Critical reflections and insights: Ethnographic participant observation, embodiment and gender in the mixed martial arts gym

Abstract

Mixed martial arts (MMA) gyms and other sporting contexts are environments where practice is of paramount importance, and this is reflected in the ways in which gender plays out in these settings. In this paper the focus is on the intersection of gender and ethnographic participant observation. The main aim is to critically reflect on the value of the corporeal labour of the researcher, and her gendered positionality, in the research setting, including insights into gendered nuances within embodied ways of knowing MMA. The first part of the article focuses on demonstrating the value of insider status and practical involvement of the researcher in the MMA gym. This is followed by an introduction to the study from which the article draws from, a 12-month ethnographic study in two MMA gyms in the north-east of England. Subsequently, I highlight the different ways in which the dual role of the female researcher as MMA insider and as a gendered other in the male dominant setting of these two MMA gyms enabled collection of data in a way that is sensitive to the practical, corporeal realities of the practitioners and coaches and to the tacit gendered currents of ways of knowing MMA. The paper contributes to the developing body of research into sporting embodiment and methodological literature, seeking to make the influence of the bodily labour and gendered presence of the researcher more visible.