Citing section 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 15 women’s ski jumpers took the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) to court over the exclusion of a women’s ski jumping event. In this analysis of the initial court case and subsequent appeal, I demonstrate that Canadian (and western) citizenship was contested in this legal battle and that gendered, raced, and classed dimensions of citizenship were at play. To make this case, I draw on critical feminist and critical race theorizing on citizenship. From my analysis, three key silences emerge. These concern the underlying assumptions of sex segregation, whiteness, and class privilege.
Ahmed, S. ( 2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
2.
Arendt, H. ( 1973). The origins of totalitarianism. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
3.
Associated Press. (2010, October 25). IOC wants more time to review women’s ski jump for 2014 Games. TSN. Retrieved from http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=338652
4.
Benhabib, S. & Cornell, D, eds. (1987). Feminism as critique, Cambridge: Polity Press.
5.
Billings, A.C. ( 2009). Olympic media. London UK: Routledge.
6.
Boyd, T. ( 1997). Preface: Anatomy of a murder: O. J. Simpson and the imperative of sports in cultural studies. In A. Baker & T. Boyd (Eds.), Out of bounds: Sports, media, and the politics of identity (pp. vii-x). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
7.
Burstyn, V. ( 1999). The rites of men: Manhood, politics and the culture of sport. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
8.
Carter, T.F. ( 2008). The quality of home runs: The passion, politics, and language of Cuban baseball. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
9.
Department of Justice. (2011). Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Author. Retrieved from http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/Const_index.html
10.
Douglas, D., & Jamieson, K.M. (2006). A farewell to remember: Interrogating the Nancy Lopez farewell tour. Sociology of Sport Journal, 23(2), 117-141.
11.
Dworkin, S., & Wachs, F.L. ( 2009). Body panic: Gender, health, and the selling of fitness . New York: New York University press.
12.
Fausto-Sterling, A. ( 2000). Sexing the body: Gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York, N.Y: Basic Books.
13.
Fenlon, L.A. ( 2009, July 10). Sagen vs. Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (2009 BCSC 942): Reasons for Judgment.
14.
Fraser, N. ( 1987). What’s critical about critical theory? The case of Habermas and gender. In Benhabib, S., & Cornell, D. (Eds.), Feminism as critique (pp. 31-55). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
15.
Fraser, N. ( 2007). Feminist politics in the age of recognition: A two dimensional approach to gender justice. Studies in Social Justice Journal , 1(1), 23-35.
16.
Government of Canada. (1982). The charter of rights and freedoms: A guide for Canadians. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
17.
Habermas, J. ( 1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere : An inquiry into a category of Bourgeois society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
18.
Hall, M.A. ( 2002). The girl and the game. Toronto, Ontario , Canada: Broadview Press.
19.
Haraway, D. ( 1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature . New York, NY: Routledge.
Hill Collins, P. ( 1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
22.
Hill Collins, P. ( 1998). Fighting words: Black women and the search for justice . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
23.
Hill Collins, P. ( 2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York, NY: Routledge .
24.
Isin, E. F., & Nielsen, G.M. (Eds.). (2008). Acts of Citizenship. London & New York: Zed Books.
25.
Isin, E.F., & Turner, B. ( 2007). Investigating citizenship: An agenda for citizenship studies. Citizenship Studies, 11(1), 5-17.
26.
Isin, E. F., Nyers, P., & Turner, B. S. (Eds.). (2008). Citizenship between past and future. London, UK: Routledge.
27.
Isin, E.F. ( 2008). Theorizing acts of citizenship. In E. F. Isin & G. M. Nielsen (Eds.), Acts of citizenship (pp. 15-43). London , UK: Zed Books.
28.
Jagger, A. ( 1988). Feminist politics and human nature. Sussex, UK: Harvest Press.
29.
Jordan-Young, R. ( 2010). Brainstorm: The flaws in the science of sex differences . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
30.
Kabeer, N. ( 2005). Inclusive citizenship: Meanings and expressions. London, UK: Zed books.
31.
Kane, M.J. ( 1995). Resistance/Transformation of the oppositional binary: Exposing sport as a continuum. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 19, 191-218.
32.
King, R. ( 2007). Staging the white winter Olympics. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31 (1), 89-94.
33.
Laurendeau, J., & Adams, C. (2010). "Jumping like a girl": Discursive silences, exclusionary practices and the controversy over women’s ski jumping. Sport in Society, 13, 431-477.
34.
Lenskyj, H.J. ( 2000). Inside the Olympic industry: Power, politics, and activism . Albany: State University of New York Press.
35.
Lenskyj, H.J. ( 2002). The best Olympics ever? Social impacts of Sydney 2000 . Albany: State University of New York Press.
36.
Lenskyj, H.J. ( 2003). Out on the field: Gender, sport and sexualities. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Women’s Press.
37.
Lenskyj, H.J. ( 2008). Olympic industry resistance: Challenging Olympic power and propaganda. Albany: State University of New York Press.
38.
Lister, R. ( 2007). Inclusive citizenship: Realizing the potential. Citizenship Studies, 11(1), 49-61.
39.
Lister, R., Williams, F., Anttonen, A., Bussemaker, J., Gerhard, U., Heinen, J., ... Gavanas, A. (Eds.) (2007). Gendering citizenship in western Europe: new challenges for citizenship research in a cross-national context. Bristol: Policy press.
40.
Liut, M. ( 2009, March 13). Puckbunnies. The globe and mail. Retrieved from http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/article14579.ece?service=mobile
41.
Lovett, C.C. ( 1997). Olympic marathon: A centennial history of the games’ most storied race. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Mackey, E. ( 2002). The house of difference: Cultural politics and national identity in Canada. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
44.
Marshall, T.H. ( 1964). Class, citizenship, and social development: Essays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
45.
Mazzucco, M., & Findlay, H. ( 2010). Re-thinking the legal regulation of the Olympic Movement: Envisioning a broader role for the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In R. K. Barney, Forsyth, J. & Heine, M. (Eds.), Re-thinking matters Olympic: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium for Olympic Research. London, UK: International Centre for Olympic Studies.
46.
McDonagh, E., &. Pappano, L. ( 2008). Playing with the boys: Why separate is not equal in sports . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
47.
McDonald, M.G. ( 2005). Mapping whiteness and sport: An Introduction. Sociology of Sport Journal, 22, 245-255.
48.
Pateman, C. ( 1988). The patriarchal welfare state. Gutman, A. (Ed.), Democracy and the welfare state (pp. 231-260). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
49.
Pateman, C. ( 1989). The disorder of women: Democracy, feminism and political theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
50.
Pound, R. ( 2010, March 8). Plenary Session followed by personal communication . International Conference on Sport and Society . UBC, Vancouver, Canada.
51.
Razack, S.H. ( 1998). Looking white people in the eye: Gender, race, and culture in courtrooms and classrooms. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
52.
Razack, S. H. (Ed.). (2002). Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Between the Lines.
53.
Razack, S. H., Smith, M., & Thobani, S. (Eds.). (2010). States of race: Critical race feminism for the 21st century. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Between the Lines.
54.
Robinson, L. ( 2009, April 30). The Olympics, an All Boys Club?Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved from http://www.playthegame.org/news/detailed/the-olympics-an-all-boys-club-4380.html
55.
Sagen v. Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 2009 BCSC 942, Docket SO83619.
56.
Staun, J., & Sparre, K. ( 2007, June 26). The Olympic Games as a force for social change . Retrieved from http://playthegame.org/
57.
Thobani, S. ( 2007). Exalted subjects: Studies in the making of race and nation in Canada. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
58.
Travers, A. ( 2008). The sport nexus and gender injustice. Studies in Social Justice Journal, 2(1), 79-101.
59.
Vertinsky, P., Jette, S., & Hoffman, A. (2009). "Skierinas" in the Olympics: Gender justice and gender politics at the local, national and international level over the challenge of women’s ski jumping. Olympika, 18, 43-74.
60.
Wamsley, K. ( 2000). Varda Burstyn. The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport. Canadian Journal of Sociology Online . March-April.
61.
West, C. ( 2011, January 13). Barack Obama is not the fulfillment of Martin Luther King’s dream. Retrieved from http://MOXNews.com
62.
Young, I. ( 1987). Impartiality and the civic public. In S. Benhabib & D. Cornell (Eds.), Feminism as critique (pp. 56-76). Cambridge , UK: Polity Press.
63.
Young, M. ( 2010). The IOC made me do it: Women’s ski jumping, VANOC, and the 2010 Winter Olympics. Constitutional Forum, 18(3), 95-107.
64.
Zirin, D. ( 2007). Welcome to the terrordome: The pain, politics, and promise of sports. Chicago, IL: Haymarket books.
65.
Zirin, D. ( 2010, January 26). Politics in the ring: Sports, politics and protest. Public lecture delivered at the Simon Fraser University , Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
