Women and Bullfighting: Gender, Sex and the Consumption of Tradition

Description

This book investigates the popularity and success of contemporary women performers in bullfighting culture, which has been framed by a discourse of 'traditionalist' masculinity. This examination of the changing situation of women in the bullfighting world is used to explore the ways in which gender is represented, enacted and negotiated in contemporary Spain. The bullfight in the 1990s is in an ambiguous position: it is a 'traditional' performance in a changing consumer society. In order to survive, it needs to adapt itself to a wider social context and, in particular, to international media coverage. It is in this context that the current success of women performers is located. However, women performers are a contested phenomenon in the bullfighting world: there is heated debate over their acceptability, much of which focuses on the body. Moreover, the entry of women into the bullfight questions existing definitions of the sport's ritual structure and of gender relations in Spain. Thoroughly researched and compelling to read, Women and Bullfighting addresses these issues and argues that existing traditionalist approaches to gender, bullfighting and ritual in Spain need to be revised in order to locate women bullfighters in the context of a richly varied culture which is increasingly affected by the media and contemporary patterns of consumption. This provocative book will be of interest to researchers and students of anthropology, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, media studies and Spanish studies.

Sarah Pink Lecturer in Sociology,Loughborough University

'an insightful and provocative account of gender and women bullfighters in Andalusia." [...] Dr Pink presents a rich, vivid, and indepth description of the bullfight and the roles that women play in bullfighting culture, and a "fresh" perspective on gender relations in Spain.' Anthrozoos '(a) closely argued book. [...] The book is splendidly illustrated. Perhaps the most interesting of all is her insistence on the diversity of perceptions not just of the woman bullfighter, but of gender in Cordoban society. Her persuasive rebuttal of a powerful tradition of Anglo-Saxon anthropology in southern Spain, with its familiar construct of an essentialist gender division between dominant men (who might be bullfighters) and subordinate women (who clearly should not), makes this an important book.' TLS 'She offers a welcome critique of the overtly masculine bias inherent in structuralist-inspired binary representations of gender in Andalusia ... the book is beautifully detailed and extensively researched.' Social Anthropology