Date of Award
2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Kinesiology
Supervisor
Dr. Don Morrow
Abstract
This thesis is a collection of embodied writing through autoethnography in track and field, basketball, and figure skating. Throughout each integrated article I examine different forms of femininity in women’s sport and portray them from the angle of my own experience through flashbacks, storied writing, poetic representation, and evocative writing. The lenses through which female athletes are viewed, and often gazed at, are discussed by way of media portrayals and attitudes, the use of sexist language, sport and gender stereotypes, the sexualization of female athletes, feminization though socialization, past medical views regarding women, and women’s sport involvement in the past. I express my reaction to the subordination of female athletes through personal narrative and contrast these unfair assumptions, accusations, and projections with my own lived body experience as an athlete.
Recommended Citation
McParland, Shellie I., "Mirrored Reflections on Femininity: An Autoethnography in Track and Field, Basketball, and Figure Skating" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3427.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3427