Gender and Equestrian Sport: Riding Around the World

Miriam Adelman · Jorge Knijnik

Jun 2013 · Springer Science & Business Media

About this ebook

This volume brings together studies from various disciplines of the social sciences and humanities ( anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history and literary theory) that shed light on the equestrian world as a historically gendered and highly dynamic field of contemporary sport and culture. From high level international dressage and jumping, polo and the turf, to the rodeo world of the Americas and popular forms of equestrian sport and culture, we are introduced to a range of issues that are played out at local and global, national and international levels. Students and scholars of gender, culture and sport will find much of interest in this original look at contemporary issues such as “engendered” (women’s and men’s) identities/subjectivities as equestrians, representations of girls, horses and the world of adventure in juvenile fiction; the current “feminization” of particular equestrian activities (and where boys and men stand in relation to this); how broad forms of social inequality and stratification play themselves out within gendered equestrian contexts; men and women and their relation to horses within the framework of current discussions on the relation of animals to humans (which may include not only love and care, but also exploitation and violence), among others. Singular contributions show how equestrian activities contribute to historical and current constructions of embodied “femininities” and “masculinities”, reflecting a world that has been moving “beyond the binaries” while continuing to be enmeshed in their persistent and contradictory legacy. ​

About the author

Dr. Miriam Adelman is Professor of Sociology at the Universidade Federal do Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) where she has taught since 1992. Much of her professional career has been devoted to the implementation and development of gender studies at that institution, where she co-founded the “Gender Studies (Research) Nucleus and has worked, together with colleagues, in developing a curriculum in the social sciences and humanities that incorporates a gender lens. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on themes such as feminist theory and contemporary sociology and gendered bodies and subjectivities, including several articles on women in equestrian sports, a subject which she has been researching for more than 10 years (Cf. ADELMAN, M. “Women who ride: Constructing Identities and Corporealities Equestrian Sports in Brazil”. In: Grenier-Torres, Chrystelle. L’ identité genre au coeur des transformations: Du corps sexué au corps genré. Paris : L’ Harmattan. 2010; ADELMAN, M. e MORAES, F.A. “Breaking their way in: Women Jockeys at the Racetrack in Brazil”. In: SEGAL, Marcia and DEMOS, Vasilikie. Advanced Studies in Gender Research. No. 12 Bingley (UK) Emerald.2008) . In 2009, she published the book, A voz e a escuta: encontros e desencontros entre a teoria feminista e a sociologia contemporânea [The voice and the listener: feminist theory and contemporary sociology] (São Paulo: Editora Blucher) She is co-editor and contributor to a volume on gender and film, Mulheres, homens, olhares e cenas [Women, men, gazes and scenes] (Curitiba: Editora da UFPR, 2011).