The normalization of sexual abuse and harassment practices in sport an approach to sports teams in the Madrid community

Abstract

Sexual abuse and sexual harassment against women are among the most worrying issues in our public life. In recent years, the sports context has atended to some cases that have highlighted the insecurity of sport, causing a growing interest of institutions in its prevention, mainly in childhood. However, there is still a sociological ignorance of the space and the logic of vulnerability that give rise to such worrying realities, not only in childhood, but especially in adolescence and youth, where this attention begins to dissipate.

This paper takes a qualitative approach to the sex-affective dynamics in sports teams at young ages, in order to point out those practices of harassment that, although they would be identified in other public spaces, become normalized in sports. Studying the hierarchical forms of organization in these teams, the respect for authority and the concentration of power in the figure of the coach, as well as the special sensitivities and closeness that are experienced in three team sports disciplines that involve contact in its practice (soccer, basketball and rugby), aspects of special incidence in the construction of affectivities, bonds and relationships will be pointed out, with important confusions regarding the limits that make it difficult to make visible spaces of discomfort and, in the last case, sexual harassment.