TY - JOUR
T1 - 'I've always fought a little against the tide to get where I want to be'-construction of women's embodied subjectivity in the contested terrain of high-level karate
AU - Turelli, Fabiana Cristina
AU - Vaz, Alexandre Fernandez
AU - Kirk, David
PY - 2023/9/25
Y1 - 2023/9/25
N2 - Karate can be both a martial art and a combat sport. Male and female karate athletes attended the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 (2021). Elite sport often portrays female athletes through the sexualization of their bodies, while the martial environment leaves them open to accusations of masculinization. In the process of constructing themselves as fighters, karateka women do produce new ways of performing femininities and masculinities, which is a hard-work process of negotiations, leading them to the construction of a particular habitus strictly linked to their performativity within the environment. They take part in a contested terrain that mixes several elements that are often contrasting. In this article, we aim to present factors identified with the women athletes of the Spanish Olympic karate team that affect the construction of their embodied subjectivities. We focus on two main topics, authenticity as the real deal to belonging, and a possible gendered habitus struggling with the achievement of the condition of a warrior. We carried out an ethnographic study with the Spanish Olympic karate squad supported by autoethnographic elements from the first author. We focus here on the data from double interviews with 14 women athletes and their four male coaches. Embodied subjectivity as a process of subject construction to disrupt objectification and forms of othering showed to be a challenge, a complex task, and embedded in contradictions. Karate women’s embodied subjectivities are built in the transit between resisting and giving in. Despite several difficulties, through awareness and reflection on limitations, karateka may occupy their place as subjects, exerting agency, feeling empowered, and fighting consciously against the naturalized ‘tide’.
AB - Karate can be both a martial art and a combat sport. Male and female karate athletes attended the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 (2021). Elite sport often portrays female athletes through the sexualization of their bodies, while the martial environment leaves them open to accusations of masculinization. In the process of constructing themselves as fighters, karateka women do produce new ways of performing femininities and masculinities, which is a hard-work process of negotiations, leading them to the construction of a particular habitus strictly linked to their performativity within the environment. They take part in a contested terrain that mixes several elements that are often contrasting. In this article, we aim to present factors identified with the women athletes of the Spanish Olympic karate team that affect the construction of their embodied subjectivities. We focus on two main topics, authenticity as the real deal to belonging, and a possible gendered habitus struggling with the achievement of the condition of a warrior. We carried out an ethnographic study with the Spanish Olympic karate squad supported by autoethnographic elements from the first author. We focus here on the data from double interviews with 14 women athletes and their four male coaches. Embodied subjectivity as a process of subject construction to disrupt objectification and forms of othering showed to be a challenge, a complex task, and embedded in contradictions. Karate women’s embodied subjectivities are built in the transit between resisting and giving in. Despite several difficulties, through awareness and reflection on limitations, karateka may occupy their place as subjects, exerting agency, feeling empowered, and fighting consciously against the naturalized ‘tide’.
KW - subjectivities
KW - embodiment
KW - negotiations
KW - belonging
KW - gender
U2 - 10.3390/socsci12100538
DO - 10.3390/socsci12100538
M3 - Article
SN - 2076-0760
VL - 12
JO - Social Sciences
JF - Social Sciences
IS - 10
M1 - 538
ER -