Beautifully violent: the gender dynamic of Scottish karate

Within what has been called ‘the crisis of masculinity’, sport has been cited by many scholars as a key domain for men to construct a masculine identity which reproduces and legitimises (hierarchical) distinction from women (Burstyn, 1999; Connell, 1990; Hargreaves, 1994; Whitson, 1990). With commonplace socio-historical beliefs suggesting violence as a ‘natural’ and essential part of what it is to ‘be’ a man (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 53), combat sports have become a growing field of interest for many sport scholars exploring constructions of gender (Hirose and Pih, 2010; Spencer, 2012; Wacquant, 2004; Woodward, 2006) with growing attention being paid to women’s experiences, gender constructions and potential gender subversions, in such socio-historically ‘masculine’ sports (McNaughton, 2012; Mennesson, 2000; Velija et al., 2013). Yet with a few notable exceptions (Channon, 2013a; Channon and Jennings, 2013; Guérandel and Mennesson, 2007) there remain very few academic studies which take a direct focus on the phenomenon of sex integration in combat sports, and what impact violent intercorporeal interactions between men and women have on ideas, negotiations and performances of gender.