Abstract
This chapter grapples with the ways in which post-colonial and black feminist theories have been taken up in the study of sport. Drawing on the work of scholars such as bell hooks, Angela Davis, Uma Narayan and more, this chapter presents the key arguments and concepts within both frameworks and then highlights the ways in which post-colonial and black feminist theories allow for a broadening of the study of gender and sport via an emphasis on race and representation. Specifically, this chapter discusses the controversial issue of sex/gender testing in sport as closely linked to notions of racial identity and representational politics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adjepong, L. A., & Carrington, B. (2014). Black female athletes as space invaders. In J. Hargreaves & E. Anderson (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sport, gender and sexuality. London: Routledge.
Anzaldúa, G. (2012). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Books.
Birrell, S. (1990). Women of color: Critical autobiography and sport. In M. Messner & D. Sabo (Eds.), Sport, men and the gender order. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Brown, L. E. C. (2012). Sex, drugs and Barbie: Gender verification, drug testing and the commodification of the black female athlete. Master’s thesis, University of Texas at Austin.
Brown, L. E. C. (2015). Sporting space invaders: Elite bodies in track and field, a South African context. South African Review of Sociology, 46(1), 7–24.
Carrington, B. (2010). Race, sport and politics: The sporting black diaspora. London: Sage.
Caudwell, J. (2012). Sex watch: Surveying women’s sexed and gendered bodies at the Olympics. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Watching the Olympics: Politics, power and representation. New York: Routledge.
Cavanagh, S. L., & Sykes, J. (2006). Transsexual bodies at the Olympics: The international Olympic committee’s policy on transsexual athletes at the 2004 Athens summer games. Body and Society, 12(3), 75–102.
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought. Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge Classics.
Collins, P. H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
Combahee River Collective. (1978). A black feminist statement. In B. Smith (Ed.), Home girls: A black feminist anthology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Cooky, C., & Dworkin, S. L. (2013). Policing the boundaries of sex: A critical examination of gender verification and the Caster Semenya controversy. Journal of Sex Research, 50(2), 103–111.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Daly, M. (1979). Gyn/ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Boston: Beacon Press.
Davis, A. (1972). Reflections on the black women’s role in the community of slaves. The Massachusetts Review, 13(1/2), 81–100.
Davis, A. (1981). Women, race and class. New York: Vintage Books.
Dyer, R. (1993). The matter of images: Essays on representation. New York: Routledge.
Hall, R. L. (2001). Shaking the foundation: Women of color in sport. The Sport Psychologist, 15, 386–400.
Hobson, J. (2003). The ‘batty’ politic: Toward an aesthetic of the black female body. Hypatia, 18(4), 87–105.
hooks, b. (1992). Black looks: Race and representation. Boston: South End Press.
hooks, b. (1998). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black. Boston: South End Press.
Hussain, A. (2000). Dis/locating cultures/identities, traditions and third world feminism by Uma Narayan reviewed in. Rocky Mountain Review, 54(2), 1–4.
Ifekwunigwe, J. (2004). Recasting ‘black Venus’ in the new African diaspora. Women’s Studies International Forum, 27, 397–412.
Ifekwunigwe, J. (2009). Venus and Serena are ‘doing it’ for themselves: Theorizing sporting celebrity, class and black feminism for the hip-hop generation. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), Marxism, cultural studies and sport. London: Routledge.
Jamieson, K. M. (1998). Reading Nancy Lopez: Decoding representations of race, class and sexuality. Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 343–358.
Jarrett-Macauley, D. (1996). Reconstructing womanhood, reconstructing feminism: Writings on black women. New York: Routledge.
Lewis, R., & Mills, S. (2003). Feminist postcolonial theory: A reader. New York: Routlegde.
Litsky, F. (1998). The Seoul Olympics, Griffith Joyner wins more than Gold. The New York Times.
Lorde, A. (2007). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press.
McClintock, A. (1995). Imperial leather: Race, gender and sexuality in the colonial contest. New York: Routledge.
McDonald, M. G. (2016). Queering whiteness: The peculiar case of the Women’s National Basketball Association. Sociological Perspectives, 45(4), 379–396.
Mishra, R. K. (2013). Postcolonial feminism: Looking into within-beyond-to difference. International Journal of English and Literature, 4(4), 129–134.
Mohanty, C. T. (1985). Under western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Boundary, 2(12/13), 333–358.
Morrison, T. (1998). The bluest eye. New York: Vintage Books.
Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The Negro family: The case for national action. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Mukherjee, S. (2014). The curious case of Shanthi: The issue of transgender in Indian sports. Rupkatha Journal on Interdiscliplinary Studies in Humanities, VI(3), 123–134.
Narayan, U. (1997). Dis/locating cultures: Identities, traditions and third world feminism. New York: Routledge.
Njambi, W. N. (2004). Dualisms and female bodies in representations of African female circumcision: A feminist critique. Feminist Theory, 5(3), 281–303.
Puwar, N. (2004). Space invaders: Race, gender and bodies out of place. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Rajan, R. S., & Park, Y. (2005). Postcolonial feminism/postcolonialism and feminism. In H. Scharz & S. Ray (Eds.), A companion to postcolonial studies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Ratna, A. (2011). Flying the flag for England? Multiculturalism, national identity and the social belonging of British Asian female football players. In D. Burdsey (Ed.), Race, ethnicity and football. New York: Routledge.
Ratna, A. (2014). ‘Who are ya?’ The national identities and belongings of British Asian football fans. Patterns of Prejudice, 48(3), 286–308.
Scraton, S. (2001). Reconceptualizing race, gender and sport: The contribution of black feminism. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), Race, sport and British society (pp. 170–187). London: Routledge.
Scraton, S., & Flintoff, A. (2013). Gender, feminist theory and sport. In D. L. Andrews & B. Carrington (Eds.), A companion to sport. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Sims, Y. D. (2013). Florence Griffith Joyner: Sexual politician in a unitard. In D. C. Ogden & J. N. Rosen (Eds.), A locker room of her own: Celebrity, sexuality, and female athletes. Oxford: University of Mississippi Press.
Thompson, R. G. (1997). Extraordinary bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tyagi, R. (2014). Understanding postcolonial feminism in relation to postcolonial and feminist theories. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 1(2), 45–50.
Vannini, A., & Fornssler, B. (2011). Girl, interrupted: Semenya’s body, gender verification testing and public discourse. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11(3), 243–257.
Vertinsky, P., & Captain, G. (1998). More myth than history: American culture and representations of the black female’s athletic ability. Journal of Sport History, 25(3), 532–561.
Wackwitz, L. A. (2003). Verifying the myth: Olympic sex testing and the category of woman. Women’s Studies International Forum, 26, 553–560.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brown, L.E.C. (2018). Post-colonial Feminism, Black Feminism and Sport. In: Mansfield, L., Caudwell, J., Wheaton, B., Watson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53317-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53318-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)