ABSTRACT
This chapter presents data retrieved from interviews with England's female national sporting representatives, and situates it within wider debates around gender, sport and nation. For Bairner, sport and war represent two of the most emotive issues in the modern world, with the sense of nationhood and community between strangers during war times only equaled during major sporting events. The chapter draws on a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with English sportswomen from cricket, football, netball and rugby union, conducted in 2011 and 2012. However, as sportswomen who represent England at the highest possible level, these are women who can negotiate the supposed female/athlete paradox through the performance of different types of femininities. It was clear that femininity was something that the participants felt could be performed depending on different contexts and situations – and sport was an arena often considered unsuitable and incompatible with femininity.
