Speaker
Description
This paper, rooted in the sociology of sport and inspired by Kevin Young’s framework on Pain Cultures, Zones and Parameters (2004), re-conceptualises Young’s work in order to develop an understanding of the central dimensions of sports-related risk and generate a more sophisticated picture of the complex and often contradictory ways in which female athletes encounter (perceptually and experientially) risk in its various forms; a topic which, to date, remains under-researched. While risk is continuously constructed and re-evaluated on a societal and individual level, the ways in which athletes perceive pain and injury - and negotiate risk - relates to the underlying socio-cultural norms within a sport. As sport was created and developed as a primarily male space (which actively excluded women), existing sporting norms have strong ties with hegemonic forms of masculinity. Crucial therefore is the extent to which such masculinities (and the associated sporting norms) have encouraged a stoic, resilient approach to pain and injury. Social acceptance into this subculture is premised on the acceptance of risk and the denial of pain, regardless of physiologically-degenerative repercussions for the individual. Drawing upon feminist theories to depict the extent to which female athletes challenge gender norms by engaging in traditionally masculine spaces whilst also demonstrating a nuanced interaction with the adoption of pre-existing cultural norms, this paper utilises a re-conceptualised Risk Cultures, Zones and Parameters framework to highlight the ways in which female athletes both comply with and defy normative behaviours; thus shaping their own unique forms of gendered risk-taking.
