Sociology of Sport (Research Paper Sample)

INSTRUCTIONS
As part of the requirements for successful completion of the course students are required to turn in a research paper on a topic related to the sociology of sport. Each paper should be at least six pages in length, be double spaced. The paper should have a bibliography with the sources used in the paper. This includes internet resources, such as youtube links. Generally papers with more sources will receive higher grades. All papers should be proofread before submission as points may be deducted for bad grammar or spelling. You may go over the six page minimum if you choose. There is no maximum length. Papers should be organized around a specific topic, which should be introduced clearly in the opening paragraph.(openly gay athletes) References to quoted materials must cite both the author and the page number
Openly Gay Athletes: Contesting Masculinity In Organized Sport
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Openly Gay Athletes: Contesting Masculinity In Organized Sport
Introduction
Sport has restricted the acceptance of openly gay men, due to the complete heterosexuality of coaches and players. The culture has been orthodox masculinity leading to sexual and gendered discourses. Through homophobic and misogynistic discourses, players have had different sporting experiences in trying to interact with their peers. With masculinity appearing to be generally accepted in sports, this paper discuses sexuality and gender in sports interaction, and how discourses lead to masculine identities in sports. It also discusses the possibility to soften hegemonic masculinity to accommodate openly gay men athletes.
Sport and Masculinity
In a culture that puts great value on sexuality and gender expression, there is a fear of the increasing number of boys, who become gay and, therefore, the social benefits of sports have been overlooked to give more emphasis on the masculinization. It has been a way of ensuring heterosexuality in boys (Anderson, 2009). The use of sports has led to more dominance of men over women. Men have displayed strength through taking on sport competitions, therefore, increasing their social dominance. However, such men dominance should be restricted, for women and gay men cannot be excluded from participating in sports. Therefore, men have only gained patriarchal, as well as heterosexual privilege, because of cultural issues in the past that limited participation of women in sports. A major move to counter the issue of masculine domination in sports is the increasing number of sporting personalities openly coming out and accepting to be gay men (Bourdieu, 2001).
Stratifying Men by Sport
Women and gay men have been dominated by men as they enjoy certain heterosexuality privileges in sports. Hegemonic masculinity has led to a version of sporting culture called orthodox masculinity (Anderson, 2005, 2009). Orthodox masculinity requires the athlete to be heterosexual, as well as hypermasculine. Such a culture has made heterosexuality and masculinity, as men continue to seek hegemony dominance through physical prowess. Therefore, men have employed sexism and femphobia to dissociate with homosexuality, hence committing physical violence against others for realization of masculine capital (Kelly & Waddington, 2006). Many boys have used sports to learn attitudinal components, that have led to masculinity. Through hegemonic oppression, they develop socially esteemed identities on the basis of heterosexuality and masculinity, hence gain on social stratification. Therefore, sporting masculinity is uniformly aggressive.
Homophobia and Stratification of men
The move to seek for identities that are socially esteemed has led to policing of the sexuality and gendered lives in sports. Many people police genders and sexuality by their discourse. Mainly the discourse has been by using threats to unveil others as "sissies”, "fags" or "proofs”. Others use weakening and homosexualizing descriptions. In this paper, the area of study is sports and many players that cannot meet the masculinity expectations suffer from subordination by physical dominance and ridicule. The tradition is that men have to demonstrate value for masculinity in sports and it has led to aggressive attitudes for the homosexual in sports. A decline in cultural homophobia has made gay athletes to open up in their teams. Open gay athletes have used sexual nonconformity in contesting orthodox masculinity in sports. For example, Gareth Thomas, a rugby player in Wales, publicly declared to be gay in December 2009, the Welsh rugby union player, Gareth Thomas, publicly announced that he was gay. He was the only openly gay rugby player in the entire Britain. Fortunately, there was a supportive reaction by fans, teammates, as well as opposition players (Walsh, 2009).
Method of research
Football may not be highly masculinized sport in the U. S, as in other countries. The research is on a semiprofessional football team, as it would show how young men are the influence of the culture of masculinity (Anderson, 2005). Men in the team have to conform to norms in order to get promoted to the next level. It includes total conformity of masculinity norms. However, access is limited to such football community, hence there are few related studies. This research provides sporting and non-sporting life study of few semiprofessional football players
Participants
The research is done on qualitative methods. It includes observation of participants in their sporting and non-sporting environments. The athletes include 22 players at a semiprofessional football club in England. The group is fairly homogenous. The role of discourse is observed in the development of masculinities in heterosexual sporting men. All players have been identified as heterosexual. The players are supported financially through sport university scholarships. The team has one head coach and his assistants, who are England ex–professional football players. All are white English men. They offer in team talks before and after Saturday match events. The team has to be successful to get promoted to the professional ranks. The author has to take a sporting position to access and interact with players and coaches (Messner, 1992).
Observations
Data concerning masculinity is collected through observing direct behavior on gender and sexuality issues, as well as exchanged discourses. The author notes that discourses are used for building masculinity. Notes are taken privately and recorded away from the site for systematic interpretations, a cyclical process ethnographic interpretation (Delamont, 2004).
Analysis
Explored in the research is the discursive practices of coaches and players. To understand the effect of discourse, concepts include masculinity establishing discourse along with masculinity challenging discourse. As further discussed, the players resist both concepts.
Masculinity Establishing Discourse
Sport transmits homophobic, misogynistic, as well as femophobic attitudes. Boys and men have to show toughness, fighting, and aggression. In the study, coaches are responsible for such orthodox ethos by implementing masculinity establishing discourse. There are attitudes and behaviors of masculinity. One form is where the coaches asserts that football is a man’s game, yet women also play the same game. Even when the players complain of fouls from opposition team, the coaches still assert that football is for men. It builds the physical and aggressive masculinity among players. The coaches also demand for a warrior attitude from players and require players to make bodily sacrifice, as well as violent physical acts during the game. The language of the coaches is pervaded by Homophobia, misogyny, along with extreme sexual violence. It is clear that the masculinity establishing discourse constitutes football as a game for men (Messner, 1992).
Masculinity Challenging Discourse
On the other side, the concept of masculinity challenging discourse is used by coaches, when players fail to meet required standards. Masculinity challenging discourse regulates gender and the performance of the player, if they do not meet masculinity standards. However, it does not challenge hegemonic masculinity. It was observed that the coach provoked the weak performing payers by demanding them to get stuck in and show they are man enough. It pumped up the players. The coaches could also question the heterosexuality of the player. The masculinity challenging discourse concept was rarely used, however, there was an elevated use of gendered discourses during training and competition games. Questioning of player heteromasculinity expelled extra effort from the player, however, it did not translate to improved performance (Gould, & Krane, 2002).
Masculinity challenging discourse was also deployed on a player, who did not meet the orthodox warrior attitude and football masculinity. Players had to rise to the masculinizing challenge by the coach in order to avoid individual feminizing, as well as homosexualizing ridicule from peers. The coaches challenged opponents masculinity with some describing opponents as a bunch of girls. Their goals were to make players manage masculinity. They undermined opposing teams as feminine "girls”. Coaches could feminize the opposition, or masculinize the opposition to seek hegemony behaviors from players. Therefore, the occasional use of masculinity challenging discourse voids the masculinity of the player (Messner, 1992).
Discussion
The issue of masculinity establishing discourses used in sports makes gays don't come out due to fear of violence. In this study, it is clear that coaches in the team only value ream and requires behaviors that are homophobic, misogynist as well as violent. The hegonomic notion of masculinity is highly valued in football culture...