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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

Bringing Bodies Back in:
The Construction of Female Athletes in
Intercollegiate Cross Country Running

presented by
Elizabeth Paige Ransom

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

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BRINGING BODIES BACK IN:
THE CONSTRUCTION OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN
INTERCOLLEGIATE CROSS COUNTRY RUNNING
By

Elizabeth Paige Ransom

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Sociology

1997

ABSTRACT
BRINGING BODIES BACK IN:
THE CONSTRUCTION OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN
INTERCOLLEGIATE CROSS COUNTRY RUNNING
By

Elizabeth Paige Ransom

This study examines women’s subjective experience in competitive sport and demonstrates
that runner’s experiences, and in turn, their bodies, are shaped by the patterned networks
within which they are embedded. Of eating disorder cases in the United States, 90 percent
are women, with female athletes diagnosed at a higher rate than female non athletes. The
purpose of this work is to discuss bodies as collective entities produced through the
cooperation of networks made up of people and things. In contrast to this approach

eating disorders have traditionally been discussed from a biological and psychological
perspective. This study argues that only by looking at sport in the context of patterned
networks, are we able to see how a high level of disordered eating and eating disorders
among female athletes become the norm, not the exception. By placing the embodied
female athlete at the center of analysis we can begin to understand the complex

intersections of the body, sport and society.

TO my parents and sister for all of your love and support.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The thesis writing process is reminiscent Of building a house. When the house is
finished, only particular pieces of the house are visible. This is my attempt to
acknowledge the people that have helped in this construction. Inevitably, I am unable to
mention everyone that contributed to this project. I would first like to thank my
committee members: Maxine Baca Zinn for providing critical insights into feminist
literature, particularly in sport; Lawrence Busch for his endless encouragement and insight
at every step in the process; and Steve Gold for being the initial impetus for my begimiing
this research and his suggestions and feedback a long the way. My gratitude also goes to
Janet Bokemeier, Rita Gallin, and Ruth Hamilton.

Thanks also needs to be extended to: Merideth Trahan for her untiring ability to
listen and help organize my ideas; Heather Holtzclaw for always pushing me to think
critically; and JoAnne and Anthony Hickey for pointing me in the direction of graduate
school. Finally, there are countless individuals that I have received support and

encouragement from while I built this house, to all of you I say “thank you.”

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...........................................................................................
Section I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................
MEDICALIZATION OF DEVIANCE ...................................................

IN THE CONTEXT OF SPORT ............................................................
METHOD: RUNNER AS WRITER .......................................................
Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders .............................................

Section II. COOPERATIN G NETWORKS .......................................................
CONSTRUCTING FOOD AND BODIES ..............................................
FEMININITY BY WAY OF THE BODY ..............................................
CREATING UNIFORMITY ...................................................................

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONS
“TREATMENT” OF THE ISSUE ....................................................

CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................
APPENDIX ......................................................................................................
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................

vii

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15
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23
29

33
35
37
40

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5
Figure 6

LIST OF FIGURES

The tank top with briefs. Uniform first worn in the late 19805 ............
Teams began to wear the one-piece body suit in the early 19905 ..........

The most recent innovation in women’s uniform, the crop top with
briefs ..................................................................................................

Example Of a male uniform in 1996. Men’s Uniforms have changed
very little over the past fifty years .......................................................

Advertisement Discouraging Steroid Use ............................................

Advertisement Discouraging Eating Disorders ....................................

vi

37
37
37

37

38
39

Section I. INTRODUCTION

“The horizons of an athlete’s world can never stray far beyond her body.

The course of an athletic career entails development of the ability to focus

increasingly greater amounts of awareness on increasingly specific parts

of the body. . . .The horizons of an intellectual 's world lie at the edge of

an ever-expanding cosmos of ideas that seems to recede further and

further fiom the body. Athletes are very much in their bodies and, as a

consequence, are usually very much within the systems that sustain those

bodies. Intellectuals are forever trying to escape beyond bodies and the

systems that sustain them . . . The chasm between the detachment from the

body that characterizes much social science and the limited focus on the

body that characterizes sports is difficult to bridge. Pierre Bourdieu

states that the different worlds of the athlete and the social scientist have

important implications for social theory; . . . ” (Brownell 1995: 7-8).

Harry Edwards (1973: 361) was one of the first sociologists to critically analyze
sport as an institution within our society. He writes, "from its racial problems to drug
abuse, from its economic crisis to female segregation, what is ‘wrong’ with sport in
America reflects America itself - particularly the relationships between contemporary
social, political, and economic realities and this nation’s value priorities, its attitudes and
its perspectives." Bodies, like Edwards’ assertion for sport, are vehicles for examining the
values, attitudes and perspectives of a society. In sport the high levels of eating disorders
and disordered eating among female athletes could be viewed as revealing a society where
approximately 90% Of those with diagnosed cases Of eating disorders are women'. The

issue of eating disorders is a prism through which sport reflects a nation’s dominant ideas

of the proper construction of bodies and how these constructions differ, particularly by

 

lClinically diagnosed eating disorders include bulimia, anorexia nervosa, and anorexia
athletica. Disordered eating means individuals who have some Of the characteristic traits
Of people with eating disorders, but do not have them all and therefore, would not fall
under the clinical diagnosis.

gender, race and ethnicity.

The quotation from anthropologist Susan Brownell at the beginning Of this paper
eloquently reveals the chasm which exists between the ideological world of the academic
and the practical world of the athlete. The implications for social theory due to mind/body
dualism are apparent in a discussion of eating disorders among athletes. Theoretical
approaches to the body have been dominated by psychological and biological discussions.
Callon and Law (forthcoming: 8) write, “sometimes it is useful to talk of individual
entities: to imagine that they are discrete objects in an environment. But it is equally
appropriate to treat them as collective effects -- as patterned networks.” Natural and
social scientists alike, have taken the individual entities approach. They have discussed the
athlete’s body as a natural, biological fact, while ignoring the body as the context of social
interaction. There are few discussions of bodies as “collective effects” constituted within
patterned networks. Becker (1982) though writing of the art world, makes an argument
that holds for a discussion of the networks involved in the construction of female athletic
bodies. We begin to see that participants in sports, including athletes with eating disorders
are not the products of individual endeavors, athletes who possess a rare and special gift.
They are, rather, joint products Of all the people who cooperate via a sport world’s
characteristic conventions to bring athletes into existence.

Feminist and sport sociologists have done little to examine women’s subjective
experience in competitive sport. This paper is an attempt to full this gap. The purpose Of

this study is to demonstrate that runner’s bodies, and in turn, their experiences, are shaped

3

by the patterned networks within which they are embedded. Food, equipment, clothing
and bodies are enlisted in this paper as representing extensions of human agency, but also
as impacting and shaping the social environment. First I provide a brief overview of the
medicalization literature on eating disorders, followed by an overview of the historical and
sociological critique Of sport as it applies to women’s long distance running. This is
followed by an overview of my methods and finally a discussion of the findings. The
embodied female cross country runner forms the center around which the discussion
below is built. From this point I attempt to build a comprehensive picture of the entire

cooperating network that radiates out from the athlete in question (Becker 1982).

MEDICALIZATION OF DEVIANCE

In the cross country team environment, just as in the larger society, individuals
diagnosed as having an eating disorder are viewed as slightly different or deviant from the
rest of the team. In recent years this deviance has been medicalized. The medicalization
process follows the bio-medical model used in our society. This model views the body as
a series of separate, but interdependent parts (Doyal 1995). Doyal explains, “health is
defined in individualistic ways -- it is always individuals who become sick, rather than
social, economic, or environmental factors which cause them to do so.”

With the increase in genetic research critical scientists and feminist scholars have
criticized the shift to extreme individualism using the biomedical model (Doyal 1979;
1995; Hubbard 1995; Lewontin 1991). Geneticist R.C. Lewontin (1991) notes that an
announcement appears almost weekly in the press proclaiming a possible genetic cause of
some human illness. This approach to genetics has entered into the debate on eating

disorders. A recent article in Science (1996) claims “researchers have found a brain

 

chemical that appears to suppress appetite . . . which may help the hunt for obesity and
eating-disorder treatment.” At issue in locating eating disorders strictly within the
individual is the diagnosis that women, since they are the vast majority of sufferers, are
fundamentally different from and inferior to men (Bordo 1993).

Critics have identified both positive and negative aspects of the medicalization of
deviance (Conrad and Schneider 1980). One negative aspect of the medicalization of
eating disorders, Of primary concern in this work, is the dislocation of the problem from

society. One author argues that the deviant label leads to social isolation and public

5

apathy, “lessening the likelihood that audiences will respond to eating disorders as social
problems worth ‘doing something’ about” (Way 1995: 91). Thus, medicalization
depoliticizes the issue.

Another aspect Of the medicalization process of eating disorders is the implicit
assumption of a norm against which eating disorders are measured. Thus, a false
dichotomy is constructed along the line of “normal” versus abnormal eating patterns.
Much of the literature suggests this binary opposition (Hesse-Biber 1996). Instead, it can
be argued disordered eating among women, though physically bad for the body, has been
the norm for years and, therefore, cannot be considered deviant behavior. Bordo (1993),
Root (1990) and Thompson (1992) suggest that, due to different life experiences, some
women reach the stage of eating disorders, while others remain in the realm Of disordered
eating and many slip between the two. When viewing the interaction of women in sport, it
is striking that women who have a non-conflicting interaction with food are atypical. The
overall definition of what is “normal” becomes blurred.

Thus, the medicalization of eating disorders inhibits an analysis of the networks of
people and things which cooperate and contribute in the construction of eating disorders
and disorderly eating among female cross country runners. Eating disorders are an
outcome of a web of complex social issues combined with individual biologies and
psychologies. Let us briefly review the networks Of sport which construct an environment

prone to eating disorders and disordered eating.

IN THE CONTEXT OF SPORT

Each network relies on a set of conventions, which help people arrive at the terms
on which they cooperate (Becker 1982). Thus conventions create and facilitate
cooperating patterned networks. Becker (1982: 32) writes, “a system of conventions gets
embodied in equipment, materials, training, available facilities and sites, systems Of
notation, and the like, all of which must be changed if any one component is.” In sport, as
elsewhere in society, gender forms a core division around which conventions are shaped
and implemented. Goffman (1977) notes that physical surroundings can be enlisted to aid
in the display or affirmation of gender. For example, Observe the daily construction of
gender in society through toilet segregation. Goffman (1977: 316) explains , “toilet
segregation is presented as a natural consequence of the difference between the sex-
classes [sic], when in fact it is rather a means of honoring, if not producing this
difference.” In sport the social construction of gender can be seen at all levels, from
philosophy and policy, to the seemingly trivial level of rules, equipment, uniforms, and
bodies (Cahn 1994).

Feminist sport literature recognizes that sports is an institution where biology
continues to be used to justifiably segregate men and women (Refer to Birrell & Cole
1994; Burton Nelson 1994; Eitzen 1996; Messner 1988). Messner (1988: 198) argues
that women’s involvement in sport “represents a genuine quest by women for equality,
control of their own bodies, and self-definition and as such it represents a challenge to the
ideological basis of male domination.” However, as male hegemony has increasingly been

threatened, the socially constructed gender division in sport has not only been replicated,

7

but heightened. What could be considered minimal biological differences are naturalized
and maximized through the construction of gender within the institution of sport.

The gender divide in sport constructs our notions of what is feminine and what is
masculine. What is most important, however, is to realize that what is labeled feminine in
the sporting world is defined as “less than” masculine sport. For example, playing with a
larger ball in softball and a smaller one in basketball, lowering the net in volleyball and the
hurdles in track, and specifying different rules, such as no stealing of bases, or smaller
court dimensions.

By looking at the history of women's and men’s long distance running, we are able
to see how culturally constructed gender systems have been created and sustained and
how they change overtime (Cahn 1994). The marathon was added to the modern Olympic
games to commemorate the legendary Greek solider Pheidippides who collapsed and died
after running from Marathon to Athens (total distance about 35 km) in 490 BC. to
announce the Greek victory over the Persians. Prior to 1908 the distance of the marathon
was not standardized; it varied from 40 to 43 kilometers. In 1908 Dorondo Pietri
collapsed at the end of the Olympic Marathon in London and as Downes and Mackay
(1996: 13) describe, "did so much to capture the public's imagination that it effectively
institutionalised the marathon's distance at the oddly chosen 26 miles 385 yards, which
was used for that race from Windsor to London for no better reason than to give the
Royal Family a better view of the finish line in the White City stadium."

Contrast this to the women running in the Olympics of 1928. Running was viewed

8

as excessively masculine, due to the lack of elaborate rules and equipment, with
theoretically potentially harmful effects for women. If women participated there was the
hypothesized potential of a woman actually becoming a man. The director of New York
State’s Physical Education, Dr. Frederick R. Rogers, represented the dominant view
regarding female athletes. He argued that the requirements of sport were unnatural for
female athletes. He claimed that track in particular would make women unfit for
motherhood and would sacrifice their “health, physical beauty, and social attractiveness”
(quoted in Cahn 1994: 114). Therefore, when several female runners fell to the ground in
physical and emotional exhaustion at the end of an eight hundred-meter race in the 1928
Olympics, critics saw this as proof that women were unfit for strenuous competition. This
culminated with the Olympic Congress banning all medium to long distance races for
women and their consideration of banning women’s events completely (Cahn 1994).

As of 1978, scientists were still arguing that due to women's physiology, they
could not run marathons? Prior tO the 19805, there were no women’s distance races in
the Olympics (Lovett 1997). Today, marathon running has reemerged as a sport in which
women can compete. Likewise, female competition in cross country running has
reemerged as a college sport.

Today, most women distance runners are seen as feminine, with most participants

unaware of the controversy of women’s participation in running in 1928. The fact that the

 

21972 was the first year women were recognized as Officially being allowed tO
participate in the Boston Marathon, although the first woman ran unofficially in 1966
(Falls 1977).

9

sport is now viewed as feminine allows us to see that notions of femininity and masculinity
are not ‘natural’ or timeless (Cahn 1994). But how did the sport of long distance running
become a more feminine activity? To answer that, the focus needs to fall on the
COOperative networks which construct the sport and the athletic bodies in the sport’s

environment.

METHODS: RUNNER AS WRITER

The research for this study took place over approximately one and a half years,
from August 1995 to December of 1996. This incorporated two seasons of cross country
running, which occur in the fall of each year. I conducted in-depth interviews with two
collegiate women’s cross country teams. I also was a participant-observer for two
seasons with one of the teams. My participant observations began during my second year
of working as a volunteer assistant with a women’s cross country team at a large, Division
I-A, Mid-Westem school. In some aspects my participant observation was restricted due
to my defined “official” position with the team. In other ways, due to the long duration Of
my participant observation and the vagueness of what purpose I was to fulfill for the team,
I navigated through various positions -- as friend, coach, athlete, employee and silent
Observer -- and therefore at times gained detailed insight into various situations.

My observations took place predominantly during practice times and at meets.
This was usually from 3:00 pm. to 6:00 pm. during the week and all day Friday and
Saturday, depending on the meet location. Due to the physical aspect of participating with
a sports team, written field notes were never taken on site. Field notes were written
immediately following the practice or in the case of road trips, whenever the opportunity
became available. If I was unable to record my field notes immediately following the
event, I would write a brief description of observations, and elaborate upon them at a later
point in time.

Due to the high level Of interaction with the team, it was not possible to record

every single event in the field. Moreover, because of my “official” status with the team,

10

11

there were some issues the women chose not to disclose in my presence, particularly
discussions which involved the women breaking team rules, such as curfew or the no
drinking alcohol policy. Limitations on my ability, as the researcher/outsider, to identify
and interpret events which I see as significant is an aspect of qualitative field research
which has been criticized (Gorelick 1991; Stacey 1988). In response to this criticism, I
can only concede that my view and interpretation, although informed by academic
literature, are indeed value-laden and partial.

As research investigator, participant and friend there are many ethical dilemmas
which I encountered while doing this study. Merton reveals the intimacy of being a
participant-observer. He writes (1972, 15), “only through continued socialization in the
life Of a group can one become fully aware of its symbolisms and socially shared realities .
. . only so can one decipher the unwritten grammar of conduct and the nuances of cultural
idiom.” Using personal interaction and relationships as data leaves me, the researcher in
an ethical dilemma of what is appropriate to use for “data.” In an effort to deal with this
ethical dilemma I have attempted to integrate my findings in a manner which will not
expose any of the individuals in my study. Nevertheless, I have to acknowledge Stacey’s
(1988, 23) point, that the ethnographic method exposes subjects to far greater danger and
exploitation than more positivist and abstract research methods.

I conducted two sets of interviews. The first group of interviews were done with
members of the team for which I was the volunteer assistant coach at the end of the

second season Of my participation. I interviewed approximately fifteen of the twenty-one

12

women on the team. The second set of interviews were conducted with another women’s
cross country team at a medium size Southern, Division I-AA university. I conducted
interviews with all the women on the team, which consisted often members. Of these ten,
I am friends with four of the women, while the other women I did not know prior to the
interviews. The in-depth interviews were designed to be a semi-structured, open-ended
discussion. I asked similar questions Of all the women, but allowed each woman to
elaborate on the areas she felt were important. All of my in-depth interviews were tape
recorded and later transcribed.

I chose to do two sets of interviews with two teams because of a few differences in
the team compositions which I see as significant to the topic of disorderly eating among
women in sport. First, one team has a male coach and one team has a female coach. The
issue of men coaching women versus women coaching women is a contested topic within
the sports world (Acousta and Carpenter 1994; Blinde 1994). Second, the possibility for
regional differences in the way women perceive themselves and how others perceive
women involved in the sport, although this ended up appearing insignificant. Finally, the
two teams differed in skill level composition, with the larger team having more members
that run faster times than the other team with ten members. Some of the literature on
eating disorders and sport suggests that the more competitive levels of competition
contribute to hyper-body awareness (Sundgot 1994).

The women involved in this study were predominantly white, middle class,

heterosexuals. The homogenous composition of the group in terms of class and sexuality

13

is reflective of the collegiate sporting population, which Birrell (1994) notes, is not very
diverse, nor supportive Of diversity. Also, the specific sport of cross country provides for
little racial and ethnic diversity. With the exception of some Southwestern and West coast
schools, and a few international runners, the participants are predominantly white from
European descent. However, it should be noted that while most these athletes were
homogenous in race, class and sexuality, the viewpoints and perspectives of these women
varied widely.

When the theme of this study began to emerge from my field observations, it was
my intent to incorporate other racial and ethnic groups, but in order to do this I would
have had to expand my study to include track and field. Due to time and money
constraints, this became an impossibility. This lack of diversity is a major weakness in this
study and something which needs concentrated attention in future studies.

Finally, I bring to my research a large quantity of experiential knowledge, which
guided my research, and therefore it is necessary to situate myself as both researcher and
participant. I have been involved in sports throughout my life, although I did not start
running until my senior year of high school. I received a four year, track and cross
country scholarship to a Division I-AA university. Competitively, I was mediocre my first
year Of college. Through the next three years, I grew to be one of the best on the
women’s team. This development of a person’s running ability, includes increased
attention to the physical body of the athlete, which in this case, is my body awareness.

Only after I graduated from college did I began to think critically of my college athletic

14

experience. From readings (see Blinde 1994 for example) and discussion I was surprised
to learn that collegiate athletic women have many similar experiences in their sporting
worlds. This has provided a basis for studying why women incur similar experiences
within the sporting world, particularly those experiences that are traditionally labeled by
society as internal, psychological issues that can only be constructed and dealt with by the
individual herself, such as issues of body weight.

I worked with a grounded theory approach. Therefore when I began my research,
while I had ideas of possible topics, I had no specific agenda or theoretical perspective for
my research. The issue of women runners’ bodies and their weight kept coming to the
fore in my research, particularly my participant observations. Initially I rejected the idea of
pursuing issues of weight and eating disorders within my research, if for no other reason,
than I felt it was too much in the area of psychology. Underlying this was the feeling that
the topic was trivial compared to the many other potential topics related to women in
sport. What became painstakingly obvious is the fact that issues of weight, but more
specifically the female body, are far from trivial. Instead, as my research and review of the
literature progressed, I discovered women’s bodies are perhaps the strongest thread that

weaves through the lives of all these women.

15

Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders

A brief note needs to be made regarding the label ‘eating disorder.’ Most women
in this study would not be clinically diagnosed as having an eating disorder. However,
following a labeling-interactionist approach, who is labeled as having an eating disorder is
a political matter which is decided by those who have the power to legitimate their
definition. Therefore, the label does not have clear boundaries (Becker 1982; Conrad and
Schneider 1980; Goffman 1963). There is wide variation in behavior among the women in
this study. The term disordered eating is used to reflect the varied and strained
relationship these cross country women (and most women in society) have with food.

I am conducting this discussion with the idea that it relates to women in the
sporting world, although this is assuming uniformity among all women in sport, which is
surely not the case. I suspect that some of my findings will not be applicable to all women
in the sports environment, just as these findings may be extended to some women outside
the intercollegiate sports environment. It is a fallacy to place all women under the same
label, “eating disorders and disordered eating.” This suggests one cause rather than

recognizing various factors contributing to what appears, initially to be the same effect.

Section II. COOPERATING NETWORKS
CONSTRUCTING FOOD AND BODIES

One location in the network is food and the conventions which sustain it.
Intercollegiate athletes spend large quantities of time around one another, with most,
though not all, establishing the team as their dominant social group in college. The
structure of the sporting world, particularly intercollegiate sports creates an environment
where the team becomes one of the primary foci within the individual athlete’s world.
Interaction among team members forms a'crucial aspect of the network within which the
female athlete is embedded. It is often this aspect which is overlooked by sociologists.

Food, because it serves more than just utilitarian purposes, i.e. nourishment, is an
integral part of this interaction process. In fact, there are a multiplicity of purposes food
fulfills in society and in the sports environment. One example is the standard of serving
the “best” food for special occasions. Cline (1990: 47) explains, “food is part of the
nurturing process throughout the world, but in different places it takes on special
meanings. Each culture marks it own society with special foods and food rituals.” There
are particular foods that are believed to be performance enhancing for long distance
running, such as those comprising a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Thus, there is the
ritualistic event Of eating a spaghetti dinner the night prior to a race.

The sport also contributes to constructing long distance runners’ daily eating. For
example here is an exchange I witnessed between two women one afternoon after a tough
workout. Megan announced, “I had the perfect lunch today. I had some rice and then an

apple. It is just perfect with a little salt and pepper on the rice and then an apple is just

16

17
right. I had a big breakfast this morning though. I pigged out! I had three bowls of
cereal.” After the other woman commented, Megan continued, “I only eat 500 calories
before practice everyday.”

The other woman questioned how Megan could eat three bowls of cereal and still
only have eaten 500 calories. Megan responded that with Rice Chex cereal you can eat
under 500 calories. The other woman questioned the serving portion, however, at which
point Megan announced, “exactly a cup per serving. I measure!”

What is important to note about Megan’s lunch of rice and an apple, is that in the
sport of running, particularly on the day of a hard workout or a race, eating something
light that will not stay in your stomach is desirable, due to the ill consequences that affect
the athlete if she does not eat light and then has a strenuous workout. However, Megan,
as with most women on the team, had not just eaten a light lunch because she did not want
to feel sick during the workout. She constructs and determines the food she eats each day
based on the number of calories as well as the number Of fat grams, regardless of what she
will be doing that particular day within running. She also viewed her diet as an
accomplishment, as she proudly announced to her teammate how and of what she
constructed it. In addition, Megan commented that her roommates, who are also on the
team, get mad at her for measuring her cereal. Thus, food consumption may seen as
extension of competition within the team.

As this example illustrates, food rituals for performance enhancement also intersect

with other conventions, such as the gendering of certain foods. In Western societies there

18

are a number of assumptions concerning the types of food men and women prefer. Foods
labeled as feminine include chocolates, pastries, cakes, white meat, fish, noodles, pasta,
salads and vegetables (Lupton 1996). Note that all these foods are viewed as delicate
and/or sweet and light -- the same metaphorical description used to describe traditional
white, middle class femininity in Western society. Hence, while a high carbohydrate
dinner the night before a race is standard for long distance runners, there will generally be
a differentiation between genders in the type of high carbohydrate dinner consumed, with
the females more likely to order something containing no meat, little or no fat, and in a
smaller quantity.

Gendering of foods arises from society’s extension of the gendered construction of
bodies. Thus, bodies impact the way we view food and reciprocally food impacts the way
we construct bodies. The gendered construction of women’s food and bodies in college
athletics also comes from others within the sports network. Gender checking in the
Olympics 3 is noted as a process which assumes that all men are similar in size, strength
and skill, and therefore all men are better than all women in sports (Lorber 1993). A
similar assumption is made regarding women’s consumption of food. A coach at one of
the institutions where I conducted interviews asked, “why do women get the same amount

of meal money as the men do?” The built in assumption of this statement is that all

 

3Gender checking is done by scraping cells from the interior wall of the woman’s
cheek to insure that all women competing in women’s Olympic sports are truly women.
Gender checking is done to prevent men from passing as women and competing in
women’s sports.

19

women eat less than all men, and therefore should be given less money with which to eat.
This ignores the vast variety of eating patterns among people and among sports, with
almost every sport instituting a particular diet to “enhance” an athlete’s performance.
Here again, how female athletes’ bodies and the food they consume are constructed
reveals the multiple intersections of networks within society.

Linked with food rituals and the gendering of foods, is the concept that food
maintains social order in society. In Western societies, meals are eaten three times a day,
with particular foods consumed at each meal in a certain quantity and even in a certain
order. Meals structure our days more than the clock (Cline 1990). Likewise, meals
provide a central organizing characteristic on sports teams.

Almost every weekend of a female cross country runner’s life is spent on road trips
with the team. On road trips (but not confined to them) everyone eats together at a
specific time to allow for the proper diet and digestion of food before running. For
example, on the morning of a meet the team gathers together at a designated time and
location to eat breakfast. In addition, when traveling with a large group, Often the most
accessible food is fast food, and for women who are weight conscious, the ability to eat,
but eat low-fat, proves to be a struggle.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that weight and food are regular tOpics of
discussion. As noted above, the verbal ways the women construct food, and in turn their
bodies, are endless and include discussions such as how many grams of fat are in particular

foods. The discussions pop-up anywhere and usually engage just a few of the women, as

20

the above stated comments between Megan and another woman illustrate. However,
occasionally entire team discussions arise, such as one occasion when the women were
riding in a van together. As they were returning from the weekend’s competition the
entire van, with a few of the women leading the discussion began to discuss the
appropriate foods to eat. The best foods were defined as those that are low in fat. The
discussion, lasted for hours. On other occasions team members challenge each other in
bets or competitions to see who could lose a designated number of pounds first or who
could avoid eating particular types of food, such as chocolate.

The women also engage in what I call non-verbal constructions of food. Non-
verbal cues include the interaction Of the women sitting together at meals. All observe
what others are eating and there is an awareness of the woman who chooses to pick
everything (cheese, meat, etc.) Off of her salad, and then eat only the lettuce. Less
extreme than this is simply the awareness of what Others are eating. Essentially, there is a
constant watch over what others are eating, with team members Often commenting, “you
are going to eat that?” Sometimes, other team members view what others are eating as
permission to eat the unhealthy item also. Thus, when another team member chooses to
eat something considered unhealthy (i.e., fattening) she will talk others into splitting it
with her or getting one too. Again, this point reiterates that the act of eating serves
multiple functions. Eating can be viewed as both bonding time for team members and an

extension of competition within the team.

21

Food is part of our social structure and the power relations of the social structure.
Feminists have focused on this dynamic of power, since women have historically been the
ones to prepare foods for their families (Orbach 1986). Cline (1990: 85) writes, “it is on
the backs of women making cheese and tomato sandwiches . . . or huge roast beef and
Yorkshire dinners, when they could be doing something else in their own interests, that
patriarchy is built and maintained, step by step, dish by dish.”

Eating disorders are a prime example of the construction of food in the power
structure of society. Women have been taught to express love and nurturing for others
through food preparation, yet women themselves are supposed to watch there own
weight, maintain an ideal figure and not partake of the food they prepare (Orbach 1986).
Within the power structure, food also represents wealth. In order for eating disorders to
even become a problem within a society, there must be enough accumulated wealth for
restriction of food intake to become a choice, not a way of life. Hence, eating disorders
are predominantly a phenomenon of Western, industrialized societies.

Finally, what must be realized is that this construction Of women’s food and their
bodies creates a subculture within the team, to the point that these endless discussions and
comparisons of food seem “normal.” Team members are unaware or unable to see how
others new to their environment or how outsiders might view this emphasis on food and
bodies as excessive. Eva, a new person on the team exclaimed, “I never dealt with people
who were so worried about their weight until we got here . . . . I’ve never seen so many

people that were so fat conscious in my life.” In turn, team members are unable to see the

22

impact this subculture has on themselves, much like the proverbial fish that does not
realize it’s environment is made up of water. For example, Mary spoke of her increasing
awareness of fat grams in college, but when asked how she became aware of fat content in
food, she responded as if it were just commonsense: “Well, well just pictures. I mean like
seeing pictures . . . my freshmen year in college. I mean I was a little chunk.” Mary’s
observation of herself expresses an increased level Of attention and awareness of her body
and the food she consumes. The increased attention to her body can in part be attributed

to the ways the sport is constructed for women.

FEMININITY BY WAY OF THE BODY

From the 19705 on, women were sent the contradictory messages of “run for
beauty” and run for “self-liberation.” Like society, sport has provided opportunities for
the advancement of women, but it has been fraught with re-assertions of sexism. Women
and society are involved in this re-framing of sustaining and countering views of women in
sport. Cooper writes, “marathon running became an Opportunity for women to explore
their own physical limits of endurance and speed” (1995: 70). Yet, Cooper also notes that
there were differing reasons given for why men and women should take up running. Men
who took up running were supposedly perceived as “contemplative, tacitum, vagabond
philosophers,” while women’s nmning emphasized the health and cosmetic benefits
(Cooper 1995: 69).

During the increasing popularity of running in the mid-19705, runners became
important to the corporate world as consumers. Cooper states that running was the most
popular sport among upwardly mobile urbanites. Increasingly women runners in the
19705 fit the image of the desirable consumer, particularly when female runners who were
homemakers were “ascribed their husbands’ status” (Cooper 1995: 67). So with the rise
in popularity of long distance running among women, corporate America saw the
Opportunity to turn a profit by packaging a feminine image in what had traditionally been
considered a masculine sport.

Thus, the commodification of the female runner began to emerge as one
convention within the sport of women’s long distance rtmning. It should be noted that the

audience to which the appeal of the popularity of long distance running was directed was

23

24

predominantly white, upwardly mobile, middle class constituency. Thus, the constructions
of the ideal feminine beauty which extended from this movement were based on a long
history of Western ideals of white femininity. Among other attributes this feminine ideal
includes a pale, frail, thin body, an ideal inherently contradictory to athletic endeavors
(Seid 1994; Wooley 1994). Almost all the women interviewed made reference to the idea
that skinny is beautiful. One woman, Bridget, recognized this normalizing message
women receive in society. Speaking of a high school teammate who was recovering from
an eating disorder Bridget said, “I think she needed that extra vote of confidence so she
had a reason to get back to where she needed to be, like she had somewhere to go. Some
girls that don’t have that extra outlet, they want to be thin, they want to be beautiful and
they have no one telling them to be anything but” [emphasis added].

Other women recognized this “thin is beautiful” message that our society
constructs for women, but they recognized it within the context of this being the ideal they
were also striving towards. In this respect, women participating in cross country running,
like most athletes, are participating for multiple reasons or with a variety of goals which
arise from intersecting networks. One reason for participation is athletic achievement, but
also with the extra incentive of Obtaining the “perfect” body. For example, Lois states, “I
think a lot of it has to do with the fact that now all the models are slim perfect figured
people . . . so if you see that and you say, ‘wow, she looks like that, I want to look like
that too.’ And for me I mean I do that, you know, you see some beautiful girl in a

beautiful dress in a magazine, you go wow that’s really pretty.” Lois continues on to

25

explain how college long distance running is part of her way of obtaining this ideal. She
states, “running is my way of, I mean, I like this more than anything because it forces me
to stay in shape. And that’s my goal -- to stay in shape. . . . I’m not going to be fat, that’s
all I can say. I’ll never have a gut. No, I’ll run, no I’ll run like a lot to keep in shape.”

Another woman, Nancy reveals how she feels involvement in sport should help her
obtain this ideal beauty, but she sees herself falling short of the beauty standard. She
states of her other team members:

I think if they were to have my body they would maybe think like I do a

little more, because I told them I’m dieting right now, and they try to talk

me out of it. But now I have just come to realize I shouldn’t have to diet.

I’m just not going to diet anymore, and even though I care what my body

looks like to be beautiful and everything, but as long as I am running good

I really don’t. It is just my thighs and my butt, I know every girl says that,

but I just want them to be tiny. I don’t know I just want to have no thighs

and no butt and some people do . . . ten pounds probably everyone wants

to lose.

Note that Nancy emphasizes the difference between her body, her teammates’ bodies and
women in general.

While the form of the beauty/athlete contradiction has changed over the years,
sport today is still considered to be the one domain where success infers a certain degree
of innate masculinity. Several statements made by the women in the interviews reflect the
dominant ideology which views the sporting world as the symbol of the “natur ” order of
things, an order in which men, and what have been labeled male body parts (e.g.

hormones, muscles, etc.) are considered better. One woman wondered if female athletes

have more masculine hormones than women who are not as athletically talented. She

26

stated, “I mean because I do notice a lot of girls who are very masculine looking are the
good ones.” Another woman, Kathleen said, “I just think a lot of men are just naturally
built with that [athletic] body and they’re not going to, you know, women gain weight.”

Lorber (1993) illuminates the way conventions of sport train women to meet
different goals than men within the sports network. Men’s bodies are constructed to be
powerful, while women’s bodies are constructed to be sexual in the sporting world. Her
main argument is that “bodies differ in many ways physiologically, but they are completely
transformed by social practices to fit into the salient categories of a society, the most
pervasive of which are ‘female and male’” (Lorber 1993: 569).

Messner (1996: 225) proposes that, “sport offers a normalizing equation for men:
athleticism = masculinity = heterosexuality. For women athletes, the equation has nearly
always been more paradoxical: athleticism? femininity? heterosexuality?” What is
missing, but yet implicit in this equation is the athlete’s body. Sport Offers a normalizing
equation for male athletic bodies. Athletic men are thought to have a physically fit body,
which in its most generalized notion means a muscular, large build. In contrast, for
women a physically fit body is much more paradoxical, in that she should be toned, but not
too muscular, nor of too large a build.

Both Lorber and Messner (1997) argue that society takes bodies and inserts them
into fixed categories, but they fail to discuss how these categories impose and transform
bodies. As Lewontin puts it (1991: 63), “organisms do not find the world in which they

develop. They make it. Reciprocally, the internal forces are not autonomous, but act in

27

response to the external.” In response to the question. if there has ever been a conflict
between being a female and being an athlete, Lois mentions the feminine ideal of running
as constructed on the body. She states, “I think runners are feminine. I don’t think
basketball or softball is feminine . . . I definitely think running is a very feminine sport. I
mean look at all the girls on the team . . . they all wear pretty hairdos and this and that,
you know.” In this response she mentions hairdos as a measure of femininity. In other
parts of the interview Lois alludes to an emphasis on the actual body size and shape of the
female athlete. If it were just hairdos that distinguished her ideals of femininity then
women in basketball and softball could not be excluded from her ideal.

Another point to be taken into account when discussing the conventions of cross
country running is the actual physiological demands for an athlete to be successful in
sports competition. This point is often overlooked by social scientists. This is not arguing
for a return to biological reductionism (Turner 1992). Rather, this is reasserting that not
just any body will do in the sporting world. There are specific bodies required of athletes,
primarily a physically fit body for competition. This requirement, however, leaves room
for a wide range of variation in bodily appearance. Turner, however, notes the need to
bring bodies into a discussion of social control, specifically when discussing women’s
bodies in a patriarchal society (cited in Theberge 1991). Society imposes a more narrowly
defined image of a physically fit body -- particularly for women.

One bodily requirement of female athletes, particularly in the sports of running,

gymnastics and swimming, is low percentage body-fat. In turn, low body-fat is associated

28

with thinness. However, this is socially constructed, because low body-fat does not
always equate with thinness. Body builders are the best example of this. The goal of body
builders is to have a very low percentage body-fat, yet have a large build. Therefore, in
women’s cross country running, thin is viewed as performance enhancing, but thin is also
associated with traditional white feminine beauty.

Eva’s response represents the overarching view that some runners directly
mentioned, while others only mentioned indirectly. Eva sees being an athlete and being
feminine as never having been an issue because “they think of cross-country girls as little
skinny girls, that run miles and miles, it’s that stereotype, it’s not like oh, those masculine
big girls” [my emphasis added]. This example illustrates that every aspect Of the athlete’s

appearance, including body size, runs the risk of gender assessment (Curry 1996).

CREATING UNIFORMITY
One can therefore suspect that the role of normal and the role of stigmatized are parts of
the same complex, cuts from the same standard cloth (Goffman 1963: 130).

Cahn remarks that in the 19505 individual female athletes created personal
strategies for combating the incompatible image of being female and being an athlete.
Some women “demonstrated femininity through the clothes they wore, their demeanor, or
Off-field interest” (Cahn 1994: 5). Today, a way to express femininity in the sport of long
distance running is through the body, the uniforms on the body and the length of distance
run. All three are smaller versions of the bigger ‘male’ counterpart. The length of distance
run in men’s races is 5 miles and 6.2 miles, while the women’s race is 3.1 and 3.72 miles.

The uniforms worn by most intercollegiate women’s cross country teams in
Division I and II competition have a look and fit similar to a woman’s bathing suit (see
Figures 1-3), with slight variation among uniforms in amount of body exposed or
tightness. The uniforms are the last convention of the sports network that will be
discussed. However, they are one convention that is highly significant, yet rarely
discussed by other scholars.

Today, the distance of the cross country race stays the same, but the uniforms and
the bodies in those uniforms continue to shrink, paradoxically during the era of increasing

‘gender equity." It should be noted that, aside from a change in the type of fabric used,

 

" “Psychologists and social researchers contend there has been a 30-year trend toward
a feminine ideal of ever-increasing slendemess” (Way 1995: 92).

29

30

the men’s uniform for cross country running has changed very little over the past 25 years.
The women’s uniform however, has been drastically modified (see Figures 1-5).

Many women commented that the briefs were a source of status and teams that
wear the briefs are viewed as the better teams. This was true in the 1950’s as well. Cahn
(1994: 103) writing of female basketball players in the 19505 notes that, “uniforms were
either an unquestioned part of the game or, more positively, a badge that symbolized team
membership and advanced skill.” In other words, performance is associated with and tied
to the uniform although there is no intrinsic link. Not surprisingly, given that the uniform
is a symbol of status, very few of the women were critical of them. While they provide no
direct improvement of performance, the uniforms are another convention of sport that
goes unquestioned. However, cross country uniforms (see Figures 1-3) presuppose a
certain body type and our society imposes notions of what this body should be.

It appears that women shape their bodies to fit the uniforms. Most of the women
interviewed, like much of society, viewed eating disorders as strictly an individual,
psychological issue (the body as private domain), yet at the same time the sport and the
required uniform is one which makes the women highly aware of their bodies (the body
becomes public domain). Almost all of the women interviewed said they initially did not
like the uniforms, but most have grown to like them. While it could be argued the women
just got used to them, I am arguing that these women are shaping their bodies, mostly by
losing weight, to make for a better fit in the uniforms. They feel more comfortable in the

uniform and in their bodies as they lose weight. Hence, Nancy’s comment, “I lost weight

31

but it was like a gross skinny, but...um...I liked it. I mean I just liked it. I just felt so
comfortable being skinny.”

For a few Of the women body size was not an issue for them personally and
therefore, they never felt adverse to the uniform. Eva, for example, reveals how the
uniform is a status symbol, but also how the uniform presupposes a certain body. Eva
declares:

I love the butt-buggers. I convinced my high school team to get them

because I saw the college kids wearing them, people in my state were

wearing them, the good teams, like high status teams that were traditionally

good had them. . . . I mean, we had a real skinny cross country team, so

nobody complained. People complained more in track, but not very many,

but after one year doing it, it was just accepted . . . . Some people got

continually used to them, because it’s such a power/status thing . . . . Now

on this team I know a lot of people don’t like them, a lot of people feel

self-conscious. I mean, if I was in their body 1 might feel self-conscious

too, I don’t know [emphasis added].

Another runner, Kathleen, articulated very clearly how the body is on public
display, particularly in the patriarchal environment of sport. She spoke of a discussion she
had with one of the coaches about new uniforms. She explained that the coach was going
to order new uniforms that consisted of crop tops with briefs (see Figure 3). She asked
how the coach could have ordered them before getting the size of each athlete. Kathleen
states, “he responded, ‘the men don’t complain.’ I’m like ‘yeah, you all don’t complain

because you get to see girls’ butts.’ It’s fine if you’re a bean pole and you don’t have any

fat on your legs.”

32

Note, however, that the women rarely identified the connection between their
weight loss and their increasing satisfaction with the uniforms. Referring to her initial
dislike of the uniforms, Veronica states, “I vowed I was not going to go to a school that
wore bun huggers. . . . I definitely would stand at the [starting] line and, you know, try to
cover my butt and my legs but, I mean, I was less competitive then, too . . . but I don’t
think I was self—conscious because the uniforms were risque’. I think it was just more my
own thoughts about it.”

The key point is, Veronica does not feel the uniforms have anything to do with the
way she felt; it was just ‘all in her mind.’ However, many of her comments allude to how
she has reshaped her body to fit the uniform. Consider a discussion she had with her
coach, which she conveyed in our interview: “The coach never said anything about my
weight, like my sophomore and junior year the coach said, ‘you’re really looking fit now.
You used to have a little on your hips and butt -- you know, I wouldn’t have said anything

9”

-- but now you look good. This exchange with the coach, as well as Kathleen’s

exchange, highlights one more way the body is made a social concern.

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION’S
“TREATMENT” OF THE ISSUE

Finally, having mentioned the coach one last point in the network needs to be
mentioned. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is the dominant governing body
of most intercollegiate sports is the US. The NCAA creates the policy and rules of
intercollegiate sport and regulates the coaching and the athletes. The NCAA is a silent
structure present in these women’s daily lives, regulating their practice time, their study
hours, the money allocation, and their uniforms. Therefore, the implications of the
NCAA’s treatment of eating disorders both helps and hurts these women. The NCAA has
taken a reactive position in dealing with the issue of eating disorders, and they have
adopted the biomedical model for diagnosis and treatment. Consider two ads produced by
the NCAA attempting to address two problems in the sporting world.

Advertisement “A” (see Figure 6) encourages men to avoid using steroids and
shows a male lifting weights, with the caption “Make muscle the old-fashioned way”. The
caption indicates the male is clearly in control of the situation and has the ability to control
the situation. He is holding a weight (which we assume by the flex of his arm is heavy)
and he can at any moment decide to put down the weight, once again inferring he has
control over the situation.

Contrast this ad to advertisement “B” (Figure 7). This ad shows a woman sitting
slumped on a scale with her right leg chained to it. The caption reads, “Don’t Let Weight
Control You” and then gives two lists of warning signs for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia.

The caption infers a lack of control on the part of the woman. If the words are not

33

34

enough to emphasize her helplessness, she is chained to the scale and her posture tells us
she is mentally and physically exhausted or fed-up with trying to unchain herself --
meaning she cannot do it alone. Also, note the list of waming signs provided. This list
has been provided for not only the individual sufferer. but more importantly for those
around her to be able to judge and decide if this person has a problem. Again this infers
that women in sport are viewed as being inferior mentally, weaker and lacking control.
Finally, and most importantly, the woman in the ad is dressed in a pair of Shorts
and a T-shirt, not the standard uniform of female athletes in cross country, gymnastics, or
swimming. These three sports, “appear to be the most affected by this phenomenon of
eating disorders” (Blind 1994: 141). One final point: both of these ads present the
problem as strictly located within the individual, rather than addressing how intercollegiate
sport produces an environment where steroid abuse and eating disorders are a part of the

patterned networks that construct the environment of the athlete.

CONCLUSIONS
If then, the stigmatized person is to be called a deviant. [she] might better be called a
normal deviant, at least to the extent that [her] situation is analyzed with the framework
presented here (Goffman 1963: 131).

Thus, if we place the embodied female athlete at the center Of analysis of patterned
networks we can begin to understand the complex intersections of the body, sport and
society. We can then begin to understand why some male cross country runners will have
disordered eating and eating disorders (thin for performance), but why more female
runners have disordered eating and eating disorders (thin for performance and feminine
identity).

This description of the various intersecting networks of food, sport and bodies
could be expanded to include many more intersections with other networks. However,
due to time and space this discussion has attempted to focus solely on the networks that
are located closest to the embodied female athletes. Because each point or actor (i.e.,
food, sport, and bodies) represents an intersection of networks, the order in which each is
discussed is irrelevant. The main point is that all of these networks contribute to the
construction of female cross country runners’ lives and in turn, contribute to the
construction of their bodies. These patterned networks form a foundation for future
analysis of the lives of intercollegiate female athletes.

The intent has been to show that bodies are collective entities produced through
the cooperation Of networks made up of people and things. Uniforms partially shape

women’s bodies and produce part of this collectivity as non-uniform bodies have to fit into

35

36

them. The particular type Of uniform tends to promote eating disorders and disorderly
eating by emphasizing unduly the differences between actual and ideal body type.
Discussing eating disorders and disorderly eating within this framework provides
for a better understanding than a strictly biological or psychological explanation. To work
to change the conventions of sport is an extremely difficult task, because conventions are
“complexly interdependent systems, so that one small change may require a variety of
other changes” (Becker 1982: 35). Thus, as the quote from Goffman at the beginning Of
this section reflects, we can begin to see that, in the context of the sporting world
constructed around false gender distinctions, a high level of disordered eating and eating

disorders becomes the norm, not the exception.

APPENDIX

37

Figure l: The tank top Figure 2: Teams began to wear
with briefs. Uniform first the one-piece body suit in the early
worn in the late 19805. 19905.

*4

 

 

Figure 3: The most recent Figure 4: Example of a male uniform
innovation in women’s uniform, in 1996. Men’s uniforms have
the crop top with briefs. changed very little over the past fifty

years.

 

 

38

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Figure 6 - Advertisement Discouraging Eating Disorders (NCAA News 1996)

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