Abstract
Sociologists who examine the issue of lesbians in American
sport in the 1980s
and 1990s normally found overt and covert mechanisms of socia
l discrimination.
However, homophobia has been on a rapid decline
ov
er previous decades, and
studies show attitudes toward female homosexuality in sport have
improved since
the research conducted on lesbian athletes in the
mid
-1990s. This article uses data
collected between that epoch and current studies to analyze
athletic narratives of
openly lesbian team sport athletes in 2002. We find no universa
l pattern for the
treatment of openly lesbian athletes existed in this era o
f decreasing
homohysteria. However, as with gay men in sport at the ti
me, athletic capital
influenced who came out, and heterosexism was prominent.
Keywords: Homophobia, Sport, Lesbians, Athletes, Heteronormativity
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 647-660 |
Journal | International Review for the Sociology of Sport |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Sep 2015 |
Keywords
- Homophobia
- Heteronormativity
- Athletes
- Lesbians
- Sport