Abstract
dc:description.abstractPrevious research has investigated black women in mass feminized sports cultures and spaces such as gymnastics, beauty pageants, and cheerleading, finding patterns of hegemonic ideals and the preference for "white" standards. I expand the narrative to include the twirling culture by investigating how female twirlers, and in particular black female twirlers, perform and embody femininity and whiteness. Using data from ten (10) semi-structured interviews and observations of three baton-twirling competitions, I investigate how female baton twirlers competing in one of the largest American baton twirling organizations embody femininity, as well as negotiate raced and gendered criteria in what I call the "winner's circle." I further explore how blackness, sexuality, and gender are mediated and negotiated in and through women's bodies within the arena of baton twirling.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- M.A. in Sociology
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Thesis
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Sociology and Anthropology
- Year dc:date.available
- 2017
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Bolds, Taylar
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- James M. Thomas
- Jeffrey Jackson
- Kirsten Dellinger
Subjects
dc:subject × 1Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record dc:identifier
- https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1155
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2154