Horseracing as gendered leisure events: doing and redoing masculinities in Mexico

ABSTRACT

Most research on equestrian sports, including horseracing, has been developed in contexts in the Global North. This has led to a narrow perspective of what horseracing is and means in different historical and sociocultural contexts. This paper extends this reach through considering informal horseracing events in Mexico. Based on understanding gender as a ‘doing’ rather than a ‘being’, and as an integral part of all social practices and identities, the races are examined as leisure events that function as sites through which masculinities are performed and (re)produced. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the horseracing events are identified as spaces in which male-male interactions provide opportunity for men to perform culturally hegemonic norms of masculinity, against a backdrop of shifting economic and social practices that are affecting wider gender relations in Mexico. Although women also have a presence in horseracing, they play a marginal role within the events which celebrate and foreground male homosociality. Masculinities are performed and validated predominantly through male-male interactions and expressions of male dominance over the horses. This paper thus illustrates the importance of gender to understanding different leisure practices and the significance of social and cultural context to examining leisure generally and equestrian sports specifically.

KEYWORDS:

• Events
• gender
• horseracing
• leisure
• masculinities
• Mexico

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México under project 6493/2022CIB.

Notes on contributors

Carlos Monterrubio

Carlos Monterrubio received his PhD in Tourism from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is professor at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM), Mexico. His research interests are the sociocultural dimensions of tourism and leisure, and gender, sexuality and animals in tourism and leisure. He has published several research papers in well-established tourism and leisure journals. He is the current secretary of the Mexican Academy of Men’s Gender Studies and has been twice the secretary of the Mexican Tourism Research Academy.

Katherine Dashper

Katherine Dashper is Professor and Director of Research Degrees in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Becket University, UK. Her research applies a critical sociological lens to examine practices of work and leisure, particularly focusing on gender issues and interspecies encounters.

Rafael Hernández-Espinosa

Rafael Hernández-Espinosa is professor at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Centre for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, Mexico City. His research interests are the tourist experience and the social construction of public and tourist spaces. He belongs to the National System of Researchers in Mexico.