Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Gender violence refers to a collection of harms and abuses enabled or sustained by systemic social practices, structures, and institutions and which target members of groups following gender lines inextricably linked to sexual orientation. Empirical studies are beginning to reveal sport participation as a place threatening gender violence outside the rules or conventions of play, including harassment and violence on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation. Within sport studies, attention to gender tends to focus on inequality and discrimination and less upon gender violence, while research on gender violence generally overlooks sport contexts, focussing primarily on threat of violence as fear and vigilance within rape culture. My analysis connects research on gender violence to sport contexts to reveal threat of violence as a serious constraint upon autonomy as options are either reduced or selectively navigated due to threat of harm. My account appeals to relational autonomy theory understanding autonomy as a site of development and progress influenced by and through our relations to others. On the relational view, autonomy is limited when social contexts undermine opportunities to cultivate and pursue options in practice. Through an examination of threat of violence within sport contexts, my analysis addresses harms to autonomy, drawing attention to limits and possibilities for developing and sustaining autonomy within contexts threatening violence. I maintain optimism that this investigation will illuminate compromised autonomy as a serious concern for those who aim to understand more deeply the effects of harmful sport contexts in the aim of countering associated harms.