The Affective Dynamics of Sporting Bodies
摘要
In this chapter, we explore the affective and ambivalent dynamics of gendered organizational change that have shaped the AFL since the introduction of the AFLW in 2017. These dynamics have been significant for many sport organizations as they navigate changing cultural norms and expectations about gender equity, identity and inclusion of diversity. However, addressing gender inequity is not simply a matter of including and empowering women through greater visibility because ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. Understanding how the complex gendered dynamics of the AFLW permeate the organization of the AFL is the focus of this chapter, paying attention to the relational forces that organize sport with respect to gendered cultures, material practices, digital networks and logics of change. This chapter unfolds a story about how research participants see themselves in the changing world of Australian Rules Football, as the AFLW assemblage emerges within the past-present-future desires of an AFL identity that is a historically masculine, public-facing institution with competitive, ‘progressive’ leaders and loyal followers (fans, players, employees). This emergent process produces frictions that play out on and off the field in the ongoing gendered organizing of the AFLW as an imaginative, felt space of encounter.