|
|
Notes
- Abstract:
- Throughout the history of sport, men have played a leading role in its organization, function, purpose, and exposition (Hargreaves, 2000). Women’s sport participation has drastically risen over the past 40 years and ample new opportunities have emerged within the sport realm for women, which are attributed to a collection of incentives, but chiefly resulting from the passage of Title IX (Coakley, 2009). Given that sport is a traditionally masculine domain, often identified and coupled with masculinity, more often than not, society identifies sports such as volleyball and gymnastics that entail generally recognized feminine characteristics such as grace and flexibility as appropriate female sports (Coakley, 2009). Women are allowed to participate in physically intense, aggressive, and violent sports, often referred to as power and performance sports, however, the occurrence of this form of sport involvement appears to run counterintuitive to traditionally accepted societal norms, which may pose issues for the persons involved. In-depth personal accounts of the lived experience of females who participate in power and performance sports is lacking representation in the literature, therefore further investigation will expand the research field, adding to efforts seeking understanding of how these athletes accept, tolerate, and or resist the paradox of the female athlete. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this research is to investigate how female participants of power and performance sports in the United States describe and explain their experience within the social world of sport. This was achieved by conducting a total of 12 in-depth phenomenological interviews with female athletes representing a variety of power and performance sports (i.e., rugby, ice hockey, jiu-jitsu, kenpo, muay thai, kendo, boxing, and mixed martial arts). Participants ranged in age from 21 to 50. All interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim. Analysis of the transcripts revealed a total of 381 meaning units that were further grouped into sub-themes and major themes. This led to the development of a final thematic structure revealing four major dimensions that characterized these athletes’ experience of power and performance sports: Physicality, Mentality, Opportunity, and Attraction & Alliance.
- Thesis:
- Thesis (M.S.)--Barry University, 2012.
- Bibliography:
- Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-104).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Barry University
- Holding Location:
- Barry University Archives and Special Collections
- Rights Management:
- Copyright Stacia Ming. Permission granted to Barry University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
- Resource Identifier:
- GV709 .M56 2012_MingStacia ( BU-Local )
- Classification:
- GV709 .M56 2012 ( lcc )
|
|
