In Fighting Sports, Gender and the Commodification of Violence: Heavy Bag Heroines, Victoria Collins crafts a foundation of attentive ethnography in which her voice and the voices of her subjects ring through. On this foundation she develops an elegant, nuanced analysis of gender performance, amateur fighting, physical fitness, and marketed experience. Her prose floats like a butterfly; her analysis stings like a bee.
- Jeff Ferrell, Texas Christian University,
Victoria Collins is a skillful writer whose ethnography is as intimate as it is insightful. Fighting Sport, Gender, and the Commodification of Violence offers a rich analysis of women in combat sport; a valuable read for students, educators, and fans alike.
- Kate Henne, Australian National University,
This book offers a glimpse into the cultural terrain of women's boxing as it manifests in everyday gyms for novice boxers. Taking an ethnographic approach, Collins examines broader understandings of gender, violence, self-defense, commodification, and health and fitness from the point of view of women who engage the sport.
Chapter One: Finding Boxing in a Strip-Mall
Chapter Two: From Amazonians to Cardio Classes: Women, Consumerism, and Combat
Sports
Chapter Three: Commodifying and the Woman Boxer: Popular Culture, Media, and the
Sexualized Fighter
Chapter Four: Fighting Tough…but Not Too Tough
Chapter Five: There are Only Three Rules of Fight Club, “No Spectators, No Social Media
and No Boob Shots!”
Chapter Six: Sparring Like Men? Gender Maneuvering and the Emotional Work of Getting in
the Ring
Chapter Seven: Violence, Safety, and Self-defense: Unpacking the Narrative that Boxing is
Self-Defense
Chapter Eight: The Female Fight: Sport and the spectacle
