35 research outputs found
Embodying Sporty Girlhood:Health & the Enactment of Successful Femininities
This paper focuses on young womenâs embodiment of health discourses and how these are âplayed outâ in education and sporting contexts where varying physical cultures are en- acted. We draw on data from three qualitative projects that considered girlsâ understand- ings of PE, football, and running within the context of their active schooling subjectivities. Health concerns increasingly frame young peopleâs participation in sport and physical activity and âgirlsâ in particular have been encouraged to be more physically active. In- fluential âhealthismâ discourses continue to construct compelling ideas about âactive cit- izenshipâ as moral responsibility and within broader, fluid and neoliberal societies young women are seen as the âmagic bulletâ (Ringrose, 2013) to overcome social issues and complex health problems such as obesity. Through critical feminist inquiry into the mate- rial-discursive rationalities of healthism in postfeminist times our analysis demonstrates that health and achievement discourses form powerful âbody pedagogiesâ in relation to young womenâs engagement with sport and physical activity. The body pedagogies we an- alysed were multifaceted in that they focused on performative potential of sport and phys- ical activity in the quest for the ever âperfectible selfâ (McRobbie, 2007, p. 719), and were also imbued with fear, anxiety and risk related to failure and âfatnessâ. These findings are significant as they show that current responses to âtackleâ ill health that mobilise sport and physical activity as simplified and rationalised responses to the âthreatâ of obesity are problematic because they do not contend with this complexity as young women assem- ble their postfeminist choice biographies
Embodying Sporty Girlhood: Health and the Enactment of "Successful" Femininities
This paper focuses on young womenâs embodiment of health discourses and how these are âplayed outâ in education and sporting contexts where varying physical cultures are enacted. We draw on data from three qualitative projects that considered girlsâ understandings of PE, football, and running within the context of their active schooling subjectivities. Health concerns increasingly frame young peopleâs participation in sport and physical activity and âgirlsâ in particular have been encouraged to be more physically active. Influential âhealthismâ discourses continue to construct compelling ideas about âactive citizenshipâ as moral responsibility and within broader, fluid and neoliberal societies young women are seen as the âmagic bulletâ (Ringrose, 2013) to overcome social issues and complex health problems such as obesity. Through critical feminist inquiry into the material-discursive rationalities of healthism in postfeminist times our analysis demonstrates that health and achievement discourses form powerful âbody pedagogiesâ in relation to young womenâs engagement with sport and physical activity. The body pedagogies we analysed were multifaceted in that they focused on performative potential of sport and physical activity in the quest for the ever âperfectible selfâ (McRobbie, 2007, p. 719), and were also imbued with fear, anxiety and risk related to failure and âfatnessâ. These findings are significant as they show that current responses to âtackleâ ill health that mobilise sport and physical activity as simplified and rationalised responses to the âthreatâ of obesity are problematic because they do not contend with this complexity as young women assemble their postfeminist choice biographies
Critically encountering exer-games & young femininity
This article builds upon previous research into the Nintendo Wii game âWe Cheerâ through qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of young girls and their playing experiences. I argue here that this multi-layered approach is important as it allows for exploration of the nuances between representation and everyday lives, specifically when analyzing the complexity and contradictions related to the girlsâ hetero-sexy embodiment and the process of becoming female in a (digital) culture still largely dominated by the sociocultural constitution of slenderness. Throughout the analysis, I aim to demonstrate the way in which the girlsâ engagement with âWe Cheerâ was mediated by their own embodied sensemaking and work on the self. As such, I focus on the partial stories that the girls tell about their own embodied femininities to advance studies of media reception in ways that are arguably unique to interactive exer-games such as âWe Cheer.â</jats:p