Abstract
Perhaps almost as much a part of world literature as romantic references to a man and his horse (the warrior, cowboy, or gaucho and his faithful mount) are the numerous existing narratives on women and horses, from age-old mythology to contemporary popular fiction. This chapter provides a survey and summary of literature produced from social science perspectives, works that attempt to move beyond common sense notions to capture historical dynamics and current renegotiations of gender relations within the equestrian world today. We draw attention to an emerging literature and growing wealth of empirical work that, from diverse standpoints – from recent sociology and feminist sport studies to contemporary “deconstructionist” perspectives – examines women’s and men’s experiences in equestrian sports and practice. We also present a brief sketch of the diverse chapters that follow: studies carried out in a variety of cultural contexts in which equestrian activities and communities contribute to (de) constructions of embodied “femininities” and “masculinities” and in which gendered equestrian relations are uniquely configured through intersection with other axes of social stratification (class, race, sexuality, generation, etc.).
L’ imaginaire et la mémoire des âges conjuguent la monte au masculin, associant pouvoir et force, prestige et sueur, vitesse et virilité. Oubliant un peu vite tout de même qu’ Hippolyte était femme et reine des Amazones, d’hippos, le cheval et lúein, délier. Étymologie qui en dit long déjà sur leur complicité.
Sophie Nauleau
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Notes
- 1.
Lorber explains, “…I offer a new paradigm of gender -gender as a social institution. Its focus is the analysis of gender as a social structure that has its origins in the development of human culture, not in biology or procreation. Like any social institution, gender exhibits both universal features and chronological and cross-cultural variations that affect individual lives and social interaction in major ways. As is true of other institutions, gender’s history can be traced, its structure examined, and its changing effects researched” (1994: 1).
- 2.
See Lemon’s interesting discussion of just how English horse racing really was (Lemon 2008).
- 3.
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1985) brilliantly introduces the notion of homosociality as modernity’s common format for public sphere relations. Michael Kimmel has used the concept artfully in portraying, for the North American case, the historical unfolding of the notion of the self-made man and the social construction of masculinity through specific forms of homosocial interaction, among which sporting and outdoor activities took center stage. He argues, “Masculinity is largely a homosocial enactment. … Masculinity defined through homosocial interaction contains many parts, including the camaraderie, fellowship and intimacy often celebrated in male culture” (Kimmel 1996: 105).
- 4.
“There are around 4,000 equestrian establishments that are open to the public within which can be found around 6,000 instructors holding a BEES diploma. There is a general balance between men and women (52.7–47.3 % respectively) yet a disparity emerges according to age: among those under 30, they are 62 % female whereas among those over 50, only 20 %. It seems that what we have here is an effect of age (the constraints of family life that weigh on women…) and one of generation (the youngest instructors come from a population of amateurs who are increasingly and overwhelmingly female, 74 % of diplomas awarded in 2001 in contrast to the 53 % awarded in 1975)” (Chevalier 2003: 266).
- 5.
In Brazil, where after extensive search we have been able to locate only one book by a Brazilian author on women and horses (Sant’Ana 1993), Midkiff’s book is well known in horsey circles where a Portuguese language version of her book is cherished by female equestrians who have no easy access to this or other types of elaborate narrative on women and horses. Midkiff brought her workshop to numerous equestrian venues in Brazil in 2010, using the slogan “Mulher e cavalo: uma parceria que dá certo” [Woman and horse: a partnership that works!].
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Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank Dr. Kirrilly Thompson for her careful reading and suggestions.
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Adelman, M., Knijnik, J. (2013). Introduction – Women, Men, and Horses: Looking at the Equestrian World Through a “Gender Lens”. In: Adelman, M., Knijnik, J. (eds) Gender and Equestrian Sport. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6824-6_1
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