The 2002 Sydney Gay Games: Re-Presenting “Lesbian” Identities through Sporting Space

Abstract

In this article poetic representation in qualitative research is explored in relation to researching “lesbian” lives. Set within the context of The 2002 Sydney Gay Games the article considers how poetry can bring to light experiences at the intersection of sexuality, sport, and place. The article details three aspects to this process. First, by asking what queer theory could do for particular research subjects, a robust, malleable, and transportable theoretical concept of “queer” is proposed that is responsive to the participants’ lives and experiences. Second, this concept is applied methodologically in order to unsettle more traditional academic modes of representing interview data through the use of poetic forms of representation. Finally, a poem constructed from the Opening Ceremony of The Gay Games is presented and analyzed. Poetic representation is thus offered as a distinct methodology that permits a particular kind of “queer” analysis when researching “lesbian” lives.

KEYWORDS:

• lesbian
• sporting space
• queer theory
• poetic representation
• place
• Gay Games

Notes

1. In order to avoid an essentialist conceptualization of sexual orientation I used identity categories as a way in which to describe the participants in this research. Lesbian was used as an identity category for the purpose of the recruitment of women who were physically and emotionally primarily attracted to women. Other sexualities were not addressed in this research. I acknowledge that physical and emotional attraction between women does not constitute a lesbian and that lesbian identities are as diverse as other identities. Throughout this article I use “lesbian” in scare quotes to denote lesbian as an unstable identity category. I deploy “gay” and “queer” in similar ways.