Commons:Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports

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Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports

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Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports - Cuerpos plurales en el deporte - Corpos plurais no esporte -


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Body plurality in sports contest graphic design piece. A linear drawing of two women footballers following a ball. Yellow, purple and pink watercolor style stains in the background. VisibleWikiWomen logo in the top-right corner.
The #VisibleWikiWomen campaign is inviting submissions of photos, illustrations, and other forms of art depicting womxn and non-binary people in sports as athletes, fans, cheerleaders, referees, journalists, and all other variations of participation in sports, to our contest in a collective effort to visibilize black, brown, trans, queer, indigenous, and disabled womxn and non-binary people on Wikimedia Commons and the broader internet.

Why Body Plurality in Sports?

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Our theme of the campaign this year on “#BodyPlurality #CuerposPlurales #CorposPlurais #Imizimba: Celebrating the uniqueness of our body sizes, shapes, and identities online”, was inspired in part by the stories and experiences of women in athletic sports like Santhi Soundarajan and Caster Semenya, who recently won her anti-discrimination case against the World Athletics Regulations that for years policed her body to force conformity to arbitrary and colonial and standards of femininity.

And of course, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has been a great excuse to explore the sporty side of the #VisibleWikiWomxn.
Half body shot of Caster Semenya, standing with hands on waist after a race.
Caster Semenya at Meeting de Paris, Stade Charlety, 2018.

When womxn participate in sports in any shape or form they are scrutinized, from their bodies to their sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, their clothes, and many other non-sports-related and personal aspects of their lives in ways that men in sports are not. Using FIFA Women’s world cup and the Olympics as a proxy, it is clear that for womxn and queer folks, the body plurality is to be suspected, subjected to violent tests, and “tamed”.

All these gender binaries and constructs on sex, sexuality, gender identity, and expression are colonial-patriarchal ideas of who can and cannot be a part of public spaces like sports arenas. Athletes who fall outside of these normalized colonial frames are on the receiving end of layers of violence and backlash which disproportionately affects black, brown, trans, intersex, disabled, and queer women of colors and those at the intersections of these marginalizations.

Our #VisibleWikiWomen contest celebrates the bodies of womxn in sports by centering their voices, images, stories, and experiences in sports in all their diversity, plurality, and glory. We also remain conscious that to be visible for many womxn and queer folks, or those that may be perceived outside the gendered colonial binaries can be resistance but also that remaining invisible or anonymous is survival for most people, and that everyone has a right to privacy.

How to participate?

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Full body image of Shanti running a race on the athletic field.
Shanti Pereira at Sea Games, 2015.
We invite submissions to our #VisibleWikiWomxn contest under the theme Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports: A #VisibleWikiWomen Art & Photo Contest in three categories:
  • Images taken with the consent of women and non-binary people participating in any sports in any form (from athletes to fans).
  • Historical images from memory and cultural institutions and community and personal archives of womxn in sports (be sure that you comply with copyright rules of Wikimedia Commons).
  • Illustrations of images, stories, imaginations, and interpretations of our theme, Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports.


When?

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Submissions are open from September 25th to November 7th, 2023 end of the day, everywhere in the world.

Rules

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  • Up to 10 submissions per participant.
  • Consent: Portraits of an identifiable person in a private place or situation, should be published with consent. Our consent form is available here to guide you.
  • Copyright of original creators (photographers and illustrations): When you upload your own work to Wikimedia Commons, you agree to share the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
  • Copyright of historical archives: you should be sure that you are the copyright holder of the work, or that the work is in the public domain.