Sexuality in question: New negotiations of the meaning of being a woman in high performance sports

Abstract

On the one hand, this research aims to explore the perceptions of women practicing high-performance sports about how they are viewed by their social environment in terms of their femininity and sexual orientation. On the other hand, it analyzes the visibility and acceptance of homosexuality in the sports context by both athletes and the social agents surrounding them. The research methodology was qualitative, with five focus groups including 46 women who practiced futsal, handball, volleyball, athletics and swimming. Results show that they present a resistance-oriented discourse against butch-lesbian stereotypes that, as we prove, are still present in collective imagination. Despite social advances perceived in this regard, homosexuality remains stigmatized and forms of cognitive-affective rejection persist in part of Spanish society.