Abstract

In comparatively gender equal Norway, most boys and girls participate in sports at about equal rates. This apparent gender equality is investigated further: do young teens also profess equal ambitions of becoming professional athletes? Drawing on 81 interviews with 12- and 13-year-olds, the study suggest that the boys and girls make similar investments in sports, but there are clear gender differences in the ways they describe their future ambitions. The majority of the boys talk about wanting to become professional athletes and going ‘all in’, but very few of the girls do – the ambitious girls rather talk about skills development. The paper argues that cultural narratives thus shape young people’s self-understanding and ambitions, both boys and girls may suffer consequences of this: in a sports-internal logic, the girls may be given limited practical possibilities, resources and support – but boys may risk regret, disappointment and wasting time and resources.

摘要

在性别相对平等的挪威，大多数男孩和女孩参加体育运动的比例大致相同。这种明显的性别平等得到了进一步调查：青少年是否也表达了成为职业运动员的平等雄心？根据对 12 岁和 13 岁青少年的 81 次采访，该研究表明男孩和女孩在体育方面的投资相似，但他们描述未来抱负的方式存在明显的性别差异。大多数男孩都在谈论想要成为职业运动员并“全力以赴”，但很少有女孩这样做——雄心勃勃的女孩更愿意谈论技能发展。该论文认为，文化叙事因此塑造了年轻人的自我理解和抱负，男孩和女孩都可能遭受这种后果：在体育内部逻辑中，