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On the track/in the bleachers: authenticity and feminist ethnographic research in sport and physical cultural studies

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17430437.2013.828703

1743-0445

Adele Pavlidis, Rebecca Olive,

Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking

AbstractMuch contemporary ethnographic research about alternative sports and physical cultures tends to value the 'insider' perspective, claiming that it provides a level of embodied understanding that cultural 'outsiders' struggle to access. Participatory research perspectives have come to be viewed as the most 'authentic', with participation itself defined by those who are doing/playing the activity. This often diminishes the value we place on meanings experienced by those on the sidelines/bleachers, which may be similar to or different from those of participants. This article explores these issues by placing the observations, experiences and insights of a 'intimate insider' in dialogue with those of an 'interested outsider', and considers the ways in which roller derby, as an alternative sport and leisure activity for women, presents both opportunities and limitations as a feminist and queer space. Taking a dialogic approach to questioning the authentic value of 'insider' research, we reveal a space where collaboration and curiosity become vital for maintaining high-quality, rigorous feminist research. AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank the blind reviewers for their comments and suggestions. The article is much improved, thanks to their time and effort. All errors are our own.Notes 1.CitationPavlidis, 'From Riot Grrrls to Roller Derby?'. 2.CitationDonnelly, 'Studying Extreme Sports'. 3.CitationWheaton, 'Windsurfing'. 4. Donnelly, 'Studying Extreme Sports', 223. 5.CitationMcLaren, Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity; CitationOlesen, 'Feminisms and Qualitative Research', 415; and CitationThompson, 'Sport, Gender, Feminism'. 6.CitationAhmed, Differences that Matter and CitationGrosz, 'Sexual Difference and the Problem of Essentialism'. 7. McLaren, Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity, 13. 8.CitationEvers, 'How to Surf'; CitationLaurendeau, 'If You're Reading This'; CitationMarkula, 'Turning into One's Self'; CitationStranger, 'The Aesthetics of Risk'; CitationThorpe, Snowboarding Bodies; and CitationWheaton, 'Babes on the Beach'. 9.CitationOlive and Thorpe, 'Negotiating the "F-Word"'; Thorpe, Snowboarding Bodies; and Wheaton, 'Babes on the Beach'.10.CitationHargreaves, Sporting Females, 36.11.CitationCole, 'Resisting the Canon'; CitationPfister, 'Women in Sport'; CitationTheberge, 'Toward a Feminist Alternative'; and CitationWearing, Leisure and Feminist Theory.12. Cole, 'Resisting the Canon'.13.CitationRowe, 'Play Up'.14. An excellent exception is CitationKlugman's, 'Gendered Pleasures, Power, Limits and Suspicions'.15. For example, CitationChavez, 'Conceptualizing from the Inside'.16. Olive and Thorpe, 'Negotiating the "F-Word"'.17. Wheaton, 'Babes on the Beach'.18.CitationThorpe, 'Jibbing the Gender Order' and CitationThorpe, 'Bourdieu, Feminism and Female Physical Culture'.19.CitationEvers, 'Men Who Surf' and Evers, 'How to Surf'.20.CitationMabe, Roller Derby and CitationStorms, 'There's No Sorry in Roller Derby'.21. The Riot Grrrl movement started around 1992 and emerged from the punk and independent music communities of Olympia, Washington and Washington State in reaction to the misogynist tendencies of hardcore and punk scenes in the USA. See work by CitationPiano 'Resisting Subjects', CitationRosenberg and Garofalo 'Riot Grrrl' and Schilt (2004) for a more detailed account of The Riot Grrrl movement in the USA.22.CitationDonnelly, 'The Production of Women Onlyness'; Pavlidis, 'From Riot Grrrls to Roller Derby?'; CitationRay, Hell on Wheels and Storms, 'There's No Sorry in Roller Derby'.23.CitationFinley, 'Skating Femininity'.24. Mabe, Roller Derby and Storms, 'There's No Sorry in Roller Derby'.25.CitationCarlson, 'The Female Significant'; CitationCohen, 'Sporting-Self or Selling Sex'; Finley, 'Skating Femininity'; CitationKearney, 'Tough Girls in a Rough Game'; and Storms, 'There's No Sorry in Roller Derby'.26. Finley, 'Skating Femininity'.27. Ibid.28. Adele, field note, 23 August 2010.29. Donnelly, 'The Production of Women Onlyness'.30.CitationSkeggs, 'Theorising, Ethics and Representation', 197.31. Adele, field note, 8 October 2010.32.CitationGray, Research Practice for Cultural Studies and CitationVicars, 'Is It All About Me?'.33.CitationCrenshaw, 'Mapping the Margins'.34.CitationMcRobbie, 'Top girls?'. In many ways, this is reflective of roller derby more broadly, where women are predominately heterosexual, white and college educated – much like the riot grrrl scene. For example, see Rosenberg and Garofalo, 'Riot Grrrl'; CitationWomen's Flat Track Derby Association, 'WFTDA 2012 Demographic Survey Results'.35.CitationDavies, 'Introduction', 4.36. Pavlidis, 'From Riot Grrrls to Roller Derby?'.37.CitationHodkinson, 'Insider Research' and CitationTaylor, 'The Intimate Insider'.38. Olive and Thorpe, 'Negotiating the "F-Word"'.39.CitationLeCompte and Goetz, 'Problems of Reliability and Validity' and CitationMiller, 'Sport, Authenticity, Confession'.40.CitationMcWilliam, Lather, and Morgan, Head Work, Field Work, Text Work.41. Van Maanen, 'An End to Innocence'.42. Finley, 'Skating Femininity'.43. Pavlidis, 'From Riot Grrrls to Roller Derby?' and Cohen, 'Sporting-Self or Selling Sex'.44. Miller, 'Sport, Authenticity, Confession', 540.45. Ibid., 541.46.CitationGrainger, 'Fear and (Self-)Loathing in Academia', 2011, 559.47.CitationRinehart and Sydnor, To the Extreme, 8.48.CitationCarrington, '"What's the Footballer Doing Here?"'; CitationGiardina and Newman, 'Physical Cultural Studies'; Olive and Thorpe, 'Negotiating the "F-Word"'; CitationThorpe, Barbour, and Bruce, '"Wandering and Wondering"'; and CitationSilk and Andrews, 'Toward a Physical Cultural Studies'; see also special issues about Physical Cultural Studies in Cultural Studies⇔Critical Methodologies, November 2008 and December 2011, and Sociology of Sport Journal, March 2011.49.CitationRose, Feminism & Geography, 137.50.CitationMerriam et al., 'Power and Positionality', 415.51.CitationHendrix, 'The Growth Stages'.52. Vaughan, 'Post-Structural Ethnographic Research', 396–8.53.CitationFoucault, Power/Knowledge, 98.54. Wearing, Leisure and Feminist Theory, 144.55.CitationCollins, 'Learning from the Outsider Within', 14.56. Donnelly, 'Studying Extreme Sports'.57.CitationWolcott, Ethnography; original emphasis, quoted in Taylor, 'The Intimate Insider', 6.58.CitationTamboukou and Ball, 'Genealogy and Ethnography', 11.59. Skeggs, 'Theorising, Ethics and Representation', 201.60. Davies, 'Introduction' and CitationHargreaves, Heroines of Sport.61.CitationChapkis, 'Productive Tensions'.62. Tamboukou and Ball, 'Genealogy and Ethnography'.63.CitationLather, 'Postbook', 199.64. McLaren, Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity.