Papers by Attie Copeman-Papas
The position of sport as a domain for imbuing cultural norms as well as offering a space to conte... more The position of sport as a domain for imbuing cultural norms as well as offering a space to contest them offers unique prospects for study. Whilst many feminist studies have addressed the issue of sport as a significant space for constructing gender (Dworkin and Messner 2001) and race theorists have investigated its potential for cultural resistance (Lawrence 2005), there has been little investigation of the intersections between 'race', gender and nation in sport. Further, there has been little previous investigation of identities constructed with regard to these oppressions in sport, particularly outside of the USA or UK. This study investigated the specific athletic identities of six high-performance track-and-field athletes. Through the process of qualitative interviewing, participants constructed subject positions representing their athletic selves. The study found that the positions of hardworking athlete and the White athlete were considered synonymous and were placed in opposition to the natural Black athlete position. Racialised sporting stereotypes, such as the myth of Black athletic superiority, were discussed freely and openly in the interviews, and reflected a belief in wider 'colonial fantasies' relating to the Black body (Carrington 2002). Participants described, through these positions, a feeling of selfdenigration when compared to the perceived superior Black track-and-field athlete.
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Papers by Attie Copeman-Papas