‘What do you love about sport?’ Exploring boys’ and girls’ embodied experiences of sport

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is a wealth of research documenting boys’ and girls’ gendered identities in and through sport, much of which provides a critical account of masculinist discourses, particularly related to team sports. Furthermore, while there are many accounts of children’s enjoyment of sport, definitions of fun and enjoyment are wide-ranging, and little has been written on children’s positive orientations towards sport from a corporeal perspective. Using the starting question, ‘what do you love about sport and how does it make you feel?’, this research explores how boys and girls speak about their embodied experiences in and through sport. Twenty-one focus groups took place with boys and girls (n = 147) from seven primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Before analysis, the data were separated into girls’ and boys’ responses. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in the construction of patterns around girls’ and boys’ embodied experiences of sport. Boys described their experiences predominantly in terms of physical encounters such as collisions and skill improvement. Girls displayed a wider array of feelings and sensations towards sport, describing experiences as calming, prioritising social interactions, while physical experiences were also important. While many of the results conform with normative gendered discourses, there are some examples of both girls and boys subverting these subjectivities, with girls in middle childhood accessing a wider range of physical identities than previously imagined. Given the importance attached to children’s embodied accounts of their sporting experiences, implications for children’s continued enjoyment and participation in sport are considered, particularly related to the provision of meaningful experiences for girls in sport.