those individuals outsidethe ‘normal range’ as deviant. Thomas(2007) suggests that the social deviance lensis what medical sociologists often theorisechronic illness and disability through.Furthermore, disability is often related to anindividual’s ability to make economic contri-butions; to functionally sustain the economy,family life and other core fibres of the socialorganism (Wendell, 1996).

During the past couple of decades anumber of approaches have been presentedto challenge and offer vehement critiques ofthe classic biological/impairment orientatedmodel of disability (Brittain, 2004). These allhave common features that shift attentionaway from the fixation upon personaltragedy and the impairment to the impact ofsocial, cultural and environmental barriers.The British social model of disability, devel-oped in the 1970s, is arguably the mostwidely known approach. Influential figuressuch as Mike Oliver, Vic Finkelstein andColin Barnes were at the heart of the orig-inal development of this movement (Barnes,1991; Finkelstein, 1980; Oliver, 1990, 2004).

The rapid growth of disability studies hasled to theoretical diversification from mate-rialist to phenomenological perspectives.Thomas (1999) suggests, in particular, mate-rialist and post-structuralist perspectiveshave dominated the social interpretation ofdisability. Materialist outlooks distinguishbetween impairment and disability. Scholarsadopting this theoretical allegiance arguethat disability is caused by the environment,which restricts people with impairments bypresenting them with social barriers, ulti-mately oppressing them (Barnes, 1991;Barnes & Mercer, 2003; Campbell & Oliver,1996). Post-structuralist writers focus upon

the discursive and linguistic, thus, there is noessential biology or pure body prior todiscourse. Therefore, the argument isfocused upon the culturally and discursivelyconstructed nature of both impairment anddisability (Corker, 1998; Corker & French,1999).

Dissuasion from the aforementionedtheoretical stances, particularly within asporting context, becomes the point ofdeparture here. Feminists have beenamongst the strongest critics of strong socialperspectives that fail to fully acknowledgethe experience of living with impairmentand disablism (Reeve, 2002). Disabled femi-nist researchers have strongly criticised thedistinction made between impairment anddisability, ultimately, the core argument hasbeen that societal oppression and barriersare not an adequate interpretation of theirlived experiences (Garland-Thompson,1994; Morris, 1992, 1996; Thomas, 1999;Wendell, 1996). Thus, it has been allegedthat the personal experience of living with adisability has been excluded. Crow (1996)has suggested that impairment does causesome restrictions on activity.

Furthermore, many writers feel that keyaspects of feminism have great relevance indemonstrating how individuals experienceoppression and discrimination. Thomas(1999) argues for the need to develop femi-nist disability studies as a major subgenrewithin feminism; pivoting upon a social rela-tional understanding of disability withemphasis upon ‘impairment effects’ and thepsycho-emotional dimensions of disability.This approach avoids the reductionistdualisms of body and culture by viewing thebody as simultaneously biological, materialand social in character (Sparkes & Smith2011).

Thus, this interlude provides the back-drop for the assertion of the implementationof feminist approaches when empiricallystudying the experiences of disabled womenin sport. It is not possible here to fullyanalyse and present the history of tensionsand debates within disability studies.


Understanding complexity: The potential of critical realism and intersectionality

However, this overview provides one with aninsight into the origins of feministapproaches and understandings within thisdomain. The intersection of disability andgender and its application within a sportingcontext will now be discussed in more detail.

Gender, disability and feminismCongruent to feminist developments withindisability studies there is a growing body ofliterature indicating that disability is alwaysgendered (e.g. Barron, 1997; Morris, 1993;Thomas, 1999; Traustadóttir & Kristiansen,2004). Thomas (2004) argues that the prismof gendered locations and gender relationsinvariably refracts the forms and impacts ofdisablism. Feminist scholars and activists haveshown that the social processes that construct,mould and shape gender and disability areclosely interlinked. In previous work genderand disability were posited as interacting tocreate 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 oppres-sion’ (p.82). This suggests a layering ofdiscrimination onto a female body. However,this does not incorporate the complexity ofthe relations and interactions between genderand disability in constructing an individual’sexperiences. Morris (1996) asserts that suchwritings do not empower her as a disabledwoman as individuals’ are positioned as thepassive victims of oppression. Vernon (1999)utilises the term ‘multiple oppression’ todescribe the effects of being attributed toseveral stigmatised identities (e.g. black,disabled, female) and argues that these effectscan be experienced simultaneously and singu-larly depending on the context.

There is now an increasing amount ofscholarly work diverting away from the‘double oppression’ stance. This literatureanalyses the dynamic intersection of genderand disability. Traustadóttir and Kristiansen(2004) suggest that these two fields of studyhave had a parallel and mostly separate exis-tence but both draw on analysis charac-

terised by social exclusion, power relationsand other issues related to marginalisation.Disability scholars have criticised theportrayal of disabled people as weak, inferiorand victims of ‘tragedy’ (Shakespeare, 2004).Similarly, feminist scholars have drawn atten-tion to the ways in which women’s voiceshave been excluded and marginalised incertain contexts within society. Thus, thecombination of these two fields can poten-tially enhance understandings of how indi-viduals’ everyday lives are affected by bothgender and disability.

Despite these exciting undertakings andadvancements in disability studies focusingupon the gendered experiences of women;there is little work within the realm of sportand physical activity reflective of theseprogressions. Research investigatingwomen’s participation in disability sport hasfocused upon a broad range of areasincluding; how women manage and nego-tiate their identities and the role of physicalactivity within this context (Guthrie, 1999;Guthrie & Castelnuovo, 2001; Sands &Wettenhal 2000); how women are socialisedinto sport and physical activity/leisurepursuits and the support mechanisms theyutilise (Anderson et al., 2008; Ruddell &Shinew, 2006); the perceived opportunitiesand barriers to participation (Hargreaves &Hardin, 2009; Odette at al., 2003; Rolfe etal., 2009) and how women overcomeconstraints to participation (Anderson &Bedini 2005; Ashton-Shaeffer et al., 2001;Goodwin & Compton, 2004; Henderson etal., 1995). These studies have predominantlyutilised quantitative approaches and haveimplemented theories and approachesadopted from various disciplines. However,they have not addressed and incorporatedcritical literature from disability studiesfocusing upon the individual and theirunique ‘self’ and social perceptions.

In spite of the centrality of disabledwomen there has been a failure within thesestudies to explore the dynamic relationshipbetween disability and gender and how thismediates an individuals’ embodiment of


Emma Seal

identity. Furthermore, the personal experi-ences and voices of these women have beenleft unheard within the sporting context.Schell and Rodriquez (2001) assert thatwithout such personal accounts importantinsights will continue to be overlookedregarding the multifaceted experiences offemale athletes with disabilities. Thomas(1999) argues that narratives inform us verypowerfully about the intersection ofdisability and gender, as well as about thesignificance of impairment effects, in thefabric of individual lives. The epistemicstance adopted here alludes to the impor-tance of experience. Experiential accountscan act as windows to the social world andcan be harnessed to understand the ideolog-ical, material and discursive texts in whichlife is lived out (Thomas, 1999). Thomas(2002) further suggests that the lived experi-ence of disability involves not only strugglingwith the social barriers but also the materialbody, the psycho-emotional dimensions andthe effects of impairment.

Historically, sport as an institution hasbeen reflective of dominant norms, stan-dards and ideologies prevailing withinsociety. Arguably, this is still the case in sportand culture today.

DePauw (1997) asserts that sport as aplace where physicality is admired haspresented a challenge for disabled femaleathletes; their active participation in sporthas appeared to be a contradiction. Huangand Brittain (2006) argue that sport is one ofthe arenas in which the social struggle forcontrol of the physical body occurs,processes of identity formation areconducted, and multiple notions of identityare embodied. It provides a rich environ-ment in which to explore the intersection ofgender and disability and foster an under-standing of the experiences of disabledwomen in this context. I will now draw onthe concept of intersectionality as a theoret-ical tool and its potential implementation inthe sporting realm in order to capture howdisability and gender interact to inform thelife conditions and identities of this group.

IntersectionalityIntersectionality as a concept has developedand grown in popularity in recent years.Shields (2008) argues that it is now a centraltenet of feminist thinking and has trans-formed how gender is conceptualised withinresearch. The approach aims to explore andanalyse the interaction of various socialdifferentials, such as race, disability, gender,sexual orientation, or religion and how thesediversifications influence the living condi-tions and experiences of individuals’. Björns-dóttir and Traustadóttir (2010) suggest thatintersectionality has developed into a vastinter-disciplinary framework for the analysisof diversity. There are now a wide variety ofapproaches that differ by discipline, method-ology, epistemology and theoretical stance.

Söder (2009) made a distinctionconcerning the departure point for scholarsapplying intersectional perspectives. Thisdistinction simplifies discussions about theapproach but is helpful for emphasising thefounding principles integral for under-standing the combination of gender anddisability. The first perspective is a structuralone focusing upon power and stratification.The emphasis in this approach is uponunderstanding how axes such as gender, classand ethnicity operate to create stratifiedgroups organised around concepts of powerand oppression. The second perspective issubjectivist in nature and the focus is uponidentity. This is the form of intersectionalanalysis that is most appropriate for under-standing more fully how different identitycategories combine and the fluid nature ofidentity development. It suggests the categor-ical belongings form the building bricks forthe person’s identity (Söder, 2009). Thisappropriation envelops notions of stabilityand change and signifies an endless processof becoming when applied to how onedevelops a sense of ‘self’ (Oleksy 2011); thesignificance is upon understanding theunique identity created out of the intersec-tions. Ultimately, the formation and mainte-nance of identity categories is an activeprocess in which the individual is engaged



and one category takes it meaning in relationto another category (Shields, 2008).

In relation to gender and disability onecould suggest that it is imperative to consideran individual’s lived experience of being awomen and having an impairment toexplore how this specific subject positioncreates oppression but also opportunities.Traditional approaches to intersectionalscholarship usually emphasise and incorpo-rate a greater range of social variables andcategories. There is still great debateconcerning what power axes or categoriesshould be included when it comes to thisform of analysis. Scholarly work in the fieldhas concentrated on a diverse range andcombination of intersecting variables, fromthe intersection of gender, race, class anddisability (Meekosha, 2006); gender, raceand social class (Hanis-Martin, 2006) togender, race and disability (Peterson, 2006).Furthermore, Söder (2009) suggests thatmost authors want to include gender, classand ethnicity as the central dimensions.However, the argument here is for ananalysis founded upon the underlying princi-ples grounding intersectional perspectives.The exploration of disability and genderbased upon concepts of fluid, multiple andintersecting social identities has not beenapproached within a sporting context specif-ically focused upon the experiences offemale disabled athletes.

It has been argued that intersectionalityfirst and foremost reflects the reality of lives.The facts of our lives reveal there is no singleidentity category to describe adequately howwe respond to our social environment or areresponded to by others (Shields, 2008). Theemphasis upon lived realities intertwineswith feminist epistemologies, which explorewomen’s subjective experiences from theireveryday lives. Knowledge production isdescribed as relational in nature, therefore itshould be situated and contextualised (Kris-tiansen, 2004). The significance of thiscontext specific knowledge further high-lights the need to consider the experiencesof female disabled athletes in a sporting

world. One could suggest that the literatureaddressing women’s disabled sport from avariety of disciplines (e.g. sport, leisure,physical recreation) should incorporateaspects of disability ‘feminisms’ to explorethis intersection. New knowledge can thenbe generated concerning the intricate websof disadvantage and exclusion (Thomas,2006). Furthermore, the theoreticalbridging of these two varied disciplines willenable one to foster deeper insights into themultiple social identities operating to poten-tially influence and effect individuals’ partic-ipation in sport and experience of sport.

ConclusionThis article has specifically addressed howthe combination of feminist developmentsand philosophies in disabilities studiestogether with key principles of intersection-ality can enhance understandings ofdisabled female athletes experiences. It hasaimed to demonstrate how the genderednature of disability and disability sport hasnot been fully analysed. The fields of genderstudies and disability studies have evolvedand grown to address the oppression, subor-dination and marginalisation of individuals’within society. However, the fusion of thesescholarly bodies in various ways is increas-ingly being recognised as a powerful tool toanalyse the dynamic and fluid interaction ofgender and disability.

It has been argued that feminist insightsprovide key epistemological advances througharguing that knowledge is a social product,bearing the marks of time, place and socialpositioning’s (e.g. Thomas, 1999; Wendell,1996). In employing a feminist approach theaim is to draw out a better understanding ofthe lived experience and unravel the complexsocial, political, cultural, emotional andpsychological factors that operate. If one viewsthese narratives through an intersectional lensthen new insights can be garnered at specificintersections and social locations. This willprovide a deeper comprehension of theconstruction and adoption of various socialidentities at these localities.


Emma Seal

The combination of feminist approachesand intersectionality is not a new concept,however, its application and implementationwithin empirical work to understand thegendered experiences of disabled femaleathletes has not been fully navigated. Thiscould have practical implications in regardsto providing information on how theseathletes become involved in sport and couldfeed into knowledge concerning how tomaintain disabled female athletes’ participa-tion levels. It will also highlight the role ofthe impaired body in this process and theexternal social processes that stand tomediate their personal experiences andmotivations in sport. Furthermore, theinsights gained within this specific sportcontext could potentially inform ongoingwork focused upon combining gender and

disability. This article is not based uponempirical research that has been completed,however, it formulates the building blocksfor future work within this field that I will beconducting. It aims to take forward thesophisticated philosophical debatescurrently ongoing within disability studiesand apply them within a disability sport andleisure context, specifically, the potential ofan intersectional analysis.

CorrespondenceEmma SealPhD Education, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY.Email: [email protected]



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Emma Seal

SPORT is well recognised as a typicallygendered activity, with less womenparticipating in sport as a leisure activity

than men (Miller & Brown, 2005; Palmer &Leberman, 2009). Moreover, being a motherhas been reported to have a further impacton sporting participation, with women whohave children thought to be less likely to beinvolved than women without children(Miller & Brown, 2005). The reasons forthese differences are undoubtedly complex,but can be considered within the broadercontext of competing and constrainingcultural 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 salientin contemporary culture, with an emphasison the needs of the child over the needs ofthe mother.

The extent to which mothers participatein elite sporting competition, however, doesappear to be changing, with motherscompeting at the pinnacle of sport

becoming more common. To compete at anelite and Olympic level is increasingly beingseen as possible while also a mother; thereare numerous instances of highly successfulathletes who are mothers (Farber, 2008,cited in Palmer & Leberman, 2009). Indeed,Pedersen (2001) has argued that motherscompeting in elite sport are a rising socialphenomenon. Despite this shift, however, atension between the identities of ‘mother’and ‘athlete’ appears to persist (Palmer &Leberman, 2009; Pedersen, 2001), andsporting organisations are often poorly setup to support mothers (Palmer &Leberman, 2009).

Indeed, motherhood often remains invis-ible and even taboo within the sphere of elitesport. To date, minimal research has beenconcerned with examining the specific topicof athletes who are mothers. Two of the rela-tively rare studies (Palmer & Leberman,2009; Pedersen, 2001) both used in-depthinterviews to explore the negation ofwomen’s identities as mothers and athletes.Palmer and Leberman (2009), for example,drew on a symbolic interactionist approach


Taboos in sport

Motherhood within elite sport discourse:The case of Keli LaneSuzanne 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 hasaddressed athletes who are mothers. In order to explore popular accounts of motherhood and elite sport, weexamined 326 media reports of the case of Keli Lane, an Australian water polo player who was convictedof murdering her infant in order to pursue her sporting goals. We draw on a social constructionist andcritical approach to discursive analysis in order to explore repeated patterns of constructions of athleteidentity 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 sportingculture and organisations in influencing the combination of motherhood and elite sport participation wasrendered invisible within these accounts. The implications for female athletes, especially mothers, arediscussed.

in order to examine how identities ofmother and athlete were managed in theinterview talk of nine New Zealand women.Although the participants all talked posi-tively about their identities as an athlete anda mother, they also identified barriers tomanaging their multiple identities,including time, guilt, and organisationalbarriers. For example, many participantsreported receiving only limited organisa-tional support to facilitate their dual roles,and some reported that they were expectedto retire from sport once announcing theywere pregnant (Palmer & Leberman, 2009).

Thus, it appears that despite the increasein numbers of athlete mothers, such womenstill face considerable challenges inattempting to combine these roles. To buildon the very small existing literature in thisarea, the current paper aims to explore howmotherhood is constructed within elitesporting discourse in the mass media. Themass media is an influential site at which thedominant cultural discourses are(re)produced, negotiated and challenged(Lyons, 2000). Indeed, there is an extensiveliterature examining various representationsof mothers in the media: young mothers, oldmothers; choice around when to become amother; working vs. stay-at-home mothers;‘yummy’ mummies; breast-feeding vs.formula-feeding mothers; single mothers,and so on. The media can also provide avaluable source of data on contemporaryrepresentations of athletes and mothers. Inthis paper, we aim to examine the mediarepresentations of motherhood in relationto the identity of being an athlete. Specifi-cally, we take as our focus a case study: themedia reporting of Keli Lane.

Keli Lane was an Australian water poloplayer convicted (in December 2010) ofmurdering her two-day-old baby (Tegan,born in 1996) and sentenced (in April 2011)to 18 years imprisonment. Lane’s motive formurdering her child was allegedly that shewanted to pursue her sporting goal ofcompeting at the Sydney Olympic Games in2000 (the first Olympic Games at which

women’s water polo was an included event).During a period of five years, Lane isreported to have carried three pregnanciesto term without anyone – including her teammates, family or boyfriend – knowing. Two ofthe children were adopted, and Lane wasconvicted of murdering the middle child.She is also reported to have terminated twopregnancies. Lane subsequently had a fourthchild, which she kept. There was extensivemedia coverage of Keli Lane’s case inAustralia, providing a rich source of dataspecifically on the topic of being a motherand an elite athlete, within the relativelyintense context of a murder trial.

Limited studies have examined mediaaccounts of mothers on trial for murderingtheir children outside of the sportingcontext. Robson (2005), for example,argued that in media representations of amother on trial for the starvation death ofher infant in a homeless shelter in Canada,the media served to position the defendantas a ‘bad mother’, thereby locating responsi-bility for the death with the mother and over-looking social factors such as poverty and alack of resources or support. In doing so,Robson also argued that the media repro-duced notions of ‘good mothering’, such asthe mother as selfless and sacrificing hergoals for her child (see Ladd-Taylor &Umanksy, 1998) and motherhood as naturaland instinctive (Connolly, 2000). Moreover,in an analysis of the case of a motherconvicted of drowning her five children,depicting motherhood as natural andrequiring self-sacrifice again served to down-play external factors such as a lack of socialsupport in locating blame for the deaths ofthe children (West & Lichtenstein, 2006).

Thus, building on Goodwin andHuppatz’s (2010b) edited collection ofresearch examining a diversity of ‘goodmother’ constructions, and constructions ofmotherhood evident in media examinationsof mothers on trial for murdering theirchildren (Robson, 2005; West & Lichten-stein, 2006), examining the media coverageof Keli Lane’s case provides us with an



avenue to look at how the ideal of the ‘goodmother’ is constructed in relation to athleteidentity.

MethodThis paper takes as its data 326 articles fromeight widely-read Australian newspapers –The Australian, The Advertiser, The SydneyMorning Herald, Daily Telegraph, The Age,Herald Sun, The West Australian, and TheCourier Mail. These newspapers include bothnational and a variety of different state-basedpublications; they also represent a mixtureof broadsheet and tabloid publications, anda mix of media ownership. The articlesanalysed were published between 2004,when Keli Lane was first accused of themurder, through to 2011, when she wassentenced. The media coverage was notconsistent during this time; there werecertain periods, even dates, on which therewas an increase in coverage. This is reflectedin the data presented below. Typically, thesepeaks in coverage related to a new develop-ment in the case, such as Lane’s sentencing.

The collected articles were initially codedinto broad themes, relating to dominantpresentations of Keli Lane, athletes andmothers. From there, a representative sub-set of each major pattern was sampled forthe purposes of more in-depth analysis. Inparticular, we draw on a social construc-tionist and critical approach to discursiveanalysis, focussed on the socially-constitutiveand action-oriented nature of language (e.g.Edwards & Potter, 1992; Potter, 1996;Wetherell, 1998). Specifically, we focus onexamining repeated patterns and represen-tations in the articles – especially thoseconstructing certain versions of athleteidentity and motherhood, and the relation-ship between the two – and on consideringwhat the text is accomplishing andconstructing, rather than treating theaccounts merely as reports or descriptions ofreal events.

AnalysisThe analysis we present here focuses on theways in which Keli Lane was constructedwithin the media accounts under analysis. Inparticular, we examined how Lane was posi-tioned as a mother and athlete, and howmotherhood was represented in relation toelite sport. Although these identity categorieswere worked up within the relatively uniquecontext of reporting around an allegedmurder, we suggest that the specific ways inwhich the categories were constructed is stillof interest. Indeed, it was by virtue of thesignificant context of the murder trial thatKeli Lane’s role as a mother and an athletewere called into question, providing rich dataon culturally dominant meanings. We arguethat, typically, the identity categories of ‘eliteathlete’ and ‘mother’ were depicted as mutu-ally exclusive, functioning to reproduce thesocial context in which it remains difficult forwomen to combine both roles. Furthermore,we also note the invisibility of the sportingcontext in these news articles, with KeliLane’s case largely attributed to individual,rather than social, factors. Thus, the analysisis structured in two parts: firstly, the exami-nation of the representation of the categories‘mother’ and ‘athlete’; and secondly, anexploration of the causal factors associatedwith Keli Lane’s case.

Mother vs. athlete In examining the descriptions of Keli Lanein the news media under analysis, we suggestthat Keli Lane was typically positioned aseither a mother or an athlete. Indeed, thetension between these roles was cited ascentral in Lane’s motivation to commit themurder. As will be discussed, this motive wasnot condoned in the media accounts andwas frequently depicted as indicative of someindividual misperception or even pathology.However, the media accounts themselvesarguably functioned to reproduce an incom-patibility between motherhood and elitesporting participation. This is particularlyclear in reports of Lane’s relationship withthe daughter she continues to parent now.


Motherhood within elite sport discourse: The case of Keli Lane

Motherhood and sport as mutually exclusiveThroughout the articles concerned prima-rily with the accusation of murder and theadoption of her other children, Keli Lanewas overwhelmingly described in terms ofher identity as an athlete, and not ascribedpositioning as a mother. This was particularlyevident in the person reference terms usedexplicitly to depict Lane:

Sports star killed her baby, court told. (10 August 2010, The Advertiser)An athlete wept, cuddled and kissed herfirst baby during access visits but wasdetermined to have the infant adopted, a jury has been told. (17 August 2010, The Advertiser)

In both these typical instances, Keli Lane wasdescribed, first and foremost, as an ‘athlete’and as a ‘sports star’, rather than as a‘mother’. Other descriptions included‘sporting champion’, ‘golden girl’, ‘waterpolo champion’, and ‘water polo player’.Furthermore, although Lane’s status as amother is implied by the references to ‘her (first) baby’ (extracts above, emphasisadded) and the category-bound activity(Sacks, 1992) of ‘cuddling and kissing’, typi-cally associated with the identity category‘mother’, the ultimate weight of the state-ments above arguably lies with activities thatviolate the category of ‘mother’: being‘determined to have the infant adopted’ and‘kill[ing] her baby’. Indeed, Lane was rarelydescribed overtly as a ‘mother’ in thesearticles.

Further, throughout the media accounts,an incompatibility between being a motherand being an elite athlete was particularlysalient in the descriptions of Lane’s allegedmotive for the murder of her child (as well asfor having her other children adopted andpregnancies terminated). Lane is repre-sented as wanting to pursue her sportinggoals and, in particular, her dream ofcompeting in the 2000 Olympics. Thefollowing provide some examples of the waysin which this motive was described:

She said it was her goal to play water polofor Australia in the Sydney Olympics in

2000 and having a child would preventher from doing so. (21 June 2005, The West Australian) The crown has alleged she kept threepregnancies secret – adopting out twoinfants and murdering Tegan - becauseshe wanted to compete in the 2000Sydney Olympics. (25 August 2010, TheAdvertiser)At her trial, prosecutors argued the waterpolo champion murdered Tegan in 1996,two days after the baby’s birth, to pursueher sporting ambitions. (15 December2010, Sydney Morning Herald)

Lane’s motivation was clearly presented hereas being ‘to pursue her sporting ambitions’(first extract above). Although the steps shetook in pursuing these goals (‘adopting outtwo infants and murdering Tegan’, thirdextract above) were clearly not condoned inthe media coverage, a tension betweenmotherhood and elite sporting success wasoriented to here. Moreover, it was specificallymotherhood – rather than, for example,pregnancy – that was represented as prob-lematic for Lane’s success and continuedidentity as an athlete. For example:

The Crown alleges that, with her sightsset on competing for Australia at the2000 Olympics, the nationalrepresentative did not want herambitions derailed by having to bring upa child. (11 August 2010, Sydney MorningHerald)‘She said she didn’t feel in a position tocare for her baby because she had certaingoals and things she wanted to achieve.She told me she was a competitive waterpolo player and her ambition was tocompete in the Sydney 2000 Olympics,’she [a social worker] said. (13 August2010, The Age)

Here, ‘bringing up’ or ‘caring’ for a childwas depicted as ‘derailing ambitions’ andpreventing the achievement of goals. Thus, itwas the social role of mothering that waspresented as the issue in these accounts; thephysical challenges of competing duringpregnancy and recovering from labour and



childbirth were not raised. Indeed, Keli Lanecontinued to compete throughout her preg-nancies (in one instance, she is reported tohave played a grand final game, beforecommencing labour later the same day).

Lane was also repeatedly depicted asexperiencing a dilemma between theoptions available to her:

…the crime was committed out ofdesperation arising ‘from a sense ofentrapment and isolation’… The judgesaid that despite her ‘golden girl’exterior, beneath the surface Lane hadbeen a very ‘troubled young woman’ whowas ‘deeply conflicted as to the properdirection for her life to take’. (16 April2011, Courier Mail)

Again, implied in this description of Lane astrapped and uncertain about her life’s direc-tion is the notion that she had to choosebetween contrasting options: motherhood orsport.

Mother as possible nowFollowing the pregnancies that Keli Lanehad while competing as an athlete, shesubsequently gave birth to another child,which she kept in her care. The constructionof Lane in the reporting around this child isin clear contrast to the other depictions,described above. Here, her role and identityas a mother is much more salient, if notdominant. Moreover, she is depicted as agood, loving and devoted mother:

Former water polo champion KeliLane… convicted of murdering one ofher three secret babies, was a ‘verybalanced, excellent mother’ to herfourth child. (19 March 2011, TheAdvertiser)…the love and devotion that has grownbetween Lane and her nine-year-olddaughter has transformed her into awoman widely admired for her parentingskills and involvement in her localcommunity. (16 April 2011, The SydneyMorning Herald)Keli Lane is the kind of mother whodoesn’t just arrange a birthday party, she

makes them the most fun ever. Shedoesn’t hire clowns or outsource theentertainment, she meticulously plansthe games, makes the props and runs theaction herself. Barefoot in the backyard,she has 30 kids joyously transfixed, asother parents look on in amazement ather drive and enthusiasm. That’s becauseher child is Lane’s whole world. (16 April2011, Daily Telegraph)

These extracts provide examples of the kindsof ways in which Lane’s mothering, subse-quent to the end of her athletic career, wasreported in the media. Lane is constructednot only as an ‘excellent’ mother, but assomeone whom others recognise and admirefor her ‘parenting skills’, ‘drive and enthu-siasm’. She is positioned as personallyfulfilled, but also as giving to others, as aresult of embracing the role of mother. Herrole as an athlete (or former athlete) is nolonger the focus here, and she is arguablyconstructed as reformed: She has been‘transformed’ by her relationship with herdaughter. Indeed, the contrast (oftenimplicit, but explicit in the second extractabove) between the representations of KeliLane the athlete who was convicted ofmurdering her child, and Keli Lane theloving mother, is striking. This contrastingpositioning in the media accounts can beseen to construct the ‘good mother’ andathletic competition as mutually exclusiveactivities and identities. Many accountsdepicted Lane as now able to be a (good)mother, when she previously was unable. Forexample:

It seems that, when she fell pregnant withthis daughter in 2001, in Lane’s mind shecould now finally have the child shecouldn’t before. (16 April 2011, The Age)Lane has grown in the joy of the love ofher child -- a love she once believed shecouldn’t have. (16 April 2011, DailyTelegraph)

These kinds of representations constructLane as unable to have a child (and the asso-ciated ‘joy’ and ‘love’) while an athlete, func-tioning to position motherhood and being



an athlete as incompatible roles. While preg-nant and an athlete, Lane is depicted asmaking a choice between keeping the childand pursuing her sporting goals; once shestopped competing, she is described as beingable to embrace and enjoy motherhood.

Causal factorsWithin the media articles around the case ofKeli Lane, there were, of course, accounts ofthe causal factors that led to the tragicevents. A notable absence in these accounts,however, was any discussion of the contextand culture of sporting competition withinwhich Lane’s actions took place. Instead,those factors discussed largely tended topresent the problem as an individual one.Some rare accounts did also mention thepossibility that the experience of abortionand the barriers to adoption may haveplayed a role. These will be consideredbelow.

Individual factorsAs discussed, Lane was depicted asperceiving that becoming a mother wouldimpede her goals as an athlete. In terms ofthe dilemma she faced between motherhoodand competitive sport, Lane was representedas feeling that she did not have an option:

She had to, she claimed, give up her babyTegan. (12 March 2011, Daily Telegraph)…she illogically felt trapped. (16 April2011, Courier Mail)From her perspective, irrational thoughit was, there was simply no way out.(16 April 2011, The Australian)

In these kinds of representations, Lane’ssense that there was ‘no way out’ waspresented as irrational, erroneous or illog-ical. Such a construction functions to locatethe problem within her, as an individual,while overlooking or obscuring any socialfactors which may have contributed to orshaped her perceived lack of options. Thatis, despite literature suggesting thatcombining the roles of athlete and mothercontinues to be highly challenging (e.g.Palmer & Leberman, 2009), Lane’s ‘irra-

tional’ ‘perspective’ is constructed as an indi-vidual deficit, and attention is deflected awayfrom structural barriers (e.g. organisationalsupport) to competing while a mother.

Similarly, in some accounts, Lane’ssecrecy and isolation around her pregnan-cies were presented as having some causalrelationship with the subsequent crime.Once again, these were depicted as indi-vidual factors, for example:

It is a tragedy… for whatever reason, KeliLane could not tell her mother all thoseyears ago of the secret births of her threechildren… the tragic circumstancesunderlying the present trial could havebeen avoided, obviously enough, if Kelicould have brought herself to reveal hersecrets to her mother. (16 April 2011, The Advertiser)

In Palmer and Leberman’s (2009) study,female athletes reported that becomingpregnant was considered by others to denoteretirement from competition. Announcing apregnancy, therefore, may not be an easydecision for an athlete not wanting to retire.However, in accounts of Keli Lane’s experi-ence, such as that presented above, thisbroader context of sporting culture isrendered invisible, with the focus instead ofLane as an individual.

Abortion trauma and barriers to adoptionWhere media articles did attend to broaderfactors that may have affected the case ofKeli Lane was in relation to consideringtrauma of terminating a pregnancy, as well ascultural stigma around making a child avail-able for adoption. Such accounts were rare,but worth mentioning here. The followingextracts provide two examples:

The barriers faced by young women whowant to adopt out their unwanted babiesexplain why adoption in Australia hasfallen to record lows… The anti-adoptionindustry has done its job well,stigmatising adoption as some sort ofsocial crime, far worse than abortion -- ofwhich Australia has 90,000 a year -- andworse, in Keli Lane’s eyes, even than



killing her baby. (16 December 2010,Herald Sun)Cook [the national director of AbortionGrief Australia] said the public contemptfor Lane would be better directedtowards the medical profession, whichhad failed to address the psychiatricaftermath of the abortion procedure.‘Lane’s replacement pregnanciesfollowing her first abortion, heavydrinking, and partying lifestyle fit theprofile of a woman struggling withunresolved abortion grief and trauma’,Cook said. ‘The fact that Keli carriedthree pregnancies to term after herabortions, knowing she was unable tokeep these children, is an indication of a struggle with enormous grief.’ (18 December 2010, Daily Telegraph)

Both of these examples from the data setprovide a focus on broader social factorscontributing to this case, rather thanconstructing the problem as solely locatedwithin Keli Lane herself. It is not the goal ofthis paper to discuss in any depth the repre-sentations here of abortion or adoption.Rather, we would highlight that, even here,the social context surrounding sportingcompetition and motherhood remainedinvisible.

DiscussionThis brief analysis has focussed on exam-ining Australian media reporting around thecase of Keli Lane. In examining repeatedpatterns and constructions in this series ofnews media articles, we argue that thesemedia accounts function simultaneously to(re)produce motherhood and athleticcompetition as being at odds with one other,while also locating the problem of that beliefwithin Keli Lane as an individual. Thepresent media case thus contrasted withprevious media representations of motherson trial for murder, where the women weredepicted 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’ bymurdering her child. However, she isdepicted as subsequently redeeming her roleas a ‘good mother’, once she was no longeran athlete. Although she was constructed asa ‘bad mother’ largely due to the allegedmurder and adoption of her first children,the ways in which this category was workedup and made sense of – that is, primarily inrelation to her motivation and role as anelite athlete – functions to reproducenotions of the ideal ‘good’ mother – onewho is self-sacrificing and does not put herown ambitions and desires before that of herchild. Thus, in creating this contrast, thetension between the roles of athlete andmother is further reproduced.

Notably, the role of the sporting environ-ment in facilitating (or constraining) thecombination of sport and motherhoodremained invisible in the data analysed here,despite previous research (Palmer &Leberman, 2009) indicating this may be abarrier for women attempting to carry outboth roles. Indeed, in other cases of womenaccused of murdering their children(Robson, 2005; West & Lichtenstein, 2006),media accounts deflected attention from thesocial factors and located blame within thewoman. In the present case, Lane is depictedas choosing her sporting career over moth-erhood, thus locating responsibility withLane herself and overlooking the role of thesporting environment in allowing the twopursuits to be combined. Women experi-encing or, like Keli Lane, predicting diffi-culty in combining motherhood and elitesport are thus positioned as individuallyresponsible for managing such difficulties.Thus, the sporting mother is constructed aspossible within contemporary society, but tobe a good sporting mother (see Goodwin &Huppatz’s (2010a) description of differenttypes of ‘good mothers’), is represented asdependent on the individual. Keli Lane, inthese media accounts, is positioned as failingto be a good sporting mother, due to specificindividual factors.



This argument runs in parallel with thosethat have been made previously aroundworking mothers (e.g. Chesterman & Ross-Smith, 2010; Johnston & Swanson, 2006).Women who are both employed andmothers are now the norm in Westerncontemporary society, and it is very commonfor employers to have equity and family-friendly policies, which seek to provideopportunities for women to combine roles.Yet, writers such as Chesterman and Ross-Smith (2010) have demonstrated how, inpractice, there remains a clear contradictionbetween the dominant cultural notions of agood worker and a good mother. Within thiscontext, it is ‘women themselves whofrequently assume responsibility formanaging their work arrangements andaccepting the consequences of makingchanges. The organisation is largely absolvedfrom any responsibility for such decisions’(Chesterman & Ross-Smith, 2010,pp.38–39). In the sporting context, a similarsituation might be seen to exist: Although itis increasingly normal for women tocombine the roles of motherhood andsporting competition, the onus seems to beon individual women, rather than sportingorganisations, to manage the challengeswhich persist and to become good sportingmothers.

Following other writers (e.g. Goodwin &Huppatz, 2010a; Johnston & Swanson,2006), it is worth noting that the range ofmotherhood identities possible in contem-porary culture is ‘unprecedented’ (Johnson& Swanson, 2006, p.510). Mothers who arealso elite athletes are one example of anidentity previously unavailable to women.And yet, ‘motherhood remains a site ofintense governmental control and regula-tion’ (Goodwin & Huppatz, 2010a, p.7).Thus, although increasing numbers ofwomen are taking up identities of both‘mother’ and ‘athlete’, it is important toexamine cultural understandings aroundthis combination and their implications forwomen seeking to engage in both thesespheres. This paper aimed to contribute tothe scholarly work in this area.

CorrespondenceSuzanne CoshSchool of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.Email: [email protected]



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References

IN THIS PAPER we explore issues to dowith telling, hearing, and witnessingtaboo tales – stories that are difficult to

share because they contravene culturalexpectations or assumptions in some way. Bydoing so, we ask some ethical questionsconcerning the relationships that exist or areestablished between researcher/s and parti-cipant/s. Particularly when it comes to tabootales, the nature and history of these rela-tionships affect the kinds of experiences thatmay be shared and, therefore, the under-standings and insights generated.

A recurring theme in feminist researchhas been how the relationship betweenresearcher and participant is obscuredthrough traditional scientific methods (e.g.Behar, 1993; Fine et al., 2000). In recentyears, set against the backdrop of a ‘crisis ofrepresentation’ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000),qualitative researchers have turned to alter-native ways of writing (which include stories,songs and poetic representations) as a means

of turning a reflexive gaze on their ownethical dilemmas, experiences, research rela-tionships and research practice (Ether-ington, 2004). Given that writing is a bothmethod of discovery as well as analysis, andthat through the writing process, ‘we discovernew aspects of our topic and our relationshipto it’’ (Richardson, 2000, p.923), writing indifferent ways provides a means throughwhich a researcher to can become bothreflexive and reflective (Etherington, 2003,2007). While we have incorporated anelement of critical reflexivity throughcreative 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 oftransparency to our longitudinal researchwith women in elite sport. While there aremany factors that account for this omission,one factor has perhaps been the impact forthe lead researcher of emotionally revisitingstories that were traumatic to hear.


Taboos in sport

Taboo tales in elite sport: Relationships,ethics, and witnessingKitrina Douglas & David Carless

The traditional (positivist) paradigm within psychological research typically requires a separation betweenthe 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 interpretiveparadigms are often advised against conducting research with friends or acquaintances. Against this viewfeminists have argued that the researcher must enter into a relationship with a participant if she is to gaina rich understanding of another’s experience. Issues concerning researcher-participant relationships havecome 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 astorytelling approach we explore how relational characteristics between the lead researcher and participantsinfluenced how the research progressed, the insights that were gained, and the ethical implications thatarose. We suggest that, despite the challenges they can create, the kinds of relationships ‘insider’ status offerslead to valuable and even unique insights by allowing individuals to voice taboo issues which are too oftenunseen or silenced. We conclude that if research is to improve psychological support for elite female athletesthen this kind of approach has an important contribution to make. Keywords: Elite sport; insider; narrative; relationships; transition; well-being.

As narrative scholars we share the under-standing that narrative inquiry has much tooffer psychology in that it can provide ‘a more sophisticated appreciation of peopleas active social beings and focus attention onthe way personal and cultural realities areconstructed through narrative and story-telling’ (Sparkes & Partington, 2003, p.293).For us, a storytelling approach allows us torecreate, in an evocative and embodied way,pivotal experiences and moments. We dothis here through an autoethnographicaccount (written by Kitrina) that recreatesevents with one particular participant whichstimulated reflection on the impact anddiversity of taboo stories that arose withother participants during longitudinalresearch into the lives of female professionalgolfers (Carless & Douglas, 2009; Douglas,2004, 2009; Douglas & Carless, 2006, 2008a,2008b, 2009a, 2009b; Sparkes & Douglas,2007). This approach allows us to highlightthe dilemmas researchers can face whenconducting longitudinal qualitativeresearch, as well as the promise thisapproach offers when it comes to gettingbehind the veneer of the cross-sectionalstudies more typical in sport psychology.

A re-storied rememberingHere I am with one the world’s most well-known golfers. She arrived, eyes red fromcrying, and made little eye contact. I havealready felt an uncomfortable squeeze,trying to walk in someone else’s shoes, buthow can I reach out and share now? Do Ieven want to share more? I ask myself: Whatis going on here?

We hug and say little. Tom says a briefhello and, sensing that this is not his placeanymore, leaves and lets us use his house.She has travelled hours to see me. I’mworking away from home delivering semi-nars all over the UK, staying with Tombecause this week’s seminars were near hishome. I’m tired, giving workshops has beendraining, the male golf coaches who makeup the delegate list are demanding and toooften sexist, elitist, aggressive…

When I started to explore our lives insport, to probe other women’s lives, whatstories did I expect? When I dared to askquestions, what responses was I anticipating?Perhaps it wasn’t the questions that did it. I listened… I was open and now I am in tearswith these women. How can I tell theirstories? The PhD study that started all this off– What’s the drive in golf? Motivation and persist-ence in women professional golfers – sounds astraightforward enough area of academicstudy.

It started with Leanne, telling me aboutthrowing up before every round of golf. Yes,being sick, vomiting and, she said, ‘That wasnormal for me’. A very talented child, butnot wanting to be there, she said, ‘It nearly costme my sanity.’ Then there was her cheatingand throwing events to get away from thepressure. Imagine a golfer throwing an eventbecause she couldn’t stand the pressure.And who was there to help her? But it didn’tstop there. Years of self-harm, scratching andhitting herself with golf clubs, she said, ‘Yousee this knuckle?’ pointing to the raisedlump on the middle of her hand. ‘I got thatfrom hitting my hand with my putter. I hadto punish myself for being there.’ Didn’tanyone notice? Where were the selectorswho chose her to represent their country?Where were the parents, the captains, thecoaches? Didn’t anyone notice? Didn’t I notice? Sure, she says me and some otherplayers helped her leave, but that was afteryears of self-harm. Did I really care? Was I tooconcerned with where my little white ball wasgoing?

My mind came back to the present asAnna began to talk. ‘I was sexually abused’,she said, taking a few sips from the mug oftea, ‘when I was 12,’ once again twisting therapidly disintegrating tissue, eyes facingnowhere, trying to find the words. This iswhat she had driven hundreds of miles to tellme. Her text the previous day was short:‘Please read your emails, don’t call me I can’ttalk’. Now we sat opposite each other, shecurled in the corner of one sofa, lookingtiny, me as relaxed as it was possible to be,


Taboo tales in elite sport: Relationships, ethics, and witnessing

attentive, aware, mind racing – how to react?– analysing my every movement, facialexpression, minute gesture. What to say?How to respond? I had no words. All I haveto offer is love – how can I help? – but I don’tsay the words. Again, I ask myself: What isgoing on here? She continues:

A man I couldn’t get awayHe made me I can still smell his,His breathHis strengthI didn’t tell my mumThey had problemsShe wondered why I had been so long at the shopBut she didn’t…

I wonder, why now, 30 years on? I’m depressedRonnie’s been greatCalled me everyday on the phoneHe just lets me cry for hoursHe keeps saying I should see someoneI said I need to see you first

And I wonder, why me? I wonder what Ishould be doing and remember Tom’s wordsbefore Anna arrived and he left – that I amnot a counsellor, that she needs professionalhelp. I want to sort the problem out. I can’tsort this problem out. I am helpless like she.

She continues: ‘That’s why I always hadproblems with relationships.’ Now my mindis making links with our discussions duringsome of the interviews, she wanted to getmarried, have children, it appeared her golfcame first, it appeared that’s what was impor-tant.

Remember Mike?He would grab meHe was very physicalIt reminded me of…He would kiss me like…It brought back…I would be physically sick

There were only seven women interviewed inmy PhD, plus two ‘pilot’ interviews. One ofthese was Hannah. She said, ‘I set fire to arow of buses – I was never ever out of trouble

with the police.’ She talked about her disaf-fected childhood, she’s now a player theworld reveres – of course, no-one remembersthat. ‘I maimed a girl’ – no-one remembersthat either. Perhaps the girl still does? Shameis engraved on Hannah’s face – she stillremembers the violence that marked herchildhood, until she found golf. ‘Oh I don’tmind if anyone knows who I am’, she said.

One of Europe’s most well known golfheroines – does she realise what she issaying? That I should not use a pseudonym?How would the press tell this one? But thatmeans I am deciding – is that right? Am Iusing my power to silence her voice? Shedescribes her body now, maimed and disfig-ured by a surgeon’s knife, convenientlyremoving her opportunity for motherhood,whipping it out to make everything in sportalright, you know, solve the ‘woman’s prob-lems.’ It would be alright, the surgeon saidshe’d be ‘back to normal’ in a few weeks,back to her powerful, strong winning ways. ‘I feel like Mrs Doubtfire’s body double’, shesaid, making a joke. ‘I can’t talk or I’ll fill upwith tears.’ And so I change the subject, waryof pushing the boundaries. She continued,‘Sometimes I just drive away somewhere onmy own, and just sit for hours. They said itwould all heal up. They said… and it’s justhanging… I can’t share a room – I don’twant anyone to see.’ You can’t hide yourbody when you are a professional in sport,everyone sees.

I look back at Anna and say, ‘I knowsomeone I’d like you to see, a counsellor, I think she could really help.’ I feel I’mtaking an easy way out, passing the buck.

I’m useless at everythingI didn’t do very well at schoolMy dad, I think he shook me coz I didn’t understand myhomeworkI think he…I know……he did

How long have you been like this?


Kitrina Douglas & David Carless

Berni was another participant chasing thedream sold in sport culture. I asked somehard questions – of a player who had playedfor several years and who had won at best£1000 a year. Why did she do it? She wantedto win. She wanted to show people she wasgood enough. ‘What will it mean if you neverwin?’ 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 beinga good social science researcher was, thewords came out of my mouth: ‘And whatwould being worthless mean to you?’ ‘That I can’t contribute to those around me. Thatit would have been better off if I had notbeen here. There have been some fleetingmoments… like putting a gun to my head…it is humiliating.’

And then Debbie, one of her country’smost successful young players: ‘I’d have hugehighs, dashing around doing lots of house-work and stuff. Then I’d come crashingdown and I couldn’t do anything… onvalium for three months, shaking, hearingvoices, terrible… I was suicidal… I over-dosed… couldn’t cope, it was awful, inside,seeing what people were like with severedepression… the white coats… locked uplike monkeys. And all because I thought mygolf was failing… I’m a failure.’

How can so many women feel so worth-less? Isn’t sport supposed to be healthy?Don’t we say to young people that sport isgood?

‘After my mother’s death I becameseverely depressed’, Kandy said. ‘My motherwas very religious, I watched her turn herback on God. I got very thin, I wasn’t hungry,I smoked – a lot. I couldn’t sleep. I have afriend who is a psychiatrist, she put me onmedication. It took a long time. That tour-nament win was important – I had to win formy mother – it was like closing the book. Shemade me play golf. I hated it – was bullied bythe boys.’

Kandy wasn’t the only one to talk aboutdeath. ‘I couldn’t be there for her’, Hannahsaid, ‘when my father died. It’s different for

me you see Kitrina, I’m not like you, I don’tbelieve what you do. For me, when my daddied it was the end. And I couldn’t be therefor my mother, I couldn’t get back fromSpain. But, I’ve thrown events too – tellLeanne – after my dad died. I shouldn’t haveplayed but, but everyone was saying it waswhat he would have wanted. Then comingdown the last I realised I could never againshare anything with him. How could anyonepossibly have known what my dad wouldhave wanted? Then I realised I just didn’twant it, not at that moment, the golf coursewas not the place to be. So I purposefully hitbad shots on the last hole and threw theevent 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 thelast hole.’

Anna carries on:I was always sensitive about being butchI had to prove I wasn’t lesbianSo I had sex withAfter, I felt so used…So, there was no…

After a long time, half sentences and expla-nations, we had another cup of tea. ‘Look’, I said, ‘I wasn’t educated when I stoppedplaying, I didn’t have A-levels either, but I love learning, I wanted to do a degree. Allthe other students were 20 years youngerthan me, all with A-level maths. I felt a littlestupid at times but when I didn’t know some-thing I got help – there’s no shame in being‘uneducated’, it’s OK not to be good atsomething, its OK not be good, it is funlearning. Is any of this helping?’

We go for a walk along the canal. Annaspots a kingfisher, bright blue skimming thewater and hiding. We stand and silentlyobserve in awe – its beauty, speed, colour. I sense we are different, though. I am notcompetitive, some people say I must be,people who’ve never met me before actuallytry and tell me that I am! You cannot believethe number of people that try to tell me whatI must feel. ‘Come on Kitrina,’ they say infrustration, ‘so you won a dozen times on



tour and you weren’t competitive? Yeahright!’ they mock. ‘I am’, Anna says, ‘I lovecompetition.’ ‘Well I’m not’, I say. ‘Let metell you what I love…’

We walk on in silence. She reflects on mylist and says, ‘Maybe I would be better offlooking for work outside of golf.’ We go backto Tom’s house, drink more tea. Tom, afterhours walking on the moors, returns to hishome. We make plans for dinner, friendscome round, Anna stays and joins in, laughsfor what probably is the first time in a longwhile. And then, rising to the occasion, thechampion golfer takes centre stage, and likea dog with a bone she finds something theothers will laugh at and won’t let it alone. Ofcourse, it is me whom the joke is pointed atand me the mickey is taken out of allevening. I get upset within, inside, at herinsensitivity but attempt to allow her healingto put me down. I recognise the typical jockbehaviour and reaffirm my dislike of it all. I wonder, am I like that too? I’m disap-pointed it has happened like this but see inher behaviour that she’s feeling better and,strangely, I am glad and relieved. She leavesafter dinner. What do I do with all of this?Where does all this fit with sport research?

Tom sits down after everyone has leftand, knowing why Anna was here, it’s his firstchance to ask how I am. Like a relay teammember I pass the baton on, glad to down-load.

ReflectionsWhile we resist forcing a summary or resolu-tion on the preceding story, we would like toreflect on two particular questions whichloom large. The first concerns a disjuncturebetween the kinds of stories participantsshared in our research, and the kinds ofrepresentations of elite athletes’ lives thatare typically found in sport psychology, sportsociology, 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 talewithout a receptive and appreciative listener,and one who is usually part of a wider

community of support.’ This understandingpoints to one reason why these stories maynot have been told: the women had simplynever perceived the presence of a receptive,supportive, and appreciative listener. Thatwomen experienced their tales as untellablefor this reason informs us about not only theindividual teller but also, as Michele Crossley(2000) notes, the culture in which they live.More specifically, the stories – and theirsilence until now – tell us about theprevailing interests, assumptions, and valuesof others within sport culture.

It sometimes seems to us, in the midst ofmore than a decade’s narrative research withelite athletes, a kind of ‘grand illusion’occurs in sport culture where the realities ofathletes’ lives are obscured by a façade ofperformance outcomes and technicalities.Lost is the human-ness – replaced by a mech-anistic portrayal gained from distanced andmeasurement-oriented methodologies.Stories not perceived to fit this performance-focussed template, are frequently missed,shunned, disbelieved, or rejected. As scien-tific portrayals feed the perspectives andinterests of others in sport, are we in dangerof creating a culture of blindness – a sharedsilence – regarding critical issues in athletes’lives, in the mistaken belief that all thatmatters are performance outcomes?

The story portrays how silence is broken– or redressed – through the presence of aresearcher in whom participants confide.What is it, though, that leads participants tojudge Kitrina a receptive and appreciativelistener? The nature of the relationship thatexists, or is established, between her and theparticipants seems critical (see also Bracken-ridge, 1999). Several relational characteris-tics are evident in the story, prominentthough is reciprocity. Reciprocity is demon-strated by the participant ‘giving’ to theresearcher (her stories, her time) as she‘gives’ care and help to the participant in atime of need.

On the face of it, Kitrina’s and Anna’spurposes for the interaction differ: one seeksto research; the other seeks help, guidance,



or support. Yet, in the event, both purposesseem to at times be satisfied: Kitrina hearsstories which progress the research as Anna– and other participants too – tell untoldstories to potentially therapeutic ends (seeSparkes & Douglas, 2007). At this moment, a narrative research process which elicits andsupports untold stories – with the purpose,in Peter Clough’s (2002, p.67) terms, ‘of‘turning up the volume’ on the depressed orinaudible voice’ – has much in common withJohn McLeod’s (1997, p.95) perspective ontherapy: ‘The experience of telling, of givingvoice to areas of experience that have beensilenced, seems to me to be at the heart ofany kind of therapy.’

At other times, Anna’s and Kitrina’sneeds are in tension – leading the researcherto put aside her agenda in order to attend tothe participant’s needs. This ethical andmoral stance perhaps gets closest to definingthe relationship required to support partici-pants in telling taboo tales: Kitrina putsAnna’s needs above the research in order tocare and offer support. A genuine sense ofreciprocity – specifically, recognising andacting on the researcher’s debt or obligationto the participant/s – seems to us unusual insport psychology research. Yet in our work, acommitment to reciprocity – as a conse-quence of a caring relationship establishedthrough being an insider to the population –importantly influenced the kinds of tale thatparticipants were able and willing to share.

A second question concerns what to dowith taboo tales once they have been toldand heard. This is a question we and otherswrestle with (e.g. Brackenridge, 1999; Smith,2002), and the story reveals some of the diffi-culties Kitrina experienced. Arthur Frank(1995, p.137) suggests witnessing to be animportant role, which means assuming‘responsibility for telling what happened.The witness offers testimony to a truth that isgenerally unrecognised or suppressed.’ Theact of bearing witness, Frank argues, impli-cates others because, ‘the witness makes awitness of others; a particular quality of theword witness is its movement outward…

to concentric circles of witness. Whensomeone receives testimony of another, thatperson becomes a witness, and so on’(p.142).

This is the spirit in which we offer to youthis witness account – as testimony ofKitrina’s experience and reflections on thetaboo tales she has been told. Telling a storyin this way shares the responsibility foraction – and sharing is necessary because theproblems are large, beyond any one person’sabilities. Crossley (2000, p.37) writes that acentral problem of psychology has been itstendency to, ‘locate ‘causes’ and ‘cures’ ofproblematic experiences within individuals.This, in turn, led to ‘ignoring or minimisingsocial context’’. Sharing stories is ultimatelyan act of witness which invites others toengage and respond. Instead of seeing theindividual as ‘the problem’, ‘the problem’ isinstead repositioned in culture therebyimplicating us all, sharing the burden ofresponsibility, and calling for socio-culturalchange within sport.

AcknowledgementsWe offer our sincere thanks to the womenwho have taken part in this research.Without their willingness and consent for usto share stories of their lives this work wouldnot have been possible.

Our thanks are also extended to dele-gates at the British Association of Sport andExercise Sciences Annual Conference andthe two anonymous reviewers for theirresponses to an earlier version of this manuscript.

CorrespondenceKitrina Douglas PhD91 Fedden Village, Nore Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8EJ.Email: [email protected]



Behar, R. (1993). Translated woman: Crossing the borderwith Esperanza’s story. Boston, MA: Beacon.

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Carless, D. (2010). Who the hell was that? Stories,bodies and actions in the world. QualitativeResearch in Psychology, 7(4), 332–344.

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Carless, D. & Douglas, K. (2009). ‘We haven’t got aseat on the bus for you’ or ‘All the seats aremine’: Narratives and career transition inprofessional golf. Qualitative Research in Sport andExercise, 1(1), 51–66.

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References

TWO CASES (or ‘scandals’) in the UShave re-ignited debate around thesexual abuse of children in sport. The

first was in swimming: under the headline‘Sex abuse pervasive in USA swimming’, theEntertainment and Sports ProgrammingNetwork (ESPN) reported in April 2010 thatAndy King, a 62-year-old coach, had beenconvicted of multiple counts of molestationand sentenced to 40 years imprisonment forabuse spanning at least 30 years. USA Swim-ming has apparently banned 46 coaches inrecent years, mainly over sexual misconduct,but it now faces multiple lawsuits allegingcover-ups within the organisation. This caseresonated with many in the UK following ourown ‘watershed’ moment in 1997 whenBritish Olympic swimming coach, PaulHickson, was convicted for 17 years for rapeand sexual assault (followed a few years laterby his boss, Mike Drew, for sexual offencesagainst boys). In the second case at PennState University, ex-assistant football coachJerry Sandusky, has recently been ‘foundguilty of 45 counts of serial paedophilia’(Pilkington, 2012). Investigations continueinto the alleged failure of senior universityofficials to report an earlier allegation ofabuse against Sandusky.

Over 10 years ago, the eminent sport sociologist Peter Donnelly (1999, p.108)argued that ‘sport organisations have, untilrecently, acted as if such things could notpossibly occur in the pristine world of sport.’Whether this is still the case largely dependsupon where in the world the organisationresides. In England a central body (The ChildProtection in Sport Unit) with regulatorypowers has responsibility for child protec-tion across all centrally funded sports and isthe first of its kind. However, acknowledgingthat sexual abuse occurs within sport(especially when faced with incontrovertibleevidence) and subsequently implementingchild protection procedures is one thing, butto consider that the values and cultural prac-tices upon which that social field has beenbuilt are, in fact, a fundamental part of theproblem, is something else entirely. Yet this isthe direction that feminist research andtheory on child sexual abuse has clearlyadvocated for some years (e.g. Etherington,1995) and this work has influenced my owninvestigation of the sexual abuse of boys insport (Hartill, 2009).

Herman (1990, p.188) illustrates thefeminist approach: ‘issues of power andexploitation must be addressed explicitly…organised male groups which foster tradi-


Taboos in sport

‘I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes’:Narratives of male-athleticism and thesexually-abused male child athleteMichael Hartill

Research into the sexual abuse of children in sport has a relatively short history and it is only within thelast decade that sports organisations have begun to take preventative measures against sexual violence andchild sexual abuse. To date, empirical and theoretical work within sport studies has concentrated on themale perpetrator and female victim. In this paper, drawing briefly upon interviews with male survivors ofsexual abuse in sport, I focus on the intersection between the ‘abuse narrative’ and the masculinistnarrative of male-sport and its impact on the sexually-abused male child.

tional sexist attitudes should be consideredhigh risk, since such misogynist attitudeshave been shown to be associated with sexu-ally exploitative behaviour.’ Thus, feministperspectives provided clear grounds forcritical theorists of sport to develop contex-tualised, gendered critiques of sexualexploitation and abuse. Following this line ofthought, in this paper, I want to brieflyaddress the silence that surrounds child-hood sexual abuse CSA in sport through anexamination of the dominant narratives ofboyhood sexual abuse, and of male-athleti-cism, that confront the male-child athletewho is being subjected to sexual activity withan adult male in a sports context.

Sexual abuse in sport research Within sport studies, feminist perspectiveshave been central to the consideration ofsexual harassment and abuse of athletes (e.g.Brackenridge 1994; Brackenridge & Fasting,2005; Kirby, Greaves & Hankivsky 2000). As in the wider field of CSA studies, thispersuasion has manifest in an early focus onthe female-athlete (victim) and the male-coach (perpetrator) (e.g. Brackenridge1997, 1998; Douglas & Carless, 2009; Fasting,Brackenridge & Walseth, 2007; Tomlinson &Yorganci, 1997) yet studies reveal the sexualabuse of male children is also a major socialproblem (e.g. Finkelhor, 1994; Gilbert et al.,2009). According to an Australian study ‘21per cent of male athletes reported experi-encing sexual abuse at some time in theirlives. Of these… 29 per cent had been sexu-ally abused within the sports environment’(Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002, p.16).

Donnelly (1999) and Brackenridge(2001) have drawn attention to the implica-tions for victim impact and disclosure thatthe particular constructions of masculinityprevalent within many sport contexts mayhold: ‘in the homophobic world of machosport it is easy to feel that one’s peers wouldbelieve that one should have been able toprevent it, and that failure to prevent it mustmean that it was consensual’ (Donnelly,1999, p.121). Dominant, essentialised,

mytho-poetic, notions of masculinity,especially athletic masculinities, have had adeleterious effect on the extent to which‘sexual abuse victim’ has been a plausibleclaim for young males. Nevertheless, much isnow known about the dynamics of male-child sexual abuse and its effects (seeHunter, 1990; Spiegel, 2003).

Within sport studies there has been someengagement with theoretical models of sexoffending in order to develop contextualisedexplanations of sexual exploitation in sport(Brackenridge & Kirby, 1997). Such workdraws critical attention to the ‘hypermas-culinist culture’ of sports within a patriarchalcontext rather than simply the shortcomingsor ‘deviance’ of individual male offenders(see Brackenridge, 2001). There is now anestablished feminist perspective within theliterature regarding the sexual harassmentand abuse of female athletes (including butnot exclusive to those under the age ofeighteen). The sexual abuse of male (child-)athletes has not received similar empirical ortheoretical 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 ‘wecannot assume that responses to sexualharassment in sport would be the same indifferent gender and sexuality mixes (e.g.male athlete/male harasser…).’ My researchhas focused on these issues.

Theoretical approachIn the remainder of this paper I utiliseJerome Bruner’s ideas on ‘narrative’ asshaping and structuring forces of perceptualexperience (e.g. Bruner, 1987) to considerthe accounts given within qualitative inter-views by men who had experienced CSA in asports context (see Hartill, 2011). AsAlvesson and Skoldberg (2009, p.7) state: a ‘distinguishing feature of qualitativemethods is that they start from the perspec-tive and actions of the subjects studied.’ Likeother research in this field (e.g. Bracken-ridge, 2001; Leahy et al., 2002) I felt it wasextremely important that my preliminary


Michael Hartill

research into this issue centred on the testi-mony of (and dialogue with) men that hadexperienced boyhood sexual abuse in sport.Implicit to my approach is the importance ofcontext for understanding the accountsdisclosed. For Lawler (2002) the significanceand value of the narrative approach is itsability to link the past to the present, and theindividual to the social. In particular, I drawattention to the way my research participants‘story’ the emotional impact of the abuse. In focusing on narrative models, I illustratethe relation between dominant public narra-tives of sexual abuse, male-athleticism, andthe silence that surrounds the sexual abuseof the ‘sportsboy’.

In the discussion below I draw briefly onthe interview accounts of two adult malesurvivors of CSA in sport. Will (a pseu-donym) captained his school rugby teamand was abused by his coach/teacher forover a year, aged 11, whilst SheldonKennedy, who went on to compete at thehighest level in ice-hockey, was abused by hiscoach throughout his teenage years.Sheldon has published an autobiographicalaccount of his experiences which I also drawupon (see Kennedy, 2006) in addition tointerview material. Sheldon and Will aretypical of adolescent boys who are subjectedto sexual activity by other (older) males –they keep it secret. If they do disclose, it isusually many years later.

Narratives of abuse, guilt and shameThe shame and guilt associated with CSA iswell documented and it is widely postulatedthat this shame may be even more severe formales than for females, and play a significantrole in the under-reporting of abuse. ForWill, abused by his rugby teacher:

I mean for me, for me, you knowejaculation – the first time I’ve everejaculated – I’m sorry to use these terms– but the first time I ever ejaculated wasat the hands of this man. Whatever one

says, the process of orgasm is quitepleasurable. And, of course, when thathappens – you know, you have thisimmense guilt that comes with it. Youknow… are you encouraging the man?Are you? I mean – I felt complicit, andthat silenced me.

The heteronormativity underpinning Will’saccount is no doubt a highly useful tool formen who engage boys in sexual activity,perhaps especially so in the context or socialspace of traditional team sports where homo-phobia is frequently normalised and boys arepersistently and publically ‘measured’ fortheir conformity to heterosexist norms andideals (Messner & Sabo, 1994). In such anenvironment, homosexual activity is funda-mentally deviant and, thus, unspeakable.1

It certainly does not seem unreasonable tosuggest that if the adult in Will’s account hadbeen a female, the ‘immense guilt’ he expe-rienced may not have materialised, or at leastnot in the same manner.2 According toSheldon:

I was plagued by all kinds of irrationalfears. Did the fact that Graham chose memean that I was gay? It was obvious thathe wasn’t giving this special attention tothe other boys, so why had he chosen me?... by saying no to one form of sex butallowing another to happen, was I reallyshowing a preference and thereforegiving Graham my consent? (Kennedy,2006, p.40).

The boys were all raised in families, commu-nities and cultures that were deeplysupportive of their proclivity for sport. InCanada, male achievement in hockey is heldin extremely high regard (as are those thatcan facilitate access to this world). There wasno dissent in the boys’ childhood years fromthe powerful messages they received abouttheir enthusiasm and skill in sport – it wasevery boy’s dream. Yet for Sheldon it was justthe opposite:


‘I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes’

1 Eric Anderson (2010) has recently argued that the culture of male sport may now be less homophobic.2 However, this is not to suggest that other adverse effects would not be experienced.

…the first time it happened to me, whenI was abused for the first time I wanted toget out of there – I didn’t want anythingto do with sport, I hated it… [but] I feltlike I had no choices after beingabused… 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 relateto or identify with. ‘In the homophobicworld of macho sport’ (Donnelly, 1999,p.121) it is not unreasonable to assume thatthe narrative of male-to-male abuse –centred on deviance, victimhood, trauma,paedophilia, homosexuality – may be socontrary to the narratives that structure malesports, that the sportsboy is thoroughlysilenced by the disjuncture (see also Alaggia,2005). The centrality of the father-son rela-tionship to this masculinist narrative is high-lighted by Sheldon:

It’s hard to say what my mom and dadwould have done if I’d told them… but itwas partially my fear of my father thatmade it so hard for me to tell anybody. I was afraid that dad would be ashamedof me. I was afraid of looking weak in hiseyes. I was afraid that he would somehowblame me for bringing this shame onmyself and the family by not being strongenough to resist…

DiscussionThe narratives that run through male-sportdefine contemporary boyhood – to be asportsboy means to be an ideal boy: physicaland strong, courageous, and (perhaps aboveall) heterosexual. The dominant narrativesof male-sport are the narratives ofmasculinism, including a masculinism thatprioritises males as the rightful protectors ofwomen and children (Young, 2003). Brittan(2001, p.53) argues:

Masculinism is the ideology that justifiesand naturalises male domination. Assuch, it is the ideology of patriarchy.

Masculinism takes it for granted thatthere is a fundamental differencebetween men and women, it assumes thatheterosexuality is normal, it acceptswithout question the sexual division oflabour, and it sanctions the political anddominant role of men in the public andprivate spheres.

The masculinist narrative does not includeabuse, victimhood, vulnerability or homosexu-ality. The boy who is abused in sport by hiscoach is simultaneously being taught therules of masculinism – you don’t cry, youdon’t give in, you don’t let others get thebetter of you; you are strong; are a winner,not a loser. In an environment wherestrength and victory really matters, weaknessand submission matters even more; withinthe phallocentric narrative of masculinism,weakness equates to the feminine. It isbecause of this narrative that sport is such apervasive choice for parents of malechildren. It is why fathers send their boys tofootball or rugby or cricket, at increasinglyyounger ages. It is from these constituents ofmasculinism that the sportsboy must thenassemble his life narrative (Bruner, 1987).These are the narrative markers and tools athis disposal, from which he forges hisidentity and character. For the sportsboy,then, the abuse narrative, that insists he is avictim, is anathema.

Woodiwiss (2009, p.22) suggests ‘it mayturn out to be that it is our contemporarystorying of CSA, with its emphasis onperceived damage, secrecy and guilt, that istraumatic, possibly more traumatic than theabuse itself…’ Nevertheless, the ‘abusenarrative’ (from which has emerged a‘survivor narrative’ based on a rejection ofvictimhood) is exceptionally important andhas been crucial to establishing the problemwithin policy-making agendas. Children whoare subjected to sexual activity are damagedby it and they need to know that what theyare being subjected to is indeed abusive(regardless of whether or not they perceive itas unwanted) and that they do not have totolerate it and should not feel guilty for


Michael Hartill

rejecting it, nor indeed ashamed fordisclosing it.

The establishment of the ‘survivor narra-tive’ has undoubtedly been a crucial step inrecognising childhood sexual abuse, theprofound effects it can have, and the processof ‘recovery’. However, there is perhaps agendered dimension only now being recog-nised. According to Hunter (2009, p.403):

…women are more likely to find thevictim and survivor discoursesempowering, whereas men are morelikely to find them stigmatising andunhelpful… this may enable morewomen than men to have a voice and towork through their experiences moreopenly, leading to better long-termadjustment than for male sexual abusevictims.

In the hypermasculinist world of competitivesport, it is a reasonable assumption that thiswill be especially true. This indicates thelimitations of the dominant ‘storying’ of CSA(which underpins much of the child protec-tion agenda) and that a core problem inaddressing this issue may be the nomencla-ture we provide for our children to compre-hend their experiences. But morefundamentally, ‘it is important to stress thatpublic narratives are powerful in structuringthe kinds of things that can be said (and,conversely, foreclosing certain kinds ofstory)’ (Lawler, 2002, p.252). In this manner,I have tried to illustrate how the narratives ofchild sex abuse and male-athleticismcombine to engender the silence of thesportsboy who is subjected to sex by an adultmale.

At a conservative estimate, 15 per cent ofboys in wealthy nations experience sexualabuse of some kind. If we want thesechildren, including children who aresuccessful in sports, to tell their stories ofabuse, when it happens rather than years later(if at all), the crucial role of academics andactivists in questioning the ‘canonical lifenarratives’ (Bruner, 1987, p.15) that we offerour children through popular culture isclear. Given the masculinist emphasis withinmale-athleticism, this endeavour is perhapsespecially urgent within the field of sport.

CorrespondenceMichael HartillEdge Hill University, Lancashire.Email: [email protected]


‘I was afraid of looking weak in his eyes’

Alaggia, R. (2005). Disclosing the trauma of childsexual abuse: A gender analysis. Journal of Lossand Trauma, 10, 453–470.

Alvesson, M. & Sköldberg, K. (2009). Reflexivemethodology: New vistas for qualitative research(2nd ed.). London: Sage.

Anderson, E. & McGuire, R. (2010). Inclusivemasculinity theory and the gendered politics ofmen’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 healthygirls? The role of parents in preventing sexualabuse in sport. Sport, Education and Society, 3,59–78.

Brackenridge, C.H. (2001). Spoilsports: Understandingand preventing sexual exploitation in sport. London:Routledge.

Brackenridge, C.H. & Fasting, K. (2005). Thegrooming process in sport: Narratives of sexualharassment and abuse. Auto/Biography, 13, 33–52.

Brackenridge, C.H. & Kirby, S. (1997). ‘Playing safe?’Assessing the risk of sexual abuse to young eliteathletes. International Review for the Sociology ofSport, 32, 407–418.

Brittan, A. (2001). Masculinities and masculinism. In S.M. Whitehead & F.J. Barrett (Eds.), Themasculinities reader (pp. 51–55). Cambridge:Polity.

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Donnelly, P. (1999). ‘Who’s fair game?’: Sport, sexualharassment, 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 tabooissues in professional sport through a fictionalapproach. Reflective Practice: International andMultidisciplinary Perspectives, 10, 311–323.

Etherington, K. (1995). Adult male survivors ofchildhood sexual abuse. Brighton: PavilionPublishing.

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Herman, J.L. (1990). Sex offenders: A feministperspective. 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.

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Michael Hartill

References

WITH STRONG empirical evidencepointing to the public health bene-fits of physically active and sporting

lifestyles, it is not surprising that sport devel-opment constitutes an important policypriority in many countries (Leahy, 2010a).Within that policy framework organisedcompetitive sport constitutes an importantsocial institution, in which multiple publichealth, and community development goalsare embedded. The documentation of thesexual abuse of athletes within sport systemshas, however, challenged the commonlyaccepted view of sport as an unproblematicfacilitator of public health policy initiatives.Critiques from mainstream psychology liter-ature are almost non-existent, and evenwithin the sport psychology literature, havebeen slow to emerge. The primary discoursehas consistently come from the sport soci-ology, and feminist cultural studies sector(e.g. Brackenridge, 2001; Kirby, Greaves &Hankivski, 2000). It is only relatively recently,that researchers in sport psychology havebegun publish research documenting thelinks between systemic power structures inorganised competitive sports systems and themaintenance of an environment that

appears to facilitate, rather than inhibit, theabuse of power which is one of the coreelements of sexual abuse (e.g. Leahy, Pretty& Tenenbaum, 2004; Vanden Auweele et al.,2008).

Until very recently, sport was not consid-ered in discussions of children’s humanrights and thus escaped critical investigationas a possible site for violence againstchildren (David 2005). However, organisedcompetitive sport is a permitted social insti-tution obliged by the requirements of theUnited Nations Convention on the Rights ofthe Child (UNCRC), in which 37 of the 42substantive provisions apply directly to sport(David, 2005). These include the provisionthat children have the right to play and torecreation (Article 31), and the right to havetheir talents, mental and physical abilitiesdeveloped to their fullest potential (Article29). The UNCRC explicitly recognises inArticles 19 and 34, the right of children to beprotected from sexual abuse. Obligationsunder the UNCRC apply to the State,parents and ‘any other person who has careof the child’ (UNICEF, 2005, p.5). There-fore, all personnel involved in sport,including psychologists working with


Taboos in sport

Sexual abuse in high performance sport:Implications for the sport psychologistTrisha Leahy

Organised competitive sport forms a social institution in many countries which addresses Articles 29 and31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – the directives that respectively, every childhas the right to play and that children’s talents, mental and physical abilities be developed to their fullestpotential. However, the documentation of the occurrence of sexual harassment and abuse in sport in anumber of countries has challenged our consensus vision of competitive sport as a positive, empoweringenvironment for gifted young people. This has led to a more critical analysis of the sporting environmentas a socio-cultural system and its impact on young people. Both human rights frameworks and the scientificbiopsychosocial paradigm are underpinning the development of preventative policy and practice. In thisarticle, I provide a brief summary of current knowledge on sexual abuse in sport, and propose a gatekeeperrole for psychologists working with athletes.

athletes are obliged to ensure that it is a safe,violence-free domain for children. Accord-ing to the UNCRC definition, the termchildren includes all young people underthe age of 18.

A biopsychosocial framework of elitesports development provides a platform forpsychologists working with athletes, to act inthe role of gatekeeper in promoting best-practice sports environments, that are safefor young athletes. The biopsychosocialparadigm posits individual development as afunction of the interaction between, biolog-ical, psychological and social factors. Inter-nationally, Sports Institutes which deliverelite sport development programmes, gener-ally operate within a biopsychosocial, inte-grated support system framework, centrallyproviding for athletes’ medical and physio-logical, psychological, social support andwelfare needs (Leahy, 2008).

A multi-disciplinary scientific supportteam approach is a core feature of thebiopsychosocial paradigm, and support teammembers, including coaches, medical andscientific personnel, and psychologists oftentravel with teams to local and overseastraining and competition venues. The teampsychologist is often the first point of contactfor athletes in distress. Within the biopsy-chosocial model therefore, team psycholo-gists are key frontline members of theathletes’ multi-disciplinary support team andhave an important role in monitoring thequality and safety of the sports environmentand in providing early interventions in casesof sexual abuse. In the following section I provide a summary of the key features ofsexual abuse in sport that psychologists needto be aware of in order to be able to act asgatekeepers of athlete safety and to provideeffective therapeutic interventions wheresexual abuse has occurred.

Understanding sexual abuse in sportThe occurrence of sexual abuse in sport hasbeen systematically documented internation-ally (e.g. Brackenridge et al., 2008; Fasting etal., 2008; Kirby et al., 2008; Leahy et al.,

2002, 2008; Vanden Auweele et al., 2008)with reported prevalence rates varyingaccording to the definitions and methodolo-gies used, and the different sample groupsparticipating. Rates ranging from two percent (Tomlinson & Yorganci, 1997), to 17per cent (Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002)to 22 per cent (Kirby et al., 2000) have beenreported. Studies also indicate that perpetra-tors within sports systems are primarilypersons in positions of authority, trust orguardianship, including officials, coaches,and, less frequently, support staff, and otherathletes (e.g. Brackenridge et al., 2008; Kirbyet al., 2000; Leahy et al., 2002).

In both research and practice literature,a trauma framework is commonly used tounderstand the psychological impact ofsexual abuse. The trauma frameworkincludes the concepts of post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation asprimary responses to trauma (AmericanPsychiatric Association [APA], 2000). Thosemanifesting core post-traumatic symptoms,generally also appear to develop a complexset of other interrelated, or secondarytrauma-based symptoms, particularly wherethe abuse is prolonged and repeated andperpetrated by those in positions of trust,guardianship or authority, as is typically thecase in sport contexts (Brackenridge et al.,2008; Courtois, 2004; Kirby et al., 2000;Leahy et al., 2002). The term ‘complextrauma’ has been developed to explain thesometimes confusing post-traumatic, disso-ciative and related secondary symptom clus-ters (Courtois, 2004).

Empirical evidence about the psycho-logical sequelae associated with sexual abusein athlete populations has been almostcompletely absent from mainstream andsport psychology literature. One group ofresearchers has investigated the long-termeffects on athlete survivors of child abuseusing a trauma framework, and theirresearch provides evidence supporting itsapplicability to understanding athletes’needs for intervention and recovery (Leahyet al., 2008). In a contextualised investiga-


Trisha Leahy

tion of multiple forms of childhood abuseexperience among athletes, Leahy et al.(2008) found that there were generallystrong correlations between childhoodabuse variables and that post-traumatic anddissociative symptomatology were observedamong both male and female athletes whohad experienced such abuse.

In terms of the secondary traumasymptom clusters, seven areas of functioninghave been identified in the literature (Cour-tois, 2004). Qualitative reports from athletesurvivors of sexual abuse reflect these sevenareas. The first area is affect dysregulation(inability to regulate the intensity of affectiveresponses) and is indicted in the followingstatement by an athlete violently sexuallyassaulted at a sports event:

Everything that was happening wasextraordinarily intense, uhm… on somedays I was fantastic… but, uhm [pause],on other days I was, uhm, just shit [longpause, weeping], you know I just couldn’tgo on… (Leahy et al., 2003, p.663).

The second area of functioning affected bythe trauma of sexual abuse includes alter-ations in attention and consciousnessleading to dissociative symptoms. This isillustrated by an athlete sexually abused byhis coach throughout his junior athleteyears:

I can’t really remember my junior career,its like a big blank, like even though weachieved so much, and we were the bestteam and we trained, and we used to jokearound with each other, but I don’t know,I just felt like I wasn’t there a lot of thetime (Leahy 2001, p.386).

A self-perception embedded in a sense ofguilt, shame, and responsibility for the abuseis commonly reported by survivors. Oneathlete sexually abused by the coach said, 10 years after the abuse had stopped, ‘I don’tknow, I guess I was too trusting, and [pause]I really didn’t see what was coming, and thendidn’t stop it quick enough… sometimes I think I must have been stupid then, youknow, but I was just a kid… (Leahy, 2001,p.402).

Traumatised attachment to the perpe-trator (described in more detail below),incorporating the perpetrator’s belief systemis the fourth area of functioning affected bysexual abuse. It is, succinctly reflected by afemale athlete abused by her coach, ‘To us atthat time his word was like gospel’ (Leahy,2011, p.258). Relational difficulties with trustand intimacy are also reported by survivors.This is evident in a comment by a maleathlete who had been sexually abused by hiscoach 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] likeI’ve left his mum, and that’s really weird‘cause she’s like the best thing that’s everhappened to me but I just ran away fromit (Leahy, 2001, p.395).

Somatisation and medical conditionsfrequently reported in the sexual abusetrauma literature have also been observed inathlete survivors. For example, a femaleathlete survivor said of the impact of herabuse:

I was tired. Sick… I was coming off mymost successful competition ever in mycareer, and at a training competition, I just passed out, and that was it. Fromthat competition on, it was, uhm [pause],like I had problems with my sinuses,infections, and I don’t know if it waspsychosomatic or not, but I had to reallycut down my training because I’d breakdown (Leahy, 2001, p.396).

The seventh area of functioning within thecomplex trauma conceptualisation concernsattributions centring on hopelessness anddespair (Briere, 2004). As poignantlyexpressed by a female athlete abused formany years by her coach, ‘It was hardbecause I felt like I was just this disease. I really felt like I had no control over whatwas going on with the coach… I didn’trealise there was another way out (pause) orthere was another option for me’ (Leahy,2001 p.283).


Sexual abuse in high performance sport: Implications for the sport psychologist

The above athlete’s accounts point to theappropriateness of a trauma-based under-standing of sexually-abused athletes recoveryneeds. However, when considering interven-tions with athletes, effective abuse–relatedtherapy must be integrated into the athlete’ssocial context (Leahy, 2010b). It is, there-fore, important that psychologists workingwith athletes are aware of sport environment–specific issues in order to be able to engagein healing therapeutic relationships withsexually-abused athletes and to effectively actas gatekeepers of athletes’ safety. Two sportenvironment issues, perpetrator method-ology and the bystander effect, requireunderstanding and attention.

Perpetrator methodology in sportenvironmentsLeahy et al. (2004), reported athletes’ expe-riences of perpetrator methodology withinsporting environments. A key strategy of theperpetrator methodology was to engenderfeelings of complete powerlessness in thesexually abused athlete, and conversely, topresent the perpetrator as omnipotent. Theperpetrator successfully maintained thisimposed reality by controlling the psycho-logical environment, silencing and isolatingthe athlete from potential sources of supportthrough emotional manipulation andpsychological abuse.

There are predictable psychologicalconsequences for a victim under thesecircumstances. The repeated imposition of apowerful perpetrator’s worldview in an envi-ronment characterised by high emotionalvolatility, and unpredictable psychologicalabuse, and the lack (due to isolating andsilencing strategies) of alternative referencepoints, can result in the victim beingentrapped within the perpetrator’s imposedreality. This in turn, can engender a feelingof extreme dependence on the perceivedomnipotent perpetrator (Herman, 1997).This is known as traumatic attachment and isdescribed by one female athlete sexuallyabused by her coach for many years,

…my coach was very well respected as agood coach, ‘cause he was. But, uhm, tous… like if we had anything to say, we’dsay it to him, whether its regarding sportor life, whatever, and, he made it so thatwe had no options… Like I just wasn’taware (long pause), like I was just in thislittle dream world that he was the onlymale, but uhm (pause), that nothingreally mattered except for my coach(Leahy, 2001 p.359).

Where there is traumatic attachment to theperpetrator, disclosure is extremely unlikely,and common expectations regarding distressindicators may not be apparent. Silencing isan integral, part of the experience achievedthrough aspects of the perpetrator’s method-ology which keep the athlete in the state oftraumatised entrapment (Leahy, 2011). Theperpetrator’s success in maintaining such anenvironment raises challenging questionsfor psychologists who work in sport, and ourrole as bystanders.

The bystander effectThe bystander effect refers to the situationwhere the victim perceived that others, whoknew about, (or suspected) the sexual abuse,did not do anything about it. Leahy et al.(2003), described a pervasive bystandereffect within the sports environment, whichappeared to compound long-term psycho-logical harm for sexually-abused athletes. As described by one athlete sexually abusedby her coach for over six years:

…he was in such a powerful position thatno one interfered. I think no onequestioned what he was doing. But nowwhen I speak to people they do say hestepped over the line with us… But theydidn’t say anything. They didn’t want tointerfere with him. Yeah, and I am a bitangry about that you know, ‘cause whenpeople now say, you know, ‘We knew, youhe was stepping over the line’, and I’mjust like, well why didn’t you interfere?(Leahy, 2001, p.410).

Athletes’ experiences of the bystander effect,point to the apparent lack of systemically


Trisha Leahy

sanctioned accountability in relation to thepower of the coach-perpetrator whichallowed the abuse to continue for many yearsunchallenged by other adults in the system(Leahy, 2010a). Such systemic vulnerabilitiesin the socio-cultural structures in organisedcompetitive sports systems have previouslybeen documented as creating an environ-ment which facilitates sexual abuse in sport(Brackenridge, 2001; Leahy et al., 2004).

ConclusionIndividuals who have been sexually abused,inevitably form a proportion of the popula-tion of athletes with which psychologistsworking in sport, will come in contact. Thereis evidence that the impact of sexual abuseon athletes, and their recovery needs can beunderstood from a trauma-based framework.Psychologists working with athletes should,therefore, equip themselves with thetraining and skill sets necessary to be able torecognise and intervene in suspected sexualabuse cases. In competitive sport, and partic-ularly at the elite level, the prevalence of thebystander effect and the related perceivedpower of the coach, together constitute asystemic vulnerability in the socio-culturalcontext of sporting systems. Individual levelpsychological interventions that do not takethese broader socio-cultural elements intoconsideration do not accord with the biopsy-chosocial framework. Additionally, they donot address the responsibility of psycholo-gists working with athletes to safeguardchildren in sport environments according tothe obligations of the UNCRC.

The influential role of sport in the phys-ical, psychological and social development ofindividuals and its positive impact oncommunities is well documented. If theseaims are to be achieved, sport as a socialinstitution must offer a safe, violence-freeenvironment for children. The sportpsychology profession should be at the fore-front of cross-disciplinary efforts to promoteathletes’ welfare and safety and to develop aculture of dignity, respect, and safety in sportfor all athletes (IOC Medical Commission,2007).

CorrespondenceTrisha Leahy, PhDChief Executive, The Hong Kong Sports Institute, 25 Yuen Wo Road, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR. Email: [email protected]


Sexual abuse in high performance sport: Implications for the sport psychologist

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnosticand statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.).Text revision. Washington DC: Author.

Brackenridge, C.H. (2001). Spoilsports: Understandingand preventing sexual exploitation in sport. London:Routledge.

Brackenridge, C.H., Bishopp, D., Moussalli, S. &Tapp, J. (2008). The characteristics of sexualabuse in sport: A multidimensional scalinganalysis of events described in media reports.International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,4, 385–406.

Briere, J. (2004). Psychological assessment of adult post-traumatic states: Phenomenology, diagnosis, andmeasurement (2nd ed). Washington, DC:American Psychological Association.

Courtois, C.A. (2004). Complex trauma, complexreactions: Assessment and treatment. Psycho-therapy: Theory research, practice, training, 41,412–425.

David, P. (2005). Human rights in youth sport: A criticalreview 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 andprotection from sexual victimisation. Inter-national Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4,427–441.

Herman, J.L. (1997). Trauma and recovery. Fromdomestic abuse to political terror (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books .

IOC Medical Commission, (2007). Consensus statementon sexual harassment and abuse in sport. Retrieved17 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 insport. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing.

Kirby S.L., Demers, G. & Parent, S. (2008).Vulnerability/prevention: Considering the needsof disabled and gay athletes in the context ofsexual harassment and abuse. InternationalJournal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 407–426.

Leahy, T. (2001). Sexual abuse and long-term traumaticoutcomes in a non-psychiatric sample of adultAustralian athletes. Unpublished raw data.

Leahy, T. (2008). A biopsychosocial approach tosports excellence at the Hong Kong SportsInstitute. Journal of Youth Studies, 11, 50–58.

Leahy, T. (2010a). Sexual abuse in sport. Implicationsfor the sport psychology profession. In T.V. Ryba,R.J. Shinke & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), The culturalturn in sport psychology (pp.315–334). Morgon-town. WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Leahy, T. (2010b). Working with adult athletesurvivors of sexual abuse. In S.J. Hanrahan &M.B. Andersen (Eds.), Routledge handbook ofapplied sport psychology (pp.303–312). Oxford:Routledge.

Leahy, T. (2011). Safeguarding child athletes fromabuse in elite sport systems: The role of the sportpsychologist. 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 organisedcompetitive sport in Australia. Journal of SexualAggression, 8, 16–35.

Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2003).Childhood sexual abuse narratives in clinicallyand 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 oftraumatic symptomatology in adult survivors ofchildhood sexual abuse. Journal of InterpersonalViolence, 19, 521–540.

Leahy, T., Pretty, G. & Tenenbaum, G. (2008). Acontextualised investigation of traumaticcorrelates of childhood sexual abuse inAustralian athletes. International Journal of Sportand Exercise Psychology, 4, 366–384.

Tomilson, A. & Yorganci, I. (1997). Male coach/female athlete relations: Gender and powerrelations in competitive sport. Journal of Sport andSocial Issues, 2, 134–155

UNICEF (2005). UN human rights standards andmechanisms 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. & DeCuyper, B. (2008). Unwanted sexual experiencesin sport: Perceptions and reported prevalenceamong Flemish female student athletes.International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,4, 354–365.


Trisha Leahy

References

THE ‘FEMINISM IN ACTION’ seminarwas held on 11 July 2011. It was a freeone-day event, organised by Dr Victoria

Clarke and Dr Helen Malson from theUniversity of the West of England (UWE) aspart of the Gender Studies Research Group’sprogramme of events for 2011 (‘News andEvents’, 2011), and funded by the BritishPsychological Society’s (BPS) Psychology ofWomen Section (POWS) seminar competi-tion. As three postgraduate researchers, allwith personal and scholarly interests in femi-nism, we were excited to be invited to reporton the day. Around 70 people attended, withrepresentatives and speakers from academicand activist organisations, as well as manyparticipants from Bristol and beyond withpersonal and/or professional interests infeminism. The presentations reflected thetitle of the day’s seminar, with a specific focuson how academic research can have socialand practical relevance for feminist activists,as well as how activist agendas can informacademic research. The range of partici-pants, and the local and internationalspeakers reporting on activist and academicactivities from around the world, made this atruly international and refreshingly inclusiveevent.

To begin the day Sian Norris and AnnaBrown from the Bristol Feminist Network(BFN) community group (‘Bristol FeministNetwork’, n.d.) provided an engaging andinformative presentation entitled ‘FeministActivism Today and its Future’. BFN wasstarted in 2007 by a small group of womenwho participated in a local Ladyfest festival

celebrating women’s experiences andcreativity. Subsequently, they decided thatthere was a need for more feminist activismin Bristol. Since its beginning, BFN hasremained informal and unfunded but it hasgrown in size to include hundreds ofmembers, most of whom are local women.Norris and Brown discussed the ongoinglack of gender equality within Bristol and theUK more broadly and highlighted that theyoften deal with similar issues to thoseencountered by second wave feminists in theearly 1970s, such as domestic abuse, repro-ductive rights, and equal pay. Much of BFNmembership and activity is internet-basedand they use social networking sites such asFacebook and Twitter as well as their websiteto coordinate and organise their activities.

BFN have been active in protestingagainst local and national gender inequality.For example, they recently objected to theopening of an outlet of the US-owned restau-rant chain ‘Hooters’ in Bristol. The restau-rant chain has been nicknamed a‘breastaurant’ due to the company’s require-ment for its female staff to dress in what hasbeen argued to be a ‘revealing’ uniform(‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’, n.d.). Otherexamples of their activism have included flyercampaigns objecting to how ‘lads mags’portray women as sex objects, and a numberof ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches (‘AboutReclaim the Night’, n.d.). They have alsoworked on activist projects in collaborationwith other organisations, such as ‘Represen-tations of Women in the Media’ (n.d.) withthe Bristol Fawcett Society. They also host


Agora

Bridging the divide between feministactivism and academia: A report on‘Feminism in Action’Nikki Hayfield, Sophie Gray & Rebecca Jones

regular events including themed discussions,film nights, and a book group. BFN tries toappeal to a wide audience by organising adiverse range of events and a recognition thatbeing as accessible and inclusive is anongoing challenge and necessity. Norris andBrown also discussed the advantages andlimitations of embracing ‘The F Word’ (aka.‘feminism’) in their interactions with themainstream media, where there has seem-ingly been a move away from the notion that‘feminism is dead’ towards a ‘backlashagainst feminism’. It was inspiring to see justhow much an unfunded local organisationhad been able to achieve during its four yearsof existence and the seminar participantswere very interested in the BFN’s activities.

Local action was also the focus of thepresentation by Dr Helen Mott from the‘Bristol Fawcett Society’ (BFS) (n.d.). Whilethe BFS is part of the national FawcettSociety (‘What We Do’, n.d.) it is nonethe-less a voluntary organisation that receivesminimal funding. Mott discussed a numberof examples from the campaigning andlobbying work that BFS engage with locallyin order to support the work of the nationalFawcett Society. For example, in 2004 theBFS led a hugely successful campaign for aRape Crisis Centre in Bristol. By 2009, BristolCity Council had invested in a Rape CrisisService and a Sexual Assault Referral Centrecalled ‘The Bridge’ was in operation (see‘Welcome to the Bridge’, n.d.). Other BFScampaigns have focused on the lawsurrounding sexual entertainment venues.BFS are also keen to monitor women’s issueswithin local and national politics to ensurethat women’s interests are represented andthat the impact of government policies onwomen are recognised and addressed.

The day’s programme also includedinternational speakers from Iceland andNew Zealand. Feminist psychologist DrAnnadis Rúdólfsdóttir discussed the GenderEquality Studies and Training Programme(GEST) at the University of Iceland. Rúdólfs-dóttir is Studies Director on this 20-weekprogramme (partly funded by the Icelandic

government). The programme invitesprofessionals and members of organisationsfrom developing and post-conflict countriesto engage theoretically and practically withmatters of gender equality and policy devel-opment, so that new knowledge and under-standings can be taken back to their homecountries. The five gender equality themeswhich run through the course are genderand governance, economy, security, socialcapital and environment. While men areinvited, the majority of GESTs attendeeshave been women, most recently fromUganda, Mozambique, Palestine andAfghanistan. Throughout the presentationthere was a striking, but deliberate exclusionof the ‘F word’. Rúdólfsdóttir made clearthat the programme was founded on femi-nist principles, and she explored the ways inwhich feminism was both integral to, butunstated in, the promotion of the course.She discussed using the term ‘genderequality’ to avoid the negative connotationsof the ‘F word’, and to open a dialogue withpeople who don’t identify with feminism,particularly those who see feminism as onlyin the interests of white, middle class,western women. Rúdólfsdóttir’s presentationwas followed by a lively discussion about whoidentifies with feminism, who it is for, andhow we do or do not use the ‘F word’ tomake our work accessible and meaningful tothose with whom we hope to engage. As onedelegate put it, we may sometimes need tointroduce feminism through ‘the backdoor’.

In ‘Feminist Adventures beyond the IvoryTower’, Dr Virginia Braun (from the Depart-ment of Psychology at The University ofAuckland, New Zealand) discussed heracademic work as a critical feminist psychol-ogist, in particular her feminist analyses ofFemale Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS)(e.g. Braun, 2009, 2010; Braun & Tiefer,2010). There has been a recent increase inthe popularity of FGCS, which Braun arguedwas partly due to surgeons actively marketingthe practice, and the mainstream massmedia’s (initially uncritical) coverage of thetopic. In her critique of FGCS Braun empha-


Nikki Hayfield, Sophie Gray & Rebecca Jones

sised the negative sociocultural messagesthat women receive about their vaginas, andsuggested that pornographic images of hair-less women with so-called ‘perfect’ vulvashave become increasingly visible and norma-tive. These factors feed into the notion thatwomen’s genitalia are in need of improve-ment, which in turn perpetuates the normal-isation of cosmetic surgery. The feministimplications of these issues are far reaching,and include women’s ‘choice’ (versus obliga-tion) to take responsibility for continual self-improvement (often in the interest of men),the objectification and judgemental scrutinyof women’s genitalia. Through her engage-ment with FGCS in her academic workBraun has become involved with the educa-tional and activist New View Campaign(NVC) (‘Sex for Our Pleasure of TheirProfit?’, 2008). The campaign was instigatedby New York based feminist and sexualityresearcher Leonore Tiefer in 2000, and nowincludes many academics and activists. Itaims to highlight and critique biologicalreductionist models of human sexuality andthe creation of new (so-called) ‘sexual diffi-culties’ in need of pharmaceutical andsurgical treatments. The ‘New ViewCampaign’ has mobilised through directprotest activities such as street theatre, aninteractive art exhibition (in celebration offemale genital diversity), letter writingcampaigns, and conferences. Braun alsodiscussed her experience of presenting hercritique of FGCS at the surgical conference‘Global Symposium on Genital CosmeticSurgery’ (see Braun, 2011), where the audi-ence mainly consisted of pro-FGCS surgeons.She was shocked but pleased to hear theNVC being mentioned by other critics ofFGCS who were also present at the event.

The final presentation of the day was‘Sexual Violence Prevention and theProblem of Pornography’ given by Dr NicolaGavey who was also from the Department ofPsychology at The University of Auckland,New Zealand. Gavey’s research interests havepredominantly been in the area of sexualviolence, however, more recently she has

become interested in the complex socialissues surrounding pornography. She arguedthat some dominant mainstream forms ofpornography form part of ‘the cultural scaf-folding of rape’. In other words, the ways inwhich cultural understandings of sex,gender and heterosexuality sustain a societyin which sexual crimes are legitimised andthe victims of rape are routinely dismissed asbeing responsible for what has happened tothem (e.g. Gavey, 2005). Drawing on thework of sexologists, Gavey explored the waysin which women had typically been posi-tioned as sexually passive and gatekeepers tomen’s sexuality, whilst men were seen ashaving active and uncontrollable sexualdrives. She argued that more recently, withinwhat is often described as a post-feministculture, women are seen to be sexuallyempowered by ‘choosing’ to appear in sexu-alised ways. Pornographic images, that helpshape understandings of how men andwomen should behave, have become readilyaccessible within mainstream culture. Gaveyargued that unpicking gender binaries isessential if academics and activists are tocreate a culture where rape is seen as unac-ceptable. She maintained that despite theexistence and accessibility of pornography inwestern society, there is little place forcritical debate about the impact of pornog-raphy, and that it is crucial to move beyondoverly simplistic readings of the broaddomain of ‘pornography’. She was keen toemphasise the intricacies of the topic andmade clear that not all forms of pornog-raphy necessarily contribute to the culturalscaffolding of rape. Instead feminists need toconsider specific content within variousforms of pornography and the role thatthese materials have within societies.

The day’s presentations initiated anumber of lively discussions and debatesamong delegates, and the atmosphere wasboth passionate and reflective. The differentgenerations of feminists present (from thosewho were active during the second wave tothose born after the 1970s) reflected on therecent resurgence in feminism largely


Bridging the divide between feminist activism and academia: A report on ‘Feminism in Action’

‘About Reclaim the Night’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August2011, from:www.bristolfeministnetwork.com/about-rtn.html

Braun, V. (2011). Petting a snake? Reflections onfeminist critique, media engagement and‘making a difference’. To be published inFeminism & 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 andcontemporary debates. Journal of Women’s Health,19(7), 1393–1407.

Braun, V. & Tiefer, L. (2010). The ‘designer vagina’and the pathologisation of female genitaldiversity: Interventions for change. RadicalPsychology, 18(1). Retrieved 2 August 2011, fromwww.radicalpsychology.org/vol8-1/brauntiefer.html

Braun, V. (2009). ‘The women are doing it forthemselves’: The rhetoric of choice and agencyaround female genital ‘cosmetic surgery’.Australian Feminist Studies, 24(60), 233–249.

‘Bristol Fawcett Society’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August2011, from: www.bristolfawcett.org.uk

‘Bristol Feminist Network’ (n.d.). Retrieved 4 August2011, from: www.bristolfeministnetwork.com

Gavey, N. (2005). Just sex? The cultural scaffolding ofrape. 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 August2011, 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 August2011, from: www.turntothebridge.org

‘What We Do’ (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2011, from:www.fawcettsociety.org.uk

mobilised through the internet and newmedia. There was further debate about thestrategic use of the words ‘feminism’ and‘feminist’. One opinion was that these wordscould alienate those who do not identify with‘feminism’ and, therefore, their use may beantithetical to hopes of engaging a widemembership and audience when under-taking feminist work. Others argued that toomit ‘the F word’ is to risk perpetuating theinvisibility of, and negativity surrounding,feminism. It was clear that academic andactivist feminism remain alive and well inBristol and beyond, and there was muchenthusiasm and encouragement for thefuture of feminist agendas and for continuedcollaboration between academics andactivists. We all thoroughly enjoyed theopportunity to learn more about the widerange of feminist and activist work takingplace locally and globally, and we left the dayfeeling invigorated by the experience ofmeeting such passionate and enthusiasticfeminist researchers and activists.

CorrespondenceNikki Hayfield is a part-time lecturer andresearch assistant, and a member of theCentre for Appearance Research in thePsychology Department at the University ofthe West of England. Her recentlycompleted PhD lies at the intersection ofcritical feminist psychology and LGBTQstudies, and focuses on bisexual women’svisual identities, biphobia and the meaningsof bisexuality.

Sophie Gray is a postgraduate studentstudying for her MSc in Research Methods atthe University of the West of England. Forher dissertation, she is using story comple-tion tasks to explore perceptions of teachingnon-heterosexual sex and relationships inschools.

Rebecca Jones is a PhD student within theCentre for Appearance Research in thePsychology Department at the University ofthe West of England. Her research focuseson lesbians’ experiences of anorexia andbulimia.


Nikki Hayfield, Sophie Gray & Rebecca Jones

References

IT HAS BEEN widely recognised that overthe last few years there has been a resur-gence in feminism and feminist activism

(e.g. Calvini-Lefebvre et al., 2010; Dean,2010). This has been partly due to new socialmedia providing excellent platforms fornetworking and organisation. Bristol is onecity that exemplifies this resurgence; femi-nists who were part of the second wave, aswell as younger feminists, are comingtogether in Bristol to be actively involved infeminism and protests against inequality.Helen Mott, Sian Norris, and Anna Brownare feminist activists in Bristol who spoke atthe Feminism in Action (FIA) seminar at theUniversity of the West of England (UWE) inBristol in July 2011. This one-day event wasorganised by the UWE Gender StudiesResearch Group and funded by the BritishPsychological Society (BPS) Psychology ofWomen Section (POWS). The seminarbrought together local and internationalactivists and academics, to discuss theiractivism and their research with the aim ofstrengthening existing links betweenacademic research and activist agendas (see,Hayfield, Gray & Jones, this issue). After theFIA event Helen, Sian and Anna joined mefor a discussion about the organisations theyrepresent, the actions that they are currentlyengaged in, and the links between feministscholarship and feminist activism. Ourdiscussion also covered some of the contem-porary issues that they and their organisa-tions encounter, many of which are ongoingissues for feminist activists.

Dr Helen Mott (HM) is the co-ordinatorof Bristol Fawcett (‘Bristol Fawcett Society’,n.d.), an unfunded campaigning and aware-ness raising organisation based in Bristolthat is made up of local members of thenational Fawcett Society (‘Fawcett’, n.d.).Fawcett is named after the suffragist Milli-cent Garrett Fawcett, who campaignedpeacefully for votes for women at the turn ofthe 19th century. Fawcett is currently themain campaigning organisation for equalitybetween women and men in the UK.

Sian Norris (SN) and Anna Brown (AB)are co-ordinators of the Bristol FeministNetwork (BFN) which is an activist andawareness raising organisation. BFN receivesno formal funding, but they sometimesfundraise and occasionally receive private orcharity donations. As a network they alsowork closely with Bristol Fawcett, Bristol CityCouncil and the Council’s partnershiporganisations such as Bristol Women’sForum (which closed in June 2011) and‘Safer Bristol’ (n.d.), as well as with variousother local charities and activist groups suchas ‘IndyMedia’ (IndyMedia UK, n.d.).

I (NH) began by asking them about theirexperience of the FIA seminar1:NH: So to begin with I wondered how you allfelt about ‘Feminism in Action’?SN: We loved it, and there was a really goodmix of people in the audience as well.HM: I want to raise how appreciative we areof the opportunities to do linked up workbetween feminist activist and academiccommunities. The papers were all incredibly


Agora

Thinking global, acting local: A conversation with feminist activistsNikki Hayfield

1 Helen, Sian and Anna have read and agreed with the final version of the transcript.


interesting and exciting. The intersectionbetween academia and activism is where it’sat; it’s a really important space, we wish wecould do more of it.

Introducing Bristol Fawcett and theBristol Feminist NetworkNH: So Helen, perhaps you could tell meabout the membership of Bristol Fawcett?HM: Bristol Fawcett is a group of about 50 people who are active in their feminismand about 25 of those members are presentat our monthly meetings. For a long time wewere a very small group, but in recent yearswe have grown quite rapidly in size. We lookat frameworks and policies for nationalcampaigns, and the regional picture, andtake a view on what we’d like to be takinglocal action on. We also have a database ofcontacts who have asked us to keep in touchwith them and that includes about 150 indi-viduals (or groups) who have an interest infeminism, and those who are members oforganisations such as equality basednetworks, feminist groups, the Women’sInstitute, University research groups, and soon.NH: Has the membership of the BristolFeminist Network (BFN) also grownrecently?SN: The last year we’ve grown a lot and I think our influence has grown a lot in thatpeople turn to us for advice, or news stories,or want to know what our opinions are.We’ve seen a lot more grass roots activismcampaigns within the last year, beyond thetwo main projects of ‘Reclaim the Night’ and‘Representations of Women in the Media’.For example, we’ve done a few eventsaround female genital mutilation, somemembers have organised activism aroundthe sex industry, and there was the anti-Hooters2 campaign, which was a joint effortbetween BFN and Fawcett. We’re also about

to have a workshop in September 2011 withthe ‘No Women No Peace group’ (n.d), sothere’s lots going on.AB: Bristol Fawcett and BFN are closely linkedbut Bristol Fawcett is focused on campaigningdirectly, almost a lobby group, and they havequite an influence over the local council andgroups like that. Whereas with BFN you cancome to a meeting about feminism in rela-tionships and never come back again, andthat’s fine. But having said that, we had ameeting recently about ‘Reclaim the Night’(RTN) (‘About Reclaim the Night’, n.d.)where we specifically asked people to make acommitment and see it through, which wehaven’t really done before. NH: I know a lot of BFN activities areinternet-based, so how many members doyou have?SN: We currently have nearly 400 memberson our Facebook page, and we also have amailing list of about 150. In terms of activemembers, that’s really difficult to gaugebecause there are so many different waysthat people get involved. When we rundiscussion groups we get anything from fiveto 15 people turn up, but we had over 100people attend the ‘Where are the Women’event (‘Bidisha: Where are the Women?’,March 2011) we held at the Watershedmedia centre. At events like ‘Reclaim theNight’ we can get 500 people, so our sizereally varies with how you define ourmembership. In terms of organisationthere’s a core co-ordinator group of eightwomen who take responsibility for certainthings, but in terms of day-to-day runningthat’s really myself and Anna.

Activism and academiaNH: I’d like to talk about the relationshipbetween activism and academia. Do BristolFawcett and BFN have a largely academicmembership?

Nikki Hayfield

2 ‘Hooters’ is an American-style restaurant chain, which recently opened a branch in Bristol. Their restaurantshave 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 inBristol: They Came, Bristolians Did Not Support Them, They Closed Down’ for further information aboutHooters and the campaign).


HM: Fawcett has always been associated with‘blue stocking women’, which is an imagethat brings to mind older, white, educatedmiddle-class women. It might be less the casewith National Fawcett, but within BristolFawcett more than a third of our membershave PhDs, which is quite a strange statistic.The kind of work that the Fawcett Societydoes mean it will inevitably attract peoplewho have more of an academic focus. Wehave a lot of members who work at theuniversities in Bristol, or who have beenengaged in academia at some point oranother, so quite a lot of the work that we dowill be informed from that.SN: In BFN we have some academicmembers. They don’t dominate, but we’veworked closely with academics. NH: So do you see links between feministacademia and feminist activism as positive?SN: It’s always been really useful havingacademic knowledge and understandingaround some of the key issues that we workon, like violence against women and sexuali-sation. Because then you’ve got your feministarguments, you’ve got your feminist rage,but also the evidence behind it through theresearch and reports that academiccolleagues have access to. For example,when we were campaigning about the Ditavon Teese situation3 some members hadaccess to academic research on how sexu-alised images of women impact on sexismand violence against women, and on the selfesteem of young people. And we workedclosely with the Centre for Gender andViolence Research at the University ofBristol (‘Centre for Gender and ViolenceResearch’, n.d.). They were able to supportour campaign by providing us with a body ofevidence. So for example, there is statisticalevidence to suggest that images impact onlevels of violence in teen relationships. I would say that it’s important that academics

consider how accessible their work is to awider population, and that they avoid inad-vertently using language that doesn’t easilytransfer beyond an academic setting. Andthere are certain areas, particularly aroundthe sex industry, where activists feel reallyangry about the sex industry, and recognisehow violent it is. I think that’s a really inter-esting ‘disconnect’, where sometimesacademics might primarily see issues from atheoretical place whereas activists are morelikely to see them from a practical place.HM: I want to pick up on that. In BristolFawcett meetings there are some memberswho enjoy engaging with theory and are lesskeen on the practical stuff – which is alsoincredibly important. So, in answer to yourquestion about whether the link betweenfeminist academia and activism is a positivething, yes and no. Sometimes young womenhave come to Bristol Fawcett meetings andhave given feedback that they won’t becoming back because they found the meet-ings quite dry, or found the shorthand weuse quite impenetrable. For example, usingacronyms such as SEV [sex entertainmentvenues] or relying on a shared knowledge ofconcepts. There’s an expectation that we allknow what the arguments are, and it doesslow us down if we need to stop and explain.But there’s a real need to have a space tostop and explain. I think that we’re lucky inBristol to have different organisations wheredifferent people can find where they feelmore comfortable. NH: So do you see feminist activism andfeminist academia feeding into each otheror do you see them as operating quite sepa-rately? HM: I think there’s a very long and veryproud tradition of feminist academics doingactivist work and indeed feminist activiststurning to academia. For example, womenpractitioners working in the violence against

Thinking global, acting local: A conversation with feminist activists

3 A number of local groups criticised Bristol city council’s decision to allow burlesque dancer Dita von Teese toperform at a council run art gallery in Bristol. They argued that the event was demeaning and that this formof entertainment objectifies women for the titillation of men (see, ‘Dita von Teese Bristol burlesque dance: Forand against’ and ‘Striptease Event in Publicly Owned Building’.)

women sector realised that an evidence basehad to be built, and so they went intoacademia to do that. There’s always been anoverlap and permeable boundaries betweenacademia and activism. I sometimes wish thatacademic work, so much of which is so bril-liant and informative and important, wasmore accessible to non-academics. It reallyhit home for me when I submitted my PhDand I lost my subscriptions to the journalsthat I had through being a student at theuniversity. Suddenly I can’t keep up with anyfeminist research unless I pay multiplesubscriptions to numerous journals. It wouldbe really good to think that feministacademics strive to ensure that they dissemi-nate their research in not only in accessiblelanguage but also in accessible formats.

Broadening the membership of feministorganisations: The intersections offeminist identitiesNH: Earlier in our conversation you referredto the issue of having predominantly white,middle class membership in your organisa-tions. There has been lots of anger fromblack feminists about racism and white privi-lege in the feminist movement and fromlesbian feminists about heterosexism andheterosexual privilege. Do you think thesedivisions persist? HM: Feminism is for everybody. A perpetualproblem is that often the women who areseized upon by the media to be ‘representa-tives of feminism’ tend to be far less diversethan the women who are actually out theredoing it on the ground.AB: I hope academic ideas about intersec-tionality inform our practice as activists. I’ma black woman and there have been thingsI’ve read occasionally which have made mefeel quite left out of the story. bell hooks(1981) in ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ was really criticalof white feminists but she comes to theconclusion that she needs to call herself afeminist and not break away, because we’reall stronger together. We’re better as onelarge group rather than six different groupsall trying to say the same thing in a slightly

different way. If you look at the F-word blog(‘The F-Word Blog’, n.d.) a lot of thecomments people make will be along thelines of ‘check your privilege, you’re comingacross as quite racist, you’re coming across asquite homophobic’. So the space that wecreate is something that a black person, a gayperson, a disabled person can come into andnot hear things that are going to offendthem, they’re going to feel welcome, they’regoing to be able to participate and want tocome back. And when we’re planning ourevents, for example, our route for the‘Reclaim the Night’ march, we considerissues like is it level access throughout, is itaccessible, can people with buggies, mobilityimpairments use it? And in the march itselfwe have women only space so that womenwho might not be able to mix with men forcultural, religious, or personal reasons canparticipate. SN: It’s about having those conversationsand finding out what we can do to makeplaces welcoming.

The F-wordNH: We’ve perhaps seen a move away from a‘feminism is dead’ narrative to almost a‘backlash against feminism’. One topicwhich I’m keen to talk about, particularlyfollowing the discussions at FIA, is the waythat the word feminism is often associatedwith negative connotations, and I wonderedwhether you strategically negotiate your useof the F-word?SN: Someone asked me about this the otherday. He said ‘so you identify as a feminist’and I said ‘yes’, obviously, and he said ‘welldon’t you think they should rebrand it?’ Atthe ‘Feminism in London’ conference in2010, feminist activist and researcher FinnMacKay (‘Finn Mackay: Feminist Activist &Researcher’, n.d.) said that people alwayswant us to rebrand feminism as if feminism issomething to be ashamed of. She wentthrough everything that feminism hasachieved from women being able to vote,domestic violence shelters, help lines, rapecrisis centres, the right to equal pay, and we


Nikki Hayfield


she highlighted that we should not beashamed of feminism, we don’t need torebrand feminism, because what feministshave achieved is brilliant. I think people arekeen to disavow the achievements that femi-nism has made because we still have so far togo, but I feel proud to say I’m a feminist, andthe word needs reclaiming because we’veachieved so much.HM: Having said that, it’s sometimes politicnot to deliberately go out of your way to usethe words ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ at everyopportunity. Some feminists think that firstand foremost you identify as a feminist andyou never ever deviate from saying proudly ‘I am a feminist and this is feminist work thatI’m doing’. While there are other peoplewho might say ‘if we’re looking at what ouraims and our goals are, and if we’re going tobe able to get from A to B easier and quickerby framing this in some other way then that’swhat we’re going to do’. It is interesting andit is difficult. AB: I really agree. There are so many stereo-types around the F-word, I work in a reallymale dominated environment and if I bringup that I run a local community groupthey’ll say ‘what’s that around?’ anddepending on who they are I’ll either say ‘it’sa feminist group’ or I’ll say ‘it’s a women’srights group’ and then we can have a conver-sation about what that means. But somepeople will say ‘oh, you’re one of them areyou?’SN: That’s why I think ‘Reclaim the Night’always works really well because whether youidentify as a feminist or not, you’re hopefullypretty angry about the levels of violenceagainst women and girls and we can bringpeople to that march and we can have femi-nist aims, but we don’t necessarily treat it asan explicitly feminist event in our publicity.HM: That’s why groups like the Women’sInstitute are good as well, for engaging inwomen’s rights activism but without usingthe word feminist.

The politics of choiceNH: And Helen you referred earlier toconcepts within feminism. I’d be interestedto hear your thoughts on the notion of‘choice’AB: That’s a really interesting issue, particu-larly in relation to the crossover of academiaand activism. I’m going to raise a question:how free is your choice when you’re existingin a patriarchal culture where ‘choice’ canbe repackaged and sold to you as somethingthat you’re ‘choosing’ as an independent,empowered woman? That’s where it can bereally difficult as an activist and an academic,because our understanding of somethingcan rely on academic terminologies. HM: A lot of times since I read AngelaMcRobbie’s (2009) book The Aftermath ofFeminism I’ve felt like photocopying chaptersof it and sending it to people (laughs). I justcannot tolerate the empowerment argu-ment.AB: We’ve covered this topic in BFN readinggroup, when we read Living Dolls by NatashaWalter (2010). It’s all about what theoutcomes of our choices are further downthe line. Why are you making those choices,what’s being sold to you, what are youbelieving is the outcome of this choice?Which is bringing the debate down to amore accessible level. Some girls believe thatthey’re going to be Jordan4 if they become aglamour model or get a ‘boob job’, but that’snot realistic. SN: What comes across really well in NatashaWalter’s book is the idea that a lot of the timewe don’t have a choice. She reports thisheartbreaking interview that she did with a17-year-old girl who is quite alternative, andshe doesn’t like the glamour lifestyle, shedoesn’t want a ‘boob job’, she doesn’t wearmake-up. This girls feels completely isolatedbecause her entire cultural landscaperevolves around the idea that you are anobject who performs a version of sexuality,involving a ‘boob job’, lots of make-up, hairextensions and so on. And she doesn’t see


4 Jordan is a British former glamour model who has become a media celebrity.

herself as having a choice not to be that. Thewhole idea that lap dancing or pole dancingor prostitution are choices, well, what doesthat choice mean when you don’t have anyother kind of cultural markers? All the adver-tising that we see, all of the media is sellingyou this idea of what is empowering, and itdoesn’t give you an alternative choice. Ifyou’re working in prostitution and you’vegot a drug habit, or you don’t have any wayof escaping it, then you don’t have anychoices at all. The feminist writer KatBanyard (2010) talks about how people say‘no one’s pointing a gun at your head’ butthat doesn’t necessarily mean women have afree choice. When we talk about the sexindustry we talk a lot about trafficking.Because trafficking is the nadir of not havinga choice, but then it’s easy to forget thatother women working in the sex industrydon’t have choices, even if it’s not to thesame extent.

Picking your battlesNH: Feminism has often been accused of notpicking its battles well, or of focusing onissues which aren’t considered importantenough to warrant attention; so how do yourorganisations pick their battles?HM: I think that’s another one of those redherrings that drives me absolutely madbecause the people who say ‘you’re fightingthe wrong battle, and what it is you should bedoing is…’ are often the people who are notactive themselves. I’m thinking about, forexample, people who comment on articlesthat are published on our local paper’swebsite. Their comments can underminefeminists by saying ‘you haven’t picked yourbattles wisely’. But I’m interested in the factthat you called feminism an entity, ‘feminismdoesn’t pick its battles well’. Feminism isn’t asingle entity, we’re so diverse, and there areso many strands to what feminists are doing.Just thinking about national Fawcett, it isincredibly strategic about which battles topick.NH: So how do you go about making thosechoices locally and nationally?

HM: How do you go about making thosechoices? Well, it depends whether you’relooking in the short, medium, or long term.Something that national Fawcett has alwayscampaigned on, and will always campaign isthe political representation of women, andmore broadly the representation of womenin public life, because everything flows fromthat. In Bristol Fawcett we get together everysix months and think about strategy. We canonly afford to take a maximum of threestrategic focuses at any one time, becauseotherwise we’d be spreading ourselves toothinly. So we agree what those three issuesare, and then we set ourselves some objec-tives to achieve in the next six months. SN: I think it’s as much about perception. It’snot the fault of feminists that the media aremore likely to report issues where they get tostick pictures of scantily clad women on thefront page. The last time an article aboutHooters went in the Bristol Evening Postpeople kept saying ‘What are you doingabout FGM, why aren’t you doing anythingabout that?’ or about any number of othersubjects. I suggested that people looked onour website, then they can see that peopleare doing actions on all of these issues, it’sjust that that they don’t all get much atten-tion, they don’t all make the headlines; but itdoesn’t mean they don’t exist. What getspresented in the media as what feminism theentity is doing, is a narrow view of what femi-nists are actually doing.AB: I’ll be a bit more specific about how I make choices myself. So in March 2011BFN organised an event where we got thejournalist Bidisha to talk about representa-tions of women in the media and I drove thatforwards myself. I didn’t think aboutoutcomes or strategy; it was driven by what Ithink is important and what I can do that willreach as many people as possible. Themetaphor being of a pebble in a pond andthen the ripples go and go and go. Lots ofpeople will say ‘Oh I think you should dothat and I think you should do this’ and I’mnot saying I don’t think those issues areimportant. But you need to do what you think


Nikki Hayfield

is important, and I think the representationof women in the media is important.

Strategies for changeNH: That leads me into another area that I am really interested in. How do you goabout organising your activism, and whatstrategies you use? And do you actively aimto use more innovative strategies, as well asmore traditional ones?SN: BFN do a mix of innovative and tradi-tional stuff. ‘Reclaim the Night’ is obviouslya traditional march, it’s got a lot of historyand I think it’s important that at ‘Reclaimthe Night’ you feel connected with thathistory, connected with the waves of femi-nism. But then we did ‘Guerrilla Nutz’ thatwas quite different. Jenny Rintoul, the BFNmember who organised it, is an artist and shereally wanted to do something that was edgyand fun. Members were very silly, andpretended to be undercover spies to high-light the issues of sloganism and objectifica-tion of women, and to highlight that ‘ladsmags’ offer a one-dimensional view of sexu-ality that harms men and women. Membersmade fake lads mags covers which invertedgender, so it was two men, instead of women,and then we went and flyered them all overshops and filmed it, and put it on YouTube(Rintoul, 2008). But then our discussiongroups are a much more traditional thing,which lead from the consciousness raisinggroups of the 1970s.HM: When we think about academic femi-nism we often think about innovation andtheory, but for me it’s about being able toidentify practically how much you can do,and what you can do. It’s really important tome that Bristol Fawcett meetings are busi-ness like and have objectives. It sounds patri-archal but if you can see a course from A toB, you set yourself some goals and you cansee that you’ve made a difference; I find thatreally satisfying and energising. I think femi-nist energy can ebb and flow, so it’s greatwhen you come away from something thatyou’ve done and are profoundly energisedby the experience.

The current climateNH: The recent resurgence in feminism hasled to lots of networks and organisationsbeing created. What have you learnt fromBFN and Fawcett that you would pass on toothers?SN: One thing that I think we would dodifferently is that we have only just started towrite ‘position papers’, and we’ve gonethrough a long consultation process wherepeople can give feedback. But I think thatwould have been something really good todo at the beginning, because then you havean identity to start off with and you can saythis is what we believe, this is who we are,these are the things that we want tocampaign on.NH: So finally, it seems important toconsider the current political climate, wherewe’ve seen lots of protests and activism inresponse to the cuts to the public sector. Doyou feel that this climate has impacted onyour organisations?AB: We have certainly grown very quicklylately. There’s research around whathappens to people in times of difficulty andit impacts on things like domestic violence.So I think there’s a lot more people standingup for their rights and having their voicesheard, and saying ‘we’re not standing for thisanymore’. More and more women arethinking ‘I am sick of this’ and coming alongto our meetings and trying to engage more.SN: The last year has seen such a step back-wards in so many ways, and that includes theGovernment’s spending policies hittingwomen really hard. This last year, every dayyou feel like something else has happened toattack women. A lot of people who perhapsfelt that equality had been achieved forwomen are suddenly feeling like ‘well holdon a second, it’s not fine now, it’s changing’.We can say ‘it’s always been like this’, butthere is a real step towards things gettingworse for women, and people are becomingmore politically aware or angry. There’s allthis political energy and there’s all this angerand what we really need to do is start makingthe change and making it happen!




The AuthorsAnna Brown is one of the co-ordinators ofthe Bristol Feminist Network and has been afeminist activist since 2006. She has co-organised three Bristol ‘Reclaim the Night’marches and co-runs the BFN book group.Anna has also proposed and co-ordinated anumber of one-off events for the network. Email: [email protected].

Nikki Hayfield is a lecturer and a member ofthe Centre for Appearance Research in theDepartment of Psychology at the Universityof the West of England, Bristol. Her researchlies at the intersection of critical feministpsychology and LGBTQ studies, and focuseson bisexuality and biphobia.Email: [email protected]

Helen Mott divides her time between femi-nist activism, gender equality consultancywork and parenting. She is the co-ordinatorof Bristol Fawcett, a group for active localmembers of the Fawcett society, which hasbeen campaigning for gender equality inBristol since 2001. Her PhD was a feministinvestigation of the social psychology ofsexual harassment.Email: [email protected]

Sian Norris is one of the co-ordinators of theBristol Feminist Network. She writes asuccessful feminist blog, ‘Sian and CrookedRib’, and has written for a range of publica-tions 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: TheStories of Why We Are Feminists through herpublishing company Crooked RibPublishing. She has spoken at a range ofconferences on feminist activism.Email: [email protected]

Nikki Hayfield


Banyard, K. (2010). The equality illusion: The truthabout 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 August2011, 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 feministpolitics. Basingstoke, Hampshire: PalgraveMacMillan.

‘Dita von Teese Bristol burlesque dance: For andagainst’. 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). Bridgingthe divide between feminist activism and academia: A conference report on Feminism in Action.

hooks, bell (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women andfeminism. Boston, MA: South End Press.

‘Hooters in Bristol: They Came, Bristolians Did NotSupport Them, They Closed Down’ (2012,February). Retrieved 22 February 2012, from:www.bristolfawcett.org.uk/Commercial%20Sexualisation%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 August2011, from: www.nowomennopeace.org

‘Protest Hooters in Bristol’ (n.d). Retrieved 5 August2011, 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/StripteaseinPublicBuilding.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.


References

WE HAD CIRCULATED the call fordelegates for the feminist seminarat Leeds Metropolitan University

on 3 November 2011 to every feminist groupand women’s studies centre we could collec-tively think of (or that Google could find forus). We initially had an enthusiastic responsefrom more than 40 keen seminar-goers.However, as the day approached the ‘unfor-tunately I cannot attend…’ emails floodedin. A few days before the seminar we hadsome bad news from a member of our organ-ising team, Wendy Lowe, who had to pull outof the seminar because of a sudden familyillness. It was, therefore, with some trepida-tion that we set up the classroom in LeedsMetropolitan University on the greymorning of 3 November, wondering ifanyone at all would show up. But delegatessoon arrived and the day began.

Seminar structureThe aims of the day were to identify andexplore the barriers and enablers to feministresearch, to discuss strategies for over-coming the barriers identified and todevelop some common goals and collabora-tive feminist possibilities. Each of the threemajor sessions of the day was structuredaround one of these aims and the day kickedoff with half-an-hour of research speed-dating, which was intended to shorten thepersonal introductions required within thegroup sessions. The small group discussionsfed into larger group discussions at the endof each session. We had decided on thisformat to try to intervene in the usualconference arrangement where keynote/invited speakers are afforded special status

and where questions and discussions arelimited to a few minutes at the end. Our goalwas to try to collapse the usual academichierarchies and to create an environmentwhere the majority of time was spent gettingto know each other by sharing our feministwork, experiences and research in a friendlyand supportive environment. The format ofthe rest of the day involved small groupdiscussions structured around a set of ques-tions related to the three major aims of theday that were prepared in advance from theattendees’ submitted abstracts. In this shortreview, we offer a flavour of the discussionswe had during the seminar. This report wascirculated to all seminar delegates for theirreview and revision.

Feminist researchIn the first session of the day, we discussedthe barriers and enablers to feministresearch. We tackled this by offering andproblematising definitions of feministresearch. In seeking to answer what feministresearch involves, we talked about the impor-tance of engaging with women’s voices, aswell as considering the ethical questionsaround taking women as the object of anacademic study which may never be directlyuseful to them in their day-to-day lives. Wespoke of how feminist work is not purelyabout researching ‘with a gender focus’ butabout engaging explicitly from a politicallyfeminist perspective. We also consideredwhat form this politics might take, forexample, whether through collaborativework across university departments key issuesof feminist research emerged as criticality,reflexivity and ethical engagement, particu-


Agora

Feminist Seminar: Barriers and enablers tofeminist researchHeidi Bjorgan & Pauline Whelan

larly focusing on who we are as researchersand what position or responsibility we havewithin the work.

Identifying the barriers to feministresearch, we talked about the problem of the‘feminist’ label devaluing the presentation ofour research in certain contexts and of thepopular and unhelpful conception of femi-nists as man-hating lesbians. We talked aboutthe inaccessibility of the language of someacademic feminists, as well as of the necessityof articulating in particular ways withinparticular contexts to get our feminist workaccepted. In terms of the enablers of ourfeminist work, we spoke about the role ofother feminists in supporting us in ourresearch practice, of the opportunitiesafforded by funded research, of supportiveconferences, activist networks and of theneed to keep building on and working withthese enablers. We spoke also of the role offeminist ‘waves’ in both uniting and dividingwomen. Possibly, the transition between eachwave was not seamless and asked women toidentify with time or movement.

Intersectionality and silencesAfter lunch, during the second section, weexplored strategies for overcoming barriers,which included describing the ‘silences’within and outside feminism and the func-tion of silences; such as lack of generaldialogue, or feeling ‘unsafe’ to discuss theirviews or ask questions. Race was discussed asa crucial issue for contemporary feminists toaddress and we acknowledged the need forwhite feminists to become educated aboutrace and, specifically, to address racismwithin feminism. We spoke of the impor-tance of naming problems, as a first step totackling them, and in other notable silenceswe talked about how ableism and classismare also frequently ignored in feministdiscussions. Has ‘intersectionality’ come toact as a smokescreen that obscures oppres-sion? We wondered, for example, if anabstract theoretical allegiance to ‘intersec-tionality’ might serve to gloss over concreteenactments of racism, sexism, ableism and

classism both within and outside feministcontexts? We also talked about the difficultyof being aware of and being an ‘expert’ in allintersections of ‘womanhood’ and theimpossibilities of this. We also discussedmotherhood and the maternal as beingsilenced particularly within malestreamcontexts.

In the discussions around intersection-ality, we spoke from a general understandingof the term through contemporary feministwork. The discussion focused on talkedwhether researchers have a ‘right’ to doresearch on people who are different fromthem and of the need to constantly be awareand critically interrogate our own powerwithin our research relationships. In ourfeminist work we need to constantly examineour own power and privileges, so that we canwork more effectively to end all forms ofoppression.

New connectionsIn terms of enablers to research, we consid-ered the importance of finding and workingwith other feminist researchers, and talkedabout what to do when other researchersseem disinterested in your work! We identi-fied the need for face-to-face contact, ratherthan relying purely on email exchanges, andhow seminars like this one helped facilitatenew connections and opportunities. Weshared ideas about useful feminist confer-ences, events and online resources. ThePsychology of Women Section AnnualConference was mentioned as a useful,accessible feminist space to facilitate collabo-rations and share resources.

We also discussed funded research pro-jects, where and how to secure funding andwhether we needed funding for our feministwork or not. As a result of current andpending budget cuts, we reviewed the impor-tance of getting creative with funding,making interdisciplinary and cross-depart-mental and cross-institutional bids and of co-teaching to free up some time to conductresearch. Getting creative and working with‘non-feminists’ did not mean reneging on


Feminist Seminar: Barriers and enablers to feminist research

ethical feminist commitments. Otherenablers included finding critical feministplaces and like-minded people.

Feminist archivesWe were joined throughout the day byKatherine Kirkham from Feminist ArchiveNorth (www.feministarchivenorth.org.uk/).Katherine told us with great enthusiasm howthe archive collects and stores a massiverange of feminist material from the late1960s to present day. Archives such as photo-graphs from marches and newspaper clip-pings deemed important for the time can befound. Our notes from the seminar day willalso be stored with Feminist Archive North.For feminists in the north, this is not only avaluable historical resource recanting howcultures, politics and feminist waves haveshifted over time, but also a place to bringany feminist notes, journals, information. Do not just throw them out!

Working creativelyTo give us all a break from group discussionsand to wake us up from the afternoon dip,Terry Wragg came along at 3.00 p.m. to tellus about the Leeds Animation Workshop(www.leedsanimation.org.uk/), which hasbeen in existence since the 1970s. Terryintroduced and showed numerous clipsfrom the fabulous animated films that theworkshop has created over the years. Thefilms were wonderfully insightful and witty –a true example of the power of appropri-ating multiple media for feminist purposes,and a testament to the potential for dissemi-nating feminist ideas in engaging andcreative ways. It was sad to hear that theworkshop is struggling to secure funding.What we had not expected, when we hadinvited Terry to give a talk for us, was howTerry’s knowledge of feminism through thedecades would be such a valuable contribu-tion to the barriers and enablers discussionwe were having in the rest of the seminar.Terry’s comments gave a real insight into the‘felt experience’ of being a woman and afeminist in the late 1970s and early 1980s in

Leeds. Her talk indicated that some of thejourney travelled since then has producedpositive change for (some) women, but thatnow we are in a time of massive recuperationfor patriarchal power in the UK. As shespoke through the introductions to thevarious feminist films, Terry’s off-the-cuffremarks about contemporary feministactivism were so wonderfully perceptive andthought-provoking, and so saturated withthe wisdom of experience, that some of usfound ourselves returning to her commentsand asides again and again over thefollowing days.

SummaryOur worries that no one would show up onthe day were thankfully unfounded, as 16delegates turned up in the end, and wefound the day a stimulating, thought-provoking and inspiring experience. Thefeedback from other delegates, expressed onthe day and in emails afterwards, was simi-larly enthusiastic and positive. We think thatthe feminists who attended appreciatedhaving a space to share their knowledge,experiences, ideas, struggles and strategiesin a relaxed and friendly environment. Weare now starting to take the discussionforward into tangible, collaborative andcreative feminist activities. If you would liketo be part of these projects and the contin-uing conversations, email us [email protected] (PaulineWhelan) or [email protected] (HeidiBjorgan) for more information.

AcknowledgementsThanks to Ruth Cross, Brenda Hollweg,Katherine Kirkham, Terese Jonsson, JeanLaight, Rebecca Lawthom, Carol Taylor andLucy Thompson, who co-authored, orcontributed to, this report.

Our sincere thanks to Wendy Lowe, whowas with us from the beginning of thisproject but who, for circumstances beyondher control, could not attend on the dayitself. We missed her gentle facilitation skillsand sense of fun very much. We are grateful


Heidi Bjorgan & Pauline Whelan


to the Psychology of Women Section forfunding the event, which allowed us to hostthe event free of charge and to cover travelexpenses for seminar delegates whorequested it. Thanks also to all the seminardelegates, to Feminist Archive North and tothe Leeds Animation Workshop for makingthe day such a success.

CorrespondenceHeidi Bjorgan, PhD candidateDevelopmental Psychology/Women Studies Department,Graduate Center,City University of New York.Email: [email protected]

Pauline WhelanCentre for Social and Educational Researchacross the Life Course,Leeds Metropolitan University.Email: [email protected]

Feminist Seminar: Barriers and enablers to feminist research


THE PRESENT STUDY, based on thecognitive model of stress and coping(e.g. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lazarus,

1999; Moos & Schaefer, 1993), andconducted in Israel, was aimed to assesswhether there are gender differences in theappraisals and coping strategies used to dealwith stressful life events, and what are theirpotential effects on affective reactions tothese events.

Gender and distressFindings regarding women’s and men’semotional reactions to stressful life eventsare consistent: Women, in response tostressful events, are found to be moredepressed and anxious and show higherpsychological symptoms levels than men(e.g. Matud, 2004). In coping with cancer(Hagedoorn et al., 2008) women reportmore distress whether as patient or spousepartner. Women also show higher post-trau-

matic stress disorder (PTSD) levels, althoughthey report experiencing lower frequency oftraumatic events (Gavranidou & Rosner,2003; Tolin & Foa, 2006). A review of 160disaster studies by Norris et al. (2002)suggested that among demographicvariables, females were at particular risk forpsychological impairment such as post-disaster stress and distress.

Israeli women also show high levels ofdistress in a variety of contexts. For example,Israeli female students were found to bemore stressed by academic events than theirmale counterparts (Zeidner, 1992), andIsraeli women reported higher levels ofnegative affect than men in everyday life(Ben-Zur, 2009). Furthermore, in moststudies conducted in the context of theIsraeli-Arab conflict Israeli women showhigher levels of anxiety and distress thanmen (e.g. Ben-Zur & Gilbar, 2009; Zeidner,2007; see also Sa’ar, Sachs & Aharoni, 2011)


Gender coping and affect

Threat, coping and affective reactions tostressful 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 sampleof Study 1 consisted of 350 individual participants, 56.3 per cent women and 43.7 per cent men, whocompleted questionnaires assessing their cognitive appraisals and affective reactions to the most stressful lifeevent they encountered during the two years prior to the study, and the strategies they used to cope with theevent. Women scored higher than men on threat appraisals, negative affective reactions, and the use ofemotional expression and support seeking strategies in coping with the stressful event. Threat appraisalsand emotional expression/support seeking coping strategies mediated the effects of gender on negativeaffective reactions to the stressful event. Study 2 which consisted of 151 married couples, each coupleassessing the same stressful event, replicated the Study 1 results in regard to gender. Wives were morethreatened by the stressful events and reported higher negative affect and more frequent use of emotionalexpression/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 affectivereactions. The results support the cognitive model of stress and coping. Keywords: Gender; affect; coping; stressful life events.

as well as post-traumatic symptoms (Sever,Somer & Ruvio, 2008). Following exposureto video films depicting a series of terror actsin Israel, women reported higher levels ofthreat and higher loss of personal resourcesthan men (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 2011).However, there are exceptions, and there arealso studies showing men and women to besimilar in outcomes such as everyday anxietyand depression (Ben-Zur, 1999), negativeaffect in response to supervisor abuse (Yagil,Ben-Zur & Tamir, 2010), and post-traumaticsymptoms following the disengagementfrom Gaza in 2005 (Ben-Zur, 2008).

Gender and copingIt has been argued that coping representsbehavioural and cognitive efforts to dealwith stressful encounters (e.g. Lazarus, 1999;Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Terry, 1994).Lazarus and Folkman (1984) classifiedcoping modes by function: problem-focusedcoping is aimed at dealing mainly with theproblem and finding solutions that willmanage or eliminate it, for example,learning how to prepare for an importantjob interview which is stressful, or finding anexperienced physician for treating one’sserious illness, etc. Emotion-focused coping,in contrast, is aimed at dealing with theproblem’s emotional outcomes such asanxiety reactions and physiologicaloutcomes (e.g. high levels of blood pressureand heart rate, excessive sweating, etc.).Examples of emotion-focused coping are:ventilating, going to the movies to take one’smind of the problem, drinking alcohol tofeel better or turning to friends foremotional support.

In investigations of gender differences incoping, women are found to seek emotionalsupport, ventilate their feelings and use posi-tive self-talk more than men (Tamres, Janicki& Helgeson, 2002); they turn to friends foremotional support, or sometimes refuse tobelieve that the stressful event happened(Eaton & Bradley, 2008; Howerton & VanGundy, 2009). Gender and coping have beenfound to interact in several studies. Thus,

in coping with stressful life events, womenwere found to be more depressed (Blalock &Joiner, 2000) but only if coping in a cognitiveavoidance mode which is the denial orminimisation of the stressfulness of theevent. Another study showed that as womenmore frequently coped by turning to friendsfor emotional support or letting feelings out,their depressive mood was lessened, whilefor men the opposite was true (Howerton &Gundy, 2009).

Several Israeli studies report that womentend to use emotion-focused coping strate-gies such as ventilation of feelings orsearching for emotional support more thanmen in a variety of settings (e.g. Ben-Zur,2002, 2009). However, there are exceptions,and some Israeli studies conducted duringthe Gulf War (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 1996) orduring threat of terrorist attacks (Sever et al.,2006) find women to be more active andutilise all variants of coping strategies morethan men, including problem-focusedcoping strategies.

Theoretical explanations of genderdifferences in distress and copingVarious hypotheses have been offered forgender differences in distress and coping.The differential socialisation hypothesis (Matud,2004; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978; Olff et al.,2007) suggests that stressful life events affectwomen more than men in terms of bothdistress and coping reactions due to sociali-sation processes. Most cultures assignwomen a gender role of being dependentand emotional whereas men are taught to beautonomous and confident (Matud, 2004),and teach women to rely on passive andemotion-focused coping strategies such asletting feelings out or turning to friends foremotional support. These strategies are lessvigorous and are also considered less effec-tive than active coping, especially in the longrun (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989).Thus, culture may modulate gender roleexpectations which may lead to differentreactions to stressful encounters of men andwomen as demonstrated by comparisons of


Threat, coping and affective reactions to stressful life events: Gender differences in Israel

post-traumatic symptoms between Mexicoand US citizens (Norris et al., 2001).

A different approach to gender differ-ences is Barnett’s scarcity hypothesis (1993)which suggests that women in modernsociety have multiple roles; roles drainenergy; and this may lead to conflicts andnegative wellbeing (Barnett, 1993). Indeed,women usually take on the burden of house-hold management, child rearing and care-giving to the ill and aged in their families,often in addition to working outside thehouse. However, more recently, thisapproach was abandoned in favour of anexpansionist theory of gender, family and work(Barnett & Hyde, 2001), claiming thatmultiple roles add to well-being and mentalhealth of both men and women, a claim thatwas corroborated in recently conductedresearch (Nordenmark, 2004).

Current criticisms regarding genderdifferences research reflect a variety of viewpoints. For example, it has been argued thatresearch which focuses on gender differ-ences diverts attention from the similaritybetween men and women in many areas(Rutherford, 2007). For example, Hyde(2005) conducted a meta-analysis of meta-analytic studies of gender differences in avariety of areas and concluded that the datarevealed a strong evidence for similaritiesbetween genders, that is, 78 per cent of thegender differences were small or close tozero. Another suggestion made recently isthat sex differences research is inadequatebecause there is an attempt to investigatebiological and trait differences betweenwomen and men and ignore women’s socialand economic conditions. Thus, Sa’ar, Sachsand Aharoni (2011) concluded, based on aquantitative research of a representativesample of Israeli women during politicalviolence period that ‘the connectionsbetween women’s susceptibility to gender-based violence, their vulnerability to politicalviolence, their economic vulnerability andtheir social role as emotional caretakersresulted in a low level of well-being and ahigh level of stress and anxiety’ (p.64).

The present study was aimed to assesswomen’s tendency to exhibit high levels ofnegative affect during times of stress usingthe cognitive model of stress and coping.

The cognitive model of stress andcopingThe cognitive model of stress is based on theassumption that people’s feelings, thoughtsand actions during stressful encounters areaffected 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 isperceived as either a loss/threat or a chal-lenge, and in secondary appraisal, peopleassess what they can do in order to managethe problem and its accompanyingemotional experience. Lazarus (1999)argued that these cognitive processesdepend on personal, social and environ-mental resources, and are related toemotional outcomes such as anxiety or angerand behavioral outcomes such as makingerrors in one’s work or risk taking whiledriving. For example, in the context ofadjustment to abortion, high levels of pre-abortion threat (e.g. being worried orstressed by the abortion) were shown to berelated to post-abortion distress based onanxiety, depression and hostility symptoms(Major et al., 1998). In another study,appraising a stressful community event asnegative and threatening was related tonegative feelings such as being upset andashamed whereas appraising it as chal-lenging and controlled was related to posi-tive affect such as feeling strong andenthusiastic (Ben-Zur, Yagil & Oz, 2005).Such cognitive processes of threat and chal-lenge appraisals are also assumed to affectcoping strategies.

Studies have examined the associationsbetween appraisals, coping strategies, anddistress and affective reactions (Ben-Zur etal., 2005; Major et al., 1998). For example,Ben-Zur et al. (2005) showed that appraisinga stressful community event as challenging


Hasida Ben-Zur & Keren Michael

and as controlled was related positively toproblem-focused coping whereas appraisingit as threatening and negative was relatedpositively to emotion-focused coping. Addi-tionally, a variety of empirical studies indi-cated that emotion-focused coping ispositively correlated with high levels ofdistress and anxiety (e.g. Ben-Zur, Gilbar &Lev, 2001; Penley, Tomaka & Wiebe, 2002;Zeidner, 2007). The present work focusedon coping and affect, based on studies thatshowed problem-focused strategies to relatepositively to positive affect, while the reversepattern was found for variants of emotion-focused coping and affect (e.g. Ben-Zur etal., 2005; Gaudreau, Blondin & Lapierre,2002; Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1998).

Research aims and hypothesesThe present study aim was two-fold: (a) tocompare women and men on appraisals,coping and affective reactions to stressful lifeevents, and demonstrate differences as wellas similarities in these reactions; and (b) toshow that appraisals and coping strategiesmediate some of the effects of gender onaffective reactions to stressful events. Twostudies were conducted to test these prem-ises. The first study tested the associations ofgender with appraisals, coping strategies andnegative and positive affective reactions in asample of men and women who referred to astressful life event occurring up to two yearsbefore the study was conducted. However,events and the persons experiencing theseevents differ in many characteristics. If we dofind gender differences in reactions tostressful events, these differences may be theresult, at least in part, of gender differencesin demographic characteristics such asmarital and socioeconomic status as well asdifferences in the reported events. Tocontrol for this point, the second studytested gender differences in a sample ofmarried couples who were asked to refer tothe same stressful event. Within marriedcouples, women and men are characterisedby similar socioeconomic status and sharedexperiences, and thus may be more similar

in their coping strategies (Jordan &Revenson, 1999). Therefore, testing thesame hypotheses within married couplespresents a more rigorous test of genderdifferences in the context of identicalstressful events.

Based on Lazarus and Folkman (1984),cognitive appraisals were defined as twotypes of cognitions, that is, estimating thestressful event as either negative and threat-ening or as controlled and challenging.Based on the empirical classification byCarver et al. (1989), the study assessed threecoping strategies: (1) Problem-focusedcoping based on strategies of active coping,planning, and suppression of competingactivities; (2) Emotion/support copingwhich is an emotion-focused coping type ofstrategy, based on instrumental andemotional support and ventilation; and (3)Avoidance coping, which is a different typeof emotion-focused type of coping, based onmental and behavioral disengagement anddenial. Finally, positive and negative affectivereactions were tested as the outcomes ofappraisals and coping with the stressfulevent, that is, participants were asked to self-report their emotional reactions to the eventusing both negative (e.g. afraid, tense) andpositive (e.g. strong, attentive) feelings.

The hypotheses were: Hypothesis 1: Women will report higher levelsof threat, negative affect and emotion-focused coping more than men; women andmen will not differ on challenge, positiveaffect and problem-focused coping.Hypothesis 2: Appraisals and coping strategieswill mediate the effects of gender on affec-tive reactions to stressful life events.

Study 1

MethodSample and procedure. Respondents wererecruited by graduate students based on aquota sampling of equal numbers of menand women aged 30 to 70. This conveniencesample included 350 persons consisting of43.7 per cent men and 56.3 per cent women;



most born in Israel (79.9 per cent); 62.4 percent married and the rest single (23.7 percent) or divorced/widowed (13.9 per cent).Men and women differed significantly infamily status (χ2 [2, N=350]=6.40, p<.05),with more women being married ordivorced/widowed than men. They did notdiffer in country of birth (χ2<1), mean age(M=40.84 [12.53] and 38.60 [11.04], respec-tively, t=1.76, p=.08), mean years of educa-tion (M=15.20 [2.69] and 15.56 [2.51],respectively, t=–1.28, p=.20), perceivedeconomic status (M=2.70 [0.92] and 2.82[0.87], respectively, t=–1.32, p=.19) orperceived health status (M=1.91 [0.86] and1.97 [0.87], respectively, t<1). The researchwas approved by the University of HaifaInternal Review Board.

Inventories. The data were collected bymeans of the following inventories (seeTable 1 for psychometric values):

Stressful event. The respondents were asked toindicate the most stressful event theyencountered during the two years prior tothe study, and to estimate when that eventoccurred, using a scale of 1 to 5 (1=less thana month ago, 5=24 months ago).

Threat and challenge appraisals. The event wasappraised by eight items describing charac-teristics of stressful events (Ben-Zur, Yagil &Oz, 2005), using a 1 to 5 scale (1=not at all,5=very much), for example, ‘How negativewas this event for you?’ ‘How threatening wasthis event to you?’ Based on an exploratoryfactor analysis, two scores were created, eachbased on three appraisal items: a threatscore, based on the average of the followingitems: negativity of the event, its level ofthreat and its level of loss; and a challengescore based on the average of the followingitems: ability to control the event, view theevent as a challenge, and ability to cope withthe event (two additional items, expectancyregarding the event, and similarity to pastevents, were not used in these measures).The threat and challenge scores were nega-

tively correlated for the men (r=–.27, p<.001)as well as the women (r=–.40, p<.0001), sothat those reporting high levels of threatwere more likely to report low levels of chal-lenge and vice versa.

COPE Scale (Carver et al., 1989). The Hebrewshort version of the COPE scale (Ben-Zur &Zeidner, 1995) was used, divided into 15coping subscales, with two items persubscale. Respondents were asked to rate theextent to which they used each copingoption (e.g. ‘I make a plan of action’, ‘I letmy feelings out’, ‘I pretend that it has nothappened’) in dealing with the stressor. A rating scale of 0 to 3 was used, with 0=notat all, and 3=a great deal. Three copingscales were constructed based on the secondorder factor analysis reported by Carver et al.(1989). Problem-focused coping consisted ofactive coping, planning and suppression ofcompeting activities. Emotion/supportcoping consisted of instrumental support aswell as emotional support and ventilation,and avoidance coping consisted of mentaland behavioral disengagement and denial.For men in the sample, those who reportedusing more problem-focused coping alsoreported using more emotion/supportcoping (r=.36, p<.0001) but not avoidancecoping (r=–.06); additionally, using moreemotion/support coping was related posi-tively to using more avoidance coping (r=.23,p<.01). For the women in the sample, thosewho reported using more problem-focusedcoping were more likely to use moreemotion/support coping (r=.20, p<.01) andless avoidance coping (r=–.26, p<.0001);emotion/support and avoidance wereuncorrelated (r=–.02).

Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS;Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988). TheHebrew version of the PANAS (Ben-Zur,2002) was used, containing 20 adjectivesdepicting various mood and affective states(e.g. enthusiastic, hostile). Respondentswere asked to read each adjective and ratetheir feelings as a result of the stressful event




along a five-point scale ranging from 1=notat all to 5=a lot. A confirmatory factoranalysis yielded two factors on which twoscales were created, namely, a positive affectscale and a negative affect scale. Each scalewas based on the mean of 10 items. In thepast, the two scales showed high internal reli-abilities (.84 to .90) and high concurrentvalidity tested by associations with anxietyand depression (Watson et al., 1988). Thepositive affect and negative affect scalesscores were negatively correlated for bothmen (r=–.28, p<.001) and women (r=–.36,p<.0001).

Social Desirability. The Hebrew adaptation(Ben-Zur, 2002) of the eight-item SocialDesirability Questionnaire (Crowne &Marlowe, 1964) was employed to control forpotential social desirability in responding tothe self-report measures. The scale showedsatisfactory reliability values in Israeli studies(alpha=.71, Ben-Zur, 2012). A high scorereflects higher levels of social desirability.

Results and summaryTable 1.1 shows that women scored signifi-cantly higher than men on negative affect,threat appraisal and emotion/supportcoping as hypothesised. No differences were

found between women and men on positiveaffect and challenge appraisal, as hypothe-sised, and women were higher than men onproblem-focused coping, as well as on thesocial desirability measure. A multivariateanalysis of covariance (MANCOVA) testedthe effects of gender on appraisals, copingand affect data, using social desirability anddemographic variables [i.e. years of educa-tion, family status (converted into twodummy variables: single vs. married,divorced and widowed, and married vs.single, divorced and widowed, see Table 1.3),age, economic and health status, origin andtiming of event] as covariates. Wilks’Lambda was .90 (F[7,311]=4.69, p<.0001).Significant effects were found for gender onthreat (F[1,317]=3.90, p<.05, Eta2=.01),emotion/support coping (F[1,317)=29.12,p<.0001, Eta2=.08) and negative affect(F[1,317)=8.53, p<.01, Eta2=.03), as in Table1.1. In this multivariate analysis significanteffects were found also for age, years ofeducation, social desirability, and origin, andtherefore these variables were included inthe following regression analyses to controlfor their effects. Family status was alsoincluded in light of the greater number ofwidowed and divorced persons amongwomen than among men.


Variable Men Women t-test

M (SD) a M (SD) a

Threat 3.52 (1.02) .71 3.77 (1.01) .72 –2.26*

Challenge 3.05 (0.86) .42 2.98 (0.89) .46 <1

Problem-focused coping 1.94 (0.70) .76 2.09 (0.63) .73 –2.10*

Emotion/support coping 1.65 (0.77) .69 2.11 (0.62) .59 –6.21**

Avoidance coping 0.88 (0.55) .55 0.91 (0.53) .50 <1

Positive affect 2.99 (0.79) .84 2.86 (0.75) .81 1.69

Negative affect 2.84 (0.86) .86 3.15 (0.78) .84 –3.54**

Social desirability 1.54 (0.26) .65 1.54 (0.26) .67 <1

Table 1.1: Men and women means, SDs and reliability values of threat, coping and affect measures.

*p<.05 **p<.01



Men Women

Variable Positive Negative Positive Negativeaffect affect affect affect

Threat –.28* .60* –.30* .51*

Challenge .47* –.15 .47* –.21*

Problem-focused coping .34* .02 .43* –.17

Emotion/support coping –.12 .49* –.06 .41*

Avoidance coping –.27* .39* –.35* .25*

Social desirability .19 –.28* .13 –.17

Table 1.2: Pearson correlations.

*p<.01

Table 1.3: Hierarchical regressions of affect on gender, appraisals and coping measures.

Variable Positive affect Negative affect

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step1 Step 2 Step 3

Gender –.10 –.05 –.05 .15** .10* .05

Years of education .07 .06 .02 .03 .02 .03

Age .00 .13* .07 –.10 –.15** –.10

Origin –.10 –.15** –.13** .00 .04 .03

Family status 1 .09 .02 .00 .05 –.01 .00

Family status 2 –.02 –.03 –.03 .20** .12 .09

Social desirability .16** .10* .08 –.18** –.14** –.11**

Multiple R2 .06 .12F (7,328) 2.85** 6.59***

Threat –.15** –.10 .55*** .41***

Challenge .45*** .34*** .00 .04

Multiple R2 .31 .41F (9,326) 16.41*** 25.00***

Problem-focused .26*** –.13**Coping

Emotion/support –.10 .26***Coping

Avoidance coping –.16** .14**

Multiple R2 .39 .47 F (12,323) 17.08*** 24.13***

*p<=.05 **p<=.01 ***p<.001Note: Gender, men=1; women=2; Origin, 1=born in Israel; 2=not born in Israel. Family status 1: single=0; married,divorced, widowed=1; Family status 2: married=0; single, divorced, widowed=1.

Table 1.2 presents the Pearson correla-tions conducted separately for men andwomen. As can be seen in the table, thegeneral pattern of results is similar for bothgenders. Negative affect was related to highlevels of threat, emotion/support and avoid-ance coping, whereas positive affect wasrelated to high levels of challenge andproblem-focused coping. Table 1.3 shows thehierarchical regression conducted on posi-tive affect and negative affect outcomes. Noeffects of gender were observed for positiveaffect in the first step, whereas challenge andproblem-focused coping were positivelyrelated to positive affect in the second andthird step. In contrast, for the analysis ofnegative affect, gender contributed to nega-tive affect in the first step, with women beinghigher than men on this outcome (beta=.16,p<.01). The effect of gender diminishedwhen threat was entered in the second step(beta=.10, p<.05), and disappeared whenemotion-focused coping was entered in thethird step (beta for gender)

Mediation effects of threat or emotion/support coping were tested next, making useof the Baron and Kenny (1986) guidelinesand the Sobel test (Sobel, 1982) in aninternet-based interactive software program(Preacher & Leonardelli, 2006). The media-tion test requires that the independent vari-able be significantly related to the mediatorand the dependent variable, and that theinclusion of both independent and mediatorvariables will lower the independent/depen-dent relationship or render it non-signifi-cant. Simple regression tests showed genderto contribute significantly to negative affectas outcome (R2=.04, F[1,348]=12.53,p<.0001, β=.19, t=3.54, p<.0001); and tothreat as the mediator (R2=.02,F[1,347]=5.11, p<.05, β=.12, t=2.26, p<.05).When both gender and threat were enteredas contributors to negative affect (R2=.33,F[2,346]=83.13, p<.0001), gender contribu-tion to negative affect diminished (β=.12,t=2.69, p<.01), and threat remained a signifi-cant contributor (β=.54, t=12.19, p<.0001).The Sobel test results were significant

(Z=2.22, p<.0001). Thus, the inclusion of thethreat mediator reduced the contribution ofgender to negative affect. This resultsuggests that high threat was one of thefactors that led to higher levels of negativeaffect in response to stressful events amongwomen as opposed to men, as hypothesised.

The same tests were applied toemotion/support coping as the mediator.The contribution of gender to emotion/support coping was significant (R2=.10,F[1,348]=38.58, p<.0001, β=.32, t=6.21,p<.0001). When both gender andemotion/support coping were entered ascontributors to negative affect (R2=.23,F[2,347]=50.93, p<.0001), gender was notsignificantly related to negative affect (β=.04,t<1), but emotion/support coping remaineda significant contributor (β=.46, t=9.29,p<.0001). The Sobel test results were signifi-cant (Z=5.16, p<.0001). Thus the morefrequent use of emotion/support coping bywomen than by men was one of the factorsthat led to high levels of negative affectamong women, as hypothesised.

Study 2

MethodSample and procedure. Participants wererecruited by graduate students, as in Study 1.This convenience sample consisted of 151couples. Most husbands and wives were bornin Israel (86 per cent and 90.1 per cent,respectively). They differed in mean age(M=41.26 [10.14] and 38.21 [9.63], respec-tively, t=11.31, p<.0001), but not on meanyears of education (M=15.07 [2.87] and15.41 [2.39], respectively, t=–1.62, p=.11),perceived economic status (M=2.54 [0.88]and 2.64 [0.81], respectively, t=–1.85, p=.07),or perceived health status (M=1.94 [0.89]and 1.93 [0.87], respectively, t<1).

Inventories. The data were collected bymeans of the following inventories (means,SDs and reliability values are given in Table2.1).




Stressful event. As in Study 1, participants wereasked to indicate the most stressful eventthey encountered during the two years priorto the study. As a couple, however, they wereasked to refer to the same event and beforeanswering the questions they agreed uponthe same event and indicated whether theevent was mostly related to self, spouse orboth (98 per cent of the couples [N=148]were consistent in their answers), and esti-mated when the event occurred, on a scaleof 1 to 5 (1=less than a month ago, 5=24months ago). Of the 148 couples, 29.1 percent and 29.7 per cent of the events wereindicated as husband related or wife related,respectively, and 41.2 per cent were indi-cated as related to both spouses.

COPE Scale (Carver et al., 1989). The Hebrewshort, 30-item version, of the COPE scale, asdescribed in Study 1, was used.

Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS;Watson et al., 1988). The Hebrew 20-itemversion of the PANAS (Ben-Zur, 2002) wasused, as described in Study 1.

Social Desirability. The Hebrew adaptation(Ben-Zur, 2002) of the eight-item SocialDesirability Questionnaire (Crowne &Marlowe, 1964) was employed as in Study 1.

Results and summaryTable 2.1 shows that, as in Study 1, womenand men differed in affective outcomes, withwomen scoring higher than men on threat(t150=–3.16, p<.01), negative affect (t150=–4.20,p<.001) and emotion/support coping(t150=–6.62, p<.001), and in this study womenalso scored higher on avoidance coping (t150=-2.20, p<.05), as hypothesised. Also, as hypoth-esised, women and men did not differ onchallenge, positive affect and problem-focused coping. Since events were indicatedby participants as being either husband’s,wife’s or shared event, their negative affectivereactions to these events were analysed usinga two-way, repeated measures Analysis of Vari-ance (ANOVA). No effects were found forevent (F=1.28). The analysis showed signifi-cant effect for gender (F[1,145]=16.46,p<.0001), but the gender x event interactionwas also significant (F[2,145]=13.71,p<.0001). Figure 2.1 shows that womenreacted with higher negative affect than men


Variable Husbands Wives Husbands t-testand Wives

Correlations

M (SD) a M (SD) a

Threat 3.54 (1.06) .70 3.81 (0.97) .67 .44 –3.16*

Challenge 2.93 (0.89) .47 2.83 (0.88) .50 .46 1.34

Problem-focused coping 1.96 (0.71) .79 2.05 (0.65) .77 .29 –1.49

Emotion/support coping 1.56 (0.68) .56 2.06 (0.65) .71 .24 –6.62**

Avoidance coping 0.71 (0.53) .56 0.83 (0.51) .52 .23 –2.20*

Positive affect 2.99 (0.75) .79 2.97 (0.69) .76 .52 <1

Negative affect 2.77 (0.90) .89 3.12 (0.76) .83 .27 –4.20**

Social desirability 1.55 (0.28) .70 1.56 (0.26) .30 .30 <1

Table 2.1: Husbands’ and wives’ means, SDs and reliability values of threat, coping andaffect measures.

Note: For all correlations N=148–151, p<.01.*p<=.01 **p<.001.



Husbands Wives

Variable Positive Negative Positive Negativeaffect affect affect affect

Threat –.37* .55* –.10 .42*

Challenge .54* –.07 .49* –.02

Problem-focused coping .37* .17 .41* –.10

Emotion/support coping –.10 .61* –.03 .52*

Avoidance coping –.30* .38* –.25* .23*

Social desirability .16 –.26* .25* –.20

Table 2.2: Pearson correlations.

*p<.01

Figure 2.1: Gender differences in negative affect and threat as a function of event relevance.

4.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

0Husband’s Wife’s Shared

Men NA

Women NA

Men Threat

Women Threat

to their own and shared events, but not totheir husbands’ events, and vice versa. Asimilar interaction effect was found forthreat, as well as for gender, and in this case,the event itself was also found significant(F[2,145]=8.76, p<.0001, F[1,145]=7.88, p<.01

and F[1,145]=10.60, p<.0001, respectively). A similar pattern of effects was also found foremotion/support coping and avoidance:with no effects for event (F=2.28 and 0.85,respectively), but significant effects forgender (F[1,145]=41.95, p<.0001 and



Figure 2.1: Gender differences in negative affect and threat as a function of event relevance.

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

0Husband’s Wife’s Shared

Men Emo/Sup

Women Emo/Sup

Men Avo

Women Avo

F[1,145]=5.86, p<.05, respectively) and thegender x event interaction (F[2,145]=10.36,p<.0001 and F[2,145]=6.64, p<.01 respec-tively). As can be seen in Figure 2.2, again,each spouse reacted to his/her event muchstronger than to the other spouse event orshared event.

Table 2.2 presents the Pearson correla-tions conducted separately for men andwomen. In Study 2, as well, the generalpattern of results is similar for the twogenders. Negative affect was related to highlevels of threat, emotion/support and avoid-ance coping, while positive affect was relatedto high levels of challenge and problem-focused coping.

General discussionThe two hypotheses of the research,concerned with gender, appraisals, copingand affective reactions to stressful life events,were mostly confirmed: Study 1 findingsshowed that women scored higher than menin negative affect, threat and emotion-focused coping (confirming Hypothesis 1),and that threat and emotion-focused copingmediated the effects of gender on negativeaffect (confirming Hypothesis 2). Study 2replicated these findings in a sample ofmarried couples who referred to the same

event in their stress appraisals, coping andaffective outcomes, with higher levels ofnegative affect, emotion-focused coping andthreat found for the wives as compared withtheir husbands, as hypothesised.

Notably, women tended to report greateruse of problem-focused coping whencompared with men in Study 1 and thegender-challenge or gender-positive affectassociations were non-significant in allanalyses (confirming Hypothesis 1). Chal-lenge appraisals and problem-focusedcoping were found in both studies to berelated to positive affect, as also demon-strated in previous research (e.g. Ben-Zur,2002, 2009; Ben-Zur et al., 2005). Thus, thepresent study also shows gender similaritiesin problem-focused coping, challengeappraisals and positive affect, suggesting thatIsraeli women do not differ from Israeli menin using efficient coping strategies and inperceiving positive aspects of the stressfulencounter.

The results concerning gender effects onnegative affect are in accord with severalother studies showing similar effects ofgender on distress (Hagedoorn et al., 2008),PTSD (Tolin & Foa, 2006), anxiety (Ben-Zur& Gilbar, 2009; Zeidner, 2007), or depres-sion (Blalock & Joiner, 2000; Stein &

Nyamathi, 1998). Additionally, the presentresearch findings that women are found touse more emotion-focused coping modesthan men also support previous research(e.g. Ben-Zur, 2009; Howerton & Van Gundy,2009; Stein & Nyamathi, 1998; Tamres et al.,2002). The present research also shows thatthreat and emotion-focused coping canfunction as possible mediators of affectiveoutcomes to stressful events.

The findings suggest some of the mecha-nisms by which women might tend to bemore depressed and anxious than men.Corresponding to one of the basic assump-tions of the cognitive model of stress andcoping (e.g. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984;Lazarus, 1999; Moos & Schaefer, 1993) -- thatfeelings during stressful encounters dependon the appraisals of the encounter – thepresent study also finds that the appraisal ofthreat is highly related to negative affect.Moreover, emotion/support coping strate-gies, considered to be less efficient copingmodes than problem-focused strategies (e.g.Carver et al., 1989), were also found to berelated to both threat and negative affect.The relation of threat, or emotion-focusedcoping, or both, to negative affect canexplain the tendency of women to react tostressful life events with higher levels ofnegative affect as compared to men. Thisconclusion is also supported by a recentlypublished model (Olff, Langeland, Draijer &Gersons, 2007) which claims that womenappraise events as more threatening andnegative, and use less effective coping (e.g.using alcohol) which lead to more anxiety,distress and health outcomes.

Conceivably, one way to explain thesefindings is to say that these gender differ-ences are the result of socialisation processes(Matud, 2004; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978)leading women to rely on emotion-focusedcoping strategies and to be more threatenedthan men. Cultural norms and expectations(Norris et al., 2001) may lead women tobelieve that being passive and emotionalrather than assertive and confident fits theirgender role. Such beliefs presumably are

embedded very early in life, and shapewomen’s feelings and behaviours, as exempli-fied here in the context of coping with stress.This process of early socialisation is probablyreinforced in adult life when Israeli womenencounter inequality in occupational roles.In Israel, women and men have equal rightsand obligations by law. Israeli women serve inthe army, they acquire higher education, andthey can be found at all levels of managementand administrative positions in both theprivate and public sectors. However, the mili-tary assigns combat roles which are regardedas of higher status usually to men (Dar &Kimhi, 2004). Women’s proportion in highstatus management positions and occupa-tions is lower than that of men, and theyconstitute the majority in low income, lowstatus occupations (e.g. teachers, nurses andsocial workers). Even in the kibbutz (acommune way of life), considered to havepromoted egalitarian gender relations, menhad more valued and satisfying roles and thusgreater influence than women (Agassi,1989). Thus, women may not be able to copein an active, problem-focused mode, becausethey don’t possess the required resources thathigh status positions entail.

The study limitations are, first, that itused convenience samples and therefore theresults cannot be generalised to all strata andcultures of Israeli society, and second, theconcurrent measurement of all variablesleads to problems of interpretation of causeand effect in the threat-coping-affect associa-tions.

The contribution of the present study isin testing the coping-affect relationship inrelatively large samples, using reliable andvalidated instruments to assess coping stylesand affective reactions. Moreover, thehypotheses were tested in two studies andthe findings reproduced when controllingfor background variables and type of eventin the second study.

The research presented here showeddifferences as well as similarities in the waywomen and men appraise and cope withstressful events. Future studies may focus on




testing the various explanations for thesegender differences and similarities, such asenquiring into socialisation practicespatterns and antecedents in regard togender role expectations, as well as investi-gating gender differences in tangible, socialand psychological resources and their effectson ways of coping with stress.

The present study also implies that inter-ventions aimed at women’s reactions tostressful life events such as depression,anxiety, and negative affect might profitfrom focusing on their presumed initiators,that is, cognitive appraisals and copingstrategies, as suggested by the cognitivemodel of stress (e.g. Lazarus, 1999; Lazarus

& Folkman, 1984). The study findings callfor interventions that aim to modify women’sthreat reactions and emotion-focusedcoping strategies, by re-shaping beliefs andattitudes that are embedded in gender roleexpectations, and by developing new strate-gies to cope with the situational constraintson resources that contribute to reactions tostressful life events.

CorrespondenceHasida Ben-ZurSchool of Social WorkUniversity of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel.Email: [email protected]


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Author name

IN THE RESEARCH REPORT, ‘The Roleof Gender in Mental Illness Stigma,’authors Wirth and Bodenhausen (2009)

examined whether the ‘sex’ of an individualmodified experiences of mental illnessstigma. Throughout their paper, the authorsused the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ inter-changeably, however, these are differentconcepts. ‘Sex’ is most often used to denotebiological concepts and assumes that mostpeople are brought into life with biologicalorgans and genitalia that distinguish them aseither male or female (McDermott &Hatemi, 2011). However, this is challengedby those who do not fit neatly into eithercategory, such as intersex individuals(Kitzinger, 1999). Conversely, the notion ofgender relates to characteristics ofmasculinity and femininity that include soci-etal roles, behaviours, personality traits,physical appearance, interests, mannerismsand so on; all of which are components thatshape an individual’s identity (Lippa, 2005).

For their research, Wirth and Boden-hausen (2009) questioned how ‘gender-typical’ and ‘gender-atypical’ mental illnessesmight moderate the stigma associated withthese types of mental health conditions. Theauthors defined ‘gender-typical/atypical’mental illnesses as conditions that are ‘stereo-typically and epidemiologically’ associatedwith a particular gender (Wirth & Boden-hausen, 2009, p.169). For example, theystated that alcohol dependency was moreoften associated with men. Conversely, majordepression was more frequently associatedwith women (e.g. Ussher, 2010). In exam-ining this concept, the authors argued thatmanifestations of mental illnesses associatedwith gender create grounds for stigmatisationand victim-blaming.

At the outset, the concept of ‘stigma’ hasbeen recognised in academic literature asbeing ‘under-defined’ but ‘over-used’(Manzo, 2004, p.401). Health-related stigmahas been adopted as,

‘…a social process, experienced oranticipated, characterised by exclusion,rejection, blame or devaluation thatresults from experience, perception orreasonable anticipation of an adversesocial judgement about a person or agroup. This judgement is based on anenduring feature of identity conferred bya health problem or health-relatedcondition, and the judgement is in someessential way medically unwarranted’(Weiss, Ramakrishna & Somma, 2006,p.280).

This definition focuses primarily on stigmasurrounding the medical condition itself andless on social markers, which might alsoimpact the degree of stigma experienced bydifferent individuals. In general, people whohave been previously diagnosed with mentalillness, as well as those who are currentlyliving with mental health conditions, experi-ence labelling, stereotyping, separation,status loss and discrimination in variousforms (Link & Phelan, 2001; Wirth & Boden-hausen, 2009). What is novel about the pieceof research presented by Wirth and Boden-hausen (2009) is the incorporation of thenotion that mental-illness stigma can beinfluenced by the social construction ofgender ‘typical’ conditions.

For instance, the authors emphasisedthat popular constructions of those experi-encing mental illness are that they areviolent/dangerous and/or dependent/incompetent. In relating these to construc-tions of gender, male mental health patients


Research Review

The role of gender in mental illness stigmaMei Lan Fang

are often associated with violent acts andbehaviours whereas female mental healthpatients are frequently labeled as beingdependent. As such, Wirth and Boden-hausen (2009) examined whether behav-iours associated with particular mentalillnesses were more acknowledged with men,such as alcohol dependence, or more recog-nised with women, such as depression.

To do this, the authors investigated twohypotheses, firstly, whether behaviours thatstemmed from those classed as ‘gender atyp-ical’ mental illnesses led to greater sympathyand leniency on the individual, since thesebehaviours were more likely to be seen asinvoluntary. This proposition originatedfrom the idea that if a person behavesoutside of what is expected, the action maybe deemed unanticipated, unpremeditatedand, therefore, out of their control (Boden-hausen & Wyer, 1985). The opposing logicstipulated that behaviours from mentaldisorders that were considered ‘gendertypical’ are more likely to be attributed topersonal traits of the individual and hencewould enhance blame and stigmatisation.The second hypothesis contended thatpeople tended to condemn behaviours thatdeviated from gender norms. This assertionis supported by current diagnoses within theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) thatpathologise gender non-conformity, such as‘Gender Identity Disorder’ (GID) (APA[DMS-IV-TR], 2000). Therefore, individualswho present mental health conditions in a‘gender-atypical’ way may experienceincreased stigmatisation. In order to testthese two opposing viewpoints, a nationalsurvey was conducted.

For their study, 186 individuals (54 percent female, 46 per cent male) wererecruited from the US Knowledge NetworksPanel through random digit dialing. Respon-dents were provided a case summary to readwhich was classed as either a ‘male-typical’disorder or a ‘female-typical’ disorder.Contentiously, the authors did not specifyhow they determined which type of disorderfell into which category. However, subse-

quent to reading the case summary, partici-pants were asked to complete a survey thatevaluated stigma based on their reactions tothe target case using a six-point Likert scale.Secondly, each individual was asked to howmuch they believed the case was ‘…experi-encing a genuine mental disturbance, thatthe problem likely had a biological cause,that the problem reflected a characterdefect, and that the problem was quiteunusual’ (Wirth & Bodenhausen, 2009,p.170).

Interestingly, results from the studysupported Wirth and Bodenhausen’s (2009)first hypothesis that ‘gender-atypical’ mentalillnesses elicited more favourable reactionsthan ‘gender-typical’ ones. For example,when assessing the participants’ willingnessto help individuals living with mental illness,findings revealed that help inclinations werestronger for ‘gender-atypical’ disorders thanfor ‘gender-typical’ disorders. It appears thatwithin this context people living with mentalillnesses that result in behaviours deviatingfrom gender norms tend to be viewed ashaving a genuine mental disorder and onethat may have a biological cause. This is notsurprising due to the extensive pathologisa-tion of gender non-conformity, which stemsfrom a long history that depicts the ‘oppres-sion of women’s mental well-being within thepsycho-medical industrial complex and thepathologisation of gender non-conformitythrough the psychiatric classification andtreatment of Gender Identity Disorder’(Sennott, 2011, p.94). Consequently, individ-uals living with ‘gender atypical’ mentalhealth conditions experience less negativepublic attitudes and tend to gain moresympathy from the general public since theyare held less personally responsible for theirmental illnesses.

In sum, Wirth and Bodenhausen’s (2009)research revealed that public stigma experi-enced by people living with mental illnesseswas influenced by their gender expression/performance. Public stigma is also frequentlyreferred to as social stigma, which exists atthe group (i.e. meso) level and describes


The role of gender in mental illness stigma

‘the phenomenon of large social groupsendorsing stereotypes about and actingagainst a stigmatised group’ (Corrigan, Kerr& Knudsen, 2005a, p.179). According toWirth and Bodenhausen (2009), at the soci-etal level, certain types of mental illnesses areconsidered ‘gender-typical’. This means thatthey are often associated with a particulargender. ‘Gender-typical’ mental illnesses canelicit less favourable public reactions, whichcould potentially be due to a combination ofissues including the social constructions ofmental illness. This is under the pretext thatmental illnesses, which deviate from the asso-ciated gender have a biological cause and thishelps affirm that the disturbance is genuine.As a result, this type of public reactionmoderates the degree of stigma an individualmay experience by enforcing more personalresponsibility for the illness.

Incidentally, public perceptions andgeneralisations of psychiatric disorders are,at times, endorsed by both men and women(Corrigan & Watson, 2007). However, find-ings indicate that some men appear toperpetuate mental illness stigma more thanwomen. For instance, according to a study byCorrigan and Watson (2007), psychiatricdisorders were often viewed as being moreblameworthy than physical health conditionssuch as cancer and cardiovascular disease,yet in their study, they found that womenwere less likely than men to participate inacts of prejudice or discrimination againstthose with mental health conditions. Theirfindings appear to support Wirth andBodenhausen’s (2009) work and suggeststhat there is some agreement that not onlyare there differences in how individualsperceive and distinguish mental illness interms of ‘symptoms’ and epidemiology bygender, but that the way in which mentalillness stigma is experienced by men andwomen are also varied.

Consequently, perceptions of mentalillness can further influence personal stigmaor self stigma, which in turn can affect deci-sions to access care. Self-stigma exists at theindividual (i.e. micro) level and may be

defined as a subjective process that is,‘…characterised by negative feelings (aboutself), maladaptive behaviour, identity trans-formation, or stereotype endorsementresulting from an individual’s experiences,perceptions, or anticipation of negativesocial reactions on the basis of their mentalillness’ (Livingston & Boyd, 2010, p.2151).

One potential limitation of Wirth andBodenhausen’s (2009) study is that itnarrowly focuses ‘on the reactions of layper-sons’ (p.172), or public stigma towards thegendering of mental health conditions.However, the authors do note this in theirdiscussion and point out that it is also‘…important to determine whether similarpatterns characterise the reactions of mentalhealth professions and, indeed, of personswith mental illnesses themselves’ (p.172).The reactions of mental health professionalsform part of the larger process of structuralstigma, which exists at the systems (i.e.macro) level and refers to the rules, policies,and procedures of private and public entitiesin positions of power that restrict the rightsand opportunities of people with mentalillness (Corrigan et al., 2005a).

Meanwhile, research has shown that self-stigma may be further influenced by thesocial construction of gender and its associ-ated behaviours, roles and stereotypes. Forexample, according to a study conducted byScheyett and McCarthy (2006) men andwomen expressed similar health needs anddesires for optimal care and service.However, the way in which men and womenperceived respect from service providersdiffered. For the men included in this study,respect was distinguished by being listenedto, being fully informed and beingsupported towards building independence.In contrast, the women included in thisstudy were more likely to believe that respectwas about being understanding and alsoabout creating a mutual relationshipbetween the psychiatric care provider andthe consumer.

Evidently, there are significant disparitiesin experiences of mental illness stigma


Mei Lan Fang

between men and women. These differencesmay influence those accessing appropriateservices and treatment, which could result invaried psychological health outcomesbetween men and women. As such, stigmathat mediates the utilisation of treatmentcan be further complicated when complexi-ties of race and ethnicity are considered.

Wirth and Bodenhausen’s (2009)research produced important results on howstigma associated with mental health diag-noses is affected by gender associations.However, their findings may be furtherinformed by incorporating the tenets andassumptions of intersectionality (Crenshaw,1995; Knudsen, 1998; McCall, 2005). Forinstance, frequency of access to mentalhealth care and encounters with the mentalhealth system and stigma-related issues aredistinct among different ethnic groups(Burgess et al., 2010; Corrigan & Watson,2007). When providing mental healthservices, it is important to be cognisant ofhow ethnic minorities are less likely to seekand access treatment, so that the services canbe designed to be less discriminative. Sincestigmatisation of people with mental illnessoften affects treatment seeking and adher-ence it is important to recognise thatminority groups can have further disadvan-tage through discrimination, lower educa-tion and lower Socioeconomic Status (SES)(Thoits, 2005). Equally important is themediation of mental illness stigma throughindividual socio-economic status. Inreflecting on socioeconomic elements (i.e.education and income), it is evident thatthey contribute to the prevalence of mentalhealth diagnosis. Given that stigma-relatedissues encompass both poverty and mentalillness, those who experience both may besubject to more stigmatisation through thedouble burdening of being economicallydeprived and labeled mentally ill.

All in all, the study presented by Wirthand Bodenhausen (2009) demonstratesdisparities in the experiences of mentalillness stigma of men and women. Mentaldiagnoses that are considered ‘gender-

typical’ elicit less favourable reactions andcreate grounds for victim-blaming. Arguably,this implies more personal responsibility.Research produced in similar fields suggeststhat mental illness stigma experienced bymen and women are also endorsed, tovarious extents, by both groups (Corrigan &Watson, 2007). Subsequently, access toappropriate mental health treatment andservices may be compromised resulting ininequitable psychological health outcomesbetween gender groups. Consequently,further research is needed to dissectconstructions of gender associated withmental illness in relation to structural stigmaas well as self-stigma. Additionally, results canbe further interrogated by incorporating theintersecting influences of gender, race-ethnicity, and SES. Subsequent research andinterventions focused on reducing mentalillness stigma should, therefore, consider thecomplexity of intersectionality (Crenshaw,1995; Hankivsky et al., 2010; Knudsen, 1998;McCall, 2005).

In conclusion, Wirth and Bodenhausen’s(2009) focus on how ‘gender typicality’might introduce inequitable experiences ofmental illness stigma between men andwomen is innovative as it helps explain howthe role of gender can contribute and influ-ence mental illness stigma. To improve andbuild on their findings, future researchmight benefit in examining the combinedeffect of micro- (i.e. stigma experienced atthe individual level) (Livingston & Boyd,2010), meso- (i.e. stigma exerted by thegeneral public) (Corrigan et al., 2005a) andmacro- (stigma exerted at the structurallevel) (Corrigan et al., 2005a, 2005b) levelsof stigma and by considering othercontributing social issues such as race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status, whichare likely to generate additional inequities inexperiences of mental illness stigma. Takinga multi-level approach will improve thequality of research disseminated to publichealth practitioners, policy makers, andother stakeholders which will, in turn, leadto improved access and adherence to mental




health care and improved provision of addi-tional social support to persons living withmental health distress. Ultimately, the goal isto improve the experiences of individualsliving with mental illnesses within asupportive social and cultural context and,by doing so, enhance the rights, opportuni-ties, and respectful treatment of people withstigmatised mental health conditions.

CorrespondenceMei Lan FangMPH Student and Research Fellow,Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health,Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Mei Lan Fang



Allen, M.J. & Yen, W.M. (2002). Introduction toMeasurement Theory. Long Grove: Waveland Press.

American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Revised4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Bodenhausen, G.V. & Wyer, R.S., Jr. (1985). Effects ofstereotypes on decision making and information-processing strategies. Journal of Personality &Social Psychology, 48(2), 267–282.

Burgess, D.J., Ding, Y., Hargreaves, M. & van Ryn, M.(2010). The association between perceiveddiscrimination and under-utilisation of neededmedical and mental health care in a multi-ethniccommunity sample. Journal of Health Care for thePoor and Underserved, 19(3), 894–911.

Corrigan, P.W., Kerr, A. & Knudsen, L. (2005a). Thestigma of mental illness: Explanatory models andmethods for change. Applied and PreventivePsychology, 11(3), 179–190.

Corrigan, P.W. & Watson, A.C. (2007). The stigma ofpsychiatric disorders and the gender, ethnicity,and education of the perceiver. Community MentalHealth Journal, 43(5), 439–458.

Corrigan, P.W., Watson, A.C., Heyrman, M.L.,Warpinski, A., Gracia, G., Slopen, N. & Hall, L.L.(2005b). Structural stigma in state legislation.Psychiatric Services, 56(5), 557–563.

Crenshaw, K. (1995). Mapping the margins:Intersectionality, identity politics and violenceagainst women of colour. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller & K. Thomas (Eds.),Critical race theory: The key writings that informed themovement (pp.357–383). New York: New YorkPress.

Hankivsky, O., Reid, C., Cormier, R., Varcoe, C.,Clark, C., Benoit, C. & Brotman, S. (2010).Exploring the promises of intersectionality foradvancing women’s health research preliminaryexamination of the role and transformativepotential of feminist theory. International Journalfor Equity in Health, 9(5), 1–15.

Kitzinger, C. (1999) Intersexuality: Deconstructingthe sex/gender binary. Feminism & Psychology, 9,493–498.

Knudsen, S.V. (1998). Intersectionality – a theoreticalinspiration in the analysis of minority culturesand identities in textbooks. In E. Bruillard, B.Aamotsbakken, S.V. Knudsen & M. Horsley(Eds.), Caught in the web or lost in the textbook? Oslo,Norway: The International Association forResearch on Textbooks and Educational Media.(Reprinted from: NOT IN FILE).

Link, B. & Phelan, J.C. (2001). Conceptualisingstigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385.

Lippa, R. (2005). Gender, nature, and nurture(2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Livingston, J.D. & Boyd, J.E. (2010). Correlates andconsequences of internalised stigma for peopleliving with mental illness: A systematic review andmeta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 71,2150–2161.

Manzo, J.F. (2004). On the sociology and socialorganisation of stigma: Some ethno-methodological insights. Human Studies, 27(4),401–416.

McCall, L. (2005). The complexity of inter-sectionality. Journal of Women and Culture in Society,30(3), 1771–1800.

McDermott, R. & Hatemi, P.K. (2011). Distinguishingsex and gender. PS, Political Science & Politics,44(1), 89–92.

Sennott, S.L. (2011). Gender disorder as genderoppression: A transfeminist approach torethinking the pathologisation of gender non-conformity. Women & Therapy, 34(1/2), 93.

Scheyett, A.M. & McCarthy, E. (2006). Women andmen with mental illnessses: Voicing differentservice needs. Affilia: Journal of Women and SocialWork, 21(4), 407–418.

Thoits, P.A. (2005). Differential labelling of mentalillness by social status: A new look at an oldproblem. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour,46(1), 102–119.

Ussher, J. (2010). Are we medicalising women’smisery? A critical review of women’s higher ratesof reported depression. Feminism & Psychology,20, 9–35.

Weiss, M., Ramakrishna, J. & Somma, D. (2006).Health-related stigma: Rethinking concepts andinterventions. Psychology, Health & Medicine,11(3), 277–287.

Wirth, J.H. & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2009). The role ofgender in mental illness stigma: A nationalexperiment. Psychological Science, 20(2), 169–173.

References


Sport and Physical Activity for Mental HealthDavid Carless & Kitrina DouglasWiley-Blackwell (2010)Reviewed by Gareth Wiltshire

Sport and Physical Activity for Mental Healthis an engaging book providing a valuablecontribution to research in the field. I amconfident that readers will find it helpful as a‘practical guide for nurses, allied healthprofessionals, social workers, physical activityleaders and sport coaches’ (back cover) as itaims to do, but also as informative andenriching academic research. Practitionerswill be relieved to see the ‘implications’section at the end of each chapter in orderto clearly and succinctly bridge the gapsbetween research and practice. Similarly,academics will be happy to read extensiveexcerpts from the authors’ primary data,consisting of eight years’ of in-depth qualita-tive work, together with well-informed theo-retical discussion from a thought provokingperspective. Not only is this book importantbecause it so successfully utilises ethnog-raphy in a field where there is a significantdearth, but also because it re-focuses energyaway from measuring the outcomes of physicalactivity participation and towards questionsof why and how physical activity can be mean-ingful. Through this endeavour the bookengages the reader in an individualised,humanistic set of experiences with a degreeof authenticity any empathy. However,anyone looking for a textbook that providesan overview of research into sport and phys-ical activity for mental health ought to lookelsewhere. There is little attempt to draw onthe existing literature in the field besidessome brief signposting of recent reviews.This lack of engagement is not surprisinggiven the obvious and persistent displays ofdissatisfaction with the value of previouswork. The authors make explicit their use of

narrative theory which underpins theirapproach. This theoretical lens permeatesthe research so much so that it exploresnarrative inquiry as much as it explores sportand physical activity for mental health. Thebook is structured into three parts, including12 chapters, which I briefly outline below.

Part I: Setting the sceneThe first chapter (A background to mentalhealth and physical activity) helps set the sceneby considering the experience of mentalillness, recovery and current research. Afterhighlighting shortfalls in knowledge,Chapter 2 (Narrative approach to mental healthresearch) provides a remarkably transparentand honest account of the authors’ theoret-ical and methodological approach. Theybravely include a lengthy reflexive dialoguewhich deliberately exposes their otherwiseprivate relationship with their own researchapproach. This is an attempt to ‘step out ofthe shadows of traditional scientific writing’(p.34) and explicitly reveal their own influ-ence on the process of data production. Asthe reader is frequently reminded, an appre-ciation of this approach is crucial. However,the amount of attention given to criticisms ofa ‘positivist’ methodological perspective issomewhat distracting. I certainly felt a levelof discomfort reading the occasional carica-ture of a ‘scientist’ described in the languageof ‘objectivity’, ‘measurement’ and ‘univer-salism’ and spoken of with subtle but cleardisdain. Research in biochemistry is framedas failure and research attempting tomeasure symptom alleviation is accused offocusing on what physical activity can remove(symptom alleviation) as opposed to what itcan contribute (meaning and value). Theirchosen alternative way of doing researchrests on the shoulders of key narrativescholars such as Arthur Frank, AndrewSparkes and Brett Smith whose contributionis duly recognised throughout.

Book Reviews

Part II: Understanding physical activityand sport in mental healthThrough the lens of narrative theory, thissection attempts to make sense of howpeople with mental health problems experi-ence sport and physical activity. Chapter 3(Personal stories of sport, physical activity andmental health) offers a holistic account of howparticipation can help develop change in theexperience of mental illness. We are offeredthe edited monological stories of two inter-view participants followed by the authors’responses. These excerpts are well selectedand well presented providing an immediateinsight into the meaning of physical activityand sport during the experience of recovery.In the chapters that follow, there is a move tosuggest why sport and physical activity isimportant for some people in this context.Chapter 4 focuses on identity and includes apersuasive account of how personal narra-tives and culturally available narratives shapean individual’s sense of self. It was a relief tonotice that the authors remained modestabout the positive role of sport and physicalactivity in this context. While asserting thatparticipation can be a powerful vehicle tohelp regain life meaning through a narratedand enacted identity, this assertion is limitedto those who are athletically inclined. It iswith this wisdom that we can view participa-tion as being helpful for some and notothers and avoid the ‘prescription’ of phys-ical activity for ‘symptom alleviation’ as, weare told, is a common misguided approachin mental health care. Chapter 5 (Action,achievement and relationships) exploresanother way that sport and physical activitycan contribute to recovery. I personallyfound this to be the most intriguing part ofthe research and a fascinating insight fromthe perspective of humans-as-storytellers. Itis argued that it is not only the act of partici-pation which is important, but also theopportunity to re-tell the experience ofparticipating as a way to help re-story theirlives. Highlighting the importance of thisdiscursive layer to the engagement of sportand physical activity allows for an under-

standing that the benefits of the experiencedoes not stop at the final whistle or the closeof play. Similarly, Chapter 6 (Physical activityas a stepping stone in recovery) further expandson this idea, illuminating that for manypeople participation is a small part of therecovery progress. This assertion leads us tothe sensible suggestion that the impact ofphysical activity and sport ought not to bejudged on its own as the mechanism forsymptom alleviation, but rather as a moremediating experience for some who gainmore from social connectedness, keepingbusy or controlling weight for example.

Part III: Practice and provision ofphysical activity and sportIn an attempt to consider the impact of thewider cultural practices of sport and physicalactivity, this part of the book discusses thecontext in which sports provision is likely totake place. In Chapter 7 (The culture of phys-ical activity and sport) the authors outline theculturally available narratives which play apart in socialising individuals’ experience.Here, they explain the dominance of the‘performance narrative’ in contemporarysporting culture – embedded in notions ofoutcome goals, winning and self-improve-ment – and then move to promote theacceptance of alternative narratives, such as‘relational’ and ‘discovery’ (Carless &Douglas, 2008). By making alternative narra-tives more acceptable and available, it ishoped that practitioners working with indi-viduals with mental illness can make sportand physical activity more meaningful tothose otherwise disengaged with theperformance narrative. Chapter 8 followsthe logic of offering alternative narrativesduring participation addressing women insport and physical activity. It is suggested,based on interviews with women, thatperhaps offering a relational narrativeduring activity is more likely to lead to mean-ingful and helpful participation. Chapter 9(Social support for participation) argues for theimportance of emotional, informational,tangible, and esteem support for the initia-


Book Reviews

tion and continuation of physical activity.Sound advice in the context of mental healthrecovery and, most probably, physical activitypromotion in general. Practitioner perspectives,in Chapter 10, presents interviews with threeexperienced professionals working withpatients experiencing mental illness in thecontext of sport or physical activity. Theopportunity to read the interview in fullwithout authoritative commentary is awelcome change which makes for interestingand informative reading – a key chapter forpractitioners I’m sure.

The most evocative section in the bookcomes next in Chapter 11 (A story frompractice) through the form of a creative non-fiction story based on research data. Thoughperhaps unorthodox, this strategy is wellrationalised as a suitable way to include theimplicit phenomena in human experiencewhich often go unspoken. It is with someirony that this fictionalised story makes thereader feel a greater sense of reality thanwhen reading ‘real’ verbatim transcripts.The final chapter (Looking to the future) isessentially a summary of the book with someexpansion on the authors’ suggestions toimprove the current provision and approachto participating in sport and physical activityfor mental health. In these closing remarks,they take the opportunity to express aconcern for the current climate of ‘outcomegoals’ and ‘evidence of effectiveness’ which,they stress, can threaten the essentialelements key to positive participation likeenjoyment, connection, surprise, inspira-tion, creativity and spontaneity.

In summary, I think this book would besuitable for practitioners and studentsworking in the context of sport, leisure andphysical activity for mental health. For anyentry level ethnographers I think this bookwould be a sound example of how data canbe gathered and presented. Indeed, as aninsight into the perhaps unorthodox presen-tation of stories, it also serves as a goodexample. The explicit and uninterrupteduse of a narrative approach is thoughtprovoking and interesting, but it’s perme-ation throughout the book suggests to methat it deserves to be recognised in the title.The omission of the word narrative in thetitle is perhaps misleading. On reflection,another point of regret is that no distinctionsare made between the needs of those experi-encing different forms of mental illness.While a central thesis throughout is thatpatients need to be considered as individualswith a condition, rather than treating thecondition itself, perhaps a discussion onlikely commonalities would be helpful forthose dealing with schizophrenia instead ofdepression or paranoia, for example. Thatsaid, any reader wishing to gain insight fromfirst-hand accounts from people recoveringfrom mental illness, from practitionersdealing with patients, and from the authors’informed interpretations are likely to not bedisappointed.

Gareth WiltshireLoughborough University.

ReferenceCarless, D. & Douglas, K. (2008). Narrative, identity

and mental health: How men with serious mentalillness restore their lives through sport andexercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9(5),559–720.


Book Reviews

The World of Physical Culture in Sport andExercise: Visual Methods for QualitativeResearchCassandra Phoenix & Brett Smith (Eds.)London & New York: Routledge (2011)Reviewed by Joanne Hill

Phoenix and Smith’s volume The World ofPhysical Culture in Sport and Exercise is areprint of a special edition of the journalQualitative Research in Sport and Exercise,volume 2, issue 2, published in 2010. Thepapers drawn together for that edition,reproduced in full in this book, specificallyrelate to visual research on physical cultureand provide a useful introduction todifferent approaches to the visual, audio-visual and material within qualitativeresearch spanning a number of fields relatedto sport, exercise or the body.

In her ‘Foreword’ to the volume, SarahPink draws attention to the emergence ofvisual methods in qualitative sport researchas particularly pertinent given the corpore-ality of the field and the centrality of visualpractices and media to sports as culturalphenomena. Research on physical cultures,defined by Phoenix in this book as recog-nised cultural domains such as sport, danceand recreation wherein human physicalmovement or physicality are central, marksan effective reconsideration of the linksamong exercise, sport media, sport cultures,physical activity and physical education.

The book’s aims are to address the lack ofvisual methods in sport and exercise researchand explore why and how these methods canbe incorporated. In the opening chapter,Phoenix calls for seeing sport and exercise aspart of worlds in which visual practices,images and cultures are part of the everyday.Studying physical culture reminds us of thecontext of sport and physical activity, theimportance of social and physical space, andthe specificity of experience. She indicatesthat the book will address issues of ethics,interpretation and representation of visualmethods; three pertinent topics for contem-porary visual researchers. Phoenix suggests

the strengths of visual research are increativity, expressivity and uncertainty; whilepointing out that this may be unnerving forthose versed in scientific methods, for thepostmodern or post-structural turn themethods outlined here have a lot to offer.Making up the book’s editorial content,Pink’s ‘Foreword’ and Phoenix’s first chapterguide us into contemplating ways of seeing,what can be done with visual data in terms ofreaching participants and audiences, andways of working with data. Furthermore, asmore ways of collecting and handling (audio-)visual materials develop, students andresearchers new to visual methods may beconcerned with producing valid and rigorousanalysis. These themes return throughoutthe subsequent empirical chapters. Notbeing a ‘how to’ book, it does not provide acomprehensive answer, but many of thechapter authors address their particularconcerns with validity, quality, and finding alegitimate place for visual methods alongside‘traditional’ methods. They introduce someof the many ways in which qualitative visualresearch can be done, and for what purpose.

Concerning what visual data bring toqualitative research, the chapters address abroad range of methods and rationales forsuch. Visual methods are used as a conven-ient way to remember ethnographic knowl-edge (Pope) or likened to narrativemethods. Cherrington and Watson (p.179)summarise what is said throughout, that ‘it isthe visual method that captures’ the viscer-ality and hard-to-communicate aspects ofdata collection. A range of researcher-and/or participant-produced approachesare found here – Photovoice (Sims-Gould etal.; D’Alonzo & Sharma) and similar partici-pant-produced or directed photographicprojects combined with photo-elicitation(Azzarito & Sterling; Krane et al.);researcher-produced (auto)ethnographicstudies (Atkinson; Pope); sports mediaimage collation (Griffin); video diaries(Cherrington & Watson; Kluge et al.) anddrawing (Gravestock). Gravestock’s paper isthe only one not to use a camera of some


Book Reviews

sort in producing data, but the themes ofseeing what might be otherwise unseenthrough the visual are also found here.

In many of these papers, the visual is thekey through which connections amongsporting activity, physical cultures andbroader social meanings are made in theanalysis. There is a sense that without thevisual methods, physical culture could not beresearched to the same extent. This remindsus of the relevance of both media and bodilyappearance to the study of sport, and high-lights another theme – the critique of thegendering of sport. While the editors do notidentify from the outset that gender will be afocus of the book, visual culture can be seenthrough these studies to produce genderedidentities, defining or challenging who canbe perceived as an athlete. While Atkinsonfocuses on men’s fell running as amasculinist pursuit to push the boundariesof the body’s capabilities, Griffin notes thepreoccupation of weight loss imagery anddiscourse in Women’s Running Networkrecruitment media. Papers exploring thephysical activity participation of othermarginalised groups, such as Latinadomestic workers in D’Alonzo and Sharma’spaper, older women in Sims-Gould et al. andKluge et al., and young South Asian womenin urban schools who Azzarito and Sterlingworked with, also add to a timely refocusingof sport and exercise research on margin-alised groups, although the intersections ofethnicity, gender, class and age are notalways made clear particularly where partici-pants are white and middle class. Overall thebook celebrates sport and physical activityparticipation, while addressing some struc-tural and social barriers.

The empirical chapters outline theirmethodology and analysis techniques tovarying degrees. Although each chapter waspresumably written separately and each is astandalone study, a strength of the book isthat they do speak to each other on a numberof issues around the how and what of visualresearch: the production of quality research;the ‘authenticity’ of visual data over textual

or verbal data; achieving funding; estab-lishing the place of visual methods in qualita-tive research; and continuing the muchneeded dialogue on analysing visual data,alone or alongside talk and text. Not all thepapers reflect to the same extent on theiruses of visual data, and in terms of theordering of the papers, Cherrington andWatson may be best read last for theiroffering of a conclusion or round up on thedifficulties of interpretation, ethics andrepresentation – the three foci that Phoenixidentifies in her opening chapter.

As an already published collection, thisbook does not offer much more than thejournal special edition beyond a forewordand index. However, part of the book’s valuelies in bringing these papers to a wider audi-ence and, additionally, in reasserting theplace of images in text-based publishing. Byproviding links to the website where thecolour images and the video materialsreferred to in the chapters can be found, thebook tries to ensure no loss of connectionbetween academic texts and the photo-graphs and films of the everyday that theresearchers and participants produced.There is no closing editorial discussion todraw together common themes, points fordiscussion and challenges for movingforward, although arguably the openingpieces by Pink and Phoenix achieve this.

This is an innovative volume that bringsvisual methods into greater circulation,continues the focus on physical cultures, andcements the links between visual culturesand physical cultures. Its power lies infurthering knowledge about what can beachieved with visual methods especiallywhere they can potentially ‘produce...embodied accounts of people’s experiences’(Kluge et al., p.187). On a substantive level,this book may be of significant interest tothose readers concerned with women’saccess to and experience in sport, exercise orrecreation, with a majority of paperscentring on individuals or groups of womenas they negotiate gendered identities andspaces within physical culture. The book has


Book Reviews


a clear use to sports studies courses with afocus on sociology of sport, (youth) sportcultures, equity, pedagogy, gerontology andother body studies, also having interest forsport psychologists interested in physicalactivity participation. It will also have a placein both research methods and visual studiescourses across the social sciences. The singlepaper from a school setting indicates theprospects still available for pedagogicalresearch on visual methods in physical

culture. Phoenix and Smith’s collectioncontributes, at this time, uniquely to the fieldof qualitative research in sport, exercise andrecreation by highlighting the interlockingof physical culture and visual culture

Joanne HillDoctoral candidate and Teaching Fellow in theSchool of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences atLoughborough University.

Book Reviews

Review of Flesh Wounds: New Ways ofUnderstanding Self-InjuryKay InckleHerefordshire: PCCS Books (2010)Reviewed by Johanna Spiers

When I was asked to review this unique bookof ethnographic fiction about self-injury, I jumped at the chance. There were severalreasons for this. Firstly, I saw Inckle readfrom Faggot, one of the stories in the book, atthe 2011 POWS conference, and I washugely impressed by her performance.Secondly, as both a (mostly) former self-harmer and someone who counsels youngpeople who self-harm, I have a personalinterest in this topic. Thirdly, as a creativewriter turned phenomenological researcher,I was intrigued by the notion of ethno-graphic fiction and wanted to see moreexamples of quality research in action. DrKay Inckle is an academic and social carepractitioner, living and working in Ireland,where the research for this book was done.She has carried out extensive research andcampaign work in aid of self-injury (e.g.running a national Self-Injury Awareness dayin Ireland). She lectures at the School ofSocial Work and Social Policy at TrinityCollege Dublin, and specialises in qualitativemethods and ethics. Her research in thisbook certainly is of a very high quality, andengaged me hugely on both a personal anda professional level.

Inckle wrote this book after interviewingboth people who injure themselves (a term

which includes cutting, burning, pullinghair, swallowing dangerous substances,breaking bones and more) as well as thosewho work with them, and the 12 stories thatare presented within the book are an inter-weaving of those stories and experiences.Inckle talks about how this format allowedher participants to feel safe in talking to her.The stories within the book open up twomajor perspectives on self-injury: under-standing self-injury itself; and tackling issuessurrounding treatment and interventions. I will discuss each of these topics in turn.

A question that is often asked is by thosewho are confused by self-harm is ‘Why?’‘Why would anyone decide to take a blade totheir arm, pull out their hair, or burn them-selves?’ What this book tells us is that there isno easy answer. There are as many reasonsfor self-injury as there are people who self-injure and Inckle offers some examplesthroughout the book.

For example, for some people, like‘Connor,’ the character in Faggot, the movingtale of a man who was beaten and gangraped for being gay, there is a tangible, clearstarting point for self-injury. For Connor,who lost a grip on his sense of self followinghis attack, pulling out his hair made him,‘feel more solid and real… He could feelhimself again, and he liked the sharpness ofthe feeling’ (p.17). For ‘Tricia,’ whose storyis revealed over three interconnecting stories(Trust Me, One, Two and Three), her self-harmis a reaction to sexual abuse from hermother’s boyfriend, a wish to make clean

skin that feels sullied by bleaching it until itbleeds. However, for the unnamed protago-nist in Broken, there seems to be no tangiblereason for self-injury, ‘We’re just a normalfamily: two parents, four kids, three boys andone girl, all went to school, all did ok, all gotjobs, no violence, no abuse or alcoholism oranything else like that which might explainwhy I am the way I am’ (p.115). This reflectsthe reality of self-injury, both my own experi-ence of it, and the experiences I have had asa counsellor. Sometimes, there is a clear andobvious reason for self-harm; sometimesthere is not. However, Inckle emphasises thatevery experience is equally as valid.

Furthermore, Inckle also stresses, just asthere are many motivations for self-injury,there are also many methods. In particular,the story Normal compares cutting (the thingmost of us probably think of when we hearthe term ‘self-injury’) with deliberate bonebreaking and over-eating. This opened myeyes to a whole world of self-injury, whichhad previously been invisible to me, some-thing that will be very helpful in my practice.Additionally, as well as looking at what self-harm is and how it manifests itself, Inckletakes a critical look at the ways that it is dealtwith – particularly in Irish society.

There are some poignant illustrations ofsome of the challenges that self-harmers canface from the health system whilst trying toseek help. In particular, the story of Anne, acharacter who appears in two stories, sticksin my mind. Anne, a frequent self-harmer, istreated barbarically by a hospital who’s viewis, ‘We don’t use anaesthetic on self-harmers;it only encourages them’ (p.67). This unwill-ingness to look beneath the behaviourtowards the emotions and motivations seemsextremely unfortunate. However, as well asshowing some of the failings of the healthsystem, the book also demonstrates the waysin which both individual workers (the char-acter of ‘Ciaran’ in the Trust Me stories) andan entire centre (Solstice House in Trust Me,Part Three) can work to truly support thosewho hurt themselves.

The book concludes with a practicalchapter about harm reduction techniques,methods that have been introduced within thestories, (supported by quotes from harmersand workers alike), and a list of useful refer-ences; all of which are useful and eye opening.The techniques discussed include the ‘slow itdown’ rule, in which self-harmers breaththrough each stage of injury – the feelings, thedecision to cut (or burn, or swallow), the loca-tion for injury amongst other explorations.This calming method means that the angerand irrationality that can accompany self-injury have a chance at being neutralised, andso perhaps less harm, or less serious harm, willbe done. It can be the case that self-harmersinjure themselves far more severely than theymean to through impulsivity, and it is clear tome that this method could help combat that. I am looking forward to suggesting it to callersin my own practice.

Inckle’s choice to present her research inthis non-conventional format gives it thebenefit of being accessible to everyone:academics, health professionals, supportworkers, and those who injure themselves,and I believe that the stories within the bookcan offer support and information for all ofthese groups of people. It seems that it isespecially important to present a topic likethis, which can cause confusion and evenfear in those who have not come across or donot understand it; I do not feel that a dryacademic paper would assist a confusedreader to step inside the lifeworld of aperson driven to self-harm – this book does.To sum up, I think this book is essential foranyone who works with those who self-injure,anyone who feels driven to hurt themselves,or anyone who just seeks to understand thisbehaviour more. The main theme runningthrough the book is one of kindness, respectand openness, something we would all dowell to take into every aspect of our lives,when it comes to dealing with both othersand ourselves, not just for self-injury.

Johanna SpiersBirkbeck University of London.


Book Reviews

The Gender and Media ReaderMary Celeste Kearney (Ed.)Routledge (2012)Reviewed by Diana Bretherick

To produce an edited collection on such abroad as subject as ‘gender and the media’ isno mean feat. The selection process wouldno doubt have been a difficult, thoughrewarding process, given the sheer volume ofmaterial available. One cannot hope forsuch a book to be truly comprehensive ordefinitive and sensibly the editor, MaryCeleste Kearney, is clear in her introductionthat she makes no such claim. Her stated aimwas to select readings that introduced thereader to the variety of approaches foranalysing gender in various sites acrossmedia culture, whilst encouraging them toengage with critical thinking, research andactivism in the area. To my mind she hasmore than achieved this by including notonly some familiar and important founda-tional texts from writers such as LauraMulvey, bel hooks, and Judith Butler but alsosome more contemporary material.

The essays are arranged in five discretesections according to the particular area ofscholarship covered and each is introducedby Kearney. However, this division is not assimple or uniform as the descriptionsuggests. The first part examines some of thefoundational works in the field such as GayeTuchman’s ‘The Symbolic Annihilation ofWomen’, a quantitative content analysis ofcommercial mass media and Laura Mulvey’spsycho-analytical discussion of the represen-tation of women in classical Hollywoodcinema. However, the editor also goes a stepfurther by including other essays which havehelped to shape what followed, as well asreviews of such work as in Liesbet vanZoonen’s survey of feminist media studies inthe early 1990s.

The focus of the second part is on studiesof gender and media production. Here wesee essays on subjects as diverse as genderinequalities in feature film writing in theearly 1990s (Bielby & Bielby), late 20th

century feminist independent film making(Citron) and the commodification of theaudience from different perspectives(Meehan), (Brookey & Westerfelhaus) and(Levine). Film is not the only mediumcovered. We are also given discussions aboutgirl-made internet ‘zines’ (Schilt), genderconstraints in music in the form of hip-hop(Kelley) and electric guitar playing (Bayton).

The third section examines texts them-selves in relation to media representation.Here we see a much broader selection ofsubjects, theoretical approaches andmethods. There is for example an examina-tion of the media representation of Latinassuch as Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez andFrida Kahlo using hybridity and transna-tional identity theories (Guzman & Valdivia).Singer Missy Elliott’s music videos are lookedat in order to see how the representationssubvert both patriarchal and feminist frame-works of identity (Sellen). We also havediscussions of lesbian representation incontemporary media (Ciasullo), femalemasculinity in the film Boys Don’t Cry(Cooper) and prominent themes in maleoriented televised sports (Messner, Dunbar& Hunt). The variety of media explored isalso a testament to the ever growing natureof what is available for our consumption.Examples include pornography (RichardFung’s fascinating analysis of the representa-tion of Asian men in exotic texts, ‘Lookingfor My Penis’), reality shows (Cohan’s‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guise’) andinternet relay chat (‘A Body of Text’ vanDoorn, Wyatt & van Zoonen).This is wherethe book really came alive for me with whatturned out to be a fascinating journey intohitherto unknown areas which opened upnew vistas for research possibilities. Justreading through the contents page was anexhilarating experience.

After this heady mix the final two sectionswere, by their nature, perhaps slightly lessexciting although still informative anduseful. Part IV focussed on analyses ofgender, genre and other narrative strategiesexploring, as Kearney says, how gender is


Book Reviews


produced and negotiated via different narra-tive practices, including genre, movementand character in mediums such as film (DeLauretis, Schiavi, Williams, Tasker), soapopera (Gledhill), television (Banet-Weiser &Portwood-Stacer) and (Jenkins) and music(Walser) and (Railton). Part V examinesgender and media consumption throughwork that is both familiar and less so. Forexample we travel from Annette Kuhn’sfamiliar 1984 discussion of Women’s Genresand bell hooks bridging of the gap betweenfeminist and critical race theory, ‘The Oppo-sitional Gaze’ to the more contemporarydiscussions of Will Straw on recordcollecting and Esther MacCallum-Stewart onvideo game users.

Overall this book is a combination of theunexpected and the eclectic. The founda-tions of gender and media studies are wellcovered but there is also enough of the newand the unfamiliar to stimulate and invitefurther interest. The introductory passagespenned by the editor to preface each sectionare well done – comprehensive but not intru-sively so and providing a useful overview ofwhat the volume contains and how thevarious essays fit together. The alternativetable of contents which organises theseaccording to identity and medium was also a

useful tool. My one comment as to thenature of the content is that there was littleor nothing on the news media, particularlyin relation to crime. This omission may beparticularly visible to me, and it is right thatI should declare an interest here, as acultural criminologist. But still it is an areawhere much work has been done over theyears and perhaps warranted at least a soli-tary example of scholarship.

That minor niggle aside, I found thisbook to be an invaluable combination of theold and the new. The bases of the disciplinewhich underlie the discussions that followare well chosen for their contribution to thefield. The many directions in which thesubject of gender and media is capable oftravelling are equally well illustrated by thesheer diversity of the subjects discussed. In conclusion then, if I was unfortunateenough to be stranded on a desert islandsomewhere and happened to have thisvolume in my one salvaged suitcase, at least I would be in possession of a guaranteedantidote to boredom.

Diana BretherickSenior Lecturer in Cultural Criminology, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth.

Book Reviews

If you would like to review a book for the Psychology of Women Section Review, please contactHelen Owton (Book Reviews Editor) at email: [email protected]

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