- Title
- An exploration of the (re)production of femininity in netball spaces: the case of Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape
- Creator
- Phuza, Nobubele
- Subject
- Port Elizabeth (South Africa)
- Subject
- Eastern Cape (South Africa)
- Subject
- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2020-04
- Date
- 2020-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/55150
- Identifier
- vital:49163
- Description
- Since its introduction in 1920, Netball has reflected and reinforced appropriate ideas of female physicality and a culturally valued femininity. It is socially accepted as an appropriate sport for women evidenced by its promotion for girls in schools, the number of teams, clubs and leagues in existence and the invisibility of men’s netball in the media and society. Existing literature from Australian and New Zealand scholars in the sociology of sport and leisure consistently makes the argument that the meaning of femininity and the expected attributes thereof, are powerfully presented in the bodily performances that occur in netball. “You learn to be a woman, female bonding, female submission and the like. All while seeming to do nothing but throw a ball around.” The aim of this dissertation is to contextualize the conversation around femininity and netball for South Africa, specifically Nelson Mandela Bay. The research focuses on how netball remains an island of femininity in the sea of masculine sport. I draw on individual interviews with twelve (12) competitive netball players and ethnographic field work to examine the meaning of femininity in netball and women’s affinity to it. Using a Bourdieusian-feminist lens, I explain netball spaces as subfields of sport, structured by the configuration of valued capital(s). The findings revealed femininity as a valued capital in netball. It was a compliant femininity, characterised by the need to be aesthetically pleasing, levels of modesty, religiosity and pseudo-fragility. As players accrued netball femininity, they internalized associated dispositions as their own, a habitus. They would transmit and redeposit the habitus through interactions in the field during training sessions and matches. To this end, the dissertation also revealed that the reproduction of femininity in netball was a function of habitus and the reciprocal relationship between bodies and space.
- Description
- Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Governmental and Social Sciences, 2020
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (130 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
- Hits: 974
- Visitors: 1020
- Downloads: 91
Collections
NMU School of Governmental and Social Sciences
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Puza, N 214212165 Dissertation April 2020.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |