FÖRVÅNANDE KAPABEL - kroppslighet och rumslighet i fem kvinnors erfarenheter av parkour

Abstract

The urban physical practice of parkour can be described as male dominated. In this paper, however, I choose to focus on women participating in the sport. My material consist of interviews with five Swedish women who regularly perform parkour. Through the phenomenology of Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young and Sara Ahmed, I analyze the women’s relationship to the body and (public) space. My conclusion is that engaging in parkour has changed the way the women understand their own corporeality, from an “I cannot” to an “I can”. In this sense, parkour has helped the women overcome what Young calls an “inhibited intentionality”. Another conclusion is that practising parkour has led to a reorientation of their relation to the world. Parkour has created a wonder; the capacity to leave behind the place of the ordinary.