ABSTRACT
Since 2000, Thai women and girls have gravitated towards male-dominated contact and combative sports. Thai female athletes have not only increasingly gained access to a male-dominated sports, but have also successfully become a symbol of national pride. This development challenges the traditional understanding of gender, ideals of femininity and gender power relations in Thai society. Considering that sports have been perceived as a prime site of hegemonic masculinity, Thai female athletes have to carefully manage being both ‘proper Thai ladies’ and successful athletes. This chapter, thus, examines how Thai female athletes in combat sports negotiate their athletic experiences and maintain their sense of gendered self in a complex network of power relations. Through the lives and sporting experiences of five Thai female athletes, this ethnographic study reveals the complex relationships between Thailand’s multi-layered codes of gendered meanings and these women’s association with the nation’s historical militaristic image.
