Male Boarding Bodies Pleasure Pain and Performance Review Canon logic hegemony Canon established body of literature or way of understanding considered important enduring timeless Sports canon fit young male team traditional American sports Gender logic Perspectives and ideas favored and promoted by dominant powerful groups in society seem to be natural or commonsense Hegemony power or dominance of a value belief idea norm custom etc Review Binaries Modern humans commonly think in terms of binaries One part of the binary is thought to be positive while the other might be subtly or unconsciously understood as pathological negative weak sick deviant As time passes pathologies change It is not bad to think in binary terms but we do need to be aware of what this binary thinking means in terms of how changing conceptions of self gender sub culture etc are used to judge and understand others Men s embodied practices cannot be understood through binaries of domination and resistance but rather involve more complex processes of investment and negotiation Thorpe p 190 Masculine reflexivity in physical cultures is uneven and discontinuous there is movement between social fields sometimes within fields men reconcile dissonant experiences paraphrased from p 190 Snowboarding canon Traditionally viewed as an activity best suited to young white hedonistic rebellious males Thorpe p 169 Hypermasculine financial independence partying heterosexual prowess also combined to create cultural idea that appealed to adolescent males Snowboarders in 2010 6 1 million 67 2 male ages 12 24 57 7 Percent who have household income of 100 000 or more 44 5 of snowboard fatalities 12 M 1 F of paralysis serious head injuries 23 M 7 F http www statisticbrain com snowboarding statistics Rite of passage An event usually formalized that marks the movement of a person from one status to another Across culture and time rites of passage common that mark transition from child to adult male rites of passage sometimes involve bodily marking pain or performance Modern developed society said to lack formal rites of passage for adolescents thus use of driving fast sport performance alcohol drug use and other illegal activities as informal rites of passage Families and religion may have formal rites of passage Agon motif Agon motif one theses about the origin of sport This thesis says that sport is tied to human instinct to compete and to be the best among peers Historically and culturally this motif takes different forms and degrees Other sport origin theories vegetation funeral catastrophic ancient Greek civilizing Fratriarchies Connected to agon motif in human culture Groupings of usually young males in societies of same age range and interests may undertake rite s of passage together Within a fratriarchy men compete for prestige through demonstrations of physical prowess courage and gameness Thorpe p 178 Snowboarding fratriarchy Fosters male domination by bringing men together keeping men together works to put women down or exclude them The fraternal structure of snowboarding culture devalues women as part of a process to help men define their masculinity Ridiculing and humiliating women helps strengthen fraternal bonds and reinforce male domination Thorpe pp 180 182 Agon agon agones agonistic agony Agon contest Motif Recurring phenomenon Deeply embedded cultural form Major types of agon Warfare Physical and verbal duels Hunting Athletic competitions Any activity in life culture in which people compete with their peers Zero sum game someone can win only if someone else loses Non zero sum game all players can gain relative to their own starting points Characteristics Intense spirit of rivalry and competition Strong stress on individualism Extreme emphasis of the pursuit of fame glory and honor Contest is between and among peers to be the first among equals Underlying ethical moral framework Not just a free for all Agon may be physical but also moral games Specific do s and don ts codes of honor One must possess certain personal qualities before being permitted to compete Rules and regulations Levels of competition Certain rewards How rewarded Prestige Gift mode of exchange Players give something athletic performance in exchange for prestige for being known as best for monetary reward etc Sport The most paradigmatic example of agon in contemporary life Problems Much stress on individuals More likely to break the rules The more successful a person is the less secure and more endangered by her his peers The higher the ranking of the victor the greater the victory over them Person at the top is never at ease Must always prove oneself best Becoming the best Testing the best Beating the best Being the best Thorpe on masculinities and gender Grommets The Bros The Old Guys Snowboarding field as used by Bourdieu is site of struggles where various agents attempt to negotiate transform and preserve the legitimate meanings and use of the boarding body Gender relations within it not fixed but inherently contested by those within the field paraphrased from Thorpe p 191 some men experience conflicts between different concepts of order and ways of behaving that generate questions as to the naturalness of established gender practices p 186 This would not be accepted at my workplace so why should it be ok on the mountain p 187 Traditional gender roles nullified reinforced and or transformed What is sport Do humans have feminine and masculine natures that predetermine their actions and destinies Application of material studied to other sports and other cultural forms