Swimming as self-care – A Foucauldian analysis of swimming for Danish Muslim women

Abstract

This article scrutinises the highly contested, yet largely unexplored space of gender-segregated swimming that caters for Muslim women. Combining participant observation of weekly women-only swimming sessions with interviews of regular participants, the aim of this paper was to shed light on the ‘non-White’ space of women-only swimming and explore the lived experiences of Danish Muslim women within this specific setting. Drawing on a Foucauldian framework that situates women-only swimming in a wider space of power relationships and multiple intersecting discourses, we observed the operation of disciplinary power, particularly relating to the maintenance of hygiene and safety and tacit norms relating to the dress code and standards of modesty. However, contrary to competitive and lane swimming, here, women-only swimming sessions were loosely structured, with participants emphasising freedom, pleasure and relaxation in this context. Our findings suggest that women-only swimming offered the opportunity for participants to practise self-care, while also highlighting ambiguities relating to participants' critical self-awareness about the discourses governing their identities and sporting practices. Still, the loosely structured practice of women-only swimming poses an alternative to the current instrumentalisation of sport and physical activity, as well as dominant discourses that position sport as a culturally integrative, homogenising policy tool.