Girlfight and Bend it Like Beckham: screening women, sport, and sexuality.
In this article, sport film is taken as a social and cultural space where women's bodies are made publicly in/visible. Two films-Girlfight and Bend it Like Beckham-provide the focus for critical discussion. Moreover, a queer-feminist analysis explores the links between participation in boxing and football, and women's sexuality as represented in the films. Lesbian sexualities are considered in a critique of the erasure of the lesbian sport [film] star. Sexual subjectivity is also discussed in relation to the heterosexual heroic and to patriarchy. In this way I interrogate heterosexuality. I also consider links between ethnicity, women's bodies, and sexuality. In the final instance, I show that the films work to reproduce heterosexual hegemony and depict heteronormative assimilation.
Caudwell
Jayne
J
Sociology of Sport and Leisure Cultures, The Chelsea School, University of Brighton, Gaudick Road,Eastbourne BN20 7LS, UK. J.C.Caudwell@brighton.ac.uk
D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012938:Social Perception; D013177:Sports; D013240:Stereotyping; D014933:Women's Rights