Creating Distance from Body Issues: Exploring New Materialist Feminist Possibilities for Renegotiating Gendered Embodiment

Abstract

The body’s active role in the production of gendered embodiments is a key focus for feminist cultural studies and leisure studies. The article draws on new materialist feminist scholarship to explore how gender relations are produced and negotiated in physical culture through one case study example taken from a wider study of young people’s experiences of the body and self-image over time. The article explores how gendered embodiment is assembled through the socio-material circumstances of everyday life. For one particiapnt, 'Ann', “creating distance” from appearance concerns was an embodied process which involved new practices and encounters (e.g., walking for leisure, reading feminist literature) and relationships and engagements with others (e.g., a partner, friends, family). The potential for feminism to open possibilities to imagine the body otherwise is also discussed in relation to recent efforts to foster social justice imperatives in leisure sciences and feminist physical cultural studies.     

The Hens are Clucking: Women Performing Gossip in Their Leisure Lives

Using a feminist poststructural lens, this conceptual article aims to trouble patriarchal understandings of gossip as a devalued dimension of women's talk. To accomplish this aim, I focus on decentering three dominant discourses tied to women's gossip that position gossip as idle talk, based on the personal lives of others, and trivial. In particular, I consider the ways power is part of women's performances of gossip and how women can use gossip to construct, maintain, and resist gendered subjectivities as part of their leisure. This article also aims to illustrate the need for leisure researchers, and in particular feminist leisure researchers, to pay closer attention to the topic of women's gossip and the complex and messy connections between gossip, women's talk, and women's leisure lives.     

A decade of compulsory competitive tendering in UK sport and leisure services: some feminist reflections

The last decade has witnessed the transformation of public policy in the UK following an extensive programme of privatization across a range of public services. When compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in sport and leisure services was first proposed in 1987 there was widespread opposition from feminists and also from the Labour party who had been out of government for eight years. This period out of office was to continue for a further ten years until New Labour was elected to government on 1st May 1997 with a landslide majority and a manifesto which embraced, rather than rejected, many of the policies of the four previous Conservative administrations. Instead of the widespread failure and subsequent abandonment of CCT predicted a decade ago by feminists, national labour politicians and local labour authorities, CCT is now widely accepted as here to stay. Following ten years of private sector involvement in local authority sport and leisure provision, and the apparent likelihood that such provision is set to continue, it is timely to reflect on CCT in sport and leisure from a feminist perspective. What have been the successes and failures of this policy transformation for women's sport and leisure; how can these successes and failures be explained; and what are the challenges facing research on women and leisure in local government in the future? This paper attempts to offer a state-of-the-art review of CCT and local government sport and leisure provision for women by providing a comprehensive review of CCT literature and surveys, supported by primary research in the form of a regional case study of CCT and its impact on policy, provision and participation for women. The findings demonstrate that, whilst CCT has led to some significant improvements in service levels in sport and leisure generally, there are many areas related to access and opportunity for women participants which still provide cause for concern. Moreover, the findings illustrate that sex-segregation within sport and leisure management continues to be combined with women's marginalization from many aspects of power and decisionmaking in sport and leisure provision. Analysis of the author's survey findings, qualitative interview data and policy analysis illustrates the need for a new research agenda to advise on future policy developments. Such a research agenda, it is argued, needs to take account of, and develop further, research within three areas if the nature of CCT and its implications for gender relations are to be more fully documented and understood: feminist sport and leisure studies, service sector management, and local government studies.     

Narrating the Multiplicity of ‘Derby Grrrl’: Exploring Intersectionality and the Dynamics of Affect in Roller Derby

Driven by an ethos of self-organization and empowerment women involved in the revived version of roller derby have created an embodied and virtual leisure practice that challenges gender norms and invites different identities. However, tensions exist in the way different women negotiate the space of roller derby and the meaning of playing, belonging, and becoming “derby grrrls.” This article presents findings from a qualitative study of roller derby in Australia to make connections between feminist theories of affect and the growing body of work on intersectionality. We explore how identity categories intersect to shape the meaning of roller derby for different women. Narratives recount the complex affective relations (passion, frustration, pride, shame) that women negotiate in forming leisure identities in relation to the social context of their lives. The article aims to contribute to the development of feminist thinking about leisure as a negotiated space of transformation, creativity, and difference.     

Theory in Recreation and Leisure Research: Reflections from the Editors

The evolution and importance of theory in leisure research have been recognized as essential to broaden understandings of leisure. The purpose of this reflective piece is to describe and critique the contributions that theory has made by examining the research documented in American leisure and recreation research journals during the 1990s and projecting those contributions toward the future. From our perspective as individuals associated with Leisure Sciences during the past two years, we provide a review of literature regarding the meanings of theory, note summaries of other studies in our field that have empirically examined theory, compare leisure research from the 1980s to the 1990s, and offer suggestions regarding trends in the future theoretical development of the parks, recreation, leisure, sport, and tourism fields. We also advocate “post approaches” such as postmodernism that may be essential in the next stage of theory evolution.     

Making an Album: Rap Performance and a ‘CD Track Listing’ as Performance Writing in The Beat of Boyle Street Music Programme

Abstract

This paper uses performance as a means of conceptualizing and writing leisure research. This research reports on a three‐year arts‐based ethnographic study of a music‐making programme conducted with Aboriginal young people in Edmonton, Canada, and explores young people's rap music performances. I especially make note of how the research narrative may be represented as a kind of performance text – in this case, as a CD track listing. I contend that this type of representational performance writing offers an accessible and compelling way of retelling the stories of the people involved in the research. Performance writing additionally calls attention to issues of what leisure researchers choose to include in written representations of our studies, how we listen, and how we respond to the performances voiced through research practices.     

Feminist Knowledges as Interventions in Physical Cultures

Abstract

This collection explores how feminist knowledges work as interventions in physical cultures and recognizes the considerable contribution of feminist theories and methodologies in understanding the power relations implicated in embodied movement. Our introductory piece weaves together questions about the gendered formation of physical cultures (across leisure, sport, the arts, tourism, well-being, and various embodied practices) with key issues raised by contributing authors, from disciplinary perspectives to theory-method approaches. Exploring questions of digital and physical cultures, more-than-human relations, post- and decolonial ways of knowing, and contemporary onto-epistemologies, this feminist collection aims to contribute to the movement of ideas within and across physical cultural studies. Bringing together diverse perspectives around our common focus we entangle physical cultures with a range of gendered problematizations and interventions that produce different ways of knowing, imagining and doing feminisms.     

Socio-spatial complexity in leisure development

Connections between socio-spatial complexity in a social domain and Foucauldian discourse analysis gain momentum in the wider social sciences, but have been marginalized in leisure and tourism research. We combine, explore and expand theories of socio-spatial complexity with leisure-led regional development and Foucauldian discourse analysis, for the first time in tourism studies. Based on interviews with 37 local leisure and tourism stakeholders in the Dutch province of Fryslân, we analyze how discourses condition leisure development. Through Foucauldian analysis we uncover powerful discourses behind interactions that drive socio-spatial complexity. Values and meanings in these discourses condition a region's tourism and leisure development. Established discourses structure which tourism and leisure developments are pursued, and shifts in these discourses trigger structural societal changes.     

Meanings of Aging Among Older Canadian Women of Varying Physical Activity Levels

This study examines how older women's meanings of successful aging differ depending on their attitudes towards old age and current leisure practices. Twenty-one women aged 75–92 completed in-depth interviews and were divided into three groups (inactive, moderately active, or highly active). Comparisons were made across groups to determine how meanings of “old” and “successful aging” differed. Findings were interpreted using biographical, biomedical, and psychosocial approaches to successful aging, and theories of leisure as a site for women's resistance and empowerment. This study contributes to knowledge about the role of physical activity in shaping the meanings of aging among older women.     

A postcolonial feminist analysis of official tourism representations of Sri Lanka on Instagram

Although postcolonial analyses examining the sexualized imagery of women in tourism have been conducted, previous studies have predominantly focused on gender and (post)colonialism from a patriarchal perspective. By doing so, other (neo)colonial power asymmetries, such as race, class and ethnicity, have often been neglected. This paper mobilises postcolonial feminist theory to expand the existing analyses and discourses concerning gendered representations in tourism. Through a narrative analysis of the images published in the official Instagram page of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Tourism, we contend that the images produced and circulated to promote Sri Lanka in many instances echo essentialist gendered binaries (e.g. men/women; coloniser/colonised; hegemonic/subordinated). However, as the images tend to produce and reiterate Sri Lankan national identity through a hegemonic Sinhalese Buddhist discourse, they also show the intersections between gender and other asymmetries of power (e.g. race, ethnicity, religion, and social class) – in reproducing (post)colonial gendered identities.     

Asian North Americans' Leisure: A Critical Examination of the Theoretical Frameworks Used in Research and Suggestions for Future Study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to critically examine the theoretical frameworks employed in the existing research on Asian North Americans' leisure and to offer insights into additional theories that might be used in future research on the topic. The study reviewed three major theoretical frameworks employed by previous research in the field of leisure studies: (1) assimilation and acculturation theory, (2) ethnicity-based theories, and (3) self-construal. The study also provides recommendations for alternative theoretical approaches that could be used in investigations of Asian North Americans' leisure, including racial discrimination and stereotyping, the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective, transnationalism, and cultural and social capital.     

Exploring Prenatal Physical Activity at the “Postgenomic Turn”: A Transdisciplinary Journey

Abstract

Within the life sciences, there has been a move away from genetic determinism toward an awareness of how the environment (from cellular to social) can impact gene expression and health outcomes. Significantly, exercise scientists are looking to this “postgenomic turn” to explore how prenatal physical activity and leisure might affect the fetal metabolic environment by altering offspring gene expression and preventing future obesity. In this article, we draw upon insights from feminist new materialist scholars to explore how and if the entanglement of the social and material promised by the postgenomic turn is realized in prenatal exercise interventions. After outlining how this is not the case, we reflect upon our attempt to promote a transdisciplinary dialogue that facilitates a social justice ethos and nonreductionist version of maternal-fetal health and physical culture. Our transdisciplinary journey contributes to the feminist physical cultural studies agenda of equity development in the realm of exercise and leisure.     

Anatomy is not destiny: A feminist analysis of the scholarship on women's leisure

Abstract

The extent of the scholarship on women has accelerated over the past 20 years, yet many questions remain unanswered concerning what is known about women and their leisure behavior. Social science research about women and leisure that analyzes the interaction between the environment and biological sex has aided in understanding leisure behavior more completely and has enabled researchers to conclude that anatomy is not destiny. An analysis focusing on the critical corrective, and transformative aspects of feminist research provides a way to examine the trends in research on women specifically concerning women and leisure. The purpose of this article is to examine the foundations of the emerging scholarship on women and leisure, especially the research on gender differences, from a feminist perspective. The emerging trends in feminist research and the “state of the art” concerning scholarship on women as it is occurring in other disciplines is examined in light of how research in other fields may offer guidance for leisure research.     

Theorizing Leisure's Roles in the Pursuit of Ikigai (Life Worthiness): A Mixed-Methods Approach

The purpose of this mixed-methods research project is to theorize the linkage between leisure experience and life worthiness, or what the Japanese call ikigai. A grounded theory analysis of photo-elicitation interview data from 27 Japanese university students led to the inductive development of a substantive theory. This theory was then tested based on online survey data collected from 669 Japanese students using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that leisure pursuits enhance students’ perception of ikigai when they are valued as enjoyable and/or effortful. Moreover, the balance between overall enjoyment and/or effort is found to be a key mediator in the relationship between valuable leisure experience and life worthiness. Ikigai comprises the subjective perceptions that one's daily life is worth living and that it is full of energy and motivation. Our findings are discussed in light of relevant leisure and well-being theories as well as their implications for practice.     

‘All in a day's leisure’: gender and the concept of leisure

This paper suggests that leisure conceptualized as time or activity alone poses problems for gender. The underlying idea of leisure as freely-chosen, self-actualizing experience is presented as a basis for broadening the concept. Both the limitations and the freedoms inherent in the leisure experience of women and men may be explained through such a concept of leisure.

This concept leads us to explore new areas of literature, in particular feminist analyses of power. Women's lack of autonomy in comparison with men is highlighted. Finally, further research and future policy can be enhanced by this broader concept of leisure.     

Women,gender, leisure and place: towards a more ‘humanistic’ geography of women's leisure

A growing interest in the role of place in social processes has led to a recognition of the need to incorporate these ideas into the study of leisure and recreation. A critique of the traditional geographical approach to the study of leisure and recreation is followed by a brief review of the geography of gender and humanistic geography literature, indicating the possible contribution that some of the perspectives contained in this material can make to our understanding of women's leisure. In conclusion, it is argued that it is only through developing a deeper understanding of the way individuals and groups perceive different places, with their complex mosaics of gender and class relations, that a more complete, more contextual representation of women's leisure can emerge.     

Veblen,leisure and human need

Although Veblen's theory of leisure is widely referenced today it is rarely discussed at length. This paper explores the continuing relevance of the theory. In particular it concentrates on the relation of the theory to consumer culture and the concept of leisure as a basic human need. The evolutionary aspects of Veblen's discussion, which are often neglected in secondary accounts, are given prominence. Veblen's theory is described as a contribution to the productivist tradition in leisure studies. The main features of this tradition and Veblen's place in it are examined. The productivist case is compared and contrasted with Huizinga's theory of play. Veblen's theory emerges as a flawed but vital instrument in exploring contemporary leisure forms.     

The Experiencing Self and the Remembering Self: Implications for Leisure Science

ABSTRACT

In this research reflection we question the way leisure experience is commonly understood and how leisure science is commonly conducted. Specifically, we focus on advances in multiple self-theory popularized by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow, an in-depth examination of human thought processes. After establishing Kahneman's foundational perspective, we apply his thinking to leisure experience and leisure science by reviewing recent scholarship focused on the “experiencing” and “remembering” selves (2000). We conclude the reflection by discussing the implications of Kahneman's thinking for the use of self-reports by leisure scientists, as well as call for greater congruence between the selves we seek to research and our selected research methods.