Heroines of Sport

Heroines of Sport
Author: Jennifer Hargreaves
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2000
Genre: Feminist theory
ISBN: 9780415228480

This text looks closely at different groups of women who have become sporting heroines. It focuses on five specific groups of women from places in the world: South African women; Muslim women, Aboriginal women, and lesbian and disabled women.

Game Changers

Game Changers
Author: Molly Schiot
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2016-10-18
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1501137115

“The embrace of women’s sports sometimes feels almost like a political act...Molly Schiot’s Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History is so valuable.” —The Wall Street Journal “A thoughtful, exhaustively researched, and long-overdue tribute to the women who have paved the way for the likes of Serena Williams, Abby Wambach, Simone Biles, and more.” —espnW Based on the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, a celebration of the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the twentieth century that features rarely seen photos and new interviews with past and present game changers including Abby Wambach and Cari Champion. Two years ago, filmmaker Molly Schiot began the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, posting a photo each day of a female athlete who had changed the face of sports around the globe in the pre-Title IX age. These women paved the way for Serena Williams, Carli Lloyd, and Lindsey Vonn, yet few today know who they are. Slowly but surely, the account gained a following, and the result is Game Changers, a beautifully illustrated collection of these trailblazers’ rarely-before-seen photos and stories. Featuring icons Althea Gibson and Wyomia Tyus, complete unknowns Trudy Beck and Conchita Cintron, policymaker Margaret Dunkle, sportswriter Lisa Olson, and many more, Game Changers gives these “founding mothers” the attention and recognition they deserve, and features critical conversations between past and present gamechangers—including former US Women’s National Soccer Team captain Abby Wambach and SportsCenter anchor Cari Champion—about what it means to be a woman on and off the field. Inspiring, empowering, and unforgettable, Game Changers is the perfect gift for anyone who has a love of the game.

Fighting Sports, Gender, and the Commodification of Violence

Fighting Sports, Gender, and the Commodification of Violence
Author: Victoria E. Collins
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2021-04-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1793600643

Fighting Sports, Gender and the Commodification of Violence: Heavy Bag Heroines offers a glimpse into the cultural terrain of women's boxing as it manifests in everyday gyms for novice boxers. Taking an ethnographic approach, Victoria Collins examines broad understandings of gender, violence, self-defense, commodification, and health and fitness from the point of view of women who engage in the sport. Collins unpacks dominant assumptions about gender and the sport through the eyes of the women's understandings of gender norms, social assumptions about physicality, sexuality, as well as challenges to masculine and feminine performativity. Central to this study is the appropriation and marketing of the boxers' work out in cardio-boxing gym spaces (i.e. fitness boxing), where the sport has increasingly been packaged, commodified, and sold to predominantly middle class, white female consumers as a means to not only improve their health and fitness, but also as a means to defend themselves against a would-be attacker. The body project for women in the sport of boxing, therefore, should not only be framed as a form of resistance, but one of physical feminism.

Sports Heroines on Film

Sports Heroines on Film
Author: Viridiana Lieberman
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2014-11-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786476613

It's hard to find females in leading roles as athletes, coaches and owners in sports film story lines. With an abundance of male-focused stories, Hollywood continues to reinforce the association of athleticism with masculinity. Portrayals of women in prominent roles indicate social attitudes and values and--when looked at over time--also show what influence the women's movement has had on cinematic representation and social understandings. This discussion of sports film heroines begins with National Velvet (1944) and ends with Secretariat (2010). It addresses the question of whether these story lines do or do not empower women as characters and role models, while offering alternative cinematic choices that reflect the true and ever-growing history of women in sports.

Women Who Risk

Women Who Risk
Author: Marilyn Olsen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2003
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9781578261246

Whether in 20-foot swells in the Hawaiian tropics or 24,000-foot mountains in the Alaskan wilderness, sports like surfing, mountaineering, wakeboarding and skydiving are designed to test the limits of human endurance. The women who seek out these challenges are a rare breed indeed -- and they are among the most formidable athletes in the world. In Marilyn Olsen's acclaimed book -- now available in paperback -- you'll read in-depth profiles of eleven female athletes, each of whom has risen to the top of her sport. They include Arctic Man competitor Kim McKnight, iditarod racer DeeDee Jonrowe, Indy 500 driver Sarah Fisher, and rock climber Lynn Hill -- among many others. In Women Who Risk, readers learn not only what extraordinary feats its eleven heroines have achieved, but also what got them there. You'll learn what they eat, what equipment they use, and how they train. You'll learn what frustrates them, and how they maintain the courageous mindset necessary to face giant mountains, 9,000-foot parachute drops, and grueling all-day triathlons. Every story in Women Who Risk is the story of a woman who works hard and risks her life in order to follow her dream. The women in this book will inspire both men and women to work harder, live better, and know when it's time to leave fear behind.

Women’s Sport in Africa

Women’s Sport in Africa
Author: John Bale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2016-04-14
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1317637666

In recent decades Africa has emerged as a sporting giant. The African sporting phenomenon has been addressed in the popular press and it has also attracted scholarly interest; however, this interest is almost entirely focussed on men. Yet women’s participation in recreational and elite sport is worthy of exploration and research. This path-breaking collection of essays provides an introduction to a variety of dimensions of women’s participation in African sports. Several key concepts are addressed in the book: women and media, women and sport-migration, sport and empowerment, sporting and social development, women’s sport and postcolonial Africa, and professional sport and economic development. This collection, authored by established scholars, will attract readership from students from Sports Studies to African Studies and from undergraduate students to university teachers. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Muslim Women and Sport

Muslim Women and Sport
Author: Tansin Benn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2010-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1134008511

Examining the global experiences, challenges and achievements of Muslim women participating in physical activities and sport, this important new study makes a profound contribution to our understanding of both contemporary Islam and the complexity and diversity of women’s lives in the modern world. The book presents an overview of current research into constructs of gender, the role of religion and the importance of situation, and looks closely at what Islam has to say about women’s participation in sport and what Muslim women themselves have to say about their participation in sport. It highlights the challenges and opportunities for women in sport in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, utilizing a series of extensive case-studies in various countries which invite the readers to conduct cross-cultural comparisons. Material on Iraq, Palestine and Bosnia and Herzegovina provides rare insights into the impact of war on sporting activities for women. The book also seeks to make important recommendations for improving access to sport for girls and women from Muslim communities. Muslim Women and Sport confronts many deeply held stereotypes and crosses those commonly quoted boundaries between ‘Islam and the West’ and between ‘East and West’. It makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the interrelationships between sport, religion, gender, culture and policy.

Women Sport Fans

Women Sport Fans
Author: Kim Toffoletti
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2017-06-26
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1317280776

Women worldwide are making their presence felt as sport fans in rapidly increasing numbers. This book makes a distinctive and innovative contribution to the study of sport fandom by exploring the growing visibility and interest in women who follow sport. It presents the latest data on women’s sport spectatorship in different regions of the world, posing new theoretical paradigms to study the globalised nature of female sport fandom. This book goes beyond conventional approaches to analysing the practices of women sport fans. By using a critical feminist perspective to investigate cultural conditions and social contexts (including globalisation, digital networked technologies, consumerism, neoliberalism and postfeminism), it brings into view a diversity of women’s voices and experiences as sport fans. It sheds new light on the power dynamics of gender, ethnicity and sexuality influencing women’s participation in sport spectatorship and interrogates the ways female sport fandom is made visible through transnational media networks. Women Sport Fans: Identification, Participation, Representation is fascinating reading for all those interested in sport and gender, the sociology of sport, or women’s studies.

Sport and Women

Sport and Women
Author: Gertrud Pfister
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2005-07-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134578245

The book illuminates a wide range of key international issues in women's sport, such as cultural barriers to participation and the efficacy of political action. It is therefore essential reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology, culture