Sports and Gender

According to Jay Coakley, author of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies, sports are institutionalized, competitive activities that involve rigorous physical exertion and/or the use of relatively complex physical skills by participants motivated by personal enjoyment and/or external rewards. Gender includes attitudes, feelings, and behaviors culturally associated with people’s biological sex. In this entry, the relationship between sport and gender is described with a focus on feminist, queer, and intersectional theory. The entry concludes with a brief discussion of potential guidelines for working with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) sport participants.

Definitions

According to the American Psychological Association, it is important to distinguish between the terms sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and transgender. Sex has been categorized as female, male, or intersex and relates ...

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