As mulheres no mundo equestre: forjando corporalidades e subjetividades 'diferentes'

as of the end of the 19th century, sporting practices became the terrain of intense symbolic and material struggles over the definition of femininity - over "what a woman is" and over what women could or should do with their bodies. for over a decade now, i have been conducting research on women in the world of equestrian sport in brazil. this paper presents a synthesis of my research, looking at different groups of horsewomen: an initial group were women from the elite world of show jumping; a second group, women jockeys who have struggled to find a niche within the still very masculine world of the turf and finally, my most recent endeavor, a look at women who participate in the popular brazilian milieu of the rodeo. through collecting women's testimonies and engaging in ethnographic research employing interactionist methodologies, i seek to understand how these women construct their identities, how they deal with milieu that continue to be largely male and how, within these contexts, they develop self-affirming strategies. it is my contention that, notwithstanding the normative pressures and cultural and/or material obstacles they face, these women, through their ways of being and acting, present a challenge to conventional modes of feminine corporality/subjectivity.