Frictions, cracks and micro-resistances: physical activity and sport as strategies to dignify imprisoned women

• Published in: Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health exercise and health, 2019-03, Vol.11 (2), p.217-230
• Main Authors: Martinez-Merino, Nagore, Martos-Garcia, Daniel, Lozano-Sufrategui, Lorena, Martín-González, Nerian, Usabiaga, Oidui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Exercise; female; Imprisonment; Prison; Prisoners; Prisons; Qualitative research; resistance; social control; sport
• ISSN: 2159-676X; 2159-6778
• DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2018.1493526

In capitalist societies, where discipline and control are dominant concepts, prisons are a warning tool about the consequences of non-conformity. In this context, prisoners are exposed to a type of power that is used as a corrective technique to transform them into docile and useful citizens. However, such power is not static and inmates can create various strategies of resistance. The aim of this research is to understand how physical activity and sport are used by incarcerated women to confront social control in Spanish prisons. Based on 16 interviews with former female inmates, we found that engaging in physical activity and sports helped participants to cope with their sentences. These activities were also used as tools to confront and negotiate the patriarchal punitive power often found in prisons, meaning that participants were not put down by it. Participants' abilities to minimally destabilise the prison's order also empowered them to regain some autonomy and identity. Through participating in physical activity and sports, incarcerated women created spaces of freedom and frictions within a limiting prohibitive prison environment.