Differences between the Sacred and the Secular in Body and Movement

Authors : Mustafa Narin, Hakan Kolayiş

Pages : 512-534

Doi:10.70007/yalovaspor.1769841

View : 18 | Download : 23

Publication Date : 2025-10-23

Article Type : Review Paper

Abstract :This article examines how bodily privacy, understood as a culturally and ideologically situated concept, shapes individuals\\\' attitudes towards sport participation. Centering on the intersections of gender, religiosity and age, the research asks how these identity categories interact with privacy norms to influence bodily behaviors in sport settings. Drawing on Foucault\\\'s theory of discipline, Bartky\\\'s feminist critique of internalized surveillance, and Giddens\\\' framework on the modern self, the study treats privacy as a regulatory social space rather than a personal choice. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 1,111 respondents from 26 statistical regions of Turkey. Factor structure was determined by Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses and group differences were examined by ANOVA and interaction models. Results suggest that women, older people and non-religious individuals are more sensitive to bodily privacy in sport-related contexts. The three-way interaction (gender × age × religiosity) reveals significant group differences; for example, young religious women exhibit significant spatial withdrawal and discomfort in mixed sport settings. The contribution of this study is to empirically elaborate how bodily privacy operates at the intersection of social identity categories and regulates access to public physical spaces such as sport. Rather than treating sport as a neutral or merit-based arena, the findings position it as a site of moral negotiation, spatial exclusion and symbolic struggle over bodily presence. The article argues that scholarship and policy should pay attention to how norms about the body, especially those mediated by religious and gendered expectations, structure who feels allowed to move, perform and belong within sport.
Keywords : dindarlık, beden kültürü, aktivite pratikleri

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