Tackling Stereotype: Corporeal Reflexivity and Politics of Play in Women’s Rugby (1st ed. 2023) (New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures)

By: Charlotte Branchu

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Synopsis: This book presents a critical rethinking of assumptions that have informed our understanding of women’s engagement in contact sport, based on an in-depth ethnography with an English rugby team. Looking at the day-to-day concerns of women who play rugby, this work provides a refreshing perspective on different ways of doing femininities in postfeminist times. Women’s rugby is one of the world’s fastest growing sports, yet it is also a physical game that is traditionally the preserve of men. Tackling Stereotypes reveals the cultural and symbolic stigma that ‘sticks’ to women’s rugby players and the tactics they use to carve out space for themselves and fight for legitimacy. It also argues that players engage in pragmatic politics, informed by their participation, that aims to enact realistic change. Branchu develops a situational sociology that furthers debates in the understanding of gender, belonging, becoming, embodiment, resistance politics, and the sociological study of sport.