Sports and Sexuality: many who hear the two terms together wonder how they are connected and what sexuality has got to do with sports? But when we explore this month\u2019s issue we will not only see the direct co-relation between the two, but also see they have evolved over time, historically, socially and politically.<\/p>\n
The level of performance for a particular gender in sports is measured on the basis of prescribed guidelines. Anything above or below it, is scrutinized and mostly admonished for being an \u2018abnormality\u2019 or an \u2018inadequacy\u2019. In this issue we explore how gender roles and sexuality play out in the rules specifically prescribed for sports.<\/p>\n
What happens when a person who recognizes herself as a woman doesn\u2019t fit into the \u2018prescribed\u2019 category for a \u2018woman\u2019? The field of sports being a reflection of society at large, she would probably face violence and discrimination. As mentioned in the Issue in Focus, \u2018the realm of sports is a dynamic social space, where social identities are constantly constructed and experienced through the bodies of the performing athletes\u2019. These bodies are limited to the \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018female\u2019 and their \u2018performance\u2019 is gauged by certain set standards. But what about sports people of other genders? What about people who consider themselves a certain gender but their \u2018performance\u2019 cannot be understood in the given parameters of that defined gender? Who is \u2018allowed\u2019 to play a certain sport? What is healthy competition? How do you determine a person\u2019s gender and deem them \u2018unfit\u2019 to participate?<\/p>\n
Shweta Krishnan\u2019s article in the Issue in Focus <\/a>looks at how sports have been historically dominated by men, and have developed into \u2018masculine\u2019 spaces, that marginalise women, and even men, who don’t fit the bill for the \u2018ideal athlete.\u2019 In the I-column<\/a> Supriya Subramani explores similar themes through her personal experiences, and asks if women are forced to \u2018act like men\u2019 is sports spaces.<\/p>\n In the Interview section<\/a>, <\/b>Dr. Payoshni Mitra shares with us her experience working as a researcher and activist in the area of Gender Issues in Sports. She explores grey areas in ‘gender testing’ and it’s implications for athletes.<\/p>\n Jaya Tiwari <\/a>has written about the Goal Programme of the Naz Foundation and how young girls learn about gender and sexuality through playing sports and Aditi Rajgopal<\/a> has written about her first hand experience of playing Squash and Tennis at the school level as a teenager in the UK in the Voices Section<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In the Hindi Section<\/span><\/a>,<\/b> Jyoti Bajpai and Sunita Kumari from CREA have written about the \u2018It\u2019s my Body\u2019 programme and how young girls in Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have learnt about issues around sexuality playing sports.<\/b><\/p>\n Debanuj Dasgupta has a reel review <\/span><\/a><\/span>of the film, Bend it Like Beckham, about a young British Indian woman\u2019s journey of playing football while her gender and national identities are constantly challenged by her family\u2019s \u2018traditional\u2019 Indian family values.<\/p>\n Women have historically participated in sports, but men’s sports have often rendered them invisible. Brushstrokes <\/a>unearths art work – murals and paintings – that show women engaging in sporting activities over time.<\/p>\n The\u00a0FAQs section<\/a>\u00a0has basic information on Sexual and Gender Identities. The\u00a0innovations corner <\/a>highlights some sports programmes\u00a0as a vehicle for social change.<\/p>\n