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Description
Sex categorization in sport is usually perceived as something natural and is hence hardly questioned. This draws on the notion that there are two – and only two – sexes and that these are mutually exclusive, especially in terms of physical strength. Accordingly non-binary, intersex and trans women have been facing discrimination regarding the participation in their gender category. Whereas it is a normality in many martial arts clubs, that all its members do sparring with each other, it is also perceived as a normality that the genders may not fight against each other.
In spite of that, we recognize a trend in some local training communities in (East) Germany towards the queering of fights. That is, fights are organized for all people identifying as flintas and are solely organized in weight classes. The special feature of these communities is one of an intertwining local and (sub)cultural characteristic, that is, they emerge from an subcultural left scene that defines itself in and through an antisexist etc. space. Urban districts, like those of Leipzig and Berlin, the sites of our research encounter, have been known to bring forth these cultures of resistance.
In this paper, we seek to answer the question, which potential gender neutral fights, organized by these local communities, have, regarding the deconstruction of sex categories. That is, how are the participants themselves undoing (or doing) gender and do we indeed find assemblages of gender neutrality? Our study design foresees to include an ethnographic account as well as interviews.
