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Palgrave Macmillan

Sporty Girls

Gender, Health and Achievement in a Postfeminist Era

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Sheryl Clark

    1. London, UK

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  • Situates girls’ sporting participation within a post-feminist, neoliberal social context
  • Challenges the claims that girls now “have it all” in terms of both sporting and academic achievements
  • Combines theories of affect and embodiment with feminist poststructuralist perspectives to explore how gendered bodies are lived, felt and articulated

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-v
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Defining a “Problem”: Girls’ Participation in Sport and Physical Education

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 1-19

  3. Embodying Sporty Girlhood: Exploring Perspectives on Girls’ Sporting Participation Through Postfeminism

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 21-51

  4. Becoming a Sporty Researcher: Gender, Legitimacy and Bodies That Move

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 53-82

  5. A Good Education: School Achievement, Sport and Becoming a Successful Girl

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 83-108

  6. Being “Good at Sport”: Constituting Bodies Through Competition and Selection Processes

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 109-130

  7. Responsible Body Projects, Health and Moral Hierarchies

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 131-155

  8. Gendered and Racialised Bodies in Postfeminist Athletics: Embodied Capacities and Feminist Rage

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 157-180

  9. Conclusion: Sporting Girlhoods and Feminist Possibilities

    • Sheryl Clark
    Pages 181-193
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Keywords

About this book

This book engages with the ongoing question of why many girls stop doing sport and physical activity in their teenage years. Previous research has found that many girls’ disengagement from sport takes place despite their childhood enjoyment and that frequently these same women take up sport again as adults. Within these chapters, Sheryl Clark explores what it is about this period of time that persuades many girls to disengage from sports when their male peers continue to take part; why some girls continue to take part; and most importantly how girls understand this participation. She suggests that girls’ participation in sport should be viewed as part of their ongoing constructions of ‘successful girlhood’ within a competitive schooling system and broader socioeconomic context.  

Authors and Affiliations

  • London, UK

    Sheryl Clark

About the author

Sheryl Clark is Lecturer and Researcher in the field of educational studies at Goldsmiths University of London, UK. With a particular interest in gender, sport, identities, youth, schooling and girlhood, Sheryl’s research makes use of qualitative methods working with children and young people in schools and other physical activity settings.


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