Shifting sands and moving goalposts: communicating gender in sport

Historically, sport culture has allowed misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and abuse not only to take place but, often, to flourish. The consequences have often been normalized and, within certain subcultures, accepted as an inevitable aspect of sport, resulting in oppressive behaviors being hidden and/or disregarded. The frame through which these behaviors and talk are viewed and communicated has changed in recent years. In this chapter, we explore some of these changes, using storytelling as an accessible strategy or device to communicate and make visible instances of sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and abuse within sport culture. As a pedagogical tool and strategy for transformative learning, stories are useful here as a way to reorient our moral compass, while also having the potential to narratively repair some of the cultural damage that has been done over time.