Biocultural strength: Understanding sex, gender, and performance in Olympic weightlifting

Abstract

This thesis examines how women Olympic Weightlifters’ performances are impacted by multiple, contradictory, and evolving sex- and gender-related knowledges. Adopting Frost’s theory of “biocultural creatures,” this study contributes to the sociocultural study of sport, gender, sex, and bodily difference by exploring the intertwining of biological, environmental, and sociocultural influences in women’s strength.

Positioned within the field of feminist Science Technology Studies (STS), this research operationalizes feminist Actor-Network Theory to guide examination of the contents and effects of local and international Olympic Weightlifting knowledge networks. Ethnographic methods are used to trace knowledges at two gyms in Aotearoa New Zealand, including participant ethnography, longitudinal strength tracking with seven women weightlifters, focus groups with 15 women athletes, and interviews with three coaches. To map internationally circulating knowledges, this research draws from interviews with eight elite coaches and five sport administrators, reviews of academic literature, and digital ethnography of Instagram.

This is a PhD with publications. Following literature review and methodology chapters, empirical chapters engage different theoretical frameworks that are derived from feminist STS. The first empirical chapter utilizes Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge to examine how coaches’ understandings of sex and gender are constructed. Applying Persdotter’s concept of menstrunormativity, the next chapter traces the construction and bodily effects of sport-specific menstrual norms. The final empirical chapter uses Mol’s sociology of contrasts to illustrate how women Olympic Weightlifters’ bodies are multiply enacted through divergent knowledges of sex, gender, and strength.

This thesis expands current research on women in sport by demonstrating the contemporary understandings of sex and gender that shape athletes’ performances. It further highlights the necessity of continued inquiry that explores women’s biocultural athletic capacities.