`Dress as a man'

Abstract

This article is based on 13 open-ended interviews with current and former executive council members of the New Zealand Men's Netball Association (NZMNA). The article disputes the established view that regional women's netball associations and New Zealand's national netball association, Netball New Zealand (NNZ), fostered men's netball competitions in the early 1980s. The article instead argues that men's netball was developed by players prevented from participating in women's competitions. The article also suggests that the limited existing literature relating to the NZMNA fails to acknowledge much of the detail and character of the early association, including the critical influences of gay and transgender players and the cultural influences of Māori (New Zealand's indigenous people) and Pacific Islanders. Only more recently have flamboyant displays and marginalized masculinities been excluded, thereby rendering the NZMNA netball competitions a relatively hetero-normative domain.