Lived Experience of Women s Sports Activities with Emphasis on the Discourse of Femininity

As a social phenomenon, sport is influenced by social and cultural structures and processes. Today, sport has taken on a ultra-gender aspect, and is linked to body management, leisure and health. Moreover, sport activities, in various forms, has become part of women’s daily lives.The present study, with a qualitative approach and in the framework of the subject of femininity, seeks to find out the lived experience of women s sports activity, and the discourse space of their physical activity.Research data were collected using participatory observation and semi- structured interviews of ۲۰ women living in Langarud, Rudsar and Lahijan cities, which deal with two types of sport activity: mountaineering and cycling. The present analysis of data is carried out in the framework of Laclau and Mouffe s theoretical method, and using the concepts of Foucault s discourse theory.Results and Research results show that women’s lived experience in physical activity leads to the development and reproduction of concepts derived from the discourse of femininity. The concepts of health-seeking, body-building, lifestyle choices, and the following concepts of these discourses, such as fear of falling body, physical strength, idealistic view to the body, and awareness of sports activities as a matter of social acceptance, can all be defined in the context of the general discourse of femininity. In addition, the research findings show that, with the continuation of sport action and activity, common goals are formed and nurtured in the space of women s physical activity. Identifying and classifying the categories related to these goals, shows that due to the dominance of femininity discourse, these goals receive their meaning and identity from this discourse.The contrasting attributes of elegance and power show that women use these meanings to expand the subjectivity of the athletic body in the form of a feminine discourse. In this sense, sport can be considered a field in which women can create meanings and play the role of subjectivity.

کلیدواژه ها:

Sport activity ، Femininity ، Lived experience ، Foucault