Negotiating gender identity : a case study of female rugby players in Singapore

Abstract

This study is about female rugby players in Singapore. It explores how women who partake in this hyper-masculine sport make sense of and negotiate their gender identity both on and off the rugby pitch. The study adopts Bourdieu's structural arguments on socialization and Butler's post-structural analysis on gender to explore the fluidity of identity in sports and the idea of 'structure' and 'agency' in the construction and development of this identity. Drawing on in-depth interviews, I organized the data collected into two themes related to identity 1) primary socialization in terms of sports and gender at home and in schools during childhood and adolescence and 2) secondary gender socialization in rugby, i.e. rugby experiences. These serve to illustrate the myriad and multiplicities of types of femininities and masculinities and call to discussion the idea of categories like "female" and "male", "woman" and "men". The study is hence important in contesting set and concrete classifications in broader feminist literature to promote a more fluid conception of gender identity.