(Content warning: Schiffrin 2009 mentions the death of a relative)

Tackling Stereotype: Corporeal Reflexivity and Politics of Play in Women’s Rugby (Charlotte Branchu)

“Rugby hurts. […] Chap. 5’s focus is on the ‘fleshy’ aspect of dealing with the ‘physical side’ of the game, the pains, aches and pleasures of play. […] I explore the shift of my participants’ perception of their bodies, as it moves from a body-as-object to a body-as-subject. Building on Leder and drawing from anthropology of the body, I argue that there is such a thing as ‘the good pain’. The empowering experience of feeling one’s body and one’s strength…”
“I argue that pain, injury, bodily marks and bodily modifications due to, for example, increased fitness commitment, all contribute to making the rugby player’s body present. Nevertheless, this presence is a way of being into the world but not a dys-appearance. I argue that there is an existential exhilaration in feeling one’s body at all times—the ‘good pain’ (Crossley, 2006).”

Branchu 2013, Legitimacy and Respectability on the Skin: Bruises, Women’s Rugby and Situational Meaning, Body & Society

“On one hand, participants take pride in body marks that confirm their athletic strength and rugby identity and which grants them respect and belonging. On the other hand, these body marks can be anchors of stigma, signalling women’s rugby bodies as ‘deviant’ to non-initiated audiences.”
“tension between bruises as empowering or disempowering”
“In rugby, bruises are associated with being combative, fierce, fearless, strong and immune to pain (Saouter, 2000). Most importantly, as shown in the studies mentioned above and apparent in the field, they represent abnegation: the body is no longer one’s own but becomes a part of the greater social body of the team as one sacrifices for the game, for a collective purpose.”
“Bruises are therefore glorified and valued in the world of rugby because of their significance as a demonstration of ‘rugby corporeality’ (Le Hénaff et al., 2008: 569) and as markers of one’s performance in a game: players often mention that bruises demonstrate that you gave it your all.”

(This is the Crossley 2006 paper cited above by Branchu)
“What I am talking about here, however, is a largely tacit confidence in and competence of the body, at the level of the ‘corporeal schema’ (Crossley, 2001), that gym-talk suggests is both increased and subsequently regenerated through the process of working out. Exercise increases an agent’s physical mastery of both self and world, and thereby transforms their manner of ‘being in the world’; a transformation that is experienced positively. Gym-goers talk, for example, about how working out has boosted their self-esteem (irrespectively of changes in appearance), made them feel more confident and connected (see also Gimlin, 2002: Ch. 2).”
“[The feminist philosopher Jean Grimshaw:] I have frequently found that physical movement and exercise has been the only thing that helped me to break out of a frozen inability to do anything at all and to feel that perhaps I could, after all, be able to immerse myself in the world and cope again. (Grimshaw, 1999: 113, emphasis in original)”

“the good pain of enhancement (often connected to muscle soreness and effort burn)”
“Thus, muscle soreness delivers “a receipt” (Karin) or even “a reward” (Lisa) for this rightness of successful exercising: Kalle: ‘I think muscle soreness is quite nice (…) it’s almost a little nice to wake up and feel you have sore muscles, because then you know that you have made an effort, possibly in the right way.’’”
“‘Lisa: I love it (…) when I have sore muscles, I almost feel a bit fresh, a bit newly showered. (…) I think it’s like when you’ve washed your hair and it’s completely fresh, for me, it’s like I feel a little better. (…) Because it somehow also becomes like a reward, that I was reminded that I actually did this yesterday instead of having a day where I just lay on the couch.’”

‘36% of participants referred to the experience of pain in the tattoo process as serving some helpful function in their grief experience. One participant described the pain as “transformative”: “…you go in, you experience this pain- it’s not a lot of time, but it’s a transformative pain…it’s not harming you…so it’s a pain you are accepting into your body, into the rest of your life…”’
‘Another participant stated, “I felt like I needed the pain of the tattoo- it was a good pain.”’
‘21% talked about the pain as the extremity of their bodies reactions to the pain with side effects of “back spasms” in the days after tattoo acquisition, looking “like I had smoked a couple of joints” while getting the tattoo, having “amazing sex” during the days just after sitting for the tattoo, and the release of “endorphins” in the body. One of these participants stated that there was “something chemical trapped in my body around the grief,” and that post-tattoo she felt “that things were really moved chemically.”’’
‘Yet another participant talked about her memorial tattoo on her chest, stating, “..he got shot in the chest…and I remember thinking how badly it hurt but how that was so indicative of my being alive and that pain was actually a gift, because he probably didn’t even have a chance to feel pain, it was so sudden…”’

“Tattoo narratives, too, are affected by the notion of ‘good pain’. Pain is a positive affect, as it guides a person out of chaos and towards security and a grasp of life. In this sense tattoo narratives are often plotted as quest narratives where to narrator changes character through suffering (Frank, 1995).””
“The process of tattooing is described as a powerful and purifying experience. ‘For me, getting tattooed is definitely a form of acupuncture. It’s very relaxing and vents all the pent up frustrations and aggressions. It’s very therapeutic’ (Erin Holly, Tattoo, 2003/169: 65). Dave Reynolds refers to pain therapy when talking of the process of tattooing (Tattoo, 2003/170: 168) and Sarah Weyant states: ‘Tattoos are a great source of strength for me and have enhanced me. I think they’re very therapeutic and good for your soul’ (Tattoo, 2003/161: 58). There seems to be an almost intimate connection between physical pain caused by the tattooing process as Anna Pasternak notes. Ink makes bonding possible.”