SPORT STUDENT TEACHERS’ DISCOURSES ABOUT FEMALE ATHLETES IN MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Grasiela Oliveira Santana Da Silva,Angelita Alice Jaeger,Paula Silva

doi:10.22456/1982-8918.103726

Grasiela Oliveira Santana Da Silva, Angelita Alice Jaeger + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-8918.103726

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Abstract

The historical-cultural process of sport influenced and was influenced by the spaces that men and women have occupied in society by (re)assuring norms and creating cracks. That is how the female body enters the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). This study analyses discourses over the participation of women athletes in MMA. Qualitative research was conducted using focus groups with students (16 men and 9 women) from the Sports Student Teacher Program of a university located in northern Portugal. QSRNvivo 12 Pro was used for content analysis. MMA is dissociated as a sport and seen as a harmful practice for female fighters’ health, although they recognize it as a female achievement. The inclusion and growing presence of female fighters in MMA is a victory and shapes new relationships with their bodies and femininities.

Highlights

The historical-cultural process of sport influenced and was influenced by the spaces that men and women have occupied in society byassuring norms and creating cracks
Created by brothers Hélio and Carlos Gracie, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)1 aimed to prove the technical superiority of Brazilian jiu jitsu in relation to other types of fighting
MMA has gained visibility by following the motto “there are no rules”2 by spreading strategies of combat through a distinctive trait of more real violence (AWI, 2012; GRESPAN, 2015; JARDIM, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

The historical-cultural process of sport influenced and was influenced by the spaces that men and women have occupied in society by (re)assuring norms and creating cracks. MMA has been characterized as an aggressive, strong and virile space, becoming conducive to hegemonic masculinity (KIMMEL, 1998) when being designed by and for men It opened up space for the insertion of women athletes, questioning the conception that the anatomical characteristics of the bodies are decisive in differentiating the sexes and the specific places that men and women occupy in sports. The discursive order that, for years, sustained and legitimized sport in society was linked to a biological conception of bodies, whose identification started from the anatomical sex, attributing to the male, strength, courage, daring, determination, and to the female, fragility, delicacy, sensitivity and procreation. Such attributions show that the anatomical characteristics of the bodies defined their subject positions in society and, their possibilities of movement in sports practices (GOELLNER, 2016; LOURO, 2018; SILVA, 2007)

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