Abstract
This study explores the role of normative conceptions of sex difference through a case study of an anti-discrimination football tournament in Warsaw, Poland. The tournament has a variety of anti-discriminatory aims, including anti-racism, anti-homophobia and anti-sexism, where sport is a way to overcome difference and stereotypes. We found that especially efforts to realize anti-sexism through football encountered barriers and normative conceptions of gender in this traditionally segregated sport were in many cases reaffirmed. Male participant’s reactions to the presence of female players often contained surprise and concern, and sex difference was seen as an unavoidable, biological fact which hindered play. We explore participants’ reactions to the gender-mixing rule, as well as the existence of normative conceptions of sex difference that lead to exclusionary practices concerning females in the context of mixed-sex football. We analyse these practices and explore whether participants declare a change of attitude over time.
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