Table Of ContentUniversity of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Spring 2010
Who do you think you are? constructing self/
identity in women's rugby through aggression,
control and unacceptable behavior
Shannon M Baird
University of Iowa
Copyright 2010 Shannon M Baird
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/459
Recommended Citation
Baird, Shannon M. "Who do you think you are? constructing self/identity in women's rugby through aggression, control and
unacceptable behavior." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2010.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.o077ceim
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theExercise Physiology Commons
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
CONSTRUCTING SELF/IDENTITY IN WOMEN’S RUGBY THROUGH
AGGRESSION, CONTROL AND UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR
by
Shannon M. Baird
An Abstract
Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Health and Sport Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
May 2010
Thesis Supervisor: Assistant Professor Kerry R. McGannon
1
ABSTRACT
Some behaviors in sport may be labeled: bad, unnecessary and distasteful. Sport
psychologists have used concepts of aggression to understand and lessen these behaviors.
To date, most research has conceptualized aggression as a product of individual
cognition. Specifically, aggression is defined in the sport psychology literature as any
behavior motivated by the intent to harm one’s opponent (Baron, 1977; Bredemeier &
Shields, 1986b; Husman & Silva, 1984; Kirker, Tenenbaum & Mattson, 2000).
Consequently, sport psychology analyses of aggression tend to reproduce take-for-
granted conceptions of aggression as male, physical and other-directed. To better
understand sport aggression, it has been argued that symbolic interactionism has much to
offer (Baird & McGannon, 2009). By utilizing symbolic interactionism we can
reconceptualize aggression as a social construct given meaning in and through interaction
with self and others. From this perspective, self notions and interactions with others are
important “locations” of meaning making and are significant in the study of behavior.
The present study used symbolic interactionism to explore female rugby players’
experiences of aggression and how they interpret, define and structure experiences
relative to self development. In conjunction with participant-observation, 12 semi-
structured interviews with female rugby players ages 18-45 were conducted to explore:
(1) how do women define themselves as ruggers/how do they (re)produce these identities
in and out of rugby, (2) how do women define and experience aggression, and (3) how
are these accounts used in the construction of self/identity?
Data emerging from interviews and observations suggested that athletes defined
and experienced behavior in ways challenging contemporary sport psychology
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conceptualizations of aggression. The participants often used the word aggression to
describe forceful and physical play. In sport psychology literature, this is typically
referred to as assertive behavior (Husman & Silva, 1984; Tenenbaum, Saks, Miller,
Golden, & Doolin, 2000) and aggressive behavior is a label reserved for unacceptable
behavior motivated by the intent to harm (Tenenbaum et al., 2000). According to the
women in this study, unacceptable behavior was not defined by intent; rather,
unacceptable behavior was a negotiated space that was constructed through notions of
lack of control. That is, if a player was constructed as out of control, that player was seen
as engaging in unacceptable behavior.
In terms of self/identity construction, pain, contact and aggression emerged as
important in the (re)production of self-related experiences within and outside of rugby.
Within rugby these characteristics indicated a player’s rugbyness. Outside of rugby these
characteristics were often exhibited by non-rugby players as proof that rugby was a male
sport. These participants both resisted and reinforced that notion. Rather than (re)define
rugby by other female characteristics, these athletes used their rugby selves to say that
pain, contact and aggression are not male only behaviors. The women used the bruises on
their bodies to claim their rugby selves and prove, “I’m more than you think I am.”
This research offers a unique glimpse of female collision athletes’ experiences of
aggression and contributes a new conceptualization of “unacceptable” behavior to the
existent sport psychology literature.
Abstract Approved: ______________________________________________________
Thesis Supervisor
______________________________________________________
Title and Department
______________________________________________________
Date
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
CONSTRUCTING SELF/IDENTITY IN WOMEN’S RUGBY THROUGH
AGGRESSION, CONTROL AND UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR
by
Shannon M. Baird
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Health and Sport Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
May 2010
Thesis Supervisor: Assistant Professor Kerry R. McGannon
Copyright by
SHANNON M. BAIRD
2010
All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
___________________________
PH.D. THESIS
______________
This is to certify that the Ph. D. thesis of
Shannon M. Baird
has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement
for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Health and Sport Studies at the
May 2010 graduation.
Thesis Committee: _______________________________________________
Kerry R. McGannon, Thesis Supervisor
_______________________________________________
Susan Birrell
_______________________________________________
Catriona Parrat
_______________________________________________
Jennifer Metz
_______________________________________________
Stephen Wieting
To Danielle Legeai, Connie Dorr and, in loving memory, Sarah Ruksenos
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my committee. Thank you all for sticking with me, even in
retirement. Each of you contributed immeasurably to this dissertation and my education. I
would also like to thank the faculty and staff of the department of Health and Sport
Studies for their loving support throughout all these years. More specifically I would like
to say a special thank you to Kerry McGannon, without whom this dissertation would
have been drastically different or perhaps even abandoned. There is so much that I wish I
could give voice to and yet, I have not the words to say it. This speechless gratitude is
really quite alien to me, so I will stop struggling for a more poetic way to say this and
simply say, “thank you.” Thank you for picking up my disheveled dissertation and
molding it and me into a better “product.” Thank you for giving me the courage to
believe in my knowledge and creativity. Thank you for pushing me to achieve new
heights. Thank you for being a friend and a mentor. Thank you most of all for the
following: Mickey’s, Schechter, Flocke, security, “that may well be,” Tranya, rooming
together at AASP, running in Vancouver, “it’s a D- on the Richter scale of culture,” gong,
however—comma, and “it’s a wig.”
I would also like to thank my partner who saw me through all of it. Thank you,
Danielle, for being by my side through the joy, despair and hope, thank you for your
quite encouragement and eternal commitment. Without you, I think I might be lost. You
have been my light in the darkest pits of self doubt and self loathing. You have been my
guide, my teacher and my inspiration. Thank you for catching my tears and fortifying my
heart when I was crushed by uncertainty. I love you.
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I would also like to thank the willing participants of my study. Thank you for your
patience, energy and time. None of this would have been possible without your
generosity and candor.
Becky, I don’t know how, but you held me up when you didn’t have to. Your
unwavering faith in my intelligence is unsettling but motivating. I am not sure why you
believe in me, but that faith has made me smile when, let’s face it, tears were easier. You
have assured me, on many occasions, that I have helped you; consequently, without
knowing it, you reminded me of what this was all for. Thank you. You’ve been Sunkist!
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Description:their bodies to claim their rugby selves and prove, “I'm more than you think I am.” I would also like to thank my partner who saw me through all of it.
