Relational Inhibited Intentionality and Gendered Experiences in Combat Sports

Iris Marion Young’s generative essay, “Throwing Like a Girl”, gave rise to many conversations in feminist phenomenology about the relationships between gendered embodiment and women in sports. One extension that has proved useful in talking about women’s participation in combat sports is the idea of relational inhibited intentionality that can help us understand the difficulties many women face when starting a combat sport in the first place (Yap, 2016). The usefulness of the framework of relational inhibited intentionality can be seen in helping to interpret the results of a qualitative study that interviewed women about their gendered experiences when participating in combat sports. We argue that understanding relational inhibited intentionality as the result of gendered socialization can help overcome a kind of phenomenon that we see in women’s combat sports, where women who are successful are seen as inherently exceptional rather than experiencing fewer gendered inhibitions to agency.