Researching boxing bodies in Scotland: Using apprenticeship to study the embodied construction of gender in hyper masculine space

Abstract

This article presents apprenticeship as an ethnographic method suitable for researching topics concerning gender and space. To use this method, the researcher takes up a practice, such as a sport. Emphasis lies in understanding one’s topic ‘by body’, and the article argues that such an embodied perspective sheds a new light on gender construction in the boxing gym. An empirical study of female amateur boxers in Scotland, conducted by the author, herself a competitive female boxer, reinforces the argument. The position of an embodied insider offers the researcher a unique vantage point with regard to various contrasting processes of gender construction on different scales, such as the body, embodied encounters and the gym. By giving attention to the transformative power of bodily practice, apprenticeship focuses on possibilities for, resistance to, and transformation of, gender norms in hyper masculine spaces. The apprenticeship method can therefore enrich geography’s understanding of the role of physical practices for gender construction in different spaces.

Keywords:

• Apprenticeship method
• embodiment
• gender
• boxing
• women boxers

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Emilia Ferraro, who both gave me the courage to start a dissertation about gender and boxing using the apprenticeship methodology and supervised it. Thanks also to Dr. Ilse van Liempt, who generously gave of her time in supporting me to submit and revise the paper. Lastly, thanks to the editors and peer reviewers. I’m indebted to your encouragement and insightful and constructive comments.