Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports Women Warriors around the World

This volume presents a wide-reaching overview of contemporary research and scholarship on women's engagement in a range of combat sports across the world. Including chapters on boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and various other fighting disciplines, the collection provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of the current significance of women's involvement in these sports, as well as charting many of the problems and opportunities they face in establishing and developing careers within them.

With contributions drawing from anthropology, phenomenology, philosophy, sociology, and sport psychology, this book will appeal to readers interested in the development of women's sport; the relationship between sport and gender; and the wider, contemporary social significance of combat sports around the world.

Alex Channon is Lecturer in Physical Education and Sport at the University of Greenwich, UK.

Christopher R Matthews is Lecturer in Sociology of Sport at the University of Brighton, UK.

1. Approaching The Gendered Phenomenon Of Women Warriors; Alex Channon And Christopher R Matthews
PART I: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND MEDIATED REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN COMBAT SPORTS
2. Moral Guardians, Mini-Skirts And Nicola Adams: The Changing Media Discourse Of Women's Boxing; Amy Godoy-Pressland
3. The Boxers Of Kabul: Women, Boxing And Islam; Hillary Kipnis And Jayne Caudwell
4. Chicks Fighting In A Cage: A Philosophical Critique Of Gender Constructions In The Ultimate Fighting Championship; Charlene Weaving
5. 'Beauty And Strength': Defining The Female Body In The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Promotional Campaign;
LA Jennings
PART II: INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES AND ACTORS IN WOMEN'S COMBAT SPORTS
6. Gender Inequality In Olympic Boxing: Exploring Structuration Through Online Resistance Against Weight Category Restrictions; George Jennings And Beatriz Cabrera
7. The Fight Outside The Ring: Female Boxing Officials In Trinidad And Tobago; Roy Mccree
8. Mexican Female Warrior: The Case Of Marisela Ugalde, The Founder Of Xilam; George Jennings
9. Women Fighters As Agents Of Change: A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Case Study From Finland; Anna Kavoura, Stiliani Chroni, Marja Kokkonen And Tatiana V. Ryba
PART III: RECREATIONAL PRACTICE AND SELF-DEFENCE
10. Beautifully Violent: The Gender Dynamic Of Scottish Karate; Chloe Maclean
11. Mediating Factors In Martial Arts Practice: A Specific Case Of Young Girls; Jikkemien Vertonghen, Hebe Schaillée, Marc Theeboom And Paul De Knop
12. Outlaw Emotions: Gender, Emotion, And Transformation In Women's Self-Defence Training; Jocelyn Hollander
13. Resisting The Hegemonic Gender Order? The Accounts Of Female Boxers In South Korea; Yun Jung Kim, Sun Yong Kwon And Jung Woo Lee
PART IV: COMPETITIVE AND PERFORMATIVE 'WOMEN WARRIORS'
14. Reinventing The Body-Self: Intense, Gendered And Heightened Sensorial Experiences Of Women's Boxing Embodiment; Helen Owton
15. 'I'm Not The Type Of Person Who Does Yoga': Women, 'Hard' Martial Arts And The Quest For Exciting Significance; Mark Mierzwinski And Catherine Phipps
16. Ambivalent Lives, Fighting Bodies: Women And Combat Sports In Brazil
Jorge Knijnik And Marco Antônio De Carvalho Ferretti
17. Unboliviable Bouts: Gender And Essentialisation Of Bolivia's Cholitas Luchadoras; Nell Haynes