Gigerenzer, ThaliaFeinerman, Lily2024-07-112026-09-282026-09-282024-04-182024-07-11http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01g445ch49phttps://theses-dissertations.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp01g445ch49pThe anthropology of sport, food, and gender and the body have primarily been investigated as three distinct structures, yet there has not been adequate research and analysis exploring the link between these three concepts. The social relationships between athletes, coaches, and spectators are often convoluted and complex. Athletic bodies are subject to intense surveillance, resulting in heightened performativity in order to prove both sporting identities as well as their identities as feminine or masculine actors in the real world. This study targets how athletes’ eating practices amplify their gendered performances. Conducting ethnographic research with the four rowing teams at Princeton University, I work with existing anthropological theory to show how normative social, cultural, and historical gender constructs reflect upon the body, and how performance, such as rituals and temporalities of eating, contribute to the gender binary. My ethnography showed that Princeton rowers constantly negotiate a tension between their sporting identities and gender stereotypes, some resisting these competing interests through acts of defiance while others overcompensate by striving to embody stereotypical versions of masculinity or femininity. I found that these athletes necessarily face heightened surveillance which intensifies performative eating to communicate desired individual identity and group membership.application/pdfenPrinceton University Senior Theses