Shifting, crossing and transforming gender boundaries in physical cultures

Abstract

At the 2013 conference “Gender in Physical Culture” of the ‘Transnational Working Group for the Study of Gender and Sport’, held at the University of Gothenburg, a number of presentations related to how individuals, groups of individuals and organizations challenge and change dominant gender discourses and practices. Several of these presentations have come to form this volume on ‘Gender in Physical Culture: Crossing Boundaries – Reconstituting Cultures’. To begin the volume, the following article outlines how the seven contributions are connected. We present Lamont and Molnàr’s (2002) idea of ‘boundaries’, which they consider as visible and invisible socially constructed borders that create social differences. Such boundaries are, however, malleable. We propose that this flexibility means that ‘gender boundaries in physical cultures’ can be shifted, crossed and transformed. The case studies included in this edition present concrete examples of how this is possible.