Browsing by Author "Watt, Lois"

From marathon swims to early morning ‘cal dooks’ (Doric Scots: cold dips), open water swimming (OWS) has surged in popularity across the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic years. However, how does the act of wading into known and unknown bodies of water affect the way in which swimmers perceive their own bodies? Based on three and a half months of ethnographic research in a small, coastal village in the North-East of Scotland, this thesis explores how the more-than-human entanglements implicit to OWS broaden the perceived limitations of the body. In highlighting this, the discussion considers how such limitations are embedded within socio-cultural understandings of gender, as open water swimmers are shown to be split between those who dook (or dip) and those who swim ‘properly’. In taking the body as a focal point for the discussion, this thesis will approach the reinvented trend of OWS through a phenomenological and hydrofeminist lens. Furthermore, the argument reveals how stigmatised conceptions of the ageing body (i.e. during menopause and through the experience of disability) are encountered, ratified and disregarded within OWS communities. This thesis suggests that the aforementioned ‘proper’ swimmers are often imagined as triathletes, marathon swimmers and those dedicated to training regimes. This imaginary has typically been perceived as a masculine pursuit, whilst dookers are stereotyped as informal collectives of less experienced, middle-aged, women. Despite the stereotype, many dookers hold high degrees of experience in open water navigation and risk-management. The thesis concludes with a call for more anthropological research to be done that explores the ways in which risk is mediated and linked to perceptions of gender in the world of recreational swimming.