This article looks at the construction of active young femininities within the context of girls’ ... more This article looks at the construction of active young femininities within the context of girls’ participation in sport. It draws on findings from longitudinal, qualitative research carried out in the UK. The research revealed the importance of ‘ability’ discourses as particularly salient for girls’ ongoing sports participation at secondary school. This was exemplified in the idea of ‘being good at sport’. Throughout the article I consider some of the difficulties for girls in holding onto notions of themselves as ‘good at sport’ and look at the ways in which this identity was both shifting and relational in the context of their peer and schooling interactions. The findings suggest that processes of team selection, emphases on performance outputs and ongoing expectations of fixed athletic development were all particularly relevant to girls’ sporting identities and participation both in and out of school.
Discourses of Anxiety over Childhood and Youth across Cultures
Growing anxieties around obesity in the UK have increasingly turned public attention towards the ... more Growing anxieties around obesity in the UK have increasingly turned public attention towards the regulation of children and young people’s bodies within a biomedical model of the calorific ‘ingoings and outgoings’ of such bodies. These concerns can be understood within a wider formulation of ‘healthism’, where the individual becomes responsible for managing their bodily health by regulating their own physical activities and eating patterns. The insights developed in the chapter draw on findings from research into girls’ sports participation and a recent rise in girl-focused sporting initiatives. Findings from the research suggest that some girls may increasingly view health and the cultivation of personal ‘body projects’ as enactments of successful girlhood, but that such opportunities are unequally distributed among girls from varying class, ethnicity and ‘race’ positions.
This paper explores girls’ embodied experiences of sport and physical education (PE) within the c... more This paper explores girls’ embodied experiences of sport and physical education (PE) within the context of wider obesity discourses. In recent years, sport and PE have increasingly been promoted within a ‘healthism’ incentive characterised by interventions aimed at changing behaviours around eating and exercise such as change4life, and the Healthy Schools initiative. ‘Healthism’ has been used to describe a broad social incentivisation towards individual responsibility for bodily health through preventative measures. Accordingly, the bodies of young people have become the targets of such interventions and fears around obesity provide an influential framing of young people’s participation in sport and PE. My research with young women over the transition to secondary school found that girls’ participation in sport and PE was frequently understood as the obligation of a responsible, ‘healthy’ subject thus constructing girls’ participation within a moral narrative replete with feelings o...
This book engages with the ongoing question of why many girls stop doing sport and physical activ... more This book engages with the ongoing question of why many girls stop doing sport and physical activity in their teenage years. Previous research has found that many girls’ disengagement from sport takes place despite their childhood enjoyment and that frequently these same women take up sport again as adults. Within these chapters, Sheryl Clark explores what it is about this period of time that persuades many girls to disengage from sports when their male peers continue to take part; why some girls continue to take part; and most importantly how girls understand this participation. She suggests that girls’ participation in sport should be viewed as part of their ongoing constructions of ‘successful girlhood’ within a competitive schooling system and broader socioeconomic context.
This paper focuses on young women’s embodiment of health discourses and how these are “played out... more This paper focuses on young women’s embodiment of health discourses and how these are “played out” in education and sporting contexts where varying physical cultures are enacted. We draw on data from three qualitative projects that considered girls’ understandings of PE, football, and running within the context of their active schooling subjectivities. Health concerns increasingly frame young people’s participation in sport and physical activity and “girls” in particular have been encouraged to be more physically active. Influential “healthism” discourses continue to construct compelling ideas about “active citizenship” as moral responsibility and within broader, fluid and neoliberal societies young women are seen as the “magic bullet” (Ringrose, 2013) to overcome social issues and complex health problems such as obesity. Through critical feminist inquiry into the material-discursive rationalities of healthism in postfeminist times our analysis demonstrates that health and achieveme...
This thesis deals with issues of sport, gender and identity within schooling. It focuses on six p... more This thesis deals with issues of sport, gender and identity within schooling. It focuses on six physically active girls as they made the transition to secondary schools in London and considers the social and educational contexts that framed their involvement in physical activity and sport over this period. The research involved in-depth interviews with the girls, and their parents, teachers and friends, over a period of four years, beginning when the girls were in Year 5 and finishing when the girls were aged 13 and in Year 8. Over this period I also carried out ongoing observations at physical education lessons, after-school sports activities and a local youth running group. The analysis explores the social and emotional processes and identifications that made girls’ participation more or less sustainable over this period of time. It considers how girls who had once found immense pleasure and joy from physical activities came to feel disinvested in the PE curriculum, unsure of thei...
Adolescence has been described by researchers as a period of gender intensification. Simultaneous... more Adolescence has been described by researchers as a period of gender intensification. Simultaneously, research has pointed to the often negative effects this transition has on adolescent girls including drops in self-esteem. This thesis details the narratives of twelve preteen ...
... In Equality, education and physical education , Edited by: Evans, J. 5573. ... View all refe... more ... In Equality, education and physical education , Edited by: Evans, J. 5573. ... View all references, 2). Neoliberal discourses of the self as 'project' in the constant process of remaking are strongly echoed in recent government health initiatives in schools and beyond (Evans et al. ...
This article looks at the construction of active young femininities within the context of girls’ ... more This article looks at the construction of active young femininities within the context of girls’ participation in sport. It draws on findings from longitudinal, qualitative research carried out in the UK. The research revealed the importance of ‘ability’ discourses as particularly salient for girls’ ongoing sports participation at secondary school. This was exemplified in the idea of ‘being good at sport’. Throughout the article I consider some of the difficulties for girls in holding onto notions of themselves as ‘good at sport’ and look at the ways in which this identity was both shifting and relational in the context of their peer and schooling interactions. The findings suggest that processes of team selection, emphases on performance outputs and ongoing expectations of fixed athletic development were all particularly relevant to girls’ sporting identities and participation both in and out of school.
Discourses of Anxiety over Childhood and Youth across Cultures
Growing anxieties around obesity in the UK have increasingly turned public attention towards the ... more Growing anxieties around obesity in the UK have increasingly turned public attention towards the regulation of children and young people’s bodies within a biomedical model of the calorific ‘ingoings and outgoings’ of such bodies. These concerns can be understood within a wider formulation of ‘healthism’, where the individual becomes responsible for managing their bodily health by regulating their own physical activities and eating patterns. The insights developed in the chapter draw on findings from research into girls’ sports participation and a recent rise in girl-focused sporting initiatives. Findings from the research suggest that some girls may increasingly view health and the cultivation of personal ‘body projects’ as enactments of successful girlhood, but that such opportunities are unequally distributed among girls from varying class, ethnicity and ‘race’ positions.
This paper explores girls’ embodied experiences of sport and physical education (PE) within the c... more This paper explores girls’ embodied experiences of sport and physical education (PE) within the context of wider obesity discourses. In recent years, sport and PE have increasingly been promoted within a ‘healthism’ incentive characterised by interventions aimed at changing behaviours around eating and exercise such as change4life, and the Healthy Schools initiative. ‘Healthism’ has been used to describe a broad social incentivisation towards individual responsibility for bodily health through preventative measures. Accordingly, the bodies of young people have become the targets of such interventions and fears around obesity provide an influential framing of young people’s participation in sport and PE. My research with young women over the transition to secondary school found that girls’ participation in sport and PE was frequently understood as the obligation of a responsible, ‘healthy’ subject thus constructing girls’ participation within a moral narrative replete with feelings o...
This book engages with the ongoing question of why many girls stop doing sport and physical activ... more This book engages with the ongoing question of why many girls stop doing sport and physical activity in their teenage years. Previous research has found that many girls’ disengagement from sport takes place despite their childhood enjoyment and that frequently these same women take up sport again as adults. Within these chapters, Sheryl Clark explores what it is about this period of time that persuades many girls to disengage from sports when their male peers continue to take part; why some girls continue to take part; and most importantly how girls understand this participation. She suggests that girls’ participation in sport should be viewed as part of their ongoing constructions of ‘successful girlhood’ within a competitive schooling system and broader socioeconomic context.
This paper focuses on young women’s embodiment of health discourses and how these are “played out... more This paper focuses on young women’s embodiment of health discourses and how these are “played out” in education and sporting contexts where varying physical cultures are enacted. We draw on data from three qualitative projects that considered girls’ understandings of PE, football, and running within the context of their active schooling subjectivities. Health concerns increasingly frame young people’s participation in sport and physical activity and “girls” in particular have been encouraged to be more physically active. Influential “healthism” discourses continue to construct compelling ideas about “active citizenship” as moral responsibility and within broader, fluid and neoliberal societies young women are seen as the “magic bullet” (Ringrose, 2013) to overcome social issues and complex health problems such as obesity. Through critical feminist inquiry into the material-discursive rationalities of healthism in postfeminist times our analysis demonstrates that health and achieveme...
This thesis deals with issues of sport, gender and identity within schooling. It focuses on six p... more This thesis deals with issues of sport, gender and identity within schooling. It focuses on six physically active girls as they made the transition to secondary schools in London and considers the social and educational contexts that framed their involvement in physical activity and sport over this period. The research involved in-depth interviews with the girls, and their parents, teachers and friends, over a period of four years, beginning when the girls were in Year 5 and finishing when the girls were aged 13 and in Year 8. Over this period I also carried out ongoing observations at physical education lessons, after-school sports activities and a local youth running group. The analysis explores the social and emotional processes and identifications that made girls’ participation more or less sustainable over this period of time. It considers how girls who had once found immense pleasure and joy from physical activities came to feel disinvested in the PE curriculum, unsure of thei...
Adolescence has been described by researchers as a period of gender intensification. Simultaneous... more Adolescence has been described by researchers as a period of gender intensification. Simultaneously, research has pointed to the often negative effects this transition has on adolescent girls including drops in self-esteem. This thesis details the narratives of twelve preteen ...
... In Equality, education and physical education , Edited by: Evans, J. 5573. ... View all refe... more ... In Equality, education and physical education , Edited by: Evans, J. 5573. ... View all references, 2). Neoliberal discourses of the self as 'project' in the constant process of remaking are strongly echoed in recent government health initiatives in schools and beyond (Evans et al. ...
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Papers by Sheryl Clark