Women’s Sport as a Symbol of Modernity: A Case Study in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has a distinctive position with regard to its geography and history among Muslim countries. Particular features are its secular system and far reaching modernization processes particularly with respect to the ‘emancipation’ of women. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze sport and body politics as part of the modernization processes in Turkey and to explore in particular the multiple roles of different groups of women in the reforms initiated by the Turkish Governments. A focus will be on the intersecting influences of gender and social class. The famous archaeologist Halet Çambel will be used as an example of the ‘modern’ woman who embodied reformist ideologies. Çambel was the daughter of an elite family; she was born in Berlin where her father was an attaché at the Turkey embassy. She studied in France and participated in the Olympic Games in 1936. She and another Turkish fencer were the first women from a Muslim country to participate in the Olympic Games. Later she became the most famous archaeologist in Turkey and she stayed physically active all her life. In particular, horse riding became a favourite activity as she travelled to archaeological sites on horseback.     

Swimming: The ‘Ideal’ Sport for Nineteenth-century British Women

The nineteenth-century history of swimming has predominantly been portrayed as a history of male participation, with claims that women were marginalized from the sport and never able to be involved at the same level as men. However, this article will highlight that far from marginalizing women the unique qualities of swimming enabled it to develop into the ‘ideal’ and arguably first modern, urban sport for British women. The article will draw upon two nineteenth-century ideologies which surrounded the female body and health; firstly, the ideology of female bodily incapacity and secondly, the socially constructed ideology of correct feminine behaviour. These ideologies directly influenced perceptions about the female body and health and also curtailed the development of sport for women. Nevertheless, by analysing evidence gathered from nineteenth-century texts, newspapers and women's magazines this article will suggest that swimming was an exception. Three specific qualities enabled the promotion and tolerance of female swimming to continue virtually unchallenged. These qualities were health, safety and the aquatic environment.     

Before the ‘Black Ferns’: Tracing the Beginnings of Women’s Rugby in New Zealand

Abstract

Women’s rugby union in New Zealand has increased in popularity over the past decade, preceded by two decades of dominance at the international level and much activism to have the women’s game recognized and supported, nationally and provincially. However, as this paper reveals, women’s engagement with the game, as players, began more than 100 years before the Black Ferns won their first international tournament. Through an examination of several fleeting ‘episodes’ of women’s attempts to play in earnest, as represented in digitized newspapers from Papers Past, it becomes apparent that women’s foray into the hyper-masculinized team sport of rugby challenged dominant sensibilities but was not wholly resisted. The ‘events’ investigated here suggest that gender roles may have been more porous than traditionally invoked by the categories of ‘Victorian’ and ‘New Woman’, contested, albeit intermittently, by the actions of Pākehā and Māori women around the colony.     

‘Not Merely an Isolated Game’: Women’s Association Football in Australia

ABSTRACT

Australia has participated in the world-wide growth of women’s football particularly since the 1970s, but long before that the game was played recreationally and competitively by women in Australia. Women have struggled to overcome active opposition to their taking part in the sport and neglect of their achievements which are considerable. This article provides an outline of the history of the game both nationally and in its international context. It also tries to capture the experience of some of the pioneers of the women’s game and its modern practitioners, revealing some of the ways in which overt and covert discrimination still hinders recognition of their achievements.     

Sport and the New Culture of the ‘Second Golden Age’: Amsterdam’s Sporting Entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amsterdam underwent important changes in its economic, social, and cultural life as the city entered what is often referred to as its ‘Second Golden Age’. Old elites gave way to new and a new more entrepreneurial culture emerged focused on mass, visible, and consumable activities, including sport, in which the body played a central role. This was especially apparent from the late 1870s and 1880s when spatial changes within the city helped to ensure that sport was increasingly the location for new kinds of associational activity and the development of new products, all underpinned by the potential for profit. Entrepreneurs such as Perry & Co., De Gruyter, and the Amsterdamsche Sport-Club were able to effect strategic combinations between the new body culture and consumerism, producing a range of new products and exploiting new technologies to create new markets. In seizing these opportunities, Amsterdam's entrepreneurs were also reproducing the concept of the trainable, measurable, and consumable body.     

From Budding to Developing: The History of China’s Sport Industry Policy

Abstract

The sport industry is an emerging industry in China. The aims of this paper are to explore the history of China’s sport industry policies and to reveal existing problems and their causes in these policies. In this qualitative research, documentary analysis and in-depth interviews of 15 interviewees were conducted. It is concluded that the history of sport industry polices in China has undergone roughly four stages: budding (1978–1992), exploration (1992–1998), integration (1998–2008), and developing (2008 onwards). The Chinese sport industry policies have experienced numerous problems. First, the policy goals are hollow, unspecific, and undefined. Second, the policies lack pertinence. Third, their value standard deviates from the constraint condition. Fourth, they lack continuity and stability. The complicated reasons for these problems include factors related to the sport management system, the policy value orientation of government, and the interest game between stakeholders throughout the policy process. This paper, therefore, presents suggestions for China’s sport industry policies. First, the sports market should be opened gradually. Second, the government should increase policy support. Third, the government should support and regulate the development of professional sports. Fourth, the government should promote the construction of a national and local sport industry base.     

‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press

ABSTRACT

When Mexico hosted the 1971 Women’s World Cup, it raised considerable challenges for local journalists. The domestic game had never received significant press attention, but mounting public interest in such a prestigious tournament demanded a response from national and sporting newspapers. In this chapter, we analyse the extent to which the masculine hegemonic environment of the newsroom dictated the perspective, language, and imagery deployed by journalists in their reports. While underlying sexism and cynicism characterised more traditional, conservative sections of the printed media, our analysis reveals a surprising degree of willingness to adapt and learn new ways. In tracing the dynamics of this process we assess the extent to which a more enlightened appreciation of Mexican women’s football only lasted for as long as they continued to win matches.     

The 2012 Olympic Badminton Scandal: Match-Fixing,Code of Conduct Documents,and Women’s Sport

Abstract

At the 2012 Olympic Games, eight badminton players were disqualified from the women’s doubles tournament for intentionally losing matches in the group stage. The incident marks the largest mass disqualification of athletes from multiple countries for match-fixing at the Olympic Games in the twenty-first century. Significantly, it is also the first time that female athletes have been disqualified from a Summer Olympic Games for match-fixing not related to betting or gambling. This essay weaves together two interdependent arguments. First, it is suggested that the incident can be understood through the lens of three separate but interconnected issues: the history of match-fixing, the growth of code of conduct documents in sports, and the regulation of women’s bodies in sports. Second, it is argued that the athletes’ gender is a critical element of the incident. The primary aims of the article are to position the 2012 badminton scandal as a key moment in the history of match-fixing and to suggest that the incident is important for future research and policy creation.     

‘Physical Education’s First Lady of the World’: Dorothy Sears Ainsworth and the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Women and Girls

Abstract

Dorothy Sears Ainsworth has received wide acclaim for her pioneering efforts in international relations that enhanced collaboration among female physical educators in the decades following World War II. As Director of Physical Education for Women at Smith College (1926–1960), Ainsworth became a global figure, traveling extensively and organizing the first international conference on physical education for women and girls in Copenhagen in 1949. This resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW), today counting over 400 members from 45 different countries. In this paper we (re)consider the largely hagiographical accounts of Ainsworth’s career and re-examine her contributions to the international stage in light of her maternalist views on female sport and physicality. Indeed, women’s difference from men dominated the discourse of many international women’s movements at this time. We consider what IAPESGW’s long-term governance by primarily white and wealthy women may have meant in terms of the organization’s focus and globalizing efforts and conclude that though Ainsworth’s essentialist approach ignored earlier feminist sporting movements, and would not outlast the more progressive winds of change in the 1970s, neither should her early contributions to establishing bonds among female physical educators globally be minimized.     

Hockey’s Significant Others: Canadian Newspaper Coverage of Elite Migrant Athletes in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

Peter Stastny and Petr Nedved were among the most famous Eastern European defectors to play in the National Hockey League (NHL); they not only had success in the NHL but also represented the Canadian men’s national hockey team in international tournaments. Meanwhile, the son of Canadian hockey legend Bobby Hull, Brett Hull, opted to play for the US national team and became a threat to Canadian hockey in the 1990s. This study examines how these three athletes were represented in Canadian newspaper coverage. Specifically, the stories of Stastny and Nedved served as a means for Canadians to differentiate themselves from the former Czechoslovakia and Eastern Bloc. The success of Hull and the US national team, on the other hand, served to threaten Canada’s dominant status in hockey.     

Reclaiming Canada Through Its ‘Ancient’ Sport: Lacrosse and the Native Sons of Canada in Late 1920s Alberta

Lacrosse has long been considered Canada's national sport and, beginning in the latter half of the nineteenth century, became tied to the nationalist ambitions that sought to promote a national identity through the ‘creation’ of a uniquely Canadian game. Popular in the decades prior to the turn of the twentieth century, lacrosse in Alberta began to decline after the First World War, becoming a marginal sport played only in the province's larger cities. A brief and unexpected revival of lacrosse occurred in two communities, Edmonton and Lethbridge, in the 1920s championed by a nativist organization, the Native Sons of Canada (NSC). For this group lacrosse represented a natural means to promote their ‘Canada First’ ideology to young male Albertans. In Edmonton, the Native Sons sponsored a senior men's lacrosse team that garnered some local and regional attention, while attempts by the Lethbridge assembly to promote youth lacrosse in 1927 were largely unsuccessful. Despite the continuing affinity between Canadian nationalism and lacrosse, the NSC were ineffective in their efforts to revive interest in the sport. The ‘national’ game did not provide nativists in Alberta the platform they sought to promote their nationalist agenda.     

‘They are able to play football in South Africa’: Austria’s ‘little Wunderteam’ on tour in 1936

From the end of the nineteenth century South Africa had become a popular touring destination for British and colonial sports teams. Tours in the popular sport of cricket, football and rugby were very popular. These tours tested local opposition against foreign competition, brought in revenue to local and national sports associations and contributed to the development of a white South African identity. Austrian football teams were extensive travellers and popular attractions around the world. Prior to the Second World War Austrian football was highly regarded and was able to compete and hold its own against English and Scottish clubs and representative teams. This article considers an unusual tour by a combined Viennese football team to South Africa in 1936. We consider the preparations for the tour, the different playing styles and the way in which the visitors were received around the country. At the broader political level, the tour was important as leading South African politicians and Austrian diplomats attended matches and functions while on tour. This can be understood in the context of both countries attempting to flex their political identity and muscle in light of more dominant neighbours and colonial masters.     

Black Males in the Stadium: All ‘Bad Niggers’? French Literature,Sport and Masculinity from the 1920s to the 1950s

In the first part of the twentieth century, ‘sports literature’ presented a new form of heroism departing from the traditional models of masculinity. The novels examined the stadiums, the boxing rings or the velodromes and noticed the existence of coloured sportsmen. Black boxers and athletes were considered as original models of manliness competing with the hegemonic masculinity, hitherto written in ‘white’. This essay intends to explore the French ‘sports novels’ published in the first part of the twentieth century. Relying on the history of masculinities and of gender, and on the methodological reflection of ‘race studies’, it examines the meeting between Black identity and athletic masculinity in literature. Thus this articles aims at showing how, through a series of stylistic, narrative and semiotic processes, the fiction essentialized the difference. Both fascinated and scared, the novels stigmatized Black sportsmen and endeavoured to analyse the alterity.     

A Critical Review of R. L. Simon’s Contribution to the Doping in Sport Literature

Abstract

In the following article, it will be argued that there are at least four clusters of arguments generally proposed to justify banning doping in sport and that Simon’s contribution has been of a seminal nature to at least two of the clusters.     

Sport and doping: from WADA’s monopoly to collective arrangements and new model of anti-doping

Abstract

On April 1, 2018, the new standards of compliance to the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) came into force. The new standards impact all sports. An important amendment has been made to an article of the existing code ‘Additional Roles and Responsibility of the Parties’. Now, all international federations and the unions in agreement with WADA are obliged to reject applications for holding all sporting events from countries that do not comply with the WADA code. By then, Russian elite sport remained in isolation because the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) had no license from WADA until a compromise agreement allowed Russia back into international sports in September 2018. The probability of obtaining permanent return to international sport was extremely low. In order to obtain the license, Russian sport authorities were asked to agree with the reports of Professor McLaren and to admit the existence of doping support in the country at the state level, which seemed improbable. In Russia, although the new standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency code have not caused special concerns it directly impact Russian elite sport. Unless certain conditions were met by 2019, there was a high probability that Russia would not be able to attend large international competitions in the near future, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The situation dictates the choice of the new strategy of development for Russian sport and new model for the fight against doping, which can be not dependent on WADA. To date, there have been no real checks on WADA’s authority other than occasional decisions in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Academics who are critical of WADA’s functions often find themselves marginalized when the purported global doping “crisis” should bring “all hands on deck” to provide a humanistic and scientific approach that is best for athletes past, present and future. The functions of WADA in investigating, charging and punishing athletes do not contribute to sustainable development of sport and the sports industry around the world, and create unipolar environment of influence on sports development. Therefore, in this article, we describe some alternative forms and new order of regulation of the anti-doping relations in sport.     

Difficult Adaptations to Innovations in Performance Enhancement: ‘Dr Brustmann's Power Pills’ and Anti-doping in German Post-war Sport

The paper emphasizes the idea that in order to avoid present-minded moralizing research on doping history we should consider doping as a socially constructed phenomenon. By examining the most spectacular West German doping scandal of the 1950s, the so-called Brustmann affair, the paper illustrates the difficulties sport physicians as well as sport functionaries faced when it came to deal with innovations in pharmacological performance enhancement. The complexities and ambiguities surrounding doping in the 1950s make evident why turning sport physicians into sport health guardians was a logical option for the sport associations in post war Germany even though ‘doctor's dilemmas’ typical for sport medicine soon emerged.     

‘You May Say What You Like to the Professional and Dismiss Them When You Want’: The Rise and Fall of Professional Chess Players in Victorian Britain

From the 1840s chess was a popular game among the middle classes in Britain, commanding great respect because it was regarded as being an ‘improving’ recreation. In 1851 London staged the world's first international chess tournament, and from then until the 1880s large numbers of players, both British and foreign, endeavoured to earn their living from the game. These ‘professionals’ were gradually undermined by two attacks on the game's respectability. Foreign players were attacked on simple xenophobic lines, but more broadly all professional chess players were also undermined by a disapproval of the financial element of the game. The paper pays particular attention to two professionals, Staunton and Steinitz, who embodied the transformation in attitudes towards professional chess.