Sociology
Omid Qaderzadeh; Seyede Chiman Hosseini
Abstract
The origins of sports traditionally dates back to its practice encouraged by religion, custom or militancy, and, therefore, was considered a wholly masculine practice. Due to the inextricable link between sports and body management, nowadays, leisure and health have transcended their meaning beyond a ...
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The origins of sports traditionally dates back to its practice encouraged by religion, custom or militancy, and, therefore, was considered a wholly masculine practice. Due to the inextricable link between sports and body management, nowadays, leisure and health have transcended their meaning beyond a certain gender and, consequently, sports has become a wholly ordinary practice for women. To attain an insight into the women’s experience and understanding of sports, this research conducted a semi-structural interview with 30 samples of women with sports experience, using a Grounded Theory method. The results show that the practice of sports by women is chiefly due to their concern about the maintenance of symmetry in the spatial-locative context and body fitness.Incidentally, striving for equality, maintaining an idealistic view of the body as a facilitating element, and the widespread broadcast of sports and its popularization have also been contributing factors.The meaningful implications of women’s appreciation of sports include their consciousness towards sports (sports as a functional identity), deconstruction of the social strata, body symmetry and pleasure. The research concludes that sports has offered women social acceptance, the opportunity to rethink and transcend physical and psychological well-being.
