KNES Study guide Module A Power Sport and Masculinities De Naturalizing the Active Body People make their own physically in active un healthy lives bodies but not necessarily in the conditions of their own choosing The Social and Cultural Construction of the Body The ACTIVE BODY is not a WHOLLY NATURAL entity it is also a physical and social construction The ACTIVE BODY is shaped by as it helps to shape the SOCIAL CONTEXT ENVIRONMENT in which it is located Ex body size body practices body style body identities body shape body images Ideological Formations values beliefs ideas Cultural Texts media forms and content Cultural Practices acts performances and routines Institutional Structures rules codes organization Sex and Gender Classifications sex biological structure and function Is sex a biological continuum Physiological variation chromosome variation Most of us are somewhere in the middle In terms of culture language we only have two categories with which to understand sex differences male female Hence we live our lives by falling into these loose approximations Gender is a system of culturally determined roles expectations and identities associated with the two sex types Nothing natural about gender it is a learned cultural norm and convention through which our gendered selves are created Gender cultural binary The roles expectations and identities of males and females have through historical and social forces come to be understood as the gender opposites of masculinity and femininity Gender Differences the Hierarchical Gender Binary The traditional male masculine body and identities leader aggressive powerful dominant etc Traditionally female feminine follower nurturer passive subordinate Masculinity and males are dominant in the hierarchy and have more social value Femininity has inferior social value and power Patriarchy A system of UNEQUAL gender roles identities and experiences which privilege the position of men a set of personal social and economic relationships that enable men to have power over women and the services they provide Ex the pope president doctors Work to assert men and masculinity as being associated with power and women and femininity as being associated with social support care and nurturing Incomes are higher for male In earlier stages of societal evolution males gained their SOCIAL POWER and DOMINANCE through their relative physical STRENGTH AGGRESSION VIOLENCE Which granted men positions of LEADERSHIP and AUTHORITY over others Sport as a Gendered and gendering Institution Perhaps more than any other social institution sport physical culture plays a central role in the constitution of and advancement of our gendered beings SPORT A gendered and gender differentiating culture of learnt PHYSICAL practices bodies and identities It is both gendered and gendering It is structured in dialectic relation to the dominant gender order and gender practices within society Individuals become socialized into the gendered selves through their involvement or lack thereof in sport Organized sport considered a male oriented social institution because at its core are sporting practices which are based upon and normalize personal attributes traditionally associated with males and masculinity The Embodied Bases of Masculinity males tend to be at a SPORTING ADVANTAGE because within organized sport they are PERFORMING EMBODYING the MASCULINE NORMS they have already been exposed to learnt through their experience in wider society Of course any observer of youth sport at the lower age levels under 11 especially is likely to observe similar expressions of strength toughness aggression and violence or lack thereof among girls as well as boys As children mature socially and culturally as much as physically particularly 11 plus they learn and are channeled into gender specific physical cultures bodies and identities Adolescence the sporting parting of the ways Gendered Sporting Ideologies Institutions Practices and Texts Ideological Assumptions Women by the very fact of them being women are physically inferior to men Being more physically able and adept men are better suited to excelling in sporting practices Sport is a predominantly male preserve infiltrated by physically inferior women to its detriment Institutions ex Dance classes all women Practices Ex Lacrosse Equipment Field dimensions Number of players Penalties for fouls Checking rules Ways of defending The game is structured in order to encourage men to play more aggressively and women to play more gracefully Texts Men s Health Sports Illustrated The Hyper Masculine Centre of American Sport Culture Understandings of masculinity continue to be largely shaped by expressions of PHYSICALITY strength power aggression The gendered institutional centre is football and the closer the sport is to football the more masculine it is perceived as Primary Sources of Masculinity Sporting Prowess Physical Aggression Sexual Conquest Dimensions of Hyper Masculine Sport Performance Physical strength and stamina Physical toughness and bravery Capacity for physical violence Assumed Compulsory Heterosexuality Unemotional pragmatism Clearly violence is a core and anticipated element of the hypermasculine sport performance The Triad of Sport Related Violence 1 Violence Against Other Athletes A hyper masculine sport performance demands a body which is strong large muscular quick and capable of effective physical violence The sporting body as a weapon violence against others a normalized aspect of sport performance 2 Violence Against Themselves the normalization of pain and injury and substance abuse as an aspect of masculine sport performance 3 Violence Against Outsiders Hence many male athletes suffer from an inability to relate and empathize with others they have difficulty expressing themselves and connecting with others they are often involved in relationships based on symbolic and physical violence toward others Normalized bullying misogyny and homophobia as an aspect of masculine sport performance Possibility of social rejection if guys don t measure up or compensate for their weight or femininity Crucially there is no single masculinity Rather there are culturally and historically specific and oftentimes competing MASCULINITIES What is learned and expressed through mainstream sport culture tends to be the dominant understanding of MASCULINITY within contemporary society Sport and Hegemonic Masculinity The commonly accepted and seemingly