We use the case of a recreational college Quidditch class to examine the consequences of gender-integrated sport for gender essentialist ideology. Data include ethnographic observations and course journal data from 23 first-year undergraduates playing Quidditch over four months. While a gender-integrated sport provided numerous opportunities for participants to witness similarities in performance among men and women, we found only limited challenge to gender essentialist ideas. Despite rules intended to reduce competitiveness and physical contact, play became increasingly aggressive over time, particularly among men, and an emergent positional segregation located women in less central defensive positions. Students frequently understood these trends as the “natural” result of gender difference. Ultimately, participants’ experiences in Quidditch often drew on and solidified ideas about women’s athletic inferiority to men.

我们使用休闲大学魁地奇课程的案例来检查性别整合运动对性别本质主义意识形态的影响。数据包括来自 23 名一年级本科生在四个月内打魁地奇比赛的人种学观察和课程日志数据。虽然一项性别融合的运动为参与者提供了许多机会来见证男性和女性在表现方面的相似性，但我们发现对性别本质主义思想的挑战有限。尽管规则旨在降低竞争力和身体接触，但随着时间的推移，游戏变得越来越具有侵略性，尤其是在男性中，并且新兴的位置隔离将女性置于较不中央防御的位置。学生们经常将这些趋势理解为性别差异的“自然”结果。最终，