Mulheres em combate: representações de feminilidades em lutadoras de boxe e MMA

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the representations of femininity in professional boxers and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters in order to understand how these athletes put into play the transience and the possibilities of construction of the feminine. It features a qualitative descriptive approach and finds its theoretical foundation in Gender Studies, more specifically, in its poststructuralist aspect. The empirical data is structured from interviews with three professional athletes analyzed in order to apprehend the representations of femininity generated by these athletes. Their discourses reveal multiple identities and conformations of gender which reaffirm their unique ways to be feminine within their sort of sport.