Women in Action Sport Cultures

Abstract

"Young, white men have dominated action sports for many years, yet women have refused to accept positions on the margins of these unique sporting cultures. Developing in a different context to many traditional sports, girls and women have adopted highly proactive approaches and developed unique strategies to negotiate space alongside their male peers in the waves, skate parks and cityscapes, on mountains and climbing walls, along trails, as well as around rinks. This international collection features contributions from a group of leading and emerging researchers, many of whom are passionate action sport participants themselves. With authors representing a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives including cultural studies, sociology, performance studies, media studies, sport for development, and education, this book offers the first collective focus on women in action sports cultures in the past, present and into the future. Ultimately, the book offers a vivid and powerful illustration of the new and ongoing struggles facing women in contemporary sporting cultures, as well as the various strands of activism, agency and politics being performed in the surf, on the slopes, and at the crag. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of sociology of sport and physical culture, gender studies, youth cultures, sport history, and pedagogy and education."--Provided by publisher. Introduction: Contextualizing women in action sport cultures / Holly Thorpe and Rebecca Olive -- Looking back, moving forward? Reflections from early action sport researchers / Holly Thorpe [and 7 others] -- Surfing together: exploring the potential of a collaborative ethnographic moment / Rebecca Olive [and 6 others] -- Sporting gender relations, life course transitions and implications for women rock climbers / Victoria Robinson -- 'Don't be a douche': An introduction to sex-integrated roller derby / Adele Pavlidis and James Connor -- Parkour, gendered power and the politics of identity / Belinda Wheaton -- The 'girl effect' in action sports for development: The case of the female practitioners of skateistan / Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky -- Negotiating moral terrain: Snowboarding mothers / Lucy Spowart and Lisette Burrows -- 'No one wants to mess with an angry mom': Females' negotiation of power technologies within a local skateboarding culture / Matthew Atencio, Becky Beal, ZaNean McClain, and Missy Wright -- Coming together and paddling out: Lesbian identities and British surfing spaces / Georgina Roy -- The experiences of 'brown' female bodyboarders: Negotiating multiple axes of marginality / Mihi Nemani and Holly Thorpe -- Technology, equipment and the mountain biker's taskscape / Kath Bicknell -- The changing face of ultimate Frisbee and the politics of inclusion / Hamish Crocket -- Girl power figures, mythic Amazons, and neoliberal risk performers: Discursively situating women who participate in mixed martial arts / Riley Chisholm, Charlene Weaving, and Kathy Bishoping -- Carving out space in the action sports media landscape: The skirtboarders' blog as a 'skatefeminist' project / Steph MacKay -- Becoming visible: Visual narratives of 'female' as a political position in surfing: The history, perpetuation, and disruption of patriocolonial pedagogies? / lisahunter -- Cultural pedagogies, action sports / Synthia Sydnor -- Afterword / Simone Fullagar.