Netball in Australia: whiteness, femininity and exclusion
Creators: name: Schnioffsky, Bess
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 440107
subject: Social and cultural anthropology

description: Netball is one of the most popular team sports in Australia (Australian Sports Commission, 2023) and it remains the number one participation sport for Australian girls (Netball Australia, 2023). In spite of the game’s popularity and its unique position as a professional sport dominated by women, there are gaps in the academic analysis of netball, particularly discussions which incorporate race and other intersectional understandings of identity. In this thesis, I contribute to addressing these gaps by examining race and gender within Australian netball and exploring how white femininity has been understood, defined and 
constructed in netball and the consequences that emerge from privileging this version of racialised femininity. 

In the thesis, I adopt an intersectional feminist and critical whiteness studies lens to contextualise interviews with a diverse range of netballers (n=25) from across Victoria, Australia. I also draw on archival research on the history of netball. Based on a reflexive thematic analysis of the interview data (Braun and Clarke, 2019, 2022), I generate four key themes in relation to white femininity in Australian netball. The first three themes highlight the (mostly) implicit racism that is evident in netball; that is, how an unmarked white feminine ideal is central to the way participants understood certain aspects of the game. Firstly, in the notion of an “Australian style” of play (Chapter 5), which, as coded language, is used to signal a netball playing style that is uniform, predictable, disciplined and framed in opposition to “flair” in netball. Secondly, I identify the ways in which implicit racism and white femininity manifests in netball through the archetypal netballer (Chapters 6−7). There are two central elements to the archetypal netballer − hair and the body. Hair and body ideals reinforce a limiting image of Australian netball that is blonde, neat, lean, fit, feminine and white. Those who do not or cannot align with this image are positioned as outsiders within netball. The subtle and overt ways in which the white feminine ideal is maintained reinforces the difference of those who are outside the ideal and I label those on the outside as netball “space invaders” (Puwar, 2004). Throughout these chapters I explore both the white feminine norm and how these “space invaders” negotiate, challenge, subvert and resist the white feminine norm in netball. 

In the final data chapter, I consider the more harmful consequences of the white feminine norm, the explicit and systemic forms of racism, and the ways in which the research participants navigate racism within the sport. This thesis helps to expand our understanding of Australian netball to articulate how patterns of exclusion and privilege play out in netball in both implicit and explicit ways. Ultimately, the findings from this project can help inform general efforts within netball to advocate for a safer, more inclusive sport and for more inclusive and diverse versions of sporting femininity in Australian netball.