Sportspersons’ bodies and gender identity. Crossfit

Abstract

Sport is one of the most relevant contemporary social spheres in which gender identity is articulated. Ideas and beliefs on gender can influence its organization and the way it is practised. It can be a place of marginalization of female activity and affirmation of ideologies of inequality or masculine values. At the same time, however, it can be a site of transformation and conflict. The issue of the body becomes crucial. In our bodily habits, in practices, in our taste, in consumption, we define our belonging, our status, and specific values. Its representation provides relevant indications on the dominant discourses associated with femininity and masculinity, on the construction of new imagery, on the size of power or dominion, but also on conflict. If there is still a substantial gap between males and females in general sports practice in Italy, it is also true that fitness in the last few years has been profoundly changing, as far as participation and the kinds of disciplines are concerned. For example Crossfit, a discipline that is growing and that – for its specific characteristics – can represent an interesting point of view on the relationship between sport, body and gender identity: Men and women compete in the same classes during their training; they perform the same exercises; Crossfit games have two distinct categories for men and women, but also a mixed one; but, above all, there is a profoundly different approach to the strength training, neutral compared to gender-related stereotyping, and hence to the consequent change of the body and of the imagery related to women and men. Thus, the paper aims to analyze to what extent this discipline can re-articulate the concepts of femininity and masculinity, linked to the body, as well as the representation and self-representation of female athletes. To what extent, then, the sportsperson’s body structures possible transformations in meanings and identities, influencing their representations in the public sphere.