Kroppsfixering inom idrotten : Normer, ideal och påverkan på hälsan

Sammanfattning

The aim of this study is to examine how body fixation in sport is shaped, maintained, and experienced, and how bodily norms influence athletes’ self-understanding, agency, and relationships to their bodies. The study is grounded in a gender studies and sociocultural perspective, in which body ideals are understood as historically and socially situated rather than individually chosen. The empirical material consists of qualitative document studies, including news articles, documentaries, and social media content, as well as a semi-structured interview with a former elite athlete and norm-critical actor. The material is analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The theoretical framework combines Raewyn Connell’s (2005) concept of hegemonic masculinity with Judith Butler’s (2007) theory of performativity to examine both structural conditions and everyday bodily practices. The analysis shows that athletic bodies are constituted through a tension between functionality and normativity, where performance and aesthetic ideals coexist. Body fixation emerges as a pervasive normative system that shapes interpretations of health, discipline, and bodily value. These consequences extend beyond the individual athlete, for example through the normalisation of weight talk and monitoring in training environments, by influencing what is understood as a “legitimate” athletic body for younger athletes, and by shifting responsibility for health onto individuals rather than sport structures.