Spoilsports: Doing feminist work in sport spaces

Abstract

Feminist activism has played an important part in challenging patriarchal, ableist, corporate and colonial sporting traditions, structures, economies and practices. Amidst growing attention and investment in women's sport, this paper opens up a dialogue between the authors – feminist scholars/practitioners from differing locations and intellectual orientations – to critically reflect on our experiences of doing feminist, queer and anti-racist work in sport settings, and the costs and difficulties of sustaining this work. Structured as a conversation between the authors, this paper considers how different feminist perspectives and solutions to issues in sport are received by different stakeholders. It foregrounds the impacts of hostility and backlash intended to undermine activist efforts arising from feminist sport and movement cultures. The implications of this work are addressed in terms of the labor involved and consequences for safety and wellbeing. We identify several actions to sustain ourselves individually and collectively as we advocate for change in sport contexts that can be unreceptive, indifferent and hostile to feminist, queer and anti-racist voices.