Negotiating a physical identity: girls, bodies and physical education

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A physically active lifestyle can be empowering for young women in allowing them to resist many of the dominant and limiting discourses around femininity and gender. In finding pleasure in their physical state a positive sense of self is embodied and long‐term engagement in a physical culture can be fostered. However, research repeatedly cites that girls and women move away from physical activity at various stages in their life and within physical education settings they are often defined as ‘the problem’. Whilst the health implications of inactivity are well documented, the reasons for choosing these behaviours are complex, and related to the social, cultural and gender structure of society. This paper investigates the construction of a physical identity within the context of physical education and physical activity. Specifically, it explores the power of discourses around the body and gender as well as ‘lived’ physical experiences in shaping subjectivities for a group of young Australian women. In taking a feminist poststructuralist methodology, the research is concerned with locating discourses and social practices as well as structural and institutional factors that empower or alienate young women in their engagement within a physical culture. The paper draws conclusions about the ways that young women actively negotiate a physical sense of themselves in a wider culture in which their body, their gender and their physical experiences play powerful roles.