The Compulsory Coming Out of Lesbian Olympic Athletes

Abstract

Coming out as a private choice should be take place at the time determined by the subjects who choose to do so. However, when it comes to public people, this has often not been the practice. Lesbian Olympic athletes have experienced a compulsory mode of coming out that occurs throught the media. Understanding the Olympic Games as an arranged scenario receptive to the same conflicts as ordinary life, this paper discusses the heterosexist structure that still surrounds the sport and, to attest this occurrence, analyzes the narratives of the Olympic athletes. As na argument to explain compulsory coming out, Michel Foucault’s concept of the will to knowledge is mobilized, that is, the idea of a social control that incites the subject to talk about his sexuality, aiming to capture the “deviants” and fit them to the dominant norm.