Jessica Francombe-Webb

Young Girls’ Embodied Experiences of Femininity and Social Class:

Based on research with middle-upper class 12–13-year-old school girls, we discuss how femininities were embodied and discursively reconstructed in class-based ways. The data suggests the girls understood class antagonisms within the boundaries of neoliberal discourses of responsibilization, self-discipline, self-worth, and ‘proper’ conduct and choices. With social class stripped of any structural or structuring properties, instead imparted to the fleshy sinews of the (excessive) body, the data reveals how social class was made visible and manifest in various mechanisms of, and meanings about, inclusion, exclusion, pathology and normalization. Thus, in explicating the ways in which the school girls embodied middle-upper class femininity (as the epitome of localized and everyday neoliberalism) we highlight how, in turn, ‘others’ (‘chavs’) were pathologized and deemed in need of regulation, management and governance.

I move like you... But different:Biopolitics and embodied methodologies

Our aim in this article is to throw light on the complexity of the presence of the researcher’s body in the context of conducting research on and within biopolitical governance. To do so, we present author body-narratives derived from two separatestudies, both of which explore biopolitics and draw on an embodied methodology. These narratives point toward the corporeal contradictions of being located within a culture of reading and critiquing bodies while realizing the presence of our own physicality. We argue that methodological reflection on the connections between bodies within the research field ought to rest high among the list of things shaping the future of work related to biopolitics or we risk the effacement of the body. We articulate this in two key ways. First, we examine the emplacement of the fleshy bodies of researchers and the individuals we encounter. We offer reflections on the complexities of the emplacement of our researcher bodies in time, space, and place, and advance a politics of reflexivity that sheds light on how we experience, make claims, and speak about embodiment and physical culture. Second, as scholars who seek to disrupt biopolitical forces and attempt to transcend political and disciplinary boundaries, we consider the presence of the body in a process of border crossing. Rather than simply considering border crossing as an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and practices; we explore the ways in which the presence of our sometimes “normative” bodies can seemingly complicate and contradict our political agenda.

Physical Cultures of Stigmatisation: Health Policy & Social Class

In recent years, the increasing regulation of peoples health and bodies has been exacerbated by a contemporary ‘obesity discourse’ centred on eating less, exercising more and losing weight. This paper contributes to the growing body of work critically examining this discourse and highlights the way physical activity and health policy directed at ‘tackling’ the obesity ‘crisis’ in the UK articulates numerous powerful discourses that operate to legitimise and privilege certain ways of knowing and usher forth certain desirable forms of embodiment. This has given greater impetus to further define the role of physical activity, sport and physical education as instruments for addressing public health agendas. It is argued that these policies have particular implications for social class through their constitution of (un)healthy and (in)active ‘working class’ bodies. One of the most powerful forms of stigmatisation and discrimination circulating within contemporary health emerges when the social and cultural tensions of social class intersect with obesity discourse and its accompanying imperatives related to physical activity and diet. This raises some important questions about the future of sport and physical activity as it is shaped by the politics of broader health agendas and our position within this terrain as ‘critics’. Consequently, the latter part of the paper offers reflections on the nature and utility of our (and others’) social science critique in the politics of obesity and articulates the need for crossing disciplinary and sectoral borders.

Critically Encountering Exer-games and Young Femininity

This article builds upon previous research into the Nintendo Wii game “We Cheer” through qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of young girls and their playing experiences. I argue here that this multi-layered approach is important as it allows for exploration of the nuances between representation and everyday lives, specifically when analyzing the complexity and contradictions related to the girls’ hetero-sexy embodiment and the process of becoming female in a (digital) culture still largely dominated by the sociocultural constitution of slenderness. Throughout the analysis, I aim to demonstrate the way in which the girls’ engagement with “We Cheer” was mediated by their own embodied sensemaking and work on the self. As such, I focus on the partial stories that the girls tell about their own embodied femininities to advance studies of media reception in ways that are arguably unique to interactive exer-games such as “We Cheer.”

On the Transgressive Possibilities of Physical Pedagogic Practices

Within this article, we critically reflect on the production and reproduction of knowledge(s) within the academic study of sport—a field dominated (to its detriment) by self-destructive versions of reductionist science that (subconsciously) act as insidious components of the social and economic condition that privileges “state” science and fail to do justice to the potentialities of “the physical” in overcoming social, political, and health inequalities. To counter such regressive orthodoxies, we focus on a corporeal/technoslow approach to the curriculum/pedagogy in an effort to initiate dialogue about a more progressive and democratic social science of sport, leisure, and physical cultures—a transgressive pedagogy that can encourage transformation and the political potentialities of “the physical.”

Sporting females: power, diversity and the body

Jennifer Hargreaves’ scholarship has been central to understanding, from a socio-historical and socio-cultural perspective, women’s involvement in sport, leisure and physical education (PE) as well as developing intersectional analysis of women’s active bodies. Our review seeks to capture, and foreground, the fact that her research is fundamentally for women by linking theory to praxis. We do this through our attention, first, to the role of critical sociology and the emergence of cultural studies that enables Hargreaves to make women visible in sport histories, spaces and cultures. Second, we explore Hargreaves’ analysis of gender relations as power relations, and finally we offer our examination of how diverse bodies are theorized and accounted for in her work. Our chapter concludes with reflections on her legacy for feminist scholarship.

Femininities, Sport and Physical Culture in Postfeminist, Neoliberal Times

This chapter details the significance and relevance of a critical engagement with post, neoliberal and popular feminist discourses to studies of the female moving body, sport and fitness. It establishes a framework through which to approach emerging writing in this field by evaluating how feminist critiques of postfeminism, neoliberal feminism and popular feminisms can transform and reorient established paradigms through which sporting femininity has been traditionally theorised. It outlines the utility of these approaches for feminists seeking to respond to the cultural conditions under which athletic women and girls come to understand and engage in physical activity and the sporting domain, and reflects on the impacts of postfeminist and neoliberal paradigms on the enactment of gender power and politics in sporting and fitness contexts.

The corporate constitution of national culture: the mythopoeia of 1966

Focussing on corporatized and mediated imaginings of nation – as highly political, public and pedagogic processes – we aim within this paper to address important questions of cultural identification and discursive address. Our focus is on the ubiquity of the year 1966 in popular narratives of Englishness in the immediacy of major football tournaments: connoting far more than football, we argue that the mythopoesis of 1966 – as a somewhat artificial, powerful myth-making mnemonic – is a historically situated toponym that conjures up the supremacy of England on the international stage. Further, through the performance of an aesthetic of selective silence, we propose that the mythopoeia of 1966 reasserts a utopic abstraction of nation, and acceptance and enactment of, and acquiescence to, mythical English ‘values’.

Footballing femininities: The lived experiences of young females negotiating the 'beautiful game'

This chapter looks to advance research focused on the tensions of the postfeminist era and young women’s sports participation, health and wellbeing. Guided by a feminist physical cultural studies approach, we explore girls’ lived experiences of football and the ways their footballing femininities are located within a broader social context whereby sport becomes situated as one competing context within the materiality of the girls’ everyday lives. We demonstrate that football offers a particularly illustrative research setting to explore new modes of female sporting subjectivities in postfeminist times whereby young women, in positions of privilege, articulate sporting choices yet negotiate these alongside their fear of failure and reluctance to risk their ‘Future Girl’ status (Harris, 2004a).

Body image & female identity: A multi-method approach to media analysis

In 2008 I undertook a three-year-long PhD project focused on the media, body image, physical activity and female identity. The methodology that I deployed involved a two-part strategy of inquiry that combined media analysis of the Nintendo Wii game ‘We Cheer’ alongside qualitative ‘workshops’ with young girls. Many studies have sought to analyse the images and narratives represented across various media and additionally many have tested the effect of the media on females’ body image, however my PhD explored the media within the context of young girls’ everyday lives and their negotiation of feminine identities. The methodological approach resulted in rich, descriptive data that is full of exciting nuances and has significant consequences for Media Literacy interventions. This case study takes the reader on a journey through research; from the project conceptualisation to the potential impact of its dissemination, but substantial attention is given to the benefits and challenges of the methods that were utilised. This case provides an account of a three-year-long PhD study and is designed to give new researchers an applied understanding of methodological encounters and the role of reflexivity when conducting research into body image and femininity.