Woman, gender and identity in Brazilian olympic sport

Abstract

The last Century marked the history as a period of profound political and social transformations. Even thought we cannot say that changed the position in respecting the difference between genders. Kennard & Carter (1994) discussed that statement revealing that the woman has been studied and described from a male Eurocentric perspective, the perspective of those in power. What is observed is that only women who somehow stood out to leave the middle range earned some kind of record. In sport this practice is repeated. The woman was regarded as defiling or usurped a space devoted to male enjoyment. Whether as a leisure activity, or as a systematic practice for purposes of war, the sport used a set of adjectives that represent the male world: strength, determination, endurance and search limits. In Brazil, this situation repeats itself. Although women have participated for the first time the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932, the first medals, Olympic sports symbol of efficiency, were achieved only in 1996. Although there is an official discourse of denial of the prejudice against female in sports, it is observed throughout history banned women from some sport in schools such as football and judo, triggering a delay in performance compared to men in Olympic competition. The aim of this study is to investigate the identity construction of female athletes from the Brazilian Olympic from the trajectory of their life stories. We specifically, observe the construction elements to elucidate the relationship of gender, considering the historical moment, racial issues and the construction of new social roles after the end of competitive career. For that, I will use oral history methodology in the format of the life stories from where it will be extracted both subjective and social terms. (AU)