Sporting space invaders: Elite bodies in track and field, a South African context

Abstract

This article builds on previous work that conceptualizes certain bodies -particularly women and racialized minorities -as 'bodies out of place' and 'space invaders' -to put forth the notion of the sporting space invader. I argue that certain sporting bodies become sporting space invaders by transgressing sporting boundaries, real and/or imagined. Specifically, this article makes case studies of two South African runners, Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius, to illustrate the ways in which certain bodies become viewed as existing 'beyond' particular sporting boundaries. The notion of sporting space invaders is specific to time, place and space as focuses the modalities of race, gender, sexuality, nationality and ability as the primary sporting boundaries that render certain sporting bodies as 'out of place'. Both Semenya and Pistorius were/continue to be framed within the media as possessing characteristics that gave them an 'unfair advantage' in their respective events, thus rendering them sporting space invaders. This concept seeks to complicate existing discourse on sport and the body by seeing sporting space invaders as individuals who mark instances of the changing face of modern sport, and thus make room for broader conversations about social justice and sport.

Muslim Sportswomen as Digital Space Invaders: Hashtag Politics and Everyday Visibilities

“…A number of sport scholars have taken up Puwar’s concept of space invaders to explore how athletes and participants in different sporting cultures navigate and negotiate dominant power relations and structural constraints (L. A. Adjepong & Carrington, 2014; L. E. C. Brown, 2015; Ratna, 2010; Wheaton, 2017; Willms, 2017).…”

“…For decades, the spaces commonly associated with sports have consisted primarily of White men, and when women and/or gendered, ethnic, racialised minorities enter sports that privilege the somatic norm, they are often treated as imposters or “sporting space invaders” (L. A. Adjepong & Carrington, 2014; L. E. C. Brown, 2015; Wheaton, 2017).…”

“…These sporting space invaders encounter racist and/or sexist stereotypes, such is the case for Black sportswomen who are portrayed as asexual or hypersexual in the media (L. A. Adjepong & Carrington, 2014; L. E. C. Brown, 2015).…”

“…Puwar’s (2004) concept of space invading encouraged us to pay close attention to how Muslim sportswomen navigate social media spaces and, in so doing, challenge dominant representations of Muslim women in need of saving (Abu-Lughod, 2002). Furthermore, the concept aids in re-conceptualising sporting and digital spaces as both reinforcing norms but also offering opportunities to disrupt “old barriers and boundaries, thereby making space for change” (L. E. C. Brown, 2015, p. 21).…”

Voetsek! Get[ting] lost: African sportswomen in ‘the sporting black diaspora’

“…Semenya's masculinity and the anxieties around her gender and performance are a reflection of how her body is seen to disrupt a status quo that emphasizes binary gender and a feminine apologetic (Brown, 2015). These structural constraints are location specific.…”