What’s Queer about (Queer) Sport Sociology Now? A Review Essay
Abstract
This article offers a review of the sociology of sport research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) subjects with the aim of analyzing the extent to which this work is participating in the mainstreaming of LGBTQ sexual politics. In identifying points of convergence between “homonormativity” (Duggan, 2003) and research in the sociology of sport, the essay highlights the limitations of scholarship that equates visibility and identity with power and legitimacy; argues for studies that critically interrogate, rather than reproduce, White bourgeois normativity; and advocates for writing that is not nationally bound and insular, but rather intimately engaged with the geopolitical urgencies of our time. Based on an overview of five key features of queer theory, the author argues that a more robust queer approach to research on sexuality is required if sociologists of sport are to avoid colluding with the exclusionary discourses that characterize homonormativity.
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Queer theorists 'trouble and subvert such categories to create and defend spaces for nonnormative desires and practices'.
“Queer theorists instead “trouble and subvert such categories to create and defend spaces for nonnormative desires and practices” (King 2008b, p. 422).”
From Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond (2010) · cites this paper as King 2008b
Queer theory includes commitments to anti-identitarianism and anti-normative politics, and recognizes contingency and multiplicity as hallmarks of this approach.
“King (2008b) identified additional features of queer theory including its commitments to anti-identitarianism and anti-normative politics. She also noted the recognition of contingency and multiplicity as hallmarks of this approach.”
From Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond (2010) · cites this paper as King 2008b
Anti-identitarianism holds that incoherencies in identities such as sex, gender, or sexuality mean such constructs are in constant flux and shift over time, intermittently and sometimes regressively, and always in relation to the social, psychic, cultural, and economic relations in which they are introduced and enacted.
“Anti-identitarianism points out that incoherencies in identities such as sex or gender or sexuality means that such constructs are in “constant flux and shift over time, intermittently and sometimes regressively, and always in relation to the social, psychic, cultural, and economic relations in which they are introduced and enacted” (King 2008b, p. 423).”
From Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond (2010) · cites this paper as King 2008b
Cites
Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?
Cohen, C. J. (1997) · GLQ · doi:10.1215/10642684-3-4-437 · Cited by 2,140 · see citing works
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Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond
Knoppers, A., & McDonald, M. (2010) · Sex Roles · doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9841-z · Cited by 45 · see citing works
“Others have suggested that queer and Foucauldian sport scholarship has not fully engaged other important discourses and thus frequently reifies whiteness and Western assumptions (King 2008b).”
Background
- Authors
- King, S.
- Affiliations
- Queen's University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- King, Samantha
- ORCID
- King, Samantha
- Venue
- Sociology of Sport Journal
- Publisher
- Human Kinetics
- Published
- 2008-12
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 419-442
- ISSN
- 0741-1235 (ISSN-L)
- 1543-2785
- OpenAlex
- W1609387449
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 12.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sociology of Sport Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sports, Gender, and Society
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Keywords
- queer theory, homonormativity, sexuality in sport, sexual politics, geopolitics, exclusionary discourse
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