NASSS Abstracts 2011

Minneapolis, Minnesota (PDF version, updated Oct.18)

Adams, Mary Louise, Queen’s University, MLA1@queensu.ca

The challenge of teaching good neoliberal subjects in Physical Education/Kinesiology

In a social and political context in which sedentariness and obesity have been constructed as among the key health concerns of our time, many Kinesiology and Physical Education Departments are shifting their programs to focus increasingly on health promotion. Indeed it could be argued that calls for greater public promotion of exercise and physical activity have invigorated certain quarters of these two disciplines. When asked to write a short essay on why they hope to take Kinesiology or Physical Education, applicants to my own department are almost unanimous in their desire to help solve the ‘obesity epidemic.’ Their deep investment in becoming professionals positioned to play a prominent role in efforts to combat obesity and other so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ presents significant challenges in sociology classrooms where dominant framings of such diseases are questioned. This paper considers the issues facing instructors who want to introduce students in physical education/kinesiology to critical perspectives on the appropriation of our disciplines for purposes of health promotion. I will discuss resistance to these perspectives and offer examples of the kinds of materials and discussions that have helped to shift the debate (a little bit) in my own classroom.

Adelman, Miriam, Federal University of Paraná (Brazil), miriamad@ufpr.br

Gender Relations in the Equestrian World: Theory and Research

In recent decades, academic studies have sought to capture and explain the complex social relations that constitute sporting practices and institutions. This has meant, among other things, recognizing their profoundly gendered (and therefore, in this sense and others, political) character. Although equestrian sports may represent one of the most gender ‘egalitarian’ of all sporting fields, our relatively rosy picture clouds over at closer examination, particularly when intersection with other axes of social stratification, such as class and race, are also considered. In this paper, I review my own research in three distinct realms of equestrian sport in Brazil (show jumping, turf and rodeo) as well as the work of other contemporary horse sports researchers in different parts of the world.  I attempt to highlight  relevant theoretical issues and to provide an overview of empirical evidence on how the equestrian arena incorporates both  the promise and contradictions of current (material, symbolic)  struggles for gender equality and for more democratic access to social and cultural resources.

Agyemang, Kwame, Eastern Kentucky University, docagyemang@gmail.com and John N. Singer, Texas A & M

‘Race maters’: NBA stakeholders sound off on race

 

Given the 2008 election of the first “Black” President of the United States and the overrepresentation of Black athletes in American football and basketball today (see Lapchick, Kaiser, Russell, & Welch, 2010; Lapchick, Kamke, & McMechan, 2009), many Americans might believe we live in a post-racial society (see Wise, 2010). Utilizing critical race theory (CRT) as a lens, we interviewed five stakeholders of an NBA franchise in efforts to gauge their perspectives on the topic of race and racism in American society and sport. This was a departure from the majority of the literature on this topic, which tends to focus on Black male athletes in college sport. Our analysis of the data revealed three major themes: 1) the theme race in the current era, illustrated how race and racism persist in the NBA; 2) the theme moving forward concerned the participants’ thoughts on how to go about dealing with race and racism in the years to come; 3) the theme, LeBron James, was in reference to the backlash LeBron James received after deciding to play for the Miami Heat. Implications for future research are discussed.

Alexander, Lisa Doris, Wayne State University, lisa.alexander@wayne.edu

Major League Baseball and the Honoring of Jackie Robinson

According to the late baseball historian Jules Tygiel, “The Jackie Robinson story is to Americans what the Passover story is to Jews: it must be told to every generation so that we never forget.” In the last few years, Major League Baseball has taken these words to heart and staged elaborate celebrations to commemorate Robinson reintegrating professional baseball.  In 2007, MLB began playing a Civil Rights Game, which included panel discussions on race in baseball.  In addition, MLB provided players and managers with the opportunity to wear Robinson’s number on April,15.  While few would argue that Robinson’s accomplishments should not be shouted from the rooftops, the recent celebrations seem to focus less on Robinson’s role in the integration process and more on Major League Baseball’s role.  This presentation will discuss how Jackie Robinson Day has been commemorated in the past, how MLB is using these honors to both advance and hinder Robinson’s legacy and how Major League Baseball uses the occasion to mask the League’s floundering record on Civil Rights issues.

Allen, Rebecca, Indiana University, reballen@umail.iu.edu

Factors that Influence the Academic Success of the African American Student Athlete

In an October 2010 report by the NCAA, Graduation Success Rates were dissected according to sport, race and gender. African American student athletes overall GSR was listed at 64% while White student athletes GSR was listed at 84% (NCAA Research Staff, 2009). A detailed review of current literature regarding the lower graduation rates of the African American Student Athlete as well as the importance of becoming emotionally tied to an institution is presented. Further investigation of necessary criteria in regard to achieving academic success through classroom performance, confidence in education and eventual graduation will also be discussed.

Allison, Rachel, University of Illinois at Chicago (rallis2@uic.edu)

“There Are Some Things You Can’t Measure”: Competing Institutional Logics in the Construction of Women’s Professional Soccer

A key and persistent question for sociologists of gender and sport concerns how to expand opportunities for female athletes at the elite level, and construct lasting professional teams and leagues. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), including observation of one WPS team and interviews with a variety of league stakeholders, this analysis explores two competing logics central to team and league decision-making. The first, which I term “Return-on-Investment,” or “ROI” logic, stems from the business and finance worlds, and emphasizes quantitative measurement. The second, “experiential” logic, emphasizes building an emotion-laden fan experience beyond the measurable. “ROI” and “experiential” logics contain strongly gendered meanings and are variously emphasized, downplayed, or combined, based largely on the social locations of those decision-makers internal to the league. The balancing of these logics has consequences for perceptions of team “success” or “failure,” as well as league sustainability and future developmental outcomes.

Anderson, Eric, University of Winchester, Eric.Anderson@winchester.ac.uk with Edward Kian

 No Longer Mere Headaches: Sport Media Challenging Masculine Orthodoxy on Football Concussions

 Sport helps define, teach, and maintain desired forms of masculinity in the United States. Most U.S. boys participate in organized teamsports and fandom of marquee sports are key components of fraternization among U.S. males at all age groups. Football, by far the country’s most popular sport, is a violent game, where coaches and teammates have historically expected players to place their bodies at risk for the good of the team. Sport media traditionally used their influence to reify this social script, simultaneously promoting their own masculine capital. However, this article shows cracks in this hegemonic system of sport and sport media. We conducted a textual analysis of newspapers and Internet articles reporting on the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers taking himself out of an important National Football League (NFL) game due to a concussion. Results showed that increasing awareness on the negative effects associated with concussions, combined with a softening of American masculinity, have enabled some prominent players like Rodgers a reprieve from the self-sacrifice component of sporting masculinity. Framing of articles on Rodgers’ self-withdrawal were supportive, and sport media have recently increased coverage on concussions. However, despite Rodgers’ prominence and a plethora of attention annually bestowed on the NFL, media provided only token coverage of Rodgers’ act.

 

Andrew-Little, Donya, College Mount Saint Joseph, Donya_Andrews-Little@mail.msj.edu

Charles Crowley, California University of PA, crowley@calu.edu

 

 

Gender and ethnicity exploring equality: Professional commitment of SWAs

Women and Ethnic minorities represent a small percentage of administrators and leaders in intercollegiate athletics (Acosta & Carpenter, 2004; Carpenter & Acosta, 2000). The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), America’s largest governing body for intercollegiate athletics, has become aware of this problem and will assist in the solution to the problem.

Currently in the sport management literature, there is a paucity of research focused on female administrators in intercollegiate athletics (Benton, 2003; Dohrn, 2003; Hartfield, 2003; Sweaney, 1996), and there are no studies on the organizational commitment of Senior Woman Administrators.

The purpose of this study was to examine Senior Woman Administrators (SWAs) perception of organizational commitment. Three types of organizational commitment were surveyed: affective, normative, and continuance commitment. This study was delimited to Senior Woman Administrators (n=66) at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division IAA member institutions across the country. This study used the Organizational Commitment Scale(s) to examine Senior Woman Administrators (SWAs) perceptions of organizational commitment. The study examined the relationship between the demographic variables of ethnicity, marital status, current annual salary, age, years in present position, highest degree earned, and alumni status and organizational commitment. The study also examined the significant differences between the demographic variables and organizational commitment.

The results of this study revealed the demographic variables of current annual salary, age, and alumni status were significantly related to affective organizational commitment, ethnicity was significantly related to normative organizational commitment and alumni status was significantly related to continuance organizational commitment.

 

Antunovic, Dunja, Penn State University, dunja@psu.edu and Marie Hardin, Penn State University, mch208@psu.edu

Activism in Women’s Sports Blogs

 

The emergence of social media has provided a space for discourse and activism about sports that traditional media outlets tend to ignore. Using a feminist theoretical lens, we conducted a textual analysis of selected blogs on the Women Talk Sports blog network to determine how fandom and advocacy for women’s sports was expressed in blog posts. We found that bloggers who identified as “fans” often reproduced hegemonic norms around sports and gendered sporting bodies, while bloggers who did not identify as fans were more likely to offer a more critical, decidedly feminist view and challenge dominant ideologies. We suggest that the blogosphere and particularly networks such as Women Talk Sports serve as venues for activism in bringing about change in the discourse around sports and the representation of athletic bodies.

Atencio, Matthew, National Institute of Education (Singapore), matthew.atencio@nie.edu.sg, Emily Chivers Yochim, Allegheny College, ecyochim@gmail.com, and Becky Beal, California State University (East Bay), becky.beal@csueastbay.edu

 

“It ain’t just black kids and white kids’: the creation and representation of authentic ‘skurban’ masculinities

 

In April 2007, Entertainment Weekly ran a spread titled, “Skurban Legend.” The article featured hip hop artist and skateboard company owner Pharrell Williams and suggested that hip hop MCs “are taking cues from ghetto-fab celeb skaters like Stevie Williams and Marcus McBride.”  The article showcased skateboards from Reebok’s “Dirty Ghetto Kids” line and clothing from Levi’s and Nike, concluding that “Fashionistas call it ‘Skurban’, but we just think it’s fly”.  In the same year, The New York Times proclaimed, ‘Skateboarding rolls out of the suburbs’. 

This recent emergence of ‘skurban’ (‘skurban’ refers to fused skateboarding and urban styles) arguably reflects the ethnically diverse history and culture of skateboarding in urban areas in the United States.  Simultaneously, skateboarding’s link with the urban has been ‘good for the sport’ as noted by George Powell of skateboarding manufacturer Powell Peralta (in Chivers Yochim, 2009); skateboarding now underpins a version of masculine authenticity that is highly marketable (Atencio and Beal, 2011).  Through our interrogation of niche media representations developed by skateboarding manufacturers and mainstream media, we propose that ‘skurban’ is underpinned by and gains popularity from legitimized urban racial and ethnic masculinities.  These masculinities enhance brand marketing and consequently distinguish and create cultural capital.  

Avner, Zoe, University of Alberta, avner@ualberta.ca

Fun, discipline and the normalization of sporting bodies:  Problematizing the fun imperative in high-performance sport

“Fun” is deeply ingrained in our communal understanding and in the language we have to talk about sport. Dating back to Huizinga (1950), scholars have taken an interest in theorizing fun/enjoyment/pleasure in sport, play, and physical activity settings. But with some exceptions (Pringle, 2009) few scholars have attempted to theorize fun/pleasure from a poststructuralist perspective and to contextualize fun within the dynamic power relations of performance sport. This paper addresses this gap by drawing on the work of Michel Foucault to problematize the strategic production and deployment of fun in performance sport and its various disciplinary effects on individual bodies. More specifically, it draws on data collected through informal conversations with three University level female soccer players to critically examine the various discursive strategies that they draw upon to negotiate the tensions of their participation in University level sport related to fun. I conclude by offering some suggestions as to how a problematization of the politics of fun can lead to the development of more ethical coaching and sporting practices in performance sporting contexts.

Barreto, Cristina, State University of Rio Grande do Norte, mcrbarreto@gmail.com

Body and social suffering in Brazilian press

Bartges, Ellyn L., University of Illinois (bartges2@illinois.edu) and Laura M. Finch, St. Cloud State University (lmfinch@stcloudstate.edu)

Manslaughter of a Mascot: A Case Study of the Demise of the Western Illinois University Westerwinds

The discussion about athletic teams’ mascots and nicknames has focused primarily on issues of race and Native American mascots.  The NCAA has issued guidelines about using or displaying “hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery” and limits the opportunities for its members to compete if such images are displayed.  The irony of this action is that the NCAA probably never thought to consider gender sensitivity on this list when it was trying to eradicate stereotypical mascots or nicknames.  Consequently, little attention has been paid to the takeover of nicknames devoted to women’s teams.  This paper explores the demise of the revered and unique Westerwinds nickname at Western Illinois University.  The actions of an administration that, over a period of years, devised, implemented, and ultimately contributed to the death of a mascot associated with the WIU women’s athletic program for 32 years will be examined.  Unlike other mascots lost to history, the Westerwinds nickname was not one of the inherently sexist names for female teams, nor did it contain any association to reviled Native American mascots across the country.  This paper details a singularly unique action to eradicate a non-hostile athletic nickname based solely on the basis of gender.

Bartlett, Robert L., Eastern Washington University, rbartlett@ewu.edu  with Kyra N. Gaines

Run Sista’ Run: Black Women in Track & Field 1948-1999.

Long before Title IX black women athletes proved to the world a passion to compete in track and field. They became some of the fastest women on the planet. This paper focuses on the lived experiences of the first black women of track and field and the records and social barriers they broke. The purpose of this study was to examine how African American females defied the odds and won on the world’s biggest stage, the Olympic oval. This study is intended to give exposure to some of the challenges that exist at the intersection of gender, race, and sport. This sociological research implements elements of Critical Race Theory and the analysis of primary and secondary sources. The ultimate goal of this research is to a fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the individual lives of these six black collegiate/Olympian women athletes.

Bates, Nameka R., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, namekabates@gmail.com

Black Sport Culture: Examining the Black Male Student Athlete Experience

Sport sociologists have situated black male athletes in an exclusive cultural space based on their

unique experiences associated with race, socioeconomic backgrounds, and the commodification

of collegiate athletic institutions (Hawkins, 2010; Smith, 2009; Althouse and Brooks et al., 2007;

Sailes et al., 2009). Though sport studies have yet to specifically identify a black sport culture,

C. Keith Harrison and Jean Boyd (2007) identified the Scholar-Baller Identity Development

Model (SBIDM) that establishes unique characteristics in the socialization process of student

athletes. Additionally, in "The New Plantation" Hawkins’ (2010) established a framework for the

impact of internal colonization of the black male athlete at Predominately White

Institutions. Both Harrison and Boyd’s SBIDM and Hawkins’ New Plantation Model introduce

the consideration of a new cultural context; this study argues that the SBIDM and The New

Plantation Model are major agitators in the development and existence of black sport

culture. This presentation, based on the author’s preliminary dissertation work, explores the

historical and theoretical foundations that align with the existence of a black sport culture. In an

effort to establish new discourse around black male student athlete empowerment, the goal of

the larger project is to commingle existing frameworks as a means of allowing, black males who

participate in sport, the permission to control their experiences and define their space in athletic

institutions.

Beer, Jacqui, University of Gloucesterishire, jacquelinebeer@connect.glos.ac.uk

It’s All Male, Pale and Stale”: ‘Race’, Colour and Black and Minority Ethnic Participation in Fine Rowing

In more recent years British Rowing yielded statistical data illustrating a persistent lack of BME participants in fine rowing (2011). Drawing on critical literatures rooted in ‘race’ and feminist theories, this study investigates the ‘male, pale and stale’ institution of British fine rowing to deduce the underlying reasons why BME communities have not accessed fine rowing organisations or pursued opportunities at grass-roots level.  In-depth qualitative semi-strutured interviews were conducted with sporting professionals working in managerial and sports development positions within fine rowing across regions of varying ethnic populations. Key findings allude to the exclusive nature of fine rowing highlighting, in particular, the prevalence of fixed notions of the ‘ideal rower’ which certainly appeared to discriminate against and marginalise the entry of “people of colour” into an already established white, male domain. Similarly, talent-identification programs, the maintenance of stereotypes and a lack of awareness of cultural practices and ‘ethnic groups’ in general further compound evidence of covert prejudice and racism towards non-white ("coloured") people. Rowing clubs, it seems, are happy to promote the notion of ‘sports for all’ and sports equity, but there appears to be an uncertainty in how to make their clubs more welcoming to ‘Others’ whilst conflicting with the higher class and elitist ideology of fine rowing. Given the lack of research into fine rowing, this study can provide a useful and essential platform from which to both continue research into fine rowing exclusivity and inform current practise. It is anticipated that findings from this initial study can help to promote more inclusive and equitable sports practises in British Rowing and grassroots rowing clubs by sensitising them to the needs of the BME groups.

 

Begovic, Marko, Inovativnost, Monetenegro with Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University

 

Addressing Community Sport Globally: Collaboration across Borders

This project represents a collaborative effort between researchers and women’s sports advocates in the United States and in Montenegro designed to assess gender and sport in Montenegro. Using mixed-methodologies (quantitative assessment of demographic trends and qualitative focus group interviews) we identified overall trends in gender differences in participation rates. Qualitatively, we examined the socio-cultural factors that contribute to, and that limit, girls’ and women’s sport participation. This paper will focus on the collaborative efforts among scholars and the Women’s Sport Foundation in the United States, and the Montenegro Olympic Committee and an NGO in Montenegro. First, we discuss that collaboration and how it developed. Next, we provide a brief overview of the project and its major findings. Here we explore the response to the major findings among key stakeholders in Montenegrin sport. We then discuss the strategies for change that emerged in the focus group discussions, which lead to the development of policies and new educational efforts to be implemented in communities in Montenegro. These strategies are explicitly designed to improve gender equality in sport. To conclude, we offer recommendations for sociologists who wish to get “off the bench” and into communities to improve and address social inequalities within those communities.

Bernstein, Sam, University of Maryland, sambernstein@gmail.com with Michael Friedman

“Sticking Out’ in the Field: “No, Ma’am I do not work for the Governor”

The purpose of this presentation is to further existing research on fieldwork practices and experiences by focusing on issues of reflexivity and rapport (Sparkes, 1995; Davies et al., 2004).  This paper draws upon our experience at a recent public forum in which we were accused, not only of malicious intent but also of nefarious origin. Generally, this paper focuses upon the many dilemmas – moral, ethical, personal – inherent in ethnographic research, with a deliberate focus upon the researchers ability to ‘blend in’ to a research setting(Sugden & Tomlinson, 1999).  More specifically this paper examines ‘practicing’ research in a variety of settings with a particular focus upon the ‘messy’ nature of field research.  In this paper, we draw upon recent research experience with the 2011 Baltimore Mayoral election.  As researchers we attended a number of public debates in order to better understand the context of the upcoming election and the role of sport within the political realm (most notably, the upcoming Baltimore Grand Prix).  Additionally, we performed a variety of fieldwork activities during the Grand Prix that inform our understanding of these issues.  Finally, this paper reflects upon the challenges of being an activist/researcher in a highly combustible environment. 

 

Billings, Andrew C., University of Alabama, acbillings@ua.edu

Tiger Woods Lands in the Rough: Golf, Apologia, and the Heroic Limits of Privacy

This paper provides in-depth analysis of the events following the late 2009 revelation that Tiger Woods had participated in countless adulterous acts over the course of many years.  Incorporating Ware and Linkugel’s (1973) criticism of apologia and Benoit’s theory of image restoration (1995), attention is paid to both the fluctuating public reaction to the news as well as Woods’s attempts to maintain a private persona within a very public scandal.   Textual analysis of Tiger Woods’ apology and subsequent media interactions will be combined with media reactions to offer a fused glimpse of a tattered uber-celebrity.

Bimper Jr., Albert Y., The University of Texas at Austin, (abimper@mail.utexas.edu) with Louis Harrison Jr.

 

The Raceless Athlete Who Happens to be Black

 

The pursuit of racial equity in sport is directly linked to conversations about the existence and expedition of a color-blind society. Sport has evolved into an entity acclaimed for its ability to de-racialize human interaction and act as an equalizer between different racial group members (Hartman, 2000). The degree to which collegiate athletic revenue generating sports continually recruit an over-represented population of black male athletes (Donner, 2005) implores an examination of black athlete’s perceptions of identity and experiences. The purpose of this case study was to investigate a black student athlete’s experiences, beliefs, and identity perceptions at a predominately white institution of higher education. This phenomenological case study was grounded by several tenets within the theoretical framework of critical race theory. Following data collection and steps to ensure trustworthiness, three themes emerged from the data 1) racelessness, 2) better known as athlete, and 3) disconnected. The participant gave credence to the existence of a color-blind sport culture, boasted an elevated athletic identity, and revealed a disconnection with several issues concerning some blacks. The implications of this case study inform the need for development of programs that foster academic achievement while engaging black student athletes to develop a healthy black identity.

Boykoff, Jules, Pacific University, boykoff@pacificu.edu

“Five-Ring Politics: Activism and the 2012 London Summer Olympics”

London is the host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. While boosters have hailed the Games as both environmentally sustainable and a reliable road to the revitalization of East London, critics have questioned the social and spatial impacts the Olympics may have. Other activists have taken a less critical approach, gauging how their groups might take advantage of the Olympics to jump scale and widen the scope of their activities. In this paper I first present the contentions of Olympics supporters, focusing on sustainability and economic development. Then I explore the activist response, from dissident citizens who oppose the Games to organizers who are attempting to convert the situation into a social-justice boost for their groups. Activists challenging previous Olympics festivals (e.g. the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver) strategically employed spatial practices of dissent. This paper examines the spatially oriented activism in London, zeroing in on the dialectic of resistance and restriction that informs the politics of the Olympics. Drawing from interviews of activists, legal documents, mass media accounts, and other sources, this paper illuminates the distinction social-movement scholars make between state coercion and channeling. It also explores the concept of cooptation vis-à-vis Olympics-related activism.

Boyle, Sarah Margaret, University of Toronto

 

An Analysis on the Relationship Between Toronto’s Delinquent Youth and Community Centres.

Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation (TPFR) operates more civic/community/recreation centres than any other organization within the City of Toronto. Their structured leadership and recreation programs are offered between 2:00pm-6:00pm when the majority of youth crime in Toronto is committed (Environmental Scan, 2006), and their priority centers offer free access to all programs. The purpose of

this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the proximity of community/recreation centres, and youth delinquency within Toronto.  Data provided by Toronto Police on the 2007 Youth

Crime Incidences were compared with the number of community/recreation centres operated by the TPFR within each of the 17 police divisions of Toronto. Three categories of the community centers were analyzed: those with youth and leadership programs (YLP), priority centres (PC), and all other basic community centres (BCC) that did not include YLPs and that were not PCs. Results showed that BCC?s and centres with YLPs were both significantly correlated (p< .05) with youth delinquency and that PCs were not. YLPs were negatively correlated to youth delinquency where as BCCs were positively correlated. While these correlations are suggestive they should not be seen as causality at this stage of the research process.

Brissonneau, Christophe, Université Paris Descartes, christophe.brissonneau@wanadoo.fr

Is the choice to dope freer in US than French athletics?

After the defeat of the French sportsmen in 1960 during the Olympics in Roma, General De Gaulle decided to create in France a state sport policy. Two top models were possible : the open sports structures of the American universities which recruited the best sportsmen, or the closed sports structures such as in the German Democratic Republic where the best talents were gathered in one place. It was decided to use the second one. This East German model was adopted by Sports physicians (physiology of effort) and trainers. From a collection of life histories from former doped athletes, we can see that doping in France (with a socialist sports model) is the result of a collective process. From the interviews of two international French athletes who discovered doping in US Universities in the 60s and 70s, we can see that in this liberal country the usage of doping is not the result of an individual choice. It is rather the consequence of collective process, even though the pressure of the different social groups seems to be more diffused.

Brown, Letisha, University of Texas-Austin, letisha12@mail.utexas.edu

 

The Spectacle of Blackness: Race, Representation and the Black Female Athlete

In 2009, the South African runner Caster Semenya annihilated her competition in the 800m dash in the World Championships held in Berlin, Germany. However, in place of pomp and circumstance, Semenya’s victory was met with questions about her right to compete as a ‘woman’. Historically, as well as contemporaneously, the black athlete has functioned as a dominant representation of the black body. Often coded as ‘hyper-masculine’ the representation of the black athlete in the post/colonial era functions as a (re)production of colonial fantasies of the black body (Carrington 2002). Using the recent example of Caster Semenya, as well as the historical representation of the South African ‘Hottentot Venus,’ Saartjie Baartman; this paper aims to show how colonial representations of ‘the black body,’ particularly the black female body, continue to be reproduced in the post/colonial era. In addition, this paper will explore how the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, beauty, commodity and sport uniquely impact the black female athlete.

 

 

 

Bruce, Toni, University of Auckland, t.bruce@auckland.ac.nz, Alistair John, Victoria University, and Steven Jackson, University of Otago

Traitor on the High Seas: Russell Coutts, Kiwi Loyalty, and Opportunism in International Yachting

This paper investigates the tensions that arise when historical, amateur notions of loyalty to the nation confront the realities of professional, commercialized sport.  While such debates may be passé in nations with a long history of professional sport, New Zealand is somewhat unique in that it is still struggling with how to best move ahead in a globalised, commercialized sport environment.  Thus, the departure of America’s Cup sailor Russell Coutts from ‘Team New Zealand’ – and his subsequent leadership of the syndicate that wrested the Cup from New Zealand – generated huge controversy including death threats, a widespread construction of Coutts as a national traitor, and a (short-lived) public campaign against him.  By locating our analysis within broader national concerns about the increasingly profesionalised and global nature of sport in New Zealand, we are able to better understand the particular direction of the public and media response to what, in other nations, might well have been seen as a logical choice with few, if any, national implications.




 

Buchanan, Rebecca R., Emory & Henry College, rbuchanan@ehc.edu

Coakley’s Pleasure and Participation Sports Model: Hope for the Future

The current space in physical education often mirrors that of sports where those with more ability have different socialization experiences than those who are less able.  Both domains have historically included ideologies emphasizing the need for strong, healthy bodies necessary to compete and dominate others in a variety of ways.  The ideologies are linked with broader issues in society and reflect characteristics aligning more with Coakley’s (2009) power and performance sports model.  These characteristics often serve to disadvantage individuals along varying lines of race, class, and gender.  Yet the pleasure and participation model offers hope for the future.  This session shares scholarship documenting results from a dissertation research study which systematically analyzed a high school physical education class utilizing Coakley’s pleasure and participation model.  The analysis examined whether the model was supported, expanded, or refuted based on characteristics emphasizing (a) democratic leadership, (b) inclusive participation, and (c) the use of cooperation and competition with others to develop and test skills in a healthy and enjoyable context.  The results include a symbolic interactionist perspective which posits that there are ways in which the ideology of the two sex system can be disrupted in modern sporting spaces and practices.

Bundon, Andrea, The University of British Columbia, ambundon@interchange.ubc.ca

The Paralympics and the virtual sphere: Debating disability sport online

Despite the frequent use of the term ‘the Paralympic movement’ when referencing anything disability sport related, there exists very little theorizing on the nature or the boundaries of this movement. This paper is an introduction to a participatory project that employs a blog, co-authored by four athletes with a disability and a researcher to consider if and how online discussions can contribute to the identity forming, awareness raising, and political activities that characterize new social movements. Specifically we ask, can a blog (1) contribute an individual’s sense of belonging to the Paralympic movement?, (2) facilitate discussion and debate on topics that are central to understanding the nature and the future of disability sport and the Paralympic movement?, and (3) contribute to the sharing of resources and ideas that are then taken up by participants to improve the conditions of their own sport involvement? This particular paper will demonstrate how current media theories have informed the design of this blog and also draws on data from early interviews with the blog team, transcripts of team meetings, and blog posts to delve into the notion of a blog as a space for deliberative debate.  

Bustad, Jacob J., University of Maryland, jbustad@umd.edu with David L. Andrews, University of Maryland

“Tightening belts and B.E.E.F.-ing up”: Public Recreation and Neoliberal Urban Governance

This study focuses on discursive outpourings related to Baltimore’s recreation centers from approximately 1980-2011. These discourses emanate from local government policy and decision makers: specifically those expressed in the form of policy statements pertaining to the function, structure, and development of recreation centers, and those linked to the official statements explaining, and at times justifying, budgetary decisions related to recreation centers – as well as the media coverage of these policies. In particular, this project engages the changing nature of recreation policy discourse as caught up within larger shifts in urban policy in this period – what Harvey terms "a reorientation in attitudes to urban governance" (1989). While this includes a focus on the shift from the "urban managerialism" of the post-war Keynesian urban sphere to the "urban entrepreneurialism" of the 1980s and 1990s, the aim of this project is also to extend this analysis to the contemporary moment by engaging particular forms of urban governance connected to processes of urbanization and neoliberalization. Such an analysis thus seeks to examine the articulations of "actually existing" neoliberalism, with emphasis on the complex and often contradictory nature of these "embedded" forms of the governing of bodies in the urban sphere (Brenner and Theodore, 2002).

Butler, Deborah University of Warwick, d.butler@warwick.ac.uk

Not a job for ‘girly-girls’:  horseracing, gender and work identities.

Due in part to staff shortages women began to be employed in the British horseracing industry as stable ‘lads’ in the late 1960s, early 1970s.  They were taking over what had previously been male-only positions so had to perform as well as, if not better than, the ‘lads’ to be accepted.  They were upsetting both the occupational hierarchy and the gender order so had to be seen to be as strong, tough and able as the ‘lads’.  Drawing upon an ethnographic study of work relations in British horseracing, which included semi structured interviews with female stable ‘lads’, this paper analyses the way in which these women negotiate masculinity.  The work of Bourdieu provides the theoretical framework, his concepts of habitus, capital and field provide the tools to help explore the extent that female embodiment is seen as an obstacle to women’s participation in race riding, what sort of masculinities are embodied by those working in the racing industry, and whether women working in the racing industry, as stable staff or as jockeys, can in any sense be regarded as embodying masculinity in a ‘field’ of power that can be characterised as patriarchal and masculinised.

Calhoun, Austin Stair, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, stair@umn.edu

 

Making sense of the magic: iPad apps for teaching, learning & researching

The 2011 Horizon Report — an annual report on emerging technologies in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry — listed mobile devices, along with electronics books, as the most-up-and-coming technology. One of these mobile devices—Apple’s iPad—has taken this market by storm, selling 9.25 million units in the last year alone.  In the summer of 2011, Apple espoused that there were over 90,000 iPad-specific apps available for their groundbreaking mobile device. Determining which app–out of thousands–and for what purpose can be both exciting and flummoxing. Using a constructivist agenda and pedagogy, I draw on my background as the Instructional Technology Fellow for the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development’s iPad Initiative to present a case for using iPads in a  sport sociology curricula and to inspire instructors, researchers, and students to create and consume content, to collaborate, and to connect to other scholars, both locally and globally.

 

Canedo, Nick, St. Mary’s University, ncanedo@mail.stmarytx.edu with Armando J. Abney

 

An Analysis of the Professional Careers of Heisman Trophy Winners

 

Every year since 1935, the Heisman Trophy has been awarded by the Heisman Trust of New York City to “an individual who deserves designation as the most outstanding college football player in the United States.” The award has become the symbol of achievement in college football and is the single most recognizable award in collegiate athletics. This award is also, arguably, the most prestigious individual award in any American sport.  Though expectations are set high, not all Heisman Trophy winners have professional careers that parallel their collegiate ones. The purpose of this research was to select every Heisman trophy winner from 1946 to 2004 and evaluate the success of their professional careers. Each Heisman Trophy winner was placed in one of four categories based on objective data from their professional career. These categories are labeled as Outstanding, Commendable, Disappointing, and Non-Existent. Once each player’s career was analyzed and categorized, we attempted to answer the question: Does collegiate success translate into success at the professional level? Based on the analysis of data, from the last fifty-eight Heisman Trophy winners, twenty-five of these (43%) had NFL careers that were deemed “disappointing.” Ten of the last fifty-eight Heisman Trophy winners (17%) had “outstanding” professional careers.

 

 

Capstick, Lauren, University of Ottawa, acaps073@uottawa.ca

 

Comparing Bourdieu and Jarvis. An argument for a socio-cultural examination of coach learning

While the work of Pierre Bourdieu is well known, and his contributions to sociological interpretations are vast, the work of Peter Jarvis is likely less familiar. From the discipline of adult education, Jarvis extends perspectives about lifelong learning while aiming to be comprehensive and holistic in his approach. Upon reading both authors, noticeable similarities become clear. A comparison between Bourdieu and Jarvis’ understanding of habitus/biography, disjuncture, learning, and of fields/life-worlds, capital, and agency will be discussed. In a context where coaches face many barriers within their learning, the worth of adopting a socio-cultural perspective to view coach learning, such as the perspectives offered by Bourdieu and Jarvis, will be explored. Lastly, questions to help advance a socio-cultural view of coach learning are
offered.

 

Carey, Robert Scott, Queen’s University, 0rsc2@queensu.ca

 

“It’s Supposed to be Pure”: Basketball, Whiteness, and the Hoosier Identity

The purpose of this research was to examine the conflation of Indiana’s hoosier identity and the cultural politics associated with basketball. Strikingly, when asked to make sense of “hoosierness”, many interviewees relied upon basketball and the histories, meanings, and celebrity-symbols located therein to formulate a response. Thus, this paper interrogates Indiana’s romanticized sporting culture for its pedagogical role in the creation of twenty-first century hoosier (and non-hoosier) bodies. Adopting a theoretical orientation rooted in critical race theory and critical white studies, I argue that Indiana’s basketball culture represents a normalized / normalizing structure underneath which Otherness is reified to produce hypervisible “different” outsiders (non-hoosiers), and invisible “disciplined” insiders (i.e. hoosiers). Utilizing data gleaned over a two-month period spent conducting fieldwork in the “hoosier state” (document analysis, unstructured interviewing, and participant observation), I specifically tailor my analysis to uncover people’s negotiations with – and understandings of – their own relative hoosier or non-hoosier body. Informed by an idealized and culturally revised basketball culture, the “authentic” or “pure” hoosier body is shown to be one that is intrinsically white, masculine, rural, and working class – leaving those marked as Other to experience themselves as such underneath this neoconservative polity.

Carrington, Ben, University of Texas, Austin (bcarrington@autin.utexas.edu)

 

Fear of a Black Athlete in the Age of Obama: Sporting Mythologies, White Ignorance and the Politics of Sport- Allan Ingham Memorial Lecture

 

In this talk I examine the historical circumstances that led to the invention of “the black athlete” at the beginning of the twentieth century and how that particular trope become a fantasmatic figure within the white western imagination. I argue that colonial fears and fantasies about the excesses of black sexuality continue to exercise a hegemonic role in the commodified representation of blackness; the black body occupying a central metonymic site through which racialized “sporting mythologies” of inherent athleticism and animalism operate. These highly sexualized tropes of blackness provide the discursive boundaries through which the black subject is still framed within the global popular media. With the election of Barack Obama to the US Presidency in 2008 many commentators suggested that the high profile of black sports stars had somehow paved the way for white acceptance of black success and authority. Sport, so the argument went, made possible Obama’s victory with the election itself heralding a new post-racial moment in America’s troubled racial history and thus the end of anti-black white racism. Using examples such as Michael Vick, Tiger Woods and Serena Williams, the talk examines the political meanings of race that are produced within and through the white sports/media complex – and the strange, continuing after-life of racism after its putative ending – in the context of the current political backlash to Obama’s modest program of social reform. It is thus argued that the history of western mythologies concerning black sexuality and violence, that are sustained by forms of white ignorance, remain central in helping us to understand the contemporary post/colonial conjuncture and the continuing intra-relationship of racialized ways of seeing, the political, and the field of sport.

 

 

Carter, Thomas F., Chelsea School, University of Brighton, ethnocuba@yahoo.com

The Production of Immobile Sportspersons

The current dominant intertwining of neoliberal capitalist regimes and imperial modes of globalization via the fetishization of global culture has resulted in what I call New Economic Order sport (NEOsport). This peculiar form of organizing sport necessitates specific forms of capital that sport-related professionals require to engage in international migration. This paper focuses on one of these forms of capital, that of mobility. The production of mobility bears a direct relation on a professional’s ability to continue one’s chosen career in sport, and yet, the systematic production of mobility also necessitates the systematic production of immobility. The condition of immobility in which some professionals find themselves exists as a direct dialectical relation to the mobility of others. This paper develops the concept of immobility, an ancillary concept in my recent ethnography on transnational sport migration, within NEOsport. I use one particularly illustrative case study from twelve years of research on transnational migration to demonstrate that professionals’ own production of mobility in order to effect their own transnational migration simultaneously immobilizes other professionals.

 

Carter-Francique, Akilah R., Texas A&M, (arfrancique@hlkn.tamu.edu) with Khrystal Carter

 

Black Female Collegiate Athletes’ Perceptions of Power and Privilege

The purpose of this paper is to understand Black female collegiate athletes’, whom participate in a culturally relevant co-curricular leadership program, self-perceptions of power and privilege. According to researchers, Black women experience “multiple jeaopardies”, and are silenced and stereotyped in society and in the realm of sport. So how does athletic participation impact Black female collegiate athletes self-perception of power within a predominantly White institution of higher education (PWIHE). Employing critical race theory and black feminist thought, this study sought to explicate the transformative dynamic and empowerment elements of a culturally relevant co-curricular leadership program while acknowledging how the Black female collegiate athletes’ intersectionality (e.g., race, gender, class, athletic participation) impact their perspectives and experiences. Utilizing qualitative methods (i.e., observations, interviews, documents) to capture the experiences and voices of Black female collegiate athletes provided insight on their sociocultural and psychosocial development. While the findings are not generalizable, they revealed Black female collegiate athletes have limited experiences and role models to self-assess and employ power within and outside the context of the PWIHE. Thus, creating opportunities and safe spaces in which Black female collegiate athletes can learn, discuss, and receive support when asserting power may be beneficial in and out of the PWIHE context.

Cavalier, Elizabeth, Georgia Gwinnett College, ecavalie@ggc.edu with Elisabeth Burgess

 

Aging Gracefully? Sexuality, Aging, and Community for Gay Masters Athletes

Research on Masters sport suggests that Masters athletes seek both athletic and social communities through their sport participation. A parallel body of research regarding gay sporting clubs notes that gay athletes often flee from dominant heteronormative discourses in straight clubs, and seek solidarity and community around sexuality through their sport participation. Finally, scholarship on aging and sexuality suggests that older gay men desire community networks which are often unavailable to them. This research examines questions at the nexus of these three existing bodies of research. Through six focus groups with 36 male and female members of Masters-level gay swim and aquatic teams, we explore narratives of sexuality, aging, sport, and community. Additionally, we examine how these athletes construct meaning through their participation in sport as gay and lesbian middle-aged and older adults. We conclude that the unique environment of the Masters Swim Club provides aging gay adults with an opportunity to challenge dominate narratives of aging and to sustain a supportive community.

Chawansky, Megan, University of Iowa, mchawansky@yahoo.com

You’re juicy:  (Auto)ethnography as evidence in SDP research

Since gaining momentum in the early 2000s, the sport for development and peace (SDP) movement has increasingly been called upon to provide evidence that documents its effectiveness and ‘proves’ its varied claims of delivering ‘social good’ for people and communities around the world. Though the over 400 NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) that exist under the SDP umbrella frequently utilize narratives or case studies as evidence, this mode is commonly dismissed as anecdotal or not rigorous enough.  This paper aims to consider broad themes of epistemology and methodology in light of calls for evidence-based SDP research by presenting four (auto)ethnographic vignettes from my varied work/research experiences within the SDP field. By utilizing (auto)ethnography and imparting techniques of sensory ethnography (Pink, 2009), I highlight the tensions, contradictions, and assumptions within SDP research regarding evidence, knowledge production, gender, nation, sexuality, race, and Global North/Global South research collaborations and partnerships.  At the same time, I seek to engage Scott’s (1991) persistent questions regarding uncritical reliance on the evidence of (personal) experience.

Choi, Yoonso, University of Illinois, choi130@illinois.edu

Body and Reality Show: Self-Management in Neo-liberal Society

This research examines how bio-power and disciplinary power as a mechanism of form of neoliberal subjectivity operate through Korea body related reality TV shows. For this main discussion, two sub-question were investigated: (a) how women’s body images and body modification through body-related reality shows are contributed to regulate female bodies as “social body”, (b) the reality show as an education tool which is useful to supervise (or manage) population(especially women) in neo-liberal society. Two episodes of Diet War which is one of the popular body-related reality TV shows in Korea were selected. Context analysis was employed to analyze the hidden meanings of the show processing and implications of women’s body image in the show. We found that the diet show plays a key role in providing useful pedagogical information which can help to be a good citizen, it also formulates the discourse of social body by producing several strategies for both participants and viewers to take care of the self at the same time.

Church, Natalie, University of Gloucesterchire, nataliechurch@connect.glos.ac.uk with Becky Horton, Dave Jones, and Katie Chorley, University of Gloucesterchire

Stop, Look, and Uncover! Exposing the Relationship between Religion and Sport

We wish to communicate findings from a collaborative assessment produced for a sports education module entitled ‘Inclusive Physical Activity’ assigned The University of Gloucestershire, UK. The module aimed to develop the attending students understanding of contemporary concepts and trends applicable to inclusive physical activity encouraging, in particular, the exploration of key concepts including equity, equality and inclusion in relation to physical education and sport. As a group we unanimously chose to focus our research on Muslim women and sport, in particular Football and Swimming, particularly since statistical evidence suggested that this cohort were not only the most under-represented minority group in sport (Walseth, 2004) but that they were also the least likely to partake in physical activity when compared to any other ethnic group in the UK (Fishbacher et al. 2004). Critical feminist literature was fundamentally integrated into our research; furthermore our study draws on the voices and experiences of Gloucestershire based British Muslim women and the perceived barriers to full and inclusive participation in football and swimming. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews, digital stories and surveys, findings allowed insight into (a) the experiences of Muslim women in physical activity and physical education classes; and (b) offer an insight into the women’s differing attitudes and motivations for taking part in and/or avoiding participation in these sports as well as highlighting culture-influenced behaviour. Racial prejudice, discrimination, feeling alienated are just some of the themes centralised in this study. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from the findings, for example, whilst a large majority of women (57%) agreed that certain aspects of sport, particularly swimming did discourage them (such as ‘conventional’ attire) many were still keen to pursue sport in some capacity. Given the lack of peer-reviewed and media literature on this subject, we feel this study provides an important starting point from which to (a) continue research, (b) sensitise sports educators and policy makers about the needs to make sports more inclusive and equitable, and (c) inform existing practise to make it more equitable to the needs of faith-based minority groups (in this case the female Muslim cohort) who are keen to pursue sport. More also needs to be done to educate local Muslim communities about looking beyond the stereotypical cultural perceptions of acceptable ‘femininity’.

Ciomaga, Bogdan, Brock University, bc10fs@brocku.ca

Mediating Between Opposing Narratives: the NBA Dress Code, Revisited

Recent studies on the introduction in 2005 of a dress code by the National Basketball Association (Hughes, 2004; McDonald & Toglia, 2010) used critical theory approaches to examine the policy as a reaffirmation of white dominance in the corporate world through the creation of corporate culture policies centered around whiteness-centered values. While accepting the social constructionist premises of these analyses, this study moves beyond the linguistic turn in organizational studies (Chia, 2000; Hall, 2001; Mumby & Clair, 1997), toward the argumentative turn (Hajer, 1993; 2006; Hajer & Laws, 2006), examining narratives against a backdrop of opposing discourses.  Using Roe’s (2003) four-step narrative policy analysis, media articles reflecting the introduction of the dress code were analyzed in order to identify the dominant narratives and counter-narratives. One of the results was the high level of incompatibility between opposing narratives concerning this policy. By re-evaluating the organizational culture narrative, it is shown that a certain trend in the organizational culture research (Alvesson, 1993; Hatch, 1993; Korda, 2003; Martin, 1992; 2002; Sathe, 1983; Smircich, 1983) has the potential to function as a metanarrative bridging the gap between the conflicting narratives identified, paving the way for future mediation and dialogue.



Clark, Marianne, University of Alberta, mclark1@ualberta.ca

Constructing the self through the dancing body: A Foucauldian approach

Dance is identified as one of girls’ favorite physical activities, yet most research in the area of girls’ engagement in physical activity focuses on sport and physical education. The purpose of this study is to explore how girls who dance in commercial dance studios construct a self within the unique cultural context of a dance studio. In my study, I plan to use a Foucauldian framework to describe how the organization of space and bodies within a dance studio, common dance practices, and the dominant discourses that circulate in a dance studio impact the ways girls think about their selves. In this presentation, I provide an overview of the Foucauldian concepts of body, self, and knowledge to explain how they can be used as tools to understand the dancing body/self. This theoretical approach addresses some of the existing gaps in the physical activity and dance literature and can help expand our understandings of health, bodies, and movement in general. In addition, I present ways to use Foucault’s concept to empirically explore girls’ dance experiences and practices within the current neoliberal culture.

 

 

Clark, Marty, Queen’s University, 7mjc@queensu.ca

"Examining ‘Mr. Hockey:’ "Proper" Behaviour and Whiteness in the NHL" (Clark)

Since the incorporation of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1917, the athletes, coaches, managers and owners who have made up the league have been, with few exceptions, white men.  However, the subject of whiteness in hockey has rarely been investigated within the socio-cultural study of sport.  Following the lead of whiteness studies scholars, and critical race scholars who investigate the policing of athlete behaviour, I attempt to “recognize” whiteness in the NHL by investigating the production of a “proper way” to play hockey that has roots in a British form of white masculinity.  As the NHL grew in popularity and profitability during the 1950s and 1960s, Gordie Howe (a.k.a. “Mr. Hockey”) became a powerful representation of how the game “should be played.” In this paper I conducted a discourse analysis of several media sources and biographies in order to investigate dominant representation(s) of Howe.  I argue that while Howe was offensively talented, his physically aggressive style of play combined with his rational, reserved, and unemotional character became an increasingly important aspect of his image that has since been used to signify “proper” hockey behaviour and thus (re)produce discourses of whiteness in professional hockey.

Clift, Bryan C., University of Maryland, bclift5@gmail.com with David L. Andrews, University of Maryland

Running with Neoliberalism: Stewardship of the Homeless in Baltimore

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor shimmers as a built testament to a three decade transformation from a city primarily focused on managing the welfare of its citizenry, to one preoccupied with the entrepreneurial restructuring of the city as a motor of private capital accumulation (Harvey, 2001; Ong, 2006; Silk & Andrews, 2006). The pervasive and invasive spread of such reformative tentacles has created a “roll-with-it” sensibility (Keil, 2009), wherein many public services and agencies have fallen by the wayside. Some, though by no means all, of the resulting shortfall in social welfare provision has come through the volunteerist contributions of private citizens and organizations. This project provides an empirically-grounded explication of one such private initiative: namely, the Baltimore chapter of Back On My Feet (BOMF). A non-profit organization, BOMF’s aims are to promote “the self-sufficiency of homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem.” Within this study, we accomplish two specific goals through ethnographically-based inquiry (Wolcott, 2008): first, to understand and articulate how individual members ascribe meaning to the running group and their participation; and second, to explicate how individual and collective understandings (re)configure tensions among personal growth, social responsibility, health and well-being, and citizen governance.

Cooky, Cheryl, Purdue University, ccooky@purdue.edu and Shari L. Dworkin, UCSF, shari.dworkin@ucsf.edu

Running Down What Comes Naturally: Gender Verification and South Africa’s Caster Semenya

Using content and textual analysis, we explore the ways in which the controversy surrounding South African track star Caster Semenya, and her possible intersexuality were framed by mainstream print media in the United States and in South Africa. First, we analyze the ways in which Semenya was framed as a “fallen hero” in United States print news media reports given her alleged sex/gender liminality. Next,we examine how South African media offered different framings of Semenya that contested her fallen status by using arguments related to gender, nationalism, sexism, and racism. We conclude by contextualizing Caster Semenya’s fall and rise within broader socio-political dynamics and tensions that include an assessment of power relations between the Global North and Global South.

Cooper, Joseph N., University of Georgia, joeycoop@uga.edu with Joey Gawrysiak

Racial Trends in Baseball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The increasing underrepresentation of Black baseball players in the Major League Baseball (MLB) raises concerns about the racial climate of the sport in regards to Black participation.  The purpose of this study is to identify demographic backgrounds, participation patterns, and racial perceptions of Black male student-athletes who participated in baseball at two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the southeastern U.S. HBCUs were selected for this study because of the dearth of research on student-athletes at these institutions.  The welcome theory along with additional biological, cultural, social-structural, and psychological explanations for sport participation will be used as frameworks in this study.  A mixed methods approach involving an 11-item questionnaire and a focus group interview will be used in this study.  A grounded theoretical approach will be employed to examine demographic backgrounds, participation patterns, and racial perceptions of Black male student athletes who participated in baseball at HBCUs.  Findings from this study will inform policies and strategies geared towards increasing Black participation in baseball at all levels (professional, intercollegiate, and interscholastic).

Cork, Stephanie, Queen’s University, 5sc8@queensu.ca

 

“Come with me if you want to live” : Interrogating Ability in a Posthuman Era

 

The image of the cyborg utilized within Science Fiction representations perpetuates technophobia, a fear of futuristic super-human entities. This vision conflicts with modern biotechnological innovations. Because the cyborg is seen as a violation, this non-human body brings to the fore the question of essential “humanness” (Swartz and Watermeyer2009). Donna Haraway (1991) interrogates this cyborg trope within her Cyborg Manifesto, in which she begins to break down binaries established between organic Self and mechanic Other. Haraway argues that in twenty-first century cyborg bodies exist everywhere. This paper looks to the advanced cybernetic interface embodied within prosthetics (both bionic and static) used for both everyday life and high-performance sport. Using Paralympic athletes such as Aimee Mullins’ and Oscar Pistorius’ this paper will interrogate the binary divisions between human and animal, organism and machine and finally the physical and non-physical through the facts/fictions that surround the image of the cyborg (Wilson 2009; Graham1999). Disability studies (theory) can be utilized to complicate simplistic negative visions of the future, in an attempt to reconcile the fears of the cyborg body with its subversive potential.

Coyle, Maureen, University of Toronto, maureen.coyle@utoronto.ca

In Praise of Older Students?

The benefits of regular exercise are generally well understood by older people: firmer muscle tone, lower cholesterol, better circulation among them. Exercise has been shown to contribute to regular sleeping patters, increased attention, decreased tension, and higher levels of positive affect. The reasons older people give for not exercising regularly have been duly noted in the academic literature: lack of time;  family commitments feeling too tired, and fear of injury. However, in an auto ethnographic study of athletic and physical activities offered at the University of Toronto, and interviews with my fellow older students, (45 and above) there have emerged yet more reasons for this cohort of students not to avail themselves of exercise programs at the University. At the same time universities are marking a solidly steady increase in enrollment by students over thirty five, that same group turning away from the athletic and activity programs on campus. So what is it like for an older student to display the limits of the body in the Temple of Youth? Can it be that we Sport Sociologists have missed an important piece to the puzzle of exercise adherence on our own turf?




Crossman, Jane, Lakehead University, jcrossma@lakeheadu.ca with John Vincent, University of Alabama, jvincent@bamaed.ua.edu

Patriots at play: An analysis of the newspaper coverage of the gold medal contenders in men’s and women’s ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

  

This study compared how The Globe and Mail and The New York Times covered The United States and Canadian  female and male ice hockey teams competing in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Textual analysis was used to analyze how the gendered themes intersected with national identity in the narratives. Theoretical insight was drawn from Connell’s (1987, 1990, 2005) theory of gender power relations, Anderson’s (1983) concept of the imagined community, and Hobsbawn’s (1983) theory of invented traditions. Four themes emerged: the future of hockey at the Winter Olympic Games, post-game celebrations, gendered discourses and the importance of the gold medal games. A discussion of each theme is presented.

 

Crosset, Todd, University of Massachusetts Amhers, ttcrosset@isenberg.umass.edu

Café de Champion and the New Negro: Toward a new understanding of Black heavyweight, Jack Johnson

A century ago, the bubbling stew of black enterprise, mass culture, and a sporting subculture characterized the Chicago Black Renaissance. The Chicago Renaissance, in contrast to the Harlem Renaissance, has been discounted by scholars as a site of enterprise, but not of ideas and art. More recently, scholars have argued that consumption habits are indicators of race consciousness and hence black owned businesses along “The Stroll” are “sites of knowledge production”. At the center of the Chicago Renaissance are Jack Johnson and his resort, “Café’ de Champion”. Central in the marketplace of ideas are the transgressive social and sexual interracial relationship of “The Stroll”, Johnson’s Café and his “private” life.

This paper takes as its point of departure Baldwin’s (2003) contention that Jack Johnson is an intellectual. For the most part, Johnson has been theorized and dismissed as simply the “the bad black man”; the first black heavyweight champ, whose open relationships with white women enraged Pre WWI white America.

This paper hopes to reframe Johnson as a leading “voice” of the “New Negro”, an alternative to both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. Johnson’s approach to race relations is shaped by the aspiration for a black metropolis, the practice of slumming, the commercialization of leisure, and a tolerance of diverse sexual practices. In this paper, Johnson’s approach to race and his response to the solidification of Jim Crow will be contrasted with Dubois and the early years of the NAACP. In addition, the paper critically explores overlap and tension between Johnson and the Pre WW Iwhite, feminist, fre- love movement.

Curtis, Amanda, University of Iowa, amanda-curtis@uiowa.edu

 “Princess or Player?: Women’s Sport Film and the Disney Prototype”

Based on Jean O’Reilly’s study comparing female sport films to the Hollywood melodrama, this paper contends that a similar parallel can be drawn between women’s sports films and Disney films.  Recent sport films featuring women have generally been received as embodying certain feminist characteristics by the general public but upon closer inspection they actually follow the restrictive gender conventions of Disney’s animated movies which have long been the subject of critical scrutiny over their portrayals of class, race and gender with their characters.  The female sport movie has notably come a long way in its gender representations.  Female protagonists are more complex, reflecting more contemporary issues of gender and depicting more active, independent heroines.  Nevertheless, women’s sports films, similar to Disney’s animated movies, still portray rather traditional, and sometimes patriarchal, notions in these films.  It is widely accepted that Disney films are criticized for these antiquated notions of gender however it seems to be widely believed that women’s sports films are generally progressive and represent feminist notions.  Showing how women’s sport films actually mirror Disney films and how the Disney princess and the female athlete are essentially the same character will create a more critical eye towards women’s sports films.

Dane, Emily, St. John Fisher College, edane@sjfc.edu

Constructing the Sporting Classroom

Little of graduate coursework is focused on instructional design and classroom teaching techniques.  However, upon hire, individuals are expected to know a formula to engage students and to teach the specifics of a given discipline.  The foundation of constructivist learning is about creating knowledge and not simply consuming information. Drawing on educational and psychological theory, this paper outlines a 6 element framework of constructivist learning design (CLD) and integrates strategies relevant for a sport classroom.  By using these elements, instructors are attempting to reach true learning, not just a memorization of fact.  The overall framework and each individual element will be discussed and then strategies such as the Fishbowl, Slide Parade, Talking in Circles, and group selection options will be introduced.  The benefit of this approach to the classroom is that it is not topic specific, but when used correctly can be implemented in a variety of settings.

Danzey-Bussell, Leigh Ann, Ball State University, drbussell@bsu.edu with Brenda Riemer

What women want, what women need:  Mentoring development, not gender

Daloz (1987) painted the following picture of mentors as a guide in the journey of our lives, who (a) offer sage advice; (b) are trustworthy; (c) interpret mysteries and ward of dangers; and (d) share in our accomplishments along the way.  Farren (2006) further defined mentoring as a learning and developing partnership between a current professional with extensive experience/knowledge in a specific area toward a protégé who is on a quest of knowledge and guidance from the relationship. Balancing the triad (research, teaching, and service) on the path to promotion and tenure is critical to advancement and avoidance of burnout.  This investment in our future is critical, but research on mentoring within sport studies remains elusive. Current faculty need to be aggressive in establishing a formalized system for mentoring new faculty as we are responsible for the future of our discipline; especially mentoring our own endangered species, tenured female faculty (Massengale, 2009; Pastore, 2002; Weaver & Chelladurai, 1999).  If, what Farren (2006) defined as mentoring is our ultimate goal, then how are we doing?  This research identifies mentor-protégé relationship expectations, gender differences and similarities and what changes are necessary to facilitate this career necessity.

Dashper, Kate, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK,
k.dashper@leedsmet.ac.uk

Gender integration in action: Men, women and equestrian sport


Equestrian sport is the only Olympic-level sport in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms, and thus it offers an opportunity to consider the implications of gender integration in competitive sport. The segregation of sport along binary sex lines is a long-established tradition and helps reinforce the belief that men and women are categorically different, with men perceived as athletically superior. Gender integration is seen as a radical, often unworkable, suggestion and yet it has been operating within the supposedly traditional sport of equestrianism for over sixty years. This paper draws on interviews with 33 competitive riders in order to explore their experiences of training, working and competing within a gender-integrated sporting realm. Drawing on Eric Anderson’s inclusive masculinity theory, I argue that gender integration within equestrian sport allows for a proliferation of acceptable gender identities and a decrease in the importance of sexual difference to the assessment of sporting ability and performance. However, despite these positive aspects, the influence of wider conservative gender norms still works to disadvantage women at the top levels of equestrian sport, especially when childcare and family responsibilities are taken into account.

Davidson, Judy, University of Alberta
Email, judy.davidson@ualberta.ca


Sexually Exceptional: Rethinking Queer Sport Sociology 




In recent years, scholars Samantha King and Mary McDonald (among others) have suggested that the analysis of non-normative sexualities in sport studies suffers from a lack of robust critical interrogation. The reductive sketch of this critique is that a singular focus on sexual identity has precluded serious examination of other regimes of normalization at play in these analyses. Concomitantly, two critical scholars in queer cultural studies and philosophy have offered different, but I will argue, potentially complementary possibilities that provide a starting point to address these aporias in this area of the sport sociology field. Jasbir Puars’ notion of sexual exceptionalism in the production of homonationalism, and Ladelle McWhorters’ reading of Foucaults’ racism against the abnormal, are productive heuristics to critically reconsider the queer sociology of sport. In this paper, by way of example, I will suggest that events such as the Gay Games appear to be a late 20th century contradiction of modernity. On the one hand, their success is the productive effect of a set of social justice struggles against oppression. On the other hand, the unanticipated socio-political effects simultaneously set the conditions of possibility for a queer sporting manifestation of post- 9/11, white, bourgeois sexual exceptionalism.


Davis-Delano, Laurel R., Springfield College, Laurel_R_Davis-Delano@spfldcol.edu

“Sport as Context for the Development of Women’s Same-Sex Relationships”

The purpose of this study was to explore how different activities that women engage in affect (or do not affect) the development of their same-sex attractions and relationships. I utilized 56 semi-structured interviews with women who had at least one same-sex relationship before age 30.  These subjects ranged in age from 18-67. Half of them played significant amounts of sport. As an activity, sport was often conducive to the formation of my subjects’ same-sex attractions and relationships, yet it sometimes hindered the development of these attractions and relationships. The presence of homophobia on particular sport teams was the factor that hindered the development of these attractions and relationships. But, there were numerous characteristics of sport experiences that contributed to the conducive nature of sport. These characteristics are identified and described in this presentation. These characteristics include: (a) sex segregation, (b) experiences that facilitate comfort with and appreciation of women, (c) the presence of lesbians, (d) acceptance of lesbianism, (e) experiences that contribute to bonding (especially spending lots of time with other females in situations of high emotional intensity), and (f) drawing girls/women together who are similar and contributing to their similarity.

DeLuca, Jamie, Towson University, jdeluca@towson.edu

Exercising social class privilege: The reproduction of happy, healthy kids

Cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu asserts that social class is defined by the interplay and operation of various forms of capital and, as such, is thought to be a significant determinant of an individual’s everyday experiences, understandings, and identities.  He believes that participation in private sport communities, such as swimming clubs, can contribute to one’s social standing by positioning “the body-for-others,” distinguishing those maintaining a privileged lifestyle, and transferring valuable skills, characteristics, and social connections to children for the purposes of class reproduction (Bourdieu, 1978, p. 838).  Drawing on Bourdieu, through four years of ethnographic engagement at the Valley View Swim and Tennis Club (a pseudonym), this research discusses how this upper-middle class pool club functions as a physical space, or cultural field, serving to promote children’s acquisition of physical capital and the tools to live a healthy, physically active lifestyle emblematic of their social class position.  Specifically, I argue that membership at Valley View is a strategic consumption choice offering parents a distinct opportunity to facilitate their number one childrearing goal: to reproduce happy, healthy children.

 

Denison, Jim and Joe Mills, University of Alberta, jim.denison@ualberta.ca

 

Modern coaching: Problematizing coaching’s disciplinary techniques

 

“Being a coach” largely revolves around the practice of planning what athletes need to do in training to improve and develop their potential. Three components of training that coaches control, and that greatly influence athletes’ capabilities, are the training spaces used, the monitoring of time, and the organization of exercises. The consideration of these elements, and their impact on athletes’ progression and capacity for performance, derive from Michel Foucault’s (1995) analysis of disciplinary techniques. In this talk we examine Foucault’s conceptualization of discipline and its ‘effects’ on athletes’ bodies, as well as how coaches can enhance their understanding of planning and athlete development by problematizing what they have their athletes do.

 

Donnelly, Peter, University of Toronto, peter.donnelly@utoronto.ca

Toward a concept of physical cultural capital?: The case of multiculturalism

At the risk of proliferating the ‘capitals’ that are currently being proposed (I recently heard ‘erotic capital’), I want to explore the possibility that the various physical cultural practices found in ethnocultural communities represent what might be termed physical cultural capital. The term may work in the sense employed by Bourdieu (1986), as an aspect of cultural capital. In other words, physical cultural practices may be employed to achieve distinction, e.g., a specific identity. The term may also be seen in the sense employed by Putnam (1993, 2000) as an aspect of social capital that enriches the community; although it is important to consider the bridging and bonding alternatives of physical cultural capital. In one sense, physical cultural capital may be seen as another strategy in achieving what Bhabha (2003) terms the ‘right to narrate’ – physical cultural forms become another way for a community to tell its story.

 

Dzikus, Lars, University of Tennessee, ldzikus@utk.edu ,Steven N. Waller, University of Tennessee, swaller2@utk.edu, and Robin Hardin, University of Tennessee, robh@utk.edu

License to Minister: Sport Chaplain Training Programs

Recent studies have described collegiate sport chaplaincy as an emergent profession in the United States (Dzikus, Waller, & Hardin, 2011; Waller, Dzikus, & Hardin, 2010). Compared to spiritual care professionals who serve in the military, prisons, or hospitals, there are no standardized certification criteria for chaplains in collegiate athletic departments. This means some chaplains potentially work with athletes without the necessary preparation and training. In addition, legal and ethical issues have been raised about public colleges and universities providing privileged access to sport ministry organizations and their chaplains (Griffin, 1998; Waller, Dzikus, & Hardin, 2008). This paper provides an exploratory analysis of sport chaplain training programs at Auburn University, a public institution in Auburn, Alabama, and at Baylor University, a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas. The study is based on textual analyses of media representations and promotional materials, as well as interviews. The findings show that the relevance of legal/constitutional and some ethical issues depend on the setting of the school, whereas questions regarding the training and credentialing of sport chaplains cut across the two cases. Auburn and

Baylor not only present two different settings (public/private), but also two different approaches to professional training for sport chaplains.

Eikleberry, Sarah Jane, University of Iowa, sarah-eikleberry@uiowa.edu

Accidental Hero: Sam Bradford and Narratives of Racial Ideology, Belonging, and Forgetting

This paper aims to explore the announcement and consequent media deployment of 2008 Heisman Award winner, Sam Bradford’s hybrid racial identity. In October of the 2007 season Oklahoma’s sport information department published Bradford’s status as a "certified Cherokee Indian."  Bradford, an Oklahoma native raised on the golf course and grid irons of a middle class Oklahoma City enclave was named as a "role model," "accidental hero," and "native son" by local and national media. In this essay I  approach Sam Bradford as a multifunctional cultural text that has become what Dave Andrews terms a "floating racial signifier" for indigenous communities purported by mainstream to be  seeking  a symbol of racial uplift. The lionizing of bloodlines contributes to a discourse of racial purity while emphasizing essential qualities associated with Indianness. In short, the ways readers come to know Bradford’s hybrid identity through a narrative that is shaped by the fetishization of blood. This narrative has and continues to socially, historically, and politically construct Cherokee identity while naturalizing a continued discourse of belonging and otherness for Oklahomans, indigenous and otherwise.

Esmonde, Katelyn, Purdue University, kesmonde@purdue.edu

Examining Race and Gender In Sports Blogs’ Response to Violence


Using the cases of LeGarrette Blount, a black male University of Oregon football player, and Brittney Griner, a black female Baylor University basketball player, both of whom punched players on an opposing team, this paper examines the intersection of race and gender in online media’s response to violence in sports.  Articles that were published in the top American sports blogs as identified by Wikio News are analyzed based on blame attribution, descriptions of the “punchees,” and the reactions to the punches themselves.  The “Fall From Grace” model, which considers the positionalities of the athletes involved in violence in analyzing the degree of stigma that is attached to their respective acts, is put forward to explain the disparities in the blogs’ treatment of Blount and Griner.  The greater acceptance for Blount’s violence, which included praise for his punching ability, and the extensive ascription of blame to others, is attributed to the cultural attribution of violence as a masculine and “black” trait.  Griner’s treatment was less sympathetic, and this is attributed to norms of femininity.  The “fall from grace” for an athlete is much more severe when their behaviour is not in line with raced and gendered expectations.

Fagan, Kara, University of Iowa, kara-e-fagan@uiowa.edu

Neither “STIHL the One” – The Branding of a Sport

Though much critical attention has been devoted to the lumber industry, very little has been written about lumber sport competitions in any academic discipline. In this paper I explore the tensions between professional shows, like those hosted by the power tool company STIHL, and local competitions typically hosted at fairs or festivals, and consider the impact, commercial and otherwise, that STIHL will continue to have on the sport. The major difference between local shows and professional events like STIHL competitions is the former’s emphasis on an authentic, or folk, regional logging history and strong sense of community belonging. Though many credit STIHL with garnering attention for the sport and increasing participation, I conclude that the corporatization and “spectacularization” of the sport have serious drawbacks, especially for those invested in foregrounding the folk history of the sport and for women looking to succeed at the collegiate and professional levels. In examining corporate encroachment in a marginal sport, I argue that the structural control in STIHL competitions fosters gender inequality. Throughout the paper I interweave observations and results compiled at two key competitions/events held in 2011 and include excerpts taken from personal interviews with several former lumber athletes.

Farooq, Samaya, University of Gloucestershire, sfarooq@glos.ac.uk

‘Proud Brits’, ‘Heterosexy Girls’, ‘Tomboys’ and ‘Buxom Bullies’: Unpacking the Self/Bodywork Politics of the British Muslim Women’s Basketball Team’.

Muslim women, indeed their (lack of) engagement in contemporary sports has attracted much attention. There is now a burgeoning literature that explores the lived experiences of struggle that Muslim women face when seeking to overcome (practical and ideological) boundaries that may limit their full participation in sport. Much of this work is, however, framed within uncritical and essentialist assumptions that position Muslim women as the invariable ‘Other’. ‘Muslim women’ and their presence is thus frequently understood in and through the monolithic categories of oppression, veils, passivity and domesticity. Such knowledge has infiltrated the SOS literature informing, in particular, discussions of Muslim sportswomen that position ‘Them’ as ‘rare commodities’, ‘exotic novelties’ or ‘marginalised aphysical’ beings. Not only is talk of Muslim women’s agentic capacity to challenge parochialism overlooked, but so too are discussions about what and who lies beneath the (body) veil. It is against this wider backdrop that I position this paper. Adopting a post-colonial feminist consciousness rooted in the politics of Asian and Islamic feminism, this ethnographic study centralizes the oral testimonies of the British Muslim women’s basketball team. Findings about ‘proud brits’ uncovers the different ways in which women monopolise basketball in their self/identity work to move beyond their under-classed ‘outsider’ ‘Other’ status and enjoy diverse elements of their cultural syncretism. The discussion of ‘heterosexy girls’, ‘tomboys’ and ‘buxom bullies’, on the other hand, unpacks how the women use their self-carved-out non-hegemonic “sporty space” to play out their individual differences. The degree to which women’s complex self/body politics both subvert and confirm conventional notions of ‘gender’ and heterosexual femininity is centralised, highlighting the extent to which Muslims women’s (post-colonial) self/bodies remain contested spaces that are always being fought for and re-imagined

vis-à-vis wider socio-cultural and political mandates.

Feres, Alfredo, Brasília University  alfredo.feres@gmail.com

The body draft ‘avatars’: Experience of young Brazilian university students

in Cyberculture

Ferreira, Ana Leticia Padeski, Universidade Federal do Paraná,analeticiaferreira@gmail.com

Wanderley Marchi Júnior – Universidade Federal do Paraná, wmarchijr@gmail.com

The constitution of Sport Sociology’s field in Brazil

This paper describes the process through which the constitution of the Sport Sociology field emerged in Brazil. Our hypothesis is that it involved scholars from both sociology and physical education. We map the departments in which relevant M.A. dissertations and doctoral theses were written as well as sport sociology papers published in sociology and physical education journals. We present data on authors, theoretical frameworks used, and the focus of the works. We also plan to interview key scholars in the field as well. The overall goal of the work is to identify the developmental paths through which Sport Sociology has emerged in Brazil.

Filgueria de Almeida, Dulce, Brasília University dulce@unb.br with Thais Queiroz, Graduate Student, Scholarship / CNPq/ Brasília

University

Body, Culture and Techniques: a perspective from Latin American

(Brasilian) Researchers

This paper reviews Latin American literature with the goal of identifying how the body is analyzed by authors in their studies. For this, we searched SciELO, Lilacs and Google Scholar databases and the library collections at Brasília University, using a word search for body, subjectivity, syncretism, and Mauss body technique. We have completed a preliminary analysis of 22 articles and 3 dissertations. At this point, our

analysis has identified five groups including body techniques, religion, health, arts, sexuality, and physical education/sports and to construct this paper we choose the body techniques and religion aspects to do the preliminary analysis. During the analysis we used a conceptual framework constructed by Body and Society, a research group composed of faculty in Physical Education and the Institute of Social Sciences at Brasília University, supported in the category of "body techniques" proposed by Marcel Mauss (2003) and the concepts like self-presentation and social roles formulated by Erving Goffman (2009) in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

Flanagan, Katie, Florida State University, kflanagan@fsu.edu

Sporting a Skort: Materiality, Surveillance, and the Performance of Identity

This paper explores the intersecting vectors of power, surveillance, and identity relating to technologies of material culture as located within the so-called ‘skort,’ or running skirt. It presents a cultural history of the skort, situating it within historical debates over femininity and sport, and contemporary arguments over the commercial branding of the feminine ideal. The author also presents and discusses the findings of her participant-observation that she performed in a group fitness studio on multiple occasions dressed in three different exercise outfits: a running skirt, a pair of shorts, and a sweat suit. With a focus on the skort experience, the themes of identity performance and mirrored surveillance in relation to the matrices of power acting on the body highlight the results of this ethnographic experience.

Friedman, Michael, University of Maryland, ftbleacher@aol.com with Sam Bernstein

“Instead, we have racecars”: The Baltimore Grand Prix and the Politics of Redevelopment 

On September 4, 2011, the city of Baltimore hosted the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix (BGP).  The race, preparations for which required more than $8 million in public spending, is part of a four decade strategy of public investments in sport and recreation towards attracting visitors and tourists into downtown Baltimore for consumption purposes (Friedman, Andrews & Silk, 2004; Levine, 1987).  While civic leaders intended for economic redevelopment to create widespread benefit for city residents, previous research has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of this strategy as the Inner Harbor area continues to require subsidies that exceed tax collections while economic disparities in Baltimore continue to widen (Hamilton & Kahn, 1997; Harvey, 2001).  With the BGP occurring just nine days prior to the city’s Democratic Party mayoral primary election that will essentially determine the city’s mayor for the next four years, this paper examines the BGP as a political issue and symbol as candidates define their economic development priorities and visions for Baltimore’s future.  To do so, this research utilizes multiple qualitative methods, including interviews with key decision makers and political figures, textual analysis of media reports, and ethnographic observation.

Frost, Dennis J., Kalamazoo College, Dennis.Frost@kzoo.edu

Under Pressure: The Origins and Impact of the Tokyo Paralympics

In November 1964, Japan became only the third country to host the international Paralympic Games. Although the 1964 Paralympics were dramatically overshadowed by the Tokyo Olympics held one month earlier, the Paralympic Games attracted widespread popular and media attention, making this international event an ideal site for exploring Japanese perceptions of and responses to the disabled body.  At the time, Olympic venues were not expected to host the Paralympics.  Tracing the origins of the Tokyo Paralympics, this paper explores why Japan, a country largely overlooked in histories of disability and disability rights, opted to host these games.  Examinations of the planning and preparations for these games reveals a complex picture involving intersecting personal, local, national, and transnational factors and actors, all of which culminated in intense pressure to hold the games in Tokyo immediately following the Olympics.  In the end, the Tokyo Paralympics were widely hailed as a success and generally credited with raising disability awareness in Japan.  Nevertheless, analysis of press coverage and official marketing materials suggests that organizers and promoters relied upon medicalized representations of disability that invoked transnational discourses without necessarily advocating broader changes in views of or approaches to disability in Japanese society.

Gabay, Danielle, OISE/University of Toronto, d.gabay@utoronto.ca

Black Female Student-Athletes in Canadian Higher Education

Despite the documented history of women?s athletics and minority students? participation in Canadian post-secondary institutions, little is known about minority female student-athletes and about their experiences within Canadian higher education. The dearth of information on the student experience of minority student-athletes is paradoxical, considering the academic and athletic legacy of this subgroup of students and the noted importance of the student experience and athletic participation within Canadian universities.  Thus, the aim of this study is to gather data on the experiences of Black female undergraduates who participate in athletics, to gain an understanding of their experiences as students, as athletes, and as Black women. This qualitative study will utilize an intersectional framework to explore the ways in which socially and culturally constructed categories such as race, gender and class, interact simultaneously to shape individuals? experiences.  As this study is a work in progress, this paper will provide an overview of the study and initial findings.

Gawrysiak, Joey, University of Georgia, joey31@uga.edu

Racial Identification and Role Model Selection Effects on Sport Interest

Sports in modern society are often times seen as racially divided.  The purpose of this study is to determine if self racial identification and role model selection of high school students affects sport interest.  This research aims to discover if racial separation transcends professional and collegiate sports into high schools.  Cultural, social, biological, and psychological explanations along with various theories are discussed as reason for sport participation patterns.  Surveys were taken by high school seniors at a southeastern high school to determine how they identify themselves racially and to see what their sport interest is and who their role models are.  Simple group comparisons along with basic descriptive statistics were used to determine that different racial groups tended to gravitate towards particular sports and that role model selection affected sport interest of particular races.  Pie charts were constructed to illustrate the differences in sport interest and role model selection according to race.  With students being socialized into particular sports according to their self identified race, future interest in sports can not only be reproduced as racially unequal, but may be further amplified as these ideas are passed down to future generations.     

Genovese, Jason, Bloomsburg University of PA, jgenoves@bloomu.edu

 

The Villainization of LeBron James

 

 

LeBron James’ “Decision” in the summer of 2010 was perhaps the most ballyhooed and talked about free agency case in the history of professional sports. The media spectacle surrounding the basketball superstar’s courtship served to distract both fans and journalists from the labor issues involved in James’ choice to take his “talents to South Beach.” Moreover, this paper examines the resulting fallout from James’ labor decision and the sports media’s role in the subsequent villainization of LeBron James. An analysis of newspaper, television and Internet content, from the ESPN generated television special announcing James’ “Decision” to reaction to his post game comments following the Miami Heat’s NBA Finals defeat, explores how race has factored into the attitudes and perceptions of those in the sports media toward James and aims to provide increased awareness of the degree to which the sports media exploits the superstardom of the athletes it covers and promotes.

Giardina, Michael D., Florida State University, mgiardina@fsu.edu with Joshua I. Newman, Florida State University, jinewman@fsu.edu

 

Living Biopolitics: Physical Culture and Embodied Research Acts

Who is claiming the body? Who claims how we should know the body, its uses, and its effects? Whose interests intercede upon our everyday lives, and the everyday uses of our own individual bodies? This paper presents a treatise on the ‘body’ as a critical site of power and authority within the global free market, especially as related to public pedagogies of the body that have been marshaled into the mainstream during neoliberalism. More specifically, it attends to the intersections of science, pedagogy, and political economy, locating the body in those historical structures and conditions that overdetermine meaning, identity, and opportunity.

Gill, Emmett Jr., North Carolina Central University, egill1@nccu.edu

 

The Impact of an Intensive Learning Program (ILP), with Mentoring, on Black Football Student-Athletes Grade Point Average

 

In 1991 the NCAA passed bylaw 16.3.1 mandating general academic counseling and tutoring for Division One student-athletes (Brady, 1999). ASCDU’s practice models vary across Division One athletic departments. Some student-athlete academic support efforts include eligibility monitoring, skills deficiency assessments, tutorial assistance, and study hall (Figler & Figler, 1984). While other models include orientation, academic advising, academic progress reports, workshops, and use of peer mentors presents another student-athlete academic support practice model (Gunn & Eddy, 1989). The purpose of this study is to describe the content of a student-athlete Intensive Learning Program (ILP), with a mentoring component, and its effectiveness in increasing the grade point average (GPA) of Black male student-athletes. The study utilizes mixed-methods including a pre/post-test one group design with participant observation. The dependent samples t-test indicates that there are significant differences in the GPA of Black male football student-athletes enrolled in the ILP program between the fall and spring semesters (t₍₂₁₎ = -1.38, p<.10). However, the primary focus of this paper presentation is to describe and processes how academic support staff (academic advisors and learning specialists) formally (EDUC 101 class and academic advising meetings) and informally (practice, team meals and impromptu campus encounters) mentor Black student-athletes.

 

Gill, Emmett Jr., North Carolina Central University, egill1@nccu.edu, Charles Crowley, California University of Pennsylvania, Algerian Hart, Western Illinois University, and Dana Massengale, Texas Tech University

 

The Impact of NCAA Enforcement on Black Student-Athlete Well Being

This session will explore the impact of NCAA enforcement policies, procedures, and processes on student-athlete development. The primary population of interest is Black student-athletes, who compete in revenue-generating sports, at Predominately White Institutions (PWI’s). Over the last two years the NCAA has investigated 10 high-profile Division One athletic programs due to violations in academic fraud and amateurism bylaws. One hundred percent of the student-athletes involved in these investigations are Black and all were ruled temporarily or permanently ineligible. An NCAA investigation, and subsequent penalties, can impact Black male and female student-athletes psychological well-being, faculty and non-student-athlete peer relationships, progress towards graduation, athletic and non-athletic reputations and attachment to stereotypes. The first session segment will review select NCAA investigations including the case at the University of North Carolina. The second segment will focus the consequences produced by investigations including being ostracized from coaches and teammates, labeled by the media and frowned upon by faculty and non-student-athlete peers. Next, the panel will hypothesize how investigations impact Black student-athlete well-being with a focus on their non-athletic identity and academic well-being. Lastly, the participants will discuss how athletic department leadership can minimize the damage to the well-being of student-athletes involved in NCAA investigations.

Gilbert, Michelle, McMaster University, gilbermp@mcmaster.ca

Women in Equestrian Polo

A significant development in sport over the last century is the greater involvement of women resulting from transformations in the gender order. Studies in the sociology of sport document the gradual decline of sport as a male preserve. Women continue to encounter significant structural barriers to involvement in sport; however, the social conditions for participation are greatly improved. In most instances, equestrian events feature men and women competing alongside and against one another. There are, however, equestrian events that are slower to respond to pressures for greater gender equity, the prime example being polo. This paper examines the shifting gender dynamics within equestrian polo in Canada. Consistent within equestrian sport in North America, women have a long history of participation in polo even though the sport is and has been primarily dominated by men. Lately, though, as in the case of sport in general, polo has undergone a transformation as participation among women in polo has increased and women have taken on more active and prominent positions in the sport. This paper aims to better understand the experiences of women polo players, the challenges they face, and their influence on the sport generally.

Gillett, James, McMaster University, gillett@mcmaster.ca

Horses vs Bikes: Conceptualizing Interspecies Relations in Equestrian Sport

A critical dialogue has emerged in recent years about social relations between humans and nonhumans in a range of different public and private spheres. In sport this dialogue has raised numerous questions.  What is the social status of animals participating in sport? How should non-humans participate in sport? Should non-humans participate in sports that involve violence, spectacle or exploitation? How are nonhuman species managed in the interest of sport enterprises? Many of the questions raised in this dialogue hinge on the way non-humans are conceptualized within social relations.  Harraway’s concept of ‘companion species’ is one recent effort to understand the place of nonhumans within social relations that move beyond a conceptual nature versus culture dichotomy. It is unclear, however, whether the idea of companion species fits well as a guiding concept in the context of equestrian sports. In this paper I move toward a critical conceptualization of the horse in equestrian sport. As a case study and empirical basis for this critical reflection I explore the perspectives of modern pentathletes toward the contribution that horses make to their sport. This specific case study is interesting in that there is a long standing debate in the sport about whether the equestrian component should be replaced with cycling.  The perspectives of participants on this issue provide an empirical basis by which to discuss some of the micro-ethical issues current within interspecies sport.         

Godoy, Letícia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, leticiagodoy@uol.com.br

Beatriz Cristina Godoy, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Brazil

Public Policy and the Federal Office of Sport In Brazil: Contributions to the National System

This study involves a descriptive analysis of the influence of Brazilian federal law on the organization of the national sports system in Brazil. In 1988, sport and guidelines for sport organization was for the first time included in Brazil’s Constitution. This meant that the state assumed a formal commitment to promote particular structure and actions related to formal and informal sports, as integral to the social rights of Brazilians. The questions which guide this research assume that there is a relationship between the federal law, the organizational structure adopted by the state, and the actions proposed in connection with sports. In our analysis we investigate how the general relationship between the actions of the Brazilian state and federal law has influenced the creation of a formal national sport system in Brazil. Our methodological approach is based on Laurence P. Bardin’s approach to content analysis and Eni Orlandi’s approach to discourse analysis. Our discussion is framed and guided by Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory which led us to focus on the conflicts, interactions, and institutionalized arrangements of supply and demand that integrate and influence actors in the formalization of Brazil’s national sport system.

Gordon, Brian S., University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, gordon.bria@uwlax.edu , Chia-Chen Yu, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse Yin-Hua Liaw, National Formosa University, Taiwan

International Fans’ Motivations towards U.S. Sports: Examining Fans in Taiwan

Taiwanese sports fans have demonstrated a strong interest in U.S. sports as shown by the popularity of teams and sports stars (e.g., Yao Ming, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant) who have visited Taiwan. In addition, fans in Taiwan have also started to pay more attention to U.S. sports as several players from Taiwan have played in Major League Baseball (MLB). Previous studies of American consumers have uncovered a number of sport consumption motives such as competition and excitement, self-esteem, escape, entertainment, economic, aesthetic, group affiliation, similarity, and family needs (Kemp Bilyeu & Wann, 2002, Kwon & Trail, 2001; Wann, 1995; Wann, Schrader, & Wilson, 1999). However, an understanding of international fans’ motives for following U.S. sports is unclear. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to investigate Taiwanese fans’ motivations for following U.S. sports and differences based on their demographic characteristics. Taiwanese college students (n = 417) completed a motivation survey with 46 items. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that seven factors (entertainment/excitement, similarity, patriotism, betting, team loyalty, artistic value, and boredom) motivated Taiwanese fans to follow U.S. sports. The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results showed significant differences in motives (entertainment/excitement, patriotism, and boredom) due to fans’ gender.

 

Gough, David, University of Iowa, david-gough@uiowa.edu

 

The Difference Makers: Politics, Coal, and Basketball at the University of Kentucky

 

In the fall of 2009, the Board of Trustees at the University of Kentucky (UK) overwhelmingly voted to accept a $7 million donation by a group calling itself “Difference Makers” to fund a new dormitory intended to house players on UK’s basketball team. Headed by Joe Craft, President of Alliance Coal Partners and the largest individual donor to UK’s athletic association, the Difference Makers is a collection of 20 Coal executives and lobbyist who, as a condition of their donation, demanded that the new dorm be named “Wildcat Coal Lodge,” sparking controversy on campus and throughout the state. However, this case represents more than wealthy businessmen trying to assert control over athletic operations at a major collegiate athletics program. The coal industry in Kentucky has for nearly 25 years been pressuring UK to open up its extensive landholdings for mineral extraction. Accordingly, this paper explores the neoliberal agenda of the Difference Makers, and the university’s complicity, by examining the Difference Maker’s pro-coal rhetoric, the public debate surrounding the naming and funding of this new dorm, and what ramifications this decision could have on UK’s future land-use policies. As such, this paper considers some under-examined consequences of the increasingly common practice of private capital influencing college athletics and institutions.

 

Gray, Sarah, University of Toronto, sarahk.gray@utoronto.ca

The Intersection of Sex and Gender in Nutrition Programs and Policies in Ontario Schools

Reviews of the literature show a gap in the intersection of sex, gender and nutrition in Canadian elementary and secondary schools. It is important that the mechanisms through which gender and sex influence health are examined because it is difficult to separate the biological and social with their impacts on nutrition. The ramifications of these behaviours are important because they can impact long-term health. This proposed study will combine policy and document analysis with open-ended interviews to examine the intersection of sex and gender in nutrition policies and programs in Ontario schools. The curriculum documents as well as provincial and school board policies are open to some interpretation by classroom teachers and school administration. This suggests that nutrition policies and curriculum may not be reproduced and implemented in the same manner in all schools or school boards across the province. To further understand any variation in program, policy and curriculum implementation, teachers and administrators from different school boards across the province will be interviewed to develop a further understanding.

 

Green, Kyle, University of Minnesota, green894@unm.edu

Fighting to be Affected and Writing to Affect: Exploring Observant Participation in a Mixed Martial Arts Gym

In this paper I reflect on my recent exploration of the seduction of pain within the increasingly popular practice of mixed martial arts. In doing so I explore how my own corporeal experience unintentionally became the primary heuristic tool to understand schools where participants train their bodies in combat skills, learning to strike and grapple while building a community around the shared exchange of pain. I argue that attention to my own process of entering the field and training alongside mixed martial artists is central to understanding the discursive and corporeal undertakings that become central to participants’ lives. In doing so I foreground and compare three recent approaches within the social sciences that push towards an emphasis on how the field changes the individual on a physical and emotional level: (1) the self-described carnal-oriented strains of sociology that draw heavily on the embodied elements of Bourdieuian theory; (2) the affect-oriented research that has gained popularity in anthropology and geography, in particular those interested in the ‘non-representational’; and (3) auto-ethnography, a methodological descriptor that users of the previous approaches have treated as a ‘dirty word.’

Greiff, Mats , Malmö University, mats.greiff@mah.se

Gender within Swedish Harness-Racing

This paper discusses how Swedish harness racing has changed from being exclusively practised by men to being a sport including both men and women. However, even if women today represent a considerable rate of the people involved in harness racing, hierarchical patterns are prevalent. Reasons for that are also discussed.

Already in the late 1930s a few women took part in the sport as amateur drivers, but it took to the early 1970s before women gained permission to drive and train horses as professionals. Reasons for this development are discussed. Up to the 1960s men successfully defended harness racing as a male premise. Strategies for that are discussed. From the 1970s women became more and more involved in Swedish harness racing. Several reasons on different levels of the society and within the harness racing coincided and propelled the development.

Close connected to the quantitative feminisation of harness racing is a change in the view of which kind of skill and body that is necessary in handling horses. In earlier times strength, braveness and a kind of engineering skill were emphasised, but during the 1980s it was more and more pointed to skills connected to care-taking with soft hands.

 

 

Hamzeh, Manal, New Mexico State University (manahamz@nmsu.edu ), Cynthia Pelak, New Mexico State University  (cpelak@nmsu.edu), and Heather Sykes, University of Toronto (hsykes@oise.utoronto.ca).

Hijabizing sexism and Islamophobia: The FIFA ban of Iranian women’s soccer

This presentation examines the FIFA ban of the Iranian national women’s soccer team from the 2012 Olympics based on the athlete’s dress code. The paper takes into account the historicization of women’s soccer in Iran since 1979 which, with Iranian Islamic revolution was a turning point for reusing the “hijab” to fight the colonialists and assert nationalism. This ban relies on interlocking transnational and local discourses (Razack, 2008), which seek to exclude muslim woman athletes from world sport events. On the official level, FIFA’s approach to women’s soccer represents itself as ‘inclusive,’ ‘diverse’ and ‘pro-development’. Yet, both FIFA and the IOC are primarily invested in the corporate media and military/security complex (King, 2008). Both organizations also have internal regimes of Islamophobia and sexism. We argue that the equity and corporate agendas of FIFA and the IOC rely on Islamophobic/racist, hijab-phobic/sexist, and colonial/Islamist discourses to regulate muslim women’s bodies. In the context of the ‘Arab Spring’ and Iranian revolutionary movements, muslim women are participating in new ways to expose the corrupt agendas of Islamist governments/regimes and neocolonial elites. Thus, it is vital to follow if, and how, muslim women athletes will also expose the hijabizing sexism and Islamophobia of the IOC and FIFA. Hijabizing refers to processes of visually covering, spatially segregating and ethically forbidding within gendered, Islamist discourses (Hamzeh, 2011). This presentation will track how muslim women athletes are drawing upon new revolutionary spaces and technologies to contest the FIFA ban.

Hansen, Natalie Corinne, University of California, Los Angeles, natcorhans@gmail.com

Predators and Prey: Natural Horsemen, Women, and Horses 

“Natural horsemanship” training methods have become widely popular in the 21^st century and are heavily marketed within the equestrian sport and leisure industry. These practices emphasize gentleness of approach and attentiveness to the horse’s point of view. The producers of “natural horsemanship” training literature are largely men, while the consumers are largely women. This disparity, which is more marked than in other equestrian disciplines such as dressage and jumping, reflects the association of natural horsemanship with cowboys and ranching traditions of the “old west.” This paper questions this simple association, examining the tropes and icons used in natural horsemanship discourses and the personal stories used to illustrate the training philosophy. Why are these stories so compelling to the largely female audience? Focusing on one narrative thread to draw out my analysis, I explore the proposed bond between women and horses that develops through their mutual experiences as “prey.” What investments link women and horses through shared vulnerability? What kinds of agency and subjectivity are granted or denied through this association? If women and horses are prey, then who are the predators? Can we imagine alternative ways of understanding the connection between women and horses that avoids the language of victimization?

 

Hardin, Marie, Pennsylvania State University, mch208@psu.edu and Nicole M. Lavoi, University of Minnesota

The ‘Bully” and the ‘Girl Who Did What She Did’: Neo-homophobia in Coverage of Two Women’s College Basketball Coaches

Two well-known U.S. intercollegiate women’s basketball coaches were dismissed in 2007 amidst allegations about wrongdoing in relationships with their players: Dana “Pokey” Chatman (Louisiana State) and Rene Portland (Penn State). Portland had been sued by a player and subsequently sanctioned by her university for discrimination; Chatman had been confronted by officials at her university on allegations of an improper sexual relationship. The mediated morality tales around the accusations against both coaches – and their subsequent fall from the pinnacle of their profession – simultaneously challenged and reinforced heteronormative values in women’s sports. In this paper we explore emergent themes from 95 stories around the rise and fall of Chatman and Portland through the lens of neo-homophobia. The coverage of Portland and Chatman was both strikingly similar and different in ways that ultimately hinged on perceptions of their sexual identities. Neo-homophobia was manifest in narratives about rise and fall of both women in several key ways, but especially in what was missing or concealed. These themes as well as the value of truth-telling as a critical value for the journalistic establishment in a democracy will be discussed

Hatlem, Phil, Saint Leo University, philip.hatlem@saintleo.edu

Our Place: The Stadium as Connector

On university campuses throughout the United States, the football stadium helps develop a sense of place for many fans, whether they have any other connection to the university or not (Youngblood 2009, Rosentraub 2009).  Spectators who attend events in these stadiums tend to hold perceptions of the university based in part of their perception of the stadium (Kaplanidou & Vogt 2010).

A case study of the newest on-campus football stadium at a major university – TFC Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota – reveals a direct and concerted effort by university officials to “re-connect” with university stakeholders using the new stadium.  This effort is exhibited through both the planning efforts and the ultimate design decisions.

Hayhurst, Lyndsay, University of Ottawa, lyndsay.m.c.hayhurst@gmail.com

 

Exploring ‘Girl Effect’ Discourse in Ugandan Sport, Gender & Development Programs

 

Drawing on postcolonial feminist studies of girlhood, governmentality and hegemony theory this study explored how young women in Eastern Uganda experienced sport, gender and development (SGD) programs mediated by the ‘Girl Effect’ movement. This study used qualitative methods – including 35 interviews with staff members and young women – in order to investigate how a SGD program in Eastern Uganda funded by a transnational corporation and international NGO used martial arts to build self-defense skills and address gender-based, sexual and domestic violence. Results revealed martial arts programming increased confidence, challenged gender norms, augmented social networks, and provided social entrepreneurial opportunities. At the same time, the program also attempted to govern sexual relations, but did so while ignoring culturally distinct gender relations. I argue SGD programs mediated by the ‘Girl Effect’ tend to ignore the myriad structural constraints that operate in the lives of Ugandan young women. I also suggest that the increased (neoliberal) focus on the “giving agency” to girls and young women in the Two-Thirds World, by pushing them to be self-reliant and make their own choices, tends to ignore such decisions are often made under oppressive social structures and institutions.

 

Hedenborg, Susanna, Malmö University, 
Susanna.Hedenborg@mah.se




The Swedish Equine Sector in the 20th Century

During the 20th century the equine sector in Sweden has transformed from being a sector closely related to agriculture, forestry, transport and the army to a sector related to leisure. The number of horses have changed too, from about 700 000 horses in the 1920s to 70 000 in the 1970’s. During the last decades the number has increased again and today there are about 300 000 horses in Sweden (maybe making Sweden the most “horse dense” //horses per capita in the world). Simultaneously the gender order of the sector has changed. A hundred years ago horses and the work around them were seen as masculine and a “real man” was a “horse man”.  Today horses are connected to women, girls and a socially constructed femininity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how these changes are interrelated and connected to agricultural and sports politics in Sweden.

 

Heine, Michael, The University of Western Ontario, (mheine@uwo.ca) with Stephen Swain

“Clean Venues:” The Olympic Commodification of Civic Spaces

Prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the city of Vancouver temporarily sought to impose a by-law that restricted political messages permissible on signage in the civic space, to those complimentary of the Olympic event; the regulations were changed after a challenge through the BC Civil Liberties Association. The Provincial government, likewise temporarily augmented her own and city administrations’ authority to delegitimize political expression at variance with the official Olympic discourse. Organizers of the Cultural Olympiad endeavoured contractually to obligate artists to refrain from negative commentary on the Olympics or the sponsor corporations. The Canadian federal government, likewise, passed wide-ranging trademark legislation with the sole purpose of providing legal protection for the Olympic logo. Similar development are now evident in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. The IOC has formalized the political strategy that seeks to impose this discursive regime on potential host cities, under the name, “Clean Venues.” Using documents available from the IOC, and others made accessible by third parties through freedom of information requests in Vancouver (2010 Winter Olympics) and London (2012 Summer Olympics), this presentation examines the discursive effects that identify the “Clean Venues” program as a strategy that seeks temporarily to reconstitute the host cities’ civic space as one of Olympic commodification.

 

Henderson, Linda J., St. Mary’s University College, linda.henderson@stmu.ca

Sport and the Sociological Imagination: Helping Students "See" Sport Sociologically

  

My main goal in teaching the sociology of sport is to help students move away from personal opinions and experiences of sport to understanding sport issues from the sociological point of view. This aim can be particularly challenging given that many students taking the course may have a limited, or sometimes non-existent, knowledge of social theory. In this presentation I would like to share some details of the progression of classroom activities and course assignments which I have found to be very effective in getting students to “see” sport issues through sociological lenses.

 

Hillyer, Sarah J., Georgetown University
sjh75@georgetown.edu

Women’s Softball in Iran: An Autoethnographic Journey



This presentation will focus on my numerous experiences as a sports consultant and women’s softball coach working in the Islamic Republic of Iran. To date, the majority of the literature devoted to Iranian women in sports has been written from a critical feminist perspective, detailing the “oppressive” societal structures associated with sport in an Islamic Republic (Hargreaves, 2000; Pfister, 2003; Pfister, 2006). While understanding the structure in which Iranian women compete is important, it does not closely reflect my experiences with the way Iranian women playing softball define their own sport participation. The purpose of the autoethnographic study was (1) to confront my own previously held stereotypes and reveal my personal transformation, (2) to provide a counternarrative that “extends sociological understanding” (Sparkes, 2002), (3) to demonstrate the use of sport in fostering cross-cultural respect, appreciation, and dialogue, and (4) to offer new ways of knowing and telling (Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Richardson, 2000b).


Hodler, Matthew, University of Iowa with Amanda Curtis,

“Where’s the History Here?’ SkIowaye, Ceilidh and History as Public Engagement

In the summer of 2011, we embarked on the first leg of a public engagement project called SkIowaye: Sport and Transatlantic Crossings. This involved the group of us teaching the American sports of basketball, Chicago-style softball, and Ultimate Frisbee to primary and high school aged children on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. We also conducted preliminary fieldwork with Skye Camanachd, the island’s shinty team. Our long term goals for this project are: 1) to explore sport’s role(s) as a medium of cultural exchange between the Scottish Highlands and Islands and the US – more specifically to investigate how Americans and Skye people “know” each another, themselves, their places, and their cultures through sport; 2) to stimulate conversations between participating groups and individuals about these things; and 3) to use forms other than just academic writing to communicate our ideas, experiences, and reflections.

In this paper we will focus on one of the key questions posed for this session (“how [do] we, as researchers, influence, enable, and at times, constrain the construction and deconstruction of narratives?”) through an outgrowth of the June SkIowaye work: a transatlantic ceilidh. Together with staff and pupils from Portree High School, we will use this traditional Highland cultural form to construct, share, and discuss narratives about the historical links between America and Skye, particularly those relating to physical culture.

Holmes, Paloma, University of Toronto,

Parkour: Towards postpost as performative aesthetics, paloma.n.holmes@gmail.com

Increasingly the mobilization of sport as a technology of governance has drawn attention to the ways sport is employed as a tool to train, educate and discipline youths according to neoliberal concepts of normative bodies and normalized embodiment. This emphasis on the use-value of bodies reinforces distinct hierarchies with respect to physical cultures and practices which reduce the body to a political economic sport performance model—undermining the political aesthetic dimensions of sport and possibilities for alternative physical embodiment. This paper draws upon Pronger’s (1998) notion of postsport to break away from those biopedagogies that seek to produce useful subjects of health. Second, postsport is used as a critical pedagogic lens to re-envision sport as a kind of performance art to highlight the aesthetic, political and performative qualities of physical (sub)cultures. Parkour and free running are examined as counter cultures that resist the capitalist structuring of urban space and physical embodiment, expression and creativity. These athletic artforms provides a space to explore the potential for a critical pedagogy of physical cultures and alternatively proposes a radical performative philosophy of sport which subverts the dominant prescriptions of sport as an instrument of biopower.

 

Hooks, Tiffany S., Texas A&M University, t42hooks@hlkn.tamu.edu, with John N. Singer

Perceptions of Walk-on College Athletes at a Major Division I University

This pilot study utilized an organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Bateman & Organ, 1983) framework to understand walk-on athletes’ perceptions of the college athlete experience.  While much of the spotlight has been given to scholarship athletes who have been heavily recruited, the perspectives and experiences of the walk-on athlete often go unnoticed.  In efforts to begin addressing this problem, we utilize a basic interpretive qualitative study approach (Merriam, 2002) and conduct semi-structured interviews with eight walk-on athletes who at the time, or prior to the interview, had never received any scholarship or funding from the institution’s athletic department.  Preliminary analysis of the data revealed two emerging themes: 1) walk-ons are more appreciative than scholarship athletes, and 2) walk-ons are highly self-motivated in both athletics and academia.  Despite adversity faced by most of the participants, they all continued to maintain high levels of commitment.  Our findings begin to demonstrate that while walk-on athletes may be rewarded intrinsically, athletic programs could also benefit from the level of commitment held by these individuals.  Implications for future research will be discussed in the presentation. 

Houghton, Emily J., University of Minnesota, houg0131@umn.edu with Jennifer Bhalla, University of Minnesota

(In)visible Pioneers: Highlighting the experiences of African American female athletes

Historically, race and sport research in the field of sport sociology has tended to focus primarily on African American male athletes (Birrell, 1989) while the sporting experiences of African American women have largely been neglected (Carter, 2009; Vertinsky & Captain, 1998).  For a number of years, the small body of work focusing on African American women consisted of biographies highlighting sport as upward mobility or feminized depictions in media (Hardin, Dodd, Chance & Walsdorf, 2004; Vertinsky & Captain, 1998). In this study, researchers used a qualitative research design to emphasize the lived experiences of participants. This approach enabled researchers to explore the experiences in sport from childhood to adulthood, of a group of six women (ages 49-64) who participated in high school or collegiate sport in a metropolitan area during the 60s and 70s. Participants completed one focus group and one individual interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and transcripts were coded using inductive content analysis. Emergent themes identified the meaning of sport to these women including the roles of relationships with significant others, and the importance of participating in sport. Results give voice to an understudied population and may provide inspiration for African American females to engage in physical activity.

Huffman, Ashleigh M., University of Tennessee with Sarah J. Hillyer

Using Sport to Build Community: Service-Learning with Iraqi Refugees

The purpose of this presentation is three-fold: (a) to explore the use of service-learning in kinesiology, recreation, and sport studies (Miller & Nendel, 2011) (b) to discuss the role of sport in community building (United Nations, 2008), and (c) to propose a model of sport-based service-learning as a way to promote positive social change (Huffman, 2011). In order to address these topics, Hillyer and I will use specific examples from the class Dr. Hillyer and I developed in the fall of 2010 titled “Service-Learning: Sport and Community Development.” This class was designed to meet the sport, exercise, and recreation needs of the growing Iraqi refugee population in Knoxville and is one of the only classes worldwide using sport to engage local refugee communities (UNHCR, 2011). The research that will be presented is a result of 500 pages of student reflective journals, 200 pages of electronically recorded field notes, and 49 qualitative interviews with undergraduate students, Iraqi refugees, community partners, and university administrators. As a result of this research, it has become clear that if implemented with intentionality, careful consideration, community collaboration, and reflexivity, that sport-based service-learning initiatives can enhance student learning, improve community welfare, and strengthen ties between the community and the university.

Itani, Satoko, University of Toronto, s.itani@utoronto.ca

Is Pride House possible in Pyeongchang?

In this study, I examine the way in which nationalistic sentiments and collectivism that emerged as a reaction to the experience of colonialism and military threat make ‘homo’ subject position difficult to emerge in South Korea. This study focuses on the socio-political context of South Korea in 1980s in order to examine the way in which the experience of colonization and constant foreign threats cultivated a desire for the strong nation and culture of collectivism, which resulted in the rapid economic growth and successful hosting of the Seoul Olympic. The military regime put strong emphasis on self-sacrifice, uniformity, and traditional gendered division of labor, justifying them by mobilizing anti-communist, nationalistic,ethnocentric ideologies and the logic of national security. In this context, human rights movements by minority groups have been considered as a pursuit of “self-interest” and failed to receive wide support. We witnessed the founding of the Pride House in Vancouver, which is significant considering the homophobic culture of sports.

London is following the suit. However, I would argue that the legacy of colonialism and militarization in South Korea would make it difficult for this trend to continue when the Games come to the nation in 2018.

Jette, Shannon,University of Maryland, shannonjette@hotmail.com with Geneviève Rail, Concordia University, gen.rail@concordia.ca

Dancing Mothers: Exploring Alternative Body Practices in Pregnancy

In contemporary North American society, physical activity in pregnancy is constructed as ‘risky’ in two different ways: the physically active pregnant woman is ‘at risk’ of exercising too vigorously and harming her fetus while at the same time all women (but especially low income, racialized women) are ‘at risk’ of not performing enough exercise and producing babies with chronic health issues. In this paper, we draw upon a feminist poststructuralist perspective to examine how a culturally diverse group of low income women recruited from a community-based nutrition centre in Montreal (Canada) construct and experience physical activity during pregnancy. We then share the details of group dance classes that we organized at the centre with the aim of challenging the women’s commonly-held belief that dance in pregnancy is unsafe, while also encouraging them to explore and experience their pregnant bodies in new ways that position physical activity as play instead of work. The goal of our presentation is to use this case study of ‘dancing mothers’ as a way to prompt us, as sociologists of physical culture, to further consider and conceptualize the use of alternative embodied practices that exist within—but that can also be experienced as resistance to—dominant biopolitical discourses.

Jinnah, Naila, Queen’s University, naila.jinnah@queensu.ca and Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University, apegoraro@laurentian.ca

Tweeting the game: Is live-tweeting reshaping the NHL fandom experience?

Twitter has undeniably modified the sporting experiences of fans, athletes and teams (Hutchins, 2011). While some fans have yet to change their sport-watching habits, social media has certainly structurally reshaped the digital broadcasting landscape by offering new fandom participation, performance and access points (Booth, 2010). Since fans have access to more “raw” data with which to formulate their own analysis prior to, during and after the game, sport audiences have moved from passive spectators to interactive contributors (Hampp, 2010). This paper examines the potential changes in NHL audiences when live-tweeting is added to the mix, both for tweeting fans and those lurking on Twitter while watching the game, and argues that the ability to publicly contribute to the conversation surrounding the NHL at any time of day and night enhances the fan’s attachment to favorite teams or players, thereby increasing their fan identification levels.

Klimchuk, Tara, University of Manitoba, taraklimchuk@gmail.com

Ethical Literacy and Anti-Doping Education: Developing Evidence-Based Anti-Doping Programs

In this presentation I will examine how different fields of study, including kinesiology, philosophy and education, can be drawn upon to develop effective evidence-based anti-doping programs. Through an analysis of the concept of ethical literacy and how it can be applied to anti-doping education programs, I seek to determine the most appropriate age to begin teaching anti-doping programs to young athletes. Age is the fundamental focus because learning styles and subsequent teaching methods need to be within the cognitive, social and behavioral development of athletes to ensure that anti-doping programs are successful. Through an exploration of the concept of ethical literacy and a critical analysis of current anti-doping education programs, I argue that many anti-doping strategies in place today fail to properly utilize the pedagogy and education literature that can establish best practices for designing age-appropriate, values-based programs.

Jones, Luke, University Of Alberta, lkj@ualberta.ca

The End of the Road?: Reflections of enforced retirement from British League and Conference football

Sports retirement has been studied at length through the realm of sports psychology, revealing that the transition from elite sport to retirement is often a difficult time in the life of an athlete, especially if this moment is enforced (Lally, 2007).  Nearly two decades ago Coakley (1983) suggested that the social element of sport be predominantly considered when studying retirement. So far however, the use of a socio-cultural lens to study retirement in any sport, not least British football, has been limited.  Although Roderick (2006) has conducted detailed research into the working lives of professional footballers, very little is known about the retirement experiences of this population. This retirement study examined existing understandings of sports retirement and specifically considered the enforced retirement experiences of 20 players between the ages of 22-34 who experienced enforced retirement from British League and/or Conference football.  Here, a socio-cultural approach to the study of retirement was adopted by asking the research question: What can be discovered about the enforced retirement experiences of young British football players through a socio-cultural analysis of professional British football? In order to analyse the responses of the participants, Foucault’s theory of disciplinary power was utilised to reveal how the cultural environment of the British game has potentially contributed to both the immediate and long term retirement experiences of these men.

Judge, Lawrence W., Ball State University, lwjudge@bsu.edu with Jeffrey Petersen

PED Use in Track and Field: An Adolescent Perspective

An athlete’s choice to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport has been attributed to a multifaceted interaction of personal and environmental factors (Nicholson & Agnew, 1989; Tricker et al., 1989) that make this problem more difficult to investigate. This study sought to measure track and field athletes’ attitudes (specifically throwers) toward PED use and drug testing using a theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework. The subject pool was comprised of 98 adolescent males and females (mean age = 15.8 ±2.0 years) participating in national-level competitive track and field. A 4-step hierarchical regression assessed how the study’s variables might predict PED use intent. Gender did not predict significant variance in intent (R2=.04; p=.06), but the TPB constructs (R2 change=.46; p<.001), attitude strength and moral conviction (R2 change=.06; p<.05), and the interaction of attitude with moral conviction (R2 change=.04; p<.01) did predict significant variance in intent for PED use. In the final model, significant predictors of intent included attitude, injunctive norms, attitude strength (centrality), moral conviction, and the attitude by moral conviction interaction. The conclusions of this study support previous research findings from other populations, and also reveal moral conviction and attitude strength as important considerations in understanding adolescent PED use.

Kaiser, Kent, Northwestern College, KLKaiser@nwc.edu

Conflict Framing and Media Bias in Title IX Coverage

Through a longitudinal two-part examination of Title IX as a social-movement case, this study identified frames advocating for and against Title IX and used content analyses to discover the faithfulness with which conflict frames were transferred from the legal and legislative debate into newspapers.  The study also considered the volume and prominence of placement of advocacy and opposition frames presented in newspapers to discover reporting preferences and bias in the Title IX conflict.  The study finds that the newspapers were generally faithful to the legal and legislative debate but demonstrated some framing bias in favor of social reform, thereby challenging hegemonic ideas and empowering the women’s movement.  The study also finds the volume of frames overwhelmingly to favor the advocacy side of the Title IX conflict but nevertheless to provide a somewhat less biased distribution of frames in the most prominent placements.

King-White, Ryan, Towson University, ryan198@gmail.com

Confronting Disposable Bodies: Moving from Conscious Raising to Praxically Driven Social Justice

This Winter I taught a course in the Dominican Republic where 18 students came face-to-face with the ‘disposable bodies’ populating numerous ball fields around the country.  Prior to this experience our only direct contact with Dominican Baseball was through documentaries, and popular multi-media formations (think ESPN: Outside the Lines) that often paint a desperate but hopeful picture for young boys trying to make it to Major League Baseball. What we were confronted with was a far more grave situation – hungry, un(der)-educated children, well-worn equipment, and women being treated as little more than ornaments.  As such, the purpose of the presentation seeks to serve two purposes.  First, I will make the call to sport sociologists (for lack of a better term) to make clear just how worth-less Dominican bodies are as a (partial) result from the years of injustice the United States has inflicted on the Dominican Republic.  Second, and heeding the directive to participate in and share our activist practices (cf. Atkinson, 2011) I will describe the equipment donation program my students have started.  In so doing we hope that those in attendance can provide their own insight(s) on how we can move forward in a positive and meaningful direction.

 

Kauer, Kerrie J., California State University, Long Beach, kkauer@csulb.edu

Politics of Embodiment: Ethnographies of Yogi Activists

Using critical feminist theories and the methodological tools of crystallization (Ellingson, 2009), I explore how embodied forms of movement (e.g., yoga) challenge Western, heteropatricarchial knowledge that privileges mechanistic and biomedical understandings of the body and the ways in which yoga can initiate progressive social and political agendas (Atkinson, 2010; Irigary, 2004). Poststructuralist scholars who study the body often emphasize and rely on discourses of the body, yet rarely invoke the ways in which mind/body, discourse/matter dualisms unite to provide more thorough and nuanced understandings of embodiment. In contrast, critical feminist, anti-racist approaches to embodied movement and social justice stress the “body as a cultural product” (Groz, 1994, pp 23-24), and dismiss both essentialist readings of the body, as well as the intellectual arrogance perpetuated by “discourse devotees” (Batacharya, 2010). My research explores embodiment, yoga, and activism using embodied ethnographic methods with yoga activists and organizations. Specifically, using crystallization, I extrapolate narratives from participant observations, formal and informal interviews, and document analysis to illustrate how embodiment and corporeal knowledge serve to connect people with social justice and conscious activist movements.

Kelly, Darren D., University of Texas at Austin, darrenkelly@utexas.edu, and Marlene Dixon, University of Texas at Austin, madixon@mail.utexas.edu

 

Building the framework for mentoring high-profile African American male student-athletes

 

Despite excellent performance on and off the field, NCAA Division I African American male student-athletes face a number of individual and social barriers while in college, such as academic preparation and advancement, racism (Coakley, 2008; Edwards, 1973; Singer, 2005), discrimination, commitment, and isolation (Hyatt, 2003). There is a great need to explore culturally relevant programming for this population in order to enhance their overall college experience. From both a sociological and psychological perspective, mentoring has been used as a tool for developing people in many different contexts including business, education, and sport. Effective mentoring relationships from single or multiple mentors can lead to benefits for the mentee such as psychological support, personal development, and career growth, while also creating meaningful relationships between group or organizational members (Brown, Davis, & McClendon, 1999). Given the contextual complexities of the black student athlete, there is a need to examine the nature and structure of mentoring relationships and networks for this population.

This presentation, examines current mentoring theory and practice with student-athletes and black male student-athletes, in particular. The broad goal of this research is to build and implement a theoretically sound mentoring framework to address the distinct and holistic needs of African American males in the college sport setting.

 

Keleher, Patrick, University of Toronto, patrick.keleher@utoronto.ca

Abject (auto)ethnography for abject physical cultural practices

Binnie (1997) suggests that studies of sexual minority communities must undermine the squeamishness that arises when we move beyond abstract theorizations of sexuality and begin to explore material sexual practices. Thinking about bodies engaged disrespectable and messy sexual acts can embarrass us, and we often retain this sense of shame when investigating and reporting those same sexual practices. This paper will explore the use of (auto)ethnography as a tool to investigate the disrespectable within physical cultural practices and spaces, specifically within the context of men who have sex with men in the gym locker room. This research is framed by my own (auto)ethnographic examination of locker room cruising and was conducted in collaboration with three other participants who shared similar experiences in other urban gyms. In addition, since messy cultural practices may at times require messy research methods, this paper explores the possibilities for engaging with abject (auto)ethnography (those that engender a sense of disrespectability, dirtiness, shame, and both revulsion and fascination), as a mechanism to more fruitfully explore how certain physical cultural practices unfold. Embracing the abject in (auto)ethnography may offer possibilities to challenge boundaries of respectability, and reclaim and/or expel the disrespectable from those same clandestine sexual practices themselves (Halperin, 2007).

 

Kehler, Michael, The University of Western Ontario, mkehler@uwo.ca with Michael Atkinson

“Smacked Across My Man Boobs:” Why Some Boys Leave Physical Education and the Locker Room Behind

This national study explores why some Canadian boys do not enrol in physical education courses once the school board mandatory requirement of grade nine or ten is fulfilled. In an era of concern for childhood obesity, youth inactivity, and declining rates of sport participation, we examine two important settings – physical education classes and locker rooms – where secondary school-aged boys navigate important issues related to physical activity such as body image, masculinities, harassment, and performance anxiety. The study is based on a series of interviews and classroom observations conducted across the country, which give voice to boys whose anxieties over participating in physical activity and relating to other boys in these competitive settings is often suppressed and silenced. Situated within the literature where the relationships between masculinity and health, physical activity, and the school setting intersect, our research provides evidence that boys feel vulnerable, disempowered, and experience constant harassment and marginalization in physical education classes. Not surprisingly, these boys opt out of physical education for the remainder of their secondary school years. We argue that the performance of gender through boys’ bodies in physical activity settings is central to understanding how forms of masculinity are negotiated.

 

Kian, Edward (Ted) M., University of Central Florida, Edward.kian@ucf.edu with Eric Anderson

No Longer Mere Headaches: Sport Media Challenging Masculine Orthodoxy on Football Concussions

Sport helps define, teach, and maintain desired forms of masculinity in the United States. Most U.S. boys participate in organized teamsports and fandom of marquee sports are key components of fraternization among U.S. males at all age groups. Football, by far the country’s most popular sport, is a violent game, where coaches and teammates have historically expected players to place their bodies at risk for the good of the team. Sport media traditionally used their influence to reify this social script, simultaneously promoting their own masculine capital. However, this article shows cracks in this hegemonic system of sport and sport media. We conducted a textual analysis of newspapers and Internet articles reporting on the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers taking himself out of an important National Football League (NFL) game due to a concussion. Results showed that increasing awareness on the negative effects associated with concussions, combined with a softening of American masculinity, have enabled some prominent players like Rodgers a reprieve from the self-sacrifice component of sporting masculinity. Framing of articles on Rodgers’ self-withdrawal were supportive, and sport media have recently increased coverage on concussions. However, despite Rodgers’ prominence and a plethora of attention annually bestowed on the NFL, media provided only token coverage of Rodgers’ act.

King-White, Ryan, Towson University, ryan198@gmail.com

Confronting Disposable Bodies: Moving from Conscious Raising to Praxically Driven Social Justice

This Winter I taught a course in the Dominican Republic where 18 students came face-to-face with the ‘disposable bodies’ populating numerous ball fields around the country.  Prior to this experience our only direct contact with Dominican Baseball was through documentaries, and popular multi-media formations (think ESPN: Outside the Lines) that often paint a desperate but hopeful picture for young boys trying to make it to Major League Baseball.  What we were confronted with was a far more grave situation – hungry, un(der)-educated children, well-worn equipment, and women being treated as little more than ornaments.  As such, the purpose of the presentation seeks to serve two purposes.  First, I will make the call to sport sociologists (for lack of a better term) to make clear just how worth-less Dominican bodies are as a (partial) result from the years of injustice the United States has inflicted on the Dominican Republic.

Second, and heeding the directive to participate in and share our activist practices (cf. Atkinson, 2011) I will describe the equipment donation program my students have started.  In so doing we hope that those in attendance can provide their own insight(s) on how we can move forward in a positive and meaningful direction.

Knoppers, A.E., University of Utrecht, a.e.knoppers@uu.nl with N. van Amsterdam

Challenging Hierarchies of Ability? Active Aging and Disability in Sport

The purpose of this paper is to explore how discursive practices of active aging and physical disability overlap and (re)produce gendered hierarchies in the valuing of athletic and physically active bodies. More than 100 years ago the bodies of women, the ‘elderly’ and those with visible physical impairments were considered to be unsuited for participation in elite sport. The normal sporting body was young abled and male. Currently, the increasing attention paid to and visibility of elite women’s sport and events such as the Paralympics and Senior Games suggest that the acceptance of athletic bodies has expanded to include a diversity of bodies beyond that of the young abled male. Such global events have expanded opportunities for individual athletes to participate in sport and in that sense can be seen as emancipatory and as challenging existing hierarchies in valued bodies. However, we argue that dominant discursive practices of active ageing and physical disability have similar subtexts (related to gender, ability, health and meritocracy) that together (re)produce body hierarchies that continue to normalize the sporting body toward the young abled male.

 

Krane, Vikki, Bowling Green State University, vkrane@bgsu.edu

Negotiating Being a Girl Athlete

Current research on girl athletes reveals that not only are the girls being taught the techniques and strategies of sport, they are becoming aware of social norms surrounding ideal body types, gender roles (Azzarito, 2009; Schmalz & Kerstetter, 2006), and masculine dominance in sport (Shakib & Dunbar, 2002). Physically active girls also develop strategies for negotiating gender relations (Azzarito & Solomon, 2004). The data we will present are part of a larger study examining girl athletes’ interpretations of photographs of female college athletes. During conversations with girl athletes, they often went on tangents and it became clear that they had a lot to say about the gendered implications of being female athletes. In the initial study, Krane et al. (in press) conducted ten focus group interviews (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998) with 52 girl athletes. The girls were ages 9-14 and were primarily White and middle-class. Open and axial coding of the data (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) resulted in the higher order themes of athletic negotiations and social negotiations.

Laurendeau, Jason, University of Lethbridge, jason.laurendeau@uleth.ca and Sara Moroz, independent scholar

Risk, responsibility and neoliberalism in media accounts of backcountry rescue

In this paper, we analyze Canadian newspaper coverage of recent events in which backcountry adventurers have found themselves in need of assistance from rescue organizations. We consider discursive constructions of risk, and the ways in which these discourses (re)produce particular ideas about this kind of sport participation. Specifically, we interrogate discourses of risk and responsibility, exploring the ways in which the media constructs these backcountry enthusiasts as responsible to and for specific (e.g., family) and generalized (e.g., society) others. We conclude with a discussion of the contribution of this work, both to analyses of “risk sports,” and to the theorization of risk more generally.

Lee, Esther, University of Georgia, jooyeon@uga.edu

Being Student-Athletes: Improving Football Players’ Academic Performance

The purpose of this study is to examine current academic support services of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A universities.  It will provide a literature review on the academic integrity and academic support service delivery of the NCAA member institutions.  The technical interest provides the theoretical framework for the study.  The technical interest focuses on the result rather than the process.  This study emphasizes football players’ graduation rates as the result and how academic support services affect this data.  The design of this study is a qualitative study.  Moreover, the data collection method is a document analysis.  The documents are collected from ten different universities from six different conferences.  Furthermore, the data analysis method consists of a thematic analysis.  The result of the study indicates that football players had lower graduation rates than non-athletes.  Therefore, it is important to re-examine academic support services for football players at the NCAA Division I-A universities.  In addition, investigating the types of academic support services would help the NCAA and its member institutions to refine their academic policies. 

Lee, Jacqueline D., Indiana University, Bloomington, jacdlee@umail.iu.edu

Athletes’ Body Image, Perceived Appearance, and Cognition, Relating to Performance

Mainstream media create and present images that impact the values and beliefs of its consumers.  Regarding the images it portrays about body image, the accepted standard typically represents the athletic body.  Images of thinness, beauty, firmness and acceptance have historical origins and continue today. It is widely accepted that the athletic body is the standard upon which healthy bodies should pursue.  However, in reality, the athletic body is not acquired without consequence.  The pressure to perform and to win is littered with dangers from steroid and drug abuse to eating disorders.  This paper explored the consequences of athletic competition on the athletic body and the perceptions of athletes about their appearance and cognitive sense as it relates to athletic performance.

Leiro, Augusto César, Federal University of Bahia, cesar.leiro@ig.com.br

Culture media plural and culture body singular

  

Leonard, Wib, Illinois State University, wleonard@ilstu.edu

 

The Postself in the Social World of Sports

 

The sociology of sport applies sociological theories, principles and concepts to shed a fresh perspective on the nature of sports in society. This paper uses the concept of the postself to demonstrate how and the ways in which sports can be viewed from this viewpoint. The postself refers to how one wants to think of him/herself or how one would like others to think of him/her when their playing days are over. Ted Williams aptly conveys this idea when he said, “All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street folks will say, ‘There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.’ The processes and dynamics through which individuals seek to leave their mark through achievements in sports are explored. Various media forms indicate that athletes and their significant others frequently become concerned about how they will be evaluated by future audiences. The characteristics of the social worlds of sports that foster and facilitate concerns about the postself and the reactions of individuals to these factors are discussed.

Liao, Judy, University of Alberta, judy.liao@ualberta.ca

Mobility of Still Images: Becoming of Internal Cinema

The Internet (and mobile network) is one of the most, if not the most, prevailing medium for image dissemination nowadays. People take pictures at sport events and share them via internet. Sport organizations post game photos on their websites. Sites dedicated to certain players archive photos pertaining to the said athletes. The advanced communication technology not only provides new medium for rapid transmission and open accessibility, but impacts people’s ways to understand and interact with images. Therefore, in order to comprehend potentials of this new media, it is necessary to first explore how this changes in relations between people and media may also require new analytical perspectives (Cheser, 2001; Roe, 2003).

To this end, in my presentation, I borrow two Deleuzian conceptions, internal cinema and becoming, to articulate a framework to examine images on the Internet (Deleuze, & Guattari, 1987; Sutton, 2010). Through a concept of internal cinema, I want to draw attention to intensive mobility, metamorphosis triggered by constant reproduction and variation, of images. Then I will introduce “becoming”, in order to understand potential social/political affects of this mobility (Patton, 2000; Pister, 2001).

Liu, Chang (Fisher), University of Toronto. fisher.liu@utoronto.ca

From Rhetoric to Action: Examining Beijing’s Olympic Education Programs

This research paper will briefly examine the Olympic education programs conducted in the Beijing Olympics. The major question I will pursue is how the IOC’s agenda of Olympic education has been conducted in China, and whether it has been really beneficial to the children and youth who received it. The paper will begin with a discussion about what the term “Olympic education” really means in the broader context of the modern Olympic Movement as it has been elaborated by both sports and education scholars. The paper will focus on the necessity of promoting Olympic education in China by laying out the tensions and problems existing in Chinese education system as well as Chinese society regarding participation in sports and physical activities. I will argue these problems make the realization of conducting Olympic education in China more urgent than ever. Further, the paper will present the Olympic education practice in China, with a special focus on the educational programs conducted by one of the Olympic education model schools in Beijing, Yang Fang Dian Central Primary School. Finally, I will identify the educational legacy and address the problems and concerns of Olympic education in China.

Little Fenimore, Wanda, Florida State University, wlf10@fsu.edu

Michael Vick: Condemnation and Redemption

After serving eighteen months in a federal penitentiary for various charges associated with an illegal dog fighting operation, Michael Vick was released on July 20, 2009. Speculation was rampant among the media, fans, and distractors alike as to Vick’s future in the NFL.  Finishing the 2010 season as the Eagle’s starting quarterback, Vick led the team to the first round of the play-offs. Along with his performance on the field, Vick engaged in a well-publicized campaign condemning dogfighting, including speaking to school children across the United States. My paper delves into redemption: how does an athlete rise above serving time in a federal penitentiary, brutalizing man’s best friend, and being called a fool? Did Vick’s performance on the field, or his public remorse, lead to the franchise tag from the Eagles, endorsement deals, and being named Comeback Player of the Year? By examining the discourse from 2007 and 2010, I offer suggestions as to the source of Vick’s resurgence, and how condemnation turned to adulation.

Love, Adam, Mississippi State University, ALove@colled.msstate.edu

Sport sociology and sport management research: A social network perspective

Like many NASSS members, I am currently employed to teach in a sport management program housed in a kinesiology department. The frequency of such an arrangement is shown by the fact 60% of undergraduate sport sociology courses taught in the U.S. reside in kinesiology departments (Nixon, 2010). Considering this state of affairs, my research project represents an attempt to explore the relationship between sport sociology and sport management. Specifically, heeding calls from scholars in both fields to utilize social network analysis as a lens of inquiry, I assess the relationship between sport sociology and sport management by analyzing coauthorship patterns in three of the oldest and most highly-regarded journals in each field from 1987-2009. The information yielded by this project provides insight useful for exploring the historical development and current state of the fields. Further, I suggest there are a number of issues facing each field, such as concerns with relevance and applicability in sport sociology and a lack of diversity in sport management research, as well as common interests, such as advancing the study of sport as a valuable area of academic inquiry, that make it worth considering connections between the two fields.

Lucas-Carr, Cathryn, University of Iowa, cathryn-lucas@uiowa.edu

An impossible subject? Kye Allums and the processes of homonormativity

Increasingly, mainstream gay and lesbian activist groups seek inclusion and assimilation into heterosexist institutions rather than challenging them. The rhetorical strategies of groups such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reflect this strategy as they reinforce the notion of an internal, stable gay identity through political support for same-sex marriage and ending “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Through these processes of homonormativity, people of color, bisexual, transgender, and queer people have been relegated to the margins of the LGBT community. Yet, the discourses of gay visibility and homonormativity have been used to claim marginalized people as part of a colorblind, multicultural LGBT community. One such example can be seen in the case of Kye Allums. During the 2009-2010 basketball season, the women’s basketball team at George Washington University drew a flurry of attention from both mainstream and gay media outlets. This attention was not due to the signing of an all star recruit or shocking NCAA violations. Instead, Kye Allums’ teammates and coaches began using his preferred pronouns. As a black, trans man, Allums represents the impossible homonormative subject. Yet, media coverage of Allums has attempted to normalize him through the use of a coming out story, a transgender journey narrative, and the erasure of his race. In this paper, I explore the ways in which the processes of homonormativity erase Allums’ unique experiences as he is constructed as a model LGBT subject.

McDonald, Mary, Miami University, mcdonamg@muohio@edu

Theorizing Whiteness, Troubling Gender and Sexuality in Sport

For some time now sport scholars have deployed the concept of intersectionality—the notion that racism, sexism and classism are interacting forces, and this conceptualization has expanded understandings of social relations and sport. The scholarship on intersectionality has been fruitful in revealing the complicated workings of power beyond studies that focus exclusively either on gender, race, sexuality or class as independent forces within popular cultural forms such as sport. This paper draws and builds upon interdisciplinary scholarship within race and ethnic studies, cultural studies, and gender/women’s studies to discusses intersectionality in relationship to whiteness—the representations and institutions that continue to privilege “white” bodies in and out of sport. The ultimate aim of this paper is to continue a broader dialogue about the diverse operations of whiteness as articulated through gender and sexuality while also troubling the typical ways sport scholars conceive of gender and sexuality in their analyses. 

Mack, Marta N., Washington, Allen University, mwashingtion@allenuniversity.edu with Nikolas Dickerson

I need a Sub! : Teaching the majority as the minority

A teaching assistant (TA) walks into a classroom to teach a course on ‘race’ and inequality and finds that they are the only person of color in the room.  This may sound like the start of a bad joke, but is often the position that minority TA’s find themselves in at majority Universities. Minority TA’s maybe unprepared for experiences such as this, which might include maintaining one’s composure during culturally sensitive topics and difficulty discussing white privilege in a way that averts dismissal by students as hostile or impartial. Conversely, how do minority TA’s create an environment where students are not frightened to share their thoughts and avoid being perceived by their peers/instructor as prejudice or racist?  In order to sort through the often-difficult task of teaching about race we use auto-ethnography to examine our own experiences as a black woman and mixed race man teaching aspects of inequality in a mostly white classroom. Through our encounters, we draw out the importance of discussing whiteness within the sport studies lecture hall.  We draw on our experiences to demonstrate what it is like to manage these feelings in order to facilitate new ways of thinking about teaching race in the classroom.

Maciejewski, Mike, University of Iowa, michael-maciejewski@uiowa.edu

Seeing isn’t Believing: Male Bodybuilding Contests and Hyperreality

Bodybuilder’s have had a strong connection to the world of weightlifting and strength training, but while they are often recognized both for their tremendous size and strength, the process of making one’s body appear to be at its most muscular requires bodybuilders to be at their weakest. Using an adaptation of Jean Baudrillard’s work on hyperreality as a theoretical approach, I first examine the historical and rhetorical connections between bodybuilding and strength training that have conflated the two concepts and have created popular understanding of bodybuilder’s bodies as functional. Once bodybuilders begin their pre-contest preparation designed to reduce body fat percentage, promote vascularity and demonstrate muscle density and separation, the process of promoting muscularity gives the body the “symptoms” of strength when the body has lost functional muscular output continuously throughout the training process. Using this approach, this paper aims to explore how bodies are conceived compared to how they function, as well as offer a new entry point to explore how hyperreality can be used in sports studies.

 

MacKay, Steph, University of Ottawa, Stephanie.mackay@uottawa.ca and Christine Dallaire, University of Ottawa, Christine.dallaire@uottawa.ca

 

Skirtboarders’ Blogging as Technologies of the Self

Internet sport media texts are spaces in which “narratives, identities and even the representational field of contemporary sports culture is contested…” (Leonard, 2009, p. 2). We illustrate this phenomenon through a case study of the Skirtboarders, a crew of female skateboarders  reflexively contesting dominant discourses of femininity through the creation of an Internet skateboarding blog.  Interviews reveal the similarity between their sporting and internet practices with processes that Foucault (1988) referred to as the technologies of the self. In the Use of Pleasure, Foucault (1985) suggested four dimensions to the way in which an individual reflexively constitutes herself as an ethical subject: the ethical substance, the mode of subjection, ethical work and the telos. We draw on these dimensions to make sense of the Skirtboarders’ critical engagement both in their skateboarding and their blogging experiences as well as their awareness of the effects their sporting and internet practices have on their gender identities. The analysis shows how Foucault’s ethical subject remains a useful concept to understand contemporary practices and lifestyles. This research also makes clear that women-only forms of social media can act as a foundation for individualized transformation, in this case the constitution of identity through the creation of alternative discourses.

Marachi, Wanderley Júnior – Universidade Federal do Paraná, CAPES, Brazil, marchijr@ufpr.br with Gonzalo Bravo – West Virginia University Gonzalo.bravo@mail.wvu.edu

How the north explains the south: American sport sociology and its influence in Brazil

Interest in the study of sport sociology in Brazil has grown considerably over the past three decades. While much of the scholarly production has attempted to provide answers to problems that are unique to Brazil, these studies ─ and the forces that have caused them to flourish ─ have been influenced by a variety of schools of thought, people and trends in sport sociology born outside of Brazil. In this study, we attempt to unveil the origin of these trends and schools of thought. The study involves two phases: first, the examination of American sport sociology, and second, the analysis of the Brazilian context. During the first phase, we identify and classify authors, models of analysis and objects of study that have shaped the landscape of American sport sociology. We present these results in a taxonomy that will be used as an analytical framework to identify the relationships between the hierarchy of research objects and the hierarchy of distribution and consumption of sport in both countries. This presentation discusses the conceptual framework to be used in the study with a focus on the methods and research design applied during the first phase.

Marano, Anna, University of Windsor, maranoa@uwindsor.ca with Meghan Roney

LEADing the Way; University Mentors’ Assessments of an At-Risk High School Program in Windsor Ontario

Currently, there are a high number of “at-risk” youth in urban high schools in the Greater-Essex County District School Board. Students from the University of Windsor’s Faculties of Education and Human Kinetics participated in a one-year mentoring program using the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) Model to assist “at-risk” youth with their leadership development in five local high schools. One co-author participated in this program as a mentor. University mentors participated in two focus groups, where they 1) discussed their relationships with high school students, teachers, administrators and each other, 2) assessed the TPSR model underpinning the program, and 3) provided overall perceptions of the LEAD program from the mentor perspective. The data analysis indicated that mentors had positive experiences in terms of experiential learning with the underserved youth, and in developing group reflection skills as well as relationships with supportive teachers! and the students. They felt the TPSR model had promise but was underdeveloped, and that further mentor training was needed to enhance their skills in delivering it effectively. Education about the program throughout the school was also recommended to enhance supportive teacher relations for the students and for the mentors in this program.

Markula, Pirkko University of Alberta, pirkko.markula@ualberta.ca and Zoe Avner, University of Alberta, avner@ualberta.ca

Bad Landings: The Finnish Ski Jumping Hero Matti Nykanen

In this paper, we examine the intersections of sporting success, prolonged celebrity

status, and masculinity through the career of Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykanen. One of the great heroes of the sport, Nykanen dominated ski jumping in the 1980s, winning four Olympic gold medals and five World championships medals. After retiring from sport, Nykanen has had less success as a singer, erotic dancer, TV cooking show host, and a general entertainer. The media has been consumed with his multiple marriages, excessive alcohol consumption, violent behavior and the resulting prison sentences. Drawing on a Deleuzian perspective we interrogate the premise of Nykanen’s continual mediated celebrity status.

Marinho Mezzadri, Fernando. Universidade Federal do Paraná with Letícia Godoy

The Brazilian Sport According to the Project Rio 2016: Expectations and Realities (2012-2018)

Due to the arrival of the Olympics and Paralympics Games of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro (JO/PO-2016), many actions are being developed in order to organize this mega-sporting event. Therefore, this research project was defined from the Brazilian sportive scenery within the realization of the JO-PO-2016 and its possible legacies, based on the intentions and actions of the National Sports System Institutions (federal government, state and cities government, the Brazilian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the confederations of olympic odalities), the perception of the intellectuals and the organized civil society, and, in addition to that, the broadcast of info by the media. As the objectives of this research we have defined to identify, describe and analyze the characteristics of the candidature of the project JO/PO-2016, the proposals of the institutions involved, its implementation and development. We will also focus on the possible legacies and its effectiveness from the point of view of intellectuals, sport and leisure consultants, leaders of the productive sectors and the organized civil society. And at last, we will investigate the production and diffusion of the principles from the National Media coverage of the JO/PO-2016. Official documents, bibliographic references, interviews, focus group and media material will be used in order to gather information to understand the characteristics of the JO/PO – 2016.

Martins, Leonardo T., Centro Universitário Adventista de Sao Paulo – Brazil, leo.unasp@gmail.com with Aline C. Araujo

Sports Mega-Events and its Legacy

The purpose of this study was to discuss about sports legacy, listening to authors and researchers who have addressed this issue. The legacy of sports mega-events is an overarching theme and directly interferes in the life of the city that receives and organizes such an event. The legacy transcends the physical structures and is related to environmental factors, public policies, economics, public transportation, security, social mobilization and participation, national image built inside and outside the country and tourism. We sent a questionnaire with three open questions to 111 teachers and researchers about this topic. The aimed public of our research was composed by the authors of the book Legacy of sports mega-events, published in 2008 by the National Department of Sport (Brazil), by authors of scientific articles published over the past five years on this topic (in Portuguese) and the speakers of the 2nd Latin American Conference of Sports Facilities and Recreation. According to the answers obtained, the major challenges were classified into six categories: Infrastructure, Investment Control, Specialized Workers, Public Policy, Fulfillment of Deadlines and Others. We also discussed about the increase in the physical activity due to the sport event.

Martin, Montserrat, Universitat de Vic – Catalonia, m.martin@uvic.cat with Albert Juncà

Dealing with fear when gathering data on sexual harassment

This paper is an exploration of some of the embodied tensions and contradictions felt whilst researching sexual harassment in Catalan elite sport. There were many moments where such heightened feelings emerged. Firstly, whilst reviewing the most prominent literature on this issue (Brackenridge, 2002, 1997; Fasting et al., 2004, 2010) and more specifically after reading McCarthy’s (2010) book on Irish swimming scandals. The questions most imminent in our minds: what can be done to make audiences, in our surroundings, sport students, empathetic to the feelings of sexually harassed and abused young athletes? How can we provide tools to our students to help them reflect on this in their future careers as sport coaches, educators and managers? Secondly, we have realized that researching this topic is in many circles still a taboo, making it difficult to ask the directors of the General Secretariat of Sport in Catalonia for permission to conduct a sexual harassment survey! in the high sport performance centres. Cautious of their denial we felt it was safer to bend the true objective of the survey. The tensions between twisting the truth and having to answer uncomfortable questions have made us more certain than ever of the need of publicising any data gathered. 

Masucci, Matthew, A., San Jose State University, matthew.masucci@sjsu.edu, Ted M. Butryn, San Jose State University, and Jay Johnson, San José State University

 

An examination of doping knowledge among world-class professional female triathletes

In the past 5 years, triathletes have been identified in the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) annual doping summary as being among the top 5 sports returning "adverse analytical findings,” or positive doping results. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the sources of knowledge regarding doping practices and anti-doping education experiences in world-class Canadian and US professional female triathletes. Six Canadian and six US female professional triathletes participated in semi-structured interviews (Flick, 2007) that lasted between 40 minutes and 80 minutes. The interview guide consisted of questions related to athletes’ experiences of anti-doping education, knowledge of doping, and experiences with drug-testing procedures. Inductive thematic analysis (Gibbs, 2007) yielded five interconnected themes, which are discussed as they relate to the sociological and interdisciplinary models of doping in sport (Donovan, Egger, Kapernick, and Mendoza, 2002; Hanson, 2009; Mazanov & McDermott, 2009), as well as the findings of a previous study on lower-level female triathletes. The results inform anti-doping education programs at the national and international levels and speak to the need for a more coherent and communicative approach to anti-doping. This study constituted the second phase of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) supported Social Science initiative.

 

Mason, Fred, University of New Brunswick, fmason@unb.ca

 

Needing endurance: Researching and writing auto-ethnographically as an ultra-runner

This paper focuses on the author’s negotiation of multiple roles and identities, past and present, related to involvement in and research on ultra-running. While I have been a lifelong runner (25 years now from the age of 13), becoming an ultra-runner caused a clear shift from “one who runs and occasionally competes” to “ultra-runner,” with a corresponding shift in assumptions about the use of the body, pain and exhaustion.  Time spent alone (in an altered state of existence?) has led me to reflect on negotiation of various “selves” – the former athlete, steeped in team sports and the language of the locker room, and the critical sociologist who teaches about the normalization of pain and injury; the “involved father,” the runner who needs miles on the body, and simply enjoys the movement, and the career academic who needs to be productive and study something that takes up so much time.  I ultimately seek to explore what insights the process of writing my own story, and a more purposively analytical auto-ethnography, offer beyond traditional participant-observation and ethnographic techniques. To all of this, movement has become the key, with my body perceptually, and in some ways literally, becoming a research tool.

Masucci, Matthew A., San Jose State University, matthew.masucci@sjsu.edu with Ted M. Butryn

An examination of doping knowledge among world-class professional female triathletes

In the past 5 years, triathletes have been identified in the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) annual doping summary as being among the top 5 sports returning "adverse analytical findings,” or positive doping results. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the sources of knowledge regarding doping practices and anti-doping education experiences in world-class Canadian and US professional female triathletes. Six Canadian and six US female professional triathletes participated in semi-structured interviews (Flick, 2007) that lasted between 40 minutes and 80 minutes. The interview guide consisted of questions related to athletes’ experiences of anti-doping education, knowledge of doping, and experiences with drug-testing procedures. Inductive thematic analysis (Gibbs, 2007) yielded five interconnected themes, which are discussed as they relate to the sociological and interdisciplinary models of doping in sport (Donovan, Egger, Kapernick, and Mendoza, 2002; Hanson, 2009; Mazanov & McDermott, 2009), as well as the findings of a previous study on lower-level female triathletes. The results inform anti-doping education programs at the national and international levels and speak to the need for a more coherent and communicative approach to anti-doping. This study constituted the second phase of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) supported Social Science initiative.

McCullough, Brian P., Bowling Green State University, bmccull@bgsu.edu

Understanding Sport Spectators Recycling Behaviors: A Qualitative Approach Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Due to the pressure of outside groups in combination with the change of attitudes toward environmental issues, sport organizations have started to implement greening initiatives.  One such program, which is easily implemented but oftentimes haphazardly managed are game day recycling programs. Given the host of benefits of recycling, the purpose of this paper is to qualitatively understand the recycling behaviors of sport spectators. Specifically, the author utilizes the theory of planned behavior to understand the attitudes, influence, obstacles, and ultimately the intentions of sport spectators to recycle during sporting events.  Additionally, the theory is used as a frame to inform the interview guide and to analyze the data a priori. Findings indicate that recycling within a sport context has unique nuances that make this context unique.  Beyond the theory of planned behavior, three themes emerged (i.e., norm transmission, behavioral prompts, improved image) that should be considered when implementing environmental sustainability programs, like game day recycling initiatives.  As such, recommendations for policy makers and sport managers are made to increase fan participation in recycling efforts of sport organizations on game days and during sporting events.

McDonald, Mary G., Miami University, mcdonamg@muohio.edu

Theorizing Whiteness, Troubling Gender and Sexuality in Sport

For some time now sport scholars have deployed the concept of intersectionality—the notion that racism, sexism and classism are interacting forces, and this conceptualization has expanded understandings of social relations and sport. The scholarship on intersectionality has been fruitful in revealing the complicated workings of power beyond studies that focus exclusively either on gender, race, sexuality or class as independent forces within popular cultural forms such as sport.  This paper draws and builds upon interdisciplinary scholarship within race and ethnic studies, cultural studies, and gender/women’s studies to discusses intersectionality in relationship to whiteness—the representations and institutions that continue to privilege “white” bodies in and out of sport. The ultimate aim of this paper is to continue a broader dialogue about the diverse operations of whiteness as articulated through gender and sexuality while also troubling the typical ways sport scholars conceive of gender and sexuality in their analyses.

McBean, James, University of Maryland, jmcbean@umd.edu

Usain Bolt and Dancehall: How marginalizing indigenous physical culture causes social unrest in Jamaica

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set a new world record in the 100M race at 9.69 seconds despite decelerating and celebrating before crossing the finish line immediately followed by his display of indigenous culture by performing the dancehall dances “Nuh Linga” and “Gully Creeper”, continued by exuberant poses and shooting of imaginary arrows into the Beijing crowd.  International detractors deemed Bolt and his creolized, localized, indigenized form of celebration to have violated the mores of Olympic protocol and decorum. However, domestically, Jamaican responses remain varied and complicated. This investigation explores that complexity which can lead to isolation of certain demographics that embody and consume dancehall culture and subsequent social unrest in Jamaica. The political elite sought to craft an image of the world’s fastest man that would challenge dominant international stereotypes of the culturally primitive, sexually explicit violent Jamaicans in hopes of promoting tourism, and re-enforcing bourgeoisie notions of culture that were more apt to celebrate Jamaican imitations of European cultures, rather than celebrate indigenous Jamaican cultures.  However, Bolt, arguably Jamaica’s most well-known citizen has continually placed himself within this contentious debate around dancehall culture which has drawn the ire of the elite by celebrating aspects of Jamaican culture that have been labeled by those political elite and cultural purists that dominate Jamaica.

McParland, Shellie, University of Western Ontario, smcparla@uwo.ca

Gazing into the Sexualized Body of Women in Sport: An Autoethnography

This autoethnography journeys through my lived body experience as a track and field athlete in order to discover how my physical self has affected the ways that others perceive me as an athlete and a woman, two identities that, rather than complimenting each other, are often forced to fight for primacy. The male gaze is not unique to sport.  In cinema, art, and literature across genres and time periods, women are viewed through a feminine lens as passive ornaments in order to perpetuate the male hegemonic reign of power over women, which, in turn, enables the position from which men are able to look. My ever-present sense of being sexualized as a track and field athlete will be laid out on the foundation of the male gaze in cinema, specifically three Hitchcock films. An examination of women’s sports media coverage along with my own self-analysis regarding perceptions of my athletic body will fuel this exploration of the male gaze in sport. Jungian concepts of male-female attachment will infuse my perception of sporting relationships as I journey towards an understanding of myself as a female athlete and the meanings attached to my body and the bodies of other women in sport.

 

McGovern, Jen, Temple University, jennifer.mcgovern@temple.edu

Race and Ethnicity in the Baseball Blogosphere 

As the presence of sport moves into new media, sports fans are increasingly relying on Internet blogs as a resource and as a forum for communicating with other fans.  This transition to new media opens up new questions about the ways in which sports fans engage with media (McDaniel and Sullivan 1998; Boyle and Haynes 2003) and the ways in which sport is being produced and consumed by fans (Hutchins, Rowe, and Ruddock 2009). One of these questions is whether or not discussions about race, ethnicity, and sport will take a new form in online settings.  This research uses narrative theory to explore fans’ understanding of race and ethnicity through online conversations about baseball. Specifically, I studied the content of discussion threads on local and national baseball blogs in order to observe how narratives about race, ethnicity, and sport are produced in cyberspace.  Qualitative analysis of the blog dialogue shows that discussions of race and ethnicity take different forms depending on the posting topic and the blog audience. I demonstrate that debates about race and ethnicity are more likely to occur following controversial topics on national level blogs but are less prevalent on local team blogs.  

McNicol, Lauren, Queen’s University, lauren.mcnicol@queensu.ca

Dancing Around Heterosexism and Racism: Discursive Regulation of Male Dancers

The reality TV show “So You Think You Can Dance” (SYTYCD) has popularized dance for millions of viewers worldwide. Each week, dancers face elimination based on popular vote and judges’ discretion. Following a critical cultural studies approach inspired by Adams (2005), Butler (1990), and Birrell and McDonald (2000), I conceptualize dance as a cultural text and crucial site for the discursive regulation of bodies at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. Using textual analysis, I examine a sampling of clips across eight seasons that feature dance performances by male-male duos, with attention to behind-the-scenes footage, costumes, on-stage performances, and commentary. The SYTYCD search for “America’s favourite dancer” involves an overwhelming celebration of both masculine heterosexuality and stereotypical black male sexuality and a consistent disavowal of transgressions of the gender binary. Choreography and characters revolve around masculine aggression and “epic battles” over women, status, and power. These hypermasculine norms work through the strict policing of male dancers and are buttressed by the appropriation of non-Western cultures and the racist misrepresentation of non-white bodies. Judges employ “neutral” metrics that are nonetheless blatantly racist and heterosexist, all in the name of proficiency and popularity.

Metz, Jennifer L., Towson University, metz@towson.edu

“The ESPN Family”: Denial of Disability in American Society:  A Personal, Public and Classroom Story

In recent years, there has been a significant proliferation in sport and disability literature coupled with a limited growth in the popular media’s treatment of disability in sport.  However, main stream sport media still spends little to no time on disabled athletes and often the discourse frames them as freaks or “special cases.”  This erasure is often coupled with a lack of discourse on disability in the classroom. My paper using auto-ethnography, critical disability and pedagogy will examine how we can reinsert ourselves into the conversation on disability studies and challenge the silence that exist in the media.  In doing so, it will examine auto-ethnography as more than a “sad story” or “navel gazing” and utilize it as a viable technique for teaching and conversation in the classroom.

Mezzadri, Fernando Marinho,  Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil, mezzadri@ufpr.br

Letícia Godoy, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil, leticiagodoy@uol.com.br

Wanderley Marchi Júnior , Universidade Federal do Paraná, CAPES, Brasil, marchijr@ufpr.br

Brazilian Sports and Project Rio 2016: Expectations and Realities (2012-2018)

Due to the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics Games of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro (JO/PO-2016), many actions are being developed in connection with the organization of this sport mega-event. This research project was conceptualized in terms of the overall landscape of Brazilian sport combined with JO-PO-2016 and its possible legacies as based on (a) the intentions and actions of the federal, state, and city government agencies linked with the National Sports System, including the Brazilian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the national governing bodies of Olympic sports, (b) the perceptions of scholars and people in organized civil society, and (c) the relevant information presented by the media. The goals of this study are to identify, describe and analyze the characteristics of the expected impact of

the JO/PO-2016 project, the supportive proposals of the organizations involved, and the implementation and development of strategies to achieve stated goals. We will also focus on the predicted legacies and if they are effectively achieved from the point of view of intellectuals, sport and leisure consultants, and leaders in various institutional spheres of Brazilian society. Finally, we will investigate the production and diffusion

of the main themes in national media coverage of JO/PO-2016. Official documents, bibliographic references, interviews, focus groups, and media material will be sources of data used to understand the characteristics and impact of JO/PO – 2016.

Millington, Rob, Queen’s University, r.millington@queensu.ca and Simon Darnell, Durham University, simon.darnell@dal.ca

Rio 2016 and the online politics of Olympic sport for development

The recent awarding of the 2016 Summer Olympics to the city of Rio de Janeiro marked the first time that the Olympics were awarded to a city in the southern hemisphere. This announcement continued a trend of international sports mega-events as part of long-term development plans and policies in developing nations as promoted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the broader intersection of sport and development as supported by the United Nations. In this paper, we are concerned with understanding such development politics, as they are currently constructed and contested online through the promotion of development narratives by the IOC and Rio 2016 organizers, and the interpretation of such claims through Blogs and online political commentary. The results support the notions that the Internet can be used both to serve and disrupt processes of capitalist accumulation and political debates and contestations, as well as to explore local calls for reform and social justice. We argue, therefore, that while the IOC and Olympic stakeholders use the Internet in support of neo-liberal and modernist notions of development, the Internet also stands as the preeminent site for contemporary Olympic resistance.

Mirabito, Timothy, University of Tennessee, tmirabito@utk.edu

Framing 9/11: A Document Analysis of the New York Times

The New York Times has long been considered this country’s preeminent newspaper. The Times’ “A Nation Challenged” series, an effort dedicated to the coverage of the September 11^th terrorist attacks, earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in journalism. It was through the eyes and words of journalists that many Americans learned of a new reality facing the United States. The Times served as both New York’s hometown newspaper, as well as the country’s “eyes on the ground” reacting to 9/11. Immediately following the attacks, nearly every sporting event was cancelled and sport organizations temporarily shut their doors while the country grieved.  However, during the hiatus the Times still published a sports section despite the lack of games to report on. This study analyzed every article published in the New York Times Sports Section from September 12, 2001 to September 21, 2001, a timeframe in which there were no professional sporting events held in New York City. Using framing theory, this examination thematically analyzed heroism, loss of innocence, the role of sport, and sport tied to government action as frames sports writers used to project the reactions of the sports world to the terrorist attacks of September 11^th.  

M’mbaha, Janet Musimbi ,The University of Georgia, jmusimbi@uga.edu , Rose Chepyator-Thomson, The University of Georgia, jchepyat@uga.edu

 

African women in sport leadership: Perspectives and experiences

Research studies on women in sport leadership increased over the last two decades; however research focusing on African women is scarce. These research studies, although grounded in Western discourses, provide insights into the varied experiences of women in sports leadership. The most common finding concerns the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, women’s equal rights, and experiences in sports organizations. There was very little research on African women in sports organizations. What is the situation of African women in sports leadership? Do their experiences resonate with women in the Westernized countries? The purpose of this study was to examine experiences of women leaders from various sports organizations in Kenya. Feminism and social constructivism theoretical perspectives guided the understanding of women’s leaders’ experiences are related to their career paths, opportunities and challenges encountered in male dominated sports organizations. Data collection methods used in this study included in-depth interviews and document analysis. Data were analyzed using constant comparative methods and thematic analysis. The findings of the study are as follows: (a) a clear pattern emerged about the paths to leadership; (b) women leaders had competitive athletic backgrounds; (c) they had a passion for their work and were agents of social change; (d) gender stereotyping stemming from both cultural and patriarchal practices presented the greatest challenges to women sports as for example the merging of men-women sports disempowered women’s leadership positions, and (e) resistance to discriminatory practices, dropping out, and networking were the coping strategies that the women leaders in sports used, and (f) education, role modeling and mentoring were proposed as ways of developing women leaders in sports. Participants were of the view that the proposed sports policy would enhance the position of women in sports leadership in Kenya.

Moola, Fiona, The University of Toronto, fiona.moola@utoronto.ca

Chase’s Wish: The Social Injuries of Medical Safety in Physical Activity for Youth Living with Cystic Fibrosis?

Given the dangerous consequences of cross contamination, patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) cannot engage in social and recreational activity with one another. No empirical literature exists on the implications of contamination restrictions for patients’ social worlds. Informed by post modern bioethical theories, sport sociology, and the sociology of risk, this qualitative study explored how 30 children living with CF and their parent’s at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada interpret the social implications of contamination restrictions. From their local moral worlds, patients described contamination restrictions as the most difficult aspect of living with CF. Given that it would facilitate shared illness storytelling and “level” what is currently thought to be a very uneven able bodied playing field, patients expressed a near palpable wish and desire to engage in physical activity with other CF youth. They cast their wish with a sense of passive resignation and offered little in the way of critique. The participants echoed Chase’s Wish – the desire to engage in physical activity with other CF youth. In doing so, they illustrated the social costs of medical safety and identified a novel bioethical dilemma that is unique to physical activity and CF. 

Although cross contamination restrictions are necessary to ensure patients’ physical health, such precautions result in the intensification of social isolation of CF youth – an isolated group who already reside on the periphery and margins of cultural life – and beg us to consider novel solutions.

Mower, Ronald L., University of Maryland, mower1@umd.edu

Balancing Act(s): Bodies, Politics, and Research in Baltimore

 

This paper provides a brief account of various moments in which my (researcher, public, private) self has been challenged, negotiated, and transformed in the course of my involvement with a non-profit organization serving “at-risk” and underprivileged youth in Baltimore City. Recounting my experiences over the past year and a half in what has eventually become my dissertation research, entitled “Philanthropy, Fitness, and Failed States”, I peel back the layers of my evolving understandings and interpretive frames of analysis, sinuously informed through the uneven, and often circuitous, synthesis of theoretical constructs, empirical data, and ethnographic experience. I locate myself amid my fieldwork, interpretation, and analysis of health and physical activity inequities by interrogating my own embodied white privilege in spaces where neoliberal moralizations of the body and health are taken for granted and indeed, mobilized through the nuances of philanthropic endeavors and the reproduction of socio-spatial inequity. My use of the term balancing act(s) connotes both the periodization of certain acts, or moments, in the course of my engagement to represent the temporality, fluidity and complexity of the self in ethnographic work, as well as to discuss the various acts, or guises, through which I have traversed ethnographic interactions and to which I feel constant uncertainty as to the purpose, ethics, and outcomes of my embodied performances.

Muir, Heather A., Bowling Green State University, hmuir@bgsu.edu with Dianna P. Gray

Television Descriptions of Female Hockey Players during the 2010 Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics are the best and sometimes only opportunity for fans to watch women’s ice hockey. Television broadcasts have been shown to be crucial for generating interest in a sport (Desmarais & Bruce, 2008). Past research has found that the description of athletes may impact mediated sports fans’ impressions of a sport (Billings & Tambosi, 2004). Through a feminist sports media critical lens (Daddario, 1998), this study examined how NBC broadcasters described hockey players during the 2010 Winter Olympics to determine whether the players’ sex led to differential portrayals. Typically, portrayals of male athletes have focused on their strength, talent, and hard work while commentators have focused on female athletes’ aesthetically-pleasing movements as well as their emotions, luck, and togetherness (Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988; Messner, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). Content analysis was used to analyze the commentary of four games involving Team USA (2 women’s and 2 men’s games). Chi-square results indicated that commentators did not mention male players’ physical strength or technical skills more often than female players’. However, sportscasters referred to  female players’ emotions and personalities more frequently than those of male players. Surprisingly, they suggested strategies for success more frequently for male players than female players.

Nakamura, Yuka, York University, nakamura@yorku.ca

Where to belong?: Mixed-race, culture and biological racism

According to the eligibility rules for participation in North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament (NACIVT), “all teams must have at least 2/3 of the players on the court at all times who are 100% Chinese in order to participate in any of the games of the tournament. The remaining players must be of Asian descent.” Those with are 50% Chinese (i.e., one Chinese parent) are considered ‘Asian descent.’ Unwritten in these regulations is the assumption that players must be at least 50% Asian – otherwise, there is ‘not enough Asian in them’ for players to qualify. Despite this rule, there is a growing number of mixed race Asian players on the NACIVT. Nevertheless, there continues to be steadfast support of the eligibility rule and what it is thought to protect. By taking a critical race theory approach and centering race and racism in the analysis of interviews with these players, it is clear that orientalizing and exclusionary notions of culture interlock with biological racism to eject mixed-race players out of the categories of Chinese and Asian and subsequently reproduce racial hierarchies, particularly with respect to white athleticism.

Narcotta-Welp, Eileen, University of Iowa, eileen-narcotta@uiowa.edu

Going Once, twice, sold: The recruiting battle over equivalency sport athletes

The NCAA has structured college sports into a two-tiered scholarship system of head count sports and equivalency sport in order to address the financial constraints felt by athletic departments. Division I coaching staffs of head count sports must only offer full grants-in-aid while equivalency sports coaches can disseminate an allotment of scholarship money in various percentages based on the perceived value of individual student-athletes. Thus, the recruitment of equivalency sport athletes is significantly different than the sensationalized media portrayal of top football and basketball recruits. This paper utilizes a Marxist analysis of equivalency sport recruiting to further illuminate collegiate sport as a market place of commodified athletic talents. The main thrust of the argument will employ Jean Baudrillard’s theory of symbolic exchange in order to demonstrate a prospective student-athlete’s worth as a commodity of social signification for collegiate coaches. The method of symbolic exchange established through the scholarship offer is compared with Baudrillard’s evaluation of the fetishistic art auction. Coach as consumer is elevated over student-athletes production of labor implying an uneven playing field of commodification and representation. Thus, equivalency sport recruiting places more emphasis on the value of labor a student-athlete possesses rather than optimizing the NCAA mission of the student-athlete experience.

Newhall, Kristine, University of Iowa Kristine-newhall@uiowa.edu

Queer Women, Masculine Spaces: Lesbians in the Gym

While the presence of lesbians in American sports has been long discussed and researched, little has been said about the experiences of queer women in the contemporary fitness center—or gym. Based on interviews with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer women as well as observations at three gyms, I examine how queer women use and feel about the space and their presence in it. These women’s experiences present a range of issues around access, health, (in)visibility, disrupting gender norms, power, and safety. This paper explores these issues as well as how a queer female identity affects one’s exercise practices and the ability to negotiate historically gendered boundaries within the space of the gym. I ask whether a queer presence in the gym, and in particular in contested spaces such as the weight room and locker room, challenges hegemonic discourses around exercise, fitness, sexuality, gender, and femininity.

Newman, Joshua Florida State University, jinewman@fsu.edu

This Pain in My Neck: Cultural Physiology and Living Conscientization

This paper offers (auto)ethnographic reflections of an individual suffering from physical symptoms associated with a contradictory life. More specifically, the author mediates on the skeleto-muscular pangs that come with a raised critical consciousness—or what Paulo Freire refers to in his teaching as conscientização—that stands as directly incongruent to living (in) the embodied politics of 1) an incessantly aspirational working class habitus (and various machinations of [auto-]mobility) and 2) an inescapable whiteness amidst the spectacle of Tea Party USA.

Nishihara, Mario, University for Peace, Costa Rica, nishihara.mario@gmail.com

The Case of Gender Equity inside the Women’s National Basketball Association

While the integration of sports in various development and peace initiatives have become noticeably increasing, one must always objectively recognize the gender issues within sports itself, specifically with professional sports. This paper will look into the conflicting images of female athletes and gender issues within the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), which also propels and portrays the issues within the society.

Norman, Mark, University of Toronto, mark.norman@utoronto.ca

 

Cultural Citizenship and the New Media Consumption/Production of Televised Sport

 

While scholars have argued that access to television broadcasts of live sport events can constitute an important aspect of cultural citizenship, this scholarly discussion has not extended to the various forms of new media through which live sport is also consumed and produced. Building upon Scherer and Whitson’s (2009) argument that public television access to Hockey Night in Canada is a matter of Canadian cultural citizenship, this paper uses data collected during the program’s 2011 Hockey Day in Canada broadcast to examine the ways in which new media, notably Twitter, are used by consumers of live sport to become producers of new media content. Through exploration of major themes that emerged on Twitter, the paper argues that new media can provide sites for collective discussion on important sociopolitical issues—and that, therefore, discussions about cultural citizenship and sport media should be extended to include access to new media communities. The implications of this argument are discussed in light of Jenkins’ (2006) research on “new knowledge communities” and the novel forms of democratic decision-making that are created up by such online collectives. In particular, the sociopolitcal implications of barriers to participation in new knowledge communities are discussed.

 

 

Norwood, Dawn M., Florida A&M University

 

Deep: Experiences of a Black Swimmer on a White Team

 

First year college experiences can be described as exciting, confusing, and daunting at best. It is a time of adjustment for even the best student entering the doors of higher education for the first time. That being said, the adjustment for a minority at a predominantly White institution (PWI) can prove a little more difficult than most; and even more arduous for a Black student-athlete competing on an all-White team in what is considered a non-traditional sport for Black participants. Using case study method, a semi-structured interview was used to explore the experience(s) of a predominantly White, Division I university’s first and only Black female swim team member. The reported findings are that the participant, at times, felt lonely and disconnected from the team, encountered cultural/racial stereotypes, and had to negotiate cultural constraints to be a swimmer. Moreover, the participant found herself in a position of having to inform, and sometimes correct, her White (and Black) peers and coaches on the misconceptions they held about Black swimmers and Black culture over all. The never-ending quest to maintain individuality, culture, and be a leader proved overwhelming for the participant at times. Implications for cultural competency for coaches and players are discussed.

 

Oates, Thomas Patrick, Northern Illinois University. toates@niu.edu

 

Organizational Men: Professional Football and Masculine Inspiration

 

In the past several decades, neoliberalism has transformed cultural politics, as a burgeoning set of commercial media products have worked to reshape citizenship in accordance with the demands of a changing cultural/political/economic system (Andrejevic, 2004, 2007; Miller, 1998, 2007; Ouellette, 2004, 2008; Rimke, 2000).  These transformations have led still-dominant forms of white supremacist androcentrism to adopt new strategies with which to assert claims to cultural authority (Giroux, 2003; Goldberg, 2009). This critical/cultural analysis highlights the important but neglected role of professional football in this continuing transformation by considering the range of recently produced texts about Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi.  Lombardi died in 1970, but his legend has re-emerged at the start of the 21rst century, beginning a second, posthumous career as an inspirational figure for a neoliberal age.  His aphorisms have been collected in several recently published books and he has been the subject of several recent biographies, a major Broadway play, an HBO Documentary, and a forthcoming film starring Robert DeNiro. The paper explores how and why Lombardi has re-emerged as prominent figure in the public discourse, and addresses what these narratives can tell us about the priorities, anxieties, and tensions of neoliberal citizenship.

Odenheimer, Ellie, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, eodenhei@utk.edu

Constructing Christian-based Yoga with Ritual Appropriation

The American, yoga is multi-dimensional and phenomena threads through history, market trends, fitness, medicine, religion, health and wellness, religion, spirituality, and exercise. We know about yoga’s roots, its religious associations, and its journey to America, but we do not know if or how dominant Christian ideologies influence yoga teachers. There is a dearth with literature concerning the connections between how Christian beliefs, the dominant religion in the United States, related to the body and physical activity participation inform fitness modalities from other cultures. Pertinent to my intended study is the debate over who should practice yoga (Hindu-American Foundation; 2011; Mohler, 2010; Ratzinger, 1989), and specifically whether Christians practice yoga. This study’s purpose is to explore, through the lens of ritual appropriation theory, Christian-centered yoga (CCY) and how CCY teachers create meaning of their own yoga experiences and operationalize it in their classes. Informed by Straussian methods, interviews were conducted, and document, content, and thematic analyses were used to separate, cluster, regroup, and connect data (Merriam, 1998; Grbich, 2007) to illuminate how, through ritual, CCY instructors integrate their spiritual, religious, and fitness beliefs through teaching yoga.

Olushola, Joyce, The University of Texas at Austin, Joyce.Olushola@mail.utexas.edu

The Black Hole: From Athlete to Administrator for Black Women

While Black females represent over 15% of all Division 1 athletes, they represent less than 2% of sport administrators (Acosta & Carpenter, 2008). This gap highlights the lack of information available on the transition out of athletic participation and/or collegiate athletics entirely for this demographic. The lack of Black female administrators has been noted in creating “logical dependencies” that “ narrow the alternatives perceived” to engaging in sport for these women, particularly, their desire to pursue careers in administration and the role models available to help them do so (McDowell et al., 2009; cf. MacKay & McKiernan, 2004). The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanisms which shape Black female athletes’ exit from collegiate athletic participation and entry into administration. Employing a Black Feminist perspective and Critical Race Theory as an interpretive framework, semi- structured interviews will be conducted with Black female athletes at a PWIHE to explore their experiences as they transitioned out of collegiate athletics. The role of mentors in navigating this process also will be explored. Implications from this data will be utilized to uncover and redress the ideals that create structural barriers to continued participation in sport and its administration for Black female athletes.

Pate, Joshua R., University of Tennessee, joshpate@utk.edu

Experiences of a Football Student Manager with a Physical Disability

The purpose of this narrative study was to examine a person with a physical disability working in a sport setting that is comprised of able-bodied workers. The experiences of an NCAA Division-I college football student equipment manager with a physical disability were explored using acceptance of loss theory and the four major value changes individuals face. Three themes were constructed in examining the participant’s experiences as a manager with a physical disability: (1) relationships, (2) physical work, and (3) independence. Through these themes, the participant was able to navigate three of the four major value changes, but unable shift focus away from his physical qualities in both his acceptance of an acquired disability and his progression of working in an environment where physical labor is part of the job expectation. Constructing meaning from the narrative can help individuals with acquired physical disabilities seek practical avenues for coping and exploring their existing abilities.

 

Peachey, Jon Welty, Texas A&M University (jweltypeachey@hlkn.tamu.edu), Adam Cohen, Texas A&M University (ascohen@hlkn.tamu.edu), Alexis Lyras, University of Louisville (alexis.lyras@louisville.edu)

Examining the impact of Street Soccer USA on its volunteers

 

Most studies on the use of sport with marginalized populations have centered upon the impact on participants, with few studies examining the impact on other stakeholders, such as volunteers. While some scholars contend that volunteering provides a form of social participation and civic engagement that can foster citizenship and social capital, these ideas are disputed and lack empirical evidence. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a community sport initiative called Street Soccer USA on its volunteers. Street Soccer USA uses soccer to provide a support system to homeless individuals for making positive life changes. Focus groups were conducted with volunteers from five cities across the U.S. Findings of this qualitative study revealed that volunteering fostered social capital development by enhancing awareness and understanding about homelessness, building community and relationships with the homeless, enhancing passion to work in the social justice field, and developing self satisfaction through a “feel good” mentality. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the use of community sport to aid in social capital development. By creating increased understanding and a sense of community between different social groups, greater community cohesion and more inclusive social capital may be developed.

Pearson, Demetrius W., University of Houston, Dpearson@Central.uh.edu with Eddie T. C. Lam

 

Prole Sport Social Consciousness During an Era of Sport Greed

Athlete and franchise free agency have brought newfound riches to individuals and teams (Evanoff, 2008; Rader, 1999).  Money and “mo” money appears to be the driving force in contemporary sport at the professional and amateur levels (Eitzen & Sage, 2009).  The on-going bowl games versus playoff debate in collegiate football, as well as the recent National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) lockouts are but a few examples (Woods, 2011).  Needless to say, athletes and sport teams alike are cashing in on the vast financial rewards and incentives available in today’s sport marketplace.  Yet, social consciousness and community involvement appear to be waning in this era of “sport greed.”  This presentation will address some of the salient researched contributions (Pearson, in press) of two nationally recognized rodeo production companies in Texas (i.e., Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and U2 Rodeo) that have historically embraced social consciousness and community involvement.  Although the genesis of their respective development differs dramatically, each organization has contributed significantly to its environment through diverse ways (e.g., philanthropy, political activism, cultural awareness, and educational access).

Pegoraro, Ann, Laurentian University, apegoraro@laurentian.ca and Naila Jinnah, Queen’s University, naila.jinnah@queensu.ca

Avery-one has an opinion: Twitter, Same-Sex Marriage and the NHL

 

Sean Avery is certainly not the NHL’s ideal spokesperson. His reputation as a pest on the ice and his long record of derogatory comments off the ice make him easy to hate. When Avery recorded a video PSA supporting “full-marriage equality” in the summer of 2011, the hockey world was slow to take notice, even on social media, where this type of news is usually quick to spread. A delayed Twitter reaction by management agency Uptown Hockey calling out Avery’s “misguided support of same-gender ‘marriage’” created awareness of the PSA’s existence and sparked a flurry of commentary. Surprisingly, backlash from sports fans, reporters, activists, and even NHL players was directed at Uptown manager Todd Reynolds, not Avery, leading us to question whether the commonly represented culture of homophobia in hockey locker rooms and audiences was shifting, and what role, if any, social media was playing in creating a more positive environment to discuss these issues.

Peterson, Theresa, Simon Fraser University, theresap@sfu.ca

“It’s In Our Blood”: Understanding Hockey Fandom Through Blood Symbolism

Using “blood” as the cornerstone of a community of hockey fans suggests relationships that transcend that of consumer/producer or entertainer/ spectator. In this presentation I shall explore the implications of blood symbolism in the context of men’s professional ice hockey in Minnesota; specifically the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The familial, inherent, and sacrificial facets of an imagined “blood” community will be explored. Through a series of interviews and participant observation at games with fans of various levels of interest, I was able to understand the significance of blood imagery and the ways in which it connected fans to each other. More importantly, it gave fans a sense of connection to the team. The significance of this is that while themes of family, rootedness, and even sacrifice are familiar, they are not always experienced in everyday life to the extent that they are in hockey. Thus, the community is bound by a shared, liminal experience reinforced by the symbolic implications of “blood.”

Pfister, Gertrud, University of Copenhagen, GPfister@ifi.ku.dk

 

The Beauty and the Svengali – the Marion Jones Story and American Doping Discourses

Marion Jones is one of the most successful track athletes of all times and one of the few who went to prison as a consequence of doping (and lying about it). Her story is full of triumphs in the sporting arena, but also of tragedies, love relations, repentance and punishment.

In this paper, I will present the coverage of Marion Jones and her partner C.J. Hunter as well as the general approaches to doping in three American News Papers. The time periods of this investigation are the weeks of the Olympic Games 2000; the method is a qualitative content analysis. Drawing on media theories and constructivist approaches to gender, I explored the framing of doping and the gender arrangements in the coverage of the two athletes involved in a doping case. The analysis of the news papers showed that doping was embedded in a moral discourse without in-depth information and discussions. Marion Jones was presented as the American hope and the “beauty” whose fate was connected with a “beast” or, as other journalist proposed, a “svengali”. When Hunter’s drug abuse became public, a “cloud” of suspicion engulfed Jones who convinced that she was a “clean athlete”.  In the last part of the paper, I will discuss reasons and effects of this type of “story telling”.

Pieper, Lindsay Parks, The Ohio State University (pieper.15@osu.edu)

“Couldn’t be Prouder”: Patronization in the 2011 Women’s World Cup

After the United States women’s national soccer team lost to Japan in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 1-3 in penalty kicks, U.S. President Barack Obama tweeted that he “couldn’t be prouder of the women of the #USWNT after a hard-fought game.”  The majority of American media outlets conveyed similar sentiments.  Notably congratulating team U.S.A. for challenging such a formidable opponent, these reports ignored the conspicuous evidence that the players faltered under pressure, thereby discounting their skills.  Utilizing content and textual analysis, this paper critically examines the media accounts that followed the championship match, and, by employing hegemony theory, argues that this coverage patronized female athletes, reifying sport as a male domain.  Several scholars have previously documented the ambivalent, trivializing, feminizing and sexualizing tendencies embraced to unfavorably describe women’s sport in the mainstream media.  This paper shows that despite increased coverage of women due to the popularity of the World Cup, the media maintained the pattern of invalidating female athleticism through condescending patronization.

Plymire, Darcy C., Western Illinois University, darcyplymire@me.com

Playing with Myselves: Digital Games and Posthuman Subjectivities

I am not Tiger Woods. I am not a gnome warrior, either. In the digital world, however, I have played at being both. In previous work, I have applied a theory of posthuman subjectivity to a contemplation of the video game Madden NFL. In this paper, I extend that work through an examination of posthuman subjectivity in the Massively Multiple Online (MMO) game World of Warcraft (WOW). Using the WOW avatar as an object of study, and working at an intersection of video game studies and Hayles’ (1999) theory of the posthuman, I suggest new ways for sport studies scholars to think about embodiment and posthuman subjectivities.

Prouse, Carolyn, University of British Columbia; 3vcp@queensu.ca

 

‘Celebrate Africa’s Humanity’ or dispossess South Africa’s citizenry? Rogue sovereignty, governmentality and the constitution of bare life through the 2010 FIFA World Cup

In the past twenty years an increasing number of Global South countries have vied for the rights to host prestigious and expensive sport mega events. This trend requires significant reflection given the enormous economic costs of these events, which often produce little capital gain for the host nations (Whitson & Horne, 2006). Utilizing the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as an exemplum, I explored Marxian materialist and Foucauldian discursive technologies of power associated with Global South nations incorporating sport mega events into their development agendas. This project involved a discursive analysis of popular news media and documentaries in South Africa in the lead up to and during the World Cup. Through this news coverage it became apparent that the mega event created the conditions in which new forms of rogue sovereign partnerships could arise through a historically and spatially contingent process of capitalism. The rogue sovereigns’ para-juridico-political orders, the discourses and practices of accumulation by dispossession as a tactic and effect of govermentality, and other historical non-capital subjectivities such as racial identity, all contributed to constituting Agamben’s (1998) state of exception in which people could be killed or left to die in the events surrounding the World Cup.

Radmann, Aage, Malmö University, Sweden, Aage.radmann@mah.se

Love and Hate in the Media Soccer World

This paper will examine the representation and the different pictures of a “hooligan scandal” that took place in Malmö, Sweden in May 2011, in traditional media: various newspapers, and in new media: various websites and Facebook. An aim is to analyse how the relationship between new media and old media affects the mediation and understanding of hooliganism. Another purpose with this paper is to analyse which effects the medialisation have on the understanding, explanation and suggested solutions to the societal problem of hooliganism.

Regan Jr., Michael R., Texas A&M University, mrreganjr@hlkn.tamu.edu- with Akilah R.

Carter-Francique,, Texas A&M, (arfrancique@hlkn.tamu.edu)

 

Systemic Racism Theory: Unveiling “Dualing” Realities in Intercollegiate Athletics

 

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to understand the dearth of African Americans and their advancement in leadership positions within the context of collegiate athletics. More specifically, this paper proposes to introduce systemic racism (see Feagin, 2006), as a theoretical framework, to critically explicate this social reality. Systemic racism, similar to other critical theories (e.g., critical race theory; Donner, 2005; Singer, 2005; black feminist thought, Carter, 2008) in sport, has been utilized in sociology to deliberately illustrate the historical-contemporary and society-wide links of racial oppression, so as to uncover a systemic racist reality throughout the US. Acknowledging the notion of “race matters”, systemic racism centers its attention on white economic domination; and gives voice to those who have been traditionally voiceless (e.g., ethnic/racial minorities) while also allowing the dominant culture (e.g., whites) to have voice. Employing this critical comparative framework (i.e., white-black perspective) has the potential to uncover the perceptual gaps in the existence and/or intensity of racial oppression in collegiate athletic experiences and realities (e.g., hiring practices, player positions). Ultimately, systemic racism may aid in illuminating these divergent experiences and realities to a) provide a more comprehensive analysis and b) aid in strengthening social change efforts in research, practice, and the experiences of African Americans in collegiate athletics

Rick, Oliver, University of Maryland orick@umd.edu

“You’ve been chicked”: Gender regulation in ironman triathlon culture

“You’ve been ‘chicked’” joked the commentators at the 2010 Ironman world championships full day online coverage; indeed increasingly the term has become a common phrase within the culture surrounding ‘ironman’ triathlon. But some may ask why is such a seemingly innocent comment so important? Indeed as Meán (2010) states “Due to their strong identification with the category, sporting audiences or communities are highly familiar with sporting narratives and practices while simultaneously being especially susceptible to the meanings re/presented in sporting texts” (p. 69). It is this susceptibility that makes trying to understand the way in which this discourse works to regulate gender so important. Therefore I will discuss why the increasingly pervasive use of this discourse especially in new more accessible and interactive mediums such as podcasts and blogs makes this a key site in this regulation and in the formation of subjectivities in relation to the growing cultural site of ‘Ironman’ triathlon. Within this presentation I will draw from theoretical works focused on the role of discourse in regulating gender in sport (Pringle, Méan, etc) but will also draw heavily from Foucauldian (1978, 1972, 1977) concepts surrounding the role of discourse in disciplining and regulating subjects.

Robinson, Courtney L., Bowling Green State University, courtlr@bgsu.edu with Cathryn Lucas-Carr

“I like to be Competitive”: Athletic Negotiations

This presentation examines the athletic negotiations of these girl athletes and, more specifically, the data themes of team dynamics and sport mentality. Team dynamics focuses on the relationships among the athletes in sport settings. While occasionally the girls expressed feelings of anger or frustration with teammates, generally they emphasized the trust and camaraderie that was developed. Sport mentality refers to the psychological components of sport that the girls discussed. For example, they talked about becoming and staying motivated, gaining a sense of accomplishment, and what it means to be a good sport. Sport was described as a form of catharsis in which frustrations from daily life could be relieved. The girls also acknowledged the pressures they felt through their sport participation.

Rodgers, R. Pierre, George Mason University, prodgers@gmu.edu with Kimberly R. Moffitt

Media Representation in the Steve McNair Murder Scandal

When news spread of the murder of former Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Steve McNair, speculation began to grow as to the circumstances behind his death. It was discovered that his death was part of a murder-suicide by a woman allegedly dating McNair for months (Howard, Sarrio, & Echegaray, 2009). While racial stereotypes in magazine sports writing is in decline (Byrd & Utsler, 2007), racialized bias is still evident when it comes to reporting the exploits of African American athletes. Our analysis of national and Nashville, Tennessee mediated coverage following the July 4, 2009 homicide found that race and scandal were at work in the media narrativization of the story. Given McNair’s reputation as a quality football player, devoted husband, and pillar of the community, it is insightful to examine media perceptions of infidelity, interracial/intercultural relationships, and morality via narrative criticism. After reading media accounts of McNair’s death, it is possible to look at the news reports as cultural stories “that provide glimpses into that culture—the meanings attributed to particular events, those aspects of the culture that are privileged and repressed, its values, and its ethical system” (Foss, 1996, p. 401).  

Ross, Sally R., University of Memphis

Girls Traversing Gender Boundaries

Our research on girl athletes reveals a complex negotiation of gendered and sporting expectations. At this young age, these girls recognize societal norms related to masculine dominance in sport and have learned to negotiate gender relations, consistent with previous research (Azzarito & Solomon, 2004; Shakib & Dunbar, 2002). The struggle to make sense of the clashes among their social and sport worlds is evident in the many contradictions and incongruities within their discussions. Their participation in sport is viewed as transgressive behavior and the girls seem to be constructing a spectrum of socially-constructed femininity that the athletes refer to as “girly-girl,” normal, and their own self-definitions. These are not exclusive categories and the girls’ negotiation of clothing and behavior highlights active participation with social expectations and are a commentary on transgressive behavior as athletes.

Ruihley, Brody, University of Cincinnati, ruihlebj@uc.edu with Andrew C. Billings

Infiltrating the “Boys Club”: Motivations for Women’s Fantasy Sport Participation

With 27 million Americans and millions of others playing worldwide, fantasy (or rotisserie) sport has reached critical mass. People of different ages, races, and nations are enjoying the vicarious participation in real-time sport via fantasy leagues, yet one group that remains woefully underrepresented is women. This study analyzes personal attributes, consumption, sport fandom, and motivations to participate from a gender perspective. A total of 531 men and women fantasy sport users were surveyed about their media consumption and overall motivations for participating. Results indicate that men consuming nearly ten hours more sports media content each week than women. More interestingly, regarding motivations for play, men and women yielded consistent motivations for play on five of the seven measures: arousal, entertainment, escape, self-esteem and surveillance); the two remaining measures, enjoyment and passing time, were significantly higher for men. Implications and directions for future research in the area of gender differences within fantasy sport play are offered.

 

Sacha, Jeffrey O., University of Southern California, sacha@usc.edu

 

Fighting feelings: The role of emotional regimens in amateur boxing training

 

In placing the amateur boxing trainer at the center of its analysis, this paper attempts to illuminate the role of pedagogy in processes of habitus. Previous theories of habitus and embodiment have failed to adequately illustrate the role played by mezzo-level agents and the means that these social actors employ as they re-create the social field on and through the bodies of uninitiated members. Rather than being a phenomenon that takes place exclusively between an individual and the social field in which he or she exists, habitus and identity formation are much more fully theorized by paying attention to the relationships which facilitate this process of self-creation. An amateur boxing gym, referred to as The Main Street Boxing Club, is used as this project’s research site. The roughly dozen amateur boxing trainers at Main Street were observed and interviewed regarding the methods they employ with their fighters. What emerges is a story of the power of emotion in training the young male fighter, within the specific context of the US urban ghetto. Coaches described processes of confidence building, fear management, loyalty, and empathy creation as being central to the creation of an amateur fighter. This paper concludes by discussing the potential for research on emotional regimens to better inform the implementation of athletic interventions in the lives of marginalized young men in the US American ghetto.

 

Sailes, Gary, Indiana University, gsailes@indiana.edu

The Sport Sociology Scholar as Student Athlete Mentor

As scholars, we sport sociologists have a particular insight into the underpinnings of American sport. For those of us who examine big time college sports, we are keenly aware of the commercial and academic missions of the athletic department and the challenging environment it creates for all student athletes and student athletes of color in particular. However, as we disclose the research and provide applicable examples of this challenging environment in our classes, we are perceived as experts and are sought out by our athlete students for consultation, advisement and mentoring. The Afro-Centric Scholarship model created by Molef Kete Asante of Temple University challenges all African American scholars to do something about the social disparities and problems we uncover through our scholarship. This presentation will focus on the unexpected yet vital mentoring service we provide as a result of our scholarship. I will highlight two case studies (campus and community based programs) and provide specific examples of how these two programs positively impacted the lives of the African American student athletes they served.

 

Samariniotis, Heather, Northern Illinois University, samariniotis10@gmail.com, Thomas J. Aicher, University of Cincinnati, aicherts@uc.edu

 

I’m not a figure skater, I’m a hockey coach: The exploration of the double bind among female assistant hockey coaches

Competition and sport is an unequivocally male world (Messner, 1992) that produces and reproduces gender inequity and inequality. The institution of sport is developed to help “prove” men’s dominance over women (Adams, Anderson, & McCormick, 2010); thereby sport perpetuates and recreates male hegemony and hegemonic masculinity (Fink, 2008). The value placed on hegemonic masculinity within sport promotes a complex situation for women within sport. As a masculine occupation, coaching, like sport, values masculine traits (Aicher & Sagas, 2009). This engenders a climate for the double bind for female coaches in sport.

Participants in this study will be female assistant coaches of a traditionally masculine sport (ice hockey). Participants’ responses will then be tested against the sex of the head coach to measure the differences in perceptions of the double bind. In order to gather a large enough sample size, and to compare perceptions of the double bind, we will survey female coaches from Division I, II, and III levels. The results will begin to develop an understanding of the impact of the double bind among women within sport organizations; specifically, the coaching profession. Furthermore, the results will further the discussion regarding the culture of sport organizations.

 

 

Sartore-Baldwin, Melanie, L., East Carolina University, satorem@ecu.edu

Exploring the Weight Room:  Culture and Gender within the Strength and Conditioning Profession

One of the most understudied realms within sport is also one of the most gendered – the intercollegiate athletic weight room.  While the majority of strength and conditioning positions are occupied by men, descriptive data suggests that there has been a notable increase of women in the field during the last twenty-five years (Lapchick, 2009).  The purpose of this study was twofold; first, to explore how strength and conditioning coaches define their profession and second, to explore the presence of women in this traditionally masculine domain.   Interviews were conducted with nine male and eight female intercollegiate strength and conditioning coaches.  Each interview was transcribed verbatim and thoroughly reviewed before being the coding process.  A “grounded, a posteriori, inductive, context-sensitive” (Schwandt, 2007, p. 26) coding scheme was utilized to allow for inferences and code generation.  Consistent with the premise of inductive analyses, the individual experiences of each coach were uniquely explored and analyzed before subsequently integrating them for a broader, yet contextualized, understanding.  Four main themes emerged and are discussed; the necessity for educated knowledge, the need for physical ability, gendered advancement opportunities, and mentorship.   These themes are discussed in relation to both the culture and gendered nature of the profession.

 

Scherer, Jay, University of Alberta, jay.scherer@ualberta.ca with Jean Harvey

Televised Sport and Cultural Citizenship in Canada: The ‘Two Solitudes’ of Canadian Public Broadcasting?

In this presentation we examine some of the differences between English and French sports programming, and the contradictions between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio-Canada (RC) in providing over-the-air telecasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games.  In 2006, for example, the CBC secured a new six-year contract with the NHL rumoured to be worth CDN$600 million, thus preserving the network’s iconic show, Hockey Night in Canada.  However, RC was unwilling to make a similar financial commitment to the NHL, and, since 2004, hockey broadcasts have aired exclusively on the cable sport specialty network RDS. These developments, in turn, marked the end of La Soirée Du Hockey— a cultural institution in Quebec—and curtailed the ‘viewing rights’ (Rowe, 2004) of fans to watch matches involving the Montreal Canadiens in French on the public broadcaster (Harvey & Law, 2005).  Drawing from interviews with executives from the CBC and RC, we review these developments and examine the seemingly divergent mandate of the public broadcaster in providing over-the-air coverage of hockey games for all Canadians. We propose that what is ultimately at stake in these debates is not just the fate of hockey on the CBC and RC (and the Olympics, and other major sporting events that are important to Canadians): it is the type of role that the public broadcaster should play in contemporary Canadian life, and thus the future of both networks. These are not just issues for hockey fans, then, but matters of national interest (Scherer & Whitson, 2009).

Schroeder, Carolan E., University of Iowa, carolan-schroeder@uiowa.edu

"Baseball and Apple Pie: Competitive Cooking in American Popular Culture"

Images of food are displayed and disseminated in myriad media, but perhaps nowhere more powerfully than through television and film.  In an age of celebrity chefs and networks dedicated to comestibles, food media is as ripe for consumption as food itself.  Culinary programming trends indicate two emergent genres: those that seek to educate and those that seek to entertain.  “Food Inc.” and “Man vs. Food” exemplify the competing discourse prominent in culinary media.  While one reveals the relationship between the growing obesity crisis and perils of industrial farming, the other glorifies accomplishments in gluttonous consumption.  Through critical cultural analysis, this paper endeavors to illustrate how competitive cooking shows reconcile the polarized images and cultural messages.  Programs like “Top Chef” fuse entertainment with educational agenda by transforming the domestic space of the kitchen and the act of cooking.  The centrality of sport and pervasiveness of sporting imagery and language in American culture allow “Top Chef” to utilize this framework in the construction of culinary specific tasks and challenges.  The culinary competition model has the potential to change the discourse around food by neutralizing the gendered sphere, empowering the home cook to acquire skills, and providing accessible and digestible information.  

 

Schull, Vicki D., University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, SCHU1850@umn.edu

  

Constructing the ideal leader: Coaching and gender implications

 

Leadership theory and practice has experienced a shift in recent years from authoritative, command and control styles to more collaborative and relational practices. Gender is also implicated as socially constructed forms of masculinities and femininities are embedded in leadership styles (Fletcher, 2004). Drago et al. (2005) contend that the coaching profession remains linked to outdated leadership styles (i.e. autocratic and authoritarian), which often leads to gender stereotypes associated with coaching (Rhode & Walker, 2008). This qualitative study explored female college athletes’ perceptions of leadership in the context of sport. Interviews were conducted with female athletes participating in team sports at the NCAA Division I level. A social constructivist approach (Rogoff, 1995; Vygotsky, 1978) was utilized to examine how participants’ experiences and interpretations in sport informed their constructions of leadership and the ideal leader. Findings indicate that the participants’ leadership beliefs related to coaching are multifaceted and complex. While the ability to garner respect and to be authoritarian was valued, participants’ accounts also highlight the importance of being able to relate individually and to demonstrate genuine care and concern for the athlete. Given the complex and often contradictory accounts of ideal leadership, implications for coach education as well as gender are discussed. 

Shang, Ya-Ting, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, y_shang@uncg.edu with Diane L. Gill, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, dlgill@uncg.edu

Lesbian and non-lesbian athletes’ perceptions of sport climate in Taiwan

This study, framed in feminist perspective, explored female collegiate athletes’ perceptions of the sport climate for non-gender-congruent gender expressions and non-heterosexual sexual orientations in Taiwan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female collegiate athletes (one self-identified as bisexual, one as heterosexual, and four as more homosexual-oriented.) Participants reported that masculine gender expressions of female athletes were affirmed among female peers, and these non-gender-congruent gender expressions are not only about personal preference, but also have practical power to fight against sexism in sport. Non-heterosexual orientations were generally accepted among female peers because of familiarity, however non-heterosexual orientations were only manifested and discussed in private and excluded from public discourse. On the other hand, non-gender-congruent gender expressions and non-heterosexual orientations were challenged by male peers for resisting the authority of male hegemony in sport. Coaches were perceived as conditionally tolerant and lacking sensitivity about sexuality issues. Results highlight the need to move discussions of gender and sexuality from private matters to educational and institutional challenges by increasing individual awareness and knowledge, and by formalizing official support and protection for people with diverse gender expressions and sexual orientations. 

Shanley, Sara, American University, ss1729a@student.american.edu

Contact and Collision Sports and Self-Efficacy in Kenya

Abstract: This paper seeks to explore the way in which sport can complement the weaknesses of current female empowerment interventions in Kenya such as education, microfinance, the women’s movement and the restructuring of the constitution. While these interventions have had some successes in empowering women, they are limited by patriarchal norms, quality of education and lack of jobs. This study uses a survey methodology to measure the relationship between female youth’s participation in contact, low-level collision and high-level collision sports and the athletes’ self-efficacy which is how I operationalize female empowerment. I surveyed 13 to 18 year old female soccer players, rugby players and boxers in Nairobi and then created a numerical scale in order to determine which sport provided the greatest contribution to the four sources of self-efficacy: verbal persuasion, mastery, modeling experience and physiological state. Rugby players scored the highest followed by soccer players and boxers. The scores of the athletes and an analysis of the themes in their surveys suggest that participation in collision sports has the potential to complement other female empowerment interventions by targeting male and female youth who are still being socialized and by posing a greater and more direct challenge to normative patriarchal beliefs.

 

Sharrow, Elizabeth, University of Minnesota, shar0139@umn.edu

 

Inherently Partial: Interpreting Title IX Public Opinion Data as Archival Source

 

What changes when researchers evaluate historical public opinion data as archival data, and therefore historically-contingent and partial source material?  This paper considers this question using eight public opinion polls (1974-2011) concerning gender equity in athletics and Title IX.  Social science researchers commonly treat these data as apolitical, ahistorical, “nationally representative samples” of mass opinion.  Public opinion scholars commonly examine longitudinal patterns and trends over time to construct narratives of mass opinion, rather than considering the politics of data inherently limited by the population sampling decisions, question wordings and framings made by other researchers in another context and time.  The latter approach—a move towards foregrounding context—is a methodological orientation more commonly used in disciplines of history.  This paper contrasts and critiques these two approaches, asking the question—What was public opinion regarding gender equity in athletics at key moments in Title IX’s policy history?—and considering how methodological orientation to history alters the interpretation of this quantitative, public opinion data.  I assess how, through

evaluating these data as archival, and therefore inherently partial records of public opinion, we are able to illuminate histories of race and class in opinion towards Title IX otherwise obscured through a social science lens.

 

 

Schausteck de Almeida, Bárbara, Universidade Federal do Paraná/Brazil, barbara.edf@ufpr.br

Felipe Frederico Gomes Fagundes, Universidade Federal do Paraná

 

Evaluating a Community-Based Sports Program: The SESI Atleta do Futuro

 

SESI Atleta do Futuro is a Brazilian program that currently reaches around 200,000 people from 6 to 17 years old in 851 centers. SESI (Serviço Social da Indústria/Social Services for Industrial Workers) is a social institution supported by an obligatory tax of industry employees. Its main aim is to reinforce the industry, contributing to workers’ welfare state and quality of life. The program Atleta do Futuro is an initiative to develop the sporting activity habit in youth. Methodologically, it is based on levels of motor development, sport values, diversity of opportunities and the use of play as teaching instrument. In this paper, we intend to describe how professionals have developed the techniques of evaluating the methodology and measuring social impacts. Some of industries’ logics were incorporated, as quantitative measure and funding based on production, even though a qualitative research project is being proposed. These instruments are being developed and adapted to a wide range of realities among regional departments. These realities are related to human and financial sources, and also to cultural and technological possibilities to manage the program. To study and understand these issues, we proposed the use of more than one instrument of evaluation, such as evaluating sheets, reports, site visiting, professional training, video conferences, and economic data.

Schausteck de Almeida, Bárbara, Universidade Federal do Paraná/Brazil,barbara.edf@ufpr.br

Juliana Vlastuin (Universidade Federal do Paraná/Brazil, vlastuin6@yahoo.com.br

Wanderley Marchi Júnior, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CAPES, Brazil, marchijr@ufpr.br

Gonzalo Bravo (West Virginia University/USA) – Gonzalo.Bravo@mail.wvu.edu

Brazilian volleyball through the lenses of fieldwork and institutional

theory

Over the last decade, Brazilian Men’s and Women’s Volleyball has reached the highest level of performance at the world stage competition. In this study, we examined the historical facts, events and processes (1970 to 2010) that influenced the development and growth of Brazilian volleyball. Our purpose was to provide insights into how this growth occurred as well as to understand how different strategic and managerial tools –as applied by the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation– were able to create a social transformation of volleyball in Brazil. We used Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and followed his methodological categories of field theory. In addition, the concept of institutional isomorphism, as drawn from the field of institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), was also applied. In this study, institutional theory helps us to unveil the complexity of how these processes occurred, particularly considering that historical facts show the

nstability of the Brazilian volleyball system. In our analysis, we identified three stages: amateurism, professionalization and ‘spectacularization.’ A series of attributions and dispositions also emerged throughout this period, which, not only contributed to produce winning teams and Olympic medals, but also created and developed a professional culture that brought new paradigms.

 

Shin, Donghyuk, University of Iowa, donghyuk-shin@uiowa.edu with Jin-Wook Han

Diminishing Nationalism: How contemporary sport dilutes Korea’s national identity

Although it is still a very controversial topic, many scholars have agreed that nationalism is a modern ideology which emerged when many nation-states in Europe were established in accordance with industrialization. As most of the research on nationalism have explicitly critical perspective, it is often referred to as ‘invented tradition’ (Hobsbawm, 2003) or ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991). Nevertheless, the relationship between nationalism and sport was very significant throughout the 20^th century, and therefore many scholarly efforts were made on this topic. Although contemporary sport represents well the process and meaning of globalization, Dyreson (2003) indicates that it instead reinforces the expression of national identities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the national identity of South Korea, whose people are traditionally conservative about nationality issues and strongly identify with national sports teams and athletes, is being diluted by some recent incidents in sport. In order to guide the narrative, two cases will be examined: Ye Suh Tang, Chinese-born table-tennis player who was naturalized to South Korea, and Chung Sung Lee, ethnic Korean soccer player in Japanese national team.

Smith, Maureen, California State University, Sacramento, smithmm@csus.edu

Of Statues and Stories: (De)constructing the Construction Process of (Re)constructing Historical Events

This paper examines the research methods utilized in a project examining university campus efforts, most often in the tangible form of a statue, to remember the actions of coaches and student athletes during the civil rights struggle. I provide a brief overview of the ongoing project, and then turn my attention to the methods employed to document the historical event being commemorated. Additionally, using other methodologies, I work to explain the contemporary practices that lead to the construction of these monuments. I discuss the negotiations of utilizing multiple methodologies in the project, as well as how these various, sometimes competing, interests shape the project in all its phases.

Smith, Sean, European Graduate School, sean.smith@rogers.com

 

“Biogramming Base Bodies: We’re All In”

 

In early 2011, athletic footwear, apparel and lifestyle conglomerate adidas launched its worldwide marketing campaign "adidas is all in". Presented as a cosmopolitan moment in global sport and physical culture — at least insofar as its endorsers and target markets are concerned — the campaign’s television creative consisted of 15, 30 and 60-second edits of a centrepiece 120-second ad, played at the launch of the campaign and available on Youtube thereafter. Within five months of the "adidas is all in" launch the full-length version had been viewed over 2 million times. Engaging Brian Massumi and Erin Manning’s concept of the biogram and weaving threads of Félix Guattari’s schizoanalytic ecology, this paper argues that the "adidas is all in" television creative leverages techniques of in/visibility that have changed the affective stakes for the fetishization of athletic celebrity and its related sports consumables.

Smith, Wade P., University of Colorado, Boulder, wade.p.smith@colorado.edu

Calling the Shots: Context and Contradiction in Decision-Making among Sports Officials

To date, sociological analyses of sports have devoted relatively little attention to the role sports officials, such as basketball referees and baseball umpires, play in shaping the sports experience. Though in many circumstances rulebooks explicitly state that there can be only one interpretation and implementation of the rules, it is possible that, as in any organizational context, social and contextual factors influence such interpretations and implementations. Assuming an attention-based view of decision-making that has been employed in organization studies, I analyzed a year’s worth of discussion threads from two widely used websites devoted to sports officiating. Focusing explicitly on discussion threads that address on-the-field/court decision-making, my analysis reveals four core dynamics that influence the decision-making process for sports officials: personifying the game, qualifying challengers to authority, appealing to common sense, and appealing to broader social discourses. These results suggest that both broad social and local contextual factors influence the interpretation and implementation of sports rules. Shedding light on a population that, though highly influential in shaping the on-the-field/court experience, is often relegated to the background or even ignored, I rely on my results to make suggestions for future studies of the role sports officials play in the sporting experience.

Spearman, LeQuez, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, lspearm2@utk.edu

Black Face in a High Place: America’s First Sports President

Dubbed as the sports president by a number of mainstream publications in the United States, President Barack Obama was poised to build an extensive sporting resume. During the first three years of his presidency, Obama created brackets on ESPN’s Baracketology. He openly lobbied for his hometown of Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics and America the 2018 World Cup. The president’s interest in sports was so arresting that when Mike Krzyzewski, the coach of the Duke University Blue Devils basketball team, learned that the commander in chief did not pick his team to go to the final four, the Hall of Fame coach decried “the president should get to work.” The president also admonished Bowl Championship Series officials for their complicity in college football not having a post-season playoff. Despite all the talk of Obama becoming the next Theodore Roosevelt, who was instrumental in the formation of the NCAA, the president has not signed into law any legislation that —in theory– alters the trajectory of sport. In this paper, I will connect President Obama’s hollow sport’s record with his powerlessness in destabilizing the neoliberal free-market system, which has disenfranchised millions of sports fans.

Staurowsky, Ellen J., Drexel University, ellenstaurowsky@gmail.com

Exploring Title IX Implications of College Sport Pay for Play

The summer of 2011 was a time for renewed interest in the question of whether college athletes in the revenue-producing sports of football and men’s basketball are compensated fairly.  Fueled by news stories of ever more lucrative television deals, controversies around allegations of athletes receiving improper benefits, revelations regarding the continuing role of agents in the lives of athletes, and emerging information regarding the compensation levels of college sport officials, existing inequities in the college sport industry prompted the convening of a special presidential summit at NCAA offices in August for the purpose of responding to the problems that seem to be plaguing the enterprise (O’Neill, 2011; Sander, 2011). While NCAA president Mark Emmert was firm in the assertion that the Association would not move in the direction of paying athletes, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney publicly supported initiatives to compensate revenue-producing athletes more fairly by closing the shortfall that exists between a “full” scholarship and cost of attendance, a gap that can be as high as $15,000 per year for some athletes (Staples, 2011).  University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier proposed that coaches share a part of their earnings with the athletes.  He rationalized, “…As you know, 50 years ago there wasn’t any kind of money and the players got full scholarships. Now, they’re still getting full scholarships and the money is in the millions. I don’t know how to get it done. Hopefully there’s a way to get our guys that play football a little piece of the pie” (as quoted in Long, 2011).  As proposals surfaced, some college officials and sportswriters cautioned that any attempt to carve out a special status for big-time football and men’s basketball players would violate Title IX regulations (Voepel, 2011).  As NCAA Director of Digital Communication David Pickle (2011) wrote, “To portray women as an inconvenient, and likely irresolvable, legal obstruction to paying male football and basketball players puts them on the defensive, a position they have occupied for most of the four decades since Title IX was made into law.”  While much of the response to the pay for play question has done exactly what Pickle cautions against, it is still worthwhile to explore whether Title IX would serve as an impediment to such action or not.  As Jeff Orleans, former commissioner of the Ivy League and one of the original drafters of Title IX’s regulatory scheme, has argued that Title IX would not apply if the major conferences designated their big-time programs as businesses. Further, this is an opportune time to return to the history of Title IX’s application to athletic scholarships.  In 1973, a suit brought by tennis coach Fern “Peachy” Kellmeyer and others against the National Education Association and the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) contested the right of female athletes on athletic scholarships to play in AIAW sanctioned tournaments.  The AIAW, at the time, banned athletic scholarships believing them to represent a pay for play system that undermined the educational goals of intercollegiate sport.  The suit, while an important one, was settled largely because the AIAW did not have the financial wherewithal to marshal a defense to their position (Sack & Staurowsky, 1998; Smith, 2011; Wushanley, 2004).  This paper revisits the Kellmeyer case in light of the current calls for pay for play and explores whether Title IX need be an impediment to paying revenue-producing athletes in big-time college sport.

Sterling, Jennifer, University of Maryland, jster@umd.edu

 

Theorizing Technologies, Interpreting (In)Visibilities

 

Technologies exist and are theorized in sport, and the sociology of sport, through various forms, concepts and locations – for example, cyborgs (Burtryn, 2003; Cole, 1998), genetics (Miah, 2004), cyberspace (Miah & Rich, 2008), and Foucault’s technology of the self (Markula, 2004). As a practice, technologies can modify bodies, assist in their training and performance, record and broadcast their achievements, and in many instances, make sport and sporting bodies available, or visible, in particular ways. In Mirzoeff’s (1999) introduction to visual culture, he defines visual technologies as “any form of apparatus designed either to be looked at or to enhance natural vision, from oil painting to television to the Internet” (p. 3) and situates them as an interface through which visual events are consumed for information, meaning or pleasure. In examining the effects of these visual technologies and practices we must subsequently ask “In a world replete with images and representations, whom can we not see or grasp, and what are the consequences of such selective blindness?” (Haraway, 1997, p. 202); or rather who or what is made visible in addition to how. Incorporating visual culture and science and technology studies disciplines, this paper adapts physical cultural studies and Foucauldian approaches to broaden definitions of technologies and (in)visibility and to examine "Body Worlds" as a visual event, and exhibitions, plastination, and sport itself as visual technologies.

Sullivan Barak, Katie, Bowling Green State University with Courtney L. Robinson

Sport Bonds, Lunch Tables, and Best Friends: Social Negotiations

Our data reveal the complex social negotiations that occur in young girl athletes. These girls are negotiating their social status and multiple social identities, and are developing strong friendships and social support. In this presentation we focus on the data themes sport friends, gender performance, and gendered sport lessons. The theme of sport friends emphasizes the strong social bonds formed through sport as well as the comfort of being around other athletics girls who understand them. The girl athletes’ comments regarding gender performance highlight how they read and label various appearances and bodies, especially in comparison to “normal girls” (i.e., non-athletes). This led the girls to analyze different versions of femininity, recognizable by clothing and behavior, and ponder their own identities. The theme gendered sport lessons describes gender roles in sport, social labeling of girl athletes, and ideological expectations of female body types. Through their conversations, it is clear that these 9-13 year old girls are cognizant of gendered expectations and are struggling to negotiate balancing their sport selves with the social expectations of traditional femininity.

Swain, Stephen, University of Western Ontario, sswain@uwo.ca

‘Know What I’m Saying? – Performing Masculinity on The Ultimate Fighter

This paper, part of a larger examination of issues involving masculinity and Mixed Martial Arts, looks at the spectacular narratives of masculinity in the growing sport, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in particular. This paper will present some preliminary findings from an analysis of the 10th season of the UFC & Spike TV’s reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, as well as the Pay-Per-View fight between that season’s coaches, Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson and ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans. Of particular interest for this analysis are the ways in which masculinity is constructed and performed both within the confines of the UFC octagon, and in the broader culture of MMA.In addition to the ways in which masculinity is performed by the fighters, other narrative aspects of the presentation will also be examined, including fight commentary, commercials and fight sponsors. Given the rising popularity of Mixed Martial Arts, particularly amongst young men, the sport needs to be considered as an increasingly influential site for the promotion and naturalization of specific definitions of masculinity. The goal of this paper is to discuss the role that masculinity plays in the spectacle of MMA, and the role that MMA plays in the spectacularization of masculinity.

Sykes, Heather, University of Toronto, heather.sykes@utoronto.ca

Gay Pride, White Pride: White Supremacies underpinning LBGT Diversity at the Vancouver and London Olympics

 

This paper examines the racial and colonial politics of the LGBT “Pride Houses” at the Vancouver and London Olympics and, more generally, how various logics of white supremacy underpin contemporary LGBT movements in sport. I draw upon recent work that brings together queer studies, indigenous studies and settler colonial studies (Smith, 2010). White settler colonialism was an important racial logic underpinning the LBGT Pride Houses in Vancouver. The Pride Houses had minimal, if not antagonistic, relations with the Indigenous resistance movement ‘No Olympics on Stolen Land’ (O’Bonsawin, 2010). This lack of solidarity reveals how settler colonial views about landownership and use underpins the winter sports industry such as GayWhistler.com—a gay and lesbian winter tourism business—which financed the Pride Houses. In London, one manifestation of white supremacy is the English/European Islamophobia within right-wing LGBT movements. In the run up to the London 2012 Olympics, there have been right-wing, Pride Marches into East London neighborhoods, which are cast as ‘Muslim’. Thus, Islamophobia is part of the racial logics of some LGBT movements in London. This presentation will, in part, document if, or how, Islamophobia within queer movements is influencing the London Pride Houses. My overall task in this paper is to identify if, or how, some of the white supremacist logics underpinning the Vancouver Pride Houses are being translated and adapted to the context of the London Pride Houses.

Szto, Courtney, University of Toronto, courtney.szto@utoronto.ca

 

An Unfairly Feminine Future: Female Athletes and the Girl Effect

 

In 2006, UNESCO and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA Tour) formed a partnership for global gender equality supporting initiatives in Liberia, Cameroon, Jordan, China and the Dominican Republic. The partnership has selected Venus Williams, Vera Zvonareva, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie as Promoters of Gender Equality to act as role models and advocates for women’s equality. Premised on the concept of the Girl Effect, this partnership promotes female empowerment as a necessary catalyst for sustainable economic development. My presentation applies the frameworks of Orientalism and intersectionality to discuss the role of female athletes in the perpetuation of Third-wave feminism and the ability of the Girl Effect to create social change. I argue that Third-wave feminism fails to challenge the existing patriarchal structures, and instead encourages young women “not to change the world, but to succeed within it” (Hopkins, 2002). Thus, in the UNESCO-WTA Tour partnership’s attempt to foster gender equality, it inherently reproduces the structural systems that perpetuate gender inequity.

Taradash, Daniel, University of Iowa, daniel-taradash@uiowa.edu and Greggory Macintosh Ross, University of Western Ontario

Too Much "Magic" for the Average Fan?  Paulie "Magic Man" Malignaggi, Masculinity and the Nature of Internet Fandom

In the last fifty years, the presentation of boxers has undergone a dramatic shift, revealing dramatic changes i n masculinity and its public display.  Fighters such as Hector “Macho” Camacho, “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley and others have chosen to use what little uniform they had available to make a personalized statement about their own approach to masculinity.  Mayweather has fought with a fur lined belt, Corley often fought in trunks slit up to his hip (he also fought wearing women’s underwear, which he felt were more comfortable) and Camacho entered the ring in elaborate costumes and fought in trunks that were often covered in sequins.  While this is not a complete list, it begs the question: why are male boxers choosing to express their masculinity in such an ostentatious way, in costumes that one could argue are stereotypically “feminine”?  What are the reasons for this shift in our perception of gender roles within the sport of boxing?  Do women feel they will not be taken seriously if they choose to express themselves with their uniforms?  Or do males feel threatened by the presence of females in a traditionally male space, and they are desperate for attention? This paper will address these changes in masculinity and feminity and argue that the individualized nature of the sport allows for this kind of expression.

Teetzel, Sarah, University of Manitoba, teetzel@cc.umanitoba.ca and Charlene Weaving, St. Xavier Francis University, cweaving@stfx.ca

Media, Athlete, and Administrator Perspectives on Doping in Canadian Sport

Several media sources labeled the University of Waterloo football team’s 2010 doping scandal, “the biggest doping scandal in Canada since Ben Johnson.” Following the events that unfolded in the spring of 2010, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport convened a national Task Force on the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Football to investigate doping in Canadian sport. The final report of the Task Force, entitled Performance Enhancing Drugs Pose a Significant Health Risk for Athletes, Children and Youth, provides an in-depth examination of doping in Canada. In this paper, we compare the Task Force’s findings with data provided during semi-structured interviews with 18 student-athletes competing at Canadian universities. The interviews were conducted while the “football scandal” was unfolding in the media and were part of a study funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Social Science Research Grant Program. This presentation analyzes the different ways that the Task Force, the media, and a sample of 18 athletes frame and discuss doping in Canadian sport. Of particular importance in this presentation are the ways in which members of each group invoke discussions of masculinity and femininity in trying to make sense of the doping culture in Canadian university sport.

TePoel, Dain, Ohio State University, tepoel.1@osu.edu

When Words Speak Louder than Actions: Women in Sports Broadcasting

Are North American televised sport spectators “ready” for women to serve as play-by-play announcers? In 2002, ESPN reporter Andrea Kremer suggested they were not, and that the responsibility belonged to the next generation of female sportscasters to obtain these coveted positions. Ten years later there is a disappointing scarcity of women serving as broadcast sport journalists outside of sideline reporters or studio analysts, especially in men’s sports. Recent studies, however, do not fully investigate the process of exclusion. Opportunities are limited and often ghettoized to female athletic events. The most popular female announcers continue to be those most known for their appearance, such as Erin Andrews, while the few women who have broken barriers, such as Pam Ward and Suzyn Waldman, remain relatively unknown and unheralded. In this paper, I argue that persistent sexism and segregation in broadcasting attempts to trivialize and resist, if not indirectly reverse, the advances and achievements of women in sport (broadcasting). I draw upon a content analysis of in-game coverage and reporting, as well as materials from publications and interviews with female sportscasters, to demonstrate how broadcasters encourage audiences to embrace negative stereotypes of female sports reporters and perpetuate male bias and hegemony in sport.

Thorpe, Holly, University of Waikato, hthorpe@waikato.ac.nz, Holly Thorpe, University of Waikato, and Robert Rinehart, University of Waikato

Alternative Sport NGO’s in a Neoliberal Context

Sport non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have flourished in the contemporary moment, particularly situated within neoliberal global politics. In this paper we focus on the relatively recent proliferation of action sport-related social justice advocacy groups. Drawing upon extant materials from our ongoing research on two action sport-based social ‘justice’ movements—Skateistan (a non-profit co-educational skateboarding school in urban Afghanistan)and SurfAid International (a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of local people in the surf-rich Mentawai Islands)—we illustrate some of the unique strategies employed by these organizations to connect with sporting and mainstream consumers, and gain financial support from national and international corporate and governmental organizations within a neo-liberally-dominated world.

 

Toglia, Jessica M., Miami University, togliajm@muohio.edu

Removing A Collegiate Native American Team Nickname: Perceptions Of Alumni

It has been over five years since the NCAA policy regarding use of Native American imagery at sanctioned events was implemented, yet schools continue to deal with this issue.  This is evident with the more recent and public controversy ensuing at the University of North Dakota.  However, there seems to be a lack of literature concerning what happens when a collegiate athletic team does remove a Native American team name, symbol or mascot.  Both the role and reactions of alumni regarding the decision to discontinue the use of a Native American nickname may be of special concern to the university community.  Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the question “How do Miami University alumni perceive and experience the removal of a Native American team nickname from the University’s athletic program?”  Fourteen semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with alumni from Miami University, each of who represented one of three cohorts relative to the year (1997) the team nickname was changed – that is, who were students either before (graduated by 1993), during (graduated during the years 1993-2000), or after the change (graduated post-2000).  Discussion will focus on three main themes that emerged: It’s P.C., It’s Invention, and Erasing Tradition.

Tredway, Kristi, University of Maryland, tredway@umd.edu

Out on the Court: Gender Performance, Sexuality and Women’s Tennis

 

Gender and sexuality are social constructions. They are not related nor do they inform each other. However, lesbian tennis players, even those whose gender performances are more feminine than their heterosexual opponents, are nonetheless viewed as masculine. The on-court personas of Martina Navratilova and, more significantly, Amelie Mauresmo illustrate this. Even though Martina and Amelie expressed their gender in feminine ways, their sexuality, being out lesbians, overwrote the public’s understanding of feminine gender expression. Does being lesbian bring with it a visual understanding that is masculine even when she, in actuality, is not? We don’t know the actual sex, gender or sexuality of people we meet. Judith Butler’s “heterosexual matrix” (a sex-gender-sexuality tripartite system) accounts for how we make assumptions based on what we see. Her theory explains the experiences of people who are closeted, where sex and gender are the known categories, so the viewer, then, assumes a particular sexuality. However, the concept does not work for people who are already out because the known categories are sex and sexuality, leading the viewer to assume – as is the case for Martina and Amelie – a particular gender. This paper transforms Butler’s theory into another similar concept, extending the usefulness of her “heterosexual matrix.”

 

Trotter, Kathleen, University of Toronto, kathleen.trotter@utoronto.ca

Triathlon Culture: Identity, Community, Embodiment and ‘Mimetic Exhibitionism’

Triathlon is an all-encompassing sport. In pursuit of athletic excellence, recreational triathletes often apply a work ethic traditionally reserved for one’s occupation, an athletic dedication that in most sports would only be seen in professional athletes. My paper explores the reasons behind this aspect of triathlon culture. Like many sports, triathlon offers a sense of community and identity. A significant portion of a triathlete’s identity comes from the positive reinforcement the athlete receives from performing as the perfect individualist, neo-liberal consumer of health and fitness. The work, suffering and time that goes into being a triathlete symbolizes something far more than simply the ability to swim, bike and run. The swimming, biking and running demonstrate both to the outside world, and to the athletes themselves, that they are hard working, organized, resilient and dedicated. Compounded with this, triathlon also offers the athlete a reward I have coined, ‘mimetic exhibitionism’. ‘Mimetic exhibitionism’ refers to the fact that the sport of triathlon is performative, and non-professional triathletes are not only actively encouraged to mimic the lifestyle of professional triathletes, but they also compete in the same events as professionals, and are featured in the same triathlon media.

Taradash, Daniel, University of Iowa, daniel-taradash@uiowa.edu

Within boxing, the primary aim is the display of bodies that are designed to reinforce a type of hegemonic masculinity: muscular, tough, resilient, and indifferent to pain.  The essence of boxing used to be its simplicity as it was man vs. man, with only occasional aid from corner men.  However, what does their change in adornment reveal about our notions of masculinity?  In the days before television became mainstream, it mattered little what the fighter wore, except possibly to the people in attendance.  Yet by the 1990s and the availability of cable television, boxing became more accessible to people within their homes allowing them to interact with not only the fighters, but also the production of the fight as a whole.  While fighters have historically used their trunks as identifiers of religious or ethnic traits (Star of David, German flag, etc.) by the late 20^th century trunks were used less and less as a symbol of ethnic or religious identity.  Fighters such as Hector “Macho” Camacho, “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley and others instead chose to use what little uniform they had available to make a personalized statement about their own approach to masculinity.  Mayweather has fought with a fur lined belt, Corley routinely fought in trunks slit up to his hip (he also fought wearing women’s underwear, which he felt were more comfortable) and Camacho entered the ring in elaborate costumes and fought in trunks that were often covered in sequins.  While this is not a complete list, it begs the question: why are male boxers choosing to express their masculinity in such an ostentatious way, in costumes that one could argue are stereotypically “feminine”? The aim of this paper is to explore the growing definitions of masculinity as it relates to uniforms within boxing. 

Taub, Ryan, University of Colorado – Denver, ryan.taub@email.ucdenver.edu

Satisfaction in the National Forests and Grasslands

The paper analyzes the satisfaction levels of visitors to national parks and grasslands throughout the United States.  The study is built upon means-end theory, the concepts of performance and experience quality, and the Forest Service?s National Visitor Use Monitoring  (NVUM) program, to analyze how specific aspects of a visitor?s experience are significant in the construction of an overall experience.  An ordinary least squares regression model is conducted in order to test which aspects are significant in relation to the overall experience, and the overall satisfaction levels of visitors to national forests compared with visitors to national grasslands.  The results illustrate that several aspects are significant to the users’ overall experience levels, and there is a difference between national forests and national grasslands experience levels.

Theberge, Nancy, University of Waterloo, theberge@uwaterloo.ca

The Gender Binary and Research on Women’s Health: An Comparative Analysis of the Literatures on Women’s Injuries in Sport and Work

Consideration of the gender binary in sport may profit from comparative analysis in the context of work. This presentation critically examines the literatures on the gendering of injures in sport and work. Research on women’s work related injuries is marked by an explicit effort to examine the interaction of biological and social bases of risks. The literature on women’s sport related injuries has concentrated more heavily on biological risk factors. These substantive differences are accompanied by contrasting political positions. Highlighting the health hazards associated with women’s participation in the labour force has been presented as progress toward gender equity while attention to women’s sport related injuries has been viewed as regression to historical constructions of female frailty. The analysis presented here locates these political contrasts within broader institutional conditions. Continued gender inequities in sport, rooted in ideologies of inferiority, prompt concern for the political ramifications of gender profiling of injuries. Feminist occupational health and safety researchers have positioned interest in women’s injuries as part of a broader campaign to make employment safe for all workers. Additionally, the presence of an established research agenda on occupational health and safety has created space to consider the specific hazards that women face. This presentation advances understanding of the gender binary by highlighting the importance of conceptualisations of gender in research agendas devoted to understanding health related concerns.

Thul, Chelsey, University of Minnesota, rodd0020@umn.edu

Understanding Physical Activity Spaces among Somali, MuslimAdolescent Girls and Women

Little is known about Somali females’ experiences with, and perceptions of, the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, class, religion, and culture with perceived, conceived, and lived physical activity spaces. In this study, Henry Lefebvre’s Conceptual Model of Social Space and a feminist participatory action (FPAR) research approach was used to explore such experiences and perceptions of one group of Somali, Muslim, immigrant, adolescent girls and young women  involved in a female-only physical activity program. Data collection included an individual participatory mapping activity (n = 30) to assess perceived space, and focus groups (n= 27) to explore trends among the intersection of the identity constructs within conceived and lived spaces. Deductive and inductive content analysis revealed many complex findings, such as how the social construction of females as more vulnerable than males due to the intersection of gendered, religious, and cultural beliefs (conceived space) leads to heightened surveillance by Somali parents and community members (lived space) and thus leads to the girls’ and women’s preference of being physically active in the only private, indoor, guaranteed female-only gym in the community (perceived space). This finding, among several other complex intersections and resistance and advocacy action strategies, will be discussed in the presentation.

Uk-Joo, Sang, University of Iowa, sanguk-joo@uiowa.edu,

The Negotiation of Asian-American Men’s Identity in Hypermasculine Weight Training Spaces

 

“I am an Oriental. And being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man” (Song Liling’s lines in M. Butterfly).  As the antithesis of hegemonic masculinity, Asian American men’s masculinities are subordinated. The assumption of white supremacy ingrained in the belief that the “West” is masculine, in contrast with the feminine “Orient,” is omnipresent in the context of the U.S. cultural imaginary and ideology. This paper draws on the Foucauldian-informed concept of power to explore the ways in which Asian American men negotiate their masculinity and identity. In particular, as a site in which masculinity and manliness are privileged and dominant (Klein, 1993; Messner & Sabo, 1994), weight training spaces are considered as a key site providing an empirical context for exploring how Asian American men are subjected to racialized and gendered discourses and how they negotiate their masculinity. Based on interviews and observations in the field, I found that the discursive articulation between hegemonic masculinity, stereotypic racial bias and the hypermasculinity of weight training influences Asian American men’s masculinity. However, despite being subjected to the dominating discourses, there are possibilities for Asian American men to exercise power against them.

Van Veen, Stephanie, University of British Columbia, svanveen@interchange.ubc.ca

 

Ice Dance Reacts to the 2002 Olympics Judging Scandal: A Study of Embodied Practices

 

With the inception of a new judging system as a result of an international judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, ice dancer’s skating techniques and movement practices have seen dramatic changes. Dance theorist, Jane Desmond (1977) suggests that bodies are a form of representation and the way in which they move can be read as a form of text through which meanings are produced. Therefore, using Bourdieu’s (1992) concept of ‘habitus’, we can see how ice dancers’ movements and practices are strongly influenced by the social relations in which they are embedded, including historical and cultural traditions, the governing bodies of figure skating with their system of rules, training center philosophies, coaching styles and choreographic methods. The new Code of Points Judging System thus provides an interesting opportunity to analyze the embodied practices of ice dancers’ movements in competition and more specifically the various ways in which the system has impacted them in terms of choreography, technique, and modes of partnering. My study will include an in depth textual analysis of the COP judging system as well as interviews with figure skating experts and skaters concerning their views of the system and its impact upon the embodied practices of today’s leading ice dancers.

Vincent, John, University of Alabama, jvincent@bamaed.ua.edu with Jane Crossman

Kick ice: Nationalism in men’s hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

This study examined how nationalism played into The Globe and Mail and The New York Times’ coverage of the men’s Canadian and United States ice hockey teams competing at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Textual analysis was used to analyze the newspapers’ narratives about the Canadian and American men’s ice hockey teams to gain insight about how the narratives constructed, (re)produced, and challenged dominant notions of collective national identity and character in the context of ice hockey at The Games. Theoretical insight was drawn from Anderson’s (1983) concept of the imagined community and Hobsbawn’s (1983) theory of invented traditions. For the qualitative analysis, six themes emerged from the textual discourses: Canadian national identity, hockey in Canada: a religion or sex act? rivalries, the quarterfinals, the gold medal game and the final goal. A discussion of each theme is presented.

 

Vermillion, Mark, Wichita State University

Student-athlete’s perceptions of autonomy support and healthy coaching environments

 

 

Socio-cultural sport research has increasingly recognized the impact of the coach on various constituent groups. The role the coach plays within the lives of athletes, of varying ages, has also been well documented. Additionally, it has been hypothesized, the power coaches wield within social contexts is crucial for impacting the overall development of athletes. The quality of the social environment, within which these interactions take place, helps to increase the well-being of athletes, and has been shown to be impacted by gender scripts. The purpose of this research is to examine Division I student-athletes’ perceptions of coach-supportive behavior. Specifically, are there differences between student-athletes’ perceptions of coach autonomy support between male and female student-athletes? Using the sport climate questionnaire (SCQ) to measure autonomy support, student athletes from a public, urban-serving university were surveyed. After data collection, during 2010, 143 usable responses were included in the analysis (n=143), representing 94% of the sports fielded by the athletic department. Statistical results indicate student-athletes have an overall favorable view of their coaches’ ability to provide an appropriate sense of autonomy; there were no significant differences between how male and female student-athletes perceive their coaches’ supportive behavior. Implications and future directions are discussed.

 

Vitosky, Caitlin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, vitosky@illinois.edu

“Let’s Get It Started… Oh Wait, It Already Has Been?” Conversations Between Disability Studies and Sport Sociology

This paper seeks to better understand the values and limitations of the current epistemology within sport sociology. Since Jay Coakley’s (2009) Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies is one of the more critical and popular textbooks, I use this text as an example of the field’s current thinking by examining the textbook’s inclusion or exclusion of athletes with disabilities in general and more specifically athletes with mental impairments. This textbook influences contemporary thought on disability, mental impairment, and madness both directly through discussions of issues Coakley chooses to include and indirectly through issues and controversies that have been excluded. The text privileges athletes with physical impairments over those with mental impairments and lacks critical discussions on the issues that arise from intersections of other aspects of identity with disability. Furthermore it maintains the barrier between the “normal” able-bodied athletes and the athletes with disabilities. This suggests that current epistemology within the field of sport sociology is inherently ableist in nature. With the aid of McRuer’s (2006) Crip Theory, Shapiro’s (1993) No Pity, and Davis’s (2010) Disability Studies Reader, I hope to provide suggestions for conversations between these two fields, including ways to crip sport sociology.

Waldman, Devra, University of Toronto, devra.waldman@utoronto.ca

 

Goal Girls – A Postcolonial Feminist Critique

Over the last 20 years the idea of using sport to promote development and peace (SDP) has been gaining momentum. This paper investigates the SDP literature, particularly the fears that SDP projects may impose Western ideas, goals, and beliefs on the target societies. After highlighting the critiques of the SDP field, postcolonial feminist theory is introduced as a method of critique of development projects and processes. This paper brings together the critiques of SDP and postcolonial feminist theory in the critique of a particular SDP project, Goal Girls. Goal Girls is a corporate social responsibility project financed by the Standard Chartered Bank that operates in India, Jordan, Nigeria, and China. Targeting girls aged 14-19, the program seeks to empower girls through netball, financial education, and life skills training. Using a postcolonial feminist approach, this paper critiques the Goal Girls website, particularly the ways in which Standard Chartered Bank positions itself in relation to the program participants. Presentation of the program in binaries, the power that held and controlled by the Standard Chartered Bank, and discourse of expansion is discussed to bring light to the potentially problematic (re)colonizing effects of this particular SDP project. 

Walker, Christopher, Saint Leo University, Christopher.walker04@email.saintleo.edu

The Institution of Fantasy Football

An institution is any group in a society that has an impact on that society or governs it in some sort of way.  There is evidence pointing to the emergence of fantasy football as an institution in the United States.  Fantasy football has changed the way that Americans follow the National Football League (NFL).  Every Sunday millions of Americans rush to their computers, pdas, and smart phones to adjust their rosters.  The diehard fan has become enamored by not just the team but also by the player.  A recent survey taken actually shows that most people still watch  their favorite team but they will closely watch the team that has their best fantasy player on it. (Dwyer)  Millions of dollars are spent each year as people join friends, family, co-workers, and complete strangers in competition of who is the smartest football fan.  The main purpose (of this league) was to bring together some of the best football minds in the area to see how well they could put teams together and as best they could. (COED Magazine)  Through the use of research, surveys, observation, and follow up interviews, this study will examine how the game of fantasy football has evolved into the institution it is today.

 

 

 

Walker, Nefertiti A., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, nwalker@isenberg.umass.edu

 

Meso-level factors influencing the underrepresentation of women: Men’s college basketball

Recent investigations of gender have applied a multilevel framework to
examining the inequities of women in organizations, specifically sports (Cunningham & Sagas, 2008; Dixon & Cunningham, 2006; Kozlowski
& Klein, 2000). Meso-level concepts that may influence the underrepresentation of women in sports include, but are not limited to stereotypes, gender roles, discrimination and homologous reproduction (Cunningham & Sagas, 2008; Dixon & Cunningham, 2006). The purpose of this study was to identify and explore meso-level factors, which contribute to the underrepresentation of women in men’s college basketball. Specifically, the theoretical concepts of homologous
reproduction and gender stereotypes were examined for their presence in the perceptions and attitudes of players towards women coaching in men’s college basketball. Online surveys were administered to 130 men’s and women’s college basketball players. Follow-up interviews were later completed with seven participants in an effort to further explain and confirm the quantitative data. Results from the two-way ANOVA suggest that women expressed more favorable attitudes toward women coaching in men’s college basketball than their male counterparts. Gender of previous leaders did not influence attitudes. However, qualitative data suggests both male and female players expressed traditional gender stereotypes in their reasoning for this phenomenon.

 

 

Walton, Theresa , Kent State University (twalton1@kent.edu) and Jennifer Fisette, Kent State University (jfisette@kent.edu)

‘Who Are You?’: Exploring Adolescent Girls’ Process of Identification

Researchers studying sport, physical activity and physical education have examined the various ways power related to social identities, such as gender, ethnicity, class, ability and sexuality work to resist and maintain relationships of power in the larger social order (e.g. Giardina, 2005; Giardina and Donnelly, 2008; Hargreaves, 2000; Harris & Parker, 2009). However, work to investigate the process through which individuals come to understand and identify – as individuals and members of collective identities, within such contexts, remains a question. In this study we worked with a small group of high school girls (n=9) to explore their sense of embodiment as physical movers. Throughout the semester long project, the question of identity became an important focus. In this work, we found that the girls self-identified in ways largely unrelated to broader social categories, when asked ‘who are you?’ They struggled to articulate their social identities in relation to themselves, when we asked them explicitly to identify with fixed categories. Moreover, throughout the many focus groups, as well as in the activist research that they completed, we found that they understood and discussed social identities in relation to themselves and others in ways that both resisted and maintained cultural categories.

 

 

Wanderley Marchi Júnior, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, CAPES, marchijr@ufpr.br with Gonzalo Bravo, West Virginia University, Gonzalo.bravo@mail.wvu.edu

 

 

How the north explains the south: American sport sociology and its influence in Brazil

Interest in the study of sport sociology in Brazil has grown considerably over the past three decades. While much of the scholarly production has attempted to provide answers to problems that are unique to Brazil, these studies ─ and the forces that have caused them to flourish ─ have been influenced by a variety of schools of thought, people and trends in sport sociology born outside of Brazil. In this study, we attempt to unveil the origin of these trends and schools of thought. The study involves two phases: first, the examination of American sport sociology, and second, the analysis of the Brazilian context. During the first phase, we identify and classify authors, models of analysis and objects of study that have shaped the landscape of American sport sociology. We present these results in a taxonomy that will be used as an analytical framework to identify the relationships between the hierarchy of research objects and the hierarchy of distribution and consumption of sport in both countries. This presentation discusses the conceptual framework to be used in the study with a focus on the methods and research design applied during the first phase.

Weedon, Gavin, University of British Columbia, gweedon@interchange.ubc.ca

Trading War Stories: Under Armour Freedom and the synergistic construction of US nationalism

The notion of corporate nationalism has offered scholars of sport and physical culture a means to understand how discourses and performances of nationalism have come to be re-imagined through the logics of corporate capitalism. Concomitantly, the role of the state in producing desirable portrayals of nationhood, often through overtly militarized sporting spectacles, has also been highlighted in recent years. In this paper, I present a critical reading of the “Freedom” initiative launched by the Under Armour sportswear company in 2010 to analyze how formal and informal synergies between corporate, state and non-profit organizations harness and coalesce around the wounded (sporting) body to construct particular forms of US nationalism. The specific focus of this analysis is the use of “hero stories” in the Freedom initiative to render bodies injured during warfare and now engaged in sport and exercise representative of a heroic form of citizenship marked by neoliberal, masculine and deeply nationalistic traits. Reflections concern the presentation of these interactive narratives through the Under Armour website as a means for rendering the socio-political values sketched on the bodies of wounded soldier-athletes properties of the Under Armour brand itself.

 

Weaving, Charlene, and Charlene Weaving, St. Xavier Francis University, cweaving@stfx.ca and

Teetzel, Sarah, University of Manitoba, teetzel@cc.umanitoba.ca

Media, Athlete, and Administrator Perspectives on Doping in Canadian Sport

Several media sources labeled the University of Waterloo football team’s 2010 doping scandal, “the biggest doping scandal in Canada since Ben Johnson.” Following the events that unfolded in the spring of 2010, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport convened a national Task Force on the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Football to investigate doping in Canadian sport. The final report of the Task Force, entitled Performance Enhancing Drugs Pose a Significant Health Risk for Athletes, Children and Youth, provides an in-depth examination of doping in Canada. In this paper, we compare the Task Force’s findings with data provided during semi-structured interviews with 18 student-athletes competing at Canadian universities. The interviews were conducted while the “football scandal” was unfolding in the media and were part of a study funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Social Science Research Grant Program. This presentation analyzes the different ways that the Task Force, the media, and a sample of 18 athletes frame and discuss doping in Canadian sport. Of particular importance in this presentation are the ways in which members of each group invoke discussions of masculinity and femininity in trying to make sense of the doping culture in Canadian university sport.

 

 

Wells, Janelle E., University of Florida, jmcverrywells@hhp.ufl.edu and Thomas J. Aicher, University of Cincinnati, aicherts@uc.edu

Gender differences on the court: Extending the concepts of relational demography, similarity attraction, and social identity on performance

 

Since the enactment of Title IX, collegiate female student-athlete participation is near an all-time high at 9,087 teams, while the proportion of female head coaches nears an all-time low at 42.6% (Acosta & Carpenter, 2010). Although voluminous research exists on the decline and underrepresentation of female head coaches, limited research has evaluated the impact of one’s gender on a team’s performance. Thus, this study focused on determining if the gender of the head coach influenced the team’s winning percentage when controlling extraneous variables (e.g., revenues, expenses, and individual statistics).

Utilizing the previous research in relational demography (Tsui & O’Reilly, 1989), similar-attraction paradigm (Byrne, 1971), and social identity theory of leadership (SITL) (Hogg, 2001) as the theoretical foundation, we hypothesized demographic similarities in leader-member dyadic relationship would positively impact team performance. Data was collected from the NCAA and Equity in Athletic Data Analysis (EADA) websites on all Division I women’s basketball head coaching changes from 2003-2010.  Each of the predecessors and successors were coded by their sex. Mixed design analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data.  Results indicated demographic similarities do not advance team performance.

 

Wells, Sandy, University of British Columbia, Cassandra.wells@gmail.com

Developing “Developmental Systems Theory” in Sport

Abstract: 
Since her spectacular rise to the top of women’s track and field, South African runner Caster Semenya has reignited long-standing and often intractable debates, borne of competing knowledge paradigms, about the relationships between sport, health, fairness and sex/gender. For example, the belief in essential sex-based traits that underpins the biomedical approach to sex and gender relations tends to reproduce or reinforce dominant cultural understandings of power relations.  This view is clearly an obstacle to the feminist project for gender equity and social justice.  An ontology associated with Development Systems Theory (DST) has been forwarded by feminist scientists and philosophers of science as a way to bridge such disciplinary divides (see, for example, Fausto-Sterling, 2000; Meynell, 2008). These scholars have suggested that DST “undermines the idea of biological essences and challenges both the nature/nurture and nature/culture distinctions” (Meynell, 2008) through an emphasis on interactions, not hierarchical positions, of molecules, cells, organisms, and environment (including culture) in producing objects and subjects.  No single component of the process is more or less significant. In this presentation, I will explore the possibilities DST offers to help us move beyond the gender binary in sport.

 

 

Wenner, Lawrence, A., Loyola Marymount University, lwenner@lmu.edu with James R. Walker, St. Xavier University, and Robert V. Bellamy, Duquesne University

Cultural Citizenship, Consumption, and Television Sport in the United States: The Case of Major League Baseball

This paper assesses the role and expectations for access to televised sport as part of cultural citizenship rights.  The first section of the paper considers problems in and varied definitions of cultural citizenship, debates over rights and obligations in citizenship, and the tensions and debates over the relation of consumption to citizenship.  The second section considers the prospects for consumer citizenality in the U.S. vision of a consumers’ republic by examining Bauman’s rise of “homo consumens” and consumer sociality in light of emerging work on citizenship and consumption, and proposes a matrix for reframing the notion of commonality as it relates to American sporting identity.  The body of the paper examines the case of television access to Major League Baseball and how this evolution relates to cultural citizenship rights.  The conclusion reflects on strengths and deficiencies in marketplace solutions to servicing cultural citizenship and raises issues about the tensions between the rise in “premiumization” strategies by Major League Baseball and consumer pressures to retain “free” access to viewing for key events.

Whiteside, Erin, University of Tennessee (ewhites2@utk.edu) With Marie Hardin, Penn State University, Lauren DeCarvahlo, Penn State University, Nadia Carillo Martinez, Penn State University, Alex Nutter Smith, Penn State University

Fictional empowerment: An examination of sporting narratives in teen girls’ sports novels

This research examined two popular teen girls sports fiction series, called “Pretty Tough” and “Dairy Queen.” Our analysis showed that the books were couched in empowering rhetoric, which functioned to mask the ways in which the protagonists endured undesirable social sanctions as a direct result of her athletic participation. For instance, although each lead character excelled athletically, most saw their bodies as a site of failure and inadequacy outside sporting boundaries. The books rarely addressed homophobia, and went to great lengths to make heterosexuality visible and salient, plotlines that reinforced the scrutiny female athletes may face as a result of their sporting choices. We further discuss the role male characters played in shaping the experience of the protagonists, and argue that the books constructed sport as a means through which to gain male approval and attention, thus transforming the sporting experience into emotional labor in line with traditional gender roles. Finally, although we argue that the books present a discouraging picture of the potential for young girls to experience sports in empowering ways, we also noticed pockets of resistance in the form of counter-narratives and challenges to traditional gender ideology; even still, most fell short of realizing their apparent libratory potential.

Wiest, Amber L., University of Maryland, amberwiest@gmail.com

Embodying ‘Healthy’ in the Fitness Club: Constructing Knowledge and Promoting Health/Exercise Literacy for the Citizen-Consumer

There continues to be substantial growth in fitness centers and memberships (Crossley, 2006; Frew & McGillivray, 2005), yet it is continually argued that improvements in public health have been less than adequate. Considering this, we must investigate how these spaces may not be contributing to beneficial experiences for individuals pursuing health improvements in the fitness industry. I argue that we should explore what knowledges are being produced in these spaces concerning health, exercise, physical activity, and the body. In doing so, we must also work to understand how this knowledge is being disseminated, perceived, used, and re-produced by fitness club employees and members.

Therefore, drawing upon my own employment in the fitness industry, the purpose for this paper is to explore how experience in the fitness club fosters knowledge that serves the interests of those seeking to profit from the industry. Further, when much literature concerning health and exercise literacy promotes educating citizens for consumer efficacy (see: Eysenbach et al., 2002; White, 2006; Zionts et al., 2010), my impetus for this critique lies in working to better understand the knowledges that are being produced and privileged in these sites for members to absorb and embody. To do so, this paper does not ignore the agency that members can (and do) exercise in these spaces. Rather, I examine how agency is being constrained by consumer capitalism and neoliberal creed that prescribe it the individual’s responsibility to display and sustain an idea of health that continually benefits private enterprise.

Wigley, Brian, Shenandoah University, bwigley@su.edu ,and Gina Daddario, Shenandoah University, gdaddari@su.edu

The Sport / Softcore Porn Connection: Swimsuit Issues Gone “Web-Wild”

For decades, critics have argued the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue has pushed the boundaries

of sports coverage onto pornographic terrain.  For example, in MEF’s film “Playing Unfair,”

Mary Jo Kane is among the critics who see an “alarming resemblance” between the portrayal

of female athletes and soft pornography. Our study explores how the phenomenon of sexualizing athletes has extended beyond the sports pages and onto the internet. Specifically, we examine websites such as The Bleacher Report, Buster Coverage, and Bro Bible which claim to be sources for sports coverage yet feature highly sexualized images of athletes, models, fans

and WAGS (wives and girlfriends of athletes). In contrast to the annual publication of SISI,

these sites are numerous, incestuous (in that they share images through linking from site

to site) and are updated daily. We propose to examine how these websites use sport to code or

veil softcore pornography through their distribution of images of women in scantily-clad

apparel from bikinis to lingerie to risque sports apparel. Co-opting rhetorical styles from the

porn industry, the websites use partial nudity, provocative poses, and “lists” like “The 50 Hottest

Women Rocking Sexy Soccer Jerseys" in their coverage.

Wilson, Brian, The University of British Columbia, brian.wilson@ubc.ca, with Brad Millington

 

From Reformism to Resistance: Golf, the Environment, and Social Change

 

This presentation examines strategies for altering practices within and around the golf industry that have arisen amidst growing public concern about the potentially harmful environmental impacts of golf course maintenance and construction. We draw from a broader study on the ways that golf courses and associations have responded to these concerns over time. Beginning from Harvey, Horne, and Safai’s (2009) writing on social movements and globalization, we first map recent attempts at re-imagining golf on a continuum from alter-golf to anti-golf praxis. This includes outlining the goals of and tactics used by, at one of the spectrum, those seeking to reform and ameliorate golf course development/management from within the industry in the interest of corporate expansion. At the other end of spectrum, we describe goals and tactics of those seeking to halt golf course construction and/or transform manicured private spaces into accessible, ‘natural’ habitats. We conclude with reflections on the potential for organic golf to be a middle ground between competing perspectives on golf’s future, noting in particular the obstacle that lies in the alliance between golf and chemical associations.

Wiser, Melissa C., The Ohio State University, wiser.13@osu.edu

Lacrosse: One name, two sports and the politics of helmets

Helmets are a divisive issue currently in lacrosse. US Lacrosse and the NCAA do not require women’s lacrosse participants to wear helmets; however, men’s lacrosse players must wear them. Recent attention to athletes’ head safety has increased the dialogue of headgear in women’s lacrosse, and leaders within the sport have responded intensely in opposition. The primary response of these leaders has been to assert the differences in the two sports, men’s and women’s lacrosse. They caution against the assumption that helmets are a logical solution to safety concerns in women’s lacrosse simply because men have them as well. Helmets, then, represent more than just a safety measure to protect the participants. Instead, helmets are located within a series of changes and symbolically represent the demise of a sport. In this paper, I question what is at stake in adding helmets to women’s lacrosse. In addition, I review feminist literature on competitive sport structures and challenge the popular notion that progress in women’s sports means matching the men’s game. I pose women’s and men’s lacrosse as simply different sports–different sports with the same name. Without such a distinction, the lacrosse that women have played is in jeopardy.

Yang, Hyejoo, Yonsei University, ballet@yonsei.ac.kr with Doyeon Won

Does parent satisfaction matter in children’s ballet?

Even though many Korean parents consider ballet as a very attractive extracurricular activity for their young children, the Korean ballet industry has been struggling with participant retention and lack of growth in ballet participation among children. Regarding children’s extracurricular activities such as ballet, maternal perceptions are known as one of the most critical determinants of children’s actual participation. The main purpose of the current study was to investigate whether parent’s satisfaction mediates the relationship between ballet service quality and behavioral intention (i.e., word-of-mouth). Data were collected from 633 mothers whose children were currently in ballet classes in Korea. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis. Results indicated, first, that children’s ballet service quality had a significant influence on parent’s perceived satisfaction. While all four dimensions of children’s ballet service quality had significant effect on parental satisfaction, interaction and outcome quality dimensions had stronger effects than did program and environment quality dimensions. Second, parent’s satisfaction had a significant influence on word of mouth while the perceived service quality had no direct influence on word of mouth. Lastly, parent’s satisfaction mediated the relationship between children’s ballet service quality and word of mouth. Further discussion will be provided. 

Yates, Traci, University of Tennessee (tyates@utk.edu)

NFL 101: Females, Football, and Fan Identity

Spectator sports continue to be an integral component of leisure-time activity in the United States. Furthermore, fans of these sports are often willing to invest a great deal of money, time, and effort in order to participate in the game experience or display their association with it. This desire is not lost on women. However, while sports fandom is a heavily investigated topic, research has tended to ignore female fans (Jones, 2008). Currently, little is known about these women beyond the fact that they exist, often in startling proportion. The purpose of this paper is to explore the female fan experience by focusing on the NFL’s Football 101 initiative targeted specifically at this demographic. Drawing upon both participant-observation and document analysis, this paper examines how the program has been interpreted and re-interpreted throughout the league and further considers how women negotiate being both female and fan in a sport environment which subtly and not-so-subtly continues to reinforce the model of hegemonic masculinity.

Yoon, Youngmin, University of Florida, bonnechance@ufl.edu with Michael Sagas

Choosing an Athlete Endorser: The Relationship between Race and Sport

There is no doubt that using athlete endorsers is extremely important when they are used to promote a sports-related product. The purpose of this study based on the match-up hypothesis is to examine the effects of race, sport, and expertise of athletes on endorser-product fit, attitudes toward a product, and purchase intentions to a product. Most extant studies have found that using athletes was more effective when they endorsed a sports-related product because of the perception of their expertise in their fields. However, the findings of this study revealed that the race of an athlete can have an effect as well, depending on the sport with which they are associated. That is, African American basketball athletes showed stronger fit with sports-related products than did Asian basketball athletes, and Asian taekwondo athletes had a more powerful impact on fit with sports-related products than did African American taekwondo athletes, regardless of the expertise level of the endorser. Further, this study also revealed that the fit is the key to creating both positive consumer attitudes toward a product and purchase intentions. Thus, marketers can effectively use the results when they choose the best athlete as an endorser for a sport-related product.

Yu, Chia-Chen, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, yu.chia@uwlax.edu, Brian S. Gordon, University of Wisonsin-La Crosse, and Yin-Hua Liaw, National Formosa University, Taiwan

Does Sport Betting Influence Taiwanese Fans’ Interest in U.S. Sport?

Gambling and betting have received disapproval in Chinese society because of the negative consequences. However, due to social and economic changes as well as intensive governmental discussions, the first sports lottery was legalized in 2008. The system allows purchasers to bet on professional baseball games in Taiwan and sporting events around the world such as the NBA, MLB, the Japanese baseball league, and the Union of European Football Associations. As a result, buyers may pay more attention to U.S. sports in order to follow teams’ performances for decisions on lottery purchases. One of the main questions centers on how the implementation of the sports lottery has influenced fans’ motives for following U.S. sports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the motive of sports betting has influenced Taiwanese fans interest in U.S. sports for following the U.S. sports. It was found that only 13.8% of the respondents have purchased a sports lottery ticket in Taiwan. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the betting motive does influence fans’ interest in U.S. sports. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis of variance results showed that sports lottery ticket buyers and non-buyers demonstrated significant differences in the motivation factor of “betting.”