Sporting Women andMachonas: negotiating gender through sports in Argentina, 1900–1946

Abstract

This article shows how sports contributed to create new experiences and expressions of gender in Argentina in the first half of the twentieth century. The sportswoman embodied a new model of femininity, a novel type of modern, healthy and active womanhood that defied traditional constructions of gender. Sports affected women's experience of gender, providing a site for the development of an emotional and spiritual well-being by fostering personal and psychological qualities like self-esteem, selfsatisfaction and self-determination. Participation in sports also helped to redefine how women related to their environment by widening their social circles and relationships. These changes triggered a number of fears and anxieties about sport's potential for gender dis-order. In particular, the figure of the machona, a masculinized, unattractive, and mannish woman, became a symbol of this dis-order. The use of humor, parody, and theatrical displays of gender became ways through which these fears were both expressed and negotiated.

Football, Nation, and Women in Argentina: Redefining the Field of Power

“…In a different sporting space, the historian Patricia Anderson (2015) narrates how in the 1920s many Argentine women adopted a physically active lifestyle that challenged masculine hegemony. The criteria used (between 1880 and the first World War) to form strong, well-trained, and healthy bodies via physical activity also functioned to justify the incorporation of women but with different motives such as increasing fertility and having healthier children.…”

I'm not joking! The strategic use of humour in stories of racism

“…The literature on sport and humour is scant though what has been written has an emphasis on more overt and predicable themes that include the place of jokes and banter (Snyder, 1991;Burdsey, 2011), sexism and gender (Anderson, 2015;Shaw, 2006), sport cultures and team cohesion (Sullivan, 2013). Where humour has been explored in relation to racism in sport there has been an insightful focus on the mitigation of racism and bigotry as jokes or disparagement and superiority (Reid, 2015;Burdsey, 2011;King, 2006).…”

“…Like Sullivan's (2013) analysis of sociable traits in teams, Snyder also considered playful behaviour when he considered how humour could be used as building blocks for sport team cohesion. Similar to Anderson's (2015) criticism of sexism and gender in sport he also explored humour as superiority and disparagement. Where humour has been explored in relation to sport themes that examine team dynamics and character traits (Sullivan, 2013), sexism and gender relations in sport cultures are popular topics (Anderson, 2015;Shaw, 2006).…”

“…Similar to Anderson's (2015) criticism of sexism and gender in sport he also explored humour as superiority and disparagement. Where humour has been explored in relation to sport themes that examine team dynamics and character traits (Sullivan, 2013), sexism and gender relations in sport cultures are popular topics (Anderson, 2015;Shaw, 2006). In Reid's case, humour was examined to explain how it could be used to deny intolerance or justify the discriminatory comments about the sectarianism of the Celts and the Irish.…”

Especialistas y expertos del saber corporal

“…Su variedad condensó instituciones de diverso tipo: estatales vinculadas a la gestión de la cultura física, clubes deportivos, asociaciones particulares e inclusive industrias preocupadas por la salud física de sus integrantes.De los más de 80 participantes en el evento, hubo una amplia mayoría de varones a pesar que en las primeras cuatro décadas del siglo XX más del 80% de egresadas del INEF fueron mujeres. Las pocas mujeres que participaron, lo hicieron, muy especialmente, en temas vinculados con la educación física preescolar, la gimnasia 'femenina' y la gimnasia para embarazadas.Vale decir, ciertos temas se feminizaron y feminilizaron(ANDERSON, 2014(ANDERSON, , 2015. Aunque la mayoría de los y las participantes fueron argentinos,…”