TOMBOY TRIUMPH: UNVEILING THE IMPACT OF GENDER IDENTITY ON ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Main Article Content
Keywords
Athletic Performance, Masculinity, Femininity, Neutrality, Bem Sex Role Inventory, Wolanin Scale of Performance
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between gender role identity and athletic performance among a diverse sample of 200 athletes representing various sports disciplines. The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) was employed to assess gender role identity, categorizing participants into masculine, feminine, and neutral groups based on their scores. Athletic performance was measured using the Wolanin Scale of Performance. The study found significant correlations between gender role identity and athletic performance. Specifically, masculinity exhibited a strong positive correlation with athletic performance, highlighting the influence of traditionally masculine traits on sports success. Contrary to common stereotypes, femininity did not demonstrate any substantial impact on athletic performance. Of particular interest was the positive influence of neutrality, suggesting that athletes who exhibit a balance of both masculine and feminine traits tend to perform better. These findings challenge traditional gender norms and underscore the need for more inclusive approaches in sports coaching and training. Future research should explore the underlying mechanisms behind these relationships to inform more effective strategies for athlete development and performance enhancement.
References
2. Alvemark, A. (2021). Becoming a Woman Through Tomboyism: A Qualitative Study of the Female Gender Identity of the Tomboy.
3. Azzarito, L. (2009). The panopticon of physical education: Pretty, active and ideally white. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 14(1), 19–39.
4. Balram, R., Pang, B., & Knijnik, J. (2022). Understanding Indo-Fijian girls’ experiences in sport, physical activity and physical education: an intersectional study. Sport, Education and Society, 1-15.
5. Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42(2), 155-162. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036215
6. Bojkowski, U. (2022, November 26). Psychological Femininity and Masculinity and Motivation in Team Sports. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15767. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315767
7. Craig, T., & LaCroix, J. (2011). Tomboy as protective identity. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 15(4), 450-465.
8. Fernandez-Lasa, U., Usabiaga Arruabarrena, O., Lozano-Sufrategui, L., & Drew, K. J. (2021). Negotiating alternative femininities? Gender identity construction in female Basque pelota players. Sport, education and society, 26(2), 188-201.
9. Gentile, A., Boca, S., & Giammusso, I. (2018, November). ‘You play like a Woman!’ Effects of gender stereotype threat on Women’s performance in physical and sport activities: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 39, 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.07.013
10. Higginbotham, J. (2018). Playing the Early Modern Tomboy. In Queering Childhood in Early Modern English Drama and Culture (pp. 99-116). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
11. Hills, L. (2007). Friendship, physicality, and physical education: An exploration of the social and embodied dynamics of girls’ physical education experiences. Sport, Education and Society, 12(3), 317–336.
12. Hively, K., & El-Alayli, A. (2014, January). “You throw like a girl:” The effect of stereotype threat on women’s athletic performance and gender stereotypes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.09.001
13. Jeanes, R., Spaaij, R., Farquharson, K., McGrath, G., Magee, J., Lusher, D., & Gorman, S. (2020, October 9). Gender Relations, Gender Equity, and Community Sports Spaces. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 45(6), 545–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723520962955
14. Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., & Niedlich, C. (2016, July 5). Traditional Masculinity and Femininity: Validation of a New Scale Assessing Gender Roles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00956
15. Kanemasu, Y. (2018). Going it alone and strong: Athletic indo-Fijian women and everyday resistence. In G. A. Molnar (Ed.), Women, sport and exercises in the Asia-pacific region: Domination-resistance-accommodation (pp. 92–110).
16. Kanemasu, Y., & Molnar, G. (2020). ‘Representing’the voices of Fijian women rugby players: Limits and potentials of research as a transformative act. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(4), 399-415.
17. Kostas, M. (2022). ‘Real’boys, sissies and tomboys: exploring the material-discursive intra-actions of football, bodies, and heteronormative discourses. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 43(1), 63-83.
18. Li, X. (2022). “Yea I’maf* Tomboy”:“girl crush,” postfeminism, and the reimagining of K-pop femininity. Social Semiotics, 1-17.
19. Macdonald, D., Rodger, S., Abbott, R., Ziviani, J., & Jones, J. (2005). ‘I could do with a pair of wings’: Perspectives on physical activity, bodies and health from young Australian children. Sport, Education and Society, 10(2), 195–209.
20. Malterud, L., Engelsrud, G., & Vereide, V. (2021). “Super stoked girls”-a discourse analysis of girls’ participation in freeride skiing. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 1-14.
21. Manno, M. J. (2023, September 19). Denied. NYU Press.
22. Martos-Garcia, D., Garcia-Puchades, W., Soler, S., & Vilanova, A. (2023). From the via Crucis to paradise. The experiences of women football players in Spain surrounding gender and homosexuality. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 10126902231153349.
23. McDermott, S. (2019). The Tomboy Tradition: Taming Adolescent Ambition from 1869 to 2018. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 44(2), 134-155.
24. Meisel, F. (2022). From Tomboy to Amazon: The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Two Girls, Unhappy with Their Gender Identity, and the Impact of Title IX. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1-16.
25. Menzie, L. (2020, August 18). Stacys, Beckys, and Chads: the construction of femininity and hegemonic masculinity within incel rhetoric. Psychology & Sexuality, 13(1), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2020.1806915
26. O’Flyn, G. n., & Lee, J. (2010). Committed young men and well-balanced young women: Private schooling, physical activity and the classed self. In D. Macdonald & J. Wright (Eds.), Young people, physical activity and the everyday (pp. 71–86).
27. Osipov, A., Kudryavtsev, M., Galimova, A., Kolokoltsev, M., Romanova, E., & Lazarova, M. (2023). Impact of psychological gender on competition performance of elite female boxers. Journal of Physical Education & Sport, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2023.01011
28. Oxford, S. (2022). ‘You look like a machito!’: a decolonial analysis of the social in/exclusion of female participants in a Colombian sport for development and peace organization. In The Potential of Community Sport for Social Inclusion (pp. 146-163). Routledge.
29. Pang, B. (2018). Conducting research with young Chinese-Australian students in health and physical education and physical activity: Epistemology, positionality and methodologies. Sport, Education and Society, 23(6), 607–618.
30. Pang, B. (2021). Problematising the (in) visibility of racialized and gendered British Chineseness in youth health and physical cultures. Sport, Education and Society, 26(3), 228-238.
31. Pope, S. (2017) London: Routledge. PP. 200-234.
32. Powers, E. (2019). Women in sports. In Women in changing Japan (pp. 255-262). Routledge.
33. Renold E (2005) Girls, Boys and Junior Sexualities: Exploring Children’s Gender and Sexual Relations in the Primary School. London; NY: Routledge.
34. Riley, K., & Proctor, L. (2022). The senses/sensing relationship in physical literacy: generating a worldly (re) enchantment for physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 1-12.
35. Sherman, S. (2023). Who Do You Think You Are? A Personal Response to Adrienne Harris's “Gender as a Soft Assembly: Tomboys’ Stories”. The Psychoanalytic Review, 110(1), 109-116.
36. Spaaij, R., Knoppers, A., & Jeanes, R. (2020). “We want more diversity but…”: Resisting diversity in recreational sports clubs. Sport Management Review, 23(3), 363-373.
37. Stride, A. (2014). Let US tell YOU! South Asian, Muslim girls tell tales about physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 19(4), 398–417.
38. Wells, H. M. (2022). How# Tomboy Instagram Reclaims the Tomboy from White, Middle-Class Straight Women. Reclaiming the Tomboy: The Body, Representation, and Identity, 209.
39. Wolanin, A. T. (2004). Mindfulness-acceptance-commitment (MAC) based performance enhancement for Division I collegiate athletes: A preliminary investigation. La Salle University.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All articles published in JPTCP are licensed under Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Rabia Karim
University of Home Economics, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN
Saman Junaid
Department of Physical Education, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN
Muhammad Farhan Tabassum
Depaertment of Mathematics, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN
Aqsa Shamim Ahmed
Department of Sports Sciences & Physical Education, Faculty of Allied Health Science, University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN
Saadia Hassan
University Institute of Diet & Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Allied Health Science, University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN
Maryam Iqbal
Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, PAKISTAN