Everyday Sexisms: Exploring the Scales of Misogyny in Sport

In this chapter I focus on sexism and sport with a focus on the context of Higher Education (HE) in the UK. I start with a brief introduction to the importance of work on discrimination before offering ways feminists have challenged sexism and misogyny. The latter involves a turn to the idea of feministkilljoys (Ahmed, 2010) and a return to the work of Joan Smith (1989). I consider contemporary sexism and misogyny within sporting cultures and practices in HE in the UK. I end with the idea of networks of solidarity as one way to challenge and transform discrimination in sport

“You should see me on the inside”: Researching the post-stroke mental health of a male professor of sport

Variable, and therefore miserable condition of man! This minute I was well, and am ill, this minute. … We study health, and we deliberate upon our meats, and drink, and air, and exercises, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building; and so our health is a long and a regular work: but in a minute a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all: a sickness unprevented for all our diligence, unsuspected for all our curiosity; nay, underserved… . O miserable condition of man! (Donne, 1999 [1624], p. 3) This research note offers an original contribution to methodological discussion qua mental health, and associated emotionality, within the workplace of sport academia. Our focus is the post-stroke mental health of a male sociology of sport professor, and discussions are divided into two sections. The first section, which reiterates the title: ‘you should see me on the inside’, explores this statement in terms of researching the mental health of a work colleague. The second section, entitled ‘Sepp Blatter saved my life’, focuses on the tensions implicit to co-constructing knowledge of post-stroke mental health recovery

Transgender and Non-binary Swimming in the UK: Indoor Public Pool Spaces and Un/Safety

This paper draws from the findings of research that was initiated as a consequence of previous research activities related to University-LGBT community physical activity projects (2012–2018). Specifically, the research underpinning this paper centers transgender and non-binary experiences of recreational swimming and aquatic activity (2017–2020). To date, the research has received small amounts of funding from four sources and resulted in two public engagement activities (two art exhibitions). The findings that inform the discussion are taken from nine semi-structured interviews, three focus groups including a professionally drawn illustration of two of these focus groups, and sixty-three research participant's “drawings” as well as informal conversations with eight stakeholders. The findings concern transgender and non-binary people's feelings of un/safety in the public spaces of an indoor swimming pool and the accompanying display of their embodied self. These two elements of un/safety—spatiality and embodiment—are critically discussed in relation to physical activity and in/equality. In this way, the work contributes to sustained University-LGBT community links and provides possibility for evidenced-based intervention to address inequality

The boxers of Kabul: women, boxing and Islam

In this chapter, we focus on women who box, in particular Muslim women who box. Within Sport Studies and the Sociology of Sport there is limited discussion of this topic; Mitra (2009) offers one of few accounts. In the literature, there exist broader discussions surrounding women, Islam and sport and/or physical activity (cf. Benn et al., 2011; Hargreaves, 200; Kay, 2006; Walseth and Fasting, 2003), as well as analyses related to the histories of women boxers (Hargreaves, 1997; van Ingen, 2013a), women?s boxing bodies (Halbert, 1997; Mennesson, 2000), boxing uniforms (van Ingen and Kovacs, 2012), boxing and the Olympics (Lindner, 2012), and women boxers in film (Boyle et al., 2006; Caudwell, 2008; Fojas, 2009). Many of these contributions take a feminist perspective on the sport of boxing

Football 4 Peace versus (v) Homophobia: A critical exploration of the links between theory, practice and intervention

In this chapter, we draw on our different past trajectories to explore the links between theories of sexualities and genders, and anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic and anti-biphobic intervention within UK University footballing contexts. Our critical reflections include over a decade of involvement with scholarship and campaigning surrounding gender and sexuality in football (Caudwell) and significant project development of the Football 4 Peace International reconciliation initiative (Spacey). We seek to plot the ways scholarship, especially theories of gender and sexualities, informs grassroots praxis. More specifically, we focus on the idea of making a difference when it comes to social divisions and inequalities vis-à-vis sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). During our discussions we draw from a range of research materials, including the voices of young people and students to demonstrate the ways participation in football can help, as well as hinder, anti-discriminatory policy and practice at the level of the locale

Queering Indoor Swimming in the UK: Transgender and Non-binary wellbeing

This paper draws from a research project that was initiated in 2017 and continued in to 2020. It followed on from previous University-LGBT + community projects (e.g., football versus homophobia 2012–2018) and involved working with a local transgender social group, specifically, their engagement with once-a-month recreational swim sessions. The research findings that are discussed come from sixty-three research participant’s ‘drawings’, three focus groups including a professionally drawn illustration of two of these focus groups, and nine semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the qualitative data demonstrates the significance of play and pleasure, feeling free, and transgender and non-binary imaginations to physical activity participation, and wellbeing. These three themes are presented through the lens of queer/queering and transfeminism. As such, the paper has two aims: to document the experiences of physical activity by an often-excluded group; and to evaluate the concept of queering to an understanding of indoor recreational swimming and wellbeing

Sporting gender: women’s footballing bodies as sites/sights for the (re) articulation of sex, gender, and desire

Past and present participation in the game of football (soccer) by women and girls in the UK is mostly through organizational structures and legal and discursive practices that differentiate players by sex and incidentally gender. In this article, the author argues that the emphasis on sex and gender differentiation in football underpins a sporting system that is unable to move beyond sex as pregiven and the sex/gender distinction. The author engages with feminist–queer theory to illustrate how sex, gender, and desire are regulated in order to uphold social relations of power. The focus on women’s footballing bodies demonstrates how the sexed body is socially constructed to inform gender and sexuality. In addition, the author highlights resistance to the compulsory order woman-feminine-heterosexual and presents examples of rearticulations of sex-gender-desire.</jats:p