Youth Athletes, Bodies and Gender: Gender Constructions in Textbooks Used in Coaching Education Programmes in Sweden

This paper is based on analysis of ideas about girls and boys in sports as they are presented in textbooks used in coaching education programmes in Sweden. Specifically, it explores gender in relation to descriptions of girls’ and boys’ bodies and bodily development during puberty. Texts construct gender differences. Masculinity is shaped around being an athlete with a functional, naturally athletic body. Femininities are shaped in relation to the female specific body and in contrast to the male athletic body. Descriptions of girls’ bodies and physical development emphasize problems that girls are expected to experience during the pubescent period. Gender theory and discourse analysis are used in the study. Ideas about gender are exemplified as well as how these ideas are presented by the use of different discourse types, genres and styles in the texts.