Between Stigma and Status: The Experiences of Generation Z Ghanaian Female Taekwondo Athletes

Abstract

This study set out to explore the socio-cultural experiences of five female taekwondo athletes within the age brackets of Generation Z in relation to their taekwondo practice. Using the ground theory approach, the five athletes were subjected to open interviews, with three of them again subjected to focus group discussion to reach theoretical saturation. The results show that although taekwondo practice, as with other martial arts, is expected to break gender barriers and discrimination in society, in the socio-cultural context of Ghanaian society, female taekwondo practitioners are considered by many as socially undesirable. They are taunted as “man-women,” which connotes a tomboy lifestyle that is believed to predispose women who practice martial arts to develop masculine features and physical aggression toward their future husbands. On the other side of their experience, the athletes attain high status when the media profiles them on television for their achievements in taekwondo tournaments. Together with their social media activities, as members of Generation Z are accustomed to, they earn a lot of friends and endorsement. These two contrasting experiences of the five participants in the study were explained within the theoretical constructs of stigmatization and status conferral. The study concludes that the socio-cultural experiences of these female taekwondo practitioners are context specific, and therefore, more insights are needed across jurisdictions for wider theorization. Meanwhile, stakeholders need to step up in their efforts to disabuse the minds of Ghanaians regarding the mistaken perceptions about taekwondo if martial arts are to be used as social re-engineering tools for female empowerment.