Fast-girls, babes and the invisible girls. Gender relations in snowboarding

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to examine gender relations in snowboarding through conceptions and experiences articulated by female participants. The main objective is to focus on relations between female and male snowboarders as well as relations between different groups of females. The empirical investigation was conducted in conjunction with a workshop organized by the Norwegian Snowboard Federation. Methods employed were participant observation and personal interviews. The results reveal male domination in different snowboarding contexts during practice and competition. Moreover, the analysis revealed different femininities among the female snowboarders, characterized within the subculture as the Babes, Fast-girls, and the Invisible Girls. The results are discussed in relation to perspectives on subculture and Bourdieu's conceptions of field, capital and masculine domination.

Notes

¹ Reichenfeld and Bruechert, Snowboarding

² Howe, (Sick) a Cultural History of Snowboarding.

³ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’; Coulter-Parker, ‘Going over board.’; Lowenthal, ‘Snowboarding’.

⁴ Hargreaves, Sporting Females.

⁵ Brake, Comparative Youth Culture.

⁶ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’; Beal, ‘Disqualifying the Official’; Donnelly and Young, ‘The Construction and Confirmation of Identity’; Pearson, The Surfing Subcultures; Wheaton, ‘“Just do it”’.

⁷ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’; Beal, ‘Disqualifying the Official’; Beal and Wilson, ‘“Chicks dig Scars”’; Thorpe, ‘Jibbing the Gender Order’; Wheaton, ‘“New Lads”?’; Wheaton and Tomlinson, ‘The Changing Gender Order in Sport?’.

⁸ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’; Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.

⁹ Rinehart, ‘Arriving Sports’, 506.

¹⁰ Rinehart, ‘Arriving Sports’, 506

¹¹ Coakley, Sports in Society, 21.

¹² Humphreys, ‘Snowboarders’; Humphreys, ‘“Shredheads go Mainstream?”’.

¹³ Donnelly, ‘Sport as a Site for “Popular” Resistance’.

¹⁴ Pearson, The Surfing Subcultures; Donnelly, ‘Sport as a Site for “Popular” Resistance’; Donnelly, ‘Subcultures in Sport’; Donnelly and Young, ‘The Construction and Confirmation of Identity’.

¹⁵ Donnelly, ‘Sport as a Site for “Popular” Resistance’.

¹⁶ Hall and Jefferson, Resistance through Rituals; Hebdidge, Subculture; Brake, Comparative Youth Cultures.

¹⁷ Muggleton, ‘The Post-structuralist’, 199.

¹⁸ Rinehart, ‘Arriving Sports’.

¹⁹ Wheaton, ‘Introduction’, 4.

²⁰ Midol and Broyer, ‘Toward an Anthropological Analysis of New Sport Cultures’.

²¹ Midol, ‘Cultural Dissents’.

²² Messner, Taking the Field.

²³ National Sporting Goods Association – 2001.

²⁴ Norwegian Snowboard Federation, Annual Report 2004.

²⁵ Howe, (Sick) a Cultural History of Snowboarding; Rinehart, ‘Arriving Sports’; Burton, ‘Snowboarding’.

²⁶ Heino, ‘New Sports’; Humphreys, ‘Snowboarders’; Thorpe, ‘Embodied Boarders’.

²⁷ Humphreys, ‘Snowboarders’; Humphreys, ‘“Shredheads go Mainstream?”’; Humphreys, ‘Selling out Snowboarding’.

²⁸ Thorpe, ‘Embodied Boarders’.

²⁹ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’; Rinehart, ‘“Babes” & Boards’; Wilhelmi, ‘“Chicks”, Babes – or Real Members?’.

³⁰ Howe, (Sick) a Cultural History of Snowboarding.

³¹ Rinehart, ‘“Babes” & Boards’; Thorpe, ‘Beyond “Decorative Sociology’; Young, ‘Being the “Alternative” in an Alternative Subculture’.

³² Christensen, ‘Absolutely Snowboard’.

³³ Sisjord, ‘Snowboarding’.

³⁴ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’.

³⁵ Thorpe, ‘Jibbing the Gender Order’.

³⁶ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

³⁷ Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 97.

³⁸ Bourdieu, Pascal Meditations, 11.

³⁹ Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice.

⁴⁰ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

⁴¹ Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 98.

⁴² Bourdieu, Distinction.

⁴³ Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.

⁴⁴ Bourdieu, Masculine Domination.

⁴⁵ Bourdieu, Masculine Domination

⁴⁶ I have no personal experience in snowboarding. However, I have previously made a study on snowboarding and on several occasions have been invited by NSBF to speak about gender issues in sport, with particular reference to snowboarding.

⁴⁷ Patton, Qualitative Evaluations; Strauss, Qualitative Analysis.

⁴⁸ Half-pipe is a steep galley in the snow in which the riders travel down then up the galley walls and perform aerial manoeuvres at the end of each rise as they leave the wall and are airborne. Big Jumps are jumps in which the riders make aerial manoeuvres.

⁴⁹ Beal, ‘Disqualifying the Official’.

⁵⁰ Bourdieu, Masculine Domination.

⁵¹ Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice.

⁵² Thornton, Club Cultures.

⁵³ Muggleton, ‘The Post-structuralist’.

⁵⁴ Rinehart, ‘Arriving Sports’.

⁵⁵ Shilling, The Body and Social Theory.

⁵⁶ Beauvoir, The Second Gender.

⁵⁷ Bourdieu, Distinction; Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.

⁵⁸ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

⁵⁹ Hall, Representation.

⁶⁰ Anderson, ‘Snowboarding’; Beal, ‘Disqualifying the Official’; Donnelly and Young, ‘The Construction and Confirmation of Identity’; Wheaton, ‘“Just do it”’.

⁶¹ Beauvoir, The Second Gender.

⁶² Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

⁶³ Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 168.

⁶⁴ Bourdieu, Masculine Domination.

⁶⁵ Rinehart, ‘“Babes” & Boards’

⁶⁶ Hall, Representation.

⁶⁷ The Powerpuff Girls TV debut in 1998 was the highest rated premiere in Cartoon Network's history. For several seasons the series consistently scored the highest rating each week for the network among people from young children to adults. The Powerpuff Girls revolve around the adventures of three kindergarten girls made by the ingredients “sugar, spice and everything nice … accidentally added by an extra ingredient to the concoction; chemical X!” Using their ultra super powers, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThePowerpuffGirls.

⁶⁸ Bourdieu, Masculine Domination.

⁶⁹ Hall, Representation.

⁷⁰ Bourdieu, Pascal Meditations.

⁷¹ Thorpe, ‘Beyond “Decorative Sociology’.

⁷² Wheaton, ‘Introduction’, 19.

⁷³ Scraton et al. , ‘It's Still a Man's Game?’.

⁷⁴ Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice.

⁷⁵ Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 101.

⁷⁶ Kay and Laberge, ‘“Mandatory Equipment”’.

⁷⁷ Bjerrum Nielsen and Rudberg, The Story about Girls and Boys.

⁷⁸ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

⁷⁹ Bourdieu, Pascal Meditations.

⁸⁰ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’; Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.

⁸¹ Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

⁸² Thornton, Club Cultures.

⁸³ Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice; Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.