Blue skies, black death: Risk, subculture issues, and gender in the contemporary skydiving community

This study investigates meanings of risk in the contemporary skydiving community. In so doing, it considers subculture issues and gender construction in this social milieu. Despite an increasing public interest in risk activities, relatively few investigators have examined the meanings these activities have for participants, and even fewer have problematized the masculinization of risk sport. In an effort to address these issues, a study of current skydivers in Alberta was undertaken. The findings show that risk is a highly contextual concept that carries with it much contradiction for skydivers. Further, these meanings of risk are shaped by the dynamics of the skydiving community and by notions of gender-appropriate behavior. Data from participant observation and in-depth interviews elucidate some of the complexities of participation for skydivers. Issues of identity construction and confirmation, managed risk, resistance and accommodation, and gender construction all play a part in the process of making meaning of an activity that many jumpers acknowledge as potentially deadly. Lyng's (1990) notion of edgework and Gramsci's (1971) hegemony theory inform the analysis of risk, subculture, and gender issues in this contentious and under-studied social context.