Feminist (leisure) researchers in the 1980s and 1990s argued that the context of womenâs leisure was, at best, one of ârelative freedomsâ (Wimbush & Talbot, 1988), something achieved in the context of multiple constraints (Henderson, Bialeschki, Shaw, & Freysinger, 1989). Some empirical studies in the UK questioned whether and how women had leisure at all, âWomenâs leisure what leisure?â (Green, Hebron, & Woodward, 1990) and âAll work and no playâ (Deem, 1986) being particularly significant contributions that drew on critical feminist analysis at the time. A number of feminists were already connecting leisure, sport and physical education in the early 1980s (Deem, 1982; Hargreaves, 1986) and in 1980 Margaret Talbot made the case for womenâs sport to be analysed in the context of leisure (Talbot, 1980). This has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on scholarship in and across our varied areas of interest and analysis (Hall, 1987; Hargreaves, 1994; Scraton, 1985).
A consensus emerged that womenâs and girlsâ involvement in sport and/or forms of physical activity and active recreation could only be achieved via ongoing processes of negotiation of gender (Deem & Gilroy, 1998). There was some evidence , albeit among a minority of sports scholars, that masculinity and sport required more pro-feminist, critical analysis (Messner, 1990), while it was also noted that not all analysis of womenâs leisure was feminist (Henderson, 1996). Jennifer Hargreaves (1986) was pivotal in challenging the âmalestreamâ of sport sociology and for developing a feminist premise for leisure, sport and PE scholars that draws on and contributes to cultural (studies) as well as sociological analyses of sport. Whether explained through the language of ideologies or discourses (Wearing, 1998) it was recognized that gendered processes were/are at once contemporary and historical processes (Hargreaves, 1994; Vertinsky, 1994). Feminist leisure and sport scholarsâand under that general heading those focusing on physical education, physical activity, active recreation , travel and tourism, and moreâcontinue to examine how various embodied expressions can be (potentially) empowering whilst simultaneously constrained by dominant discourses and material practices of gender (Scraton & Watson, 2015).
Approaching this theme editorially has been illuminating: seeing how different authors approach their topics and how they articulate various interpretations of salient and significant features of feminism/s that span disciplinary areas and temporal phases. The chapters indicate that although we can trace purposeful and effective developments across sport, leisure and PE-related feminisms, feminist âworkâ is far from complete with regard to overcoming inequalities on the basis of gender and other intersecting factors. A number of pertinent issues are outlined across and within the chapters that resonate with many of the contributions in this handbook as a whole and reflect Jayne (Caudwell)âs observation that ââŠfeminist contributions from the past remain relevant to contemporary sport and that feminist ideas can be passed down and folded in to, recombined with, the presentâ (2011, p. 122, original emphasis).
It is apt that this theme opens with an overview of how gender and PE have been understood since the 1980s and outlines some of the key feminist interpretations of this interrelationship. Sheila Scraton reflects on her pioneering empirical work on girlsâ experiences of PE in the UK and contextualizes this alongside developing feminist analysis over the last four decades. She also identifies challenges that remain ongoing. We are grateful to Gertrude Pfister and Mari Sisjord (and Waxmann Publishers) for granting us permission to reprint Sheilaâs article. In the second chapter, Jessica Francombe-Webb and Kim Toffoletti overview some of Jennifer Hargreavesâ key work including her contribution to a critical feminist lens, particularly the problematic of structureâagency dualisms and the challenge of material and cultural accounts of girlsâ and womenâs experiences of sport and PE. Challenges posed by these dualisms are present throughout many of the chapters in this first theme and indeed throughout the handbook as a whole. Francombe-Webb and Toffoletti bring their review into the present by considering a postfeminist sensibility and invite readers to consider Hargreavesâ legacy for sport feminisms as not just wariness towards postfeminism (as Hargreaves and others understandably are) but as a platform from which to engage with the âmaterialâ contexts and consequences of postfeminism .
Feminist sport history is central to the dialogue between Patricia Vertinsky and Beccy Watson, the first of the two dialogue chapters that feature in the handbook. Vertinskyâs contribution to this area is vast and by drawing on extracts from an interview carried out in 2016, the dialogue highlights ways in which feminist sport history and different interpretations of sport history a nd related disciplinary areas across physical education, kinesiology and sport is an ongoing feminist endeavour.
This first theme of the handbook also demonstrates that in various different guises and at different times, much of what we know as masculinity studies is inextricably linked to feminist conceptual and theoretical developments. A history of the development of sport and masculinities scholarship is detailed in Richard Pringleâs chapter. Pringle draws on and combines various tenets of feminist theorizing and considers how they have been used in recognizing males as gendered beings, for informing a view/s of masculinity as a relational concept, and to consider the intimate connections between gender, bodies , sexualities and associated gender performances.
Following this the chapter by Stephen Wearing, Jennie Small and Carmel Foley provides coverage on how a project for gender research and theory in leisure and tourism scholarship has developed since the 1970s. We can trace further evidence of structureâagency debates that have underpinned much feminist thinking and Wearing et al. demonstrate how developments in theorizing the body in tourism have been both a product and a constituent of poststructuralist analysis in feminist leisure studies. Within the context of leisure and tourism , they consider how ideas of multiple, gendered subjectivities and access to alternative gender discourses , explored through sites of leisure and tourism as culturally gendered enclaves, can allow for the re-writing of masculine and feminine scripts.
Jayne Ifekwunigwe weaves together critical analysis of the cultural representations of tennis player Serena Williams and popular music postfeminist icon BeyoncĂ© to outline and convey the significance of Black feminism and its changing conceptualization from early third-wave Black feminists in the 1980s through to Care Free Black Girl (CFBG) feminisms of the present dayâarguably another/different iteration of postfeminist sensibility that Ifekwunigwe goes on to critique. Ifekwunigweâs contribution also acts as a stark reminder of just how white the âestablishedâ canon of feminism has been, and continues to be, both within and outside sport studies.
Cheryl Cooky provides further engagement with the cultural contexts of sport feminism in the chapter where she addresses several thematic developments in the sociology of sport on gender, sport and media . Drawing on work from the 1980s onwards, Cooky charts the development and contributions of US feminists to this area of feminist analysis, outlining key studies, assessing their legacies and highlighting salient future directions for feminist scholarship across gender, sport and media.
The last three chapters in this theme demonstrate both continuity and new scholarship by assessing various aspects of feminism and feminist critique within coaching, sports organizations and ...