Postcoloniality, Gender and Sport

Abstract

Recent years have seen a rise of intersectional approaches in feminist sport studies and repeated calls for greater attention to the experiences of athletes who have historically been marginalised. Feminist researchers increasingly and critically examine the complex interface between sport, gender, sexuality and other axes of power. While acknowledging the value of this literature, we observe a persisting dearth of research around the postcolonial South. We highlight emerging work that offers in-depth engagement with women's sporting experiences under postcolonial conditions. We discuss two contributions from India and Laos to outline the analytical and empirical value of such work in making sense of the ways in which the socio-political trajectories of postcolonial communities and nations shape and are shaped by gendered relations of power in the sporting arena. We then reflect on the case of Fiji, paying particular attention to the historical configurations and operations of its heteropatriarchy. In postcolonial Fiji, the convergence of militarism, masculinism, traditionalism, (anti-imperial/ethno-) nationalism and the primacy of physical power fostered a particular variant of heteropatriarchy with often violent manifestations. We then examine how indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian women, who are differentially located under this postcolonial heteropatriarchy, experience and respond to gender injustice in sporting contexts.