For many of us, our perception of Darts – if we give it any thought at all – is probably of large, sweaty, men in smoke-filled pubs with a pint in one hand and a miniature arrow in the other trying desperately to “hit a double out” and failing miserably.
And yet Darts, as seemingly one of the last bastions of working class masculinity – and possibly the only legitimate world sport that allows its participants to take drugs (alcohol) during play – has, somewhat counter-intuitively, been at the forefront of challenging gender stereotypes of masculinity and femininity by allowing men and women to compete equally alongside one another in major championships.
In a (sporting) world characterised by gender apartheid, this is somewhat notable.
And thanks to the efforts of Fallon Sherrock, the first woman to beat a male opponent in a Professional Darts Corporation World Championship match, the sport has arguably entered the realms of feminist iconography.
All this has lead full-time darts-aficionado and sometime sociology teacher Liam Core to put together this short package of lesson resources (a PowerPoint Presentation, Background Article and Related Questions) exploring different forms of feminist theory and how they can be related to Sherrock’s achievements.