Production,Consumption,and Sport: Use of the Body in Women's Elite Sport

Abstract

Marx wrote, in the introduction to the Grundrisse, that there is a dialectical relationship (a unity) between the productive and consumptive moments of human labour. That is, human labour involves both production and consumption at the same time. Each type of activity reproduces the other. If one holds this premise as correct, then it would prove interesting and informative to determine whether athletes are aware or consider that they consume their bodies through sport participation (both in the preparation and the actual production of that participation). There is a considerable literature on the healthy benefits of physical activity (exercise). It is also generally well known that athletes, that is, those who train and produce sport performances, tend to go beyond the quantities of exercise assumed to be healthy and life enhancing. The purpose of this study was to determine whether elite female athletes consider their training and performance regimes to actually consume the body rather than enhance the body. Female athletes from two Canadian universities and two national volleyball teams completed questionnaires to determine whether they perceived their patterns of performance to be consummatory. The questions pertained to the quantitative and qualitative aspects of their bodily performances.