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Abstract
Starting off from deliberations on the ‘nature’ and significance of gender differences and gender relations, I first of all present in this contribution my theoretical framework: a constructivist approach to gender. If gender is understood as a social construction, gender differences are not ‘natural’ but acquired and enacted, and also vary according to the particular social and gender order. Currently observable in many respects is a tendency towards ‘gender bending’ and gender play. This raises the question as to whether this dismantling and/or de-dramatization of gender differences in, as well as outside, sport is a sign pointing towards a new gender order. Or has gender enactment become more subtle? Have gender scripts shifted to other areas, for example to media sports with their focus on (hetero)sexuality? Which course will gender relations take in future, in as well as outside sport? In discussing the issues raised above, I will analyse the present situation and consider future developments with regard to sports participation, media sports and leadership in sport.
Notes
1 This article was written in 2008. The data and trends are valid in 2010.
2 Buytendijk, cited in Pfister, ‘The Future of Football’, 100.
3 Lorber, Paradoxes of Gender; Connell, Gender.
4 No author, ‘Intersexualität’, 43; Schmidt, ‘Tragödie als Schurkenstück’, 252–3.
5 CitationLehnert, Wenn Frauen Männerkleidung tragen, 24.
6 German Gymnastics was developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was a political movement and included a broad variety of games and exercises. Gymnastics did not emphasize competition and records but fitness and mass participation (of men).
7 CitationPfister, ‘Olympia nur für Männer?’
8 CitationPfister, ‘Olympia nur für Männer?’
9 Drevon, Les Jeux Olympiques Oubliés.
10 CitationOpaschowski, Neue Trends im Freizeitsport; Klages, Mitgliederentwicklung im Deutschen Sportbund.
11 CitationPilgaard, Danskernes motions – og sportsvaner 2007.
12 European Commision, Eurobarometer 2006 – Health and Food. http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_publication/eb_food_en.pdf, 65ff.
13 European Commision, Eurobarometer 2006 – Health and Food, 66.
14 European Commision, Eurobarometer 2006 – Health and Food, 69.
15 European Commision, Eurobarometer 2006 – Health and Food, 72.
16 Pilgaard, Danskernes motions – og sportsvaner 2007.
17 CitationKleindienst-Cachay, ‘Sportengagement muslimischer Mädchen und Frauen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland’.
18 The term ‘sport’ is used here for different kinds of body cultures and physical activities.
19 Opaschowski, Neue Trends im Freizeitsport.
20 CitationPfister, Kvinder på toppen.
21 Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund. Bestandserhebung 2007. http://www.dosb.de/fileadmin/fm-dosb/downloads/2007_DOSB_Bestandserhebung.pdf.
22 Opaschowski, Neue Trends im Freizeitsport.
23 CitationWheaton, Understanding Lifestyle Sport; CitationDonnelly, ‘Studying Extreme Sport’.
24 CitationMessner, Taking the Field.
25 CitationPfister, ‘Doing Gender’.
26 CitationObel, ‘Collapsing Gender’.
27 CitationHeywood and Dworkin, Built to Win.
28 Obel, ‘Collapsing Gender’, 85.
29 Heywood and Dworkin, Built to Win.
30 CitationPfister and Fasting, ‘Geschlechterkonstruktionen auf dem Fußballplatz’; CitationRinehart, ‘Babes and Boards’.
31 Schultz Jørgensen. The International Sports Press. 2005. http://www.playthegame.org/Knowledge%20Bank/Articles/International%20_Sports_Press_Survey_2005.aspx.
32 CitationPfister, ‘Frauen in Führungspositionen’.
33 Opaschowski, Neue Trends im Freizeitsport; CitationHedal, ‘Motivation og tv-sport’.
34 CitationPfister, ‘The Future of Football’.
35 See among many other sources Berliner Zeitung, May 11, 2002 about the new image of women's football (http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2002/0511/sport/0299/index.html).
36 CitationPfister, ‘Gender, Sport und Massenmedien’.
37 CitationFechtig and Janke, ‘Ich liebe Lars Riecken’.
38 CitationPfister, ‘Frauen in Führungspositionen des Sports’; CitationPfister, Kvinder på toppen; CitationHovden, ‘“Heavyweight” Men’.
39 CitationPfister, ‘Gender Issues’.
40 CitationPfister and Radtke, ‘Männlichen und Weiblichen Führungskräften im Deutschen Sport’.
41 Pfister, ‘Frauen in Führungspositionen des Sports’.
42 Pfister, ‘Frauen in Führungspositionen’.
43 CitationLöffler, Frauenförderung in der Europäischen Union, 107.
44 CitationStiegler, Frauen im Mainstreaming, 27.
45 Löffler, Frauenförderung in der Europäischen Union, 10.
46 Stiegler, Frauen im Mainstreaming, 21.
47 CitationHenkel, ‘DSB arbeitet nach der Strategie des Gender Mainstreaming’.
48 CitationHaag, ‘Zukunftssicherung von Sportvereinen durch Gender Mainstreaming’.
49 CitationHall, ‘Boxers and Bodymakers’. In theoretical discourses post-feminism is based on post-modern notions. Like other theoretical approaches feminism is criticized as being narrative and the concept of gender as being essentialist and ahistoric (CitationGillis, Howie and Munford, Third Wave Feminism).
50 Hall, ‘Boxers and Bodymakers’, 21.
51 See www.laracroftism.de.
52 CitationGreendorfer, ‘Title IX Gender Equity’, 82.
53 In the USA the equal rights of men and women in sport are anchored in Title IX, which took effect in 1972. Title IX is part of the Educational Amendments Act and forbids ‘sex discrimination in education programs and activities within an institution receiving any type of Federal financial assistance’ (‘Title IX Gender Equity’, 82).
54 CitationMorrison, White and Van Velsor, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, 13.
55 Hall, ‘Boxers and Bodymakers’, 31.
56 CitationHargreaves, ‘Women's Boxing’.
57 Quoted in Hall, ‘Boxers and Bodymakers’, 9.