THE SOCIAL GENDER AND SPORT IDENTITY SOCIOCULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

THE SOCIAL GENDER AND SPORT IDENTITY: SOCIOCULTURAL GLOBALIZATION A BIO-SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATION Irene Kamberidou BA, MA, Phd The University of Athens Faculty of Sport Sciences Email: ikamper@phed. uoa. gr Sociology office: 210 -9702112

Gender Identity, Corporeality, ‘the body and gender’: * * * ‘linguistic conceptions-interpretations’ transformable-evolving meanings, the body and identity ‘re-discovered’, under ‘reconstruction’ …

THE ‘LEAKY PIPELINE’ AND THE ‘GLASS CEILING’

INSTITUTIONALIZED GENDER EXCLUSION An ‘unavoidable’, standard and typical practice, structured by rules and regulations. Gender dichotomy/ classification/ codification, enforced in the name of gender equality.

A CONTRIDICTION TO OLYMPIC VALUES “The IOC strongly encourages, by appropriate means, the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, particularly in the executive bodies of national and international sports organizations with a view to the strict application of the principle of equality of men and women”. (Rule 2, paragraph 5 of the Olympic Charter in force since 18 -071996)

Highlighting ‘Difference’ in the Media “In the last five years the television coverage of women's sports has declined. In fact, the percentage of stories and airtime devoted to women's sports on local news programs is now as low as it was 15 years ago. ” press release dated July 20, 2005, following a study commissioned by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles (AAF), ‘Gender in Televised Sports’.

SEX AND GENDER or SEX vs. GENDER The biological gender (sex), a static category that highlights and accentuates ‘difference’, thereby promoting inequalities. (difference vs. diversity) The social gender, a dynamic social category: the gender subject as a conveyor of identities, a means to ‘neutralize’ or de-activate ‘difference’, as an analytical category, replacing it with respect for diversity, for ‘the other’—regardless of race, culture, color, class, sexual orientation, physical handicap, etc.

GENETIC PERSONIFICATION IN OLYYMPIC SPORTS: SPORT IDENTITY AND THE GENDERED BODY Genetically personified sport identity: gendered structural distinctions. The biological body/corporeality in Olympic Sports: a ‘physio-organic entity’, a biological/anatomical unit, a material entity in the stage of development, or a ‘tool-instrument’, ‘a means to an end’?

Recommendations In order to formulate and propose multi-dimensional and proactive strategies, required is the establishment of an international, interdisciplinary, inter-cultural network of researchers (sport sciences, sport studies, sport medicine, the social sciences, the humanities, gender studies, etc. ) so as to: 1. Establish on what levels, and under what pre-conditions can theories or theoretical approaches on the gender subject be used as an analytical tool for the examination and understanding of the multi-variable, multifaceted and complex transformation processes of gender identity, and consequently sport identity. 2. Promote effective education strategies that transform social stereotypes before they take root, as in the example of the Peace Games holistic academic model (www. peacegames. org), to be incorporated through pilot projects into the EU public school systems. 3. Examine the interrelations between sport performance, the gender subject, the socio-cultural environment and corporeality, including the male/female body aesthetic. 4. Study the social effects and impact of intensive and prolonged specialized training, and not only: the changes and transformations of the body/corporeality due to intensive training, doping, genetic doping, etc, and consequently, the impact of these changes on the established social views/attitudes concerning gender identity and consequently the construction of sport identity.