Full Court Press(ure): Negotiating Gender & Sexuality in Women's Collegiate Basketball Pubblico
Manno, Michelle Joan (2014)
Abstract
In this project, I explore how race, gender, and sexuality on a structural level impact the everyday experiences of female athletes on an individual level, as they work to negotiate multiple, and sometimes conflicting, identities. Drawing on data from a year-long ethnography with a Division I collegiate women's basketball program as well as over thirty in-depth interviews with current and former elite-level female athletes, I examine whether, in the contemporary, post Title IX moment, the female athlete is still considered a "cultural contradiction" and if so, how female athletes negotiate with their conflicting identities. Moreover, I explore how the changing socio-political context around sexuality impacts the use of lesbian stereotyping to police female athletes' expressions of their gender and sexual identities. Previous research has argued that because athleticism is defined primarily by characteristics we associate with hegemonic masculinity (i.e. strength) rather than hegemonic or idealized femininity (i.e. passivity), female athletes experience what has been termed "dual and dueling identities." As a result of these conflicting identities, scholars have argued that female athletes engage in strategies to over-emphasize their femininity such as wearing bows or make-up during sporting competition or more severe body modifying strategies such as limiting weight training. Unfortunately, however, little scholarly work has examined this phenomenon with an intersectional framework that recognizes these athletes' experiences to be also racialized. My findings suggest that while some female athletes do experience conflicting female/athlete identities, many do not. Most do, however, grapple significantly with lesbian stereotyping and the strict monitoring and policing of their expressions of gender and sexuality through various forms of intricate boundary work at the individual and institutional levels. Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, at the very same moment that the shifting socio-political landscape moves towards more acceptance of LGBTQ individuals generally, the institutional context of sports has dug in its heels, leading to heightened awareness and stricter policing of female athletes' gender and sexuality.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
"If You Play Basketball, You're Gay":
Gender, Sexuality, & Collegiate Women's Basketball
(1)
CHAPTER TWO
"Observe Anything Good Today?": Methodology & Setting
(20)
CHAPTER THREE
"Don't Be So Blunt About It":
MWSU, Recruiting, & The Policing of Sexuality
(48)
CHAPTER FOUR
"Everybody Knows That One":
Lesbian Stereotyping & The "Dyke" Discourse
(99)
CHAPTER FIVE
"Not a Lot of Leading Ladies Have Muscles":
Exploring the Cultural Contradiction of the Female Athlete
(142)
CHAPTER SIX
"We Don't Want You Looking All Beat Up":
Female Athletes' Use of Gender Strategies
(168)
CHAPTER SEVEN
A Place Behind the Times:
Women's Collegiate Basketball & The Institutional Reproduction of Inequality
(221)
REFERENCES
(233)
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Interviewees by Race and Sexual Identity
(239)
About this Dissertation
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