Becoming horseboy(s) – human-horse relations and intersectionality in equiscapes

ABSTRACT

Leisure studies have given scant regard to human-animal relations and intersectionality. In this paper, I respond to calls for research analysing leisure as a complex, multispecies phenomenon by exploring human-horse relations and intersectionality in boy’s/men’s equestrian stories through the concept of intra-activity and creative analytical writing. Thinking and writing through intra-activity brings insights into the co-constitution of humans and horses, as well as the entanglement of other power relations and social categories. The paper illustrates that becoming horseboy(s) is a process of material-discursive intra-activity where boys/men, by transcending the human-animal divide simultaneously transcend the female-male/masculine-feminine divide. Thus, engaging materially with horses can allow and encourage boys/men to be less constrained by dominant gender discourses. The paper also illustrates the importance of studying gender, not as a separate or primary category of privilege or inequality, but as one that is entangled with race, class, sexuality, age and other animals. I finally argue that bringing horses, as well as discourses, into discussions of the enactment of gender in leisure landscapes offers a productive site for elaborating the much-debated question, posed by feminist posthumanists, of the agency of matter.

KEYWORDS:

• Human-horse relations
• gender
• intersectionality
• intra-activity
• equestrian sports
• creative analytical writing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Finkel and Danby (2018) describe equiscapes as a horse-focused leisure landscape where interconnectedness, emotional exchange and cross-species communication are encouraged. Hence, boundaries between human bodies and horses become blurred and entangled.

2. Biskopsgården is a socio-economically deprived area in Gothenburg.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eva Linghede

Eva Linghede is currently completing her PhD at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, in Stockholm, Sweden focusing on the promise of posthumanist thinking and writing in sport (studies).