Sportswomen as 'biocultural creatures': understanding embodied health experiences across sporting cultures

摘要

Over the past decade, a critical mass of feminist scholars has been working to develop new ways of understanding the complex interactions between the social and biological body. Working broadly under the umbrella of 'new materialisms,' a subgroup of feminist scholars is proposing alternative non-dualistic models for engaging with biology, corporeality, science, and matter. In this study, we take inspiration from this body of literature, and particularly Samantha Frost's recent concept of 'biocultural creatures' to explore the complex entanglements between sporting cultures and women's biological bodies. In conceiving of biology differently, this study reveals the dynamism and plasticity of the biocultural sporting body and reveals sportswomen as active agents in these processes. Interviews with sportswomen in two different sporting cultures-endurance multi-sport events (triathlon and Ironman) and rugby sevens-offer rich insights into how different body ideals, physical requirements, support structures, and performance cultures intra-act with women's biological bodies, and particularly their embodied experiences of the health condition known as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). Ultimately, this study reveals sportswomen as biocultural creatives, "constantly composing, decomposing and recomposing" (Frost 2016, p. 149) in response to their engagement with distinctive sporting habitats.