Shilling, Chris and Bunsell, T. (2009) The female bodybuilder as a gender outlaw. Qualitative research in Sport and Exercise, 1 (2). pp. 141-159. ISSN 0252-9203.
| The full text of this publication is not available from this repository. (Contact us about this Publication) | |
| Official URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19398440902909009 |
Abstract
This paper is a sociological exploration of the female bodybuilder as a 'gender outlaw', a figure who is stigmatised not because she has broken a formal law, but because she has disregarded so flagrantly dominant understandings of what is aesthetically, kinaesthetically and phenomenologically acceptable within the gendered order of social interaction. Illustrating our argument with reference to a two-year ethnographic study of British female bodybuilders, we begin by explicating the contours of this deviance - associating it with multiple transgressions manifest in terms of choice, aesthetics, action/experience and consumption - and explore the costs accruing to these stigmatised women. In the second half of the paper, we attend to the motivations and experiences of female bodybuilders themselves in explaining why they remain engaged in an activity rendered perverse by dominant gendered norms. Exploring their commitment to an interaction order based upon muscle rather than gender, our conclusion suggests these women offend the most fundamental 'collective sentiments', possessing no authorised place in the cultural consciousness of society.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
| Divisions: | Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research |
| Depositing User: | Chris Shilling |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Sep 2009 16:09 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Nov 2011 16:02 |
| Resource URI: | http://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/22631 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
- Depositors only (login required):
