These chicks go just as hard as us!' (Un)doing gender in a Dutch CrossFit gym

Bibliographic Data

ID2378618
AuthorsSuzanne Schrijnder (0000-0002-6771-5057, Victoria University, Australia, corresponding author), Noortje Van Amsterdam (0000-0003-4758-1298, Utrecht University, the Netherlands), Fiona Mclachlan (0000-0001-7067-1908, Victoria University, Australia)
Year2021
Volume56
Issue3
Pages382-398
Publication date2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1012-6902 • E-ISSN: 1461-7218
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1012690220913524
OpenAlexW3016735227
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited40

CrossFit is a relatively new fitness movement/sport, where women and men train together in the same space, performing the same athletic movements and gender equality is celebrated in CrossFit marketing, promoting equal opportunities for men and women. This paper explores how the much emphasized gender-equality narrative in CrossFit unfolds in gender performativity in a Dutch CrossFit gym. To this end, we draw from an ethnographic case study through which we examine the gendered narratives and bodily gestures of CrossFitters. Using Butler's heterosexual matrix, we found that gender ideologies emerge in explicit and implicit narratives, materials and organizational structure, and embodied performances in the CrossFit gym. CrossFitters, on the one hand, explicitly challenge gender norms and create a space where women can undertake behaviour that is traditionally considered masculine. However, traditional gender norms, including heterosexual desire, are nonetheless implicitly reproduced through performances, narratives and organizational structures present in CrossFit

Art · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ethnography · Ideology · Literature · Narrative · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sociology of sport · Anthropology · Doping in Sports · Gender Studies · Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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