Towards a Pacific approach to gender: culture, sport, health and sexuality

Abstract

This Dialogues brings together two recent works that address social research on sport, health and sexuality in the different regions of the Pacific from a decolonial and gendered perspective. On the one hand, Sex and gender in the Pacific, edited by Angela Kelly-Hanku, Peter Aggleton and Anne Malcolm, is a collection of articles that address the issues of sexuality, reproduction and gender from a primarily sociological point of view. On the other hand, Pacific Islands Women and Contested Sport Spaces. Staking their claim, by Yoko Kanemasu, highlights different narratives of women who move in sport spaces in the Pacific region. Through extensive research from approaches such as sociology, politics, cultural studies and a gender perspective, it investigates how sport is presented as a predominant bastion for gender equality in all spheres of Pacific women's everyday lives. In this way, the women's stories are used by the researchers to understand the women's experience in sporting spaces.