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Crossing the symbolic boundaries: parkour, gender and urban spaces in Genoa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Luisa Stagi
Luisa Stagi*
Affiliation:
DISFOR, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
*
∗Email: luisa.stagi@unige.it
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Abstract

This paper shows how girls and women who practise parkour cross the gendered divisions of space, sport and other symbolic territories that are brought into play by so-called risk-taking sports, and how it may therefore be considered a subversive action. The strategies of negotiation produced by such symbolic crossings are examined via the concepts of reproductive and resistant agency and of gender manoeuvring. In particular the concept of gender manoeuvring will be used to examine the mechanisms of inter- and intra-gender inclusion and exclusion which, within subcultures, pass through a recognition of authenticity. Indeed, in the culture of parkour the question of authenticity emerges when media dissemination produces a split into two distinct practices: art du déplacement and freerunning. The traceuses cross this boundary because of their different origin (they are from the streets as opposed to the gym), thereby building within their gender further discourses on authenticity.

Utilizzando la prospettiva analitica del paradigma eteronormativo, in questo articolo si tratta di come la pratica femminile del parkour attraversi la divisione sessuata dello spazio, dello sport e degli altri territori simbolici che vengono messi in gioco dalle pratiche cosiddette a rischio, e di come, per questo, possa essere considerata un'azione sovversiva. Le strategie di adattamento e di negoziazione generate da tali rotture simboliche sono trattate attraverso i concetti di reproductive e resistant agency e di gender manoevring. Il concetto di gender manoevring, in particolare, è utilizzato per trattare dei meccanismi di inclusione e di esclusione inter e intra genere che, all'interno delle subculture, passano attraverso il riconoscimento di autenticità. Nella cultura del parkour, infatti, la questione dell'autenticità emerge quando la diffusione mediatica, radicalizzando le differenze iniziali, produce la divisione in due pratiche distinte: l'ADD (Art du dèplacement) e il Free Running. Le ragazze e le donne che praticano PK incrociano questa divisione con la variabile provenienza (dalla strada Vs dalla palestra) rinegoziando diversi capitali simbolici e producendo così, all'interno del genere, ulteriori discorsi sull'autenticità.

Keywords

parkourgendersymbolic boundaries
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 295 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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