ABSTRACT
Sport is argued to be one of the few remaining domains for constructing masculine identity and reproducing ideas of men's (hierarchical) distinction from women. As a shared emotional (yet ‘masculine’) experience, sport lays the grounds for building close, intimate, friendships which, in men's single-sex sport, are suggested to be underpinned by sharing sexist ideology. This paper argues that sex-integrated karate practice not only challenges the expectations/interpretations of women's bodies, but can also situate women and men within mutually respectful, cherished relationships which diverge from conventional sexualized and unequal ways of ‘doing gender’ in mixed-sex relationships.
