Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader

LIVING THE PARADOX: Female Athletes Negotiate Femininity and Muscularity

learn to speak unaccented French, but they can learn to ride a bike, or skate, or throw. All that is required for developing any of these motor skills is time for practice—and spending that time requires overcoming the sense of embarrassment and futility that adults often have when attempting something new. Here are two tips that may help. One is a surprisingly valuable drill suggested by the Little League’s Howto -Play handbook. Play catch with a partner who is ten or fifteen feet away—but do so while squatting with the knee of your throwing side touching the ground. When you start out this low, you have to keep the throw high to get the ball to your partner without bouncing it. This encourages a throw with the elbow held well above the shoulder, where it belongs. The other is to play catch with a person who can throw like an athlete but is using his or her off hand. The typical adult woman hates to play catch with the typical adult man. She is well aware that she’s not looking graceful, and reacts murderously to the condescending tone in his voice (“That’s more like it, honey!”) Forcing a right-handed man to throw lefthanded is the great equalizer. He suddenly concentrates his attention on what it takes to get hips, shoulder, and elbow working together. He is suddenly aware of the strength of character needed to ignore the snickers of onlookers while learning new motor skills. He can no longer be condescending . He may even be nervous, wondering what he’ll do if his partner makes the breakthrough first and he’s the one still throwing like a girl. y LIVING THE PARADOX Female Athletes Negotiate Femininity and Muscularity Vikki Krane,Y. L. Choi, Shannon M. Baird, Christine M.Aimar, and Kerrie J. Kauer Physically active women and girls face an intriguing paradox: Western culture emphasizes a feminine ideal body and demeanor that contrasts with an athletic body and demeanor. Sportswomen, therefore, live in two cultures, the sport culture and their larger social culture, wherein social and sport Negotiating Masculinity and Femininity 81 Excerpt from Krane, et al., “Living the Paradox: Female Athletes Negotiate Femininity and Muscularity,” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 50: 5–6 (March 2004): 315–329. Reprinted with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. 82 WOMEN AND SPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES ideals clash. This lived paradox may have a multitude of effects on female athletes, and the research provides varied accounts of their body image, eating behaviors, self-presentation, and self-esteem. Some researchers have found that female athletes have a more positive body image, healthier eating patterns, and are less likely to become pregnant accidentally than their nonathletic peers (Marten-DiBartolo and Shaffer, 2002; Miller, Sabo, Farrell, Barnes, and Melnick, 1999). Yet, other researchers have found that the sport environment creates pressures that lead to unhealthy practices such as disordered eating, excessive exercising, and training through injuries (e.g., Duquin, 1994; Johns, 1996; Krane, Greenleaf, and Snow, 1997). To comprehend the sporting experiences of female athletes it is important to consider the cultural influences that can potentially alter their experiences , behaviors, and psychological states. [. . .] An important cultural ideal that affects all women, and especially athletic women, is femininity. Femininity is a socially constructed standard for women’s appearance, demeanor, and values (Bordo, 1993). There are multiple permutations of femininity; femininity is bound to historical context (i.e., it changes over time), and “acceptable” femininity may be perceived differently on the basis of, for example, race and sexual orientation (Chow, 1999). Although there are multiple femininities in the Western world, there also is a privileged, or hegemonic, form of femininity (Choi, 2000; Krane, 2001a; Lenskyj, 1994). This hegemonic femininity is constructed within a White, heterosexual, and class-based structure, and it has strong associations with heterosexual sex and romance (Ussher , 1997). Hegemonic femininity, therefore, has a strong emphasis on appearance with the dominant notion of an ideal feminine body as thin and toned. [. . .] Within the context of the masculine domain of sport, sportswomen are expected to perform hegemonic femininity while distancing themselves from behavior perceived as masculine (Choi, 2000; Krane, 2001a). However , negotiating the performance of hegemonic femininity while avoiding masculine behaviors becomes problematic for these physically active women. They face the contradiction that to be successful in athletics they must develop characteristics associated with masculinity (e.g., strength, assertiveness, independence, competitiveness), which contradict hegemonic femininity (Krane...