Tackling Stereotype: Corporeal Reflexivity and Politics of Play in Women’s Rugby (New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures)

This book presents a critical rethinking of assumptions that have informed our understanding of women's engagement in contact sport, based on an in-depth ethnography with an English rugby team. Looking at the day-to-day concerns of women who play rugby, this work provides a refreshing perspective on different ways of doing femininities in postfeminist times. Women's rugby is one of the world's fastest growing sports, yet it is also a physical game that is traditionally the preserve of men. Tackling Stereotypes reveals the cultural and symbolic stigma that 'sticks' to women's rugby players and the tactics they use to carve out space for themselves and fight for legitimacy. It also argues that players engage in pragmatic politics, informed by their participation, that aims to enact realistic change. Branchu develops a situational sociology that furthers debates in the understanding of gender, belonging, becoming, embodiment, resistance politics, and the sociological study of sport. Charlotte Branchu is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool, UK Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 1: Kicking Off 9 1.1 Women Play Rugby? 10 1.2 Sport, Culture and Politics 14 1.3 Rugby Girls: New Sporting Femininities in Postfeminist Times 18 1.4 Developing a Situational Sociology 23 1.5 Stepping on the Pitch: Researching Women’s Rugby 28 1.6 Chapter Guide 34 Bibliography 36 2: Stereotypes That Stick: Moral Economy and Cultural Politics 43 2.1 “But it’s not real rugby, is it?” 47 2.2 The Myth of the Lesbian Rugby Player 50 2.3 “No you don’t”: Rugby Is Not For “Women” 54 2.4 Conclusion 58 Bibliography 59 3: Understanding Participation: Dispositions, Situations and (Infra)structures 62 3.1 Structures and Infrastructures 66 3.1.1 Normative Representations: “Rugby is not for girls” 66 3.1.2 Material Allowance: Localities 70 3.1.3 Touch Rugby 72 3.2 A Taste for the Game: Dispositions and Sporting Habitus 74 3.2.1 Cultural Capital and Reproduction: A Family Affair 74 3.2.2 Sport Socialisation and Sport Habitus 78 3.3 “I’m not an inherently sporty person”: Creating Taste 83 3.3.1 “Bring a friend”: Social Networks and Expanding the Rugby Family 84 3.3.2 Every Body Has a Place: Encountering the Rugby Ethos 86 3.4 Conclusion: “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it?” 87 Bibliography 88 4: Integrating the Team: Identity, Becomings and Careers 91 4.1 First Steps 93 4.2 Finding a Position 94 4.3 “Show you belong”: Being Serious About Rugby 101 4.4 “Rugby takes over your life”: Making Rugby a Priority 103 4.5 Reputation Games: Earning a Place 106 4.6 Conclusion: The Moral Career of the Rugby Player: Individual Trajectories as Collective Endeavours 112 Bibliography 114 5: The “Physical Side”: Getting a Feel for the Game—Pains and Pleasures of Play 116 5.1 Fear and Loving: Learning to Love Contact 120 5.2 It’s More of an Ache: Learning to Feel One’s Self 124 5.3 Temporary Solutions: Learning to Hold On 132 5.4 The Body Powerful: Learning to Be-in-the-World 136 5.5 Conclusion: Living Values 139 Bibliography 142 6: The “Social Side”: Rugby Culture, Reflexivity and the Space of Women’s Rugby 145 6.1 Playing Together: Solidarity, Care and Converging Affects 148 6.2 Doing Rugby: Homosociality of the Dominated and Creating a “safe space” 153 6.3 Doing Friendship 156 6.4 Doing Sexuality 159 6.5 Working Together—Skills and Body Techniques 163 6.6 Conclusion: Women’s Rugby and Ethics of Care 167 Bibliography 169 7: Influencing the Field: Tactics and Politics of Play 172 7.1 A Rugby of Women: Heterosexing the Team and Distinction from the “Butch Lesbian” Stereotype 176 7.1.1 Heterosexing the Sport—“Female Apologetic” Behaviour and Normative Femininity 176 7.1.2 Performing Femininity 179 7.2 Women’s Rugby as a Distinctive Space: Not Your Typical Gal 182 7.2.1 Owning and Reversing the Stigma 182 7.2.2 Demarcation of Female Space—Women’s Rugby’s What We Play 185 7.2.3 Relinquishing Difference: Rugby as Marker of Distinction 190 7.3 Recruiting: Feigned Amateurism and Shaping the Field 191 7.4 Conclusion: Position-Taking: Playing the Field 194 Bibliography 195 8: Conclusions: Politics of Play and Pragmatic Politics 198 8.1 Being a Rugby Girl: Corporeal Reflexivity and Heterarchies 199 8.2 Moving the Goal Posts: Politics of Play and Pragmatic Politics 201 8.3 The Final Whistle? What Is the Future of Women’s Rugby? 205 Bibliography 208 Index 210