Gender, leisure and sport: a case-study of young people of South Asian descent

Let US tell YOU! South Asian, Muslim girls tell tales about physical education

“…However, these debates have often occurred in parallel with a particular focus on White, middle class, heterosexual and non-disabled girls (Flintoff and Scraton 2001;Cockburn and Clarke 2002;Hills 2007). Moreover, early attempts to research ethnicity within PE (Lewis 1979;Carrington, Chivers, and Williams 1987;Carroll and Hollinshead 1993) have drawn criticism (Raval 1989;Siraj-Blatchford 1993;Fleming 1994) for the perspectives taken on culture and religion and the inherent 'false universalism,' producing crude stereotypes, such as the passive, fragile and oppressed South Asian girl.…”

“…The paper also considers difference in the ways in which data are re-presented, providing four examples of the critical, nonfictional narratives that were crafted for four of the girls. Through these stories, difference within a group of South Asian, Muslim girls is revealed, problematizing fallacious assumptions that circulate about these young women (Lewis 1979;Carrington, Chivers, and Williams 1987;Carroll and Hollinshead 1993).…”

Girls looking for a ‘second home’: bodies, difference and places of inclusion

“…According to Burke (2008, 24), researching places and spaces for play and movement reveals a 'rich cultural landscape' permeated with imaginative and authentic meanings of an array of spaces young people occupy and/or desire for making the self. Whereas Carrington, Chivers, and Williams (1987) present the place of home as oppressive for ethnic girls in sport, Allan and Crow (1989) present 'home' as a crucial place in the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy geography of girls' making of their bodies. When limited opportunities are available in public spaces, girls can self-invent through and in domestic spaces, learning about their moving selves from TV, media narratives, or video games and aspiring to construct a successful and desirable girlhood.…”

‘Who wants to make aloo gobi when you can bend it like Beckham?’ British Asian females and their racialised experiences of gender and identity in women's football

“…Additionally, it was thought that behaving modestly meant not mixing with members of the opposite sex in either private and public spaces. As suggested by Carroll and Hollinshead, 20 Lewis 21 and Lyons,22 British Asian young women and girls were expected, by their parents, to practise their gender roles by learning how to cook and clean. Many South Asian families thought that by pushing their daughters into domesticity, they would eventually become good wives and mothers.…”