My name is Lynn and I am a Masters Student, studying Sexuality in Dublin City University, Ireland.
For my study I want to look into what is considered female masculinity. The area I am focusing on is: heterosexual women in male dominated sports such as bodybuilding and how female athletes deal with the battle between stereotyped femininity and reality of sports physiques.
I'm an avid Rugby player and do a lot of strength training in the gym for the position I play (forward, a main tackler) but find it offensive when people consider my physique masculine. In Ireland if a girl plays a certain sport i.e. boxing, rugby, Gaelic football etc. and show masculine traits i.e. muscle mass, roughness etc. they may become stereotyped as butch, lesbian etc. Although it is not being called lesbian that is offensive as I do not discriminate sexualities. It is merely that, due to external influences some people think that for a woman/girl to show tom-boyishness or masculine traits/characteristics, they are judged as being somewhat un-natural. This is why i have chosen to look at extreme sports such as female weightlifting and bodybuilding. It is a perfect example of challenging the femininity stereotype. For anyone interested it would be great to get voluntary insights into:

How athletes deal with the stigma and stereotypes?
What their personal attitudes and experiences are on female masculinity in sport?
Is it important to obtaining ones femininity in stereotypically male sports?
What is it that drives a female bodybuilder’s passion for the perfect muscular physique?

It would be appreciated so much if I could get female input into this topic (especially if there are any Irish female inputs). I will be using the transcription but will insure anonymity with people’s online names, location or any other personal details. It will be completely anonymous.
Thank you for your time
Lynn
please feel free to message me.