Fighting Back: Examining the Construction of Pariah Femininities within the Adolescent Society

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Gendered Experiences in Sport

Abstract

This paper examines the peer status structure documented in Coleman’s (1961a) seminal piece, The Adolescent Society, through the conceptual lens of gender hegemony (Schippers 2007). Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I examine the levels of popularity gained for males and females through participation in different athletic and non-athletic extracurricular activities. Results indicate that female students gain the most peer status dividends through participation in cheerleading and male students gain the most peer status dividends through athletic participation. The findings provide support for a gendered hierarchical relationship among extracurricular activities. In other words, participation in certain activities is the social mechanism by which adolescent individuals “do gender” (West and Zimmerman 1987). I then tested the effects of female sports participation on the risk of engaging in a serious physical fight. The results show that sports participation increases the risk of fighting. Digging deeper, it appears that softball increases the odds of fighting while volleyball decreases the odds of fighting even after controlling for respondents’ prior level of violence. These findings provide partial evidence for the hypothesis that in a traditionally male dominated arena, female athletes engage in fighting as a mechanism for doing “pariah femininities,” or masculinities embodied by women (Schippers 2007). I conclude with a discussion of research and policy implications.

Author

• Win Guan, Louisiana State University