Reading question

SPORTS IN SOCIETY

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SPORTS IN SOCIETY Issues and Controversies

TWELFTH EDITION

Jay Coakley, Ph.D. University of Colorado

Colorado Springs

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SPORTS IN SOCIETY: ISSUES AND CONTROVERSIES, TWELFTH EDITION

Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2017 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions © 2015, 2009, and 2007. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Coakley, Jay J. author. Title: Sports in society : issues and controversies / Jay Coakley, Ph.D., University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Description: Tweleth edition. | New York, NY : McGraw-Hill Education, [2017] Identifiers: LCCN 2016017236 | ISBN 9780073523545 (acid-free paper) Subjects: LCSH: Sports—Social aspects. | Sports—Psychological aspects. Classification: LCC GV706.5 .C63 2017 | DDC 306.4/83—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ 2016017236

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill Education, and McGraw-Hill Education does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites. mheducation.com/highered

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To the memory of Ernie Barnes—a uniquely perceptive artist whose drawings

and paintings capture the movement and spirit of athletic bodies in ways that

inspire people worldwide.

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vi

Jay Coakley is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. He received a Ph.D. in sociol- ogy at the University of Notre Dame and has since taught and done research on play, games, and sports, among other topics in sociology. Dr. Coakley has received many teaching, service, and professional awards, and is an internationally respected scholar, author, and journal editor. In 2007 the Institute for International Sport selected him as one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Edu- cators, and the University of Chichester in West Sussex, England awarded him an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his out- standing leadership in the sociology of sport; in 2009, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education inducted Coakley into its Hall of Fame; and in 2015 he was named an Honorary Member of the International Sociology of Sport Association.

A former intercollegiate athlete, Coakley continues to use con- cepts, research, and theories in sociology to critically examine social phenomena and promote changes that make social worlds more democratic and humane. He currently lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife, Nancy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jay Coakley and granddaughter, Ally, are running buddies in local Colorado races. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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vii

The cover image, His Effort, is a painting by the late Ernie Barnes (1938–2009), an internationally known artist, a former professional football player, and an unforgettable friend.

Barnes was born during Jim Crow in Durham, North Carolina. As a child, he was shy, introverted and bullied. In junior high school, he learned about weightlifting and training. By his senior year of high school, he was captain of the football team and state shot put champion. On an athletic scholarship, he majored in art at North Carolina College at Durham (now NCCU).

In 1959 he was drafted by the Baltimore Colts and later played offensive guard for the San Diego Chargers (1960–62) and Denver Broncos (1963–64). In his final season, a football team owner paid him “to just paint.” A year later,

Barnes had his first solo exhibition and retired from football at age 28 to devote himself to art. His autobiog- raphy, From Pads to Palette, chronicles this transition.

Barnes’ ability to uniquely capture the athlete’s experience earned him “America’s Best Painter of Sports” by the American Sports Museum. In 1984 he was appointed the Sports Artist of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Recently his beloved football painting The Bench was presented to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for their permanent collection.

His artwork first became known in pop culture when it was used during the 1970s television show Good Times. The iconic dance scene, The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes, on a Marvin Gaye album is one of the most recognizable works of art.

A remarkable feature of Barnes’ work is his use of elongation and distortion to represent energy, power, grace, intensity, and fluidity in his art. His sports background provided a distinct vantage point for observing bodies in movement, and he used his unique understanding of the human anatomy to portray not only ath- letes but everyday mannerisms in delayed motion. As a result, his images communicate an intimate sense of human physicality.

For many people, Ernie Barnes captures the spirit and determination of athletes as they express them- selves through movement. His images present to us the kinesthetic soul of sports.

This is the seventh consecutive cover of Sports in Society that presents the art of Ernie Barnes. He spoke to students regularly, bringing his work to show that art, sport, and academic learning could come together in their lives. This particular cover image was chosen to represent Barnes’s legacy based on his effort to repre- sent the wonder and endurance of the human spirit.

For more information, please visit his official website: www.ErnieBarnes.com. My thanks go to Ernie’s longtime friend and assistant, Luz Rodriguez and his family for sharing His Effort for the eleventh and twelfth editions of Sports in Society.

ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST

© Peter Read Miller

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CONTENTS

Preface xi

1 The Sociology of Sport: What Is It and Why Study It? 2 About This Book 4 About This Chapter 4 Using Sociology to Study Sports 4 Defining Sports 6 What Is the Sociology of Sport? 9 Why Study Sports in Society? 13 Summary: Why Study the Sociology of Sport? 18

2 Producing Knowledge About Sports in Society: How Is Knowledge Produced In the Sociology of Sport? 24

Producing Knowledge in the Sociology of Sport 26 Doing Research and Using Theory in the Sociology

of Sport: A Case Study 28 The Impact of Sociology of Sport Knowledge 42 Using a Critical Approach to Produce Knowledge 44 Summary: How Is Knowledge Produced in the

Sociology of Sport? 45

3 Sports and Socialization: Who Plays and What Happens to Them? 50 What Is Socialization? 52 Becoming and Staying Involved in Sports 53

Changing or Ending Sport Participation 58 Being Involved in Sports: What Happens? 61 How Do Sports Affect Our Lives? 67 Summary: Who Plays and What Happens? 76

4 Sports for Children: Are Organized Programs Worth the Effort? 78

Origin and Development of Organized Youth Sports 80

Major Trends in Youth Sports Today 83 Informal, Player-Controlled Sports: A Case of the

Generation Gap 90 Youth Sports Today: Assessing Our Efforts 93 The Challenge of Improving Youth Sports 95 Recommendations for Improving Youth Sports 97 Summary: Are Organized Programs Worth the

Effort? 100

5 Deviance in Sports: Is It Out of Control? 102 Defining and Studying Deviance in Sports 104 Challenges Faced When Studying Deviance in

Sports 104 Research on Deviance in Sports 114 Performance-Enhancing Substances: A Case Study

of Deviant Overconformity 123 Summary: Is Deviance in Sports Out of Control? 135

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Contents ix

6 Violence in Sports: Does It Affect Our Lives? 138 What Is Violence? 140 Violence in Sports Throughout History 141 Violence on the Field 142 Violence off the Field 153 Violence Among Spectators 155 Terrorism: Planned Political Violence at Sport

Events 163 Summary: Does Violence in Sports Affect Our

Lives? 165

7 Gender and Sports: Is Equity Possible? 168 Cultural Origins of Gender Inequities 170 Orthodox Gender Ideology and Sports 174 Mainstream Sports Reaffirm Orthodox Gender

Ideology 178 Progress Toward Gender Equity 184 Gender Inequities Remain 188 Barriers to Equity 198 Gender Equity and Sexuality 201 Strategies to Achieve Equity 206 Summary: Is Equity Possible? 211

8 Race and Ethnicity: Are They Important in Sports? 214 Defining Race and Ethnicity 216 Creating Race and Racial Ideologies 217 Sport Participation Among Ethnic Minorities in the

United States 230 Race, Ethnicity, and Sport in a Global Perspective 243 The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Relations

in Sports 246 Summary: Are Race and Ethnicity Important in

Sports? 250

9 Social Class: Do Money and Power Matter in Sports? 254 Social Class and Class Relations 256 Sports and Economic Inequality 257 Social Class and Sport Participation Patterns 262 Global Inequalities and Sports 273 Economic and Career Opportunities in Sports 275 Sport Participation and Occupational Careers Among

Former Athletes 282 Summary: Do Money and Power Matter in Sports? 286

10 Age and Ability: Barriers to Participation and Inclusion? 290

What Counts as Ability? 292 Constructing the Meaning of Age 295 Constructing the Meaning of Ability 303 Sport and Ability 313 Disability Sports 318 Technology and Ability 326 To “Dis” or Not to “Dis” 331 Summary: Are Age and Ability Barriers to

Participation? 332

11 Sports and the Economy: What Are the Characteristics of Commercial Sports? 336

Emergence and Growth of Commercial Sports 338 Commercialization and Changes in Sports 347 The Organization of Professional Sports in North

America 352 The Organization of Amateur Sports in North

America 359 Legal Status and Incomes of Athletes in Commercial

Sports 360 Summary: What Are the Characteristics of Commercial

Sports? 368

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x SPORTS IN SOCIETY: Issues and Controversies

Intercollegiate Sports and the Experiences of College Students 447

Do Schools Benefit From Varsity Sports? 456 High School and College Sports Face Uncertainty 462 Summary: Do Competitive Sports Contribute to

Education? 476

15 Sports and Religions: Is It a Promising Combination? 480 How Do Sociologists Define and Study Religion? 482 Similarities and Differences Between Sports and

Religions 484 Modern Sports and Religious Beliefs

and Organizations 487 The Challenges of Combining Sports and Religious

Beliefs 504 Summary: Is it a Promising Combination? 508

16 Sports in the Future: What Do We Want Them to Be? 512 Envisioning Possibilities for the Future 514 Current Trends Related to Sports in Society 515 Factors Influencing Trends Today 519 Becoming Agents of Change 522 The Challenge of Transforming Sports 527 Summary: What Do We Want Sports to Be? 530 References 533 Name Index 614 Subject Index 626

12 Sports and the Media: Could They Survive Without Each Other? 372

Characteristics of the Media 374 Sports and Media: A Two-Way Relationship 383 Images and Narratives in Media Sports 391 Experiences and Consequences of Consuming Media

Sports 398 Sport Journalism 401 Summary: Could Sports and the Media Survive Without

Each Other? 403

13 Sports and Politics: How Do Governments and Global Political Processes Influence Sports? 406

The Sports–Government Connection 409 Sports and Global Political Processes 419 Politics in Sports 433 Summary: How Do Governments and Global Political

Processes Influence Sports? 435

14 Sports in High School and College: Do Competitive Sports Contribute to Education? 438

Arguments for and Against Interscholastic Sports 440 Interscholastic Sports and the Experiences of High

School Students 440

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PURPOSE OF THIS TEXT

The twelfth edition of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies provides a detailed introduction to the sociology of sport. It uses sociological concepts, theories, and research to raise critical questions about sports and explore the dynamic relationship between sports, culture, and society. The chapters are organized around controversial and curiosity- arousing issues that have been systematically stud- ied in sociology and related fields. Research on these issues is summarized so that readers can crit- ically examine them.

Chapter content is guided by sociological research and theory and based on the assumption that a full understanding of sports must take into account the social and cultural contexts in which sports are created, played, given meaning, and integrated into people’s lives. At a time when we too often think that a “website search” provides everything we need to know, I intend this text as a thoughtful scholarly work that integrates research on sports as social phenomena, makes sense of the expanding body of work in the sociology of sport, and inspires critical thinking.

FOR WHOM IS IT WRITTEN?

Sports in Society is written for everyone taking a first critical look at the relationships between sports, culture, and society. Readers don’t need a background in sociology to understand and benefit from discussions in each chapter; nor do they need detailed knowledge of sport jargon and statistics. My goal is to help readers identify and explore issues related to sports in their personal experiences, families, schools, communities, and societies.

The emphasis on issues and controversies makes each chapter useful for people concerned with sport-related policies and programs. I’ve always tried to use knowledge to make sports more democratic, accessible, inclusive, and humane, and I hope to provide readers with the information and desire to do the same.

WRITING THIS REVISION

As soon as the extensively revised eleventh edition of Sports in Society went to press I began research for this edition. This involves reading six newspa- pers each day, including USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times. I also read two sports magazines—Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine—and other magazines that often publish articles about the social dimensions of sports. But most of my research involves reading abstracts for articles pub- lished in the major journals dealing with sports as social phenomena. I regularly survey the tables of contents of a few dozen journals in sociology and related fields to find articles on sport- related topics. Although I do not read every article or every book in the field, I read many and take notes as I do.

Finally, I track photos that I might buy for the edition, and I take thousands of photos myself, always hoping to have ten to twenty new ones for each new edition. I regularly ask friends to take photos if they are in unique sport settings. In the final photo selection I usually review 250 photos for every one I choose to include in the book.

In all, this amounts to thousands of hours of research, writing, and discussing issues with peo- ple from many walks of life in the United States

PREFACE

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xii SPORTS IN SOCIETY: Issues and Controversies

and other parts of the world I’ve had opportunities to visit.

CHANGES TO THIS TWELFTH EDITION

This edition builds on and updates the fully revised eleventh edition. New chapter-opening quotes, pho- tos, and examples maintain the timeliness of content.

New research and theoretical developments are integrated into each chapter. There are over 2000 references to assist those writing papers and doing research. Most new references identify materials published after 2009.

The sociology of sport has expanded so much in recent years that Sports in Society is now an intro- duction to the field more than a comprehensive overview.

Revision Themes and New Materials

This edition updates all time sensitive materials and continues to provide readers with a brief Chapter Outline, and Learning Objectives. At the end of each chapter are lists of Supplemental Readings that are accessible through the Instructor Resources section in Connect, along with selected sport management discussion issues related to the chapter content.

Chapter 1 introduces “the great sport myth”— the widespread belief that all sports are essentially pure and good, and that their purity and goodness are transferred to those who participate in or watch sports. This concept helps readers understand how and why sports are perceived in such positive terms worldwide and why it is difficult to promote criti- cal thinking about sports in society. References to the great sport myth appear in most of the chapters. Chapter 1 also has a new explanation of ideology to give readers a clearer idea of how sports are cul- tural practices linked with the perspectives we use to make sense of our everyday lives.

Chapter 2 contains information and diagrams that explain the knowledge production process and the primary data collection methods used in sociol- ogy of sport research. There is an explanation of gender as meaning, performance, and organization in social worlds, and discussion of the differences between quantitative and qualitative research.

Chapter 3 focuses on socialization. It contains a section on “Family Culture and the Sport Par- ticipation of Children,” which examines families as the immediate contexts in which socialization into sports is initiated and nurtured. There are discussions of sports participation and socializa- tion experiences, the transition out of competitive sports careers, and current approaches to sports and socialization as a community process.

Chapter 4, on youth sports, presents a discussion of how the culture of childhood play has nearly disappeared in most segments of post-industrial society. There’s also an expanded discussion of the possibility that in the United States some upper- middle-class parents use youth sports as a way to create mobility opportunities and reproduce privi- lege for their children. Finally, there is a discussion of how and why youth sport programs in the United States are fragmented and exist independently of any theory-based approach to teaching age- appropriate physical skills and promoting lifelong involvement in sports and physical activities.

Chapter 5, on deviance, contains a discussion of the relationship between deviant overconfor- mity and injuries, concussions, and repetitive head trauma in sports. There’s also an explanation of how widespread acceptance of the great sports myth leads people to deny or ignore certain forms of deviance in sports and use punitive social con- trol methods that focus on individuals rather than the systemic problems that exist in various forms of sport. This is followed by a discussion of new surveillance technologies being used to police and control athletes, especially in connection with the use of performance-enhancing substances.

Chapter 6, on violence in sports, discusses why violent sports have become commercially success- ful in certain cultures. The issue of concussions and repetitive head trauma is also discussed in con- nection with the culture of violence that is widely accepted in heavy- contact sports. Finally, there is an expanded discussion of how the threat of terrorism is perceived and how it influences the dynamics of social control at sport events.

Chapter 7, on gender and sports, introduces the concept of orthodox gender ideology to help readers

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Preface xiii

Chapter 10, written with Elizabeth Pike, my colleague from the University of Chichester in England, focuses on issues and controversies related to age and ability in sports. The frame- work of this chapter is built on research showing how social definitions of age and ability impact the provision of sport participation opportunities and the decisions made by people to become and stay involved in sports. The sections on masters events, the Paralympics, the Special Olympics, and related forms of sport provision illustrate the com- plexity of sports when they are viewed in a general social and cultural context in which age and ability influence how people are perceived and how they include physical activities in their lives.

Chapter 11 deals with the commercialization of sports. It explains how the great sport myth is used to appropriate public money to build sport venues and subsidize sport teams. Labor relations in sports are discussed in more depth, with explanations of collective bargaining agreements, lockouts, and the role of players’ associations.

Chapter 12, on sports and the media, now contains much material on the changing media landscape and how it is related to sports. There is a discussion of fantasy sports as an arena in which participation is influenced by gender and the quest to sustain white male privilege. There’s material on how social media are used by estab- lished sport organizations and by athletes practic- ing emerging sport activities around the world. Changes in media coverage are discussed, with attention given to how masculinity and sexuality are presented in sports media. Finally, there is a new discussion of how entertainment journalism has replaced investigative journalism in sports media.

Chapter 13, on politics, government, and global processes, is updated in its coverage of sport and national identity in global relations, and how the Olympics and men’s World Cup have become tools for generating profits for the International Olympic Committee and FIFA at the same time that the countries hosting these games incur increasing debt for debatable returns. Research on recent sport mega-events is used to discuss the

understand the cultural origins of gender inequality and why sports are one of the last spheres of social life in which the two-sex approach is accepted in a way that normalizes gender segregation. This chap- ter also contains a section on “Progress Toward Gender Equity,” which identifies girls’ and wom- en’s increased participation as the single most dra- matic change in sports over the past two generations. There is an updated Reflect on Sports box that exam- ines Title IX compliance and “what counts as equity in sports.” A new table presents data on female and male athletes at recent Paralympic Games, and a section, “The Global Women’s Rights Move- ment,” discusses the belief that girls and women are enhanced as human beings when they develop their intellectual and physical abilities. Discussions of the media coverage of women in sports and the impact of budget cuts and the privatization of sports are pre- sented to show that programs for women and girls remain vulnerable to cuts because they lack a strong market presence and have not been profit producing.

Chapter 8, on race and ethnicity, presents a revised discussion of how racial ideology influ- ences sports participation. A Reflect on Sports box deals with “Vénus Noire: A legacy of Racism After 200 years,” and a discussion of the isolation often experienced by women of color participating in or coaching college sports. Research is presented to show the ways that some Japanese parents use youth sports leagues to establish relationships with other Japanese families and connect their children with Asian American peers. Finally, there is a sec- tion on race, ethnicity, and sports in a global per- spective in which efforts to control the expression of racism at sport events is discussed.

Chapter 9, on social class, has expanded discus- sions of whether building a new stadium triggers new jobs for the surrounding community and how the economic downturn has impacted sports partic- ipation in the United States. There is a discussion of research on whether local boxing gyms help participants bond with one another and acquire forms of social capital that alter their structural position in society, as well as a discussion of data on the impact of income and wealth on sport par- ticipation patterns.

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xiv SPORTS IN SOCIETY: Issues and Controversies

Supplemental Readings and New Website Resources

Each chapter is followed by a list of Supplemen- tal Readings that provide useful information about topics in the chapters. The Supplemental Read- ings for each chapter can be accessed through the Instructor Resources within Connect.

New Visual Materials

There are 118 photos, 20 figures, and 30 cartoons in this edition. These images are combined with updated tables to illustrate important substantive points, visually enhance the text, and make reading more interesting.

The twelfth edition of Sports in Society, is now available online with Connect, McGraw-Hill Edu- cation’s integrated assignment and assessment platform. Connect also offers SmartBook for the new edition, which is the first adaptive reading experience proven to improve grades and help stu- dents study more effectively. All of the title’s web- site and ancillary content is also available through Connect, including:

∙ A full Test Bank of multiple choice questions that test students on central concepts and ideas in each chapter

∙ An Instructor’s Manual for each chapter with full chapter outlines, sample test questions, and discussion topics

∙ Supplemental Readings that add depth and background to current chapter topics

∙ Group projects ∙ Previous chapters on coaches, competition,

history (from the tenth edition), and social theories (from the ninth edition)

∙ True/false self-tests for each chapter ∙ A cumulative 275-page bibliography that lists

all references from this and the last six editions of Sports in Society

∙ A complete glossary of key terms integrated into the index

challenges and the pros and cons of hosting such events. There is an updated discussion of the new political realities of sports—where team owner- ship and event sponsorship have become global in scope, where athletes seek opportunities world- wide, where global media make it easy to follow the sporting events of teams from all over the world, and where fans’ loyalties are no longer lim- ited to teams from their own regions or countries. Research is presented to show that these realities are linked with corporate expansion, the global flow of capital, the business strategy of global media companies, and processes of glocalization through which global sports are integrated into people’s everyday lives on a local level.

Chapter 14, on high school and college sports, includes new research findings related to issues such as the rising costs of sport programs, who benefits from the revenues generated by certain sports, the dramatic increase of inequality among programs at both the high school and college lev- els, and young people’s perceptions of athletic and academic achievement in schools with high- profile sport programs. There are updated sections on budget issues, the uncertainty that faces school sports today, and the issues currently faced by the NCAA as it tries to control a college sport system that is increasingly unmanageable and inconsistent with the goals of higher education.

Chapter 15, on religion and sports, presents information on world religions and how they influ- ence conceptions of the body, evaluations of phys- ical movement, and sport participation. There also is updated information about the ways in which individuals and organizations combine sport with religious beliefs, and how this has spread beyond the United States in recent years.

Chapter 16 has been shortened and now focuses primarily on the process of making change in sports rather than describing what the future of sports might be. This is because there is a need for us to acknowledge the power of corporations in shaping sports to fit their interests and to develop strategies for creating sport forms that directly serve the needs of individuals and communities.

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Preface xv

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xvi SPORTS IN SOCIETY: Issues and Controversies

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Preface xvii

Finally, thanks go to Nancy Coakley, who has lived through twelve editions of Sports in Society and assisted with each one in more ways than I can list here. She keeps me in touch with popular cul- ture sources related to sports, and tells me when my ideas should be revised or kept to myself—a fre- quent occurrence.

My appreciation also goes to the following reviewers, whose suggestions were crucial in plan- ning and writing this edition:

Amanda K. Curtis, Lake Erie College Susan Dargan, Framingham State College Bruce Haller, Dowling College Ken Muir, Appalachian State University Tracy W. Olrich, Central Michigan University Gary Sailes, Indiana University Stephen Shapiro, Old Dominion University Angela Smith-Nix, University of

Arkansas–Fayetteville Jessica Sparks Howell, Mississippi State

University Ashley VandeVeen, Mayville State University

Finally, thanks to the many students and colleagues who have e-mailed comments about previous edi- tions and ideas for future editions. I take them seri- ously and appreciate their thoughtfulness—keep the responses coming.

Jay Coakley Fort Collins, CO

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book draws on ideas from many sources. Thanks go to students, colleagues, and friends who have provided constructive criticisms over the years. Students regularly open my eyes to new ways of viewing and analyzing sports as social phenomena.

Special thanks go to friends and colleagues who influence my thinking, provide valuable source materials, and willingly discuss ideas and informa- tion with me. Elizabeth Pike, Chris Hallinan, and Cora Burnett influenced my thinking as I worked with them on versions of Sports in Society for the United Kingdom, Australia/New Zealand, and Southern Africa, respectively. Peter Donnelly, co-au- thor of past Canadian versions, has provided special support for this edition and influenced my thinking about many important issues. Laurel Davis-Delano deserves special thanks for her constructive critiques of recent past editions. Thanks also go to photogra- phers and colleagues, Lara Killick, Barbara Schaus- teck de Almeida, Elizabeth Pike, Bobek Ha’Eri, Becky Beal, Kevin Young, Jay Johnson Michael Boyd, Tim Russo, Basia Borzecka and my daugh- ter, Danielle Hicks, for permission to use their pho- tos. Rachel Spielberg, a recent Smith College grad, coach, and artist contributed cartoons to this edition; thanks to her for working with me. Thanks also to artist Fred Eyer, whose cartoons have been used in this and previous editions.

Thanks also to my Development Editors, Ashwin Amalraj and Erin Guendelsberger, and the entire McGraw-Hill team for their help during the course of this revision.

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chapter

THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT What Is It and Why Study It?

1

(Source: © Jay Coakley)

Our sports belong to us. They came up from the people. They were invented for reasons having nothing to do with money or ego. Our sports weren’t created by wealthy sports and entertainment barons like the ones running sports today.

—Ken Reed, Sport Policy Director, League of Fans (2011).

Why should we play sport? Why not just have everyone exercise? [ . . . Because sport] takes you to the edge of a cliff, and it’s at that edge of the cliff where you understand your creative soul.

—Brian Hainline, chief medical officer, NCAA (in Wolverton, 2014)

New York joins 34 other states and the District of Columbia in recognizing competitive cheerleading as a sport. Section VI and the state will make a distinction between traditional, sideline cheerleading and competitive cheerleading, he said. Schools will decide for themselves which type of team they want.

—Barbara O’Brien, staff reporter, Buffalo News (2014).

Sports is real. . . . Sports is Oprah for guys. . . . Sports is woven deeper into American life than you know. You may change religion or politics, but not sport teams.

—Rick Reilly (2009)

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About This Book

About This Chapter

Using Sociology to Study Sports

Defining Sports

What Is the Sociology of Sport?

Why Study Sports in Society?

Summary: Why Study the Sociology of Sport?

Chapter Outline

• Explain what sociologists study about sports and why sociology of sport knowledge is different from information in sports media and everyday conversations.

• Understand issues related to defining sports and why a sociological definition differs from official definitions used by high schools, universities, and other organizations.

• Explain what it means to say that sports are social constructions and contested activities.

• Explain why sociology of sport knowledge may be controversial among people associated with sports.

• Understand the meaning of “ideology” and how ideologies related to gender, race, social class, and ability are connected with sports.

Learning Objectives

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4 SPORTS IN SOCIETY: Issues and Controversies

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ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you’re reading this book, you have an interest in sports or know people who play or watch them. Unlike most books about sports, this one is writ- ten to take you beyond scores, statistics, and sports personalities. The goal is to focus on the “deeper game” associated with sports, the game through which sports become part of the social and cultural worlds in which we live.

Fortunately, we can draw on our experiences as we consider this deeper game. Take high school sports in the United States as an example. When students play on a high school basketball team, we know that it can affect their status in the school and the treatment they receive from teachers and peers. We know it has potential implications for their prestige in the community, self-images and self-esteem, future relationships, opportunities in education and the job market, and their overall enjoyment of life.

Building on this knowledge enables us to move further into the deeper game associated with high school sports. For example, why do so many Americans place such importance on sports and accord such high status to elite athletes? Are there connections between high school sports and wide- spread beliefs about masculinity and femininity, achievement and competition, pleasure and pain, winning and fair play, and other important aspects of U.S. culture?

Underlying these questions is the assump- tion that sports are more than games, meets, and matches. They’re important aspects of social life that have meanings going far beyond scores and performance statistics. Sports are integral parts of the social and cultural contexts in which we live, and they provide stories and images that many of us use to evaluate our experiences and the world around us.

Those of us who study sports in society are concerned with these deeper meanings and stories associated with sports. We do research to increase our understanding of (1) the cultures and societies

in which sports exist; (2) the social worlds created around sports; and (3) the experiences of individu- als and groups associated with sports.

ABOUT THIS CHAPTER

This chapter is organized to answer four questions:

1. What is sociology, and how is it used to study sports in society?

2. What are sports, and how can we identify them in ways that increase our understanding of their place and value in society?

3. What is the sociology of sport? 4. Who studies sports in society, and for what

purposes?

The answers to these questions will be our guides for understanding the material in the rest of the book.

USING SOCIOLOGY TO STUDY SPORTS

Sociology provides useful tools for investigat- ing sports as social phenomena. This is because sociology is the study of the social worlds that people create, maintain, and change through their relationships with each other.1 The concept of social world refers to an identifiable sphere of everyday actions and relationships (Unruh, 1980). Social worlds are created by people, but they involve much more than individuals doing their own things for their own reasons. Our actions, rela- tionships, and collective activities form patterns that could not be predicted only with information about each of us as individuals. These patterns constitute identifiable ways of life and social

1Important concepts used in each chapter are identified in boldface. Unless they are accompanied by a footnote that con- tains a definition, the definition will be given in the text itself. This puts the definition in context rather than separating it in a glossary. Definitions are also provided in the Subject Glindex.

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arrangements that are maintained or changed over time as people interact with one other.

Social worlds can be as large and impersonal as an entire nation, such as the United States or Brazil, or as personal and intimate as your own family. But regardless of size, they encompass all aspects of social life: (a) the values and beliefs that we use to make sense of our lives; (b) our every- day actions and relationships; and (c) the groups, organizations, communities, and societies that we form as we make choices, develop relationships, and participate in social life.

Sociologists often refer to society, which is a relatively self-sufficient collection of people who maintain a way of life in a particular ter- ritory. In most cases, a society and a nation are one and the same, such as Brazil and Brazilian society. But there are cases where a society is not a nation, such as Amish Mennonite society as it exists in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the United States.

The goal of sociology is to describe and explain social worlds, including societies—how they are created, re-created, and changed; how they are organized; and how they influence our lives and our relationships with each other. In the process of doing sociology we learn to see our lives and the lives of others “in context”—that is, in the social worlds in which we live. This enables us to iden- tify the social conditions that set limits or create possibilities in people’s lives. On a personal level, knowing about these influential conditions also helps us anticipate and sometimes work around the constraints we face at the same time that we look for and take advantage of the possibilities. Ideally, it helps us gain more control over our lives as well as an understanding of other people and the condi- tions that influence their lives.

Key Sociology Concepts

Sociologists use the concepts of culture, social interaction, and social structure to help them under- stand sports as social activities.

Culture consists of the shared ways of life and shared understandings that people develop as they live together. Once a culture exists, it influences relationships and social interaction.

Social interaction consists of people taking each other into account and, in the process, influ- encing each other’s feelings, thoughts, and actions. Through interaction, we learn to anticipate the thoughts and actions of others and predict how oth- ers may respond to what we think and do.

Social structure consists of the established pat- terns of relationships and social arrangements that take shape as people live, work, and play with each other. This is the basis for order and organization in all social worlds.

These three concepts—culture, social interac- tion, and social structure—represent the central interconnected aspects of all social worlds. For example, a high school soccer team is a social world formed by players, coaches, team parents, and regular supporters. Over time every team cre- ates and maintains a particular culture or a way of life consisting of values, beliefs, norms, and everyday social routines. Everyone involved with the team engages in social interaction as they take each other into account during their everyday activities on and off the playing field. Addition- ally, the recurring actions, relationships, and social arrangements that emerge as these people interact with each other make up the social structure of the team. This combination of culture, social interac- tion, and social structure comprises the team as a social world, and it is connected with the larger social world in which it exists.

Peer groups, cliques, and athletic teams are social worlds in which participants are known to one another. Communities, societies, concert crowds, and online chat rooms are social worlds in which participants are generally unknown to each other. This means that the boundaries of social worlds may be clear, fuzzy, or overlapping, but we generally know when we enter or leave a social world because each has identifying features related to culture, social interaction, and social structure.

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Of course, I want to hold your attention as you read, but I don’t exaggerate, purposely withhold, or present information out of context to impress you and boost my “ratings.” In the process, I hope you will extend your critical thinking abilities so you can assess what people believe and say about sports in society. This will enable you to make informed decisions about sports in your life and the social worlds in which you live.

DEFINING SPORTS

Most of us know enough about the meaning of sports to talk about them with others. However, when we study sports, it helps to precisely define our topic. For example, is it a sport when young people choose teams and play a baseball game in the street or when thirty people of various ages spend an afternoon learning and performing tricks at a skateboard park? These activities are sociolog- ically different from what occurs at major league baseball games and X Games skateboard competi- tions. These differences become significant when parents ask if playing sports builds the character of their children, when community leaders ask if they should use tax money to fund sports, and when school principals ask if sports are valid edu- cational activities.

When I say that I study sports, people ask if that includes jogging, double-dutch, weight lifting, hunting, scuba diving, darts, auto racing, chess, poker, ultimate fighting, paintball, piano competi- tions, ballroom dancing, skateboarding, Quidditch, and so on. To respond is not easy, because there is no single definition that precisely identifies sports in all cultures at all times (Lagaert & Roose, 2014).

According to definitions used widely in North America and much of Europe, sports are physi- cal activities that involve challenges or competi- tive contests. They are usually organized so that participants can assess their performances and compare them to the performances of others or to their own performances from one situation to

We move back and forth between familiar social worlds without thinking. We make nearly automatic shifts in how we talk and act as we accommodate changing cultural, interactional, and structural features in each social world. How- ever, when we enter or participate in a new or unfamiliar social world, we usually pay special attention to what is happening. We watch what people are doing, how they interact with each other, and we develop a sense of the recurring patterns that exist in their actions and relation- ships. If you’ve done this, then you’re ready to use sociology to study sports in society.

Sociological Knowledge Is Based on Research and Theory

My goal in writing this book is to accurately rep- resent research in the sociology of sport and dis- cuss issues of interest to students. At a time when online searches provide us with infinite facts, figures, and opinions about sports, I am primar- ily interested in the knowledge produced through systematic research. I use newspaper articles and other media as sources for examples, but I depend on research results when making substantive points and drawing conclusions. This means that my statements about sports and sport experiences are based, as much as possible, on studies that use surveys, questionnaires, interviews, observations, content analyses, and other accepted methods of research in sociology.

The material in this book is different than mate- rial in blogs, talk radio, television news shows, game and event commentaries, and most of our everyday conversations about sports. It is organized to help you critically examine sports as they exist in people’s lives. I use research findings to describe and explain as accurately as possible the important connections between sports, society, and culture. I try to be fair when using research to make sense of the social aspects of sports and sport experiences. This is why over 1700 sources are cited as refer- ences for the information and analysis in this book.

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them, and receive external rewards, such as peer or family approval, social status, or formal awards for playing them. Softball leagues, scheduled volley- ball tournaments, and most organized youth sports are examples.

Scholars who study sports as social phenomena generally use a flexible and inclusive definition of sport. Although past research in the sociology of sport has focused mainly on what you and I would describe as “organized sports,” current research often focuses on physical culture, which includes all forms of movement and physical activities that people in particular social worlds create, sustain, and regularly include in their collective lives. This could be tai chi done in a Beijing park, capoeira in a Sao Paulo plaza, parkour in a Paris neigh- borhood, or break- dancing in New York City’s Central Park.

Of course, organized sports are a central and often dominant component of physical culture in many societies today, but it has not always been this way and there continue to be societies in which tra- ditional folk games and expressive forms of move- ment are more important than formally organized, competitive sports. Research on physical culture is important because it helps us understand how peo- ple think and feel about their bodies and how they define movement and integrate it into their lives. Additionally, it provides a foundation for critically examining the deeper game associated with sports in society.

Official Definitions of Sports

Defining sport in official terms and choosing spe- cific activities that qualify as sports is an important process in organizations, communities, and societ- ies. Being classified as an official sport gives spe- cial status to an activity and is likely to increase participation, funding, community support, and general visibility. For example, in Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, walking, bicy- cling, and certain forms of general exercise are considered to be “sports.” Therefore, those who

another. However, the organization, meaning, and purpose of sports often vary from one cul- tural context to another.

Some sports are organized to emphasize free- flowing, playful action and exist primarily for the pleasure of the participants. Examples include 5K fun runs, spontaneous games of Ultimate in open areas, and skateboarding in the streets or local skate parks. In contrast, other sports are orga- nized to include scheduled and regulated action with participants displaying their skills for the pleasure of spectators. These include professional and other elite sports that people follow through media and pay to see in person. NFL games, matches in professional soccer leagues, and major golf tournaments are examples.

Most sports, however, are organized in ways that fall somewhere between these two extremes. They are formally organized and, even though people may watch them, they exist mostly for participants, who enjoy them, value the skills needed to play

Is “Competitive Cheer” and sideline cheerleading a sport? The answer to this question is important because it impacts the budgets, participation rates, and gender equity decisions in U.S. high school and college sport programs. Sociologists study why certain activities are considered to be sports, who has the power to make such decisions, and how those decisions affect people’s lives (Lamb & Priyadharshini, 2015). (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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are physically inactive at the same time that a small number of people perform at relatively high levels for large numbers of spectators—a situa- tion that negatively impacts health and increases health-care costs in a society or community. When sport is defined to include a wide range of physical activities that are played for pleasure and integrated into local expressions of social life, physical activity rates will be high and overall health benefits are likely.

Sports Are Social Constructions

Understanding the sociology of sport is easier if you learn to think of sports as social constructions— that is, as parts of the social world that are created by people as they interact with one another under particular social, political, and economic condi- tions. This means that the kinds of sports that exist and gain popularity often tell us much about the values and orientations of those who play, watch, or sponsor them. They also tell us about who has power in a social world.

Just as defining and identifying official sports is part of a political process, with outcomes that ben- efit some people more than others, so is the pro- cess of creating and sustaining sports in a social world. This becomes apparent when we examine the struggles that often occur over whose ideas will be used when making decisions about the follow- ing sport-related issues:

1. What is the meaning and primary purpose of sports, and how should sports be organized to fit that meaning and purpose?

2. Who will play sports with whom, and under what conditions will they play?

3. What agencies or organizations will sponsor and control sports?

Heated debates occur when people have dif- ferent answers to these questions. History shows that some of these debates have caused conflicts and led to lawsuits, government intervention, and

participate regularly in these activities often see themselves as “sportspersons” and are treated that way by their peers. Additionally, public policies are likely to provide common spaces for these activities and financial support for events that include them.

The official definitions of sport used by organi- zations and officials in the United States are more exclusive in that they give priority to formally organized, competitive activities. Therefore, even though walking is encouraged for general health purposes, most people in the United States would not consider walking a sport, nor would they ever describe walkers as sportspersons. This is impor- tant because it also may mean that walking trails and walking events will receive much less financial and political support than stadiums and arenas in which elite and professional sports are played and watched—because these are seen as the “real” or official sports.

According to most people in the United States, Canada, and a growing number of other societies, sports involve rules, competition, scoring, winners and losers, schedules and seasons, records, coaches, referees, and governing bodies that set rules and sponsor championships. Additionally, organiza- tions such as local park and recreation departments, state high school athletic federations, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the United States Olympic Committee use their own criteria for defining sport and selecting activities for official recognition as sports for purposes of funding and support.

Official definitions of sport have important implications. When a definition emphasizes rules, competition, and high performance, many people will be excluded from participation, and decide that they are not fit to play, or avoid other physi- cal activities that are defined as “second class.” For example, when a twelve-year-old is cut from an exclusive club soccer team, she may not want to play in the local league sponsored by the park and recreation department because she sees it as “recreational activity” rather than a real sport. This can create a situation in which most people

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control them. When people see sports contrib- uting to the common good, it is likely that sport facilities and programs will be supported by gov- ernment agencies and tax money. When people see sports as primarily contributing to individual development, it is likely that sport facilities and programs will be supported by individuals, fami- lies, and private-corporate sponsors. However, in both cases there will be struggles over the extent to which sponsors control sports and the extent to which sports are organized to be consistent with community values.

Struggles over these three issues show that using a single definition of sports may lead us to overlook important factors in a particular social world, such as who has power and resources and how meanings are given to particular activities at different times in a community or society. Being aware of these factors enables us to put sports into context and understand them in the terms used by those who create, play, and support them. It also helps us see that the definition of sports in any context usually represents the ideas and interests of some people more than others. In the sociol- ogy of sport, this leads to questions and research on whose ideas and interests count the most when it comes to determining (1) the meaning, pur- pose, and organization of sports; (2)  who plays under what conditions; and (3)  how sports will be sponsored and controlled. Material in each of the following chapters summarizes the findings of this research.

WHAT IS THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT?

The sociology of sport is primarily a subdiscipline of sociology and physical education that studies sports as social phenomena. Most research and writing in the field focuses on “organized, compet- itive sports,” although people increasingly study other forms of physical activities that are health and fitness oriented and informally organized. These include recreational, extreme, adventure,

the passage of laws. For example, people often disagree about the meaning, purpose, and orga- nization of cheerleading in U.S. high schools. School officials have traditionally said that cheer- leading is not a sport because its primary purpose is to support high school teams. But as competi- tive cheer teams have been organized to train and compete against other teams at least 34 state high school activities associations now define “cheer” as an official sport. This is important because the stakes are high: being designated an official sport brings funding and other support that changes its status and meaning in schools, communities, and society.

Disagreements and struggles over the purpose, meaning, and organization of sports occur most often when they involve the funding priorities of government agencies. For example, if the pri- mary purpose of sport is to improve health and fitness for everyone, then funding should go to sports with widespread participation resulting in net positive effects on physical well-being. But if people see sports as “wars without weap- ons” with the purpose being to push the limits of human ability, then funding should go to sports organized to produce high-performance athletes who can achieve competitive victories. This issue is regularly contested at the national and local levels of government, in universities and public school districts, and even in families, as people decide how to use resources to support physical activities.

These examples show that sports are contested activities—that is, activities for which there are no timeless and universal agreements about what they mean, why they exist, or how they should be organized. This is also illustrated by histori- cal disagreements over who is allowed to play sports and the conditions under which certain people can play. Cases involving extended strug- gles are listed in the box, “Who Plays and Who Doesn’t” (p. 10).

The third issue that makes sports contested activities focuses on who should provide the resources needed to play them and who should

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reflect on S P O R T S

Being cut from a youth sport team is a disappointing personal experience. But being in a category of people that is wholly excluded from all or some sports is more than disappointing—it is unfair and occasionally illegal. Most cases of categorical exclusion are related to gen- der and sexuality, skin color and ethnicity, ability and disability, age and weight, nationality and citizenship, and other “eligibility” criteria. Struggles occur in con- nection with questions such as these: ∙ Will females be allowed to play sports and, if they

are, will they play the same sports at the same time and on the same teams that males play, and will the rewards for achievement be the same for females and males?

∙ Will sports be open to people regardless of social class and wealth? Will wealthy and poor people play and watch sports together or separately?

∙ Will people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds play together or in segregated settings? Will the meanings given to skin color or ethnicity influence participation patterns or opportunities to play sports?

∙ Will age influence eligibility to play sports, and should sports be age integrated or segregated?

Will people of different ages have the same access to participation opportunities?

∙ Will able-bodied people and people with a disability have the same opportunities to play sports, and will they play together or separately? What meanings will be given to the accomplishments of athletes with a disability compared to the accomplishments of athletes defined as able-bodied?

∙ Will lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transsexuals play alongside heterosexuals and, if they do, will they be treated fairly?

∙ Will athletes control the conditions under which they play sports and have the power to change those conditions to meet their needs and interests?

∙ Will athletes be rewarded for playing, what form will the rewards take, and how will they be determined?

Federal and local laws may mandate particular answers to these questions. However, traditions, local customs, and personal beliefs often support various forms of exclusion. The resulting struggles illustrate that sports can be hotly contested activities.

Think about sports in your school, community, and society: how have these questions been answered?

Who Plays and Who Doesn’t Contesting a Place in Sports

and virtual sports as well as fitness and exercise activities.

Research in the sociology of sport generally seeks to answer the following questions:

1. Why are some activities, and not others, selected and designated as sports in particular groups and societies?

2. Why are sports created and organized in different ways at different times and in different places?

3. How do people include sports and sport par- ticipation in their lives, and does participation

affect individual development and social relationships?

4. How do sports and sport participation affect our ideas about bodies, human movement work, fun, social class, masculinity and femi- ninity, race and ethnicity, ability and disability, achievement and competition, pleasure and pain, deviance and conformity, and aggression and violence?

5. How do various sports compare with other physical activities in producing positive health and fitness outcomes?

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In fact, when the actions of athletes, coaches, spectators, and others associated with sports are inconsistent with the perceived inherent purity and goodness of sport, those who accept the myth dis- miss them as exceptions—as the actions of people so morally flawed that they resist the lessons that are inherent in sports.

The great sport myth implies that there is no need to study sports or seek ways to make them better. The sociology of sport is unnecessary, say the myth-believers, because sport is inherently positive. The source of problems, they say, is the morally flawed individuals who must be purged from sports so that goodness and purity will pre- vail. Sport, according to myth believers, is already as it should be—a source of inspiration and pure excitement that is not available in any other activ- ity or sphere of life.

Throughout this book, we will see how the great sport myth influences many important decisions—from creating and funding organized sport programs for “at-risk” youth to making multibillion-dollar bids to host the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup (for men), and other sport mega-events. The myth supports a strong belief in the power of sports to bring purity and goodness to individuals in the form of positive character traits and to cities and nations in the form of revitalized civic spirit and desired development.

6. How do sports contribute to overall commu- nity and societal development, and why do so many people assume that they do?

7. How is the meaning, purpose, and organiza- tion of sports related to the culture, social structure, and resources of a society?

8. How are sports related to important spheres of social life such as family, education, politics, the economy, media, and religion?

9. How do people use their sport experiences and knowledge about sports as they interact with others and explain what occurs in their lives and the world around them?

10. How can people use sociological knowledge about sports to understand and participate more actively and effectively in society, espe- cially as agents of progressive change?

For those of us doing research to answer these and other questions, sport provides windows into the societies and cultures in which they exist. This means that the sociology of sport tells us about more than sports in society; in reality, it tells us about the organization and dynamics of relation- ships in society, and about how people see them- selves and others in relation to the world at large.

The Great Sport Myth and Resistance to the Sociology of Sport

As organized sports have spread around the world, so has the myth that sport is essentially pure and good, and that its purity and goodness is trans- ferred to all who participate in it. This myth sup- ports related beliefs that sport builds character, and that anyone who plays sport will be a better person for doing so. The great sport myth is outlined in Figure 1.1.

Evidence clearly shows that the essential purity and goodness of sport is a myth and that merely participating in or consuming sports does not guar- antee any particular outcomes related to character development or increased purity and goodness. In fact, we hear every day about cases that contra- dict the great sport myth. But that doesn’t seem to weaken its uncritical acceptance by many people.

FIGURE 1.1 The great sport myth.

Sport is essentially pure and good, and its purity and goodness are transferred

to anyone who plays, consumes, or sponsors sports.

There is no need to study and evaluate sports for the purpose of transforming or making them better,

because they are already what they should be.

THEREFORE

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this book you will be prepared and willing to do the following:

1. Think critically about sports so you can identify and understand the issues and controversies associated with them.

2. Look beyond performance statistics and win– loss records to see sports as social construc- tions that can have both positive and negative effects on people’s lives.

3. Learn things about sports that enable you to make informed choices about your sport participation and the place of sports in your family, community, and society.

4. See sports as social constructions and strive to change them when they systematically and unfairly disadvantage some categories of peo- ple as they privilege others.

Controversies Created by the Sociology of Sport

Research in the sociology of sport can be controversial when it pro- vides evidence that changes are needed in the ways that sports and social worlds are organized. Such evidence threatens some people,

especially those who control sport organizations, benefit from the current organization of sports, or think that the current organization of sports is “right and natural.”

People in positions of power know that social and cultural changes can jeopardize their control over others and the privileges that come with it. Therefore, they prefer approaches to sports that blame problems on the weaknesses and failures of individuals. When individuals are identified as the problem, solutions emphasize the need to control individuals more effectively and teach them how to adjust to social worlds as they are currently organized.

The potential for controversy created by a soci- ological analysis of sports is illustrated by review- ing research findings on sport participation among

Using the Sociology of Sport

Knowledge produced by research in the sociology of sport can be useful to athletes, coaches, parents, and people in sport management, recreation, physi- cal education, public health, and community plan- ning and development. For example, it can inform parents and coaches about the conditions under which youth sport participation is most likely to produce positive developmental effects (NASPE, 2013). It explains why some sports have higher rates of violence than others and how to effectively control sports violence (Young, 2012).

Like knowledge produced in other fields, soci- ology of sport knowledge can be used for nega- tive and selfish purposes unless it is combined with concerns for fairness and social justice. For example, it can inform football coaches that they can effectively control young men in U.S. culture by threatening their masculinity and making them dependent on the coaching staff for approval of their worth as men. And it also shows that this strategy can be used to increase the willing- ness of young men to sacrifice their bodies “for the good of the team”— an orientation that some football coaches favor and promote.

This example shows that the sociology of sport, like other scientific disciplines, can be used for many purposes. Like others who produce and dis- tribute knowledge, those of us who study sports in society must consider why we ask certain research questions and how our research findings might affect people’s lives. We can’t escape the fact that social life is complex and characterized by inequalities, power differences, and conflicts of interests between different categories of people. Therefore, using knowledge in the sociology of sport is not a simple process that automatically brings about equal and positive benefits for every- one. In fact, it must also involve critical thinking about the potential consequences of what we know about sports in society. Hopefully, after reading

Sociology has always attempted to defatalize and denaturalize the present, demonstrating that the world could be otherwise. —Editor, Global Dialogue (2011)

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even argue that the sociology of sport is too critical and idealistic and that the “natural” order would be turned upside down if sociological knowledge were used to organize social worlds. However, good research always inspires critical approaches to the social conditions that affect our lives. This is why studying sports with a critical eye usually occurs when researchers have informed visions of what sports and society could and should be in the future. Without these visions, often born of idealism, what would motivate and guide us as we participate in our communities, societies, and world? People who make a difference and change the world for the better have always been idealis- tic and unafraid of promoting structural changes in societies.

Regardless of controversies, research and popu- lar interest in the sociology of sport has increased significantly in recent years. This growth will con- tinue as long as scholars in the field do research and produce knowledge that people find useful as they try to understand social life and participate effectively as citizens in their communities and societies (Burawoy, 2005; Donnelly et al., 2011).

WHY STUDY SPORTS IN SOCIETY?

We study sports because they are socially sig- nificant activities for many people, they reinforce important ideas and beliefs in many societies, and they’ve been integrated into major spheres of social life such as the family, religion, education, the economy, politics, and the media.

Sports Are Socially Significant Activities

As we look around us, we see that the Olympic Games, soccer’s World Cup, American football’s Super Bowl, the Rugby World Cup, the Tour de France, the tennis championships at Wimbledon, and other sport mega-events attract global attention and media coverage. The biggest of these events are watched by billions of people in over two

women around the world. Research shows that women, especially women in poor and working- class households, have lower rates of sport partici- pation than do other categories of people (Donnelly and Harvey, 2007; Elling and Janssens, 2009; Tomlinson, 2007; Van Tuyckom et al., 2010). Research also shows that there are many reasons for this, including the following (Taniguchi and Shupe, 2012):

1. Women are less likely than men to have the time, freedom, “cultural permission,” and money needed to play sports regularly.

2. Women have little or no control of the facili- ties where sports are played or the programs in those facilities.

3. Women have less access to transportation and less overall freedom to move around at will and without fear.

4. Women often are expected to take full-time responsibility for the social and emotional needs of family members—a job that seldom allows them time to play sports.

5. Most sport programs around the world are organized around the values, interests, and experiences of men.

These reasons all contribute to the fact that many women worldwide don’t see sports as appropriate activities for them to take seriously.

It is easy to see the potential for controversy associated with these findings. They suggest that opportunities and resources to play sports should be increased for women, that women and men should share control of sports, and that new sports orga- nized around the values, interests, and resources of women should be developed. They also suggest that there should be changes in ideas about mas- culinity and femininity, gender relations, family structures, the allocation of child-care responsibili- ties, the organization of work, and the distribution of resources in society.

People who benefit from sports and social life as they are currently organized are likely to oppose and reject the need for these changes. They might

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them. In fact, a key research topic in the sociology of sport is the relationship between sports and cul- tural ideologies.

We are not born with ideologies. We learn them as we interact with others and accept ideas and beliefs that are generally taken for granted in our culture. An ideology is a shared interpre- tive framework that people use to make sense of and evaluate themselves, others, and events in their social worlds. We learn ideologies as people around us consistently give meaning to and make sense of social phenomena in certain ways. Even if we don’t agree with a particular ideology it rep- resents the principles, perspectives, and viewpoints that are widely shared in our culture.

Most ideologies serve the interests of a particu- lar category of people and are presented as accu- rate and truthful representations of the world as it

is or as influential people think it should be. In this way, ideologies serve a social function and in that they can be used to justify certain decisions and actions.

When we study sports in soci- ety, it is important to know about four ideologies that influence how sports are organized and who con-

trols and participates in them. These ideologies are organized around ideas and beliefs about gender, race, social class, and ability. Each of these ide- ologies is explained in terms of how it is related to sports in our lives.

Gender Ideology

Gender ideology consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to define masculinity and femininity, identify people as male or female, evaluate forms of sexual expression, and determine the appropriate roles of men and women in society. The most widely shared or dominant gender ide- ology used in many societies is organized around three central ideas and beliefs:

1. Human beings are either female or male.

hundred countries. The media coverage of sports provides vivid images and stories that entertain, inspire, and provide for people the words and ideas they often use to make sense of their experiences and the world around them. Even people with little or no interest in sports cannot ignore them when family and friends insist on taking them to games and talking about sports.

People worldwide talk about sports at work, at home, in bars, on campuses, at dinner tables, in school, with friends, and even with strangers at bus stops, airports, and other public places. Relation- ships often revolve around sports. People identify with teams and athletes so closely that the outcomes of games influence their moods, identities, and sense of well-being. In a general sense, sports create oppor- tunities for conversations that enable people to form and nurture relationships and even enhance their per- sonal status as they describe and cri- tique athletes, games, teams, coaching decisions, and media commentaries. When people use sports this way, they often broaden their social networks related to work, politics, education, and other spheres of their lives. This increases their social capital, that is, the social resources that link them positively to social worlds (Harvey et al., 2007).

When people play sports, their experiences are often remembered as special and important in their lives. The emotional intensity, group camaraderie, and sense of accomplishment that often occur in sports make sport participation more memorable than many other activities.

For all these reasons, sports are logical topics for the attention of sociologists and others con- cerned with social life today.

Sports Reaffirm Important Ideas and Beliefs

We also study sports because they often are orga- nized to reaffirm ideas and beliefs that influence how people see and evaluate the world around

In the space of a few decades, the world has come to take sport more seriously than ever before. —Simon Kuper, journalist, The Financial Times (2012)

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who don’t conform to prevailing ideas and beliefs about heterosexual masculinity ( Anderson, 2011b; Harrison et al., 2009). In this sense certain sports, such as American football, ice hockey, boxing, and mixed martial arts, are organized, played, and described in ways that reaffirm an ideology that privileges certain boys and men over others. But as women and gender nonconforming men increas- ingly demonstrate their physical skills, they raise questions about and discredit dominant gender ide- ology (McGrath and Chananie-Hill, 2009). This means that sports are sites, or social places, where ideas and beliefs about gender are reaffirmed at the same time that oppositional ideas and beliefs are expressed. In this way, sports are important in ide- ological struggles related to the meaning and impli- cation of gender in society and our everyday lives.

Racial Ideology

Racial ideology consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to classify human beings into categories assumed to be biological and related to attributes such as intelligence, tem- perament, and physical abilities. These ideas and beliefs vary greatly from culture to culture, due to historical factors, but racial ideologies are usually divisive forces that privilege a particular category of people and disadvantage others.

Racial ideology in the United States has been and continues to be unique. Its roots date back to the seventeenth century, but it was not fully devel- oped until slavery came to an end and white people faced a new reality in which former slaves could claim citizenship and the rights that came with it. Fear, guilt, ignorance, rumors, stereotypes, and a desire to retain power and control over blacks led whites to develop a complex set of ideas and beliefs promoting white superiority and black inferiority as facts of nature. The resulting ideology was orga- nized around these three major ideas and beliefs:

1. Human beings can be classified into races on the basis of biologically inherited or genetically based characteristics.

2. Heterosexuality is nature’s foundation for human reproduction; other expressions of sex- ual feelings, thoughts, and actions are abnor- mal, deviant, or immoral.

3. Men are physically stronger and more rational than women; therefore, they are more naturally suited to possess power and assume leadership positions in the public spheres of society.

Debates about the truth of these ideas and beliefs have become common worldwide and they are part of (a) larger struggles over what it means to be a man or a woman; (b) what is defined as normal, natural, moral, legal, and socially acceptable when it comes to gender and expressing sexuality; and (c) who should have power in the major spheres of life such as the economy, politics, law, religion, family, education, health care, and sports. Today, many people have come to realize that dominant gender ideology privileges heterosexual males, gives them access to positions of power, and disad- vantages women and those not socially or biologi- cally classified as a heterosexual.

Fortunately, ideologies can be changed. But those whose interests are directly served by a dominant ideology usually possess the power and resources to resist changes and demonize those advocating alternative ideas and beliefs. For exam- ple, the girls and women who first challenged gen- der ideology by entering the male world of sports were generally defined as abnormal, immoral, and unnatural (see Chapter  7). The demonization of these “gender benders” was especially strong in the case of women who played sports involving power and strength and women who did not conform to norms of heterosexual femininity. Men with power and resources banned females from certain sports, refused to fund their participation, excluded them from sport facilities, labeled them as deviant, and publicly promoted ideas and beliefs that supported their discriminatory actions discrimination against females (Sartore et al., 2010; Travers, 2011; Van- nini and Fornssler, 2011).

The struggles around gender ideology also influence the lives of men—most directly, those

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and what should be done about economic differ- ences in a group or society. The dominant class ideology in the United States is organized around three major ideas and beliefs:

1. All people have opportunities to achieve economic success.

2. The United States is a meritocracy where deserving people become successful and where failure is the result of inability, poor choices, and a lack of motivation.

3. Income and wealth inequality is normal and inevitable because some people work hard, develop their abilities, and make smart choices and others do not.

Although some people question the truth of these ideas and beliefs, the class ideology that they support is heavily promoted and remains in exis- tence because it serves the interests of people with power and wealth.

Competitive sports in the United States have been organized and described to inspire stories and slogans that reaffirm this ideology and help sustain its popularity (see Chapter 9). Coaches, media commentators, and sport fans consistently proclaim that people can achieve anything through hard work and discipline, and that failure is the result of laziness and poor choices.

This way of thinking leads to the conclusion that wealth and power are earned by hardworking people of good character and that poverty befalls those who are careless, unwilling to work, and have weak character. As a result, there is little sympathy for the poor at the same time that win- ning athletes and coaches—and wealthy people generally—are widely seen as models of smart choice-making and strong character. To the extent that people accept this class ideology, socioeco- nomic inequality is justified and the wealth and privilege of economic elites is protected. There- fore, economic elites and the corporations they control are major sponsors of high profile, com- petitive sports that are organized and presented in ways that inspire widespread acceptance of this class ideology.

2. Intellectual and physiological characteristics vary by race, with white people being intellec- tually and morally superior to black people and all people of color.

3. People classified as white have only white ancestors, and anyone with one or more black ancestors is classified as a black person.

The ideology based on these ideas and beliefs was used to justify segregation and discrimination based on skin color and deny that black people were real “Americans” in the full legal sense of the term.

The connections between racial ideology and sports are complex (see Chapter 8). Through much of the twentieth century whites in the United States used racial ideology to exclude African Americans and other dark-skinned people from many sports, especially those occurring in gender-mixed social settings, such as golf, tennis, and swimming.

For many years whites also believed that blacks had physical weaknesses that prevented them from excelling in certain sports. But, when blacks dem- onstrated physical skills that rivaled or surpassed those of whites, dominant racial ideology was revised to describe blacks as less evolved than whites and, therefore, dependent on their innate physicality for survival. At the same time, whites saw themselves at a more advanced stage of evo- lution and dependent on their innate intellectual abilities for survival—abilities they believed were not possessed by blacks.

This racial ideology has been challenged and factually discredited during struggles over civil rights. But its roots are so deep in U.S. culture that it still influences patterns of sport participation, beliefs about skin color and abilities, and the ways that people view sports and integrate them into their lives.

Social Class Ideology

Social class ideology consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely shared and used by peo- ple to evaluate their material status; explain why economic success, failure, and inequalities exist;

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Variations across all physical and intellectual abilities are a normal part of human life. But ableist ideology and ableism obscure this fact and prevent us from realistically dealing with ability differ- ences in society.

In summary, ideologies are important parts of culture. People are usually unaware of them because they are simply taken for granted in their lives. As ideologies are widely shared and used as a basis for establishing, organizing, and evaluating social relationships and all forms of social organi- zation, they are woven over time into the fabric of a society. This makes them different from the ideas and beliefs of individuals or those shared only with family members and friends.

Ideologies also resist change. They are defended by those who use them to make sense of the world and those whose privilege depends on them. Some- times they are connected with religious beliefs and given intrinsic moral value, which fosters intense resistance to change. Although we rarely acknowl- edge our ideologies, we frequently recognize the ideologies of people from other cultures because they challenge our taken-for-granted assumptions. When this occurs we often criticize “foreign” ide- ologies while we leave our own unexamined. How- ever, in this book we will take a critical look at dominant gender, racial, class, and ableist ideolo- gies in Chapters 7–10.

Sports Are Integrated into Major Spheres of Social Life

Another reason for using sociology to study sports is that they are clearly connected to major spheres of social life. This will become increasingly clear in the following chapters. For example, Chapters 4 and 5 deal with family relationships and how they influence sport participation and how sports influ- ence family life today. Issues involving the econ- omy are covered in most chapters, and Chapter 11 is dedicated to examining the commercialization of sports and the changes that come with it. The media are closely connected with contemporary sports, and new social media are now changing the

Ableist Ideology

Ableist ideology consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to identify people as physically or intellectually disabled, to justify treating them as inferior, and to organize social worlds and physical spaces without taking them into account. This ideology in many cultures today is organized around three major ideas and beliefs:

1. People can be classified as normal or disabled. 2. Disability exists when physical or mental

impairments interfere with a person’s ability to function normally in everyday life.

3. Disabled people are inferior to normal people.

Underlying these ideas and beliefs is the general perspective of ableism, that is, attitudes, actions, and policies based on the belief that people per- ceived as lacking certain abilities are inferior and, therefore, incapable of full participation in main- stream activities. Therefore, when people use ableist ideology, they tend to patronize, pathologize, or pity those whose abilities don’t “measure up” to their standards. This ideology leads to forms of social organization in which people are sorted into the cat- egories of able-bodied and disabled.

Ableist ideology denies that there is natural variation in the physical and intellectual abilities of human beings, that abilities are situation- and task-specific, and that the abilities of all human beings change over time.

Everyday experience shows us that there are many different abilities used for many differ- ent purposes, and each of us is more or less able, depending on the situation or task. Additionally, people often forget that being able-bodied is not a permanent condition, because abilities change due to accidents, disease, and the normal process of aging. This means that we cannot neatly catego- rize everyone as either able-bodied or disabled. We can rank people from low to high on a particular ability in a particular situation or when doing a spe- cific task, but it is impossible to have one ability- based ranking system across all situations and tasks encountered in everyday life, or even in sports.

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explain social worlds. In the process, they enable us to put the lives of individuals and groups into context. This makes us aware of the circumstances that set limits and create possibilities in people’s lives. For most sociologists, the ultimate goal is to create and distribute knowledge that enables peo- ple to understand, control, and improve the condi- tions of their lives and the social worlds in which they live.

Sociologists use the concepts of culture, social interaction, and social structure as they investigate social worlds. Sociological knowledge about sports and other social worlds is based on data systemati- cally collected in research. This makes it different from statements about sports that are based only on personal experience and opinions.

Defining sports presents a challenge. If we use a single definition that emphasizes organization and competition, it can lead us to ignore people who have neither the resources nor the desire to develop formally organized and competitive physical activi- ties. For this reason, many of us in the sociology of sport prefer an alternative definitional approach based on the assumption that sports are social constructions and that conceptions of sports vary over time and from one social world to another.

ways in which fans engage athletes and consume sports. This is explained in Chapter 12.

Government and politics are no strangers to sports, although their influence has changed as sports have become increasingly global and less dependent on nation-states. This is the topic of Chapter 13. The connections between interscholas- tic sports, the lives of students, the academic mis- sion of schools, and the organization of high schools and colleges is the focus of Chapter 14. Finally, Chapter 15 deals with the complex relationships between major world religions and sports. Overall, sports are not only visible and important activities in themselves, but they are linked to major spheres of life in today’s societies.

summary

WHY STUDY THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT?

Sociology is the study of the social worlds that peo- ple create, organize, maintain, and change through their relationships with each other. Sociologists use concepts, research, and theories to describe and

Families and family schedules often are shaped by sport involvement, sometimes interfering with family relationships (left) and sometimes creating enjoyable time together (right).

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

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reflect on S P O R T S

Until recently, most people viewed the body as a fixed fact of nature; it was biological only. But many scholars and scientists now recognize that a full understanding of the body requires that we view it in social and cultural terms (Adelman & Ruggi, 2015; Dworkin and Wachs, 2009; Eichberg, 2011; Hargreaves and Vertinsky, 2006; Wellard, 2012). For example, medical historians explain that the body and body parts have been identified and defined differently through history and from one culture to another. This is important because it affects medical practice, government policies, social theories, sport par- ticipation, and our everyday experiences.

The meanings given to the body and body parts in any culture are the foundation for people’s ideas and beliefs about sex, gender, sex and gender differences, sexuality, beauty, self-image, body image, fashion, hygiene, health, nutrition, eating, fitness, ability and disability, age and aging, racial classification systems, disease, drugs and drug testing, violence and power, and other factors that affect our lives.

Cultural definitions of the body influence deep per- sonal feelings such as pleasure, pain, sexual desires, and other sensations that we use to assess personal well- being, relationships, and quality of life. For example, people in Europe and North America during the nine- teenth century identified insensitivity to physical pain as a sign that a person had serious character defects, and they saw a muscular body as an indicator of a criminal disposition, immorality, and lower-class status (Hoberman, 1992).

Cultural definitions of the body have changed so that today we see a person’s ability to ignore pain, espe- cially in sports, as an indicator of strong moral charac- ter, and we see a muscular body as proof of self-control and discipline rather than immorality and criminal tendencies. But in either case, our identities and expe- riences are inherently embodied, and our bodies are identified in connection with social and cultural defini- tions of age, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and ability, among other factors.

Definitions of the body are strongly related to sports in many societies. For example, our conception of the

“ideal body,” especially the ideal male body, is strongly influenced by the athletic body (van Amsterdam et al., 2012). In fact, the bodies of athletes are used as mod- els of health and fitness, strength and power, control and discipline, and overall ability.

In today’s competitive sports, the body is measured, monitored, classified, conditioned, trained, regulated, and assessed in terms of its performance under various conditions. Instead of being experienced as a source of pleasure and joy, the body is more often viewed as a machine used to achieve important goals. As a machine, its parts must be developed, coordinated, maintained, monitored, and repaired. Additionally, when the athletic body fails due to injuries, impairments, and age, it is reclassified in ways that alter a person’s identity, rela- tionships, and status.

Socially constructing the body in this way empha- sizes control and rationality. It leads people to accept forms of body regulation such as weigh-ins, measuring body-fat percentage, testing for aerobic and anaerobic capacity, observing physiological responses to stressors, doing blood analysis, dieting, using drugs and other sub- stances, drug testing, and on and on. For example, the members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team must wear heart monitors on their chest and GPS devices in specially designed sport bras during practices so coaches and trainers can determine how hard they work, their fit- ness level, and their on-field strategy awareness (Reilly, 2012). Similar technology is now used by other coaches to monitor the energy and effort being exerted by athletes while on the field of play (Newcomb, 2012a, 2012b). All this helps coaches know how to “discipline” athletes’ bodies and achieve performance goals.

Cultural conceptions of body as machine and sport as performance make it likely that athletes will use brain manipulations, hormonal regulation, body-part replace- ments, and genetic engineering as methods of disciplin- ing, controlling, and managing their bodies. Measurable performance outcomes then become more important than subjective experiences of physical pleasure and joy. As a result, the ability to endure pain and stay in the game is an indicator of the “disciplined body;” and bodies that

The Body Is More than Physical Sports Influence Meanings Given to the Body

Continued

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are starved to reduce body fat to unhealthy levels are ironically viewed as “fit” and “in shape.”

When we realize that human life is embodied and that bodies are socially constructed in the context of culture, those who think critically ask the following questions: 1. What are the origins of prevailing ideas about

natural, ideal, and deviant bodies in sports and in society?

2. What are the moral and social implications of the ways that the body is protected, probed, monitored, tested, trained, disciplined, evaluated, manipulated, and rehabilitated in sports?

3. How are bodies in sports marked and categorized by gender, skin color, ethnicity, (dis)ability, and age, and what are the social implications of such body marking and categorization?

4. How are athletic bodies represented in the media and popular culture, and how do those representa- tions influence identities, relationships, and forms of social organization in society?

5. Who owns the body of an athlete, including the athletes’ tattoos, and under what conditions can bod- ies or tattoos be used to promote products, services, beliefs, or ideas?

6. If moving the body were seen primarily as a source of pleasure rather than tool for achievement and weight control, would more people engage in physi- cal activity? These questions challenge taken-for-granted ideas

about nature, beauty, health, and competitive sports. Ask yourself: how have your ideas about bodies, including your own, been influenced by sports and the culture in which you live?

The ideal male body? Before he gained fame as “Conan the Destroyer” and “The Terminator” in films and became the governor of California (2003–2011), Austria-born Arnold Schwarzenegger was a legendary bodybuilder who won five Mr. Universe and seven Mr. Olympia titles. This statue outside the Schwarzenegger Museum in Austria captures one of his signature poses, which have had a worldwide impact on ideas about the male body and its representation of power and strength. However, ideas about the body change over time and are shaped by many social and cultural factors. (Source: © MARKUS LEODOLTER/epa/Corbis)

reflect on S P O R T S

The Body Is More than Physical (continued )

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of sport as controversial, but we continue to do research and produce knowledge that can be used to promote fairness and social justice.

People study sports in society because sports are socially significant activities for many people; they provide excitement, memorable experiences, and opportunities to initiate and extend social rela- tionships. Sports also reaffirm and sometimes chal- lenge important ideas and beliefs, especially those related to gender, race and ethnicity, social class, and ability.

Finally, sports are studied because they are closely tied to major spheres of social life such as family, economy, media, politics, education, and religion.

Overall, sports are such an integral part of everyday life that they cannot be ignored by any- one concerned with the organization and dynamics of social life today.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:

Reading 1. Why should I take sociology of sport as a college course?

Reading 2. The sociology and psychology of sport: what’s the difference?

Reading 3. Play, games, and sports: They’re all related to each other

Reading 4. Professional associations in the sociol- ogy of sport

Reading 5. Where to find sociology of sport research

Reading 6. Basketball: An idea becomes a sport

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You work for a sport management consulting firm. A client wants to invent a new sport that will attract participants as well as eventual media coverage, and asks you to submit a pro- posal covering what must occur and how long it might take. Describe the outline you will use for your “create a sport” proposal.

Therefore, we try to explain why certain activi- ties, and not others, are identified as sports in a particular group or society, why some sports are more strongly supported and funded than others, and how various categories of people are affected by commonly used definitions of sports and related funding priorities.

This alternative approach to defining sports also emphasizes that they are contested activities, because people can disagree about their meaning, purpose, and organization. Furthermore, people often have different ideas about who should play sports and the conditions under which participa- tion should occur. Debates over who plays and who is excluded can create heated exchanges and bitter feelings, because they are tied to notions of fairness and the allocation of resources in social worlds. Finally, people can also disagree over which sports will be sponsored, who will sponsor them, and how much control sponsors should have over sports.

Asking critical questions about sports in soci- ety is the starting point for doing the sociology of sport. This forces us to think about why sports take particular forms and who is advantaged and dis- advantaged by the current organization of sports in a social world. The sociology of sport often struggles for acceptance in societies where many people accept the great sport myth—that is, the assumption that sports are pure and good and that all who play or consume them will share in this purity and goodness. This assumption leads to the conclusion that it is not necessary to study and critically evaluate sport because it is essentially good as it is.

When sociologists study sports in society, they often discover problems related to the structure and organization of sports or the social worlds in which sports exist. Although we might be well informed about social issues, we usually lack the political power or influence to bring about change. Additionally, our recommendations may threaten those who benefit by maintaining the status quo in sports. This leads some people to see the sociology

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∙ You have a teaching assistantship as you pursue your doctorate in sport management. Your advi- sor says that you must teach a sociology of sport course to the first-year undergraduate sport man- agement students. Describe what you will say on the first day of class to convince your students that it is important for them to take the course seriously.

∙ One of the major challenges faced in sport management is to deal with the influence of the great sport myth in contemporary cultures. Explain this challenge and how people in sport management might cope with it as they do their jobs.

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chapter

PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SPORTS IN SOCIETY How Is Knowledge Produced In the Sociology of Sport?

2

(Source: © Jay Coakley)

“The first lesson of modern sociology is that the individual cannot understand his own experience or gauge his own fate without locating himself within the trends of his epoch and the life-chances of all the individuals of his social layer”

—C. Wright Mills, social theorist and activist (1951)

. . . there is a difference between an open mind and an empty head. To analyse data, we need to use accumulated knowledge, not dispense with it.

—Ian Dey, Social policy expert, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (1993)

The idea of real utopia is rooted in . . . the foundational claim of all forms of critical sociology: we live in a world in which many forms of human suffering and many deficits in human flourishing are the result of the way our social structures and institutions are organized.

—Erik Wright, past president, American Sociological Association (2011)

We all work with concepts. . . . We have no choice. . . . Without concepts, you don’t know where to look, what to look for, or how to recognize what you were looking for when you find it.

—Howard Becker, sociologist (1998)

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Producing Knowledge in the Sociology of Sport

Doing Research and Using Theory in the Sociology of Sport: A Case Study

The Impact of Sociology of Sport Knowledge

Using a Critical Approach to Produce Knowledge

Summary: How Is Knowledge Produced in the Sociology of Sport?

Chapter Outline

• Understand how and why our personal theories about social life differ from theories used in the sociology of sport.

• Identify the five steps involved in the production of knowledge.

• Explain the differences between cultural, interactionist, and structural theories.

• Understand what it means to say that gender exists as meaning, performance, and organization.

• Know the differences between a quantitative approach and qualitative

approach and when it would be best to use one over the other when doing social research.

• Identify and describe the three major research methods used in the sociology of sport.

• Describe what it means to say that sports are more than reflections of society.

• Know the key features of a critical approach to producing knowledge in the sociology of sport.

Learning Objectives

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The sociology of sport focuses on the deeper game associated with sports in society. We learn about that deeper game by using research and theories to understand the following:

1. The social and cultural contexts in which sports exist

2. The connections between those contexts and sports

3. The social worlds that people create as they participate in sports

4. The experiences of individuals and groups associated with those social worlds

Our research is motivated by combinations of curiosity, interest in sports, and a desire to expand what we know about social worlds. Most of us also want to use what we know about sports in society to promote social justice, expose and challenge the exploitive use of power, and empower people so they can effectively participate in political pro- cesses and change the social conditions that have a negative impact on their lives and their sport participation.

As we study sports, we use research and theo- ries to produce knowledge. Social research con- sists of investigations in which we seek answers to questions about social worlds by systematically gathering and analyzing data. Research is the pri- mary tool that we use to expand what we know and to develop, revise, and refine theories about sports in society.

Social theories are logically interrelated explanations of the actions and relationships of human beings and the organization and dynam- ics of social worlds. Theories provide frameworks for asking research questions, interpreting infor- mation, and applying the knowledge we produce about sports.

Research and theories go hand in hand because we use research to create and test the validity of theories, and we use theories to help us ask good research questions and make sense of the data we collect in our studies.

The goal of doing sociology is to describe and explain social worlds logically and in ways

that are consistent with evidence that is system- atically collected and analyzed. When sociologists achieve this goal, their research and theories add to our knowledge about social worlds. This makes knowledge in the sociology of sport a more valid and reliable source of information than what we read or hear in the media and online, where much of the content is based on a desire to entertain and attract audience.

In practical terms, the knowledge produced in the sociology of sport helps us understand more fully the actions of individuals, the dynam- ics of social relationships, and the organization of social worlds. This, in turn, enables us to be more informed citizens as we participate in our schools, communities, and society.

The goal of this chapter is to answer these questions:

1. How is knowledge produced in the sociology of sport?

2. What are the primary research methods used by scholars who study sports in society?

3. Why do scholars often use a critical approach when doing research and developing theories in the sociology of sport?

PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT

Most people manage their lives and navigate social worlds by using personal, practical knowl- edge. They acquire this knowledge by keeping their eyes and ears open and developing expla- nations of everyday experiences and events. For example, consider how you manage your life at home, school, work, and with friends. What strate- gies do you use to understand what occurs around you, and how do you make decisions about what to do in connection with the people and events in your life?

If you’re like most people, you learn to navigate social worlds and manage your life by observing how others act and what occurs in various situa- tions. Then you use this information to develop

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experience-based explanations or “personal theo- ries” about your own actions, the actions of oth- ers, and the social worlds you encounter. These personal theories are summaries of your ideas and explanations of social life and the contexts in which it occurs. All of us use them as guides when we make decisions and interact with others throughout the day.

Think about your family life as an example. You collect information and develop explanations to make sense of your family and your involve- ment in it. You may even consider how your fam- ily is related to the larger community and society in which you live. In the process, you develop “educated hunches” for why your family is more or less loving, strict, organized, wealthy, or sup- portive than other families. You may also try to explain the impact of external factors on your fam- ily, such as (a) the closing of your local high school that forced you to be bused 20 miles to another school, (b) a nationwide economic recession during which your father lost his job, and (c) the local deci- sion to build a major highway that cut your neighborhood off from a previously accessible recreation center where you played sports.

The goal of our personal, experience-based data collection and theorizing is to make sense and gain control of our lives and the social worlds in which we live. Personal theories are forms of practical knowledge that we use to anticipate events, the actions of others, and the conse- quences of our own actions in various situations. Without them, we would be passive responders in our social worlds— victims of culture and society. But with theories, we become potentially active agents with the ability to participate intentionally and strategically in social worlds, reproducing or changing them as we take action alone and with others.

When Pierre Bourdieu, a famous French soci- ologist, discussed the practical knowledge that

people develop through their personal experiences, he referred to it as “cultural capital” (Bourdieu, 1986). He explained that each of us can acquire and accumulate cultural capital as we expand our social and cultural experiences and make sense of them in ways that increase our understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and the ways that social worlds operate. Although each of us has different opportu- nities and experiences, we can convert our personal theories into cultural capital. Like money, cultural capital has value as we use it to navigate, manage, and control our lives. But unlike money, cultural capital can be used over and over again without running up our bills.

As you consider these points, you may won- der how your personal observations and theories

compare with research and theo- ries in the sociology of sport. In what ways are they different? Can research and theories in the soci- ology of sport be used in com- bination with personal research and theories? Can they take their place? Are they more accurate and reliable? These questions will be answered in the rest of the chapter and throughout this book.

Our personal observations and theories are useful in our every-

day lives, but they differ from research and the- ories in the sociology of sport. Personal research focuses on our immediate social worlds. We gather and analyze information, but we don’t use carefully developed methods and follow systematic and rigorous guidelines as we do so. Similarly, we develop personal theories for our own use. We don’t systematically test them, compare them with related theories, and make them public so that others can examine them and determine their overall validity in different social worlds.

Research in the sociology of sport, unlike per- sonal research, is designed to answer questions that go beyond the experiences and the social situ- ations encountered by one person. In sociological

. . . theories are like maps: the test of a map lies not in arbitrarily checking random points but in whether people find it useful to get somewhere. —Kevin Clarke and David Primo, political science professors, University of Rochester, 2012

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described later in the chapter (pp.  33–37), but first we’ll examine a case study that illustrates how social research is done and how theory is used in the process of producing knowledge in the sociology of sport.

DOING RESEARCH AND USING THEORY IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT: A CASE STUDY

Micheal Messner is a well-known and respected sociologist at the University of Southern California. One of his books, Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports (2002), was named best book of the year by his colleagues in the sociology of sport. In the first chapter of Messner’s book, he described a situation that, in part, inspired him to do in-depth sociological research on the connections between sport and gender in the United States. The situation

research, we collect data from people or in situ- ations that are chosen because they can provide information to answer particular questions. We then analyze the data by using methods that have been developed and refined by other sociologists. If the analysis leads to clear conclusions, we try to connect them with the conclusions and theo- ries of other sociologists in the hope of expanding knowledge about the dynamics and organization of social life. Finally, we are expected to publish our studies so that others can critically examine them to see if they have flaws that would invali- date our findings.

People in the sociology of sport may study particular topics because they have a personal interest in them, but the process of doing research involves using methods that minimize the influ- ence of our personal values and experiences on the findings and conclusions. Basic research methods used in sociology of sport research are

The social worlds created around sports are so complex that it helps to have systematic research methods and logical theories to study and understand them. I attend youth sports events for personal reasons, but I also use knowledge produced by Micheal Messner and others in the sociology of sport to help me make sense of what occurs at the events. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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interest. . . . I notice slight smiles on a couple of their faces, as though they are drawn to the Barbie Girls’ celebratory fun. Then, with side glances, some of the boys begin to notice each other’s attention on the Barbie Girls. Their faces begin to show signs of distaste. One of them yells out, “NO BARBIE!” Suddenly, they all begin to move, jumping up and down, nudging, and bumping one another, and join in a group chant; “NO BARBIE! NO BARBIE! NO BARBIE!” They now appear to be every bit as glee- ful as the girls as they laugh, yell, and chant against the Barbie Girls.

The parents watch the whole scene with rapt attention. . . . “They are SO different!” exclaims one smiling mother approvingly. A male coach offers a more in-depth analysis: “When I was in college,” he says, “I took these classes from professors who showed us research that showed that boys and girls are the same. I believed it, until I had my own kids and saw how different they are.” “Yeah,” another dad responds. “Just look at them! They are so different!”

The girls meanwhile, show no evidence that they hear, see, or are even aware of the presence of the boys, who are now so loudly proclaiming their opposition to the Barbie Girls’ songs and totem. The girls continue to sing, dance, laugh, and rally around the Barbie for few more minutes, before they are called to reassemble in their groups for the beginning of the parade.

After the parade, the teams reassemble on the infield of the track, but now in a less organized manner. The Sea Monsters once again find them- selves in the general vicinity of the Barbie Girls and take up the “NO BARBIE!” chant. Perhaps put out by the lack of response to their chant, they begin to dash, in twos and threes, invading the girls’ space and yelling menacingly. With this, the Barbie Girls have little choice but to recognize the presence of the boys; some look puzzled and shrink back, some engage the boys and chase them off. The chasing seems only to incite more excitement among the boys. Finally, parents intervene and defuse the situ- ation, leading their children off to their cars, homes, and eventually to their soccer games (from Messner, 2002, pp. 3–6).

As Messner observed these things, it caused him to think critically about youth sports. As a

occurred as he accompanied his son to the opening ceremony of a youth soccer season. Here are his words:

The Sea Monsters is a team of four- and five-year old boys. Later this day, they will play their first ever soccer game. . . . Like other teams, they were assigned team colors—in this case, green and blue— and asked to choose their team name at their first team meeting. . . . A grandmother of one of the boys created the spiffy team banner, which was awarded a prize this morning. While they wait for the ceremony to begin, the boys inspect and then proudly pose for pictures in front of their new award-winning team banner. The parents stand a few feet away, some tak- ing pictures, some just watching. . . .

Queued up one group away from the Sea Mon- sters is a team of four- and five-year-old girls in green and white uniforms. . . . They have chosen the name Barbie Girls and they too have a new team banner. But the girls are pretty much ignoring their banner, for they have created another, more power- ful symbol around which to rally. In fact, they are the only team among the 156 marching today with a team float—a red Radio Flyer wagon base, on which sits a Sony boom box playing music, and a three- foot-plus tall Barbie doll on a rotating pedestal. Bar- bie is dressed in the team colors; indeed, she sports a custom-made green and white cheerleader-style outfit, with the Barbie Girls’ names written on the skirt. Her normally all-blond hair has been streaked with Barbie Girl green and features a green bow with polka dots. Several of the girls on the team have supplemented their uniforms with green bows in their hair as well.

The volume on the boom box nudges up, and four or five girls begin to sing a Barbie song. Barbie is now slowly rotating on her pedestal, and as the girls sing more gleefully and more loudly, some of them begin to hold hands and walk around the float, in synch with Barbie’s rotation. Other same-aged girls from other teams are drawn to the celebration and, eventually, perhaps a dozen girls are singing the Barbie song. . . .

While the Sea Monsters mill around their banner, some of them begin to notice and then begin to watch and listen when the Barbie Girls rally around their float. At first, the boys are watching as indi- viduals, seemingly unaware of each other’s shared

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Step 1: Develop Research Questions

Producing knowledge always begins with obser- vations of the world followed by questions about what is and is not observed. In this case, Messner observed a particular event and combined what he witnessed with his previous observations and knowledge of sports.

As he thought more deeply about his observa- tions, he asked a series of critical questions about culture, social interaction, and social structure— the three concepts around which much sociological knowledge is organized. In connection with cul- ture, he asked these questions:

∙ What gender-related words, meanings, and symbols do American children learn to use as they identify themselves and others?

∙ How do children learn and use cultural ideas and beliefs to separate human beings into two distinct, nonoverlapping, and “ opposite” sex categories, even though males and females share many social, psychological, and physi- ological attributes and are not biological “opposites”?

In connection with social interaction, he asked:

∙ How do children perform gender in their everyday lives, and how do they learn to suc- cessfully present themselves to others as boys or girls?

∙ What happens in their relationships when they don’t perform gender as others expect them to?

In connection with social structure, he asked:

∙ How is gender a part of the overall organization of the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organi- zation) and other sport programs?

∙ How does the organization of sports at all levels create constraints and possibilities that influence the lives of boys and men in different ways than they influence the lives of girls and women?

To see if other researchers had already answered these questions or developed theories to guide his

father, he was concerned about the way his son would make sense of these experiences as a five- year-old boy in twenty-first-century America. He even thought about what he would say to help his son define them in ways that would impact his development positively. But as a sociologist, Messner’s thoughts went beyond his immediate experiences and his role as a father. He wondered why parents at the soccer ceremony accepted with- out questioning the idea that boys and girls are naturally different, even though many of the boys were initially interested in the playful actions of the girls and their use of the Barbie icon. Taking this thought a step further, he wondered if people who use “nature” to explain the actions of their children tend to overlook similarities between boys and girls and feel no need to discuss strategies to help their children understand that boys don’t “nat- urally” try to intimidate girls.

Even though the boys’ “playful actions” at the soccer ceremony did not physically hurt anyone, Messner wondered if certain sports are organized to reaffirm ideas about masculinity and femininity so that they make it seem normal for boys and men to express aggression and intimidate others. This also made him think about the decision of the Ameri- can Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) officials to segregate soccer teams by sex, thereby eliminat- ing opportunities for boys and girls to play together and discover that they often share interests and other characteristics. Without such opportunities, are boys and girls more likely to grow up thinking that males and females are naturally “opposites,” even though they share many attributes? And if this is so, what implications does it have for how we identify ourselves, form relationships, and organize our social worlds? As Messner asked these critical questions about sports and gender, he decided that he should do a study to expand sociological knowl- edge about this topic.

At this point, Messner was at the beginning of a five-step process for producing knowledge in the sociology of sport and in science generally. These steps are listed in Figure 2.1, and we can use them as a guide as we discuss this case study.

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relationships, and social worlds are complex and must be viewed from different angles and vantage points to describe and explain them accurately. Therefore, he used a combination of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories as guides for conceptualizing his project. Each of these theories focuses on different aspects of social life. Table 2.1 summarizes the central features of these theories, showing that each one explains different aspects of social worlds, has a different focus of analysis, uses different concepts, and addresses different issues.

Messner used cultural theories because they explain what we know about the ways that people think and express their values, ideas, and beliefs as they live together and create social worlds. Research based on cultural theories focuses on the processes through which people create, maintain, and change ideas and beliefs about their lives and the social worlds in which they live.

Cultural theories emphasize that people cre- ate symbols and give meaning to aspects of their worlds that are important to them; in turn, those symbols and meanings influence their feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Cultural theories utilize concepts such as val- ues, norms, ideas, beliefs, ideology, symbols, and

study, Messner reviewed many of the 326 sources he listed as references in his book. This “review of the literature,” as it is called by researchers, indi- cated that there was a need to know more about the relationship between sports and how people learn and incorporate ideas about gender into their identities, relationships, and the organization of social worlds.

Step 2: Select Appropriate Theory and Research Methods

This is a crucial step in the knowledge produc- tion process. When you have selected a theory, or a combination of theories, you then have a guide for thinking about your research questions and con- necting them to what is already known about the organization and dynamics of social worlds. Addi- tionally, there are different research methods that can be used to collect and analyze the information that will help you answer your research questions. Because Messner was asking so many questions in his project, he decided to use a combination of theories and methods.

Selecting Theories As he designed his research project, Messner knew that human beings, social

FIGURE 2.1 Producing knowledge in the sociology of sport.

5. Publish results so

others can assess their validity & reliability

2. Select appropriate theory & research

methods

4. Use findings to produce

conclusions

1. Develop research

questions and review previous studies on the

topic being studied

3. Collect & analyze data

Identify contexts in which knowledge can be applied Follow-up

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Table 2.1 Central features of major types of theories used in the sociology of sport

Type of Theory Help to Explain Major Focus of Analysis

Major Concepts Used

Examples of Research*

Cultural Theories Processes through which people create, maintain, and change values, norms, ideas, and beliefs as they play and watch sports

The ways people define and make sense of their bodies, experiences, and relationships as sport participants and consumers

Values, norms, ideas, beliefs, ideology, symbols, and narratives associated with sports

- imagery and narratives in media coverage of men’s and women’s sports - impact of racial ideology on the sport participation choices of individuals

Interactionist Theories

Social interaction and relationships in the social worlds created in connection with sports

Social development; the relationships through which people give meaning to sport experiences and integrate them into their lives

Interaction, socialization, role models, significant others, self- concept, identity, labeling, deviance, and stereotyping

- process of normalizing pain and injury when playing sports - process of developing and maintaining athletic identities

Structural Theories The social organization and patterns of relationships that influence opportunities, decisions, and actions in sports

Impact of social organization on access to power, authority, status, resources, and economic opportunities in sports and society

Status, roles, groups, authority, power relations, social control, social inequality, social institutions, organizations, and societies

- gender equity in school sport programs - who benefits when public money builds stadiums for pro sport teams

*See Messner (2002) Chapters 2, 3, and 4 for examples of these and other studies. Chapter 4, “Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media,” summarizes studies guided by cultural theories. Chapter 2, “Playing Center: The Triad of Violence in Men’s Sports,” summarizes studies guided by interactionist theories. Chapter 3, “Center of the Diamond: The Institutional Core of Sport,” summarizes studies guided by structural theories.

language because they are the tools and reference points that people use to make sense of and give meaning to themselves, their experiences, and the world around them. In most cases, people who use cultural theories assume that culture is messy—its boundaries are fuzzy and difficult to identify, it contains inconsistencies and contradictions, and it is dynamic, meaning that culture is always chang- ing as people develop new ideas, beliefs, values, and norms (McCarthy et al., 2005).

Cultural theories alerted Messner to the impor- tance of symbols, such as the names, colors, uni- forms, banners, songs, and chants that were used

to represent teams in the AYSO. Further, they directed his attention to specific narratives, which are the explanations that people use—or the sto- ries they tell—to explain and make sense of their choices and actions. Therefore, Messner focused on the ways that ideas and beliefs about masculin- ity and femininity were included in the narratives that were used in the context of youth sports.

Messner also used interactionist theories because they explain what we know about the ori- gins, dynamics, and consequences of social inter- action among people in particular social worlds. These theories focus on processes of social learning

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quantitative or qualitative methods, but Messner was asking such a variety of questions that he decided to use both.

Quantitative methods involve collecting infor- mation (data) about people and social worlds, converting the information into numbers, and ana- lyzing the numbers by using statistical procedures and tests. Data may be collected by using a written questionnaire administered to a randomly selected sample of people that represents a larger popula- tion, or by quantifying particular facts in a sample or series of official records, reports, documents, or media content. The facts or data are usually pre- sented in graphs and tables to represent statistical profiles and the quantifiable aspects of people, relationships, events, and social worlds (Aubel and Lefevre, 2013; Borgers et al., 2013).

Quantitative methods are used when social realities can be explained and understood by creat- ing an overall view—a “big statistical picture”— of a population, media content, event, or social world. For example, they would be used to study general patterns and relationships, such as the differences between the grade point averages of U.S. high school students who play sports compared to those who don’t play on school teams, or the patterns of keywords used in newspaper articles about differ- ent sports.

Qualitative methods involve collecting infor- mation about specific people, media content, events, or social worlds; identifying patterns and unique features; and analyzing information by using inter- pretive procedures and tests. Data are usually col- lected by doing in-depth interviews with a carefully selected sample of respondents, by observing par- ticular events and social worlds, or by collecting a sample of documents or media content for analysis. These data are analyzed to provide detailed descrip- tions of what people say and do, and what occurs in social events and social worlds.

Qualitative methods are used when research- ers want to discover the meanings and ideologies that underlie what people say and do, or when they want to understand the precise details of what occurs in relationships, groups, and social worlds.

and development. They deal with how people come to know and give meaning to themselves, others, and the things and events in their lives.

Interactionist theories use concepts such as social interaction, socialization, role models, sig- nificant others, self-concept, identity, labeling, deviance, and stereotyping to study social devel- opment during childhood, adolescence, and adult- hood. This alerted Messner to the ways that youth sports are sites, or identifiable social places or con- texts, where people learn what it means to be a man or woman, how to perform masculinity or feminin- ity as they interact with others, and the ways that ideas and beliefs about gender are integrated into the organization of social worlds.

Finally, Messner used structural theories because they explain what we know about dif- ferent forms of social organization and how they influence actions and relationships. These theories focus on the ways that relationships are organized and how they influence people’s access to power, authority, material resources, economic opportuni- ties, and other resources.

Structural theories help us identify and under- stand the social impact of recurring social relation- ships and patterns of social organization that exist in different spheres of everyday life, such as the family, religion, education, the economy, politics, and the media. They emphasize concepts such as status, roles, authority, power, social class, and social inequality to explain that the constraints and opportunities that exist in social worlds affect peo- ple differently, depending on their social positions and relationships with others. Therefore, these the- ories alerted Messner to the ways that sport organi- zations are “gendered” in terms of the jobs done by women and men, and who has authority and power on AYSO teams, in the AYSO administration, and in sports generally.

Selecting Research Methods After selecting the theories he would use to guide his research, Mess- ner selected a combination of research methods for collecting and analyzing data. Depending on the topic being studied, most researchers use either

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provide demographic data such as our age, gender, education, occupation, income, race and ethnicity, and place of residence. The goal of many surveys is to construct statistical profiles of the character- istics, attitudes, beliefs, and actions of respondents who represent or statistically match a larger col- lection of people. Researchers then compare and analyze those profiles to describe and even predict the patterns of how people will think and act in par- ticular situations.

Survey questionnaires are also used to identify recurring patterns and relationships in social life and to see if they support or contradict predictions based on a particular theory. As more people have access to computers and online connections, writ- ten questionnaires are more often being sent and replied to online.

In Messner’s research project on gender and sports, he used data collected in a national survey of 800 boys and 400 girls, ten- to seventeen-years- old, equally distributed across four ethnic back- grounds: White, African American, Latino, and Asian American. The data were collected through written questionnaires, and they indicated that boys

For example, qualitative methods might be used to discover and understand why young people drop out of sports, the meanings people give to their sport experiences, or athletes’ decisions to play when injured.

When sociologists study sports in society, they generally use surveys and interviews, observations, and text analysis to collect data (see Figure  2.2). Examples of these methods and how they are used in actual research are provided in the following sections.

SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS: ASKING PEOPLE QUESTIONS Social scientists often collect data by using sur- veys, which involve asking people questions through written questionnaires or person-to-person interviews. Questions must be clearly worded so that respondents understand them, and formulated so they do not influence or bias the answers given by study participants.

Each of us has responded to survey question- naires in which we are asked about our attitudes, opinions, preferences, backgrounds, or current cir- cumstances. Additionally, we’re usually asked to

FIGURE 2.2 Data collection methods for studying sports in society.

Written questionnaries that participants complete by checking response boxes or providing brief written responses

Interviews in which participants are asked brief or in-depth questions that are answered by telephone or face-to-face

SURVEYS

Participant observation in which the researcher is a full participant in a social world and notes what is seen and heard

Nonparticipant observation in which the researcher is an outside observer who notes what is seen and heard

OBSERVATIONS

Deconstruct* texts to identify the logic, values, ideological assumptions, and contradictions that are built into them

Scan a large quantity of text, audio, or video content to extract keywords, identify patterns and priorities, or condense the text

TEXT ANALYSIS

* Text deconstruction is a special method of analyzing documents, literary materials, webpages, ads, billboards, gra�ti, paintings, photographs, and all forms of media content. It uses defined strategies to uncover the logic, values, and assumptions underlying the narratives and/or images that constitute the text. This method also identifies the ideology that informs the text and the contradictions that are contained in it.

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evaluated their position and relative privilege in the overall organization of social worlds.

In summary, when data are collected by using questionnaires or interviews, researchers seek knowledge about general patterns and relationships in social worlds or knowledge about the details of everyday experiences and the meanings that people give to them.

OBSERVATIONS: SEEING AND HEARING WHAT PEOPLE DO AND SAY Researchers in the sociology of sport often collect data by observing people in every- day life situations. They do this as (1)  “nonpar- ticipants” or outside observers, who are detached from the people and situations being studied, or as (2) “participant observers” who are or become personally involved in the social worlds being studied. For example, Noel Dyke studied youth sports by collecting data as an outside observer who attended practices and games and inter- viewed players and adults (Dyke, 2012); the late Janet Chafetz studied youth sports as participant observer/“team helper” for her son’s baseball team (Chafetz and Kotarba, 1999).

Collecting data through observational methods is time intensive. Relationships must be estab- lished so there is trust and rapport developed with the people being studied. Actions, relationships, and social patterns and dynamics must be studied over time and from different vantage points so the data accurately depict the people and social worlds being studied. The goal of some sociologists who do observational research is to extend or chal- lenge our knowledge of familiar groups and social worlds or introduce us to marginalized groups and unique social worlds about which we have little or no knowledge (Anderson, 2005b, 2011d; Atencio and Beal, 2011; Atencio and Wright, 2008; Brittain, 2004b; Huang and Brittain, 2006; Ravel and Rail, 2006, 2007; Shipway et al., 2013).

Observational methods generally involve field- work, that is, “on-site” data collection. An ethnog- raphy is fieldwork that involves both observations and interviews; in fact, ethnography literally means writing about people and how they live with

were five times more likely than girls to regularly watch sports on television. Thirty percent of boys across the four ethnic groups watched sports every day, whereas only 6 percent of girls did so.

When it isn’t practical to use written question- naires, or when the goal is to do an in-depth inves- tigation of people’s feelings, thoughts, and actions, data may be collected through interviews. When questions are brief and straightforward, it has been customary to do person-to-person telephone interviews that can be completed in 5  minutes or less. But this method is used less frequently now that cell phones are replacing land lines, and area codes no longer identify the general location of the people being called.

In-depth interviews are used instead of writ- ten questionnaires when researchers seek open- ended information about the details and underlying meanings of what people say and do. Conducting in-depth interviews is a time-consuming method of collecting data. Usually, they are done with people who have been chosen because of their experiences, positions in an organization or com- munity, or vantage point for viewing one or more social worlds. Interviewers attempt to develop trust and rapport to maximize the truthfulness of responses. Interview questions are presented in a clear, understandable manner, and the interviewer listens carefully to what is and is not said. Usually interviews are recorded for later transcription and analysis, but in the case of interviews done in the field, notes may be taken by hand rather than using a recording.

Messner used data from in-depth interviews that he conducted with thirty men who were former elite athletes (Messner, 1992). He learned that these men began playing sports with already- gendered identities, that is, with certain ideas about how to be a man in U.S. culture. As their athletic careers progressed, the men had experiences and formed attitudes consistent with dominant ideas about manhood. They believed that gender was grounded in nature and biological destiny, and this belief influenced the ways they performed masculinity in public, defined and interacted with women, and

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each other (Adler and Adler, 2003; Hammersley, 2007). Ethnographies may take years to complete. They provide detailed descriptions and analyses of particular people and social worlds, such as sport teams, organizations, and communities.

Sociologist Reuben May (2008) did an eth- nography in which he studied young men on a basketball team in a high school located in a poor neighborhood of a midsize southern U.S. city. As the assistant coach of the team, he was a partici- pant observer. May’s observations and interviews occurred over seven years because he wanted to accurately represent the experiences and lives of the young men he coached—all African Ameri- cans. He organized his study to allow the young men to speak for themselves and describe their view of the world in which they lived. As he pre- sented their stories, May put them into a social and cultural context so that he and his readers could make sense of them and extend our knowledge of sports in the lives of young African American men growing up in resource deprived, urban neighbor- hoods today. In the process, he described the com- plexity and contradictions associated with sports in such a social world and identified the serious dilemmas faced by coaches as they try to help these young men make the transition from high school to the rest of their lives.

Ethnographies are limited because they focus on particular social worlds, and it is difficult to know whether the knowledge they produce can be used to understand other social worlds. How- ever, they provide detailed information about the organization and dynamics of the social worlds studied. This enables us to understand how actions and relationships create, sustain, and change those worlds; how they become unique; and how the meanings created in them influence the decisions and actions of the people who inhabit them. For example, recent ethnographies about flat track roller derby enable us to understand how particular women have created a form of sport that fits their interests and life circumstances (Beaver, 2012; Donnelly, 2013; Gieseler, 2014; Pavlidis and Fullagar, 2013, 2015).

TEXT ANALYSIS: STUDYING DOCUMENTS AND MEDIA Research in the sociology of sport often involves some form of text analysis in which data are col- lected from any source in which there are narratives and images that represent ideas, people, objects, and events associated with sports. Narratives are the stories that people tell about themselves and their social worlds. They are an integral part of con- versations, social interaction, and the media. They represent factual or fictional realities and they’re often combined with images—that is, visual repre- sentations of ideas, people, and things.

These narratives and images are pervasive in connection with sports in society today. For example, sociology of sport scholars have ana- lyzed data collected from sport team media bro- chures, newspaper articles, media commentaries during the Olympics and other sport events, the ads in sports magazines, the commercials aired during televised sport events, and sport books and films—and many of these studies are discussed in Chapter 12 on media and sport. For documents and media content that are digitized, special soft- ware programs can be used to identify patterns and themes in a large quantity of text. In other cases, researchers focus on a smaller number of documents or selected media content and carefully deconstruct it to identify underlying meanings and assumptions contained in the narratives and images in the texts.

In a series of studies, Messner and his col- leagues analyzed the content of network sports news from 1989 through 2009 (Table 2.2), and they also analyzed at regular intervals during 2009 the content of ESPN’s one-hour evening Sports Cen- ter program and sports coverage by two network stations (Table 2.3). The data indicated that stories about men’s sports dominated television coverage between 1989 and 2009, despite dramatic increases in women’s sport participation during that period. For example, during ESPN’s prime time Sports Center program, only 1.3 percent of total air- time was given to women’s sports (Cooky et al., 2013). Messner and his colleagues concluded that this type of mainstream television news coverage

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help us understand the complex connections between sports and other spheres of our lives. Scan- ning, analyzing, and deconstructing narratives and images associated with sports enables researchers to identify widely accepted ideas and beliefs about competition, authority structures, teamwork, dedi- cation achievement, and success.

Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data

Using cultural theories as a guide, Messner also col- lected information on the team names that players and coaches selected for the 156 AYSO teams that season. Names, along with colors, uniforms, ban- ners, and songs or chants, are symbols that people often use to represent sport teams in U.S. culture. Symbols are important to sociologists because they are concrete representations of the values, beliefs, and moral principles around which people orga- nize their ways of life.

When Messner analyzed the 156 team names, he found that 15 percent of the girls’ teams and 1 percent of the boys’ teams chose sweet, cutesy names such as the Pink Flamingos, Blue Butter- flies, Sunflowers, and Barbie Girls.1 “Neutral” or paradoxical names such as Team Flubber, Galaxy, Blue and Green Lizards, and Blue Ice were selected by 32 percent of the girls’ teams and 13 percent of the boys’ teams; and power names such as Shoot- ing Stars, Raptor Attack, Sea Monsters, Sharks, and Killer Whales were selected by 52 percent of the girls’ teams and 82 percent of the boys’ teams.

Overall, boys were much more likely to avoid sweet, cutesy names in favor of power names. This is consistent with past research showing that people represent themselves and their groups with sym- bols and names that reaffirm their favored identity. In this case, the boys and girls selected names that fit their gendered sense of who they were and how they wished to be perceived in the social world of AYSO youth soccer.

When Messner used interactionist theory as a guide, he observed the actions of people at AYSO

1Smurfs was the only “sweet” name chosen by a boys’ team.

perpetuates the notion that elite sports is a mascu- line activity in U.S. culture.

Messner and his colleagues also did a more in- depth analysis in which they deconstructed nar- ratives and images to identify the logic, values, assumptions, and underlying ideologies used by those who produce media content about sports (Messner et al., 2000). This method of analyzing data enabled them to identify a master narrative that media people used to describe masculinity. This narrative emphasized the following: sports are a man’s world, sports are wars and athletes are warriors, boys will be boys, boys are basically violent, aggressive guys win and nice guys lose, women are sexy props, men sacrifice their bodies for their teams, and the measure of a man is his “guts.” Messner and his colleagues concluded that these assumptions formed a “Televised Sports Manhood Formula” that was consistently presented in sports programming.

These quantitative and qualitative methods of investigating the content of documents and media

Table 2.3 Percentage of 2009 sports coverage, by sex, on ESPN Sports Center and KCBS and KNBC (Southern California)

ESPN KCBS and KNBC

Men’s Sports 96.4 95.9 Women’s Sports 2.7 3.2 Both/Neutral 1.0 1.0

Source: Cooky, Messner, and Hextrum, 2013.

Table 2.2 Gender focus of network sports news stories, 1989–2009 (in percentages)

Stories 1989 1993 1999 2009

About men 92.0 93.8 88.2 96.3 About women 5.0 5.1 8.7 1.6 Neutral/About both 3.0 1.1 3.1 2.1

Source: Cooky, Messner, and Hextrum, 2013.

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used to segregate boys and girls into separate leagues. According to AYSO leaders, the teams at all age levels were segregated by sex “to pro- mote team unity.” For the leaders, this made gen- der “appear to disappear” in the organization and in the decision-making processes of the leagues. By using sex to segregate the leagues and teams, gen- der was erased from the day-to-day consciousness of coaches, officials, parents, players, and adminis- trators, even though it was the primary organizing

events to see how they performed gender as they interacted with others. His observations of the chil- dren indicated that their performances clarified and blurred traditional gender distinctions. But the most noticeable gender performances occurred when the boys vocally objected to the girls’ celebration of their Barbie icon and attempted to physically dis- rupt the girls’ celebration. At the same time, the girls were surprised by the boys’ actions and either withdrew due to fear or stood their ground to chal- lenge the boys. The parents reaffirmed the nor- malcy of these performances by attributing them to natural differences between boys and girls; they did not consider that the children’s actions could be due to cultural norms, the interactional dynam- ics of the opening AYSO ceremony, or the overall social organization of the soccer league and most sports in the United States.

Using structural theory as a guide, Messner also collected data on the adult divisions of labor and who held power positions in the AYSO and on each of the 156 teams. He found that there were gender-based limits for the actions and relation- ships of some children and adults, and gender-based possibilities for others. For example, the commis- sioner and assistant commissioners were men, as were twenty-one of thirty board members. Over 80 percent of the head and assistant coaches were men, whereas 86 percent of the team managers, or “team moms,” as most people referred to them, were women. The coaches had formal authority at the league and team levels, and the “team moms” performed support roles that were labor intensive, time consuming, and behind the scenes.

Even when the soccer experiences of women surpassed those of men, they were less likely to volunteer as coaches. Men volunteered because they believed it was appropriate for them to play such a role, whereas the women felt less so—and men didn’t see themselves as “team moms” or even as “team dads” doing what team moms did.

As Messner collected and analyzed data on the organization of the AYSO, he also found that pat- terns of authority were informally gendered by the adults, whereas gender was formally and officially

What does it mean when five-year-old girls choose Barbie as a representation of their team? Barbie represents traditional feminine values and ideals in U.S. culture, but the girls in Messner’s study connected Barbie to their sport participation. Is this a sign that traditional feminine values are changing, that the girls are creating a new form of femininity, or that the girls value traditional femininity more than playing sports? The sociologists most likely to ask these questions are guided primarily by cultural theories. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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Figure  2.3 depicts Messner’s description of gender as a multidimensional concept. Gender as meaning refers to the fact that in a particular cul- ture people often learn to identify certain colors, names, and objects as “masculine” or “ feminine.” Gestures, actions, and elements of physical appear- ance may also be identified in this way. These socially agreed-upon cultural meanings are part of a larger cultural process of constructing the gender categories that people use to identify themselves and make sense of what occurs in their relation- ships and experiences. For example, boys or men in the United States don’t select pink as a team color because they have learned that it is associated with femininity. The five-year-old boys observed by Messner had already learned gender as meaning to the extent that they did not name themselves the “Barbie Boys” or “Pink Monsters.” This example may seem trivial, but gender as meaning influences people’s choices and interpretations of the world around them. Significant here is the fact that sports serve as an important site at which this meaning is learned, reaffirmed, and sometimes even chal- lenged and changed.

Gender as performance (Figure  2.3) refers to the fact that people “do” gender as they interact with others. In the process they reproduce existing meanings and organization, or they offer alterna- tives. The five-year-olds observed by Messner had clearly learned to perform gender in certain ways and evaluate each other in terms of what it meant for them to “act like a boy” or “act like a girl” in their social worlds. In this sense, gender is perfor- mance. For example, a coach might refer to boys on his team as “girls” when they don’t perform well. Similarly, a player on a girls’ team who spits regularly on the field may be told by her coach to “act like a lady”—meaning that she is not perform- ing gender as expected in U.S. culture.

Gender as organization (Figure  2.3) refers to the ways that positions, roles, and responsibilities are structured around gender. For example, in most sports the coaches are more likely to be men than women, because it is widely believed that mas- culinity is more compatible with the demands of

principle for the entire AYSO and the experiences of nearly 2000 young people.

Messner pointed out that this type of social structure creates highly gendered experiences while they give everyone the impression that gender is irrelevant. For example, as the children played on sex-segregated teams, they had no opportunities to observe similarities in the skills, personalities, interests, and emotions of boys and girls or to be teammates and friends with differently gendered peers. Coaches treated boys as they felt boys should be treated and girls as they felt girls should be treated without realizing that ideas and beliefs about gender influenced the entire social context in which they coached. Gender was erased from their awareness at the same time that it organized and structured the experiences of everyone associated with the AYSO.

Collecting and analyzing data about the AYSO was a very small part of Messner’s overall research project. He had already done many studies of sports and gender in different contexts, and he and his colleagues had studied gender in media coverage of sports, commentaries during sport events, ads during sport events and in sport publications, and patterns of corporate sponsorships for sports. In other words, his systematic collection and analysis of data went far beyond the opening ceremony, the Sea Monsters and Barbie Girls, and the AYSO.

Step 4: Use Findings to Produce Conclusions

Messner’s analysis of all the data he collected enabled him to pre sent detailed explanations of the connections between gender and sports in the United States. He used cultural, interactionist, and structural theories to make sense of these connec- tions and make knowledge statements about gen- der in social worlds. Messner’s overall conclusion was that gender is much more than a social cat- egory or trait that identifies a person; instead, it consists of interrelated meanings, performances, and organization that become important aspects of social worlds.

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FIGURE 2.3 Gender as meaning, performance, and organization in social worlds.

(CULTURE) Meaning

GENDER AS (INTERACTION) Performance

(STRUCTURE) Organization

Gender categories are constructed around certain characteristics

Colors, names, objects, and qualities are seen as masculine or feminine

People learn how to “act like a man” or “act like a woman”

People perform gender and judge others by their performances

Roles and responsibilities are identified with gender

Jobs and statuses are seen as being for men or for women, not for both

coaching than femininity is. This is why men coach nearly all men’s teams and most women’s teams, whereas women coach a minority of women’s teams and almost no men’s teams.

The pattern of men in positions of control and women in support positions was clear in the AYSO, where the commissioner and assistant commission- ers were men, as were twenty-one of the thirty members of the board of directors, and 85 percent of the 156 head coaches. In this sense, organization is clearly gendered.

Part of Messner’s contribution to what we know about gender and sport is showing us how gender constitutes a combination of meaning, performance, and organization in social worlds, especially those constructed around sports. This is important because it explains why it is so dif- ficult to “ungender” sport. As long as we uncriti- cally accept current meanings, performances, and organization, sport will remain gendered in ways

that preclude equal treatment for men and women. However, once we see gender in these terms, it’s possible to develop strategies to create equity.

Step 5: Publish Results

After completing his project, Messner wrote research papers that explained what he had done and what he had discovered about gender and sports in the United States. At least three of these papers were written as articles and submitted for possible publication in academic journals, and a long manuscript was written as a possible book and submitted to the University of Minnesota Press. The journal and book editors each asked schol- ars who were experts on the topic of gender and sports to critically review Messner’s manuscripts and recommend whether they should be published. These reviewers assessed the overall quality and accuracy of Messner’s work: Did he ask good

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beliefs about gender are created, maintained, and sometimes challenged and changed.

This knowledge is important because many people describe sports simply as a reflection of society—sites where aspects of culture and society are revealed to those who take a close look. But Messner’s research findings challenged this view and provided evidence that sports are more than reflections of society; in fact, they are sites where ideas and beliefs about gender and other important

questions, collect useful data from appropriate sources, analyze the data with care and accuracy, come to logical conclusions based on the data, and make thoughtful knowledge statements about sport and gender?

After receiving favorable reviews calling only for minor revisions, each of Messner’s manuscripts was accepted for publication. One of his articles was published in the journal, Gender & Society (Messner, 2000), and his book manuscript was published by the University of Minnesota Press (Messner, 2002).2 In both cases, the editors and reviewers concluded that Messner’s research pro- duced worthwhile knowledge about sports and the ways that gender becomes a key part of social worlds.

Even though Messner was an established scholar and had tenure at the University of Southern California, he, like most researchers, was expected to publish his work so that his contributions to sociology knowledge could be verified by a com- munity of scholars who study gender, sports, and related topics. This is because knowledge produc- tion in science is never a one-person job; it always depends on the critical review of a community of scholars. Messner understood this and pub- lished his research so that others could evaluate it. Although his manuscripts were published, most manuscripts submitted for publication are rejected because reviewers find them lacking in quality or not contributing to knowledge production in a par- ticular field.

Messner’s claim that gender was more than a social category and should be viewed as a combi- nation of meaning, performance, and organization was an important addition to sociological knowl- edge, and very useful for people who study gender. In his own research, Messner used this knowledge to theorize about sports as sites where ideas and

2Other publications based on this research are Cooky, Messner, and Hextrum, 2013; Messner, 2007, 2009, 2011; Messner, Dunbar, and Hunt, 2000; Messner, Duncan, and Cooky, 2003; Messner, Hunt, and Dunbar, 1999; and Messner and Stevens, 2002.

Reviewers determined that Messner’s research was valid, that is, it measured what Messner claimed it measured and his conclusions were supported by the data. When research lacks validity in the eyes of reviewers, it is not published. Messner’s book, pictured here, was also named the Outstanding Book of the Year by his colleagues in the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. (Source: Used with permission from University of Minnesota Press)

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2. Research, theories, and knowledge in the soci- ology of sport will never lead to the creation of a single strategy to prevent social problems and forever guarantee fairness and justice in sports and sport organizations.

3. Knowledge about social worlds is never com- plete, and using knowledge to solve current problems does not mean that the solutions will be free of challenges and problems.

This does not mean that social research and the- ories should be ignored in our personal decisions about sports or in planning, making, and fund- ing policies and programs related to sports, but it reminds us of our limitations as social scientists.

With that said, sociology of sport knowledge can help us detect bias and validity problems in our personal theories and enable us to make more fully informed choices about sports in our lives. For example, the research of Micheal Messner and oth- ers (see Chapters 4 and 5) is clearly useful when we select sport programs for our children, become coaches in schools or youth programs, create poli- cies to increase healthy sport participation in our communities, develop sport programs for employ- ees at our workplaces, or vote on ballot issues regarding the use of public money to build local rec- reational centers or new stadiums for men’s profes- sional teams. Overall, knowledge produced in the sociology of sport enables us to view sports from multiple perspectives that go beyond our personal experiences and vantage points in social worlds.

It is difficult to know whether and how sociol- ogy of sport knowledge is used. Although many of us work with sport programs and serve as sources of information for people who make decisions about the provision and organization of sports, we don’t control how that knowledge is used in all circumstances. We may produce science-based knowledge, but we seldom have official power in sport organizations, so we generally depend on others to apply sociology of sport knowledge in real-world situations.

There is resistance to the application of research- based knowledge when it raises questions about the

aspects of our lives are created, reproduced, and changed. Therefore, sports constitute a significant social world to study, and the people associated with sports are most accurately viewed as agents actively involved in shaping social worlds rather than passive subjects determined by culture and society. This issue is discussed further in the box, “Sports Are More Than Reflections of Society.”

Messner’s research made an important con- tribution to knowledge. His article in Gender & Society, “Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender,” is frequently used by oth- ers as they develop ideas and do their own research on gender, sports, childhood, and other topics. His book, Taking the Field, received positive reviews and in 2004 was named the Outstanding Book of the Year by his colleagues in the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. In 2007 and 2009, Messner published two additional books, Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport and It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Family, and Youth Sports, which built on and extended the work he began a decade earlier. In 2012, he became the first man to be given a special award from the American Sociological Association for expanding sociologi- cal knowledge about gender in society.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT KNOWLEDGE

After reading about how to do research in the soci- ology of sport, it is reasonable to ask why we do this research—in other words, for what purpose do we produce knowledge about sports in society?

Those of us who do research on the social aspects of sports hope that the knowledge we produce does not just sit on the pages of journals and books. When considering the application of this knowledge, it is important to be aware of the following: 1. Social science research does not produce

“ultimate truth” in the form of knowledge that eliminates all doubt and uncertainty in every- day life.

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What inspired Micheal Messner to do his research were his initial observations of the youth soccer program in which his son wanted to par- ticipate. These observations led to questions about what his son might learn as he played soccer, why the leagues and teams were sex- segregated, why parents and coaches supported this segregation, how gender was performed by the children and adults, how gender was integrated into the organi- zation of the leagues and teams, and how gender is related to more general forms of social organization in society.

Messner knew that widely held ideas and beliefs about femininity, masculinity, and male- female relationships created constraints for males

status quo. Such knowledge—usually produced by researchers who ask critical questions—is often seen as threatening or even subversive by those who benefit from the current organization of sports. This is why it is important for access to knowledge to be widespread so that decisions about putting knowledge to use can be part of a democratic political process rather than part of a strategy to enhance the control exercised by power- ful people. In this sense, research and knowledge production are a starting point rather than an end point for many of us in the sociology of sport. We want to see knowledge used for the common good and to make sports more humane, democratic, and inclusive.

reflect on S P O R T S

When people study the social aspects of sports, they often say that sports are reflections of society. This is true, but sports are much more than reflections. In fact, they are social practices that actively influence what people do and how social worlds are organized. For example, many sports in the United States are organized in ways that perpetuate very limited ideas and beliefs about race, skin color, and race relations. This encour- ages people to accept these ideas and beliefs and avoid the following: (1) asking critical questions about race in social worlds; (2) considering the meaning of race and the racial categories that people use to classify them- selves and others; (3) identifying the ways that ideas about race influence people’s actions, their choices of what sports to play, and their expectations of how they might excel at certain sports; or (4) becoming aware of how race is woven into the organization of sports and social worlds generally.

At the same time, sports are also sites, that is, iden- tifiable social contexts, where people can challenge and even change ideas and beliefs about race and skin color—as Jackie Robinson did when he became the first African American to play in modern Major League

Baseball in 1947, or when Tony Dungy became the first black head coach to win a Super Bowl in 2007.

This way of thinking about sports in society recog- nizes that people organize, perform, and give meaning to sports in many different ways, and that sports are sites at which ideas, beliefs, and approaches to social relation- ships are created, maintained, and changed. Therefore, instead of merely reflecting society, sports comprise the “social stuff” from which society and culture are forever being created and reproduced. This makes them socio- logically important.

When we understand the dynamic nature of social life, we realize that each of us is an agent that is involved in creating, maintaining, and changing the social and cul- tural worlds in which we live. Therefore, we are not des- tined to think about or do sports as they are portrayed in the narratives and images presented by media companies, Coca-Cola, Nike, Red Bull, Budweiser, or other spon- sors of sports today. This opens our minds and makes it possible for us to think critically about sports and to work with others to make them what we want them to be in our lives. If you could change one thing about sports in your school or community, what would it be?

Sports Are More Than Reflections of Society

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∙ What strategies effectively foster progressive changes in sports and the social worlds around them?

These questions show that a critical approach is organized around an awareness that people are positioned differently in social worlds, and they are affected differently by the meaning, purpose, and organization of mainstream sports. In other words, everyone does not benefit from sports in the same ways, and some people may be disadvantaged by how they are organized and played in a par- ticular social world. For example, an emphasis on high-performance or elite sports in a society may exclude or discourage participation among many people who could benefit from sports organized for recreational purposes.

Additionally, a critical approach heightens one’s awareness that knowledge about social worlds can be applied in many ways. For example, Messner understood that knowledge about the relationship between masculinity and the cultures that exist in certain sports could be used to transform those cultures, thereby reducing male-on-male violence and the serious injuries that boys and men often learn to accept as “part of the game.” Therefore he organized the last chapter of his book to answer the question: “Just do what?” The chapter pres- ents thirty pages of recommendations for critically informed actions to make sports more humane, equitable, and democratic.

Referring to the Nike marketing slogan “Just do it!,” Messner emphasizes that without critically assessing what “it” is, we reproduce sports as they are rather than actively changing and developing them to be fair and equitable as they provide peo- ple with excitement, physical challenges, and joy. For example, he called for more activities that give boys and young men opportunities to make healthy, respectful connections with others (2002, p. 166). Similarly, he urged that we must reorganize certain sports so that boys and men do not have their “need for closeness, intimacy, and respect thwarted [and] converted into a narrow form of group-oriented bonding based on competitive one-upmanship,

and females and supported a system of social organization that often privileged men and dis- advantaged women, especially in terms of their access to positions of power in most spheres of social life, including sports. Therefore, he was inclined to use a critical approach as he designed his research project. He wanted to understand and explain why the meanings that people give to sports, the actions of females and males in sports, and the organization of sports are gendered and how this might affect other parts of society. Using a critical approach, Messner’s goal was to pro- duce knowledge that could be used to find solu- tions to social problems, identify and eliminate injustices, and shrink the “the gap between what is and what could be” in social worlds (Burawoy, 2004). Therefore, he wanted that knowledge to empower people as they participate in a process of creating sustainable, just, and equitable ways of life.

USING A CRITICAL APPROACH TO PRODUCE KNOWLEDGE

When using a critical approach to study sports in society, our research is guided by one or more of the following questions:

∙ What values, ideas, and beliefs are promoted through sports, and who is advantaged or disad- vantaged by them?

∙ What are the meanings currently given to sports and sport participation, and who is advantaged or disadvantaged by those meanings?

∙ How are sports organized, and who is advan- taged or disadvantaged by existing forms of organization in sports?

∙ Who has power in sports, to what ends is power used, and how are various categories of people affected by power relations associated with sports?

∙ Who accepts and who resists the organization of mainstream sports, and what happens to those who resist?

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participation, and equity. Underlying these critical discussions is my desire to make available to more people the excitement, physical challenges, and joy that can be part of sport participation.

summary

HOW IS KNOWLEDGE PRODUCED IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT?

Sociology of sport knowledge is produced through research and theories. Research provides data and systematic analyses to answer questions and validate or revise existing theories about sports in society. Theories provide logical explanations of

self-destructive behaviors, silent conformity to group norms, and sexually aggressive denigration of others” (2002, p. 166).

Along with Messner and many of my col- leagues in the sociology of sport, I also use a criti- cal approach to guide my thinking and research on sports in society. Our sense is that if we only did research that reflected and reaffirmed sports as they are, there would be no point to our profes- sional existence. Unless our work is based on a critical approach, raises questions about sport, and causes people to think about the place of sports in our lives, we contribute nothing of value to the world around us. This is why you will notice that the following chapters often focus on issues and controversies that deal with fairness, access to sport

A critical approach to knowledge production in Northern Ireland focuses on the role of sport in eliminating sectarian (Protestant versus Catholic) violence. Administrators in the Irish Football Association have consulted with scholars in the sociology of sport as they develop strategies to make soccer more inclusive, just, and supportive of the well-being of athletes and spectators. (Source: © Michael Boyd, Irish Football Association)

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reflect on S P O R T S

Prior to the 1970s, science was much like sport—it was a man’s world, cre- ated by and for men and based on their interests and experiences. Men domi- nated all fields of study and produced knowledge based on their questions, observations, analyses, and theorizing about the world. This did not make science wrong, but it certainly made it incomplete, and occasionally it was so biased that it misrepresented physical and social realities.

When women entered science and pointed this out, most men became defensive and used their power to question the ability of female scien- tists and the quality of their work. This led to conflicts between men and women in most scientific disciplines, from biology to sociology. These conflicts are less common today because many male sci- entists now realize that women scholars using a feminist approach raised valid points and did research that made important contributions to their fields. In fact, many male scholars today use feminist theories to inform their own work. In the sociology of sport, feminist theories have become mainstream with few questions about their legitimacy or usefulness when trying to understand sports in society.

During the 1970s and 1980s, feminist research and theory in sociology focused on making apparent the patriarchal organization of nearly all societies and explaining how the values, experiences, and interests of men, especially men with power, had shaped social relationships and social life generally. They showed that the privileges accorded to men were directly linked to systemic disadvantages experienced by women. In other words, more important than sexist attitudes and feelings was the fact that relationships and society were orga- nized around particular meanings given to gender.

There are several different forms of feminist theory, but most scholars in the sociology of sport favor critical feminist theory because it focuses on issues of ideology,

power, and the need to ask critical questions about the meaning, purpose, and organization of sports in society.

Like feminist theories generally, critical feminist theory is based on the assumption that knowledge about social life requires an understanding of how gender and gender relations oper- ate in our lives. It takes seriously the insights and research done by women as part of the knowledge production process.

In the sociology of sport, critical feminist theory explains that sports are gendered activities—their mean- ing, purpose, and organization lead to a celebration of a form of masculinity

in which aggression, violence, physical domination, and conquest are highly valued. Relatedly, it explains how and why the bodies, abilities, orientations, and relation- ships of girls and women are systematically devalued in sports. Finally, it explains why gender equity and the transformation of the culture and structure of sports are in the best interests of both females and males.

Research based on critical feminist theory generally focuses on one or more of the following questions:

1. How have girls and women been excluded or dis- couraged from participating in sports, and why do some men continue to resist gender equity in sports?

2. How are sports involved in producing and maintain- ing ideas about what it means to be a man in society and why tough and aggressive men are valued more than men with other traits?

3. How are sports and sport participation involved in the production of gendered ideas about physicality, sexuality, and the body?

4. Why do many people assume that men who play sports are heterosexual, and why have men’s locker rooms served for so long as sites for the expression of homophobia, gay-bashing jokes, and comments that demean women?

Critical Feminist Theory Today From the Margins to Mainstream

Despite stereotypes that paint feminists as forever negative—doing feminist work requires boundless optimism. It means believing that people have the ability to be better, that culture can change, and maybe even that people who hate can learn to love. It’s exhausting. —Jessica Valenti, journalist, 2013

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5. Why have gay men been so hesitant to come out in high-profile sports, and why do some women con- tinue to fear being called lesbians if they become strong and powerful athletes?

6. How are media sports produced to give differential coverage to women’s and men’s sports, and how do media representations of male and female athletes influence gender ideology in society?

7. Why are sports promoted as healthy developmental activities when the injury rates in certain sports are so high?

8. What strategies are effective in transforming the male-centered gender ideology that is promoted and reproduced through most competitive sports?

These questions, inspired by critical feminist theory, deal with issues that affect our lives every day. In fact, unless we have thoughtful answers to them, we really don’t know much about sports or society.

Like all theories, critical feminist theory is revised as its weaknesses and oversights are identified. For exam- ple, today it focuses more directly on understanding gen- der in terms of how it is connected with other categories of experience, including age, sexuality, race and ethnic- ity, social class, ability, religion, and nationality—in order to gain a full understanding of its importance in everyday life. Additionally, critical feminist theory today is no longer just about women (Adams, 2011; Allain, 2008; Anderson, 2008a, 2008b, 2011a, 2011b; Baker and Hotek, 2011; Chimot and Louveau, 2010; Crocket, 2012; Fogel, 2011; Martin, 2012; Messner, 2011; Thorpe, 2009a; Yochim, 2010). Much of the focus is now on social justice, equality of opportunities, and analyzing ideolo- gies that undermine fairness and social inclusion related to gender and other identity categories (Bose, 2012; Flintoff, 2008; Hardin and Whiteside, 2009; Dorothy Smith, 2009; Travers, 2008, 2011, 2013a, 2013b; Travers and Deri, 2011). For this reason, critical feminist research now looks at how gender intersects with other socially significant factors to influence people’s lives.

Younger scholars today often use critical feminist theory, but they are less likely than their older peers

to describe themselves as feminists. They accept femi- nist principles, but want to move beyond the weak- nesses and oversights of past feminist approaches that often focused too much on the lives of upper- middle-class, able-bodied, white, heterosexual women and were not as inclusive as they should have been. They know that the meaning and real-life implications of gen- der vary in the lives of women and men who face dif- ferent social circumstances depending on their access to resources, jobs, medical care, and community support. Therefore, feminism may be less visible today than in the 1980s and 1990s because so many people now take it for granted, but feminism and critical feminist theory remain as viable as ever.

We have not yet entered what some describe as a postfeminist world. Gender and gender relations remain contentious issues in many spheres, and they continue to be central concerns for those of us who study sports in society. Since the beginning of this century feminist theories have been increasingly integrated into sociology and the sociology of sport and combined with other theo- ries to the point that feminism is no longer considered a separate project seeking legitimacy and challenging the way social research is done. In this sense, the emerg- ing legacy of feminism influences our lives and makes us aware of the problems associated with systematically excluding particular categories of people as we try to understand sports in society.

Finally, from a practical standpoint, as organizations, communities, and societies seek to revive physical activ- ity and sport participation in everyday life, the concepts and research inspired by critical feminist theory are invaluable tools. Without awareness of the challenges faced when seeking inclusion and participation, people who manage or work in sport programs often find that they serve a select few and reproduce existing patterns of inactivity. Young people hoping to work in sport pro- grams are much less likely to find jobs if participation rates do not increase in all demographic sectors. How might familiarity with research guided by critical femi- nist theory help bring about increased participation in sports?

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understand the meanings that people give to sports, sport experiences, and relationships formed in and through sports. Interactionist theories help us study and understand the origins, dynamics, and con- sequences of social relationships connected with sports. And structural theories help us study and understand the ways that various forms of social organization influence actions and relationships in sports and the social worlds associated with sports in society.

Depending on the research topic and the goals of the project, researchers use either a quantitative or a qualitative approach when collecting and analyz- ing data, or a combination of the two. Data in soci- ology of sport studies are usually collected through surveys, interviews, observations, or text analysis.

Many people in the sociology of sport use a critical approach as they do research and develop theory. This means that they are committed to producing knowledge that can be used to promote fairness and equity in sports and society, expose and challenge exploitation, and empower those who are disadvantaged by the current organization of sports in society. Overall, critical scholars are dedicated to the idea that sociological knowledge should be used to create and sustain social worlds in which basic human needs can be satisfied fairly and equitably.

Research and theories in the sociology of sport help us understand that sports are more than mere reflections of society. Instead, sports are sites where meanings, relationships, and forms of social organization are created, maintained, and changed. Learning about the knowledge production process in the sociology of sport is part of the process of thinking critically about the issues and controver- sies discussed in the following chapters. When we use research and theories critically, we become aware of the deeper game associated with sports in society and this makes us more informed par- ticipants in our families, schools, communities, and societies. How we use this knowledge depends on how we are engaged as citizens of our schools, communities, and society.

people’s actions and relationships and the organi- zation and dynamics of social worlds. Addition- ally, theories guide research and the interpretation of research findings. This makes knowledge in the sociology of sport more valid and reliable than most of what we read, see, or hear in the media and discuss in our everyday conversations about sports.

Personal experience is a useful starting point for understanding the role of research and theory in knowledge production. This is because each of us gathers information about the people and things around us and uses it to develop experience-based explanations or “personal theories” about people, relationships, events, and social worlds.

We use personal theories to anticipate events, the actions of others, and the consequences of our actions in various situations. But these theories are limited because they focus on our individual cir- cumstances and immediate social worlds. On the other hand, research and theories in the sociology of sport take us beyond the limitations of our own experiences and worlds.

Social research follows systematic and rigorous guidelines for collecting and analyzing data, and social theories are systematically tested, compared with related theories, and presented for others to examine. The goal of social research and theory in the sociology of sport is to develop logical and verifiable explanations of the social worlds created in association with sports and the actions and rela- tionships of people in those social worlds.

The case study of Michael Messner’s research illustrates that scholars in the sociology of sport use systematic and carefully planned methods as they study and develop explanations of sports. The five-stage process of producing knowledge consists of (1) developing research questions; (2) selecting appropriate theory and research meth- ods; (3) collecting and analyzing data; (4) using research findings to produce conclusions; and (5) publishing results so that others may assess their validity and reliability.

Three types of theories guide most sociology of sport research. Cultural theories help us study and

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your research. What research questions would you ask, what would be the focus of your analysis, and what concepts would you use in your study?

∙ You are hired to study the pros and cons of intercollegiate sports on your campus. Today you report on the steps in your research project. Identify the steps and briefly explain each as you will do them.

∙ As a sport management consultant you are hired by the Women’s Center at a major univer- sity to study gender and sports on their campus. You use some of Messner’s work as a model for your project. Explain the data collection methods you will use.

∙ Research using a critical approach may produce findings that challenge individuals in sport management positions. Identify examples of possible research findings that might be rejected or ignored by executives for a profes- sional sport team.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:

Reading 1. Sociologists use more than one theo- retical approach

Reading 2. The meaning of pain: Interactionist theory as a research guide

Reading 3. Specific theories used in the sociology of sport

Reading 4. Feminist theories in the sociology of sport

Reading 5. Sociology of sport research today is based on a critical approach

Reading 6. A European approach: Figurational theory

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You are hired to study why athletes are willing to play while they are in pain or injured. Explain which theory (cultural, inter- actionist, structural) you would use to guide

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(Source: © Jay Coakley)

chapter

SPORTS AND SOCIALIZATION Who Plays and What Happens to Them?

3

I know how to manage a football game. The problem with me is, sometimes, managing my life.

—Lawrence Taylor, NFL Hall of Fame player (Associated Press, 2012)

Why do we even pretend that sportspeople are models of propriety? Or rather why do we need them to be? . . . we continue to project an irrational desire for the physically perfect to be spiritually strong.

—Julia Baird, journalist (2004)

. . . so many kids don’t even know what they could be good at because they’re only playing one sport since they were eight years old. So, I look back and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to play those other sports.

—Jennie Finch, Gold medalist softball pitcher (Jacobson, 2010)

If I have a shot at the championship and there’s two races to go and my head is hurting and I just came through a wreck . . . I’m not going to say anything.

—Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver (Moore, 2012)

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What Is Socialization?

Becoming and Staying Involved in Sports

Changing or Ending Sport Participation

Being Involved in Sports: What Happens?

How Do Sports Affect Our Lives?

Summary: Who Plays and What Happens?

Chapter Outline

• Describe what occurs during the socialization process, and explain why it is important to study socialization as an interactive learning process.

• Identify key factors involved in the process of becoming and staying involved in sports.

• Describe key factors involved in the process of changing or ending sport participation, and explain when the retirement process is most likely to be difficult for a former athlete.

• Understand why sport participation does not have the same socialization effects for everyone who plays sports.

• Differentiate pleasure and participation sports from power and performance sports, and explain why it is important to

know these differences when discussing socialization in sports.

• Identify the conditions under which sport participation is most likely or least likely to have positive socialization effects on those who play sports.

• Explain why sport participation does not automatically lead to physical fitness and well-being and why it may not reduce obesity rates in a society.

• Identify examples of how sports are sites at which ideological messages are communicated to people in society.

• Explain what sociologists mean when they say that socialization is a community and cultural process.

Learning Objectives

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Whenever we discuss why people play sports, why they stop playing, and what happens to them as they play, we deal with the process of social learning and development that sociologists call socialization.

For more than half a century, people in the soci- ology of sport have done research to learn about three topics that are central to discussions of sports and socialization:

1. The process of becoming involved and staying involved in sports

2. The process of changing or ending sport participation

3. The consequences, both positive and negative, of being involved in sports

This chapter is organized around these topics. As you read, you’ll see that we’ve learned much about socialization and sports, but our understanding remains incomplete. Some of what we’ve learned is so complex that the discussions carry over to subsequent chapters.

The chapter closes with a discussion of social- ization as a community and cultural process affect- ing many people at once.

WHAT IS SOCIALIZATION?

Socialization is a process of learning and social development, which occurs as we interact with one another and become familiar with social worlds. It involves forming ideas about who we are and what is important in our lives. We are not simply passive learners in this process. We actively par- ticipate in our own socialization as we form rela- tionships and are influenced by others at the same time that we influence them. We actively interpret what we see and hear, and we accept, resist, and revise messages that we receive from others about who we are and how we are connected with social worlds. Therefore, socialization is not simply a one-way process of being molded and shaped by our social environment. Instead, it is an interactive process through which we make decisions about

our relationships, our interpretation of information that comes to us through interaction, and what we will say and do. It is through these decisions that we become who we are and influence the social worlds in which we participate.

Each of us experiences socialization as we learn about social worlds and use our knowledge to construct our own lives. In this sense, socializa- tion, social development, and identity formation are interconnected processes. We make choices in this process, but our choices are influenced by the options available to us, the resources we have to assess them, and the context in which we make them (Van de Walle, 2011).

The consequences of these choices for our lives also depend on the contexts in which we make them. For example, one person might have oppor- tunities to play many different sports and then be able to choose the one in which she or he has the best chances of succeeding, whereas another per- son might have an opportunity to play only one sport. Additionally, one person might play a sport in a context where there is excellent coaching, good support from others, and good mentors, whereas another person might play in a context where there is no one around to be a coach or mentor. There- fore, some of us are in better positions than others when it comes to using socialization experiences to our advantage and extending our knowledge, expe- rience, and developmental opportunities.

This explanation of socialization is based on a social interaction model that is organized around a combination of cultural, interactionist, and struc- tural theories. It leads researchers to assume that human beings learn values and norms and develop as individuals as they interact with others and par- ticipate in social worlds. For example, as children interact with their parents, other family members, teachers, and peers, they learn norms about safety and risk-taking and they learn to give meaning to the pain that comes with the bumps, bruises, and cuts that are a part of childhood. However, if they play organized sports, their interaction with coaches and teammates may lead them to define pain as a nor- mal part of playing sports and to see sports injuries

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as symbols of their commitment to a team and their identity as an athlete. In this way sense, socializa- tion can be is a powerful and influential process.

The social interaction model is widely used in the sociology of sport today, but some scholars continue to use a personal internalization model of socialization when they study sports. This model emphasizes that social learning occurs when peo- ple internalize the rules of society as they grow up in families, attend school, interact with peers, and receive messages through media. This approach has inspired many studies of socialization, but it mistakenly assumes that socialization is a one-way process in which learning occurs automatically.

Most studies based on the personal internalization model produce inconsistent and contradictory find- ings about why people play sports, why they stop, and what happens to them as they play. However, a few studies using this model of socialization have been carefully designed and provide detailed statis- tical analyses of the complex connections between sport participation and other aspects of people’s lives (Berger et al., 2008; Guest and Schneider, 2003; Hershow et al., 2015; Hwang et al., 2013; Kraaykamp et al., 2012; Lee, 2013; Sabo et al., 2005; Shakib and Veliz, 2013). The findings in these studies identify three things: (1) general patterns in sport participation through the life course; (2) the barriers that prevent or discourage some people from playing sports; and (3) connections between sport participation and educational achievement, occupa- tional success, sexual behavior and pregnancy rates, health and wellness, and general self-esteem. These findings are discussed throughout this chapter.

Most studies of sports and socialization today are based on a social interaction model and use qualitative rather than quantitative research meth- ods. Instead of using written questionnaires or other quantitative methods that provide snapshots of peo- ple’s lives, they use in-depth interviews and field observations to study smaller collections of people over time. This provides continuous videos rather than snapshots. Their goal is to obtain detailed descriptions of sport experiences as they occur in people’s lives and then analyze the processes

through which people make decisions about sport participation and give meaning to sport experiences. Finally, they seek to connect those decisions and meanings with the cultural and structural contexts in which sports and sport participation exist. This approach captures the complexity of the processes through which people become and stay involved in sports, change or end sport participation, and incor- porate sports into their lives. The rest of this chapter uses both research snapshots and videos to explain what we know about sports and socialization today.

BECOMING AND STAYING INVOLVED IN SPORTS

Who plays sports consistently over time, who plays and drops out, and who never plays? This

“I know this is starting early, but I can’t let him get too far behind the other kids if he’s going to succeed in life.”

Research guided by structural theories focuses on who influences the sport participation patterns of children. Fathers and other family members are usually identified as significant others who influence when, how, and where children play sports.

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videos illustrating processes of becoming and stay- ing involved in sports.

Example 1: Family Culture and the Sport Participation of Children

Sociologist Sharon Wheeler studies sport edu- cation and development in England. In one of her research projects she conducted semi-struc- tured interviews with elementary school chil- dren identified as “sporty”—that is, playing sports was important in their lives—and their parents. She found that the parents in each fam- ily defined sport participation as important for young people and willingly dedicated consid- erable family time, money, and energy to sup- port their children as they sampled different sport activities in various programs. Transport- ing them to practices and games and attending games were part of the family routine and overall lifestyle. Their support, however, had limits in that they did not coach or critique their children nor did they provide anything other than verbal encouragement as they participated (Wheeler, 2012, 2014).

Because these families lived in the United King- dom, parents were not obsessed with pushing their children to excel so they might obtain athletic scholarships to college, as many parents do in the United States. These UK families also were rela- tively well off, meaning that they had the resources to sustain a lifestyle that included sport participa- tion. This lifestyle was linked with a culture cre- ated and sustained by a network of families with similar beliefs and lifestyles. This culture of fam- ily sport participation then served as a context in which playing sports was seamlessly integrated into the lives of the children. Sports for these chil- dren were simply a taken-for-granted part of fam- ily life.

Of course, families with fewer resources and less access to sport programs would have different lifestyles in which such a culture would be more difficult to create and sustain. This would also be the case for single-parent families and families

three-part question is important today, as many societies deal with health problems that are partly related to a lack of regular physical exercise (Nike, Inc. 2012).

Carefully designed studies based on structural theories and a personal internalization model of socialization have found that sport participation is related to three factors: (1) a person’s abilities, characteristics, and resources; (2) the influence of significant others, including parents, siblings, teachers, peers, and role models; and (3) the avail- ability of opportunities to play sports in ways that are personally satisfying. These are the snapshot research findings that help us explain how and why people become involved and stay involved in sports. However, a more complete explanation is provided by detailed stories from people about their sport participation. When these stories are collected in research based on a social interaction model, they provide socialization videos rather than single snapshots.

Studies using in-depth interviews and partici- pant observation indicate that sport participation is connected to multiple and diverse processes that make up people’s lives, and it occurs as people interact with others and make decisions based on available opportunities and the mean- ings they give to sports in connection with what they want to happen in their lives. These decisions and meanings are not permanent and often change as social conditions and relationships change. Furthermore, as people stay involved in sports, their reasons for participating usually change over time. When there are no reasons, they discontinue or change their sport participation—until things change again and there are new reasons to become re-involved.

Current knowledge about the processes through which people become and stay involved in sports has been produced through multiple studies across various populations of people in different situa- tions. The most effective way to learn what we know about socialization is to review a few studies that highlight key aspects of these processes. The following summaries provide three sociological

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to increase sport participation among young peo- ple outside of this culture are likely to fail if they ignore the extent to which families now serve as the contexts in which participation decisions are made and supported. For example, young people cannot develop or sustain a commitment to sport participation if their families lack the resources to pay for their opportunities to sample different sports and select one or more programs that suit their interests. Additionally, if they don’t become involved during childhood or early adolescence, they are less like to feel comfortable playing sports later in their lives.

Wheeler’s research shows us that the process of becoming and staying involved in sports is closely tied to family dynamics and decisions, and these are influenced by structural and cultural factors.

Structural factors include the availability of sport facilities, equipment, financial support, coaching,

in which sports were given a low priority for the expenditure of resources.

Wheeler notes that it is important to study families as the immediate contexts in which sport participation is initiated and nurtured. This is espe- cially the case as publicly funded sport programs are eliminated and selectively replaced by private fee-based programs that require parental support and family resources for transportation, uniforms, equipment, and paid coaches.

Wheeler’s findings are consistent with other research in which family culture has been found to provide a context in which children see sport involvement as a normal part of their everyday lives and continue playing sports as they become adolescents and young adults (Birchwood et al., 2008; Hennessy et al., 2010; Kraaykamp et al., 2012; Quarmby and Dagkas, 2010). Her findings also suggest that short-term interventions designed

When physical activities and sport participation are incorporated into everyday family life, children are more likely to remain physically active through their lives. The four children in this family are learning that running is an enjoyable activity for men and women, young and old. The positive memories from “fun runs” such as this will be factors that encourage these children to be active in the future. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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4. Memories of past experiences with physical activities and sports

5. Sport-related images and meanings that were part of their social worlds

Overall, the young people decided to play sports when it helped them extend control over their lives, achieve development and career goals, and present themselves to others as competent. We also found that young women were less likely than young men to imagine that they could accomplish those things by playing sports. Therefore, the young women took sports less seriously and chose to participate less often.

The young people in our study made their deci- sions by determining if sport participation would add something positive to their lives. They didn’t passively respond to the world around them, and their decisions and sport participation patterns shifted over time, depending on access to oppor- tunities, available resources, and changes in their identities. Therefore, socialization into sports was a continuous, interactive process grounded in the social and cultural contexts in which they lived.

Our study also found that people make deci- sions to participate in sports for different reasons at different points in their lives. This is consistent with theories stating that personal growth depends on accomplishing developmental tasks associated with various stages of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. Therefore, the issues considered by seven-year-olds as they make decisions about sport participation differ from the issues considered by fourteen-year-olds, forty- year-olds, and sixty-year-olds. Furthermore, when seven-year-olds make decisions about sport par- ticipation today, they do so in different social and cultural contexts than the contexts in which seven- year-olds lived in 1980 or will live in 2030.

After analyzing our interview data, it was clear to Anita and me that sport participation decisions among these young people were tied to their per- ceptions of the cultural importance of sports and the links between playing sports, gaining social acceptance, and achieving personal goals.

and competition opportunities (Wheeler and Green, 2014). Cultural factors include the importance given to particular sports and to the ways that one’s age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and abil- ity influence the meaning of being an athlete. For example, data from a national sample of young people in the United States indicates that African American youth are more likely than their white, Latino, and Asian counterparts to receive encour- agement for sport participation through all their relationships, including family, teachers, coaches, peers, and friends (Shakib and Veliz, 2013). This is partly because many people in the United States assume that there is a connection between sport and race and that African Americans are either better at or more interested in sports than others, and that sports provide them with mobility opportunities that are less accessible in other realms of life.

Example 2: To Participate or Not to Participate

When I worked at the University of Chichester in England, my colleague Anita White and I received a grant to study why most young people did not participate in a highly publicized, state-sponsored sport program. We designed a study in which we used in-depth interviews to explore how British adolescents in a working-class area east of London made decisions about what they did in their free time (Coakley and White, 1999).

Data from our interviews indicated that the young people took a combination of factors into account as they made decisions about sport partici- pation. These factors included the following:

1. Their ideas about the connection between sport participation and other interests and goals in their lives

2. Their desires to develop and display com- petence so they could gain recognition and respect from others

3. Social support for participation plus access to the resources needed for participation (time, transportation, equipment, and money)

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3. Learning how participation occurs and what people in the sport expect from each other as athletes

4. Becoming recognized and fully accepted as an athlete in the sport culture

This finding shows that becoming an athlete in a particular sport depends on learning to “talk the talk and walk the walk” so that one is identified and accepted as an athlete by other athletes. This process of identification and acceptance is con- tinuous; it doesn’t happen once and for all time. When athletes can no longer talk the talk and walk the walk, interaction with other athletes declines, and support for their identity fades away. Mem- bership in a sport culture is always temporary; it depends on what you do today, not what you did in the past.

To understand Donnelly and Young’s findings, observe skateboarders, in-line skaters, snowboard- ers, beach volleyball players, basketball players, or members of any sport culture. Each culture has a unique vocabulary, its own way of referring to its members and what they do, unique ways of thinking about and doing their sports, and special understandings of what they expect from each other. New participants are tested and “pushed” by the “veterans” before being accepted as true skat- ers, riders, boarders, volleyball players, or ballers. Vocabularies may change over time, but the pro- cess of being accepted as an athlete exists in all sport cultures.

Donnelly and Young help us understand that becoming and staying involved in a sport often depends on establishing social connections, being accepted in a sport culture, and receiving social support for the formation of an athlete identity (see also, Light et al., 2013). This finding also helps explain why there are so few girls and women in alternative sport cultures. Boys and men have defined riding on a board, whether it is down a mountain, a wave, or a sidewalk curb as an activity that conveys a valued form of masculinity. In the process, they create cultures that make it very diffi- cult for girls and women to be accepted as authentic

Therefore, when we study why people become and stay involved in sports, we should take into account people’s perceptions of how sport participation is related to their own growth and development, how sports are integrated into their social worlds, and the extent to which participation is supported by widely accepted ideologies in their culture.

I was reminded of these points when I read that some parents in Ethiopia now accept competitive running as a way for their daughters to achieve financial success. This change has allowed girls to take up running as a strategy to stay in school, avoid an arranged marriage (as a young teen), and seek a life that consists of more than washing laun- dry, preparing food, and obeying a husband who is likely to define her as a form of property. Running, for girls lucky enough to be identified as talented, opens up developmental opportunities, gives them more control over their lives, and enables them to claim their bodies as their own. This is why thirteen-year-old Ethiopian girls are more likely to define running as a desirable activity than thirteen- year-old girls living in air-conditioned homes in Beverly Hills, California—the context and conse- quences of their decisions are much different.

Example 3: The Process of Being Accepted as an Athlete

Peter Donnelly and Kevin Young (1999) are soci- ologists who have studied sports as social worlds in which people form relationships and unique ways of life organized around shared interests. One of their studies focused on the process through which people became accepted members of sport cultures.

Using data that Donnelly collected from expert rock climbers and Young collected from elite rugby players, they concluded that playing sports occurs in connection with processes of identity for- mation. They explained that becoming an athlete in a particular sport culture occurs through a four- phase process:

1. Acquiring knowledge about the sport 2. Interacting with people involved in the sport

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CHANGING OR ENDING SPORT PARTICIPATION

Questions about becoming and staying involved in sports are usually accompanied by questions about changing or ending involvement. Research done during the latter half of the twentieth century helped us understand the following basic facts about changing and ending sport participation:

∙ When people drop out of a particular sport, they don’t drop out of all sports forever, nor do they cut all ties with sports.

“board athletes.” In other words, becoming and staying involved in sports is a complex, interactive socialization and identity formation process.

In summary, these three studies provide comple- mentary videos about the process of becoming and staying involved in sports. They show that people don’t make decisions about sport participation once and for all time; they make them day after day as they consider how playing a sport is related to their lives. These decisions are made in particular social and cultural contexts and they are influenced by access to resources and the meanings attached to gender, class, skin color, ethnicity, age, and physical abilities.

Although people may drop out of sports at one point in the life course, they may return at a later point. This team of women, all over seventy years old, is playing an exhibition game against a group of younger women. The team is raising funds to travel to the national finals in the Senior Games. Most of these older women had not played competitive basketball for thirty to fifty years. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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no longer had control over their lives and could not explore, develop, and nurture identities apart from sports. This led to increased stress and decreased fun as they did their sports. Burnout occurred when stress became high and fun declined to the point that they no longer felt that continued participation was worth their effort.

The data also indicated that stress increased and fun decreased when sport programs were organized so that successful young athletes felt that they could not accomplish important developmental tasks dur- ing adolescence. My conclusion was that burnout could be prevented only if sport programs were reorganized so that young athletes had more control over their lives. Stress management strategies might delay burnout, but they would not change the under- lying organizational and development barriers that caused burnout. Overall, my study led me to con- clude that young people sometimes end sport partic- ipation during late adolescence when they feel that their career in a sport prevents them from develop- ing the autonomy and the multiple identities neces- sary to effectively claim adult status in U.S. culture.

Example 2: Getting out of Sports and Getting on with Life

Konstantinos Koukouris (1994, 2005) is a physi- cal educator from Greece who wanted to know why seriously committed athletes ended or reduced their sport participation. After analyzing ques- tionnaire data from 157 former national athletes, Koukouris identified thirty-four who had ceased or reduced sport participation between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. In-depth interviews with these people enabled him to identify patterns in the disengagement process.

His data indicated that ending or reducing sport participation was a voluntary decision among these athletes. But this decision was often part of a process during which they stopped playing and then started again more than once. In other words, they hadn’t gone “cold turkey” as they withdrew from sport. Their decisions were usually associated

∙ Many people play different and less- competitive sports as they become older, or they move into other sport roles such as coach, administrator, or sports businessperson.

∙ Dropping out of sports is usually connected with developmental changes and transitions in the rest of a person’s life—changing schools, graduating, getting a job, getting married, hav- ing children, and so on.

∙ Dropping out of sports is not always the result of negative experiences, although injuries, exploitation, poor coaching, and abuse from coaches influence some decisions to change or end participation.

∙ Problems may occur for those who end long careers in sports, especially those who have no identities apart from sports or lack social and material resources for making transitions into other careers and relationships.

More recent studies, especially those using quali- tative research methods and a social interactionist model of socialization, have built on these findings and extended our understanding of the process of changing or ending sport participation. The follow- ing summaries of three studies are representative of this research.

Example 1: Burnout Among Young Athletes

My work with coaches and my interest in identity issues led me to study young people who decided to quit sport at a time when they were experienc- ing great success, often as age-group champions in their sports (Coakley, 1992, 2011a). People described these young people as “burned out,” so I decided to interview former elite adolescent ath- letes who were identified as cases of burnout.

Data collected through in-depth interviews indicated that burnout during adolescence was grounded in the organization and authority struc- ture of many high-performance sports for young people. It occurred when young athletes felt they

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positive ways, much like their peers who had never played elite sports. Most of the former athletes per- ceived the end of their serious training and com- petition as an inevitable, necessary, and usually beneficial developmental change in their lives.

Koukouris (2005) also did in-depth interviews with nineteen elite gymnasts and found that their disengagement from sport often occurred prema- turely due to a combination of mental and physi- cal exhaustion, lack of support from coaches and administrators, and the politics of judging and Federation governance. Unlike the athletes in Koukouris’s previous study, the gymnasts began their elite careers at a very young age and required more guidance and support to prevent them from becoming disillusioned and gradually disengaging from their sport.

with two practical factors: (1) the need to obtain a job and support themselves and (2) realistic judg- ments about their sport skills and the chances of advancing to higher levels of competition. As they graduated from high school or college, the athletes faced the expectation that they should work and be responsible for their livelihoods. But jobs inter- fered with the time needed to train and play sports at an elite level. Furthermore, as they spent money to establish adult lifestyles, there was little left to pay for serious training. At the same time, their demanding training programs conflicted with new responsibilities in their adult lives.

When they ended serious training, many of these young adults sought other ways to be physically active or involved in sports. Some encountered problems, but most of them grew and developed in

Many factors influence the decisions to drop out of sports or shift participation from one sport to another. Although identity changes, access to resources, and life course issues are involved, injuries often force people to make changes. In all these cases, as our circumstances change, so do our ideas about ourselves and about sports and sport participation.  (Source: © Lara Killick)

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people make decisions about sports in their lives (van Houten et al., 2015).

Furthermore, theories must take into account the personal, social, and material resources that former athletes possess as they make transitions to other relationships, activities, and careers. When problems occur during this transition, they are associated with an unwillingness to transition into identities unrelated to sports and a lack of the personal and material resources needed to negoti- ate the transitional challenges they face (Tinley, 2015).

Research suggests that changes and retirement transitions are less likely to involve problems if sport participation has expanded a person’s identi- ties, experiences, relationships, and resources. Dif- ficulties are most likely when athletes have never had the desire or the chance to live outside the cul- ture of elite sports and learn to negotiate their lives in  nonsport social worlds. This is highlighted in Scott Tinley’s fifteen year study of retired profes- sional and elite athletes. In one of many interviews, a former NFL player disclosed this identity-related statement: “Without football, without my ability to express myself through football I am nobody. I will disappear. Football has been my life and I have so little else” (Tinley, 2015, p. 133).

BEING INVOLVED IN SPORTS: WHAT HAPPENS?

Beliefs about the consequences of sport participa- tion vary from culture to culture, but many people in North America and Europe accept what was described in Chapter 1 (p. 11) as the great sport myth. In other words, they believe that playing sports builds character and improves health and well-being. These beliefs create encouragement for children to play sports, and they lead to support for funding sports programs in schools, building stadi- ums, promoting teams and leagues, and sponsoring international events such as the Olympic Games, the Paralympics, and world championships.

Example 3: Changing Personal Investments in Sport Careers

Garry Wheeler at the University of Alberta, has been concerned with the careers of athletes with a disability and what happens when their play- ing careers end. Building on a previous study of Paralympic athletes, Wheeler and his fellow researchers interviewed forty athletes from the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, and the United States (Wheeler et al., 1999). The data indicated that athletes in each of these countries became deeply involved in sports and often achieved a high level of success in a relatively short time. Through sports they developed a sense of per- sonal competence and established identities as elite athletes.

Ending active sport participation and making the transition into other spheres of life often presented challenges for these athletes. Retirement generally came suddenly and forced them to reinvest time and energy into other activities and relationships. As they reconnected with family members and friends, returned to school, and resumed occupa- tional careers, some of the former athletes experi- enced emotional problems. However, most stayed connected with sports and sport organizations as coaches, administrators, or recreational athletes. Those few who hoped to regain their elite athlete status usually experienced difficulties during the retirement transition, whereas those who accepted the end of their competitive careers had fewer adjustment problems.

In summary, research shows that ending or changing sport participation often involves the same interactive and decision-making processes that occur as a person becomes and stays involved in sports. Changes in participation are often the result of decisions associated with other life events, social relationships, and cultural expectations related to development. This means that theories explaining why people play sports and change their participation over time must take into account identity issues and developmental processes that are part of the social and cultural contexts in which

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experiences and integrate them into their lives in new ways as they develop new ideas and values.

5. Socialization occurs through the social inter- action that accompanies sport participation. Therefore, the meaning and importance of playing sports depend on a person’s social rela- tionships and the social and cultural contexts in which participation occurs.

6. The socialization that occurs in sports may also occur in other activities. Therefore, people who do not play sports may have developmen- tal experiences similar to the experiences of athletes.

Due to these oversights, studies that compare “ath- letes” with “nonathletes” have produced incon- sistent and misleading research results about the impact of sport participation in people’s lives. After evaluating these studies, I’ve concluded that sport participation is most likely to have positive socialization consequences when it provides ath- letes with the following things:

∙ Opportunities to explore and develop identities apart from playing sports

∙ Knowledge-building experiences that go beyond the locker room and playing field

∙ New relationships, especially with people who are not connected with sports and do not base their interaction on a person’s status or identity as an athlete

∙ Explicit examples of how lessons learned in sports may be applied to specific situations apart from sports (skills transfer)

∙ Opportunities to develop and display compe- tence in nonsport activities that are observed by other people who can serve as mentors and advocates outside sports

In other words, positive socialization outcomes do not occur automatically.

My review of past research also suggests that when playing sports constricts opportunities, expe- riences, relationships, and general competence apart from sports, it is likely to have negative

Do Sports Build Character?

For over a half century, researchers have tried to prove that “sport builds character.” Their studies have compared the traits, attitudes, and behaviors of those who play organized sports with those who don’t. These one time snapshot comparisons have produced inconsistent and confusing findings. This is because researchers have used inconsis- tent definitions of character and have designed their studies around two faulty assumptions ( McCormack and Chalip, 1988). First, they’ve wrongly assumed that all athletes have the same or similar experiences in all organized competi- tive sports. Second, they’ve wrongly assumed that organized sports provide unique experiences that are not available in other activities. These assump- tions have caused researchers to overlook the fol- lowing important things when they study sports and socialization:

1. Sport experiences are diverse, because sport programs and teams are organized in vastly different ways. Therefore, we cannot make unqualified general statements about the con- sequences of sport participation. This point is explained further in Reflect on Sports, pp. 64–66.

2. People who choose or are selected to play sports often have different character traits than those who do not choose to play or are not selected by coaches. Therefore, sports may not build character as much as they are organized to select people who already possess certain character traits that are valued by coaches and compatible with highly organized, competitive, physical activities.

3. The meanings that people give to sport experi- ences vary from one person to another, even when they play in the same programs and on the same teams. Therefore, there are important variations in what athletes learn when they play sports and in how they apply what they learn to their lives.

4. As people change and grow older they often alter the meanings they give to their past sport

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reflect on S P O R T S

Sport experiences are diverse. It’s a mistake to assume that all sports are organized around the same goals and orientations, played in the same spirit, or defined in the same way. For example, there are highly organized competitive sports, informal sports, adventure sports, rec reational sports, extreme sports, alternative sports, cooperative sports, folk sports, contact sports, artistic sports, team sports, individual sports, and so on. How- ever, at this point in history, the most dominant sport form in wealthy postindustrial nations is organized around a power and performance model.

Power and performance sports are highly organized and competitive; they emphasize the following factors: ∙ Using strength, speed, and power to push human

limits and achieve competitive success ∙ Proving excellence through competitive success and

attributing success to dedication, hard work, and sacrifice ∙ Being willing to risk physical well-being and play

with pain ∙ Exclusive processes through which participants are

cut from teams if they do not meet elite performance standards

∙ A chain of command in which owners and administrators control coaches, and coaches control athletes

∙ Competing against opponents and defining them as enemies to be conquered

These points exaggerate the characteristics of power and performance sports to show that experiences in these sports are very different from experiences in other sport forms. Although, many people use the power and perfor- mance model as a standard for defining “real” sports, it is not the only model around which sports are organized. For example, people in many societies often play other forms of sport, including various revisions of, alterna- tives to, and reactions against dominant sports.

The sport forms most unlike power and performance sports today are organized around a pleasure and participation model, and they emphasize the following factors: ∙ Active participation revolves around connections

between people, integration of mind and body, and harmony with the environment

Power and Performance versus Pleasure and Participation Different Sports, Different Experiences, Different Consequences

Continued

Power and performance sports involve the use of strength, speed, and power to dominate opponents in the quest for competitive victories. (Source: © Al Bello/ Getty Images)

Pleasure and participation sports may involve competition, but the primary emphasis is on connections between people and personal expression through participation. This is often seen at skateboard parks where participants support and encourage each other. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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reflect on S P O R T S

∙ A spirit of personal expression, enjoyment, growth, good health, and mutual concern among participants

∙ Personal empowerment created by gaining knowledge about and pleasure from the body

∙ Inclusive processes through which participation is encouraged by accommodating ability differences

∙ Democratic decision-making structures in which relationships are characterized by cooperation and sharing power

∙ An emphasis on participating and competing with others who are defined as partners in creating and meeting physical challenges

Again, these points exaggerate the characteristics of pleasure and participation sports, but they show that experiences in these sports are very different from expe- riences in power and participation sports.

These two sport forms do not represent all the ways that sports might be organized, played, and defined. There are sports that contain elements of both forms and reflect diverse ideas about what is important in physi- cal activities. However, power and performance sports remain dominant today because they receive the most attention, support, and sponsorship. When people play or watch these sports, their socialization experiences are different from their socialization experiences in pleasure and participation sports.

WHY ARE POWER AND PERFORMANCE SPORTS SO DOMINANT TODAY? Power and performance sports are dominant today because, they foster the interests of people and orga- nizations with the resources to sponsor and stage large sport events. History shows that wealthy and influential people in societies around the world have used differ- ent strategies to maintain their privileged positions. Some have used coercive strategies such as employing the police and military to maintain their control over resources and people, but most have used cultural or “soft” strategies that foster the belief that they deserve their wealth and power and that society benefits from their resources.

In countries where wealth and power have been con- trolled by a monarchy, the privileged position of the royal family is based on the belief that it is their birthright to rule over others. Therefore, kings and queens maintain their privileged positions as long as their “subjects” believe that birthrights represent legitimate claims to wealth and power. This is why the church and state have usually been closely aligned in societies with monarchies—kings and queens use the clergy to promote the belief that their wealth and power are bestowed on them by a divine, supernatural source, such as a god.

In democratic countries, most people use merit, or “personal achievement,” as a standard when judging whether the possession of wealth and power is legiti- mate. Therefore, it is only when most people believe that wealth and power are rightfully earned that those who possess them are seen in a positive way. When a democracy is characterized by widespread inequality, as in the United States today, people with wealth and power promote the idea that they have earned their privileged positions through hard work and intelligence and that society as a whole benefits from their control and influence. In recent history, this idea has been pro- moted by emphasizing that competition is a natural part of social life and the only fair basis for determining who gets what in society. When there is widespread accep- tance of this idea, people generally idealize and defer to wealthy and powerful people and believe that they deserve what they have.

Power and performance sports are widely promoted and sponsored by people with wealth and power because these sports are based on an ideology that celebrates competitive winners and defines competition as the only fair and natural way to distribute rewards. This ideology also explains and justifies economic inequalities as part of the natural order of things. The executives of major corporations realize this and collectively allocate billions of dollars annually to sponsor power and performance sports worldwide. They personally believe that rewards should go to winners, that winners deserve wealth and power, and that the ranking of people on the basis of wealth and power is fair and natural. By sponsoring

Power and Performance versus Pleasure and Participation (continued )

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power and performance sports and making them a major source of enjoyment and excitement in people’s lives, they promote these beliefs at the same time that they profit from selling the vehicles, fast food, soft drinks, and beer advertised during sports events.

The sport forms that challenge this ideology may be popular among some people, but they don’t receive many sponsorship dollars from wealthy and powerful people. For example, alternative sports such as skateboarding and disk sport (Frisbee) were often banned and associ- ated with deviance until they were organized around a power and performance model. Free-flowing, expressive alternative sports that don’t produce winners and los- ers receive little attention from powerful sponsors. But when ESPN used a power and performance model to

restructure these sports in the X Games, corporate spon- sors began to support them. Today, many of these sports have lost their alternative character. Celebrity athletes now hawk corporate products and lifestyles of consump- tion. At the same time, participation comes to be tied with brands and the quest for the latest piece of equip- ment, clothing, or energy drink endorsed by the athletes. The masses watch and idolize the select few at the top. This raises questions about who benefits from the ways sports are currently organized and supported worldwide.

Are there ways to preserve and promote pleasure and participation sports under these circumstances? Is this important to do in today’s societies? From a policy and management perspective these are important questions to answer.

consequences for a person’s overall development. Therefore, we cannot make a general statement that sports build or undermine character develop- ment. Neither positive nor negative character is automatically developed by playing sports. Sport experiences are diverse, and they are given mean- ing and incorporated into people’s lives in various ways, depending on the social and cultural con- texts in which they live (Denise Anderson, 2009; Hartmann, 2008; Light, 2010; Robbins, 2012; Swanson, 2009; Taylor and Turek, 2010; Taylor et al., 2010a, 2010b; Van Ingen, 2011).

This conclusion does not mean that sports and sport participation are irrelevant in people’s lives. We know that discourses, images, and experiences related to sports are vivid and powerful in many social worlds. Sports do affect our lives and the world around us. However, we cannot separate those affects from the meanings that we give to sports and how we integrate them into our lives. Therefore, if we want to know what happens in sports, we must study sport experiences in the con- texts in which they occur. This type of research provides insights into the complex connections

between sports and socialization and helps us understand the conditions under which positive or negative outcomes occur among those who play sports (Holt, 2016).

Do Sports Improve Health and Physical Well-Being?

An international organization called Sport for Development and Peace asked a team of scholars at the University of Toronto to answer this ques- tion (SDP/IWG, 2007). After a critical review of English language studies worldwide, the scholars came to this conclusion:

The physiological effects of participation in sport and physical activity are widely known, and one of the best established findings in the research litera- ture. It is important to note that the effects are not a result of sport, . . . but of physical activity more gen- erally. . . . Given clean air, adequate nutrition, and a variety of moderate levels of exercise, there is a well-established direct positive relationship between physical health and physical activity, including feelings of well-being associated with increasing

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physical fitness. In addition, research increasingly points to both the preventive and rehabilitative effects of physical activity with respect to some dis- eases. (SDP/IWG Secretariat, p. 4)

This is a carefully worded statement because the authors knew that it was important to distinguish between exercise, physical activity, and sports when talking about physical health and well-being. Similarly, a report by the US Department of Health and Human Services (2008), “competitive athletes who participate and train at high levels (e.g., elite, professional sports, National Teams, Olympic ath- letes) in sports requiring high joint impact (e.g., football, track and field, soccer) for many years have higher rates of incident knee or hip OA [osteoarthri- tis] than do non-athletes” (p. G5–20). These athletes also incur abnormally high rates of joint injuries that result in eventual surgeries over the life course.

The Sport–Health Connection The relation- ship between sports, exercise, and health has been widely studied (Ng and Popkin, 2012; Nike, Inc., 2012; USDHHS, 2008). When sociologist Ivan Waddington (2000a, 2000b, 2007) reviewed research on this topic, he concluded that the healthiest of all physical activities were rhythmic, noncompetitive exercises in which individuals control and regulate their own body movements. The research also indicated that health benefits decline when there is a shift from self-controlled exercise to competitive sports. This is because the injury rates in competitive sports are high enough to increase health costs above what is considered “average” in most populations. This benefit–cost ratio becomes even less favorable when there is a shift from noncontact to contact sports and from recreational sports to elite sports in which partic- ipants train intensely for more than 15 hours per week, play while injured, and perceive their bodies as tools for achieving competitive success.

The connection between sport and health is being viewed more critically now that mainstream media have published numerous stories about con- cussions, brain trauma, sudden cardiac arrest, heat stroke, overuse injuries, ACL injuries, and others

sustained regularly by athletes (Abrams, 2013; Cook, 2012; Gregory, 2012; Le Batard, 2013; Longman, 2011b; Pennington, 2013; USDHHS, 2008; Wiedeman, 2013).

Dr. Edward Wojtys, director of sport medicine at the University of Michigan, notes that ACL injuries are so frequent, especially among female athletes, that they are becoming a public health problem (Longman, 2011b). Athletes tear or rup- ture ligaments in over 250,000 knees each year and sustain between two and four million concus- sions. Knee surgeries and rehabilitation are major health-care costs in the United States. Overuse injuries among child athletes are increasingly common—about 300,000 per year—and it costs about $1.8 billion to treat those injuries (Zernicke et al., 2009). Additionally, about 5000 former NFL players and their families sued the NFL in 2013 for withholding information about the consequences of head trauma and other injuries that are caus- ing them chronic problems and leading to massive health care costs. College athletes have filed suit against the NCAA for similar reasons. Football, hockey, lacrosse, and other sports now publicize new efforts to make participation safer for athletes. Research on these issues is discussed in Chapter 6, but at this point people must clarify what they mean when they say that “sports improve health and physical well-being.”

In practical terms, if you lack health insur- ance, it is best to stay fit by doing aerobics, walk- ing, swimming, and jumping rope; and if you play football, rugby, hockey, or other competitive con- tact sports, you should have good health insurance because your medical bills are likely to be higher than average. If you play sports in which you sus- tain concussions, receive repetitive hits to the head, or collide violently with other players, you may also want to have long-term-care insurance in case you develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and are not able to function on your own in later life. Even if you play golf, softball, soccer, and other sports that require sudden and forceful twisting motions or sprinting from a dead stop, it is important to have health-care insurance.

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The Sport–Obesity Connection Obesity is a highly publicized health issue today. Nearly, every discussion of this issue ends with the conclusion that eating right and exercising regularly is the best way to avoid unhealthy weight gains.

Some people think that as sports become increasingly popular in a society, obesity rates decline, but data in the United States indicate the exact opposite: Obesity rates among young people and adults have more than doubled between 1985 and 2012—a period when competitive sports grew significantly in popularity. This does not mean that sports cause obesity, but it does mean that the pop- ularity of sports in a society does not automatically inspire people to exercise and change their eating habits in ways that reduce obesity.

Like the connection between sports and health, the connection between sports and weight is com- plex. Some competitive sports such as wrestling and gymnastics emphasize extreme forms of weight control; others emphasize weight gain for some or all participants. Many football players at the high school, college, and professional levels are encouraged to gain weight to the point that they would be classified as overweight or obese according to the body mass index (BMI). Although the BMI is not always a good measure for assess- ing the relationship between weight and health (Etchison, 2011), there is good reason to believe that playing football does not routinely promote healthy weight control.

Expectations in football today often encour- age excessive eating, taking untested nutritional supplements, or using drugs to gain size. A con- sequence of these expectations is illustrated in Table  3.1. Unlike in 1920–1985, when no more than eight NFL players weighed over 300 pounds, in 2010 there were 394 players over 300 pounds, and they claim to have gained weight by overeat- ing. This takes a toll on overall health (Briggs, 2002; Longman, 2007b, 2011a).

Research also shows that these patterns exist in college and high school football, which together have by far the most participants of all school- sponsored sports (Keller, 2007; Laurson and

Eisenmann, 2007; Longman, 2007b). In fact, young men who play the line positions on high school football teams regularly have obesity rates that are twice as high as others of their age. As one 332-pound fifteen-year-old high school lineman said, “They’re going to notice me because of my size. . . . Most linemen in the NFL are 290 or 300” (Longman, 2007b).

Football is unique, but like other sports, it exists in a social world where expectations focus on com- petitive success rather than healthy actions and overall fitness. If playing sports is to have a posi- tive impact on the long-term physical well-being of people, regardless of age, it should be accom- panied by information about nutrition and health combined with effective encouragement to use this information in connection with sport participation. As it is now, participation in certain elite sports leads to forms of training and competition that create both acute and chronic health problems for some athletes.

HOW DO SPORTS AFFECT OUR LIVES?

Sports and sport participation affect the lives of many people around the world. We’re learning more about this impact through three types of

Table 3.1 Number of 300-pound players in the NFL, 1970–2012

Year Number of Players

1970 1 1980 3 1990 94 2000 301 2010 394 2012 361

Source: Stats LLC & NFL (2012). Note: At the beginning of training camps in 2010, there were 532 NFL players who weighed more than 300 pounds (Longman, 2011a).

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how people give meaning to sport experiences and integrate them into their lives.

Example 1: Giving Meaning to Ice Hockey Soci- ologist Nancy Theberge (1999, 2000b) spent two years studying an elite women’s ice hockey team in Canada. As she observed and interviewed team members, she noted that their experiences and orientations were influenced by the fact that men controlled the team, the league, and the sport itself. Within this structure, the women developed a pro- fessional approach to participation. They focused on hockey and were serious about playing well and winning games. In the process, they devel- oped close connections with each other. The team became a community with its own dynamics and internal organization. Within this constructed com- munity, the athletes learned about hockey, their teammates, and themselves. The meanings that the players gave to their hockey experiences and the ways they integrated those experiences into their lives emerged as they interacted with each other both on the ice and off.

The locker room was a key place for interact- ing with teammates and giving meaning to their sport experiences. Its emotional climate, espe- cially after a practice or a game, encouraged talk about their lives outside hockey. This talk gave shape and meaning to what they did on the ice. It also served as a means for expressing feelings and thoughts about men, sexuality, intimate partners, and families.

The women talked and joked about men but didn’t degrade or reduce them to body parts in their comments. They made references to sex and sexu- ality in their conversations, but the substance of these references was neither hostile nor based on stereotypes. This was very different from what has reportedly occurred in some men’s locker rooms, where women have been routinely derogated and objectified, and homosexuality has been scorned if it is discussed at all (Clayton and Humberstone, 2006; Gregory, 2015; Holden, 2013).

Theberge’s study shows us that playing sports is both a physical and a social experience. Hockey

studies based on a combination of cultural, interac- tionist, and structural theories:

1. Studies of sport experiences as presented through the voices of sport participants

2. Studies of the social worlds that are created and maintained in connection with particular sports

3. Studies of sports as sites, or “social locations,” where dominant ideas and ideologies are expressed and sometimes challenged and changed

Most of these studies are grounded in a critical approach. Taken together, they help us rethink socialization issues and expand our understanding of how social learning occurs in social worlds.

Today most of us in the sociology of sport view sports as sites for socialization experiences, rather than the causes of specific socialization outcomes. This is an important distinction that highlights two things. First, sports are social locations rich in their potential for providing memorable and meaning- ful personal, social, and cultural experiences. Sec- ond, sports by themselves do not cause particular changes in the character traits, attitudes, and actions of athletes or spectators. Therefore, when positive or negative socialization outcomes occur in con- nection with sports, we don’t simply say that sports caused them. Instead, we view sports as sites where people have potentially influential experiences and then we look for and try to understand the relation- ships and social processes through which particular forms of socialization occur.

The following summaries of selected studies illustrate how this approach to socialization enables us to understand more fully the social dimensions of sports and the connections between sports and the larger social and cultural contexts in which they are produced, reproduced, and changed.

Athletes’ Voices: Giving Meaning to Sport Experiences

The following examples provide two socialization “videos.” They present the perspectives of the par- ticipants themselves, and they help us understand

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color, (dis)abilities, and sexuality. This point has been made by sociologist Eric Anderson in his two decades of research on sports and homosexuality (Anderson, 2008a, 2008b, 2009b, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d; 2014; Anderson and Bullingham, 2015; Anderson and McGuire, 2010; Magrath et al., 2013).1 Anderson’s studies cover multiple topics related to the experiences of gay and les- bian athletes, and he has recently investigated how those experiences changed between 2000 and 2010. In 2010 he interviewed twenty-six openly

1Most of Anderson’s research focuses on gay men. However, if we combine the work of Pat Griffin (1998) with recent studies by Anderson and his colleagues (Anderson and Billingham, 2013), the trends discussed in this section are similar for les- bian athletes. That is, openly lesbian athletes face less homo- hysteria today than even a decade ago.

was a site for memorable experiences, but it was only through social relationships that those expe- riences were given meaning and incorporated into the women’s lives. Theberge also gathered data on relationships between the athletes and others, including coaches, managers, trainers, friends, family members, sport reporters, and even fans. She realized that if she wanted to know what hap- pens in sports, she had to understand the relation- ships and interaction through which socialization occurs among athletes.

Example 2: Coming Out Then and Now The meanings given to sport experiences vary from one person to another because social relation- ships are influenced by social definitions given to age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, skin

To understand the impact of sport experiences it is necessary to study them in connection with the meanings they are given and how those meaning are integrated into athletes’ lives. (Source: © Lara Killick)

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attending a Catholic college in the rural Midwest, Neil described his teammates as very supportive of him after he came out. He went on to say, “I think it’s good that we played together for a long time. So they got to know me before I came out. But they have been amazing. Absolutely nothing has changed since I came out. .  .  . I should have come out earlier” (2011d, p. 257).

Similarly, Tom, a high school runner, said that he was confident that coming out would not be a problem because there were “at least a dozen openly gay kids at my school.” He explained that they had no problems, “so I knew I wouldn’t either.” He also added, “It just doesn’t make sense to be homophobic today, everybody has gay friends” (2011d, p. 258).

Many of the athletes in the 2010 study also explained that they talked openly with teammates who acknowledged their identity and discussed it in ways that made them feel comfortable, In fact, Mark said, “I think it’s fair to say that I’m known as ‘the gay hockey player’ at my high school. I’m the only gay athlete who is out, even though I sus- pect a few more. . . . It’s funny, I’ll be at a party, and meet someone new and they will be like, ‘Hey, I heard of you. You’re the gay hockey player, huh?’ ” (2011d, p. 260).

These responses did not surprise Anderson, because his many studies in 2000–2010 had found a trend of declining homophobia. In his analysis he explained that as homophobia declines, men would feel increasingly free to define masculin- ity in more varied, fluid, and flexible terms. In turn, this would reduce the compulsion to strictly police gender boundaries and would open up cultural space for different ways to be men and express manhood. In his conclusion, Ander- son prophetically noted that as of 2011 we had reached a point where there was “acceptance of gay male athletes” (2011b). It took another two years for an athlete in one of the major men’s sports in the United States to come out, but when NBA player Jason Collins announced that he was gay, he experienced widespread acceptance (Beck and Branch, 2013).

gay U.S. high school and college athletes and com- pared what they said about their experiences with statements made by twenty-six openly gay athletes interviewed in 2000 (Anderson, 2002, 2011b). The athletes in both samples were predominantly white and middle class.

The athletes interviewed in 2000 generally feared that coming out, would result in their being marginalized, excluded, or physically threatened, but their counterparts in 2010 did not express the same fears. Typical of the 2002 athletes was Jason, a track and cross-country runner who said this about coming out: “One of the things that was holding me back . . . was . . . my own fear of locker room situations. . . . I didn’t want to make other people uncomfortable around me in the locker room, and I didn’t want them to make it an issue. . . . I’d heard some horror stories from some of my friends. . . . One of my friend’s friend was beaten to a bloody pulp because they thought he was gay” (2002, p. 868).

Most of the athletes in 2000 faced an unstated “don’t ask, don’t tell” norm. This was noted by Ken, a champion college runner who said, “Even to this day, people know, but people just won’t say it. . . . It’s like they just can’t talk about it. It makes me so uncomfortable knowing that some people know, but then they still ask me about girls . . . it’s really frustrating. . . . Not one time on the team did anyone ask me, ‘Ken, are you gay?’ ” (p. 870).

After analyzing the data collected in 2000, Anderson explained that the widely accepted homophobic, anti-gay discourse during that time assumed that being gay was an inferior form of masculinity. This pushed gay athletes to the mar- gins of their teams and prevented them from merg- ing their sexual and athlete identities and feeling fully comfortable as team members. Even though Anderson was encouraged by the gay athletes who had confronted homophobia by coming out and generally had positive experiences, he concluded that it would take years before heterosexual ath- letes would accept gay males as their equals.

Now fast-forward to 2010. When Anderson interviewed Neil, an openly gay soccer player

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basketball. The Adlers found that the young men, about 70 percent of whom were African Americans, usually became deeply engulfed in their roles as athletes. This influenced how they viewed them- selves and allocated their time between basketball, social life, and academics. This “role engulfment” intensified as the young men became increasingly committed to their identities that were formed around relationships with teammates, coaches, and others associated with basketball. Everyone they met supported and reinforced their athlete identity. As a result, college basketball became the context in which the young men identified themselves, set their goals, and viewed the rest of the world.

The Adlers noted that the young men learned to set goals, focus their attention on specific tasks, and make sacrifices to succeed in basketball. How- ever, there was no apparent evidence that the ath- letes applied these lessons to other aspects of their lives. The social world of basketball separated them so much from the rest of life that the lessons they learned in that world stayed there.

The Adlers’ study raises an important point about socialization: When the social world in which athletes play their sport is so separate from other spheres of life and role engulfment confines athletes to that world, it is difficult to take the learning that occurs through sport participation and transfer it to nonsport worlds.

Example 2: Surviving in a Ghetto Sociologist Loïc Wacquant (1992, 2004) spent three years studying the social world of boxers in a gym located in a black neighborhood in Chicago. His observa- tions, interviews, and experiences as a boxer helped him uncover the ideas and meanings that constitute the life and craft of boxing. He explained that the social world of the boxing gym was very complex: It was created in connection with social forces in an ethnically segregated ghetto and its masculine street culture, but it also shelters black men from the full destructive impact of those forces.

To learn the “social art” of boxing, the men at the gym engaged in an intense regimen of body regulation focused on the physical, visual, and

These findings do not mean that homophobia no longer exists in sports or society (Gregory, 2015). It continues to exist, but its social significance and meaning is changing in many sport cultures. This, in turn, changes relationships and socialization experiences for many athletes.

Social Worlds: Living in Sports

Sociologists also study socialization processes in connection with the social worlds in which they occur. In Chapter 1, a social world is defined as an identifiable sphere of everyday actions and rela- tionships. These actions and relationships revolve around a focus and “worldview” that unites peo- ple in terms of a shared mind-set. For example, “the tennis world,” “the football world,” and “the motocross world” each can be viewed and studied as a unique social world.

Qualitative research methods are most often used to study social worlds. Researchers use par- ticipant observation and interviews to view sport participation in the overall context in which it occurs. Studies are based on the assumption that we can’t understand who athletes are, what they do, and how sports influence their lives unless we also understand the social worlds in which they give meaning to sport experiences and integrate them into their lives. This is especially true when the lives of athletes revolve completely around a particular sport—that is, when the social world of their sport is their entire world.

Studies of the social worlds created around specific sports provide useful information about socialization processes and experiences. The fol- lowing summaries of two ethnographic studies are representative of this type of research.

Example 1: Learning to Be a Hero Sociologists Patti and Peter Adler spent nearly ten years study- ing the social world of a high-profile college bas- ketball team. Much of their data, presented in the book Backboards and Blackboards (1991), focuses on how the self-conceptions of young men changed as they lived in the social world of big-time college

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create and learn “stories,” which they use to give meaning to and make sense of realities outside of sports. These stories are sociologically relevant because so many people use them as vehicles for presenting ideas and beliefs about everything from morality and work to capitalism and lifestyles of consumption. They often have their own vocabu- laries and images and the meanings in these sto- ries shift, depending on who tells and hears them. Researchers in the sociology of sport conduct stud- ies to identify these stories, explain how they fit into the culture, and show how people use them as a guide for what they think and do.

Researchers using cultural theories and a post- structuralist approach are primarily concerned with whose stories about sports become dominant in a culture and whose stories are ignored. The dominant or most widely told stories are important because they are based on ideological assump- tions of what is natural, normal, and legitimate in social worlds; therefore, they promote ideas and beliefs that often privilege some people more than others. For example, sports stories often revolve around heroic figures—warriors who are big, strong, aggressive, record-setting competitors. As researchers have deconstructed these stories to examine the logic, values, and ideological assump- tions on which they are based, they’ve found that many of them celebrate ideas and beliefs that serve the interests of unregulated capitalist expansion and traditional notions of masculinity based on the ability to dominate others through the use of physi- cal strength, power, and speed (Burstyn, 1999).

Researchers using a poststructuralist approach also study more privately told stories represent- ing voices that are silenced or “erased” from the widely circulated and accepted stories in the domi- nant culture. Additionally, they’ve analyzed sports media coverage to learn what is and what is not contained in commentaries, images, and other representations that spectators consume during mediated sport events. These studies are important because they give us a fuller understanding of the ways that sports influence how people think and what they do.

mental requirements of boxing. They had to “eat, drink, sleep, and live boxing,” and in the process, they developed what Wacquant described as a socialized lived body, which was at the very core of their identities and actions.

The social world of the boxing gym was a work- place, a refuge, and a place where dreams were pursued by men dedicated to disciplining their bod- ies and souls (Wacquant, 2004). Immersing them- selves in this world separated the men from their peers on the streets and kept them alive by help- ing them navigate their lives in dangerous neigh- borhoods devoid of hope or opportunity. For these men, boxing was a powerful socialization experi- ence, but it can be understood only in connection with social and material conditions that constituted the social world of their everyday lives. In fact, the gym studied by Wacquant would never exist in an upper-middle-class white neighborhood; it would make no sense there.

In summary, these two studies of social worlds created around sports help us understand more fully the contexts in which athletes and others connected with sports form identities, make decisions, and give meaning to their experiences. Research that takes us into those worlds helps us make sense of actions that sometimes appear strange or even irra- tional from an outsider’s perspective. This doesn’t mean that we approve of everything that occurs in those worlds, but insightful research provides the information needed to make sports more humane and healthy activities.

Ideology: Sports as Sites for Presenting Ideas and Beliefs

Socialization research has focused mostly on what occurs in the lives of individuals within bounded social worlds. However, researchers now use a combination of cultural theories and text analysis to do studies of socialization as a community and cul- tural process. These studies go beyond investigat- ing the experiences and characteristics of athletes and the organization of social worlds. Instead, they focus on sports as sites at which people collectively

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be little support for radical or structural changes because people would not want to undermine the primary sources of excitement and pleasure in their lives (Chappell, 2007).

Gramsci’s analysis explains why large corpora- tions spend billions of dollars every year to spon- sor power and performance sports and present their commercial messages in connection with them. For example, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s each spent close to $2.5 billion sponsoring and presenting advertising messages during the Olympic Games from 2000 through 2016. These expenditures were made to promote sales, but more important, they were made to use the Olympics as a site for deliv- ering cultural messages that encouraged people to see these transnational corporations as benevolent sources of excitement and pleasure. If these mes- sages were widely accepted, people would be less likely to criticize these corporations or support leg- islation that would curb their power and influence. Therefore, the corporate executives who made the decisions to sponsor the Olympics wanted people watching the events to agree that competition was the fair and natural way to allocate rewards. They realized that this belief and the free market ideol- ogy that it supported were the foundation of their personal status and wealth as well as the success of the corporations for which they worked. For them, Olympic sports provide a model of life that fits their interests.

The people who run Coca-Cola and McDon- alds want to sell Coke and fast food, but they don’t spend billions of sponsorship dollars only to boost sales figures. Their more important goal is to effectively promote lifestyles organized around consumption and the use of corporate brands and logos as status and identity symbols. They want to convince people that corporations are the source of their excitement and pleasure, and the sponsors of the athletes, teams, and sports they love so dearly. Coke and McDonalds executives want people to associate their good and memorable times with corporations and their products and to use con- sumption as the primary measure of progress and prosperity. To the extent that people in society

This type of research is difficult to do because it requires a deep knowledge of history and the conditions under which sports and sport stories become a part of people’s lives. But it is important in the knowledge-building process because it deals with the ways that sports influence culture, society, and the lives of people even when they don’t par- ticipate in or care about sports.

Socialization as a Community and Cultural Process Critical research on socialization as a community and cultural process is partly inspired by the ideas of the Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci. When the fascist government in Italy imprisoned Gramsci for speaking out against their oppressive policies, he used his time in prison (1928–1935) to think about why people in Italy and elsewhere had not revolted against exploitive forms of capitalism in Western societies. Gramsci con- cluded that revolutions had not occurred because popular notions of common sense and widely accepted ideas about organizing society were actually supportive of the powerful people who exploited and oppressed the general population.

After carefully studying historical evidence from around the world, Gramsci explained that leaders often maintained power by convincing the people that they governed of three things: (1) that life was as good as it could be under present conditions; (2) that any positive things that people experienced were due to the goodwill and power of current leaders; and (3) that changing the current structure of their society would threaten everything that people valued.

Although Gramsci never talked about sports, he used historical data to conclude that current lead- ers could most effectively maintain their power by providing people with exciting and pleasurable experiences that promoted particular ideas and beliefs in support of their positions. In other words, by sponsoring forms of popular entertainment that perpetuated ideological perspectives supportive of current economic and political structures, leaders could retain their power without using coercion and fear. If this was done successfully, there would

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Research on Socialization as a Community and Cultural Process It is difficult to understand socialization as a community and cultural process unless we see it in action. The following examples of research highlight this approach to sports and socialization.

When anthropologist Doug Foley (1999a) did an ethnographic study of a small town in southern Texas, he focused part of his attention on the con- nection between sports and community socializa- tion processes. High school football games were the most visible and popular events in the town, and the local team was important in the lives of many townspeople.

As Foley observed social dynamics in the town and interviewed people about local events, he discovered that the stories created around high school football reaffirmed established ways of thinking and doing things in the town. As a result, sports served as a site for maintaining forms of social inequality that made life good for a few and difficult for many residents. For example, even though a young Mexicana could become a cheer- leader and a young Mexicano from a poor family could be a star on the football team, this did noth- ing to improve the political and economic status of women, citizens with Mexican heritage, and low-income people in the town.

The experiences and meanings associated with football reproduced ideologies that supported and justified inequalities of gender, ethnicity, and social class. Even though particular individuals benefited from sport participation, the vocabular- ies and images associated with sports perpetuated actions and forms of social organization that main- tained existing patterns of power and privilege. Foley summarized the findings of his ethnography in this way:

Local sports, especially football, socialize every new generation of youth into the local status hierarchy, both inside and outside the school. Each new genera- tion of males learns to be individualistic, aggressive, and competitive within a group structure. . . . (1999a, p. 138)

accept this ideology, the power of corporations is nearly guaranteed. This is why the marketing departments of major corporations often use power and performance sports as sites to promote their interests.

TV viewers of the Super Bowl may not realize it, but the biggest stakes associated with that event have nothing to do with the score and everything to do with how viewers integrate into their lives the cultural messages that are deeply embedded in the narratives and images presented in everything from the pregame show through the game, commercials, and postgame shows.

Many sociologists refer to this process of form- ing consent around a particular ideology as the pro- cess of establishing hegemony (heh-gem-ō-nee). In political science and sociology, hegemony is a process of maintaining leadership and control by gaining the consent and approval of other groups, including those who are being led or controlled. For example, American hegemony in the world exists when people worldwide accept U.S. power and influence as legitimate. Hegemony is never permanent, but it can be maintained as long as most people feel that their lives are as good as can be expected and there is no compelling reason to change things.

Similarly, corporate hegemony is maintained as long as most people accept a view of the world that discourages them from objecting to corporate policies, profits, and executive pay packages. Like Gramsci, corporate executives know that preserv- ing corporate power depends on establishing “ideo- logical outposts” in people’s heads. Sports, because they are exciting and pleasurable activities for so many people, are important sites for constructing these mental outposts. Once established, they serve as relay terminals for delivering corporate mes- sages directly into the popular psyche. To highlight Gramsci’s conclusion about hegemony, it can be said that “it is difficult to fight an enemy that has outposts in your head.”2

˘

2This phrase was popularized by Sally Kempton, a feminist and spiritual teacher.

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persona thereby allowing it to become a sign that could be attached to any corporate brand, includ- ing Nike, Wilson, Hanes underwear, Jordan brand apparel, Bijan (the Michael Jordan fragrance), Coca-Cola, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Wheaties, Ball Park Franks, Quaker Oats, Sara Lee, CBS SportsLine, MJ’s sports videos, MCI telephone long-distance service, General Motors, Chevrolet, Rayovac, and others (Andrews, 2001; McDonald and Andrews, 2001). This strategy continues to be successful today as Jordan makes more money annually on endorsement deals than any current or former athlete (Badenhausen, 2015).

In the United States, Jordan’s persona was shaped in connection with capitalism and tradi- tional family values, and he was represented as both a brand sign and a family man (Andrews, 2001; Andrews and Jackson, 2001). As the media transmitted the Jordan persona around the world, it was often associated with American capitalist expansion and the power of transnational corpora- tions such as Nike. However, among Black Britons striving to transcend the legacy of being colonized by white people from England, the Jordan persona represented black empowerment and resistance to white supremacy. Among whites in New Zealand, it represented the NBA, American popular culture, and African American prowess in sports. In Poland, the Jordan persona represented the American Dream, freedom, independence, the self-made man, opportunity, wealth, and other American values that stood in opposition to the communism that Poles had recently rejected in their lives.

The research by Andrews and his colleagues shows that sports and celebrity athletes are given multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings by different people in different cultural contexts. Therefore, the significance of sports in the social- ization that occurs at the community and cultural level can be understood only in connection with local history, ideologies, and power relations. In other words, the influence of sports on people’s lives cannot be captured in a single statement about building character, bringing people together, creat- ing responsible citizens, promoting conformity, or

Other studies have used a similar methodologi- cal approach and focused on the ways that popular images connected with sports become influential cultural symbols as they are represented in the media and everyday conversations. For example, physical cultural studies scholar David Andrews and his colleagues have studied Michael Jordan as an iconic figure that influenced the attitudes and experiences of people worldwide, especially a generation of young people in the United States (Andrews, 1996a, 1996b, 2001; Andrews and Jackson, 2001; and McDonald and Andrews, 2001). These researchers meticulously decon- structed the cultural stories that were created around Jordan, mostly between 1982 and 1995. This involved analyzing commercials, commen- taries, and various forms of media coverage. One of their findings was that the “Jordan persona” was severed from African American experiences and culture so that white America, seeking evidence that it was color blind and open to all, could com- fortably identify with it and approve of their chil- dren hanging Jordan posters on bedroom walls in their all-white neighborhoods. Race and skin color were strategically erased from Jordan’s public

When corporations invest money to have their names, logos, and products associated with sports, they are looking for more than sales. In the long run, their executives hope that people will believe that their enjoyment of sports depends on corporations. This will make people more likely to support and less likely to interfere with corporate interests. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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Becoming involved and staying involved in sports occur in connection with general socializa- tion processes in people’s lives. Decisions to play sports are influenced by the availability of oppor- tunities, the existence of social support, processes of identity formation, and the cultural context in which decisions are made.

Research also indicates that people do not make decisions about sport participation once and for all time. They make them day after day, as they set and revise priorities throughout their lives. Research on sport-related decisions indicates that significant others influence those decisions and that reasons for staying in sports change over time as people’s lives change. Therefore, to understand sport par- ticipation it is important to study the changing con- texts in which decisions are made.

Changing or ending active sport participation also occurs in connection with general socializa- tion processes. These processes are interactive and influenced by personal, social, and cultural factors. Changes in sport participation are usually tied to a combination of identity, developmental, and life course issues. Ending sport participation involves a transition process, during which a person dis- engages from sport, redefines personal identity, reconnects with friends and family members, and uses available resources to become involved in other activities and careers. Just as people are not socialized into sports, they are not simply social- ized out of sports. Research shows that changing or ending a career as a competitive athlete occurs over time and is often tied to events and life course issues apart from sports. These connections are best studied by using research methods that enable us to identify and analyze long-term transition processes.

Socialization that occurs as people participate in sports has been widely studied, especially by peo- ple wanting to know if and how sports build char- acter and promote positive development. Much of this research has produced inconsistent findings because it has been based on oversimplified ideas about sports, sport experiences, and socialization.

Reviews of this research indicate that the most informative studies of sports and socialization take

“I think these guys give different meanings to their boxing experiences.”

The meanings given to sports vary from one person to another. However, many power and performance sports are organized to encourage orientations that emphasize domination over others. Those who do not hold this orientation may not fit very well in these sports.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

fostering warfare. The connection between sports and socialization is much more complex than that and can be explained only by studying sports in the contexts in which people give them meaning and make them a part of their lives.

summary

WHO PLAYS AND WHAT HAPPENS?

Socialization is a complex, interactive process through which people learn about themselves and the social worlds in which they participate. This process occurs in connection with sports and other activities in people’s lives. Research indicates that playing sports is a social experience as well as a physical one.

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Reading 2. Making decisions about sport participation during adolescence

Reading 3. Burnout among adolescent athletes: A sociological approach

Reading 4. Sport and character development among adolescents

Reading 5. Why do people believe that “sport builds character”?

Reading 6. Using Mead’s theory of the self to organize youth sport programs

Reading 7. Saving the world with youth sports: Who is doing it and are they succeeding?

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You work in the parks and recreation department of a city with a high rate of obesity among people of all ages. Your job is to create programs that will increase the physical activ- ity rate across the general population. Using research as support, outline your plan and spec- ify how it will interface with sport programs in the city.

∙ You are the athletic director of a new private school with a student body of fewer than 600 students. The parents and teachers want to discuss with you whether the new sports program will emphasize power and perfor- mance sports or pleasure and participation sports. You plan to identify the pros and cons of each alternative from the perspective of the students’ overall educational experience. Cre- ate a handout that does that.

∙ You are now working for an NFL team, and you want to thoughtfully consider the ideological impact of the team on its fans and the surround- ing community. Identify at least three of the ideological messages that are highlighted in the media coverage of the NFL and discuss who is most likely to be advantaged or disadvantaged by each of them.

into account variations in the ways that sports are organized, played, and integrated into people’s lives. This is important because different sports involve different experiences that influence social- ization outcomes. For example, the experience and meaning of playing power and performance sports is different from the experience and meaning of playing pleasure and participation sports. The con- tinued visibility and popularity of power and per- formance sports are related to issues of wealth and power in society because they promote an ideology that supports the interests of existing leaders and wealthy people.

We know that sports have an impact on people’s lives. The most informative research on what hap- pens in sports deals with (1) the everyday experi- ences of people who play sports; (2) the social worlds created around sports; and (3) community and cultural processes through which ideologies are created, reproduced, and changed. As we lis- ten to the voices of those who participate in sports, study their lives in sports, and identify the ideologi- cal messages associated with sports, we learn that there is a complex relationship between sports and socialization.

Most scholars who study sports in society now see sports as sites for socialization experiences, rather than the causes of specific socialization out- comes. This distinction recognizes that powerful and memorable experiences can occur in connec- tion with sports, but the impact of those experi- ences depends on the relationships through which they are given meaning and the social and cultural factors that influence how those meanings are inte- grated into people’s lives. Therefore, the most use- ful research in the sociology of sport focuses on the importance of social relationships and the contexts in which sport experiences occur.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Socialization and sports: A brief overview

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(Source: © Jay Coakley)

chapter

SPORTS FOR CHILDREN Are Organized Programs Worth the Effort?

4

As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is itself a major source of development . . . A child’s greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action and morality.

—Lev Vygotsky, Psychologist (1980)

The perception is you train early and only do a single sport and do as much as you can until you’re better than everyone else. I think it’s pretty clear from the injury and performance-data side that that’s a terrible developmental model.

—Neeru Jayanthi, Medical Director, Primary Care Sports Medicine, Loyola University Health System (in Reddy, 2014).

Despite all the elite teams and high-powered youth leagues across the U.S., . . . statistics show that many children are dropping out of sports early—in droves—often because they can’t afford to play.

—Patti Neighmond, Reporter, National Public Radio (2015)

[Today’s youth sports] emphasize performance over participation well before kids’ bodies, minds, and interests mature. And we tend to value the child who can help win games or whose families can afford the rising fees. The risks for that child are overuse injuries, concussion, and burnout.

—Project Play Report (2015, p. 7; http://youthreport. projectplay.us/the-problem)

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Origin and Development of Organized Youth Sports

Major Trends in Youth Sports Today

Informal, Player-Controlled Sports: A Case of the Generation Gap

Youth Sports Today: Assessing Our Efforts

The Challenge of Improving Youth Sports

Recommendations for Improving Youth Sports

Summary: Are Organized Programs Worth the Effort?

Chapter Outline

• Explain how social changes related to family and childhood have influenced the growth of organized youth sports in the United States since 1950.

• Identify the sponsors of organized youth sports today, and explain why children’s sport experiences may vary depending on who sponsors their sport programs.

• Explain how the trend toward privatization in youth sports affects youth sport experiences.

• Define what is meant by the performance ethic, and explain why it has become especially important in private and elite youth sport training programs.

• Explain why parents today take youth sports so seriously.

• Explain why alternative sports have become increasingly popular with many young people today.

• Distinguish the differences between organized sports and informal games, and explain why informal games are played less today than in the past.

• Use the grades that experts have given to organized youth sports in the United States to identify the major problems in those programs.

• Identify recommendations that will increase the positive experiences of children in youth sports.

Learning Objectives

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According to Census Bureau estimates, there were about 50 million six- to eighteen-year-olds living in the United States in 2016. Widely cited estimates of youth sport participation range from 15 million to 46 million six- to eighteen-year-olds, depend- ing on who does the counting and what counts as sports. But best as I can tell, during a given year, about 23  million U.S. children and youth partici- pate in organized sports, including high school teams.1

When, how, why, and to what end children play these sports are the questions that concern parents, community leaders, and child advocates worldwide.

When sociologists study youth sports, they focus on the experiences of participants and how those experiences vary depending on the social and cultural contexts in which they occur. Research by sociologists has influenced how some people think about and organize youth sports, and it continues to provide valuable information that parents, coaches, and program administrators can use when organiz- ing and evaluating youth programs.

This chapter summarizes part of that research as we discuss five topics that are central to under- standing youth sports today. These are

1. The origin and development of organized youth sports

2. Major trends in youth sports 3. Variations in the organization of youth sports

and in the sport experiences of young people

1The data on youth sport participation are confusing because some figures double and triple count children who play two or more sports; some figures include informal physical activi- ties, such as riding a skateboard once during a year or wading in the water at a beach, as participating in a sport; and other figures are based only on official counts from national youth sport organizations, such as Little League, Inc., US Youth Soccer, the American Youth Soccer Organization, and oth- ers. For example, the Sports and Fitness Industry Association counts being in the water for a few minutes at a local pool as “participation in swimming,” because it involves buying and wearing a bathing suit, which concerns members of this organization.

4. Youth sports and issues related to access, psychosocial development, and family dynamics

5. Recommendations for improving youth sports

An underlying question that guides our discus- sion of these topics is this: Are organized youth sports worth the massive amount of time, money, and effort that people put into them? I continue to ask and help people answer this question as I talk with parents and work with coaches and oth- ers who are committed to organizing sports for young people.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZED YOUTH SPORTS

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, people in Europe and North America began to realize that child development was influenced by the social environment. This created a movement to organize children’s social worlds with the goal of building their character and turning them into hard-working, productive, and patriotic adults in rapidly expanding capitalist economies ( Chudacoff, 2007).

It wasn’t long before organized sports for young boys were organized and sponsored by schools, communities, and church groups. The organizers hoped that sports, especially team sports, would teach boys from working-class families to obey rules and work together productively. They also hoped that sports would toughen middle- and upper-class boys and turn them into competitive men, despite the “feminized” values they learned from their stay-at-home mothers. At the same time, girls were provided activities that taught them to be good wives, mothers, and homemakers. The pre- vailing belief was that girls should learn domestic skills rather than sport skills when they went to schools and playgrounds. There were exceptions to these patterns, but after World War II, youth pro- grams were organized this way in Western Europe and North America.

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The Postwar Baby Boom and the Growth of Youth Sports

The baby-boom generation was born between 1946 and 1964. Young married couples during these years were optimistic about the future and eager to become parents. As the first wave of baby boomers moved through childhood during the 1950s and 1960s, orga- nized youth sports grew dramatically, especially in the United States. Programs were sponsored by public, private, and commercial organizations. Parents also entered the scene, believing that their sons’ characters would be built through organized competitive sports. Fathers became coaches, man- agers, and league administrators. Mothers did laun- dry and became chauffeurs and short-order cooks so their sons were ready for practices and games.

Most programs were for boys eight to fourteen- years-old, and they were organized with the belief that playing sports would prepare them to partici- pate productively in a competitive economy. Until the 1970s, girls were largely ignored by these organizers and sat in the bleachers during their brothers’ games and, in the United States, given the hope of becoming high school cheerleaders. Then came the women’s movement, the fitness movement, and government legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in education, including school- sponsored sports. These changes stimulated the growth of sport programs for girls beginning in the mid-1970s. By the 1990s girls had nearly as many opportunities as boys.

Participation in organized youth sports is now a valued part of growing up in most wealthy nations. Parents and communities use their resources to sponsor, organize, and administer a variety of youth sports. However, some parents today question the benefits of programs in which winning is more important than overall child development; oth- ers seek out win-oriented programs, hoping their children will become the winners. A few parents

encourage their children to engage in unstructured, noncompetitive physical activities—an alternative that many young people prefer over organized, adult-controlled sports.

Social Change and the Growth of Organized Youth Sports

Since the 1950s, an increasing amount of children’s after-school

time and physical activity has occurred in adult- controlled organized programs. This growth is partly related to changing ideas about family life and childhood in neoliberal societies, that is, societies where individualism and material suc- cess are highly valued and where publicly funded programs and services are being eliminated and selectively replaced by private programs. The following six changes are especially relevant to the growth and current status of organized youth sports.

First, the number of families with both parents working outside the home has increased dramati- cally. This has created a demand for organized and adult supervised after-school and summer pro- grams. Organized sports have grown because many parents believe they offer their children opportuni- ties to have fun, learn adult values, become physi- cally fit, and acquire positive status among their peers.

Second, since the early 1980s, there’s been a major cultural shift in what it means to be a “good parent.” Good parents today are those who can account for the whereabouts and actions of their children 24/7—an expectation that leads many parents to seek organized, adult-supervised pro- grams in which their children are monitored and controlled. Organized sports are also favored by parents because they provide predictable sched- ules, adult leadership for children, and measurable indicators of a child’s accomplishments. When children succeed, parents can claim that they are meeting cultural expectations. In fact, many

For a century now, youth sport has been more proving ground than playground—an enterprise laced with purpose and emotion, even the hopes of a nation. —Tom Farrey, ESPN (in Game On, 2008, p. 99)

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Even when organized sports have high injury rates and uncertified coaches, parents still feel that orga- nized programs are needed to protect their children.

Fifth, the visibility of high-performance and professional sports has increased awareness of organized competitive sports as a valued part of culture. As children watch sports on television, listen to parents and friends talk about sports, and hear about the wealth and fame of popular ath- letes, they often see organized youth sports, espe- cially those modeled after professional sports, as attractive activities. And when children say they want to be gymnasts or basketball players, parents often try to nurture these dreams by seeking the best-organized programs in those sports. There- fore, organized youth sports have become popular partly because children see them as enjoyable and

mothers and fathers feel that their moral worth as parents is associated with the visible achievements of their children—a factor that further intensifies parental commitment to youth sports.

Third, many people today believe that infor- mal, child-controlled activities inevitably lead to trouble—much like what occurs in the novel, Lord of the Flies. When young people are seen as threats to social order, organized sports are seen as ideal activities to keep them occupied, out of trouble, and under the control of adults.

Fourth, many parents, responding to fear- producing news stories about murders and child abductions now see the world outside the home as dangerous for their children. They regard organized sports as safe alternatives to informal activities that occur outside the home without adult supervision.

To meet cultural expectations for the “good parent,” mothers and fathers often are attracted to youth sport programs that use symbols of progressive achievement and skill development. Karate, with achievement levels signified by belt colors, is appealing to some because the visible and quantifiable achievements of their children can be used as proof of their parental moral worth. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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on participation fees, equipment, travel, personal coaches, high-performance training sessions, and other items defined as necessary in many pro- grams has skyrocketed in recent years (Farrey, 2008; Hyman, 2012). For example, the parents of elite youth hockey players who travel to regional and national tournaments often spend more than $10,000 per year to support their sons’ hockey participation. They justify the costs by saying that being a hockey player benefits their sons in many ways. Other parents have gone even further— remortgaging houses and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to nurture the sport dreams of a child (Hyman, 2012; Weir, 2006).

One of the troubling issues raised by these changes is that mothers and fathers in working- class and lower-income house- holds are increasingly defined as irresponsible and “bad” parents because they lack the resources to fund sport participation for their children as wealthier parents do. Parents without resources may also be perceived as uninterested in nurturing the dreams of their children, even though this is far from true. In this way, organized sports for children become linked

to political issues and debates about family values and the moral worth of parents in lower-income households.

MAJOR TRENDS IN YOUTH SPORTS TODAY

In addition to their growing popularity, youth sports are changing in five socially significant ways.

First, organized programs are becoming increas- ingly privatized. This means that more youth sports today are sponsored by private and commercial organizations, and fewer are sponsored by public, tax-supported organizations such as park and recre- ation departments.

culturally valued activities that will enhance their status among peers and adults.

Sixth, the culture of childhood play has nearly disappeared in most segments of post-industrial society, especially in the United States. Children today have few opportunities to engage in spon- taneous play—activities that involve creativity, expressiveness, joy, and “ownership” possessed by the participants themselves (Christakis and Christakis, 2010). Structured, achievement- oriented activities now begin early in children’s lives (Hyman, 2012). These activities, including organized sports for preschoolers, are controlled by adults and provide few opportunities for chil- dren to play, which often is seen as a “waste of time.” Instead, the focus is on improvement and measurable development that will pay off for a child in the future. Parents seek developmental activ- ities that they hope will help their children experience academic and future occupational success.

Time for play has become a low priority in most families (Glenn et al., 2013; Singh and Gupta, 2012). Parents also restrict the spaces for play by keeping chil- dren in the house and yard, unless they live on a cul-de-sac where there is no traffic and where children know they are being watched by one neighbor or another (Hochschild, 2013). Even the language of play has nearly disappeared as children learn to describe and evaluate their experiences in instrumental terms rather than by using a vocabulary of emotions and expression— so they talk about activities in terms of what they have learned and accomplished rather than how they felt while they participated.

Together, these six social changes have boosted the popularity of organized youth sports in recent decades. Knowing about them helps to explain why parents invest so many family resources into the organized sports participation of their chil- dren. The amount of money that parents spend

Children’s play is so focused on lessons and leagues [that] kids aren’t getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity,  . . . the results are clear: Self-regulation improves —Alix Spiegel, PBS, Morning Edition (2008)

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in the United States, there has been a decline in pub- licly funded youth programs with free and inclusive participation policies. As governments face bud- get crises various social services, including youth sports, have been downsized or eliminated. Some publicly funded programs have survived by impos- ing participation fees, but most have been elimi- nated. In response, middle- and upper-middle-class parents have organized private, nonprofit sport clubs and leagues for their children. These organi- zations depend on fund-raising, membership dues, and corporate sponsorships. They offer opportuni- ties to children from well-to-do families and neigh- borhoods, but they’re usually too expensive and

inconveniently located for children from low-income families and neighborhoods.

Private, commercial programs also have become major providers of youth sports as public programs have been eliminated. But they are selective and exclusive, and they provide few opportunities for chil- dren from low-income households. The technical instruction in these programs often is good, and they provide closely regulated skills training for children from wealth-

ier families. In addition, some parents hire private coaches for their children at rates of $50 to $200 per hour.

There are two negative consequences of privatiz- ing youth sports. First, privatized programs repro- duce the economic and ethnic inequalities that exist in the larger society. Unlike public programs, they depend on the resources of individual participants, rather than entire communities. Low-income and single-parent families often lack money to pay for dues, travel, equipment, and other fees. To the extent that income, family wealth, and support systems are less available to members of ethnic minorities, youth sports often create and accentuate ethnic seg- regation and social-class divisions in communities.

Second, as public park and recreation depart- ments cease to offer programs, they often become

Second, organized programs increasingly emphasize the “performance ethic.” This means that participants in youth sports, even in recre- ational programs, are encouraged to evaluate experiences in terms of their progress in develop- ing technical skills and moving to higher levels of competition.

Third, there’s an increase in private, elite sport- training facilities dedicated to producing highly skilled and specialized athletes who can compete at the highest levels of youth sports. This means that parents often spend significant amounts of money to buy sport training for their children, and they see youth sport expenditures as financial investments in their children’s future.

Fourth, parents are increas- ingly involved in and concerned about the participation and suc- cess of their children in organized youth sports. This means that youth sports are now serious activities for both adults and children, and adults are more likely to act in extreme ways as they advocate what they perceive to be the interests of their children.

Fifth, participation in alternative and action sports has increased. This means that many young people prefer unstruc- tured, participant-controlled activities such as skateboarding, in-line skating, snowboarding, BMX biking, disc golf, Ultimate, slacklining, foot- bag (hacky sack), climbing, jumping rope, and other sports that have local or regional relevance.

These five trends have an impact on who plays and what happens in organized youth sports. This is discussed in the following sections and in the box “Sponsorship Matters: Variations in the Pur- pose of Organized Youth Sports.”

The Privatization of Organized Programs

Privatization is a prevalent trend in youth sports today. Although organized sports are widely popular

If a family doesn’t think their huge investment in expensive sport is going to turn their child into an Olympian or professional athlete, they are often walking away from sport completely. —Barry Shepley, Hall of Fame Triathlon Coach, 2010 (in Richard, 2010)

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programs may not be committed to gender equity or other policies of inclusion that are a key part of public programs.

When privatization occurs, market forces shape who plays youth sports under what conditions. People with resources don’t see this as a problem

brokers of park spaces and rent them to private sport programs. The rental fees are usually rea- sonable, which means that these private programs benefit from tax-supported facilities without being held accountable for running their programs to benefit the entire community. For example, private

reflect on S P O R T S

The purpose of organized youth sports often varies with the goals of those who sponsor them. Sources and forms of sponsorship differ from one program to another, but they generally fall into one of the following four categories: 1. Public, tax-supported community recreation orga-

nizations. This includes local park and recreation departments and community centers, which tradi- tionally offer free or low-cost sport programs for children. The programs are usually inclusive and emphasize overall participation, health, general skill development, and enjoyment.

2. Public-interest, nonprofit community organiza- tions. These include the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, the Police Athletic League (PAL), and other community-based organizations, which tradition- ally have provided a limited range of free or low- fee sport programs for children. The goals of these programs are diverse, including everything from providing a “wholesome, Christian atmosphere” for playing sports to providing “at-risk children” with opportunities to play sports and keep them off the streets.

3. Private-interest, nonprofit sport organizations. These include organizations such as the nationwide Little League, Inc., Rush Soccer (rushsoccer.com), Pop Warner Football, and local organizations operat- ing independently or through connections with larger sport organizations, such as national federations like USA Swimming. These organizations usually offer more exclusive opportunities to selective groups of children, generally those with special skills from families who can afford relatively costly participa- tion fees.

4. Private commercial clubs. These include gymnas- tics, tennis, skating, soccer, and other sport clubs and training programs. These organizations have costly membership and participation fees, and some emphasize intense training, progressive and special- ized skill development, and elite competition. Because these sponsors each have different missions,

the sports programs they fund are likely to offer differ- ent types of experiences for children and families. This makes it difficult to draw general conclusions about what happens in organized programs and how participa- tion affects child development, public health, and family dynamics.

When public funds disappear due to tax cuts, one of the first things to be eliminated is youth sport programs— the type in category 1 (above). This has many effects. It limits opportunities for children from low-income fami- lies and funnels them into only one or two sports that may survive the cuts. Additionally, it creates a demand for youth sports in the remaining three sponsorship cat- egories. But sponsors in categories 3 and 4 thrive only when they serve people with the money to pay for their programs.

Overall, this means that the opportunities and experi- ences available to young people are influenced by local, state, and national politics, especially those related to taxa- tion and public spending. At present, youth sport oppor- tunities and experiences are strongly influenced by voters and political representatives who make decisions about taxes and how they are used in local communities. Do you think that people in your community would vote to increase taxes to support youth sports? If not, what reasons would they give for voting against such a tax?

Sponsorship Matters: Variations in the Purpose of Organized Youth Sports

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performance categories. “Travel teams” are now an important category in many sports because they sep- arate certain young people from others on the basis of skills. Many parents like this because it enables them to judge their child’s progress and prove to themselves and others that they are “good parents” because they have “created talented children.”

Private and commercial programs emphasize the performance ethic to a greater degree than do public programs. Their directors and coaches market them as “centers of athletic excellence” to attract parents willing to pay high fees for membership, participa- tion, and instruction. In some cases, the profiles and achievements of successful athletes and coaches who have trained or worked in the program are highlighted to justify costly memberships and dues.

Parents of physically skilled children sometimes define expensive membership fees, equipment, travel, and training expenses as investments in their children’s future (Hyman, 2012). They also use performance-oriented programs to develop social networks that can provide information about college sports, scholarships, coaches, and elite training pro- grams. Overall, they want their children’s sport par- ticipation to bring developmental, educational, and eventual occupational payoffs.

Of course, the application of the performance ethic is not limited to organized sports; it influences a range of organized children’s activities, and it is changing childhood from a time of exploration and freedom to a time of preparation and controlled learning (Chudacoff, 2007; Elkind, 2007). In this sense, children’s sports are part of this larger trend.

Elite, Specialized Sport Programs

The emphasis on performance is also tied to a third trend in youth sports—the development of elite, spe- cialized training programs and leagues. Many private and commercial programs encourage early special- ization in a single sport because they have year-round operating expenses that can be paid only if people pay year-round membership fees. If young people played multiple sports and did not pay dues through the entire year, these programs could not to meet expenses or

because they have the money to pay for their chil- dren’s participation and choose the programs they want. But people with few resources face a double bind: They can’t pay for their children’s partici- pation, and they often are accused of not caring for, controlling, or taking an interest in their chil- dren. In this way, privatized youth sport programs disproportionately affect poor people with little political power; therefore, these problems receive little attention from the media and most current politicians.

This point was noted by John Thomas, a director of coaching for United States Youth Soccer, who observed that in all his travels across the United States over the last decade, he’d never seen a travel team with mostly African American girls. In response to this observation, sociologist Paul Kooistra from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, suggested that private, fee-based youth sports in the United States are used by some upper-middle-class parents as a tool to “separate themselves and their children from lower social classes and minorities” (Wells, 2008).

Upper-middle-class parents may disagree with Kooistra’s statement, but they cannot deny that their children play sports primarily with other children from families that are white and well-off. Poor, working-class, and ethnic minority children are not formally excluded, but they are not on the playing fields. Of course, this has been true of private sport clubs in golf, tennis, swimming, and other sports for over a century, but the privatiza- tion of youth sports has re- created a twenty-first century form of ethnic and class segregation in among many populations of young people.

Emphasis on the Performance Ethic

The performance ethic is a set of ideas and beliefs emphasizing that the quality of the sport experience can be measured in terms of improved skills and competitive success. This ethic is widely empha- sized in youth sport programs to the point that fun now means improving skills, becoming more com- petitive, winning, and being promoted into elite

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they have done to “create” successful children. For example, eleven-year-old standout athletes may be used by clubs as marketing hooks to recruit dues- paying members. When this occurs, the adults who work at the club become financially dependent on the performances of eleven-year-olds who they train to succeed in high-profile competitive events, and this can become a recipe for abuse (Donnelly and Petherick, 2004; Hite, 2012; Zirin, 2013a).

Children in high-performance training programs work(out) at their sports for long hours week after week and year after year. They compete regularly, their images and accomplishments may be used to market commercial training programs, they some- times appear on commercial television and attract

produce profits. Therefore, owners and staff develop clever rationales to convince parents and athletes that year-round participation in a single sport is necessary to stay on track for future success. As parents accept these rationales, “high-performance” teams and clubs grow in number and size.

Commercial clubs for gymnastics, figure skating, ice hockey, soccer, tennis, volleyball, lacrosse, and other sports now advertise that they are dedicated to turning children into headline-grabbing, revenue- producing sport prodigies. Children in these pro- grams even become marketing tools for program managers and symbols of the moral worth of par- ents, who pay the bills and brag to friends about their children’s accomplishments and how much

As publicly funded youth sports are downsized or eliminated, private clubs provide participation opportunities. Membership fees in club programs are too costly for most families, and children may not enjoy the emphasis on the performance ethic in these programs. This is especially true in gymnastics where costs and demands for excellence are extreme (Source: © Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

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24/7 has made parenthood today more demanding than ever before. Many parents now feel compelled to find the best-organized youth sport programs for their children and then ensure that their children’s interests are being met in those programs.

Even though multiple factors influence child development, many people attribute the success or failure of children entirely to their parents. When children are successful in sports, their parents are perceived to be parenting the correct way. When a child succeeds, parents are congratulated, and people want to know what they did to “create” a prodigy; when a child fails, the moral worth of par- ents is questioned, and people want to know what parents did wrong.

Under these conditions, a child’s success in sports is especially important for parents. Youth sports are highly visible activities and become sites where mothers and fathers can prove their moral worth as parents. This greatly increases the stakes associated with youth sports and causes parents to take the success of their child athletes very seri- ously. These stakes increase even further when parents expect their children to receive college scholarships, professional contracts as athletes, or social acceptance and popularity in school and among peers. When parents think in these terms, the success of their children in youth sports is linked to anticipated social and financial payoffs, and the sponsorship of their children is often seen as an investment for which they expect certain rewards in return.

As the moral, financial, and social stakes associ- ated with youth sport participation have increased, youth sports have become sites for extreme actions among some adults. Parents are increasingly asser- tive and disruptive as they advocate the interests of their children with coaches, referees, and program managers. A few have attacked and even killed others over sport-related disputes.

As the actions of parents have become more extreme, some sport programs now sponsor parent education seminars combined with new rules and enforcement procedures to control parents at prac- tices and games. These strategies are useful, but

paying spectators to events at which they perform, and a few even have product endorsement con- tracts. All this occurs without government regu- lation, which might protect the interests, bodies, health, and overall development of child athletes. When the livelihoods of coaches and other adults depend on the performances of child athletes, elite training can become a form of child labor (Don- nelly and Petherick, 2004).

Child labor laws in some societies prevent adults from using children to make money, but there are no enforceable standards regulating what child ath- letes do or what happens to them. Governments in a few countries mandate certain forms of coaching education, but coaches in the United States need no such training to work with children. They can use fear, intimidation, and coercion to turn a few highly talented children into medal-winning athletes with- out being held accountable to anything but market forces. The results of this situation are sometimes frightening, but many parents and young athletes continue to believe that unless coaches are coer- cive, controlling, and abusive, they cannot effec- tively motivate and train successful elite athletes.

As elite programs become more popular, there is a need to have more public discussions about where the line should be drawn to separate abuse from the motivational and training strategies used by some coaches. The argument generally used to avoid this discussion is that the children them- selves want to specialize, be pushed, and excel in sports. But these children have not reached the age when they can give legally “informed consent.” In addition, we don’t allow ten-year-olds to work as actors without regulations just because they like it and their parents approve; there are rules that regu- late what child workers can do and how long they can work—even if they enjoy the work.

Increased Involvement and Concerns Among Parents

Youth sports have become serious business in many families. The expectation that parents must control the actions and nurture the dreams of their children

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why skateboarding became popular, she explained, “We didn’t . . . have any parents. That’s what drew a lot of kids. . . . It was their thing” (Higgins, 2007).

When I observe children in action sports, I’m regularly amazed by the physical skills that they develop without adult coaches and scheduled prac- tices and contests. Although I’m concerned about injuries and the informal exclusion of females that often are part of these sports, I’m impressed by the discipline and dedication of young action sport participants who seek challenges apart from adult- controlled sport settings. The norms in these partic- ipant-controlled activities vary from one location to another, but most young people use them as guides as they share the spaces used in their sports (Bradley, 2010; Seifert and Henderson, 2010).

Mark Shaw, winner of the first International Mountain Board Championships, explained that action sports often are attractive to young people because the older and more skilled participants teach tricks and give helpful advice to those with less experience. He said, “I look forward to help- ing young skaters .  .  . at the park each weekend almost as much as I look forward to skating and my own progression on the board” (2002, p. 3). Many young people find this orientation and the sense of community it creates to be more welcoming than what occurs in organized youth sports.

Participation in alternative and action sports has become so widespread that media companies and corporations wishing to recruit young people as con- sumers have sponsored competitive forms of these sports and hype them as “extreme” activities. These sponsored events, such as the X Games, the Dew Action Sports Tour, and others sponsored by Oak- ley, Red Bull, and Lucas Oil, provide exposure and support for athletes, but they alter the activities by making them more structured and controlled. At this point, we need research on the ways that this occurs and its implications for the participation experi- ences of young people. For example, as coaches and organized competitive programs become more common, these sports cease to be alternatives, and many young people may seek other activities that allow them to be free and creative.

their success depends on administering them with an understanding of the cultural expectations that exist for this generation of parents.

As long as parental moral worth is linked to the achievements of their children, and parents feel morally obliged to nurture the sport dreams of their children, parents will be deeply involved in and concerned about youth sports. Furthermore, when parents make major financial sacrifices and invest vast amounts of time in their children’s sports, their actions will be difficult to control. As long as the prevailing cultural ideology emphasizes that parents are solely responsible for their children, mothers and fathers will assertively advocate the interests of their children. If they don’t, who will? Under these cultural circumstances, many parents conclude that it is their moral obligation to get in the face of anyone standing in the way of their child’s success in sports.

Increased Interest in Alternative and Action Sports

As youth sports have become increasingly struc- tured and controlled by adults, some young peo- ple seek alternatives allowing them to engage more freely in physical activities on their own terms. Because organized youth sports are the most visible and widely accepted settings for chil- dren’s sport participation, these unstructured and participant-controlled activities are referred to as alternative sports—alternatives, that is, to orga- nized sports.

Alternative sports, or “action sports,” as many now refer to them, encompass a wide array of physical activities. Their popularity is based in part on children’s reactions against the highly structured character of adult-controlled, organized sports. For example, when legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk was asked why he chose to skateboard rather than do other sports, he said, “I liked having my own pace and my own rules . . . and making up my own challenges” (in Finger, 2004, p. 84). Simi- larly, when Sonja Catalano, the president of the California Amateur Skateboard League, was asked

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by my general experiences, but there were no “out- side spectators” shaping my perspectives. Further, there were no official statistics, scores, records, game films, or coaches’ ratings to influence how I defined, evaluated, and then integrated these expe- riences into my life.

I played on high school teams in five different sports (over four years) and played other sports during summers. Only in college did I specialize because I had a full, four-year basketball scholar- ship, and there was a team rule prohibiting involve- ment in sports that might cause injuries or distract attention from basketball training. However, I golfed, swam, and played in softball, handball, and basketball leagues during summers. Although I played over 130 basketball and baseball games as a college athlete, my parents saw none of them, nor did I expect them to do so.

INFORMAL, PLAYER- CONTROLLED SPORTS: A CASE OF THE GENERATION GAP

The structure and culture of childhood have changed dramatically over the past two genera- tions. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I spent at least fifteen hours playing in “pickup games” and informal, player-controlled sports for every one hour I played or practiced an organized sport. Few of my sport experiences were ever seen or evaluated by parents, coaches, or ref- erees. They were my experiences, and it was up to me to give them meaning because neither parents nor coaches were there to provide their interpreta- tions, praise, or criticisms. I decided if I had fun, played well, succeeded, or failed. My judgments were influenced by peers with whom I played and

Many young people seek alternatives to adult-controlled youth sports. Skateboarding and BMX biking are popular alternative sports that young people use to express themselves as they learn skills on their own terms. The experience of creating your own sports and playing them on your terms is very different from the experience of playing organized youth sports under the supervision of parents, coaches, referees, and league administrators. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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were enjoyable, and I think I benefited from them; Maddie, at seventeen years old, says the same thing, even though her experiences have been very differ- ent from mine. This raises the sociological question of whether we can make sense of the differences between them. Fortunately, there is research to help us think critically about the changes over the past two generations and the implications that they have for young people and the place of sports in their lives.

Learning from Play: Informal Games and Organized Sports

Informal games exist when young people come together and agree to organize themselves for the sake of having fun. My research indicates that informal games involve fun to the extent that they provide action, exciting challenges, and opportuni- ties for personal expression and the maintenance of friendships (Coakley, 1983b). On an individual level, fun requires personal involvement in the action of a game and facing game-based challenges that test and extend personal skills. When the play- ers are mixed ages, a seven-year-old playing with older children may have fun without a high level of personal involvement in the action, whereas the older and more skilled players require continuous personal involvement to have fun and they often alter rules to create exciting challenges.

Nearly all informal games are organized to maximize action. When there’s plenty of space to play and few available players, the game rules are interpreted and adjusted to keep everyone involved, so that players don’t quit and destroy the game. When space is limited and many young people want to play, game rules are enforced more strictly, and those who aren’t selected to play are relegated to the sidelines; furthermore, the team winning a game may claim the right to play against a challenger that replaces the losing team. But in all cases, the emphasis is on action and exciting chal- lenges. Action keeps alive a “spirit of play,” and challenges require players to focus on testing and extending their skills.

Two generations later, Maddie, my seventeen- year-old granddaughter has played for eight years on a club travel team organized by a local nonprofit soccer organization. Her team plays two seasons, one in fall and another in spring. About half the games are out of town, and each involves two to seven hours of round-trip driving. Maddie’s team also plays in an indoor league between seasons and in three to four major tournaments that require sig- nificant travel during the year. Additionally, it is highly recommended that all travel team members play in one or more summer soccer camps.

When I was nine to seventeen years old, and when Maddie’s mom was nine to seventeen years old, we were never asked to be so exclusively com- mitted to a single sport. To meet the expectations of her coaches, Maddie has given up opportunities to play basketball, volleyball, karate, and swimming— all of which are sports that she enjoys. My par- ents could not and would not have supported such intense, specialized sport participation, and I would not have allowed Maddie’s mother to specialize this way when she was that age in the 1980s.

Although Maddie has played organized soccer since she was four years old, she’s played very few informal sports and pickup games. She lacks time to do so, and her parents, like most parents today, have never felt comfortable allowing her to roam the neighborhood to find other children and create informal games in places that cannot be predicted ahead of time. Even if she did have permission, she would not find peers with whom she could create informal games. This is because parents today fear that their unsupervised children could be exploited by strangers or create trouble of their own doing. Therefore, for every one hour that Maddie has played informal games, she has spent at least twenty hours practicing or playing games on organized teams under the watchful eyes of coaches, referees, and parents. Only a handful of times during thirteen years of playing organized sports has she played an official game without fam- ily members in attendance.

Maddie and I typify our respective generations when it comes to youth sports. My experiences

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From eight to fourteen years old, games can be increasingly organized, but positional play should not be emphasized. There should be no travel teams and no more than one game per week or thirty to thirty-five games per year. Most important, say the experts, is that all coaches must complete a coaching education course and be regularly recer- tified through continuing coach education. When coaches learn about child development, they can facilitate participation opportunities through which young people are likely to develop a passion for the sport and the awareness that the sport enables them to be creative and expressive.

Research on Play and Development

Developmental research supports the approach used in French soccer (Balyi et al., 2013; Bloom, 1985; Côté, 2011; Côté and Fraser-Thomas, 2007). When Benjamin Bloom, a noted educational psychologist from the University of Chicago, studied 120 indi- viduals who were recognized world-class talents in classical piano, sculpting, mathematics, Olym- pic swimming, professional tennis, and neurologi- cal research, he concluded that talent development occurred over a long period of time under special conditions. In all cases, the talent development pro- cess began with exploration, play, and expressive fun. It did not begin with structured activities orga- nized by other people, early specialization, or child- hood commitments to long-term goals. Nor did it begin with pep talks about hard work, sacrifice, dedi- cation, and the need to constantly practice. It began with opportunities to freely and playfully explore an activity and discover that it required creativity and effort. Talent development ultimately depended on whether the young people emotionally bonded with the activity, claimed it as their own, and identified the skills they wanted to master. When this occurred, the young people came to be driven by the feelings of exhilaration that occurred as they met and mastered new challenges.

Bloom found that this process took at least ten years to occur, but when it did, the young people, usually in their mid-to late-teens, were ready to

Research shows that informal games help chil- dren learn to cooperate and express themselves physically through a wider range of movements than they would try if coaches were evaluating them (Ginsburg, 2007; Henricks, 2006). For example, when Tom Farrey, an Emmy Award- winning journalist at ESPN, investigated why France produces great soccer talent, he was told by André Mérelle, the director of youth soc- cer development in France, that they emphasize the importance of unstructured play and infor- mal games for French children. Mérelle told Farrey this:

Everyone wants to win games. That’s good. But how do you win? If you’re too focused on winning games, you don’t learn to play well. You get too nervous, because you’re always afraid to make errors (in Farrey, 2008, p. 75).

As Farrey talked with Zinedine Zidane, three- time World Player of the Year, Thierry Henry, also rated a top player in the world, and other soccer standouts in France, he concluded that the French developmental approach succeeds because it emphasizes informal play—no uniforms, posi- tions, lined fields, game clocks, league standings, or adults yelling instructions from the sidelines. Without the constraining structures and adult expectations that characterize organized youth sports, young people learn to improvise, feel the joy of intrinsic satisfaction, and develop a playing style and personality that make them unique. This allows them to be creative and claim ownership of soccer, rather than feeling that soccer owns them. As French coaches explained, informal games are the places where children develop a personal “feel” for the game and a vision for what occurs and is possible on the field of play—things that are not learned as readily in organized, adult-controlled games in which the structure and rhythm of play are dictated by rules, coaches, and referees.

Farrey also reports that sport development experts worldwide say that children under eight years old should not play highly organized sports or on (soccer) teams with more than five players.

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Sports National Report Card.2 They also issued grades for twenty-five important elements of exist- ing organized sport programs. The elements were divided into five sets, with each set related to a major topic. The topics and the overall grade for each are

1. Child-Centered Philosophy: D 2. Coaching: C 3. Health and Safety: C+ 4. Officiating: B− 5. Parental Behavior/Involvement: D

The panel that assigned the grades consisted of researchers, youth sports leaders, attorneys, youth coaches, and parents. Their goal was to identify where youth sports were succeeding or failing and to alert people to the need for improving the sport experiences of children. The panelists also identi- fied specific problem areas that needed attention. The problem statements emphasized that, in gen- eral, youth sports

∙ Have lost a child-centered focus, meaning that there is too little emphasis on the child’s expe- rience and too much emphasis on winning

∙ Are distorted by overinvested sports parents, who have unrealistic expectations and often undermine for their own child and others the benefits of playing sports

∙ Fail to adequately train and evaluate youth sport coaches

∙ Overemphasize early sports specialization that often leads to burnout, overuse injuries, and a hypercompetitive culture focused on travel teams

∙ Ignore the age-based interests and developmen- tal abilities of children who view sports as a source of fun, friends, physical action, and skill development

2Grading key for each topic: A = Outstanding; B = Good; C = Fair; D = Poor; F = Failing. Copies of the report cards can be downloaded and used to assess programs in your community and to determine where changes should be made to improve them.

specialize and make the commitments required to excel. At this point, fun merged with the hard work of mastering skills, and this merger fueled the passion and drive that enabled them to achieve excellence.

Bloom’s findings have been widely supported by other scholars who study the development of excel- lence in sports (Côté and Fraser-Thomas, 2007; Ericsson, 2012; Ericsson et al., 2007). For example, reports on the experiences of U.S. Olympians and top collegiate athletes indicate that they attribute their success to being introduced to sports through unstructured play and informal games and having opportunities to play multiple sports through junior high school (SPARC, 2013).

We know that the existence of informal games and sports require and foster creativity, interper- sonal skills, and problem-solving abilities among the players (Côté and Fraser-Thomas, 2007; Elkind, 2007, 2008). Creating games requires knowledge of game models, but maintaining them in the face of multiple unanticipated challenges requires keen conflict resolution skills and an ability to develop on-the-spot solutions to problems. Players must understand the basic requirements of an organized activity so they can create games to fit here-and- now circumstances; additionally, they must form teams, cooperate with peers, develop rules, and take responsibility for following and enforcing the rules. These are important lessons, and we need research to explain when and how children learn them in different types of sport experiences and whether the learning that occurs in sports is used by children in their relationships and activities apart from the playing field.

YOUTH SPORTS TODAY: ASSESSING OUR EFFORTS

A few years ago the Citizenship Through Sport Alliance (CTSA) brought together a panel of experts to assess the current state of organized youth sports in the United States. Using their col- lective knowledge, the panelists created a Youth

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levels today, it would be helpful if they followed general principles related to health, well-being, and positive youth development.

To move in this direction, Tom Farrey, an Emmy-winning journalist at ESPN, developed Project Play through the Aspen Institute’s Sports and Society Program. Project Play is a bold attempt to re-imagine and re-form youth sports in the United States so that programs are based on good research about child development and the positive consequences of lifelong physical activ- ity. Farrey and his working board of advisors brought together key stakeholders from business, health, sports, education, research, and govern- ment to brainstorm how youth sports can better serve the common good—the quality of life in the nation as a whole.

The stakeholders agreed that youth sports should be a context for developing physical literacy— that is, the ability, competence, and desire to be physically active for life (Project Play, 2015, p. 8). This is done through age-appropriate play, early positive movement experiences, universal access to safe participation opportunities, quality coach education, and support from both public and private sectors.

The stakeholders also agreed that there is a need for a national sports agenda or general policy recommendations that provide guidance to those who organize youth sports. The long- term goal is to link youth sport programs with a nationwide emphasis on physical literacy and lifelong participation in health-producing physi- cal activities.

Canada and other nations have such poli- cies (for example, see http://www.canadiansport forlife.ca/) and are taking them seriously in the face of their own health-related crises, none of which are as extreme as the crisis in the United States, where inactivity and obesity have hit record levels. Although people in other nations sometimes look to the United States when it comes to developing elite athletes in certain sports, they are unlikely to see a model for pro- ducing public health. However, there are some

The panel also created a Youth Sports Com- munity Report Card for Parents to enable mothers and fathers to evaluate programs serving young people ages six to fourteen in their communities. A third report card was designed for youth sports leaders to evaluate their programs and identify needed improvements for teams and leagues. These tools were intended to facilitate discus- sions about the organization of youth sports and how it might be improved to benefit all young people.

Unsurprisingly, the report cards were not widely used and had no significant impact. But this is mostly due to how youth sports are organized in the United States. Most other countries have a cen- tral sports authority or governing body, such as a federal ministry of sport, that can exert influence on sport programs nationwide, especially publicly funded youth programs. This makes communica- tion to those programs effective, and it makes policies related to safety, health, and overall devel- opment of young people easier to implement and promote.

Youth sports in the United States are a frag- mented, disjointed, and uncoordinated array of programs. They are based on diverse adult inter- ests, including profit-making, sustaining jobs for adults, generating local tourism through annual tournaments, identifying sport talent, nurturing the best age-group athletes, introducing children to sports, developing basic sport skills, provid- ing neighborhood-based recreational experiences, training athletes for local high school programs, winning regional and national tournaments, build- ing character and leadership skills, controlling young people identified as “at-risk,” keeping kids off the streets, fostering community integration, helping immigrant children learn U.S. culture, cre- ating tough young men, boosting the self-esteem of young women, building new sports like lacrosse or rowing, and achieving many other goals that adults think are worthy.

Of course, all youth programs should not be the same, but because physical inactivity, obesity, and other fitness-related health problems are at crisis

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Cities bid to host these tour- naments because they boost the local economy as thousands of youth sport tourist families come to town and spend money during stays of three or more days. Some of these tournaments attract high school and college coaches seek- ing young talent for their programs,

and these coaches are used by the entrepreneurs to entice teams and families to pay the entry fees in the hope that their children will be noticed and recruited.

An extreme example of this approach is illus- trated by the partnership formed by ESPN and Walt Disney World Resort, both owned by The Walt Disney Company. These partners hold tournaments year-round for athletes of all ages at their massive sport complex in Orlando, Florida. They host many national youth sport tournaments because families come with teams and often stay for extra days to visit Disney World at $100+ per person per day. Hotels and restaurants also benefit—all in the name of youth sports. This pattern of hosting weekend, postseason, off-season, and preseason tournaments has now spread nationwide, so that youth sports have become a money-making industry more than activities that benefit children. It also means that efforts to make youth sports more child- centered and age-appropriate will meet resistance if they don’t support this industry.

The people working with Project Play under- stand this challenge. But they are motivated by the general sense that in the United States, youth sports are broken: they fail to serve populations with the highest need for physical activity— children who are poor, overweight, disabled, or ethnic minorities. U.S. youth sports also are bro- ken in that many programs and teams have done little to nurture the play element in sports—that is, experimentation, creativity, personal expres- sion, spontaneity, and the intrinsic satisfaction associated with physical movement.

As youth sports have become increasingly orga- nized around the achievement of measurable perfor- mance goals, the play element of sport participation

recent encouraging moves in that direction, including First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program. And in the realm of tra- ditional sport, USA Hockey has created the American Develop- ment Model (http://www. admkids. com), which does an excellent job of outlining for youth hockey coaches an age- appropriate method of teach- ing hockey and organizing youth programs. The model is based on youth development research, which also was used to create the national Cana- dian Sport for Life program (CS4L).

Although there are models for organizing youth sports to serve both the common good and the interests of children, it is difficult to convince people to consider those models and implement them in connection with their programs. But the people working with Project Play are focused on doing so.

THE CHALLENGE OF IMPROVING YOUTH SPORTS

Changing youth sports is a formidable task. Many people have vested interests in keeping them as they are, and those who currently control youth sport programs are mostly concerned with increas- ing their size, promoting the performance ethic more effectively, providing elite training, and taking teams and athletes to state, regional, and national tournaments.

As public programs have been eliminated, youth sport entrepreneurs have come onto the scene. They have developed sport clubs with travel teams and paid coaches. They have built sport- specific programs that control soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, and other teams and leagues in communi- ties across the United States. They sponsor annual tournaments for qualifying teams—or teams that can pay the costly entry fees—and they crown state, regional, and even national champions at all age levels.

A child’s greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action and morality. —Lev Vygotsky (1978)

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activities of all types, including traditional orga- nized, competitive sports. Noted triathlon coach Barry Shepley has observed, “Today kids don’t play. They are either totally inactive or they are in a coached, expensive program where they have no time or opportunity to simply play and experiment” (in Richard, 2010). Medal-winning U.S. skier Julia Mancuso explains that memories of childhood play were her source of motivation as she trained and competed in the Olympics and World Cup races: “The only thing that kept me in skiing was all the fun I had when I was little” (Layden, 2010a, p. 34).

has been marginalized or forgotten. This is a problem because play is the foundation for motivation in phys- ical activities. It is the source of joy and the fuel for good feelings that keep people coming back to physi- cal activities regardless of age, ability, or the likeli- hood of competitive success. Play is done for its own sake, for the feeling of pleasure that it brings rather than for approval and status. When play is absent or rare in sport experiences, dropout rates are high and the likelihood of returning to sport is low.

This means that part of the task of reinvent- ing youth sports is to reinfuse play into physical

Information about concussions and injury rates in certain youth sports may lead parents to seek alternative programs that give higher priority to play and creativity than to organization and conquest.

(Source: © By permission of Rachel Spielberg)

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joy as Messi does—he plays like a child enjoying the pasture, playing for the pleasure of playing, not the duty of winning” (in Longman, 2011c). Messi agrees: “I have fun like a child in the street. When the day comes when I’m not enjoying it, I will leave football (soccer).”

For those interested in attracting and retaining young people in sports of all types, and hopefully producing positive health consequences in the pro- cess, the challenge is to develop strategies for facili- tating play in sport experiences. This is not an easy task. Externally imposed structures often undermine play. Of course, no policy can make people play. Therefore, the challenge facing Project Play and others concerned about children is to enable and provide incentives to those who manage and coach youth sports to make spaces for play in their pro- grams. If this occurs to at least some degree, parents and children will have alternatives to the costly and often playless programs that are so prevalent today.

The timing for introducing such strategies appears to be good today. Parents are increasingly concerned about the injury rates in youth programs that emphasize the performance principle, and they may be willing to accept changes in existing pro- grams or seek alternative programs that highlight play experiences for young people. At the same time, coaches and program administrators are seek- ing safer ways to play their sports as well as strate- gies to retain young people in their programs.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING YOUTH SPORTS

Recommendations usually focus exclusively on organized youth sports. However, informal and alternative sports also have problems that need to be addressed. Many children opt for these sports because they provide action, exciting challenges, and opportunities for personal expression and maintaining friendships. But they often involve physical risks and various forms of exclusion. This suggests that adults should foster participa- tion opportunities for children interested in joining

Play also is a key factor in achieving excel- lence in sports. For example, when describing Lio- nel Messi, reputedly the best soccer player in the world (2011–present), historian and novelist Edu- ardo Galeano says, “No one plays with as much

Organized youth sports are a luxury item in most of the world. The parents of this ten-year-old Kenyan boy don’t have the resources to nurture his sport dreams. But using his bare feet and a ball of rags bound with twine, he’s managed to develop impressive soccer skills. The meaning he gives to kicking this ball likely differs from the meanings that privileged ten-year-old North American boys give to kicking dozens of “official soccer balls” purchased by parents and clubs. (Source: © Kevin Young)

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of information about needed improvements. If children define fun in terms of action, exciting challenges, personal expression, and reaffirming friendships (see p. 94), it makes sense to organize youth sports so that these aspects of experience are emphasized.

Action can be increased by altering or eliminat- ing certain rules, changing the structure of games, and using smaller teams and playing areas. But many adults resist these changes because they want games to resemble what occurs in elite, adult sports. They say that children must play “the real thing” to learn the sport properly, and they forget that children are more interested in action than mimicking adults and following rules that were never intended to promote a child’s fun. There- fore, adults should control their emphasis on rules, order, standardized conditions, predictability, and performance statistics, and abandon tactics that slow and stop action; after all, high-scoring games are fun, even if many adults see them as undisci- plined free-for-alls.

Exciting challenges are destroyed by lopsided scores. This is why children often include handi- caps, “do-overs,” and other adjustments that pre- serve the excitement of competition when they play informal games. Motivation depends on perceived chances for success, and close games keep children motivated by making the game exciting. When the adults who control youth sports resist changes that affect game scores and outcomes, some people call for “mercy rules” that stop games, or they run game clocks continuously to shorten games with lopsided scores. But this subverts action and excitement for young people, who would alter teams to keep games challenging rather than sim- ply cutting them short. Therefore, adults should use creative rules and strategies to promote excit- ing and challenging action in youth sports rather than giving priority to winning games, developing a killer instinct in players, and qualifying for post- season tournaments.

Personal expression is maximized when games are organized to allow for creativity and experimen- tation. Rigid systems of control and specialization

informal games and participating in action sports. For example, instead of passing laws to prohibit skateboarding or in-line skating, adults could work with young people to design and provide safe set- tings for them to create their own activities and norms that are inclusive (Donnelly and Coakley, 2003).

The challenge for adults is to be supportive and provide guidance without controlling young peo- ple who need their own spaces to create physical activities. Adult guidance can make those spaces safer and more inclusive—for boys and girls as well as children with a disability and from various ethnic and social class backgrounds. The gender exclusion that exists in certain alternative sports is especially problematic and begs for creative solu- tions that make the cultures of those sports more inclusive.

As the tradition of informal games has nearly disappeared among young people today, there is a need to develop what might be called hybrid sports that combine features of player-controlled infor- mal games and adult-controlled organized sports. Hybrid sport activities have not been studied, but they come in at least two forms. First, there are informal games in which adults provide subtle guidance to children, who create and control most of what occurs as they play games in safe settings that are familiar and accessible to them. Second, there are organized sport teams on which parents and coaches encourage un- or semi-structured play during practices and also include children in decision-making, rule enforcement, and conflict resolution processes. As more adults learn that positive youth development requires involvement in unstructured play and informal games, there will be attempts to facilitate them.

Improving Organized Sports

When considering improvements for organized youth sports, programs and teams should be evalu- ated in terms of whether they are child-centered and organized to match the developmental age of children. This makes children a valuable source

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to nurture when children see each other only at adult-controlled practices and games. Addition- ally, making friends with opponents is seldom considered in organized sports. Therefore, youth teams should be neighborhood- and school-based whenever possible. Pregame warm-ups should mix players from both teams, and players should introduce themselves to the person they line up with as each quarter or half begins. Unless chil- dren learn that games cannot exist without coop- eration between opponents, they will have no understanding of fair play, why rules exist, why rule enforcement is necessary, and why players should follow game rules. Without this under- standing, children don’t have what it takes to maintain fair play at the same time that they strive for competitive success. When this occurs, youth sports are not worth our time and effort.

by position restrict players’ experiences and oppor- tunities to express themselves. Reducing team size increases opportunities for personal involvement and expression. For example, ice hockey games for children under twelve years old should always be played across the width of the rink, thereby allow- ing three times as many teams to compete at the same time. Basketball could be reorganized so that three-player “first-string” teams play a half- court game at one basket, while second- and third- string teams play at other baskets; a combined score would determine the overall winner. But these strat- egies require adults to revise their approach to youth sports so that encouraging children to claim owner- ship of their sport experiences is a high priority.

Reaffirming friendships is central in the lives of children. Organized sports provide contexts for making friends, but friendships are difficult

When coaches and parents constantly shout directions during games, it’s unlikely that children will feel comfortable engaging in personally expressive actions. This makes it nearly impossible for children to emotionally identify with and claim ownership of a sport. Instead, many of them view organized sports as an adult thing that they’ll eventually outgrow—much like braces on their teeth (Farrey, 2008). (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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the talent development process in children usually begins with opportunities to freely and playfully explore multiple activities and discover one or more that enable them to be creative and expres- sive. Unless young people have opportunities to emotionally identify with physical activities, claim them as their own, and decide what they want to learn, excellence is rarely achieved.

The overall benefits of organized youth sports today are limited primarily because they’ve lost a child-centered focus, neglected the evaluation and training of coaches, and reflect too much the ori- entations of overzealous parents who have unreal- istic expectations. Many programs are costly and designed to favor children who are bigger, faster, and stronger than their peers. This creates access issues that affect children from lower-income fami- lies and those whose abilities are average or below. The emphasis on early specialization in a single sport and year-round participation tends to wear out early bloomers, deny access to late bloomers, and exclude those who aren’t inclined or selected to be on elite teams.

Youth sports in the United States are driven by the diverse interests of adults who organize teams, leagues, and programs. As a result, they have failed to meet the needs of young people, espe- cially those who are poor, overweight, disabled, and from marginalized ethnic populations. Given the current crises related to physical inactivity, obesity, and other fitness-related health problems, there is a need to rethink the organization and pro- vision of youth sports in the United States. This is a daunting task because there are so many vested interests in preserving youth sports as they are. However, models for reorganizing youth sports do exist, and the current time may be right to develop strategies to encourage and enable people to make changes.

Recommendations for improving youth sports emphasize that there should be action, exciting challenges, and opportunities for personal expres- sion and the maintenance of friendships. This requires more open and flexible structures and less overt control by adults. The goal of such changes is

summary

ARE ORGANIZED PROGRAMS WORTH THE EFFORT?

Although physical activities exist in all cultures, organized youth sports are a luxury. They require resources and discretionary time among children and adults. They exist only when children are not required to work and when adults believe that experiences during childhood influence individ- ual growth and development. Youth sports have a unique history in every society where they exist, but they characteristically emphasize experi- ences and values that are central to the dominant culture.

The growth of organized sports in North America and much of Europe is associated with changes in the family and in ideas about children and childhood that occurred during the latter half of the twentieth century. Many parents now see organized sports as the source of important developmental experiences in the lives of their children. The fact that the pro- grams provide adult supervision also makes them attractive to parents who see free time and unstruc- tured activities as opportunities for their children to get into trouble.

Major trends in youth sports today include the privatization of organized programs, an empha- sis on the performance ethic, the development of high-performance training programs, and increased involvement among parents. In response to these trends, some young people have turned to informal, alternative, and action sports that they can control on their terms without being controlled and judged by adults.

Children’s sport experiences in the United States have changed dramatically over the past two gen- erations. Informal, player-controlled sports were prevalent in the past, whereas organized adult- controlled sports are prevalent today. The decline of loosely structured, informal play and games has influenced the extent to which physical activities are the source of expressive fun among children. This is important in light of research showing that

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NASPE—the national association of sport and physical education)

Reading 6. The “logic” of sport specialization: Using children for adult purposes

Reading 7. Citizenship through sports alliance: Youth sports report cards

Reading 8. Project play: Re-creating youth sports in the United States

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You work in the sport and recreation division of a city government. As it faces a budget cri- sis, you are asked to present arguments for and against privatizing all the city’s youth sport programs. List the major points you would include in your presentation.

∙ You work in the main office of a youth soccer organization that has programs in five states. The actions of players’ parents have become increasingly troublesome and extreme in those programs. Coaches want you to tell them why parents are so obnoxious today and what can be done to minimize their troublesome actions. Outline the points you will include in your explanation and recommendations.

∙ As the director of programs in a park and rec- reation department, you have an opportunity to hire two people. They will work with you to reform the youth sport programs in the city. Write the job description for these two posi- tions and identify the skills you are seeking in applicants.

to provide young people with opportunities to learn that cooperation and an understanding of rules and rule enforcement is the foundation of competitive sports played fairly and ethically.

A major obstacle to change is that there are vested interests in maintaining and expanding pro- grams as they are currently organized. Coaching education programs could facilitate critical thinking among those who work most directly with children in these programs, but they tend to emphasize orga- nization and control rather than critically assessing and changing youth sports.

Overall, organized sports for children are worth the effort—if adults put the needs and interests of children ahead of the organizational needs of sport programs and their own needs to gain sta- tus through their association with successful and highly skilled child athletes.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Youth sports: What we know Reading 2. Youth advocacy guidelines: Do we

need them in sports? Reading 3. George H. Mead’s theory on the

development of the self: Implications for organized youth sport programs

Reading 4. A self-assessment tool for youth sport parents

Reading 5. Guidelines for participation in youth sport programs: Specialization versus multiple-sport participation (a 2010 position statement by

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(Source: © C. J. Burton/Corbis)

chapter

DEVIANCE IN SPORTS Is It Out of Control?

5

There’s a lot of rule bending going on. It can be a great advantage.

—College football coach (in Feldman, 2010)

These individuals and organizations [connected with FIFA] engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide.

—U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch (in Clifford and Apuzzo, 2015)

Soccer match fixing has become a massive worldwide crime, on a par with drug trafficking, prostitution and the trade in illegal weapons.

—Brett Forrest, ESPN journalist (2012)

. . . given that marijuana is a legitimate pain reliever—especially for the migraines that can be a byproduct of head trauma—and is far less dangerous and potentially addictive than, say, OxyContin, it is almost immoral to deny players the right to use it.

—Howard Bryant, ESPN journalist (2013)

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Defining and Studying Deviance in Sports

Challenges Faced When Studying Deviance in Sports

Research on Deviance in Sports

Performance-Enhancing Substances: A Case Study of Deviant Overconformity

Summary: Is Deviance in Sports Out of Control?

Chapter Outline

• Define deviance and identify challenges faced when studying deviance in sports.

• Explain the absolutist and constructionist approaches to deviance in sports.

• Define the sport ethic, and identify the norms of the sport ethic.

• Distinguish between deviant overconformity and deviant underconformity.

• Identify the athletes most likely to overconform to the norms of the sport ethic.

• Understand the research findings on the major forms of deviance in sports and identify examples that do not involve athletes.

• Explain why performance-enhancing substance use is so prevalent among athletes today.

• Outline the phases in a professional sport career and when performance-enhancing substances become important in that career.

• Understand why the current system of drug testing in sports will not eliminate the use of performance-enhancing substances.

• Outline and evaluate alternatives to the current war on doping in sports.

Learning Objectives

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Media stories about drug use, on-the-field rule viola- tions, and off-the-field criminal actions are so com- mon today that deviance is seen by many as out of control in sports. For those who accept the great sport myth these stories create a dilemma: Either they must admit that their belief in the purity and goodness of sport is wrong or they must conclude that sport is being undermined by money, greed, and undisciplined athletes.

Few people are willing to abandon the great sport myth, so they express outrage at offending individuals and insist that they be banned from sport to preserve its essential purity and goodness. In the face of this outrage and the extent to which it is expressed in mainstream media, it is difficult to have a research-based sociological discussion of deviance in sports. But that is the purpose of this chapter.

Our discussion will focus on four questions as we deal with the issue of deviance:

1. What challenges do we face when studying deviance in sports?

2. What is deviance, and how does sociological knowledge about it help us understand sports as a social phenomenon?

3. Are rates of deviance in sports out of control? 4. Why has the use of performance-enhancing

substances become such a persistent problem in many sports?

DEFINING AND STUDYING DEVIANCE IN SPORTS

When a softball player punches an umpire after a dis- puted call, it’s a deviant act because it violates a norm. Similarly, when a college football booster hires pros- titutes for high school recruits or when an Olympic judge alters scores to ensure a victory for a particular figure skater, we know that deviance has occurred. In each case, norms are violated.

A norm is a shared expectation that people use to identify what is acceptable and unacceptable in a social world. Norms exist in all social worlds and serve as the standards that people use to identify

deviance. Deviance occurs when a person’s ideas, traits, or actions are perceived by others to fall out- side the normal range of acceptance in a society.

Studying deviance is often tricky because norms take different forms, vary in importance, change over time, and differ from one social world to another. Formal norms are official expectations that take the form of written rules or laws, whereas informal norms are customs or unwritten, shared understandings of how a person is expected to think, appear, and act in a social world.

When basketball players foul an opponent or shove a referee in anger over a foul call, they vio- late formal norms that are written in the official rule book. These norms are enforced by “officials” given the authority to sanction or punish violators. When two college basketball players don’t face the U.S. flag during the national anthem or don’t participate in a pregame team ritual, they violate unwritten, informal norms. In response, fans may deride players who don’t conform to flag-related customs, and teammates may refuse to talk with players that don’t meet their expectations for togetherness. This means that there are two forms of deviance. Formal deviance involves a viola- tion of an official rule or law, and is punished by official sanctions administered by people in positions of authority. Informal deviance, on the other hand, involves a violation of an unwritten custom or shared understanding, and is punished by informal sanctions administered by observers or peers.

These definitions of norms and deviance appear to be straightforward, but there are different ways to interpret norms and identify deviance when studying sports in society.

CHALLENGES FACED WHEN STUDYING DEVIANCE IN SPORTS

Studying deviance in sports presents challenges for four reasons. First, the types and causes of devi- ance in sports are so diverse that no single theory can explain them all (Atkinson and Young, 2008).

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For example, think of the types of deviance that occur just among male college athletes: failing to show up for a scheduled practice, violating rules or committing fouls on the playing field during a match or game, taking performance-enhancing sub- stances, hazing rookie team members by demeaning them and forcing them to do illegal things, binge drinking, fighting in bars, harassing women, engag- ing in group sex, sexual assault, turning in course- work prepared by others, betting on college sports, using painkillers to stay on the field, destroying hotel property during a road trip, taking money from boosters, and going home over a holiday to meet an agent who gives money to their parents.

This list includes only a sample of cases reported for athletes at one level of competition over the past decade. The list would be more diverse if we included all athletes and if we listed examples of deviance by coaches, administra- tors, team owners, and spectators. Therefore, it is important to study deviance in the context in which it occurs and not expect that a single theory will explain all cases.

Second, actions accepted in sports may be defined as deviant in other spheres of society, and actions accepted in society may be defined as deviant in sports. Athletes are allowed and even encouraged to do things outlawed or defined as criminal in other settings. Some things that ath- letes do in contact sports would be classified as felony assault on the streets. Ice hockey players would be arrested for actions defined as normal during their games. Racecar drivers would be ticketed for speeding and careless driving. Speed sking and motocross racing would be defined as criminally negligent in everyday life. Even when serious injuries or deaths occur in sports, criminal charges are seldom filed, and civil lawsuits asking for financial compensation are rare and generally unsuccessful when they go to court (Atkinson and Young, 2008; Young 2012).

Coaches treat players in ways that would be defined as deviant if teachers treated students or employers treated employees similarly. Team owners in North American professional sports

don’t abide by antitrust laws that apply to other business owners. Fans act in ways that would quickly alienate friends and family members in other settings or lead people to define them as mentally deranged.

On the other hand, if athletes take the same drugs or nutritional supplements used by millions of normal citizens, they may be banned from their sports and defined as deviant, even by the people using those products to enhance performance in their non-sport jobs. Athletes who miss practices or games due to sickness or injury often are defined as deviant by coaches and teammates, even though taking “sick days” is accepted as normal in every- day life. College athletes with scholarships violate rules if they hold jobs during the school year, and coaches may punish players who fail to attend class, whereas other students work and cut classes without violating norms. Youth league players may be benched for a game if they miss practice to attend a family picnic, despite the value given to the family outside sports. The fact that norms are applied and enforced differently in sports makes it difficult to use studies of deviance in other contexts to understand what occurs in sports.

Third, deviance in sports often involves over- conformity to norms, rather than rejecting or not conforming to them. Athletes often go overboard in their dedication to sport and their willingness to do whatever it takes to perform at a level that allows them to stay on the field and do what they love to do. Their attitudes and actions in these cases are supranormal in that they overconform to norms widely accepted in society as a whole. Instead of setting limits on what they are willing do as athletes, they evaluate themselves and their peers in terms of their unqualified willingness to go over-the-top and exceed normative limits, even if they jeopardize health and well-being in the process.

This “over-the-top deviance” is often danger- ous, but athletes learn to accept it as part of the game they love to play and as the basis for being accepted into the culture of high-performance sports. When this normative overconformity takes

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to health and well-being and beyond the limits of acceptance in other spheres of life.

Fourth, training and performance in sports are based on such new forms of science and technology that people have not yet developed norms to guide and evaluate much of what occurs today in sports. Science and medicine once used only to treat peo- ple who were sick are now used regularly in sports. The everyday challenge of training and competi- tion in sports often pushes bodies to such extremes that continued participation and the achievement of performance goals requires the use of new medical treatments and technologies.

Using nutritional supplements is now a standard practice in nearly all sports. As one high school ath- lete explained, supplements “are as much a fixture in sports participation as mouth guards and athletic tape” (in Mooney, 2003, p. 18). Ingesting substances thought to enhance performance is a taken-for-granted

the form of extreme dedication, commitment, and self-sacrifice, it brings praise rather than punish- ment from coaches and fans. It’s even used to reaffirm cultural values related to hard work, com- petition, achievement, and manliness. In the pro- cess, people overlook its negative consequences for health, relationships with family and friends, and overall well-being.

This practice of overconformity among athletes makes it difficult to understand certain cases of deviance because they contradict the assumption that deviance always involves subnormal or under- conforming attitudes and actions based on a rejec- tion of norms. However, supranormal attitudes and actions also are abnormal and deviant (Heckert and Heckert, 2002, 2007; West, 2003). When people don’t distinguish between these different forms of deviance, they often define athletes as role models, even though much of what they do is dangerous

Understanding deviance in sports is a challenge because athletes often do things that are not accepted in other settings. Many actions of mixed martial arts fighters, boxers, football and hockey players, racecar drivers, and wrestlers would be criminal acts off the field. (Source: © AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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organize their social worlds to meet individual and collective needs.

This truth-based, or absolutist approach to deviance assumes that social norms are based on essential principles that constitute an unchanging foundation for identifying good and evil and dis- tinguishing right from wrong. According to this approach, all norms represent ideals, and whenever an idea, trait, or action departs from an ideal, it is deviant; the greater the departure from the ideal, the more serious the deviance. This approach is illus- trated in Figure  5.1, where the broad vertical line signifies a particular ideal, and the horizontal hash line represents increasing deviations from the ideal. The most extreme deviations from the ideal are often described as evil or perverse ideas, traits, or actions. For example, if obedience to the coach is a team norm, any form of disobedience is deviant. The greater and more frequent the disobedience, the more serious the deviance; chronic or consistent deviance would eventually be seen by absolutists as evil or a sign of perverted character.

The absolutist approach has not contributed to a sociological understanding of deviance in sports, but it is often used by fans, media people, and the gen- eral public as they discuss rule violations and crimes by athletes and coaches.

It’s important for us to understand this approach because it helps us explain how people respond to deviance and why there are so many disagreements when people discuss deviance in sports. For exam- ple, if you and I use an absolutist approach but hold

part of being an athlete today—a strategy for living up to the time-honored motto of sport: Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”

A survey of the ads for performance- enhancing substances online (see www.t-nation.com) or in any Flex, Muscle and Fitness, Planet Muscle, or Iron Man magazine leads to the conclusion that strength and high performance are just a swallow away. Online promotions push protein drinks, amino acids, testosterone boosters, human growth hormone boosters, insulin growth factor, vitamins, energy drinks, and hundreds of other supplements that supposedly will help athletes get the most from their workouts, recover more quickly from injuries, and build a body that can adjust to overtraining and become stronger in the process.

Using the Internet to obtain various substances has occurred since the early 1990s, and this makes it difficult to determine just what actions are devi- ant and what actions are accepted parts of athletic training; in fact, “normal training” is now an oxy- moron because most high performance training involves exceeding boundaries accepted as normal in society as a whole.

Two Approaches to Studying Deviance

When norms are viewed as representing absolute, unchanging truths about right and wrong and good and evil, deviance is identified differently than when norms are viewed as social constructions that people create as they interact with each other and

FIGURE 5.1 An absolutist approach to deviance: Using ideals as a basis for identifying deviant ideas, traits, and actions.

Major forms of deviance

Evil or perverse ideas, traits, or actions

Minor forms of deviance

Conformity to a norm exists when an idea, trait, or action

meets an absolutist ideal

Increasingly serious deviations from the IDEAL

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Most sociologists reject an absolutist approach and use a constructionist approach to identify and deal with deviance. A constructionist approach assumes that deviance occurs when ideas, traits, and actions fall outside the socially determined boundaries that people use to decide what is accept- able and unacceptable in a society or social world. This approach is based on a combination of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories in sociology, and it emphasizes the following six points:

1. Norms are socially constructed as people interact with each other and use their values to determine a range of acceptable ideas, traits, and actions. This point is illustrated in Figure 5.2, where the vertical hash marks crossing the hori- zontal line represent the boundaries that separate what is accepted from what is deviant. This means that conformity does not usually require everyone to think, look, and act exactly alike to avoid deviance, because there is a range of acceptance associated with nearly all norms.

2. Deviance is socially constructed as people negotiate the boundaries of their acceptance. The ideas, traits, and actions that fall outside the range of acceptance are defined as deviant. However, boundary negotiation occurs continu- ously, and the vertical hash lines that represent normative boundaries move one way or the other over time as norms change.

different ideals, it becomes difficult for us to jointly study deviance. Let’s say that my ideal is fair play, and your ideal is achieving excellence as demon- strated through winning. According to my ideal, all violations of game rules would be deviant, whereas you would say that a player was deviant if your team lost because she refused to commit a strategic foul (a “good” or “smart” foul) in the closing minutes of a game. If we don’t share the same ideals, we identify deviance differently.

Another problem with an absolutist approach is that it leads many people to see deviance as caused by the weak or distorted character of individuals. Therefore they think that controlling deviance always requires more rules, better rule enforce- ment, and increasingly severe penalties for devia- tions from the ideal. But this approach undermines creativity and change, creates resistance to rules, and makes people defensive about their own atti- tudes and actions. When strict conformity to a specific ideal is the only way to avoid deviance, people always wonder if they are doing something wrong.

Despite these problems, many people use an absolutist approach when they discuss deviance in sports. When the actions of athletes don’t match their ideals, they define the athletes as deviant. They argue that the only way to control deviance is to “get tough” and eliminate the “bad apples” that lack moral character.

FIGURE 5.2 A constructionist approach to deviance: Deviance exists when ideas, traits, or actions go beyond socially negotiated normative limits. Deviance can involve underconformity or overconformity.

Normally accepted range of ideas,

traits, and actions

Normative ideas, traits, and actions

Deviant Overconformity Deviance based on

unquestioned acceptance of norms or a leader’s commands; involves “supranormal” actions

falling outside the normal range of acceptance

Deviant Underconformity Deviance based on

disobeying, ignoring, or rejecting norms;

involves “subnormal” actions falling outside the normal

range of acceptance

Limit of acceptance Limit of acceptance

Deviant ideas, traits, and actions

Deviant ideas, traits, and actions

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of the men engaged in unquestioned overconfor- mity to norms related to training and competition. The men trained so intensely and so often that their family relationships, job performance, and/or phys- ical health deteriorated, yet they never questioned their actions or the norms of their sport cultures.

This study was published nearly thirty years ago, but athletes today are just as likely, if not more likely, to ignore normative limits and do anything it takes to train and participate in sports. Former NFL player Matt Millen explains in this way:

You have to be selfish, getting ready for a game that only a handful of people understand. It’s tough on the people around you. . . . It’s the most unspoken but powerful part of the game, that deep-seated desire to be better at all costs, even if it means alienating your family or friends. [Athletes] will do anything to [stay in the game], even if it means sacri- ficing their own physical or mental well being (in Freeman, 1998, p. 1).

Another player reaffirms Millen with these words:

I was willing to do anything to be successful, anything. When I got hurt, I just made sure to get myself back into a game as soon as possible. It was do-what-you-have-to-do, and I did it all (in Leahy, 2008, p. W08).

Research has identified many forms of devi- ant overconformity, including self-injurious over- training, extreme weight-control strategies, taking untested or dangerous performance-enhancing substances, and playing while injured.1 When studying deviance in sports, it’s important to

1Many studies identify deviant overconformity, although they may not all use the concept as described in this chapter. These studies (along with detailed media reports) include Beals and Hill, 2006; Beamish, 2011; Brissonneau, 2010; Busch, 2007; Cotton, 2005; Howe, 2004; Ingham et al., 2002; Johns, 2004; Johns and Johns, 2000; Jones et al., 2009; Keown, 2004; P. King, 2004; Leahy, 2008; Liston et al., 2006; Mason and Lavalee, 2011; Pappa and Kennedy, 2013; Peretti-Watel et al., 2004a, 2004b; Pike, 2004, 2005; Schwarz, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2007d; Young and Charlesworth, 2005.

3. The process of negotiating normative boundar- ies and the range of social acceptance is influ- enced by power relations in a society or social world. People who possess power and authority generally have the most influence in determin- ing normative limits, because they administer formal sanctions, including both punishments and rewards.

4. Most ideas, traits, and actions in a social world fall into a normally accepted range. Those that fall outside the normal range of acceptance involve either deviant underconformity on the left side of the range or deviant overconformity on the right side.

5. Deviant underconformity consists of sub- normal ideas, traits, and actions that indicate a rejection of norms or ignorance about their existence, such as bar fighting, sexual assault, or referring to a person with mental retardation as a “retard.” Anarchy is the social condition that exists when widespread underconformity leads to general lawlessness.

6. Deviant overconformity consists of supranor- mal ideas, traits, and actions that indicate an uncritical acceptance of norms and a failure to recognize any limits to following norms, such as playing despite broken bones and torn ligaments or using painkilling drugs to stay in the game. Fascism is the social condition that exists when widespread overconformity is based on unlimited obedience to norms or to the commands of leaders.

A constructionist approach is useful when study- ing deviance in sports, especially when it involves the use of performance-enhancing substances and other extreme actions that most people in society define as outside the normal range of acceptance.

Deviant Overconformity in Sports

Research shows that deviant overconformity is a significant problem in sports. When sociologists Keith Ewald and Robert Jiobu (1985) studied men who were seriously involved in bodybuilding or competitive distance running, they found that some

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stronger) captures the meaning of this norm. Athletes are expected to relentlessly strive for improvement by pushing limits and doing whatever it takes to maximize their potential. This norm is highlighted by Justin Wadsworth, the top U.S. Nordic skier in the 30-kilometer race, who pushed his body so hard during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City that he suf- fered internal bleeding. From his hospital bed he said, “It’s pretty special to push yourself that hard,” and his coaches and fellow athletes agreed with him (Berger, 2002).

3. Athletes accept risks and play through pain. According to this norm, athletes are expected to endure pressure, pain, and fear without quitting. When athletes talk about this, they simply say that “this is part of the game.” But in sociologi- cal terms, it shows that athletes willingly partic- ipate in a culture of risk in which they accept the uncertainty, danger, and consequences of their actions (Giulianotti, 2009; Howe, 2004; Safai, 2003). As they do this, athletes develop a narrative that normalizes pain and injuries as an unavoidable part of what they do and who they are. This is clearly illustrated in the comments

distinguish between those actions based on indif- ference to or rejection of norms and those actions based on a blind acceptance of norms and a will- ingness to surpass normal limits of conformity. Such a distinction is identified only by examining the organization and dynamics of sport cultures and the meanings that athletes give to their sport participation. For example, within the culture of high-performance sports, athletes are expected to live by a code that stresses dedication, sacrifice, and a willingness to put one’s body on the line for the sake of their sport and their teammates. Following this code to an extreme degree is seen as a mark of a true athlete who is accepted and respected by peers as one of them. This creates a set of condi- tions in which athletes are likely to overconform to norms embodied in the code or ethic of contempo- rary power and performance sports.

The Sport Ethic and Deviance in Sports

An ethic is an interrelated set of norms or stan- dards that is used to guide and evaluate ideas, traits, and actions in a social world. Elite athletes and coaches use a sport ethic to guide and evalu- ate attitudes and actions in the social world of power and performance sports. This ethic is formed around four general norms (see Figure 5.3):

1. Athletes are dedicated to “the game” above all other things. This norm stresses that athletes must love “the game” and prove it by giving it top priority in their lives, meeting the expecta- tions of fellow athletes, making sacrifices to stay in their sport, and facing the demands of competition without backing down. Coaches’ pep talks and locker-room slogans proclaim the importance of this norm. It was explained in these terms by NFL player Brandon Stokley, who said, “I just love it. I can’t see myself giv- ing up football because I think I might have something (bad) happen to me or my brain. . . . I am going to live in the here and now and have fun at what I am doing” (in Brennan, 2012).

2. Athletes strive for distinction. The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher,

FIGURE 5.3 The four primary norms of the sport ethic.

Dedication to "the game"

Accept risks and play through

pain

Strive for distinction

Accept no obstacles in the

pursuit of success

SPORT

ETHIC

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[Slaney]. She’ll kill herself unless you pull the reins back (in Longman, 1996, p. B11).

The importance of Salazar’s insight, from twenty years ago, has been vividly supported by cur- rent research on concussions and brain injuries in sports. When athletes overconform to the norms of the sport ethic by enduring repeated head trauma, they risk permanent brain damage, chronic memory loss, and early-onset dementia that can affect them long before old age. This is in addition to the arthri- tis and joint injuries that result from intense daily training that pushes their bodies beyond normal limits. This suggests that deviant overconformity is more dangerous than deviant underconformity and is a central problem in sports today. Without critically assessing the culture of high-performance sport, this form of deviance will persist.

Of course, deviant underconformity also is a problem in sports, but when athletes undercon- form, they are punished immediately. As a result, underconformers are usually pushed out of high- performance sport cultures, whereas overconform- ers are praised. Additionally, media stories glorify overconforming athletes as role models—as war- riors who play with broken bones and torn liga- ments, endure surgery after surgery, and willingly submit to injections of painkilling drugs to stay in games. Spectators express awe when they hear these stories, even though they realize that athletes have surpassed the normative limits that are used in society as a whole. But people seldom object to deviant overconformity in sports because it is enter- taining to watch and it reaffirms the importance of the sport and values such as dedication, hard work, and achievement. However, they condemn devi- ant underconformity because it threatens the sport and their values. Therefore, most athletes avoid asking critical questions and setting limits on their conformity to the norms of the sport ethic, even though it creates problems, causes pain, disrupts family life, jeopardizes health and safety, and may even shorten their life expectancy. This illustrates how powerful the sport ethic can be when athletes internalize it and use their own overconformity as

of X Games athletes who endure pain and injury as they push limits. Levi LaValee, a medal-winning snowmobile athlete, said, “I’ve been injured so many times . . . [but] every time I’m injured, I can’t wait for the moment until I can get back on the sled [and] drive again” (in George, 2013).

For many elite athletes, the endurance of pain comes to be seen as an indicator of inner strength and commitment; eventually, many athletes view pain as a positive—sign that they are alive and doing what they were meant to do. Of course, coaches in most high- performance sports seek athletes who feel this way and then use them as examples of what they expect from everyone on the team.

4. Athletes accept no obstacles in the pursuit of success in sports. This norm stresses “the dream” and the obligation to pursue it at all costs. Athletes don’t accept obstacles without trying to overcome them. Dreams, they say, are achievable only if you never quit. Champion boxer Lucia Rijker (who starred in the film Mil- lion Dollar Baby) stated this norm succinctly as she trained for a bout: “I use obstacles as wood on a fire” (in Blades, 2005, p. 96).

Overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic is common in sports even though it is defined as devi- ant outside of sport and may lead to injuries that irreparably damage the health of athletes.

The danger of this overconformity was explained by Alberto Salazar, a former marathoner and coach for Mary Decker Slaney, a legendary middle- distance runner during the 1970s and 1980s. After multiple injuries and nineteen sport-related surger- ies, Slaney attempted a comeback while she lived in constant pain; she trained excessively, hoping to make the U.S. Olympic team. Salazar understood Slaney’s overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic, but he also recognized its dangers with this comment:

The greatest athletes want it so much, they run them- selves to death. You’ve got to have an obsession, but if unchecked, it’s destructive. That’s what it is with

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among themselves. As a result, what happens on the team stays in the team, even when it should be reported to authorities, and even when many team members know it isn’t right.

As high-performance ath- letes strive to maintain their identities and membership in their elite in-group, they often develop the sense that they are unique and extraordinary peo- ple. They often hear this day after day from coaches to fans and people on the street. They

read it in newspapers and magazines, and they see it on TV and the Internet. And when this sense of being unique and extraordinary becomes extreme, as it often does among high-profile athletes, it can take the form of hubris—that is, pride-driven arrogance and an inflated sense of self-importance that leads one to feel separate from and superior to others.

The dynamics leading to hubris among athletes are clear. First, they bond together in ways that encourage and normalize deviant overconformity. Second, collective overconformity creates a sense of specialness that separates athletes from the rest of the community at the same time that it inspires awe and admiration from fans. Third, the unique experiences associated with team membership leads athletes to feel a sense of entitlement. Fourth, athletes see people outside their sport culture as incapable of understanding them and their lives, and therefore undeserving of their concern or, in some cases, their respect.

The hubris that emerges on some sport teams can create serious problems, because it leads ath- letes to believe that general community norms don’t apply to them. But this possibility has not been studied, so we don’t know if there may be a relationship between the dynamics asso- ciated with collective overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic and high rates of deviant underconformity.

a basis for evaluating themselves and sustaining their identity among peers.

Deviant Overconformity and Group Dynamics

Being an athlete is a social experi- ence as well as a physical one. At elite levels of competition, athletes form special bonds with each other, due in part to their collective overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic. When team members collectively dedicate themselves to a goal and willingly make sacrifices and endure pain in the face of significant challenges, they create a social world in which overconformity is “normalized,” even as it remains deviant in society as a whole. As they push the envelope together, the bonds between athletes become extraordinarily power- ful. Their overconformity sets them apart cultur- ally and physically from the rest of the community, and this leads them to assume that people outside of their sport cannot understand who they are and what they do.

Athletes may appreciate fan approval, but they don’t look to fans for reaffirmation of their identity as athletes because in their eyes fans are ignorant of what it takes to perform as no others in the world can perform. Only other athletes understand this, and this makes everyone else peripheral to an athlete’s life in sports, even spouses and family members.

The separation between athletes and the rest of the community makes the group dynamics associated with participation in high-performance sports very powerful. Other selective and exclusive groups, usually groups of men, experience similar dynamics. Examples are found in the military, especially among Special Forces units. Former soldiers sometimes talk about these dynamics and the powerful social bonds formed while they faced danger and death with their “teams.” These bonds and the desire to remain con- nected with the select men that have unique and exhilarating experiences can be so strong that group members support increasingly extreme behaviors

You do whatever it takes to play . . . You get hurt, you find a way. . . . You just suck it up and push through, and if you can’t, you’re out. There’s a saying around locker rooms: “No one has ever made the club from the tub.” —Dave Pear, former NFL player, disabled (in Leahy, 2008, p. W08)

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other commitments in their lives and makes them dependent on some combination of psychological, physiological, medical, and pharmacological sup- port to be successful (Atry et al., 2013; Beamish, 2011; Brissoneau, 2010; Hoberman, 1992, 2005; Johnson, 2012; Ohl et al., 2015 Waddington and Smith, 2009). The fact that there are very few win- ners in high-performance sports means that deviant overconformity also occurs on teams and among athletes who will never win Olympic or World Cup medals, be ranked number 1, play in televised games, achieve public fame, receive college schol- arships, or sign professional contracts.

One way to control deviant overconformity is to enable athletes to set limits when conforming to the norms of the sport ethic. However, this would not be viewed favorably by most coaches in elite sports. For example, when a fourteen-year-old gymnast is late for practice, her coach immediately sanctions her for violating team norms. But when the same gym- nast loses weight and becomes dangerously thin as she strives for distinction and pursues her sport dream, many coaches, parents, and judges don’t see deviance as much as they see a dedicated athlete willing to suck it up and pay the price—that is, until stress fractures or anorexia interfere with competi- tion, threaten her life, and put her in the hospital.

Fans also want athletes to exceed normative limits and put their bodies on the line. They see this as exciting and entertaining because it heightens the stakes associated with competition. Fans don’t realize that if they accept deviant overconformity, deviant underconformity often follows in its wake. This, in turn, challenges their belief in the great sport myth and leads them to condemn individual nonconformers and call for them to be punished. For these fans it is easier to blame deviance on a few athletes they perceive to be morally corrupt than it is to abandon their belief in the essential purity and goodness of sport. But this will not con- trol deviant overconformity, because it and related ethical infractions among athletes are rooted in the culture of high-performance sports, relationships among athletes, relationships between athletes and

Controlling Deviant Overconformity

Deviant overconformity presents special social control problems in sports. Coaches, managers, owners, and sponsors—people who create and enforce rules—often benefit when athletes over- conform to the norms of the sport ethic. In their eyes, athletes who willingly put their bodies on the line for the team are a blessing, not a curse. In the eyes of the athletes, their overconformity is proof of their dedication and commitment; and in the eyes of fans and media people it is seen as excit- ing, a way to win games, and a wonderful boost to media ratings. Therefore, deviant overconformity goes unpunished, even though it often consists of dangerous actions that everyone sees as fall- ing outside normative boundaries. For example, few directors of national federations, such as the USOC (United States Olympic Committee), will tell national team coaches that their athletes are too dedicated to their sports, too focused on achieving distinction, too willing to play in pain, or too con- cerned with overcoming obstacles to win medals for the United States.

Complicating matters further is the fact that neither money nor the desire to win is the primary reason that athletes push themselves beyond the normative limits. Instead, it is their desire to play their sport in a way that sustains the athlete iden- tity around which their entire lives—their relation- ships, experiences, and everyday decisions and routines—have been organized. Of course, win- ning, money, and fame are important, but they are secondary to reaffirming the identity that has been at the core of their existence ever since they focused on making it to an elite level in their sport.

Every time people repeat the rhetoric about “winning at all costs” and “money” as explana- tions for everything that athletes do, they obscure two important things: (1) the deeper meaning and personal issues linked to being an athlete today in societies where sports are highly visible and cul- turally valued, and (2) the organization of today’s high-performance sports, in which athletes must train full time at a level of intensity that precludes

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information needed to explain—or, in legal terms, prove—what they do.

Cases of sexual assault, rape, and gang rape ini- tiated by male athletes have recently led people to ask if the culture and organization of certain men’s sports foster or passively approve of such actions. But most media coverage explains deviance in sports as the result of character weaknesses among athletes and the greed of managers, administrators, and others who financially benefit from sports and the outcomes of sport events. These explanations are so widely stated and accepted that they have become clichés in some societies. But they are oversimplifications of reality and explain little.

Character traits and greed may be related to devi- ance in sports, but there are important cultural and institutional factors as well, and they must be con- sidered if we wish to understand this issue. These are identified in the following sections.

Deviance on the Field or Related to Sports

Sport-related deviance includes cheating, gam- bling, shaving points, throwing games or matches, engaging in unfair conduct, harassment and abuse, hazing, administrative corruption, taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and other actions that violate rules of sports.

Cheating on the Field of Play Historical research indicates that cheating, dirty play, fighting, and the use of violence are less common today than in the days before television coverage and mega- salaries (Dunning, 1999; Elias, 1986; Guttmann, 2004; Scheinin, 1994). It also shows that sports today are more rule-governed than in the past and that on-the-field deviance is more likely to be punished and publicly criticized. However, comparing rates of on-the-field deviance among athletes from one time period to another is difficult because rules and enforcement standards change over time. Research shows that athletes in most sports interpret rules very loosely during games, and they create infor- mal norms, which stretch or bend official rules (Shields and Bredemeier, 1995). As one veteran

all those to whom athletes must answer, and willful neglect on the part of coaches, administrators, and sponsors.

To reduce deviant overconformity, sports would have to be organized primarily around the health and well-being of athletes, with commitment to performance being a secondary concern. It means that “winning at all costs” would be defined as sub- versive and irrational.

Although many people have seen sports as sites for achieving physical perfection, we have reached a point in many sports where improving on what currently exists requires that athletes train at a frequency and intensity that harms their bod- ies and requires dependence on technologies to keep them on the field and performing at optimum levels. Transforming high-performance sports into healthy activities is incompatible with how they are organized today, but it is possible to do, if there is the will to do it. Without the will, it is pointless to blame athletes for doing whatever it takes to meet performance expectations today.

RESEARCH ON DEVIANCE IN SPORTS

Media reports of deviance in sports have become daily occurrences. This raises sociological ques- tions: Does deviance occur more regularly in sports than other spheres of life? What are the patterns of deviance in sports? Do athletes have higher rates of deviance than others?

Most research focuses only on deviant under- conformity among athletes—that is, deviance grounded in rejecting or ignoring team rules or civil and criminal laws. Deviant overconformity is ignored because it challenges popular accep- tance of the great sport myth and the assump- tions underlying popular theories of deviance. Additionally, deviance among coaches, managers, team owners, and others connected with sports has seldom been studied in the sociology of sport because it is difficult to collect data from and about people in positions of power. These people have reasons and resources to keep secret the

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sport governing bodies, such as the NCAA, are self-policing. But the leaders of those organiza- tions have always accepted the great sport myth to the point that they have not created effective rule enforcement divisions. They felt they didn’t need them. Sports, they assumed, were essentially pure and good, and people in sports would regu- late themselves because they shared in that purity and goodness. But this assumption is flawed, and it undermines the willingness of leaders to enforce rules and investigate suspected or reported infractions.

A second problem is that the officials at the NCAA and other sport governing bodies often face inherent conflicts of interest. Because they serve at the pleasure of their members, they are not encour- aged to create a rule enforcement system that could thoroughly investigate those same members. So they create rules that make them look pure and good to outsiders, but they are ineffective when it comes to enforcement policies and procedures. For example, the NCAA receives self-reports from its members of about 4000 minor rule violations each year. With an under-resourced enforcement divi- sion that must investigate all these violations, there is little time to fully investigate major violations (Miller, 2012).

Third, the people who run sport organizations lack the experience that would prepare them to administer the systems of rule enforcement needed in today’s high-stakes sport cultures. Like people in other spheres of life, people in sports have developed complex ways to cheat and skirt the rules. But the investigators don’t have police powers and other investigative resources needed to consistently prove that cheating has occurred. This leads to bungled investigations and incon- sistent and capricious punishments that weaken the legitimacy of the organizations themselves (Miller, 2012).

Finally, officials in sport organizations have generally been “groomed” for their positions in “good old boy” networks that have never been concerned about transparency and accountability in what they do. This applies to rule enforcement

athlete explains, “We players have our own justice system” (Player X, 2009b). But this is not new.

Athletes in organized sports have traditionally “played to the level” permitted by umpires and referees—that is, they adjust their actions accord- ing to the way that referees enforce rules during a game. This means they will push the limits of rules as far as particular referees allow them to do so. Players also commit strategic fouls on the field to obtain an advantage over opponents, and players learn what rule violations are likely to be unde- tected by referees. But these actions are defined by players and fans alike as strategy rather than cheating.

Cheating, Corruption, and Harassment in Sport Organizations The perception that deviance has increased on and around the field is partly due to a combination of three factors. First, the constant addition of new rules creates new ways to be “devi- ant.” Rulebooks in sport organizations such as the International Olympic Committee, international sport federations, and the National Collegiate Ath- letic Association (NCAA) have hundreds of rules and regulations today that didn’t exist in the past, and every year more rules are added.

Second, the surveillance technologies used today increase the detection of rule violations. For example, slow-motion instant replays enable referees to identify infractions they would have missed in the past. Even text messages, email evi- dence, photos, and videos from handheld devices have been used to identify deviance that previously would have remained undetected.

Third, personal stakes in the form of status and financial rewards associated with sports are so much higher today that players and others connected with sports have stronger incentives to cheat. This makes everyone concerned with sports more sensitive to the possibility that cheating will occur—and this leads to higher detection rates.

These factors have led to what seems to be an endless parade of cheating scandals in sports. The NCAA and its high-stakes Division I athletic programs provide classic examples of this. Most

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a smear campaign by representatives of any organi- zations implicated in the study, and these represen- tatives often are influential and have more power than any scholars in the sociology of sport. So unless courageous investigative journalists backed by sup- portive media organizations do such investigations, corruption persists without consequences in certain sport organizations where people have consolidated power and use it to their advantage (Jennings, 2011).

When this occurs in an organization, it becomes a context in which harassment and exploitation are especially likely—again, without consequences for perpetrators. In the United States we saw this in the case of the athletic department at Penn State

as much as to budgets, travel expenses, hiring pro- cedures, and the everyday business and personnel matters of an organization.

The lack of transparency and accountability cre- ates problems that often escalate into long-term disasters. This was recently seen in connection with sport mega-events such as the men’s World Cup and the Olympic Games. Cost overruns, inside deals, and blatant corruption leave large public debts in their wake. Corruption alone reportedly accounted for $30 billion of the $50 billion spent to host the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia (Zirin, 2013b). Tracking money trails in sports and sport events is difficult. Those who control sports orga- nizations are able to hide and disguise financial transactions because they have not been investi- gated in the same ways that traditional businesses are investigated.

The takeaway point from this is that we don’t know for sure whether cheating is worse now than in the past. However, there is good reason to believe that as the amount of money and other perks asso- ciated with sports have increased, there has been a growing problem of institutional corruption— that is, established, widespread, and taken-for- granted processes and practices that, if publicly known, would be seen as immoral, unethical, or illegal to the point of destroying public trust in the organization and its leaders. But institutional cor- ruption may not always be illegal, meaning that external control is difficult to impose. Identifying institutional corruption is tedious and even dan- gerous, especially now that literally billions of dollars flow through sport organizations like the IOC, FIFA, and other sport governing bodies and leagues worldwide (Jennings, 2006, 2011; Sugden and Tomlinson, 1998). In each case, the incentives for self-policing are weak and the opportunities for corruption are numerous and lucrative (Thamel and Wolff, 2013).

Research on institutional corruption is scarce. Funding for such research is practically nonex- istent, and there are career risks for any academic researcher who publishes evidence of corruption. The researcher will almost certainly be subjected to

Chuck Blazer, former commissioner of the American Soccer League and vice president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, was arrested by the FBI for allegedly paying himself $15 million in secret commissions while he was CEO and treasurer of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). (Source: © ALI HAIDER/epa/Corbis)

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self-enforcement and voluntarily turn all enforce- ment matters over to an independent outside agency. This transfer would not be without prob- lems, but it would make rule enforcement the job of people who don’t have the conflicts of inter- est that exist when enforcement is handled inter- nally (Miller, 2012). Of course, the independent agency would require adequate funding, and its actions would have to be transparent and compe- tent to establish trust. Additionally, specific forms of training are needed by most management-level people working in sport organizations to make them aware of their responsibilities to athletes and co-workers. Again, this training becomes increas- ingly effective when athletes and employees have independent authorities to whom they can go with questions and reports about harassment and abuse.

Gambling and Associated Deviance by Athletes and Referees New technologies help to detect deviance in sports, but they also create new ways to engage in deviance that are difficult to detect (Glanz et al., 2015a, 2015b). Gambling is a clas- sic example of this. Of course, gambling on sports dates back to the first race ever run in the ancient Olympic Gams nearly 3000 years ago. But today it has become pervasive worldwide and is legal in many countries. The existence of gambling web- sites makes it easy to place bets on nearly any quantifiable aspects of any sport in the world, and this can be done without ever leaving one’s home or dorm room in the case of U.S. college students, including athletes.

Betfair.com provides an eBay-like platform that matches up people looking to place a particular bet with one or more others willing to take the other side of the bet. Through this or similar sites people can bet on something as specific as which player will make the assist leading to the second goal in the sec- ond half of a World Cup soccer match. Of course, the sites set the “odds” or probabilities that define the bet, and the bettor may take or leave them as they wish. For example, the betting sheets at the “sport books” in Las Vegas casinos at the time of the Super Bowl or the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

University, where a former assistant football coach was able to sexually abuse multiple boys for over a decade as he used the department’s facilities without triggering any serious or sustained inves- tigation. Other coaches, including the legendary football coach Joe Paterno, and athletic department and university officials were so concerned with maintaining the money- and status-generating foot- ball program that they shirked their legal obliga- tions and overlooked the seriousness of the abuse occurring in their midst. It wasn’t until investiga- tive journalists exposed this situation that there was an official response to the deviance of the former coach (Hayes, 2012; Klarevas, 2011; McCarthy, 2012).

The Penn State case is one of many cases of illegal harassment and criminal abuse that have occurred in sport organizations, with administrators and coaches usually the perpetrators (Farrey, 2011). The processes involved in harassment and abuse have been studied meticulously since the 1990s by Celia Brackenridge from the United Kingdom, Kari Fasting from Norway, and their colleagues.2 The dynamics of these processes vary from one situa- tion to another, but they are most likely to occur in sport organizations where coaches and/or adminis- trators have unquestioned power and control over the careers of others and are not held accountable for anything except sport outcomes. Additionally, the accusations of victims of harassment or abuse may not be believed as perpetrators hide behind the cover of the great sport myth and either escape detection or provide accounts of their actions that are accepted by others.

The only way to break this potential cycle of cheating, corruption, harassment, and abuse is for sport organizations to abandon the practice of

2Brackenridge et al., 2008; Brackenridge and Fasting, 2009; Brackenridge et al., 2010a, 2010b; Brackenridge and Rhind, 2010; Fasting et al., 2008; Fasting and Brackenridge, 2009; Fasting, Brackenridge, and Knorre, 2010; Fasting, Brackenridge, and Kjølberg, 2011; Hartill, 2009, and Leahy, 2011.

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offer literally hundreds of bets that can be made on various aspects of these events.

Betting on sports in Nevada is legal and very popular, but it is defined as a crime in other states, although some states would like to legalize it. In most of Europe and parts of Asia, betting on sports is legal but regulated by national governments. Worldwide, gambling is a multibillion-dollar busi- ness. The major owners of three professional teams are gamblers, and they used their gambling win- nings to buy the teams. Some universities in the United Kingdom now offer degrees in “gambling studies,” and sport leagues work with bookmakers who alert them to betting patterns that may indicate an attempt to “fix” the outcomes of matches and games or any aspect of a sport event on which bets can be made.

The estimates of money bet on sports are diffi- cult to verify, but Interpol, the global police agency recognized in about 190 countries, estimates that $1 trillion is bet on sports each year, and 70 percent of that total is bet on soccer, with the amount of betting increasing dramat- ically each year (Assael, 2008; Bor- den, 2012; Brett, 2012; Hoffer, 2013; Karp, 2011; Millman, 2010a, 2010b; Zaremba, 2009).

Sport federations and other sport governing bodies such as the NFL, the NCAA, and FIFA have explicit rules that prohibit athletes from plac- ing bets on sports, especially their own sports and their own events. Violating these rules brings severe sanctions, including lifetime bans on play- ing, coaching, or being formally connected with their sport in the future. This is to safeguard the legitimacy of the outcomes of sport competitions, because if people cannot trust that outcomes are achieved fairly, there would be no spectator sports as we know them today.

Despite rules and laws, there have been doz- ens of match- and game-fixing incidents as online gambling has turned sports betting into a major global industry. When gamblers or the emerging gambling cartels want to increase their chances

of winning, the surest way to do so in sports is to pay players or referees to alter game events or out- comes so that particular bets are won.

Organized crime and very clever, but devi- ous, entrepreneurs have become involved in this industry, so that match fixing today has become an international criminal activity with profits rivaling those for illegal weapons sales, prostitution, and drug trafficking. Cartels in China and Southeast Asia have captured much of this betting activity (Brett, 2012).

In 2013 investigators found evidence of match fixing in more than 600 soccer matches worldwide, with involvement of hundreds of people across fifteen countries (Robinson, 2013). Now that orga- nized crime is involved, this criminal activity is becoming increasingly difficult to investigate and control. The crime organizations operate globally, whereas police forces operate nationally with the

exception of Interpol and Europol, which have limited powers and must work with national police forces. Additionally, organized crime doesn’t merely bribe players and referees—it threatens them and their families with harm if they do not cooperate.

Although gambling is becoming an increas- ing problem, sport organizations also realize that betting on sports is a “hook” that keeps fans watching games until the final minute of play. People who bet on sports also pay for the expen- sive cable and satellite sports packages for their homes and regularly buy pay-per-view events in mixed martial arts and boxing. There is nothing better than an office pool to keep people watch- ing the NCAA tournament basketball games and the BCS bowl games. People at the NCAA understand this, even though they now try to educate athletes on the dangers of betting on sports (Brown, 2010; Paskus, 2010).

Research by the NCAA shows that college ath- letes regularly gamble and that golfers are the most likely to gamble and place bets with other golfers— a phenomenon common in golf generally (Paskus

The ban on sports betting does exactly what Prohibition did. It makes criminals rich. —James Surowiecki, journalist, 2013

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Confusion about hazing often occurs because people don’t distinguish between hazing and related processes, such as rites of passage, ini- tiations, and bullying. A rite of passage is an institutionalized cultural ritual that marks a transi- tion from one status to another. An initiation is an expected, public, and formal ceremony that marks entry into a group or organization. Hazing is a secret, private, interpersonal process that reaffirms a hierarchical status difference between incoming and existing group members. Finally, bullying con- sists of aggressive acts that are meant to intimidate, exploit, or harm another person. Of these four pro- cesses, hazing has been studied the least, mostly because it is private and secretive and involves experiences that people keep private because they are embarrassing.

There are times when hazing in sport teams involves clear cases of deviance, but research indicates that hazing processes are difficult to classify as deviant or as acceptable, for the fol- lowing reasons (Allan and Madden, 2008; Clay- ton, 2013):

(a) High school and college athletes are aware of hazing and often expect it when they become new members of a team.

(b) Most athletes who are hazed perceive their own hazing in positive terms or they are ambivalent about their experience and may not conclude that they have been hazed as others define it.

(c) Hazing often involves forms of humiliation, alcohol consumption, isolation, sleep depriva- tion, and sex acts that athletes keep private.

One way to make sense of these findings is to say that hazing has become normalized for most athletes, at least those who become members of high status teams. Additionally, certain hazing practices have become so normalized that those who experience them don’t see them as “out of the ordinary,” even though people in the larger com- munity would disagree.

Research on hazing is scarce, but studies by Jennifer Waldron, Vicki Krane, and their colleagues

and Derevensky, 2013; St.  Pierre et  al., 2013; Wolken, 2013). This creates potential problems if the athletes have gambling debts and feel that point shaving or match fixing is a way to eliminate debts with a bookie.

During an investigation in 2015, the New York Times and PBS Frontline presented information that exposed the pervasiveness of gambling world- wide and in the United States. Billions of dollars are bet weekly on sports. Bets are placed though offshore gaming sites registered in other coun- tries. Tracking these sites is tedious, and sites can always be replaced to take bets without interrup- tion. Federal laws in the United States, passed in 2006, were intended to ban gambling on sports, but they are ineffective. These laws also allowed fantasy sports—an oversight leading to what has become a multi-billion dollar industry that has merged with gambling interests (Bogdanich et al., 2015). Although the FBI works to police gambling, it has little enforcement power outside the United States. The U.S. Congress can do little to regulate gambling on sports without seriously regulating the Internet, which is unlikely to occur.

As gambling on sports grows, pronouncements coming from professional sports officials in the United States continue to condemn gambling at the same time that team owners invest in fantasy sports companies. The NFL and other leagues say they don’t approve of gambling, but they also want revenues related to the gambling industry (Belson and Drape, 2015). Although gambling on sports is unlikely to be a high priority law enforcement tar- get, the profits that it produces fund other criminal activities and create a range of problems for those addicted to gambling (Brett, 2012).

Hazing: Deviance or Team Building? Hazing has long been an accepted practice as new members enter an established group or organization in which membership increases a person’s status in a social world. It is more common in groups of males than groups of females, partly because men are more likely to assume that their groups are linked with high status.

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From what we know about hazing on professional teams, it can be juvenile and it certainly is designed to reproduce the status and control of senior team members, and it takes different forms than reported cases of high school and college hazing. Gaining access to a team to do research on this issue is dif- ficult, but good studies would help us understand the dynamics and consequences of hazing at all levels of sport.

After this dismal litany of deviance in sports, the following conclusion may seem surprising: there are no historical studies showing that deviant

(Waldron and Kowalski, 2009; Waldron et al., 2011) indicate that hazing contains dynamics that easily get out of hand and can seriously harm peo- ple. These dynamics exist largely because hazing is a private, secretive process that reproduces a hierarchical status and power distinction between senior and junior group members. For example, one of the ways to ensure secrecy is to force people to violate important social taboos in ways that they could not admit without being defined as deviant themselves.

In U.S. culture such taboos often are related to sex, so there is a tendency in hazing processes to force people to engage in sexual activity defined as immoral, so they will keep it private. Another guarantee of secrecy is to force people to drink so much that they will not clearly remember what they did or will not be believed if they tell some- one about it. This is why hazing often involves forms drinking that put people in danger.

Due to its deviance and danger, hazing creates bonds and a form of vulnerability that coaches can use to control team members. This is why some coaches covertly approve of hazing—it gives them information that can be used to assert power over a team and to demand obedience without destroying team bonds.

My review of the evidence on hazing leads me to conclude that for high school and college students it should be replaced by initiation cer- emonies in which new team members have pub- lic experiences that mark entry onto the team and signal their right to claim a new identity. In the case of professional teams, information about hazing suggests that it is more controlled and more focused on initiating rookies into a culture of respect for the players that have already “paid their dues” and shown that they deserve to be identified as athletes in this elite context. How- ever, an extreme case of NFL hazing that became public in 2013 led to disclosures that first year players may be subjected to costly and demeaning demands by veteran players on some, but not all teams (Clark, 2013; Gay, 2013; Hochman, 2013; Pelissero, 2013).

Texas Rangers catcher Luis Martinez was forced by team veterans to wear a costume as part of rookie hazing as the team heads to the bus after the second baseball a game in 2012, in Arlington, Texas.   (Source: © AP Photo/LM Otero)

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athletes and, as a result, underestimate their delin- quency rates.

A study using longitudinal data (1994–2001) collected from a national sample of students in grades seven to twelve found that football play- ers and wrestlers were more likely to be involved in serious fights than young men in other sports or not involved in school sports (Kreager, 2007). This raises issues that are discussed in Chapter 6, “Violence in Sports,” but the point in this chap- ter is that some studies on sport participation and delinquency may overlook patterns of norm viola- tions among certain athletes or analyze data out of context so they can’t explain why certain patterns exist.

Even when sport programs are designed as “interventions” for “at-risk youth,” we lack a clear theory to explain how and why we might expect sport-based intervention programs to be effec- tive in reducing delinquency or producing other positive effects. Most of these programs have lit- tle effect because they do nothing to change the unemployment, poverty, racism, poor schools, and other delinquency-related factors that exist in most neighborhoods where sports for at-risk youth are offered (Coakley, 2011b; Coalter, 2007; Coalter and Taylor, 2010; Hartmann, 2003b; Hartmann and Depro, 2006; Hartmann and Massoglia, 2007).

We know from Chapter 3 (pp. 62–66) that we cannot make generalizations about athletes because sport experiences vary from program to program and because sport participation constitutes only one part of a person’s experiences. Therefore, when someone says that “playing sports kept me out of trouble,” we should investigate what that statement means in that person’s life and then iden- tify aspects of sport experiences that enable young people to see positive alternatives and make good choices in their lives. Until this research is done, our conclusion is that sport participation creates neither “saints nor sinners,” although both may play sports.

Academic Cheating Despite highly publicized cases of college athletes having their coursework

underconformity on and around the field is more common now than in the past. However, cases of institutional corruption and the match-fixing side of gambling constitute significant problems that could jeopardize the future of some sports.

Deviance Off the Field and Apart from Sports

Off-the-field deviance among athletes attracts widespread media attention. When athletes are arrested or linked to criminal activity, they make headlines and become lead stories on the evening news. However, research doesn’t tell us if the rates of off-the-field deviance have gone up or down over time or if general rates are higher among ath- letes than their peers in the general population. The studies that deal with this have focused primarily on three topics: (1) delinquency and sport partici- pation among high school students; (2) academic cheating and excessive alcohol use among high school and college athletes; and (3) particular felony rates among athletes.

Delinquency Rates Research on high school stu- dents shows that delinquency rates among athletes often are lower than rates for other students from similar backgrounds. With a few exceptions, this finding applies for athletes in various sports, ath- letes in different societies, and both boys and girls from various racial and social-class backgrounds (Hartmann and Massoglia, 2007; McHale et al., 2005; Veliz and Shakib, 2012).

The problem with most of these studies is that they don’t take into account three important fac- tors: (1) students who have histories of deviance are less likely than other students to try out and be selected for sport teams; (2) athletes may receive preferential treatment enabling them to avoid being labeled delinquent; and (3) deviance among high school athletes may be obscured by a “facade of conformity”—that is, athletes who conform to norms in public, but violate them in private where detection is rare. This means that many studies may not have valid measures of delinquent actions by

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my conclusion is that the relationship between sport participation, drinking, and other actions depends on factors such as team culture and the social activi- ties that are a part of that culture. If athletes—male or female, high school or college—create a culture in which weekend parties are frequent, they will be more likely to drink and binge-drink than other athletes and students generally (Hoffman, 2006). Therefore, if being an athlete positions a young per- son in a culture where party attendance is encour- aged or expected, drinking is more likely. However, some sports and teams may have cultures in which weekend social activities do not include parties and other social events at which alcohol may be present. So, the key factor is not so much the sport participa- tion as the culture and social dynamics that come along with membership on a particular team.

Research on this topic is important because alcohol use and abuse is related to other forms of deviance. For example, we don’t know if deviant overconformity and the associated group dynam- ics that exist among college athletes contributes to alcohol use and binge drinking. Slamming drinks and getting drunk with teammates may not be very different, in sociological terms, from play- ing with an injury to gain approval from peers in a sport culture. When teammates who take risks together and depend on each other say, “Let’s do some tequila tonight,” do players uncriti- cally overconform by downing multiple shots? Research is needed to see if, why, when, and how often this occurs.

Felony Rates Widely publicized cases of assault, hard-drug use, and driving under the influence (DUI) in which male athletes are the offenders have made it important to study these forms of deviance. At this point, research is scarce, and existing studies report mixed findings.

Another problem with studies of felony rates is that data on arrest rates for athletes are seldom compared with arrest rates in the general popula- tion or in populations comparable to the athletes in age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic back- ground. For example, many people were shocked

completed by “academic tutors,” the charge that college athletes generally engage in academic cheating more often than other students, has not been studied systematically (Pennington, 2012a). If we compared athletes with other students, we might find comparable rates but different methods of cheating. An athlete may be more likely to hand in a paper written by an “academic tutor,” whereas other students would obtain papers from files maintained at a fraternity house, from an online site, or from a professional writer hired by a par- ent (Gabriel, 2010; Kristal, 2005). However, when a regular student is caught turning in a bogus paper, the case does not make national news, the student is not rebuked by people around the nation, the reputation of the university is not questioned in the national media, and no faculty members are fired for not policing students effectively—as might occur if the cheater were an athlete.

Do athletes cheat more often because the stakes associated with making particular grades are higher for them than for other students, or do athletes cheat less because they are watched more closely and have more to lose if they are caught? We don’t know the answer to this question, and we need studies comparing athletes with other students generally, with other students who would lose their scholarships or job opportunities if they did not maintain minimum grade point averages, and with other students who are members of tightly knit groups organized around nonacademic activities and identities. Only then will we be able to make definitive statements about academic cheating and sport participation.

Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking Underage and excessive alcohol consumption in high school and college is not limited to athletes. However, research generally indicates that male and female collegiate athletes engage in more alcohol use, abuse, and binge drinking than other male and female stu- dents (Bacon and Russell, 2004). Research on high school students shows a similar pattern (Denham, 2011; Hickey et al., 2009; Hoffman, 2006). How- ever, after reviewing dozens of studies on this topic,

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and professional athletes. An investigation by USA Today (Schrotenboer, 2013a) reports that when compared to white NFL players, black players are up to ten times more likely to be stopped by police while they are driving, and when they are stopped they are more likely to have their vehicles searched. Black players interviewed in the investi- gation said that when they are driving an expensive car in an area where an officer might think they don’t belong, they are likely to be pulled over. If they object or give the impression that they are not fully cooperative, they are more likely than whites to be treated as a possible criminal.

This investigation does not prove that police are being unfair, but it certainly raises questions about the data on arrest rates among players when it comes to certain situations and possible crimes.

PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING SUBSTANCES: A CASE STUDY OF DEVIANT OVERCONFORMITY

The use of performance-enhancing substances remains a persistent issue in many sports (Hruby, 2012a, 2012b, 2013a, 2013e; Hughes, 2013; King, 2014; King et al., 2014; Ohl et al., 2015; Sefiha, 2012; Smith, 2015). Media stories about athletes using performance-enhancing substances are no longer shocking. However, most people don’t know that drug and substance use in sports has a long history. For centuries athletes have taken a wide variety of everyday and exotic sub- stances to aid their performances, and this has occurred at all levels of competition.

The use of performance-enhancing substances predates commercial sports and television, and it occurred regularly when so-called traditional val- ues were widely accepted. Therefore, we must look beyond these factors to explain why athletes use performance-enhancing substances.

Research also suggests that substance use is not caused by defective socialization or a lack of moral character among athletes; in fact, it usually occurs among the most dedicated, committed, and

when a study done in the late-1990s reported that 21.4 percent of a sample of NFL players had been arrested at least once for something more serious than minor crimes since the year they started col- lege (Benedict and Yaeger, 1998). However, a follow-up study (Blumstein and Benedict, 1999) showed that 23 percent of the males living in cit- ies of 250,000 or more people are arrested for a serious crime at some point in their lives, usually during young adulthood.

A more recent study of arrest rates from 2000–2013 indicate that rates for NFL players were lower than rates in the general U.S. popula- tion for property crimes and public disturbance crimes, but they were higher for violent crimes in six of the fourteen years covered in the study (Leal et al., 2015).

However, when crime rates are compared it must be remembered that professional athletes may be treated differently than their peers in the general population. In some cases, their actions may be so visible that they are held more account- able than others engaging in the same actions. But in other cases, athletes may receive prefer- ential treatment and avoid arrests for actions that would lead to an arrest of others.

In the case of sexual assault the dynamics of filing charges, making arrests, going to trial, and facing a verdict are complex. For example, when Jeff Benedict, a lawyer-social scientist, studied cases involving NBA players during the 2001–2002 season, he found that it was “nearly impossible for a rape victim to file a criminal com- plaint against an NBA player without being labeled a groupie or a gold digger.” He suggested that “it takes a victim nothing less than Snow White to obtain a conviction in a sexual assault case against a celebrity athlete and emerge with a reputation still intact” ( Benedict, 2004, p. 29). This issue— the incidence of assault and sexual assault among male athletes—is especially important, and it is discussed fully in Chapter 6, “Violence in Sports” (pp. 163–165).

Race is another issue that must be taken into account when discussing arrest rates for college

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use them to survive and succeed in elite sports. Therefore, we need different explanations to under- stand why athletes use “drugs.” The explanations and methods of control used to deal with people who reject norms and use heroin, cocaine, methamphet- amines, cannabis, and other so-called “recreational” drugs are not relevant when trying to deal with the issue of PESs in sports.

The Great Sport Myth, Doping, and Lance Armstrong

Most people who watch sports and cover them for the media want athletes to be models of positive character and deeds. When athletes, especially those who are highly visible and talented, say or do things that don’t meet this expectation, they challenge believers of the great sport myth (GSM). For example, if I believe that playing sports leads to positive character development and I hear that a person who has played sports for many years vio- lates rules or engages in deviance that contradicts my belief about sport, I can either change my long- held belief in the GSM or I can say that the deviant athlete is “morally corrupt” and unable to learn the lessons that sport teaches. If I have organized part of my life around my belief in the GSM, I find it much easier to condemn the athlete than to give up my belief and admit that I’ve been wrong about the essential purity and goodness of sport.

This example helps us understand what hap- pened when Lance Armstrong finally admitted that he used substances banned by the IOC and the International Cycling Federation. Many people had turned Armstrong and his life into a fantasy narra- tive that for them provided absolute proof of the validity of the GSM. When Armstrong confessed, those believers felt betrayed. So they retained their beliefs about sports by vehemently condemning Armstrong as an embodiment of evil.

Exceptions to this response occurred among cancer survivors who never accepted the GSM as a guide for making decisions or making sense of reality. For them, Armstrong was simply a source of hope and comfort in their lives—he

hard-working athletes in sports (Petróczi, 2007). At this point, it appears that most substance use and abuse is tied to an athlete’s uncritical accep- tance of the norms of the sport ethic. Therefore, it is grounded in overconformity—the same type of overconformity that occurs when distance runners continue training with serious stress fractures; when female gymnasts control weight by cutting their food consumption to dangerous levels; and when NFL players take injections of painkilling drugs so they can put their already injured bodies on the line week after painful week.

Sports provide powerful and memorable expe- riences, and many athletes are willing to “set no limits” in their quest to maintain participation and gain reaffirmation of their identities as members of a select group sharing lives characterized by inten- sity, challenge, and excitement (Smith, 2015). Ath- letes often refer to their desire to win when they are interviewed or when they talk with fans, but for most of them, winning is important because it enables them to continue playing the sport they love to play and to receive identity affirmation from other athletes. These dynamics encourage overcon- formity to the norms of the sport ethic, and they affect athletes at various levels of sports—from local gyms, where high school players work out, to the locker rooms of professional sport teams; they affect both women and men across many sports, from the 100-meter sprint to the marathon and from tennis to football.

The point here is that athletes use substances like HGH (human growth hormone) for reasons that differ greatly from the reasons that an alien- ated twenty-five-year-old shoots heroin to get high and escape reality. The alienated twenty-five-year- old rejects society’s norms, whereas athletes using performance-enhancing substances accept society’s norms about dedication, working hard, ignoring pain, and overcoming obstacles to reach goals. But as they uncritically overconform to these norms, they often go too far and accept without question the idea of using performance-enhancing technologies. This means that athletes don’t use performance-enhancing substances (PESs) to escape reality as much as they

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of performance-enhancing substances and why an athlete might use them.

Sport Careers and Performance- Enhancing Technologies

The Armstrong case provided a perfect opportun- ity to ask critical questions about the organization of high-performance sports today, the pervasive use of performance-enhancing technologies by elite athletes, and the ever-increasing demands of training and competition schedules set by sponsors, event organizers, media companies, coaches, and sport organization managers. But this opportunity was lost as people desperately clung to the GSM, heaped condemnation on Armstrong, and discred- ited everything he had done in his life.

had survived cancer, worked hard to succeed in cycling, founded the Livestrong Foundation, raised half a billion dollars for cancer research, and used his foundation to support them as they dealt with cancer. These people were less likely to see Armstrong as morally corrupt, even though many were disappointed that he had lied about doping and had treated other people badly in the process. Additionally, they were more likely to realistically understand the role of drugs in con- temporary society. They knew that performance- enhancing substances were essential in their own daily lives, because they used them to avoid nau- sea, restore and build muscle, control pain and depression, and sustain the energy needed to live their lives. On the other hand most GSM believers never made a connection between their own use

Lance Armstrong completes a half triathlon with his daughters running alongside. After his professional cycling career, he continued to train incessantly for marathons and triathlons, even though he had little chance of winning at his age. During the years when he won seven Tour de France races, he reputedly trained harder and longer than other riders. All but one of the twenty-one riders who placed second through fourth during those years were also found to be “doping.” (Source: © Elizabeth Kreutz/Corbis)

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from and about elite athletes in the NFL and Major League Baseball, among other sports.

After analyzing data collected mostly through in- depth interviews with athletes in cycling, track and field, wrestling, weightlifting, and bodybuilding, Christophe and his colleagues at the University of Paris social science research lab created a model that describes participation in elite sport as a three-part process in a multiphase sport career (Brissonneau and Depiesse, 2006; Brissonneau and Ohl, 2010; Brissonneau, 2010, 2013; Ohl et al., 2015). This model as applied to careers in professional cycling is presented in Figure 5.4.

The model identifies five phases in the overall career of a professional cyclist. In each phase the cyclist experiences socialization in connection with

Our discussion here is an attempt to regain this opportunity and discuss research findings that help to explain why the use of PESs persists in many sports despite the efforts of anti-doping agencies that are now part of a powerful multibillion-dollar substance testing and control industry.

Studying the careers of athletes and the con- texts in which they train and compete has been the focus of French sociologist Christophe Bris- sonneau. As a former elite cyclist, he has used his contacts in sports to collect data from athletes, trainers, coaches, and sport medicine profession- als. Christophe began to collect data systematic- ally in Europe during the late 1990s. Most recently he received a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence award to come to the United States and collect data

FIGURE 5.4 Brissonneau’s model of a professional sport career.

A. Participation career

5th phase1st phase 2nd phase 3rd phase 4th phase

5th phase1st phase 2nd phase 3rd phase 4th phase

B. Pharmacological career

Career medical supportC.

Ordinary world Extraordinary world Ordinary world

Working as cyclist

Striving to be normal

Amphetamines, alcohol, sleep aids, hash, cocaine

EPO, HGH, other substances

Doping to win

Addiction Specialist

BiotechnologistPerformance Physiologist

Sport Medicine Doctor

General Practitioner

Products taken to win

Products to do the job

No special substances

Iron, B12, magnesium, & many supplements in a body control process

Cortisone, anabolics,

other substances Doping to do job

Obsessive body maintenance & control

Discovery of legal products

Products taken to escape and forget

Training to be a champion

Apprenticeship as professional

Discover cycling culture

QUALITATIVE TRANSITION

QUALITATIVE TRANSITION

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The move from the second to the third phase of an athlete’s career is significant, because it involves a qualitative change from the ordinary world of amateur sports to the extraordinary world of professional sports. Sport participation in this phase comes to be defined as a job—sponsors are sought, athletes are paid, training and competition schedules are determined by others, and the pres- sure to improve performance becomes the sole focus of athletes’ lives. Expectations, demands, and personal perspectives change dramatically. The athletes’ social world becomes increasingly exclusive and isolated from the ordinary world, and their lives revolve around relationships with elite athletes, coaches, trainers, performance physi- ologists, team managers, and sponsors. These peo- ple are concerned with the cyclist’s performance above all else.

During the third phase, training is based on science and rationality. The duration and inten- sity of training increases dramatically and fatigue becomes the body’s enemy. Over time the athletes come to realize that in order to survive and succeed at the professional level, they must do things that in the past they avoided or thought were unwise or unethical. But they also know that for their bod- ies to function at full capacity, they must use tech- nologies to help them recover from the physical damage done by their training and competition. To ignore these technologies means not doing their job and not being fit for competition. Pharmacological products offer assistance—if the athletes are will- ing to work at the level of intensity needed to take advantage of them. At this point, they go beyond normal boundaries of what is accepted in society at large. To remain at this elite level, the use of these technologies and substances comes to be seen as a necessary part of training, even if they are illegal or banned.

The fourth phase involves an intensification of everything from the third phase. In the case of cyclists this has generally involved a shift from focusing on doing the job to reaching the podium, winning stages in long races, and working with teammates to win races. Athletes feel compelled to

(a) participation, (b) pharmacology, and (c) medical support. The career begins in the ordinary world— that is, the normal, everyday world.

The first phase of the participation career involves discovering the culture of a particular sport—in this case, cycling. At this point, cyclists are amateurs and feel no need to use special per- formance technologies or performance- enhancing substances, and medical support is provided by a general practitioner during an annual checkup and general health assessment. These cyclists might race in local events, but their lives involve school and family. Cycling during this phase is focused on per- sonal experiences rather than tracking performance, and the goal is primarily to enjoy and learn more about cycling.

In the second phase, cyclists become more ser- ious and set goals; at this point some aspire to become professionals. Depending on the sport and the country, athletes join clubs or become mem- bers of competitive programs and teams. Health and recovery from training and competition now become important, as does the need to be more rational and scientific in monitoring and control- ling their bodies. This means that specialized sport medicine doctors are sought for support. Perfor- mance-enhancing technologies become important because they begin to track and measure their phys- ical attributes, from strength and muscle growth to endurance and the oxygen-carrying capacity of their circulatory systems (heart and lungs).

During this second phase, athletes learn about legal substances that their peers use to fine-tune their bodies for training and racing. Anything that enables them to train more intensely becomes attractive. In the case of cyclists, they begin to see a need for receiving injections of iron and vita- mins C, B6, and B12, among other substances. This marks the initiation of a pharmacological career that often is formally or informally supported by sports doctors, athlete peers, and a larger sport sys- tem associated with national teams or elite leagues and organizations that are state-supported in some countries and personally or club-supported in others.

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use all technologies provided by the biotechnolo- gists who study human performance and control most of their training.

Athletes in this phase of their careers learn that overconforming to the norms of the sport ethic is normal—doing whatever it takes to continue per- forming at a supranormal level is the standard expectation that they have for themselves and that others have for them. Those unwilling to meet this expectation are seen as letting others down and violating the code that governs the lives of pro- fessional athletes. Therefore, athletes train more obsessively and follow year-round training pro- grams designed by personal trainers, nutritionists, and sport scientists. But to remain in their sport and continue to perform at the highest level, they must push their bodies beyond normal limits every day. When this is done for more than fifteen hours per week, it breaks down the body and causes physio- logical damage. Recovering from this, and from the injuries that are inevitable in training and competi- tion, requires the use of various therapies, technolo- gies, and substances. The harder athletes train, the more they need these things to be competition ready and to sustain their careers.

During the fourth phase, medical support focuses on performance rather than overall health and well-being. This involves using various com- binations of substances, legal and/or illegal, to con- tinue training and preparing the body to compete at the highest level. Strategies for doing this are learned from other athletes, but also from sport sci- entists and sport medicine experts hired by teams, clubs, and sport federations. For athletes to ignore these experts usually puts an end to their high- performance careers, along with their team mem- bership, sponsors, income, relationships with elite peers, and identity as an athlete. For those who have dedicated most of their lives to reaching this point in their sport, refusing to do whatever it takes is sel- dom a viable option. Some athletes refuse, but we seldom hear about them, because their careers usu- ally end quickly.

The training strategies during the fourth phase are extraordinary. To endure them and maximize

the chances of winning, athletes usually try to con- trol everything that affects their ability to perform. This is when doping often becomes normalized as a training strategy. It enables athletes to train harder and longer than their opponents, and it becomes an integral part of the culture that is organized around achieving competitive success (Hruby, 2013a). To refuse to dope under these conditions is especially difficult when athletes now represent teams, sport organizations, sponsors, and their communities or nations (Hoberman, 2005; Johnson, 2012). Addi- tionally, when athletes arrive at this phase, their definition of health has already shifted to focus on competitive success without questioning whether their actions may cause future health problems, such as joint deterioration, arthritis, limited range of motion, and chronic, often debilitating pain that will interfere with rising from bed each morning and engaging in normal physical activities. Addi- tionally, athletes learn to hide their fatigue and injuries because they fear being replaced by other elite performers, and they want to avoid exposing weaknesses to opponents who will exploit them. In fact, athletes who show any weakness in a high- performance sport put in jeopardy their contract, endorsements, sponsorships, and even fan support.

During this fourth phase, sport is not some- thing athletes do—it is who they are. Winning is important because it enables them to remain in elite sports, which at this point is the foundation of their lives and identities. To not win is to lose the basis for their primary identity, their relationships, expe- riences, and everyday routines. Therefore, when overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic is explained only in terms of a “win at all costs” men- tality among elite athletes, it obscures the deeper personal meanings that are linked to being an ath- lete in societies where sports have become a cen- tral cultural focus and where being an elite athlete requires total dedication and commitment.

The move from professional sport into the fifth career phase involves another major qualita- tive change. This is when athletes must re-enter the ordinary world after what may have been a long-term separation. This often creates serious

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high- performance sports. Of course, not every ath- lete fits perfectly into this model. There are differ- ences by country, sport, gender, and the place of high- performance sports in specific cultures (Pitsch and Emrich, 2012). But the difficulty in accepting Brissonneau’s model is also due to a lack of access to the world inside high- performance sports. The code of the locker room keeps us out and much of the data hidden.

Additionally, athletes and others associated with high- performance sports know or quickly learn that if they publicly use the uncensored discourse from the extraordinary world of elite sports, they would shock people and jeopardize the commercial value of their sports and lose their jobs. Therefore, they use a discourse grounded in the first and second phases of the professional sport career model. This discourse stresses a connection between sports and health and the importance of values, ethics, and the purity and goodness of sports. It uses the lan- guage of the great sport myth because people in elite sports know that selling their product to the public is most effective when the integrity of sport is emphasized along with total commitment to purging from its ranks all those who would soil what many believe to be its essential purity and goodness.

Most athletes embrace discourse from the first and second phases because it also represents their beliefs—or what they want to believe. This is not surprising, because others see them as represent- ing the purity and goodness of sports. Sponsors embrace and promote this discourse because it reaffirms their business model as well as the beliefs of its executives, who often claim that their charac- ters were shaped in positive ways back when they played sports. Media people who cover sports and those who work in sport organizations use this dis- course to sustain the beliefs on which the popular- ity of sports has come to depend.

This means that deviance in sports is a pol- itical issue as well as a health and cultural issue. What counts as deviance in sports is determined by what will sustain its popularity and support. This also shapes the sanctions and punishments handed out by sport leaders and rules committees. When

challenges for athletes whose only important iden- tity for many years has been their athlete identity. When being an elite athlete leaves little or no time to develop other skills and identities, athletes stay at the elite level as long as possible. Injuries often are what force them into the fifth phase. But becoming “normal” after many years in the high-intensity, self- and body-focused world of high-performance sports requires significant adjustments (Tinley, 2015a).

Routines are out of sync, and reasons for living seem fuzzy and uncertain. The pleasures of push- ing the body to its limits are gone, as is the excite- ment of competition. The other athletes who have been sources of daily support are no longer there, and people in the ordinary world can’t understand the difficulty involved in losing an identity as an elite athlete. Striving to be normal involves renego- tiating relationships with family and friends, if they are still available and willing to re-engage. But re- engaging is difficult when pre-sport identities are irrelevant and new identities don’t yet exist.

The letdown and confusion experienced during the fifth career phase often lead to a desire to escape the boredom of the ordinary world. Some retired athletes in this phase might use amphetamines to jump-start the day and sleep aids such as Ambien to shut it off. Some also turn to alcohol, cannabis, hashish, and cocaine. The medical support person needed during this phase is an addiction specialist, a psychiatrist, or a clinical psychologist.

The seriousness of problems during this phase depends on many factors. But the difficulties of retirement from elite sports have become more common as the demands and expectations in high- performance sports have escalated since the mid- 1980s. When sponsors and television entered the scene, and when training came to be based on rationality and science, expectations for elite ath- letes intensified. The “off-season” disappeared, there was no time for other jobs or education, and no excuses for poor performances.

Some people find it difficult to accept all the aspects of Brissonneau’s model, even though it is based on nearly twenty years of data col- lected from athletes and others associated with

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Doping from Inside High-Performance Sports

Controlling the discourse about sport can be tricky. Elite athletes seldom give others a glimpse inside their extraordinary world. However, here are state- ments about drugs in which athletes do provide us with a brief look inside that world.

It’s professional sports. You do what you need to do to play and, at the end of the season, you get cleaned up [from all the drugs].

—Ryan Zimmerman, MLB player (in White, 2012)

Your first day in the league is the last day you’ll ever be 100 percent healthy. (I took Toradol.) That’s part of football. You take every legal advantage possible.3

—Jamaal Jackson, eight-year NFL veteran (in Matz, 2011)

My body was perpetually feeling bad, as were those of my teammates. Our training staff knew this and would encourage us to get a shot. We were told it would make us feel better. So we lined up for the needle.

—Nate Jackson, five-year NFL veteran (in Jackson, 2011)

It’s normal. You drop your pants . . . they give you a shot [of the painkiller Toradol], put the Band-Aid on, you go out and play. It may be stupid, it may be dumb, call me dumb and stupid then, because I want to be on the football field.

—Brian Urlacher, a thirteen-year NFL veteran (in NFL Brief, 2012)

3Toradol is a potent prescription nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drug (NSAID). Until a few years ago, so many NFL players received injections on game days that they described it as a “cattle call” (Belson and Pilon, 2012). Today team doctors don’t administer injections, because NFL players are suing the NFL for damages allegedly caused by the drug. Many athletes continue to use it to enable them to play, but they obtain it on their own.

athletes or low-level employees in sports do or say things that tarnish the perceived integrity of “the game” or allow people to see clearly into the extraordinary world of high-performance sports, they will be sanctioned.

More than half of American adults use “nutritional supplements”, spending over $30 billion annually on them. Jack3d allegedly contains, a powerful stimulant, much like amphetamines. People claim that it enables them to work out longer and more intensely. OxyElite Pro warns that it should be used “only by healthy adults capable of handling its true power.” Supplements are produced faster than drug- testing organizations can determine if they should be banned. This is partly because the United States does not require Federal Drug Agency approval of supplements before they are marketed and sold. After I took this photo, OxyElite Pro was taken off the market due to its connection with a fatal liver illness. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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such substances in the extraordinary world of high- performance sports is not seen as an indication of moral corruption and weak character. Therefore, to control doping in sports is a task that may never be fully accomplished, despite the unceasing efforts of the anti-doping industry.

The War on Doping

Drug testing is relatively new in sports ( Waddington and Smith, 2009). Prior to the mid- 1980s, anti-doping policies existed largely to dis- courage athletes from dropping dead of overdoses, something that had become too common in certain sports as athletes experimented with a wide range of substances thought to provide a boost to training and performance. But as the money associated with sports has enabled athletes to hide their drug use, anti-doping agencies work to maintain an image of integrity in sports (Aschwanden, 2012). In fact, the stated rationale for the World Anti-Doping Code that guides Olympic sports and is enforced by the IOC, WADA, and USADA is that “doping is fun- damentally contrary to the spirit of sport” (WADA, 2009). This rationale is grounded in an absolutist approach in which it is assumed that any use of banned performance-enhancing substances vio- lates the ideals represented by sport and is therefore deviant. This approach encourages the demonizing of athletes who use banned substances for any rea- son (López, 2011).

The war on doping now being waged by WADA and USADA is supported by most people even if they are not sport fans. They feel that the essen- tial purity and goodness of sports have been dirtied by “dopers” and that anything that will purge them from sports should be supported. This approach also allows them to avoid critical questions, such as these:

1. Is it logical to praise athletes as warrior-heroes when they take injections of painkilling drugs to stay on the field, and then condemn them as cheaters when they take steroids, HGH, and other substances that help to heal injuries more

There’s a certain point in your career where you’re going through the pounding of the season and getting through that week of practice and trying to get to that next game day. Toradol is part of what gets you back to playing the way you normally can.

—Jim Kleinsasser, thirteen-year NFL veteran (in Wiederer, 2012)

I felt like new money. You get that shot and you feel like you’re 18, 19 years old. It’s like a sheet of armor. I was a new man.

—A twelve-year NFL player who set records and won a Super Bowl while taking

the injections (in Wiederer, 2012)

It does mask pain. But that’s the price you pay when you play through injuries. We’re a commodity. We’re useful only when we’re on the field.

—Ronde Barber, seventeen-year NFL veteran (in Matz, 2011)

These statements are about a legal drug, and they come mostly from football players. Play- ers seldom talk candidly in public about illegal or banned substances, but football players felt free to talk more openly about Toradol in 2011 after many had filed a class action suit against the NFL for allowing teams to administer it without follow- ing the warnings for the drug or discussing the side effects with players.

The statements also tell us that using drugs to enhance performance is a normal occurrence in the extraordinary world of high-performance sports. This conclusion has been supported in research by Evdoki Pappa and Eileen Kennedy (2013), who interviewed elite track-and-field athletes. They summarize their findings this way:

The athletes give a clear indication that they see doping as a normalized phenomenon . . . Although sporting authorities have banned the use of PEDs, the athletes consider them necessary for their career and for competition at a high level. (pp. 289, 290)

This conclusion does not mean that all elite athletes use illegal substances. But it does mean that using

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quickly, rebuild muscles damaged by overtrain- ing, or relax and recover after exhausting and tightly scheduled competitions?

2. Does it make sense to condemn athletes for failing to be positive role models for children, when we expect them to put their bodies on the line for the sake of entertainment?

3. Why does drug testing focus on individ- ual athletes rather than the culture of high- performance sports and the complex system in which people other than athletes develop, purchase, supply, administer, and study banned substances to determine how they can be taken without testing positive?

4. How can testing be justified by saying that it keeps athletes healthy and preserves fairness in sports, when it is clear that the sports most watched by fans are not good for a person’s health and are not fair when some people have the resources to buy the best training and technology in the world and others don’t even know it exists?

5. How can people in the United States, for example, say that athletes using a performance-enhancing substance are mor- ally corrupt and should be banned from their careers, when they are part of a society in which appearance-enhancing, cognitive- enhancing, and performance-enhancing substances are consumed at rates unprece- dented in human history?

6. Could the billions of dollars now spent on test- ing and police-like investigations of the urine, blood, and suspect actions of athletes be better spent on educating and working with athletes in each of the five phases of a sport career so they are fully informed and medically sup- ported when they make choices about using available technologies to aid their training and competition?

7. Is it reasonable to condemn the use of so-called “doping” and at the same time support the Olympic motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger” and demand more record-setting performances, when athletes are now pushing the limits of

human potential and damaging their bodies as they do so?

Asking these and dozens of other critical ques- tions about the current approach to doping control in sports makes many people uncomfortable, so they are seldom asked.

The cat-and-mouse dynamics that have emerged with the current form of drug testing are unlikely to stop. New technologies that improve vision, cognitive alertness, brain function, response time, strength, and speed are being developed at a rec- ord pace (Epstein, 2011). Genetic manipulation is close to being possible, if it has not already been done (Epstein, 2010). This suggests that the most reasonable question to ask is this: How can these technologies (including drugs) be integrated into the lives of athletes (and the rest of us) without destroying our health and well-being?

Without asking these questions and changing the current approach to testing, doping scandals will continue to occur. Athletes will be caught, peo- ple will express their disgust and demand that the cheaters be punished, and then everyone (other than the punished athletes) will feel good until the next scandal occurs.

When Jörg Jaksche, a former pro cyclist from Germany, was asked what he thought about this approach, he suggested that it will continue because it has no downside for the sponsors of high-performance sports—those whose money drives commercial spectator sports today. He explained (in Gatti, 2013) that the current drug- testing system allows sponsors to “gain all the commercial benefits of the visibility generated by great performances,” which often are aided by drugs, and when athletes are caught the spon- sors can express surprise and disappointment and “receive the extra benefit of the good publicity gained for being righteous.” Overall, he says, “it’s a win-win” situation for the most powerful people in sports today, and that’s why the current system won’t change. But some of us are not so pessim- istic and suggest that there are reasonable alterna- tives to the war on doping.

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identities and continue experiencing the joy and excitement of playing elite sports.

The use of performance-enhancing substances and future forms of cognitive performance enhancement and genetic manipulation cannot be effectively controlled in elite sport cultures as they are now organized. Effective control requires both cultural and structural changes in sports so that ath- letes, coaches, and others critically assess the sport ethic and control deviant overconformity, or rede- fine the sport ethic to include new norms. Here are suggestions on where to begin these processes:

∙ Critically examine the deep hypocrisy involved in elite power and performance sports. It isn’t possible to effectively control the use of

Alternatives to the War on Doping

A central point in this chapter is that athletes use performance-enhancing substances not because they lack character or are victims of evil or exploi- tive coaches, but because they (1) uncritically accept and overconform to the norms of the sport ethic and (2) are part of a sport system in which therapies and supplements are needed to recover from intense training and competition schedules over which they have little control. This is why tougher rules and increased testing have not been effective.

Moral panics over drug use and oversimplified solutions will not change the reality of training and competition or the culture of high-performance sports, nor will it stop athletes from using sub- stances that they see as necessary to maintain their

“Don’t worry, most of these are legal and the others won’t show up on the drug tests!”

Most athletes today take multiple “nutritional supplements” (Mason and Lavallee, 2012). The industries that produce them are unregulated and often claim that certain products are performance-enhancing.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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be allowed back on the field. This would be a major step in creating a new sport culture.

∙ Establish injury and health education programs for athletes. This is a first step in establishing a sport culture in which courage is defined as recognizing limits to conformity and accept- ing the discipline necessary to accurately and responsibly acknowledge the consequences of deviant overconformity and sports injuries. Learning to be in tune with one’s body rather than to deny pain and injury is important in controlling the use of potentially dangerous performance-enhancing substances.

∙ Establish health-based guidelines and codes of ethics for sport scientists, coaches, managers, and those who set training and competition schedules. Too many sport scientists assist athletes as they overconform to the norms of the sport ethic, rather than helping them raise critical questions about the health risks that come with deviant overconformity. For example, sport science should be used to help athletes understand the consequences of their choices to play sports and help them critically assess why they’re doing what they’re doing and what it means in their lives. Using science to encourage or enable athletes to give body and soul to their sports without asking these critical questions is to leave the door open for deviant overconformity, including the use of performance-enhancing substances.

∙ Make drug and substance education a key part of health education programs. Parents, coaches, league administrators, managers, and trainers should participate with athletes in educational programs in which they consider and discuss the norms of the sport ethic and how to prevent deviant overconformity. Unless all these people understand their roles in reproducing a culture that supports substance use and abuse, the problems will continue.

We now face a future without clearly defined ideas about the meaning of achievement in sports. There are new financial incentives to

performance-enhancing substances when feder- ations and teams encourage general overconfor- mity to the norms of the sport ethic. Therefore, there’s a need for critical discussions of limits on the use of currently accepted performance- enhancing strategies, such as injecting painkill- ing drugs and massive doses of vitamin B12, hydration therapies, playing with pins in broken bones and with high-tech “casts” to hold bro- ken bones in place during competition, and using special harnesses to restrict the move- ment of injured joints. These practices are com- mon, and they foster a sport culture in which the use of performance-enhancing substances is defined as logical and courageous by athletes.

∙ Establish rules clearly indicating that certain risks to health are undesirable and unneces- sary in sports. When sixteen-year-old girls who compete with training-induced stress fractures in elite gymnastics are turned into national heroes and poster children for corporate spon- sors, it promote deviants overconformity in sports. This sets up athletes for permanent injuries and disabilities. This is clearly a prob- lem, and sport organizations should refocus on health over performance.

∙ Establish a “harm reduction” approach in which athletes are not allowed to play until certified as “well” (not simply “able to com- pete”) by two independent physicians or medical personnel. This approach differs from current practices in which trainers and medi- cal personnel do what they can to get injured athletes back on the field as quickly as possible (Bennett, 2013). Trainers and physicians should be health advocates paid by someone other than team management. The focus of a player health advocate would be protecting the long- term well-being of athletes. Therefore, instead of testing for drugs, athletes should be tested to certify that they are healthy enough to par- ticipate. If drugs damage their health or make it dangerous for them to play, they would not be certified. Only when their health improves and meets established guidelines would they

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People who assume that social reality contains essential truths about right and wrong and good and evil often use an absolutist approach to explain deviance. They believe that unchanging moral truths are the foundation for all norms. Therefore, every norm represents an ideal, and every action, trait, or idea that departs from that ideal is deviant, immoral, or evil. When this approach is used, devi- ance becomes increasingly serious as the departure from the ideal increases. For example, if using banned substances is contrary to the ideal that sport is pure and good, any use of them at any time or place would be deviant, and if the substance use continued over time, it would eventually be defined as immoral or evil.

Sociologists generally use a constructionist approach to study and explain deviance in sports. This approach, based on a combination of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories, emphasizes that norms and deviance are socially constructed through social interaction. This approach highlights a distinction between deviant underconformity and overconformity. This is important because the most serious forms of deviance in sports occur when ath- letes, coaches, and others overconform to the norms of the sport ethic—a cluster of norms that empha- sizes dedication to the game above all else, striv- ing for distinction, taking risks and playing through pain and injury, and overcoming all obstacles in the pursuit of sport dreams. When limits are not set in the process of conforming to these norms, deviant overconformity occurs and often creates serious problems.

Most sociology of sport research has focused on the deviant underconformity of athletes. Research on deviance among coaches, managers, and oth- ers who control sports is relatively scarce, largely because people with power refuse to be studied in ways that might jeopardize their status and influence.

We don’t know if cheating in sports is more prevalent today than in the past, but institutional corruption appears to be a growing problem in sport organizations, most of which lack formally enforced mandates to be transparent or accountable.

succeed in sports, athlete identities have become central in the lives of many sport participants, and performance-enhancing technologies have become increasingly effective and available. Therefore, we need new approaches and guide- lines. Old approaches and guidelines combined with coercive methods of control are not effec- tive. Trying to make sports into what we believe they were in the past is futile. We face new issues and challenges, and it will take new approaches to deal with them effectively.

Widespread participation is needed if sport cul- tures are to be successfully transformed. At pres- ent, both nation states and corporate sponsors have appropriated the culture of power and performance sports and used it to deliver messages that foster forms of deviant overconformity for the sake of national and corporate interests. There is no conspir- acy underlying this, but it creates a challenge that can be met only through our collective awareness of what needs to be done, followed by collective efforts to do it. Even then changes will be incremental rather than revolutionary, but changes are possible if we work to create them in our sports, schools, and communities.

summary

IS DEVIANCE IN SPORTS OUT OF CONTROL?

The study of deviance in sports presents challenges due to four factors: (1) the diverse forms and causes of deviance in sports cannot be explained by a sin- gle theory; (2) the ideas, traits, and actions accepted in sports may be deviant in the rest of society at the same time that things accepted in society may be deviant in sports; (3) deviance in sports often involves accepting norms uncritically and without limits, rather than rejecting them; and (4) training in sports now involves so many new forms of sci- ence and technology that we lack norms to guide and evaluate the actions of athletes and others in sports.

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Many athletes who are committed to doing what- ever it takes to succeed and avoid being cut from their teams, view the use of performance-enhancing technologies as an integral part of training rather than a form of cheating, even though they know it violates rules. This mind-set also explains why ath- letes take injections of dangerous legal drugs such as Toradol and cortisone to mask pain and stay on the field.

The war on doping waged through the enforce- ment of current anti-doping policies involves test- ing athletes’ urine and blood, and more recently the investigation of athletes’ personal lives. This has created a cat-and-mouse dynamic in which ath- letes try to stay one step ahead of the testers. Even though this approach to “doping control” is costly and ineffective, it continues to be used because it serves the purposes of sponsors and sport organi- zations. When there are no positive tests, they can claim to be responsibly safeguarding the purity and goodness of sports, and when there are positive tests, they can express disgust and claim to be mor- ally righteous as they punish the offending athletes.

Alternatives to the war on doping involve ask- ing critical questions about the current organiza- tion and culture of high-performance sports and honestly identifying their consequences for ath- letes. Instead of testing for drugs, a harm reduc- tion approach could be used so that athletes are tested by qualified medical professionals to deter- mine whether they are healthy enough to train and compete. If this were combined with education for athletes and for those who control sports, and if there were guidelines and codes of ethics for sport scientists who develop training programs for athletes, it might be more effective than drug test- ing as we face a future that will bring many new forms of performance- enhancing technologies.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Using deviance to create commercial personas in sports

Institutional corruption is accompanied by dynam- ics that foster harassment and abuse, including the sexual abuse of athletes by coaches.

Gambling and the forms of deviance that often accompany it are an increasing problem in sports. Recent cases of match fixing in global soccer and other major sports, mostly outside North America, have raised questions about the actions of players and referees who can influence game events and the final scores of matches and games.

Hazing, which also is difficult to study because it occurs in secrecy, often involves dangerous forms of deviance when it occurs among high school and college students who try to preserve secrecy by forcing new team members to violate strong social taboos.

Research indicates that athlete deviance off the field and away from sports is a problem. However, the rates of deviance among athletes do not appear to be higher than rates among their peers who do not play officially organized sports. Exceptions to this involve drinking alcohol, binge drinking, and sexual assault.

The use and abuse of performance- enhancing substances is a widespread common form of devi- ance among athletes, despite new rules, testing programs, and strong punishments for violators. Because so many people accept the great sport myth and believe that sports are essentially pure and good, they use an absolutist approach when thinking about drugs in sports. Therefore, they see athletes that use banned substances as morally cor- rupt cheaters who must be purged from sports.

Brissonneau’s model of a five-phase professional sports career is based on a constructionist approach, and it explains substance use in connection with the demands and expectations that now exist in high- performance sports and the need for athletes to train in ways that are clearly “beyond normal” to meet them. Because the resulting fatigue, pain, and injuries take a toll on their bodies, athletes depend on specialized medical and pharmacological support to sustain their ability to perform. This normalizes the use of drugs and other technologies that enable them to perform.

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track-and-field team who are being treated by your sport medicine staff for injuries due to overtraining. The coach tells you that she demands 110 percent from all her athletes and expects them to train and compete through pain and injury. You could develop a rule that a doctor outside the athletic depart- ment must make the decision on whether an athlete will play with pain and injury. Explain what you would do.

∙ You have an internship with a top professional sport team. You love what you do, and on a few occasions you take modafinil to stay up all night to meet project deadlines. Your supervisor is impressed and offers you a job that all the other interns wanted. You accept the job, pass the company’s mandatory drug test, and have a suc- cessful first year on the job. Are you a cheater for taking this drug, which is on the WADA banned substance list? Explain why or why not, in a way that is logical.

∙ You have been hired by the IOC to review and evaluate its current anti-doping approach and suggest alternatives, if appropriate. They have hired you because the current approach has not been well accepted or fully trusted by athletes around the world. Summarize the main points in your review and evaluation, and your sug- gestions, if any.

Reading 2. Deviant overconformity and underconformity: Is there a connection?

Reading 3. Is sport participation a cure for deviance? Reading 4. Defining performance-enhancing

substances Reading 5. Why is the challenge of substance

control so great in sports today? Reading 6. Sport doping in recent history Reading 7. Arguments for and against drug testing

as a deterrent Reading 8. Using the biological passport in dop-

ing control programs

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ As a high school teacher and coach you hear that the veterans on the boys’ wrestling team are planning to haze new members of their team. In the past, hazing by some of the teams has gotten out of hand, so you report your information to the principal and the athletic director. They ask you to create an alternative to hazing that will help team members bond in positive ways without engaging in demeaning or risky actions. Outline your plan and explain the differences between what you are propos- ing and hazing as it is defined in the chapter.

∙ As an athletic director you are con- cerned with the number of athletes on the

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(Source: © Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

chapter

VIOLENCE IN SPORTS Does It Affect Our Lives?

6

I DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE I’m bragging, because I’m not, but back [in the 1960s, when I played basketball] the violence was much more intense.

—Satch Sanders, former NBA player, 1999

IT’S THE MOST PERFECT feeling in the world to know you’ve hit a guy just right, that you’ve maximized the physical pain he can feel. . . . You feel the life just go out of him. You’ve taken all this man’s energy and just dominated him.

—Michael Strahan, former NFL player (in Layden, 2007)

“. . . fans goad football linebackers into wild acts of aggression on the field, then express shock when those same people get into bar brawls or domestic disputes. Being a fan isn’t exactly an exercise in logic.”

—Paul Shirley, journalist (2011)

We have to make sure we’re not creating another Rome where there are gladiators dying on the field depending on whether Caesar gives a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

—Tim Ridder, former college football player (in Kelly, 2011)

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What Is Violence?

Violence in Sports Throughout History

Violence on the Field

Violence off the Field

Violence Among Spectators

Terrorism: Planned Political Violence at Sport Events

Summary: Does Violence in Sports Affect Our Lives?

Chapter Outline

• Define violence and distinguish it from related behaviors such as aggression and intimidation.

• Discuss historical trends for on-the-field and spectator violence.

• Explain the differences between the four major types of on-the-field violence in sports.

• Know the connections between violence in sports and deviant overconformity, commercialization, and masculinity.

• Understand when and how athletes learn to use violence as a strategy in sports.

• Describe the consequences of violence for athletes and understand the implications of brain trauma for athletes and for certain sports.

• Know the conditions under which athletes may learn to control their violent actions off the field and when their sport experiences may contribute to off-the-field violence, such as assault and sexual assault.

• Distinguish the various forms of spectator violence and identify the ones more common in North America than other parts of the world.

• Identify strategies that could be used to control venue violence and post-event violence.

• Discuss the incidence of terrorism at sport events and explain how and why terrorism influences sport events today.

Learning Objectives

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Concussions and repeated head trauma experi- enced in football and other sports have recently been connected with serious long-term health prob- lems such as dementia. The high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio, received national news coverage when two high-profile team members were found guilty of raping an unconscious young woman, whom they repeatedly and brutally dehu- manized at parties attended by their teammates. A terrorist attack during the 2013 Boston Marathon killed three people and injured 264. And the most rapidly growing spectator sport in the United States in recent years is mixed martial arts, with its often- brutal fights staged in fenced cages.

These and similar cases make violence in sports an important topic to study and understand today. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to use socio- logical research and theories to make sense of the origins and consequences of violence in sports. Chapter content focuses on six topics:

1. A practical definition of violence and related terms

2. A brief historical overview of violence in sports

3. The incidence and consequences of on-the- field violence among players in various sports

4. The relationship between on-the-field and off- the-field violence among players

5. Violence among spectators who consume media coverage of sports and attend live events

6. The threat and incidence of terrorism at sport events

In connection with the last three topics, I will iden- tify strategies for controlling violence on and off the field.

WHAT IS VIOLENCE?

In sociological terms, violence is the use of exces- sive physical force, which causes or has obvious potential to cause harm or destruction. We often think of violence as actions that are illegal or unsanctioned, but there are situations in which the

use of violence is socially encouraged or approved. For instance, when violence is tied to a rejection of social norms, it is classified as illegal and punished. However, when violence occurs in connection with enforcing norms, protecting people and property, or overconforming to widely accepted norms, it may be approved and even lauded as necessary to preserve order, reaffirm social values, or achieve important goals. Therefore, violence may be toler- ated, or even glorified, when soldiers and police are perceived to be protecting people, or when ath- letes are perceived to be reproducing accepted ide- ologies, or pursuing victories in the name of others.

When violence occurs in connection with the widespread rejection of norms, it may be described as anarchy or lawless mayhem. When it occurs in connection with extreme methods of social control or extreme overconformity to norms, it may be defined as morally righteous, even when people are maimed or killed and property is destroyed.

In the case of sports, punching a referee who penalizes you is violence that involves a rejection of norms. It is defined as illegal and punished by teams and sport organizations, even if the referee is not seriously injured. However, it is different when a football player delivers a punishing tackle, break- ing the ribs or blowing out the knee of an opposing running back. Such violence involves conformity to norms and is seen as entertaining, highlighted on video replays, and used by teammates and other players as a mark of one’s status in football cul- ture. The player might even feel righteous in being violent, despite harmful consequences, and would not hesitate to be violent again. His violence is not punished because it is an effective way to intimi- date, control, and dominate others for the purpose of achieving a valued goal. Furthermore, his ability to do violence and endure it when perpetrated by others is used to affirm his identity as an athlete and a football player.

The term aggression refers to verbal or physi- cal actions grounded in an intent to dominate, con- trol, or do harm to another person. Aggression is often involved in violence, but violence may occur inadvertently or carelessly without aggressive

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intent. This allows us to distin- guish aggressive actions from other actions that we might describe as assertive, competitive, or achieve- ment oriented. For example, a very competitive person may engage in violent actions during a game with- out the intent to dominate, control, or harm others. This suggests that there is a difference between being aggressive and simply being asser- tive or striving to win or achieve other goals.

The term intimidation refers to words, gestures, and actions that threaten violence or aggression. Like aggression, intimidation is used to dominate or control others. These definitions help us under- stand the research on violence in sports.

VIOLENCE IN SPORTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Violence is not new to physical activities and sports (Dunning, 1999; Guttmann, 1998, 2004). Blood sports were popular among the ancient Greeks and throughout the Roman Empire. Deaths occurred regularly in connection with ritual games among the Mayans and Aztecs. Tournaments in medieval Europe were designed to train men for war and often resulted in death and destruction. Popular folk games were only loosely governed by rules, and they produced injuries and deaths at rates that would shock people today. Bearbaiting, cockfighting, dog fighting, and other “sporting” activities during those periods involved treatment of animals that most people today would define as criminally violent.

Research indicates that, as part of an overall civilizing process in Europe and North America, modern sports were developed to be more rule- governed activities than the physical games in pre- vious eras. As sports became formally organized, official rules prohibited certain forms of violence that had been common in many folk games. Blood- shed decreased, and there was more emphasis on

self-control to restrict the expres- sion of aggressive impulses during competition (Dunning, 1999).

Social historians also point out that rates of violence in sports do not automatically decrease over time. In fact, as actions and emo- tional expressions have become more regulated and controlled in modern societies, players and spectators view the “controlled”

violence in sports as exciting. Furthermore, com- mercialization, professionalization, and globaliza- tion have given rise to new forms of instrumental and “dramatic” violence in many sports. This means that goal-oriented and entertainment-oriented vio- lence have increased, at least temporarily, in many Western societies.

Sociologist Eric Dunning (1999) notes that vio- lence remains a crucial social issue because the goal of modern sports is to create tension rather than eliminate it. Additionally, violent and aggres- sive sports generally serve, to reproduce an ideol- ogy that naturalizes the power of men over women. Overall, historical research shows that sports are

Violence is primarily about control. Violence works. It makes people do what they otherwise would not. It governs the thin line between life and death. —Allan G. Johnson, sociologist, 2013

“Now that we’ve invented violence, we need a sport so we can use it without being labeled as uncivilized.”

Violence in sports is not new, but this does not mean that it is a natural or inevitable part of sport partici- pation among men or women.

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

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the norms of the sport ethic and as useful competitive strategies. Examples are the “brush back” pitch in baseball, the forcefully placed elbow or knee in soccer and basketball, the strategic bump used by distance runners to put another runner off stride, the fistfight in ice hockey, and the forearm to the ribs of a quarterback in foot- ball. Although these actions are expected, they may provoke retali-

ation by other players. Official sanctions and fines are not usually severe for borderline vio- lence. However, public pressure to increase the severity of sanctions has grown in recent years, and the severity of punishments has increased in some sports.

3. Quasi-criminal violence. This includes actions that violate the formal rules of the game, public laws, and even informal norms among play- ers. Examples are cheap shots, late hits, sucker punches, and flagrant fouls that endanger players’ bodies and reject the norm calling for dedication to the game above all else. Fines and suspensions are usually imposed on play- ers who engage in such violence. Most athletes condemn quasi-criminal violence and see it as a rejection of the informal norms of the game and what it means to be an athlete.

4. Criminal violence. This includes actions that are clearly outside the law to the point that athletes condemn them and law enforcement officials prosecute them as crimes. Examples are assaults that occur after a game and assaults during a game that appear to be premeditated and severe enough to kill or seriously maim a player. Such violence is relatively rare, and there appears to be growing support for filing criminal charges when it occurs.

Sociologist Kevin Young (2012) has noted that this classification of sport violence is useful but that the lines separating the four types of violence shift over time as norms change in sports and societies.

given different meanings at differ- ent times and places and that we can understand violence in sports only when we analyze it in relation to the historical, social, and cul- tural contexts in which it occurs.

VIOLENCE ON THE FIELD

Violence in sports comes in many forms, and it is grounded in social and cultural factors related to the sport ethic, com- mercialization, gender ideology, ideas about mas- culinity, and the strategies used in sports. Violence also has significant consequences for athletes and presents challenges for those who wish to con- trol it. As we discuss these topics, it is useful to consider the different types of violence that occur in sports.

Types of Violence

The most frequently used typology of on-the-field violence among players was developed by the late Mike Smith, a Canadian sociologist (1983; see Young, 2012). Smith identified four categories of violence in sports:

1. Brutal body contact. This includes actions common in certain sports and accepted by ath- letes as part of sport participation. Examples are collisions, hits, tackles, blocks, body checks, and other forms of forceful physical contact that can produce injuries. Most people in society define this forceful physical contact as extreme, although they don’t classify it as illegal or criminal. Coaches often encourage this form of violence. As one coach explained: “We expect it, we demand it. . . . Our brand is a physical brand of football . . . you know, pound on these people until they give up” (Frontline, 2011).

2. Borderline violence. This includes actions that violate the rules of the game but are accepted by most players and coaches as consistent with

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting. —George Orwell, 1945

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face criminal charges, although prosecuting such charges has been difficult and convictions have been very rare (Young, 2012).

Violence involving overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic is partly related to the identity insecurities of athletes in high-performance sports. Athletes learn that “you’re only as good as your last game,” and they know that their identities and sta- tus as team members must be regularly reaffirmed through their actions on the field. Therefore, they often take extreme measures to prove themselves, even if it involves violence. Violence reinforces feelings of self-worth by eliciting acceptance from other athletes. Willingly facing violence and

Furthermore, the classifications fail to address the origins of violence and the relationship of violent acts to the sport ethic, gender ideology, and the commercialization of sports. Despite these weak- nesses, these four categories help us understand enables us to the distinctions that people make between various types of violence in sports.

Violence and Overconformity to the Norms of the Sport Ethic

In Pat Conroy’s novel The Prince of Tides (1986), there is a classic scene in which the coach addresses his team and describes the ideal football player. He uses words that many athletes in heavy-contact sports hear during their careers:

Now a real hitter is a head-hunter who puts his head in the chest of his opponents and ain’t happy if his opponent is still breathing after the play. A real hit- ter doesn’t know what fear is except when he sees it in the eyes of a ball carrier he’s about to split in half. A real hitter loves pain, loves the screaming and the sweating and the brawling and the hatred of life down in the trenches. He likes to be at the spot where the blood flows and the teeth get kicked out. That’s what this sport’s about, men. It’s war, pure and simple. (p. 384)

Many coaches don’t use such vivid vocabulary because they know it can inspire dangerous forms of violence. However, when athletes think this way, violence occurs regularly enough to become viewed as a problem in certain sports. Journal- ists describe it, sociologists and psychologists try to explain it, and athletes brag or complain about it. When an athlete dies or is paralyzed by on-the- field violence, the media present stories about vio- lence being rampant knowing that it will increase their ratings.

Although players may be concerned about bru- tal body contact and borderline violence in their sports, they generally accept it. Even when players don’t like it, they may use violence to enhance their status on teams and their popularity among spec- tators. Athletes who engage in quasi- and criminal violence often are marginalized in sports and may

Violence is often connected with overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic. This high school rugby jacket presents violence as part of team culture. By associating violence with excellence, players learn what is expected on the field, even if they do not feel comfortable with brutal body contact and borderline violence. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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sports. Violent athletes in the past were paid very little, and athletes in high schools, colleges, and sport clubs today are paid nothing, yet many of them do violence despite the pain and injuries asso- ciated with it (Van Valkenburg, 2012a).

Commercialization has expanded opportunities to play certain contact sports in which violence occurs, and media coverage makes these sports and the violence they contain more visible than ever before. Children watch this coverage and may imi- tate violent athletes when they play sports, but this does not justify the conclusion that commercializa- tion is the cause of violence on the playing field.

Football players and athletes in other collision and contact sports engaged in violence on the field long before television coverage and the promise of big salaries. Players at all levels of organized foot- ball killed and maimed each other at rates that were far higher than the death and injury rates in foot- ball today. There are more injuries in football today because there are more players and we are better at diagnosing injuries that would have been officially overlooked in the past. Violence in certain sports is a serious problem that must be addressed, but to say it is caused mainly by commercialization and money is a mistake.

This is an important point because many people who criticize sports claim that if athletes were true amateurs and played for love of the game instead of money, there would be less violence. But this conclusion contradicts research findings, and it distracts attention from the deep cultural and ide- ological roots of violence in particular sports and societies (Polychroniou, 2013). We could take money away from athletes tomorrow, but violence would be reduced only if there were changes in the culture in which athletes, especially male athletes, learn to value and do violence in sports.

Many people resist the notion that cultural changes are needed to control violence because it places the responsibility for change on all of us. It is easy to blame violence on wealthy and greedy team owners, athletes without moral character, and TV executives seeking higher viewer ratings, but it is more difficult to critically examine our culture

playing in pain honors the importance of the game and expresses dedication to teammates and the cul- ture of high-performance sport.

It is important to understand that violent expres- sions of deviant overconformity are not limited to men, even though they are more common among male than female athletes. Women also overcon- form to the norms of the sport ethic, and when they play contact sports, they face the challenge of drawing the line between assertive physical- ity and violence. For example, when sociologist Nancy Theberge (1999) spent a full season study- ing the sport experiences of women on an elite ice hockey team in Canada, she discovered that the women were drawn to the physicality of hockey, even though body checking was not allowed. As one woman said,

I like a physical game. You get more fired up. I think when you get hit . . . like when you’re fighting for a puck in the corner, when you’re both fighting so you’re both working hard and maybe the elbows are flying, that just makes you put more effort into it (in Theberge, 1999, p. 147).

The experience of dealing with the physicality of contact sports and facing its consequences cre- ates drama, excitement, strong emotions, and spe- cial interpersonal bonds among female athletes just as it does among males. Despite the risk and reality of pain and injuries, many women in contact sports find that the physical intensity and body contact in their sports make them feel alive and aware. Although many women are committed to control- ling brutal body contact and more severe forms of violence, the love of their sport and the excitement of physicality can lead to violence grounded in overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic.

Commercialization and Violence in Sports

Some athletes in power and performance sports are paid well for their willingness and ability to do vio- lence on the field. However, it would be inaccurate to identify money as the sole cause of violence in

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intense mixture of passion, pleasure, violence, anx- iety, fear, and pain that creates unique experiences for them. This intoxicating mixture of contradic- tory elements is linked to the desire to dominate and control others and disrupt an opponent’s desire to do the same (Pringle, 2009). Additionally, this process of doing and enduring violence for the sake of the game creates special bonds of mutual respect between athletes. These bonds anchor and reaffirm their identities and infuse special meaning into their lives. The dynamics through which this occurs are difficult for athletes to explain and certainly diffi- cult for “outsiders” to understand. For this reason, many serious participants in sports that are inher- ently violent say little about what they feel and why they enjoy what they do. They don’t expect oth- ers to understand, because those of us outside this unique social world live mundane lives that don’t involve the rush of pushing the envelope and living on the edge with peers who are the best at what they do. To say that commercialization motivates the actions of players is less accurate than to say that commercialization enables people—mostly men— to play sports in which these experiences are avail- able. Of course, being paid to play a violent sport is not irrelevant, but money is seldom the primary factor that drives the participation of these athletes. For many of them, it is the anticipation of violence that gives their lives meaning.

Gender Ideology and Violence in Sports

Violence in sports is not limited to men. However, research indicates that if we want to understand violence in sports, we must understand gender ide- ology and issues of masculinity in culture. Sociolo- gist Mike Messner explains:

Young males come to sport with identities that lead them to define their athletic experience differently than females do. Despite the fact that few males truly enjoy hitting and being hit, and that one has to be socialized into participating in much of the violence commonplace in sport, males often view aggression, within the rule-bound structure of sport, as legitimate and “natural.” (1992, p. 67)

and the normative and social organization of the sports that many people watch and enjoy. Simi- larly, it is difficult for people to critically exam- ine the definitions of masculinity and the structure of gender relations that they have long accepted as part of the “natural” order of things, but such critiques are needed if we wish to understand and control violence in sports.

The point in this section is that commercializa- tion has never been the primary cause of violence in sports. If violent sports are commercially success- ful in a community or society, it’s because people want to play and watch them. For example, mixed martial arts (MMA) as represented by the UFC— Ultimate Fighting Championship—has become the most rapidly growing media spectator sport in the United States because enough people are willing to participate in it and pay to watch it. UFC event tick- ets sell out, largely to an under-forty male crowd, at an average of $245 per seat, and they also generate an average of $25 million for pay-per-view sub- scriptions to events. For some young men, MMA represents the same things that “boxing once did for their fathers and grandfathers: the ultimate measure of manhood, endurance and guts” (Quenqua, 2012). A father in New York explains that his ten-year-old son is an avid fan of UFC because the fighters “are the new superheroes for kids. It’s just given them a whole new set of idols” (Quenqua, 2012). Accord- ing to Joe Rogan, an MMA commentator, the UFC has become popular because people “enjoy vio- lence, especially when it’s in a controlled environ- ment” (Bearak, 2011).

Similarly, violent images and words are often used to promote sport events because many mar- keting people believe that spectators are drawn to events involving violence—or at least the anticipa- tion of it. This also is why some athletes create per- sonas around narratives stressing their willingness to engage in brutal body contact and borderline violence. They want to attract fans who look up to athletes willing to put their bodies on the line for the sake of winning bouts, matches, or games.

Finally, for many athletes in heavy-contact sports, their participation involves a complex and

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U.S. culture. The stakes associated with preserving this ideology are so high that male boxers are paid millions of dollars for three to thirty-six minutes of brutalizing one another in the ring. Heavyweight boxers are among the highest-paid athletes in the world because they promote the idea two men fac- ing each other in a violent confrontation is “nature in action,” even though the combatants often lose millions of brain cells as they “prove” male superiority.

The irony in this approach is that, if a gender hierarchy were truly fixed in nature, there would be no need for sports to reaffirm “natural” differences between men and women. Gender would simply exist without spending so much time and effort teaching girls and boys how they should perform it. Power and performance sports are used as valuable aids in this teaching and learning process, and the men who play them serve as models of manhood in many countries.

When women participate in violent sports they disrupt the “logic” used to reaffirm traditional beliefs about gender. This causes some people to argue that women should not participate in these sports, and to treat them as jokes, oddities, or freaks of nature when they do.

The participation of women in violent sports often creates a dilemma for people who advocate progressive changes in traditional gender ideology. Although participation contradicts the ideologi- cal belief that women are frail and vulnerable, it also reaffirms beliefs that have traditionally disad- vantaged women through history. For this reason, some people who support gender equity in sports do not encourage girls and women to participate in violent sports.

The Institutionalization of Violence in Sports

Certain forms of violence are built into the culture and structure of particular sports. Athletes in these sports learn to use violence as a strategy, even though it may cause them pain and injury. Control- ling institutionalized violence is difficult because

In many societies, participation in power and performance sports has become an important way to prove masculinity. Boys discover that if they play these sports and others see them as being able to do violence, they can avoid social labels such as pussy, girl, fag, wimp, and sissy (Ingham and Dewar, 1999). This learning begins in youth sports, and by the time young men have become immersed in the social world of most power and performance sports, they accept brutal body contact and bor- derline violence as part of the game as it is played by “real” men. Some even learn to define such forms of violence as exciting because it earns them respect and serves as a basis for creating an identity that makes them unique among their peers.

When women do violence in sports, it may be also seen as a sign of commitment or skill, but it is not seen as proof of femininity (Knapp, 2014; McCree, 2011; Young, 2012). Dominant gender ideology in many cultures links manhood with the ability to do violence, but there is no similar link between womanhood and violence. There- fore, female athletes who engage in violence do not receive the same support and rewards that men receive—unless they wrestle in the WWE, fight in mixed martial arts, or skate on a roller derby team where the sport personas of female athletes are constructed, in part, to shock or titillate spec- tators (Berra, 2005; Blumenthal, 2004). Boxing and mixed martial arts have recently provided a few female athletes with contexts in which they are rewarded for doing violence, but most women fighters do not feel that doing violence in their sport makes them more of a woman than females who are not fighters.

Despite the recent publicity given to a few women fighters, violent sports are viewed by many people as support for their belief that hierarchical distinctions between men and women are grounded in nature and cannot be altered (Fogel, 2011).

Power and performance sports emphasize sex difference in terms of physical strength, control through domination, and status as a reward for physical conquests. The gender ideology formed around these ideas and beliefs has been central in

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does not prevent them putting their bodies and the bodies of opponents in harm’s way.

In boxing, football, ice hockey, rugby, and other heavy-contact sports, athletes also use intimida- tion and their willingness to engage in violence to promote their careers, increase drama for specta- tors, and enhance publicity for themselves along with their sports and sponsors. They realize that doing violence is expected, even if it causes harm to themselves and others. A classic example of using violence as a strategy came to light in 2012 when the NFL issued a report summarizing its investigation of New Orleans Saints coaches and players who used “bounties”—secret financial

it requires changing the culture and structure of particular sports—something that most people in governing bodies are hesitant to do.

Learning to Use Violence as a Strategy in Men’s Contact Sports Athletes in heavy-contact sports often learn to use intimidation, aggression, and vio- lence as strategies to achieve competitive success (Shields and Bredemeier, 1995; White and Young, 1997; Young, 2012). These athletes routinely dis- approve of quasi-criminal and criminal violence, but they accept brutal body contact and borderline violence as long as it occurs within the rules of the game. They may not intend to hurt anyone, but this

Ronda Rousey punches her opponent in a highly publicized UFC Championship bout. There is nothing in the genetic make-up of women that precludes participation in sport violence. However, women do not use their ability to do violence as a reaffirmation of their femininity or womanhood. (Source: © AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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of intimidation and violence for their teams. These players are called “enforcers,” “goons,” and “hit men,” and they are expected to protect teammates and strategically assist their teams by intimidating, provoking, fighting with, or injuring opponents. Their violent acts are an accepted part of certain sports, especially ice hockey.

Players who act as enforcers are paid primar- ily for their ability and willingness to do violence. Every time they maim or come close to killing someone on the ice, court, or playing field, people discuss how to control it. But once violence is built into the culture, structures, and strategies of a sport, controlling it is difficult.

Learning to Use Violence as a Strategy in Women’s Contact Sports Information on vio- lence among girls and women in contact sports remains scarce even though more women are par- ticipating in them (Knapp, 2014; Young 2012). Participation in collision and heavy-contact sports creates the possibility for violence among female athletes, but few studies explore if and why it occurs.

Women’s sports increasingly emphasize power and performance, and they have higher stakes asso- ciated with success. As women become increas- ingly immersed in the social world of elite power and performance sports, they become more tol- erant of rule violations and aggressive actions on the playing field, but this pattern is less clear among women than it is among men (Knapp, 2014; Young, 2007a, 2012).

As women compete at higher levels, they often become similar to men in how they embrace the sport ethic and use it to frame their identities as athletes. Like men, they are willing to dedicate themselves to the game, take risks, make sacrifices, pay the price, continue playing despite pain and injury, and overcome barriers in pursuit of their dreams. However, it is rare for them to link tough- ness, physicality, and aggression to what it means to be a woman in society. Similarly, coaches don’t try to motivate female athletes by urging them to “go out and prove who the better woman is” on the field, even though they might urge women to

bonuses—to encourage defensive players to injure opposing players seriously enough to take them out of the game (see http://www.nola.com/saints /index.ssf/2012/03/full_nfl_statement_into_bounty .html; ESPN, 2012; Hruby, 2012b; King, 2012). A key statement found in over 20,000 pieces of evidence was a recording in which a Saints defen- sive coach was heard to say to his players: “We’ve got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill [49er running back] Frank Gore’s head.” In the same recording he also said, ”Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head [of quarterback Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers]. Early, affect the head . . . touch and hit the head” (Zirin, 2012b).

Players and coaches on the Saints were severely sanctioned by the NFL, partly because the NFL was trying to avoid legal liability by pushing blame for violence on the field to individ- ual players and coaches rather than admitting that the game contains incentives to be violent (Hruby, 2012c).

Violence is also incorporated into game strate- gies when coaches use players as designated agents

“When are you gonna learn when it’s necessary to use unnecessary roughness?”

Physical intimidation and violence are used as strategies in men’s contact sports. They have been effective in winning games and building the reputations of players and teams.

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

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so many times I’m missing a knuckle. From the concussions, my memory—I have a lapse with my memory at times. It’s just little things, and important things. (Branch, 2011b)

Research on pain and injury among athletes helps us understand that violence in sports has real consequences (Young, 2012). Rates of disabling injuries vary by sport, but they are high enough in many sports to constitute a serious health issue. The “normal” brutal body contact and borderline vio- lence in contact and collision sports regularly cause arthritis, concussions, brain trauma, bone fractures, torn ligaments, and other injuries. In other words, the violence inherent in these sports takes a definite toll on the health and well-being of athletes.

Recent discussions of the consequences of vio- lence on the field have focused primarily on foot- ball, although there also are concerns about ice hockey, soccer, lacrosse, boxing, and mixed mar- tial arts. Most discussions have been in response to research showing that there is a relationship between head trauma—including concussions and repetitive sub-concussive hits to the head—and the develop- ment of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other forms of brain damage (Fainaru-Wade and Fainaru, 2013; Laskas, 2015). CTE is a neu- rodegenerative disease with symptoms similar to early-onset dementia. These include many types of cognitive impairment related to memory, reason- ing, language and communication, problem solv- ing, emotional control, and the ability to focus and pay attention. Evidence of CTE has been found in football players from high school through retired professional players as well as boxers, hockey play- ers, and professional soccer players. Current studies are investigating the incidence and consequences of concussions in youth sports and football at all lev- els of participation (Belson, 2014; Davenport, 2014; Jordan, 2013; Kerr et al., 2015; Seichepine et al., 2013; Simpson, 2013).

Although the brain is complex and there is much more to learn about head trauma and brain injury in sports, it is clear that the head hits that occur regularly in football can cause brain damage.

play assertively. Therefore, at this time, women’s contact sports are less violent than men’s contact sports.

Consequences of Violence on the Field

Spectators often think about sports in a paradoxi- cal way: They accept violence, but the injuries caused by that violence make them uneasy. They seem to want violence without consequences—like the fictionalized violence they see in the media and video games in which characters engage in brutal- ity without being seriously or permanently injured. However, sports violence is real, and it causes real pain, injury, disability, and death, even though it is often hidden from spectators (Bruni, 2012; Layden, 2010b; Le Batard, 2013; McCree, 2011; Muller and Cantu, 2010; Omalu, 2008; Rhoden, 2012a; Shurley and Todd, 2012; Wiedeman, 2013; Young, 2012).

Ron Rice, an NFL player whose career ended when he tackled an opponent, has discussed the real consequences of violence. The brutal body contact of the tackle left him temporarily paralyzed and permanently disabled. He remembers that “before I hit the ground, I knew my career was over. . . . My body froze. I was like a tree that had been cut down, teetering, then crashing, unable to break my fall.” Reminiscing about his life as a football player, Rice says that he was “programmed from a very young age to live and think a certain way,” to be a warrior who keeps going no matter what (Rice, 2005). He did just that, and today he lives with chronic pain in his neck, wrists, hands, ankles, knees, and back— the toll of doing violence to others and enduring it in return. Rice explained that, “I’m 32 now, . . . These injuries are a part of my life. And I got off easy compared to a lot of these guys” (Rice 2005, p. 83).

Brantt Myhres, a former NHL player, now lives in chronic pain due to the collisions and fights he experienced during his ten-year career. At thirty- seven years old he described his condition in this way:

My back wakes me up. I get on the floor every morning. My left hand has been smashed and broken

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the safety of the sport for their young children. These concerns are associated with a significant recent decline in football participation among chil- dren (Project Play, 2015).

At the same time, school districts, college foot- ball conferences and athletic departments, and other sport organizations that sponsor football teams and programs are carefully watching these and other legal cases. The people who run these organizations understand that they may be legally liable for major financial damages if they do not responsibly use current scientific evidence to cre- ate policies and procedures that inform and protect young people from sustaining life-changing inju- ries. This is especially relevant for high schools and youth leagues because their athletes are under the legal age of consent and should not be put in harm’s way by those responsible for their safety and well-being.

Growing awareness of research findings that identify the consequences of violence in sports has led the U.S. Congress, about half of all state leg- islatures, and many sport organizations to develop regulations and protocols to protect young people who play sports—especially those in which there is a possibility for sustaining concussions and regular head trauma. These consist of rules about reporting concussions, dealing with them during events, and treating athletes who have experienced concussions.

These rules and guidelines are certainly needed, but they are useful only to the extent that concus- sions are either reported by players or diagnosed by qualified medical personnel. However, many ath- letes, especially males in power-and-performance sports, continue to take pride in not disclosing such injuries or they fear that if they do report them they won’t be allowed to play a sport that is important to them and a source of their livelihood (Sifferlin, 2013).

At present it is difficult to accurately identify concussions on the sidelines, and youth, high school, and many college teams don’t have the resources to hire neurologists with the training to do so. Sideline concussion tests are useful, although their

This scientific fact has the potential to dramatically alter the sports landscape in the United States. Con- sequently, researchers are now investigating tech- niques for identifying brain damage among current athletes, the conditions under which damage is most likely to occur, who is the most susceptible to damage, the ways that damage can be minimized in various sports, and the best treatments for damage that has already occurred.

In the meantime, about 5000 former NFL players and family members sued the NFL in 2012 for fail- ing to inform them of what the league knew about concussions and their impact on players’ health (Fainaru-Wada and Fainaru, 2013; Frontline, 2013; Kenny, 2012). The NFL settled out of court with the plaintiffs in late-2013, agreeing to pay $765 million, which included $75 million for baseline medical exams, $10 million for research, and $675 million for compensation to players and their families. The NFL also paid nearly $200,000 for the plaintiffs legal fees. In the agreement, the NFL admitted to no liability for players’ problems and the league was allowed to keep secret all its research evidence on concussions. However, the agreement does not stop any of the more than 13,000 other living former players from going forward with individual concus- sion-relation workers compensation claims in states where such claims can be made.

The NCAA is also being sued by former col- lege players claiming that (a) it has a long estab- lished pattern of negligence and inaction related to protecting players from head trauma, (b) it failed to teach proper tackling techniques to avoid head trauma, (c) it failed to implement system-wide pro- cedures for dealing with concussions on the field, and (d) it failed to educate “student-athletes” about head trauma and concussion issues. If the suits filed by former players are combined into a single class, the NCAA will find itself in a legal position similar to what faced the NFL. But the legal issues are more complex in the suits against the NCAA, so it is difficult to predict a likely outcome (Axon, 2013a, 2013b; Harris, 2013).

Most important for the future of football is the fact that parents are increasingly concerned about

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also calculate the cost of injuries due to brutal body contact and other types of violence in terms of medical expenses, lost work time and wages, school days missed, disability payments, family problems, and even reductions in life expectancy. Looking at these statistics will help us understand more fully the connections between sport participa- tion and health.

The recent publicity about concussions and other serious physical and health problems expe- rienced by athletes who play violent sports has initiated a number of moves to control violence on the field and its consequences. Representatives of football, hockey, boxing, and other sports now stress rule changes and tactics to promote safety rather than violence. Media commentators, play- ers, and sport administrators think twice before using words and images that glorify violence on the field. They understand that the commercial suc- cess of particular sports is endangered if parents don’t encourage children to play them or if young people decide that playing them is not worth the risk of serious injuries (Lavign, 2012; Pennington, 2013; Rhoden, 2012b).

The need to control violence in sports was made clear when U.S. President Barack Obama said, “If I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football.” He then added, “Those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence” (Foer and Hughes, 2013).

Obama’s words, along with previous state- ments by current and former professional athletes and media coverage of research on sport injuries, especially those affecting the brain, have led peo- ple in sport organizations to consider rule changes and new marketing narratives emphasizing safety and concern for the health and well-being of play- ers rather than narratives emphasizing violent action. For example, the NFL has recently spent millions of dollars on commercial messages about their attempts to make football safer for players at all levels of competition (Battista, 2012; see also, http://www.nflevolution.com/). However, as with

reliability depends on the qualifications of those administering them and the cooperation of the ath- letes taking them.

Additional research is under way to improve helmets used in certain sports and to develop other protective technologies. But the brain is difficult to protect whenever there is a forceful impact to or a violent twisting or snapping of the head. The brain is surrounded by fluid that prevents it from routinely coming into contact with the inside of the skull. Existing protective equipment may minimize damage to the skull in the case of a violent impact, but it cannot prevent the brain from slamming into the skull, with cells being damaged in the process. This is why some people argue that the brain cannot be protected and that new technologies give athletes the false impression that they can sustain violent impact to their heads without suffering negative health consequences. Some experts have even said that football should eliminate helmets so that play- ers will take their heads more seriously and protect their brains—a suggestion that has not been tested.

Controlling On-the-Field Violence

The roots of violence on the playing field are deep. They’re grounded in overconformity to the sport ethic, commercialization, definitions of masculin- ity, and competitive strategies.

Brutal body contact is the most difficult type of violence to control. It is grounded in the culture of power and performance sports and its incorpora- tion of dominant gender ideology. Unfortunately, about 90 percent of the serious injuries in these sports occur within the rules of the games and con- tests. This means that many men inevitably pay the price for their destructive definitions of sports and masculinity.

Efforts to control brutal body contact require changes in gender ideology and the cultures of certain sports. These changes won’t occur without persistent and thoughtful strategies to document the dangers of the actions and the language that people use to reproduce violent sport cultures and the gen- der ideology that supports them. People should

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Furthermore, people associated with football realize that the vitality and commercial success of their sport depends on recruiting boys and young men onto school and youth teams. If parents don’t think the game is safe, they will encourage their children to engage in alternative sports. As with any sport, an inability to attract young people leads to a smaller pool of talent, which usually reduces spectator interest and the vitality of the sport as a part of popular culture.

Spectators have often used violence on the field as an indicator of player commitment and dedication—a sign of their willingness to put their bodies on the line for the sake of team pride and victory. For this reason, brutal body contact and borderline violence have been used by players and perceived by spectators as necessary for achiev- ing victories and championships. How will they react if new rules reduce the amount of violence?

As we learn more about the damage done to the bodies and lives of athletes who engage in violence on the field, more people will raise moral questions

other sport organizations, it is difficult to deter- mine whether these messages represent effective changes in their sports or if they are mostly public relations hype (Hruby, 2013b).

Rule changes can be helpful, but there is no way to reduce the violence in certain sports without making major structural changes in how the sports are played. For example, a sport like ice hockey can reduce hits to the head with rule changes, and youth programs can eliminate body check- ing altogether, if they are willing to. But football presents a different set of challenges. Players can- not avoid forceful head impacts as the game is now played. Head impacts will occur regardless of advice on how to tackle or how to strengthen the neck to serve as a shock absorber. After talk- ing with NFL players about the conditions under which violent collisions occur on the field, Wil- liam Rhoden (2012a), a respected journalist, con- cluded: “Remove the gore and you kill the game immediately; keep the gore and the game will die a slow death.”

Ultimate Fighting—also known as Mixed Martial Arts, Cage Fighting, and Tough Man Contests—is one of the fastest-growing spectator sports in the world. Is watching men and women being pummeled into submission an appropriate form of entertainment? When does violent entertainment cross the line and raise moral questions? (Source: By permission of Rachel Spielberg)

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Control versus Carryover

Does playing sports teach people to control violent responses in the face of adversity, stress, defeat, hardship, and pain? Or does it create identities, per- sonal orientations, and social dynamics that make off-the-field violence more likely?

French sociologist Loïc Wacquant studied these issues for three years as he trained and gained the trust of the men who worked out at a traditional, highly structured, and reputable boxing gym in a Chicago neighborhood. During that time, he observed, interviewed, and documented the expe- riences and lives of more than fifty professional boxers. He not only learned the craft of boxing but also became immersed in the social world in which the boxers trained. He found that the social world encompassed by this gym was one in which the boxers learned to value their craft and dedi- cate themselves to the idea of being a professional boxer; they also learned to respect fellow boxers and accept the rules of sportsmanship that governed boxing as a profession. In a low-income neighbor- hood where poverty and hopelessness promoted intimidation and violence, these boxers accepted norms that disapproved of fighting outside the ring, they avoided street fights, and they internalized the controls necessary to follow a highly disciplined daily training schedule.

Of course, success in using combat sports of any kind to reduce violence away from the sport depends greatly on the conditions under which sport partici- pation occurs. If the social world formed around a sport promotes a mind-set and norms emphasiz- ing non-violence, self-control, respect for self and others, physical fitness, patience, responsibility, and humility (the opposite of hubris), then athletes may learn to control violent behavior off the field (Trulson, 1986). Those most likely to learn this seem to be young men who lack structured chal- lenges and firm guidance as they navigate their way through lives in which there are many incen- tives to engage in violence.

However, heavy contact sports often emphasize hostility, physical domination, and a willingness to use one’s body as a weapon. This is consistent with

about being entertained by actions that maim, cause lifelong chronic pain, and permanently dis- able the entertainers. But will people refuse to pay for tickets and media access to the point that foot- ball and other violent sports become cultural side- shows rather than part of mainstream U.S. culture? At this point we don’t know the answer to this question, but people are asking it more frequently (Krattenmaker, 2013).

VIOLENCE OFF THE FIELD

When athletes in contact sports are arrested for violent crimes, people wonder if their violence off the field is related to the violent strategies they’ve learned on the field.

An NFL player raised this issue with the follow- ing comment:

When you think about it, it is a strange thing that we do. During a game we want to kill each other. Then we’re told to shake hands and drive home safely. Then a week later we try to kill each other again (in Freeman, 1998, p. 1).

It is difficult to do good research on this topic. When people refer to statistical correlations that show a relationship between playing certain sports and high rates of off-the-field violence, it does not prove that playing violent sports causes people to be violent outside of sports. Two other issues must be considered before this conclusion can be made.

First, violent sports may attract people who already feel comfortable about doing violence on and off the field, regardless of what they may learn in their sport. Second, off-the-field violence among athletes may be due to unique situations encoun- tered more often by athletes than other people. Ath- letes known for their toughness on the field may be encouraged, dared, or taunted by others to be tough on the streets. In some cases, they may be challenged to fight because of their reputations in sports. If trouble occurs and athletes are arrested for fighting in these circumstances, it is misleading to say that their actions were caused by what they learned in sports.

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crimes are almost always subject to character assas- sination and harassment (Macur, 2013). Therefore, there is a need for sport teams and organizations to directly and assertively address this issue. But there’s also a need to understand the role of sport participation in violent off-the-field actions and crimes. Without this understanding, the efforts of teams and organizations may not be effective.

Sport sociologist Todd Crosset (1999) has carefully reviewed published research on sexual assaults by male athletes to determine if they are disproportionately involved in violence against women. His findings indicated that male intercolle- giate athletes were involved in more sexual assaults than other male students, but the differences were not statistically significant. In his conclusion, Cros- set explained that the evidence did not warrant a conclusion that playing sports caused men to engage in violence against women. He also noted that focusing only on athletes when doing research on sexual assault could distract attention from three important points:

1. Violence against women occurs regularly in society and is not simply a “sport problem.”

2. Some male athletes have perpetrated sexual assault and rape, but nearly all violence against women is perpetrated by heterosexual men who are not currently playing competitive sports.

3. The problem of violence against women must be understood in the context of gender relations in the larger culture if strategies to lower the rates of sexual assault and rape are to succeed.

Combining Crosset’s analysis with other research on violence in all-male groups, we can hypothesize that violence against women by male athletes is associated with a sport culture that creates or sup- ports among athletes the beliefs that:

∙ Violence is an effective strategy for establish- ing manhood, achieving status as an athlete, and controlling women.

∙ Athletes should not be held to the same nor- mative standards that apply to others in a community.

research showing that sport participation, especially for young men in contact sports, is associated with fighting off the field (Kreager, 2007; Wright and Fitzpatrick, 2006). Sociologist Derek Kreager ana- lyzed data from a national sample of 6397 seventh- to twelfth-graders and found that football players and wrestlers were over 40 percent more likely to be involved in fights than male peers who didn’t play high school sports. Playing basketball and baseball were unrelated to fighting, and male tennis players had a 35 percent lower risk of fighting than male peers who didn’t play sports. The likelihood of fighting also increased with the proportion of foot- ball players in a young man’s friendship network.

In another national study, Wright and Fitzpat- rick (2006) found that certain high school sports were associated with status dynamics that created or intensified ingroup versus outgroup differences among young people. Such differences may also account for more fighting.

More research is needed to understand the team cultures created in connection with particu- lar sports, the meanings that athletes attach to their actions, and the place of violence in sport cultures more generally. Sport participation does not auto- matically teach people to control violence, nor does the violence used in certain sports inevitably carry over to other relationships and settings.

Assaults and Sexual Assaults by Male Athletes

Highly publicized cases in which male athletes are accused or convicted of assault, sexual assault, rape, gang rape, and even murder create the impression that on-the-field violence influences off-the-field actions and relationships, especially relationships with women. Athletes are public figures and may be celebrities, so when they are accused and arrested, we hear and read about it multiple times. This repetition also creates the impression that male athletes are more violent and misogynist than other men.

Violent crimes are committed by male athletes far too often. Furthermore, the victims of these

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Finally, the focus on athletes should not distract attention from other sport-related assault issues. For example, sexual assaults, including statutory rape, by coaches have a greater impact in sports and on people’s lives than sexual assaults by athletes (Brackenridge et al., 2008; Fasting et al., 2008; Fasting et al., 2004). Research done by journalists at the Seattle Times (2003) found that 159 coaches in the state of Washington (where only 2 percent of the U.S. population lives) were fired or reprimanded for sexual offenses between 1993 and 2003. Offenses ranged from harassment to rape, nearly all involved heterosexual male coaches victimizing girls, and about 60 percent of these coaches continued to coach or teach after the misconduct was known. Even though 159 coaches were fired or reprimanded, most reports of misconduct were neither investigated by school authorities nor reported to the police. Even when misconduct was admitted, the incidents were kept secret if the coaches agreed to leave their jobs. Sexual offenses in private sport clubs were espe- cially problematic because clubs seldom regulate coaches’ conduct, and most parents trust coaches even when evidence arouses suspicions of miscon- duct (Willmsen and O’Hagan, 2003).

Crimes of sexual assault go far beyond the realm of sport, but when they are committed by athletes or coaches, they may be reported less often than in other cases, victims may be intimidated by fans and representatives of teams and sport organizations, prosecutors may not file charges, “settlements” may be reached to avoid criminal prosecution, and verdicts may be debated after trials have been held. Even if future research indicates that neither athletes nor coaches have assault rates higher than others, there is a need to address the unique issues associated with sport cultures and the experiences of the victims in these cases.

VIOLENCE AMONG SPECTATORS

Do sports incite violence among spectators? Or do some people use sports as sites for expressing themselves in violent ways? These are important

∙ People outside the fraternity of elite athletes do not deserve the respect that athletes reserve for each other.

∙ Women are celebrity-obsessed “groupies” who can be exploited without consequences.

Research on these factors will help us understand violence against women in the full social and cul- tural contexts in which it occurs.

The importance of being aware of the full con- text in which sexual assaults occur was seen in a Steubenville, Ohio, case in which two high-profile football team members were found guilty of raping an unconscious sixteen-year-old female student, whom they repeatedly and brutally dehumanized at parties with teammates in attendance. A video of young men at one of the parties contained such shocking and misogynist statements that it attracted nationwide attention and news coverage (Abad-Santos, 2013; Macur and Schweber, 2013; Murphy, 2013).

Although some people said that the culture of football was to blame, a closer look at the situation indicates that many factors were involved, includ- ing the place and meaning of high school football in Steubenville; the culture of the town itself; the prevailing local attitudes and beliefs about gender and women who are sexually assaulted; the charac- teristics and actions of the football coach and other school officials; the social organization of the high school; the separation between the football team and the rest of the community; the hubris, sense of privilege, and powerful group dynamics associated with the bonds between the football players; the use of alcohol by adolescents and a failure of young people at the parties to take responsibility for the safety of the young woman who had too much to drink; and the irresponsible choices of the two young men charged and found guilty in the case.

Future research may clarify the influence of these and other factors, and help to explain why none of the young people witnessing the assault was willing to step in and why men in certain all-male groups appear to lose concern and respect for women to the point of raping them and making fun of the rape.

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of his sources and reliable research on this topic proved that he was wrong (Cohen 1994; Sachs and Chu, 2000). Of course, the anger caused by a televised sport event could be a factor in par- ticular cases of domestic violence, but the roots of such violence run deep, and to blame it on watch- ing sports overlooks more important factors (Card and Dahl, 2009; Leonard, 2013). Furthermore, we don’t know enough about the ways that spectators integrate media sport content into their lives to say that watching sports does anything except provide emotionally focused social occasions.

Violence at Sport Venues

Historical Background Media reports of violent actions at sport events have increased our aware- ness of crowd violence. However, crowd vio- lence is not new. Data documenting the actions of sport spectators through the ages are scarce, but research suggests that spectator violence occurred in the past and much of it would make crowd vio- lence today seem rare and tame by comparison (Dunning, 1999; Guttmann, 1986, 1998; Scheinin, 1994; Young, 2000).

With the emergence of modern sports, violence among sport spectators decreased, but it remained common by today’s standards. For example, a baseball game in 1900 was described by a journal- ist in this way:

Thousands of gun slinging Chicago Cubs fans turned a Fourth of July doubleheader into a shoot-out at the OK Corral, endangering the lives of players and fellow spectators. Bullets sang, darted, and whizzed over players’ heads as the rambunctious fans fired round after round whenever the Cubs scored against the gun-shy Philadelphia Phillies. The visiting team was so intimidated it lost both games . . . at Chicago’s West Side Grounds (Nash and Zullo, 1989, p. 133).

This newspaper account also reports that when the Cubs scored six runs in the sixth inning of the first game, guns were fired around the stadium to the point that gun smoke made it difficult to see the field. When the Cubs tied the score in the

questions because sports capture widespread public attention and spectators number in the bil- lions. To answer these questions we must distin- guish between watching sports on television and attending events in person. Further, we must study spectators in context if we wish to understand the emotional dynamics of identifying with teams and athletes, the meanings that spectators give to par- ticular sporting events, and the varying circum- stances under which people watch sports (Paradiso, 2009; Young, 2012).

Violence Among Media Viewers

Most people watch sports on television in their homes. They may express emotions and become angry at certain points, but we don’t know much about when and why people express anger through violence directed at friends and family members at home. Nor do we know much about violence among people who watch televised sports in public settings such as bars, pubs, and around large video screens in public areas.

Most people who watch media sports outside the home restrict their emotional expressions to verbal comments. When they express anger, they nearly always direct it at the players, coaches, referees, or media commentators rather than fellow viewers. Even when emotional outbursts are defined as too loud or inappropriate, fellow viewers usually try to control the offender informally and peacefully. When fans from opposing teams watch an event at the same location, there often are sources of mutual identification that defuse differences and discour- age physical violence, although verbal comments may become heated.

The belief that watching sports is associated with violence has led some people to wonder if watching sports—the Super Bowl, for example— is associated with temporary spikes in the rates of domestic violence in a community or the nation as a whole. During the 1990s, a journalist mislead- ingly reported that women’s shelters were filled on Super Bowl Sunday because of increased domes- tic violence on that day. Subsequent examination

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verbally or physically attack opposing fans or spectators who represent an adversary outside the stadium, such as a rival gang. There may be inva- sions of a playing field to express outrage about a referee’s decision or a play that is seen as unfair. Bigoted or racist spectators may attack members of a group they define as an enemy. Organized col- lections of spectators may engage in violent dis- plays to support or oppose decisions made by team administrators, political officials, or other individu- als or organizations.

Although scholars in England studied and developed theories about violence at sport events during the 1970s and 1980s, few studies have been published after 1990, and almost no systematic research has been published in the United States apart from work done by sociologist Jerry Lewis (2007). The research done in England provides valuable historical data and thoughtful analyses of the complex social processes in which particular forms of sport violence are located (Armstrong, 1998, 2007; Dunning, 1999; Dunning et al., 1988; Dunning et al., 2002; Young, 2007a, 2007b, 2012). In fact, it has been used as a guide to develop more effective policing strategies in connection with sport crowds worldwide (Kossakowski, 2015; Spaaij, 2008).

For our purposes here, what we know is that sport events do not occur in social vacuums, and when tensions and conflicts are intense and wide- spread in a community or society, sport events may become sites for confrontations. For example, past spectator violence in the United States was grounded in racial tensions aggravated by highly publicized rivalries between high schools whose students come from different racial or ethnic back- grounds (Guttmann, 1986). In cities where housing segregation created heavily segregated schools, racial and ethnic conflicts contributed to confronta- tions before, during, and after games.

Research also indicates that nearly all crowd violence involves men. This suggests that ideas about manhood and the expression of masculin- ity influence crowd dynamics and the actions of spectators. Female fans may become involved in

ninth inning, fans again fired guns, and hundreds of them shot holes in the roof of the grandstand, causing splinters to fly onto their heads. As the game remained tied during three extra innings, fans pounded the seats with the butts of their guns and fired in unison every time the Phillies’ pitcher began his windup to throw a pitch. It rattled him so much that the Cubs scored on a wild pitch. After the score, a vocal and heavily armed Cubs fan stood up and shouted, “Load! Load at will! Fire!” Fans around the stadium emptied the rest of their ammunition in a final explosive volley.

Between 1900 and the early 1940s, crowd vio- lence was common: Bottles and other objects were thrown at players and umpires, and World Series games were disrupted by fans angered by umpires’ calls or the actions of opposing players (Scheinin, 1994). Players feared being injured by spectators as much as they feared the “bean balls” thrown reg- ularly at their heads by opposing pitchers.

During the 1950s and 1960s, high school bas- ketball and football games in some U.S. cities were sites for local youth gang wars. Gang members and a few students used chains, switchblade knives, brass knuckles, and tire irons to attack each other. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, some high school games in Chicago were closed to the public and played early on Saturday mornings because the regularly scheduled games had become occasions for crowd violence, much of it related to racial and ethnic tensions in the city.

These examples are mentioned here to coun- ter the argument that violence is a bigger problem today than in the past, that coercive tactics should be used to control unruly fans, and that there is a general decline of civility among fans and in soci- ety as a whole. Some spectators are obnoxious and violent today, and they present law enforcement challenges and interfere with the enjoyment of other fans, but there is no systematic evidence that this is a problem out of control.

Violence at Sports Venues as a Social and Cultural Issue Violence that occurs in stadi- ums and arenas takes many forms. Spectators may

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to the tendency among North American fans to see sport events as a realm that is separate from social and political realities outside the stadium. Finally, it is difficult for organized groups of fans sharing strong social or political attitudes to obtain unified blocks of tickets at a major event so they can express feelings through violent displays, as happens with some regularity in certain parts of the world. For these reasons most spectators at North American sport venues limit their expressive actions to loud cheering, stomping feet to make noise, waving objects to show team loyalty, and verbally taunting referees, opposing players, and fans.

Of course, not all sport crowds in the North America are models of good behavior (Young, 2012). Fights do occur, fans say nasty and some- times hateful things to each other and to referees

fights, but this is rare. Crowd violence, therefore, is as much a gender issue as it is a racial, ethnic, or social-class issue, and controlling it effectively over the long run requires changes in gender ideol- ogy and ideas about masculinity as much as buying expensive surveillance systems and hiring addi- tional police to patrol the sidelines at every event.

Venue Violence in North America Venue vio- lence does occur in the United States and Canada, but not frequently enough or in patterns that con- stitute a significant threat to the safety and well- being of spectators. This is partly because North American sports events generally attract diversified crowds in which violent actions are voluntarily held in check most of the time for fear of injuring chil- dren or others defined as vulnerable. It also is due

Thousands of diverse fans gathered around public video screens when the 2007 Rugby World Cup was hosted in Paris. These fans, mostly French, with large groups from England, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, were expressive, but violence was not observed by the author, who took this photo and talked with people in the crowd. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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America have become staging areas for young men to collectively express themselves, sometimes in violent and defiant ways. Their violence may express their general sense of alienation, objec- tion to the commercialization of soccer and soc- cer clubs, nationalist and/or racist attitudes, special political agendas, dissatisfaction with ruling poli- ticians—including powerful dictators, and their disdain for police that use brutality on the streets and, in many cases, enforce the interests of oppres- sive political regimes. Sport venues—usually soc- cer stadiums—for these men are places where they have more freedom and opportunities to express themselves collectively than they do on the streets (Dorsey, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2013d, 2016a; Zirin, 2011a, 2012a, 2013c). Additionally, the sta- dium, with the help of media coverage and the use of social media, enables them to be seen and heard so that the entire community or nation will know that they exist and are a force to be taken seriously.

It is difficult to make general descriptions or conclusions about venue violence worldwide. But web or YouTube searches for “football ultras,” “ultras worldwide,” “ultras-tifo,” and “football pyro,” will provide images of how fans express themselves around the world. In some cases you will see young men behaving badly as they engage in seriously dangerous pyro displays or express chauvinism and racism; in other cases they will be standing up or chanting for justice in the face of repressive political regimes, and in others, deliver- ing powerful political messages through card dis- plays, chants, or orchestrated action. When these expressions are contrary to the social and political positions of other fans in the stadium or officials policing the events, it is difficult to avoid physical confrontations. Depending on the circumstances, these confrontations may involve or precipitate col- lective violence that can be deadly for people in the stadium. Examples of this have occurred recently in Serbia, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and in North Afri- can countries where rebels have opposed the rule of oppressive regimes.

Research in the sociology of sport indicates that fan cultures in certain regions are organized around

and opposing players, and they sometimes throw objects onto the playing surface to express their dissatisfaction with the poor play of their team or perceived bad calls by referees and umpires. But most cases of violence inside stadiums and arenas involve individuals or small groups of fans; they are not planned, politically motivated, or executed by large, organized collections of spectators with agendas unrelated to the event. Additionally, such violence would be difficult to initiate, given that spectators are closely “policed” when entering ven- ues, making it rare for them to possess objects that could be used to destroy property or harm others.

Venue Violence Worldwide As you know by now, making sense of what people think, do, and say requires that we understand the context in which people live and give meaning to the reality around them. Therefore, it is not surprising that people give different meanings to their identities as sport fans, the teams they support, and the purpose of attend- ing games and matches. As a result, venue violence occurs in different forms and for different reasons from one country and cultural region to another (Armstrong and Testa, 2010; Braun and Vliegent- hart, 2008; Miguel et al., 2008; Spaaij, 2006, 2007; Spaaij and Anderson, 2010). For example, in Eng- land during the 1970s and 1980s, young men who came from generations of loyal supporters of their local soccer clubs were alienated and angry when club administrators used new business models and made decisions that ignored the customs and pref- erences of fans. As they experienced high rates of unemployment and felt that the local and national governments were undermining their way of life, spectators used soccer matches as sites to express their feelings and confront opposing fans and the police in ways that they saw as reaffirming their identities as men. More recently, when so-called “hooligans” stand up against injustices and con- front rival supporters, other spectators may under- stand their actions even though they morally object to their violence (Rookwood and Pearson, 2012).

In a similar manner, soccer venues in parts of Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, and Latin

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social psychologists call emotional contagion— a process through which social norms are formed rapidly and are followed in a nearly spontaneous manner by large numbers of people. Although this does not always lead to violence, it increases the possibility of violent crowd movements as well as confrontations between collections of spectators and between spectators and agents of social con- trol, such as the police. This also is a factor in post- event violence.

Post-Event Violence

In North America, the most destructive episodes of violence occur in riots after sport events, espe- cially those for which the stakes are high, such as playoff and championship games. Celebra- tory riots occur among fans of victorious teams, whereas frustration riots occur among fans of teams suffering defeats. But both forms of riots are equally destructive to property, although loss of life is rare.

Celebratory Riots Oddly enough, some of the most dangerous and destructive crowd violence occurs during the celebrations that follow victo- ries in important sport events (Lewis, 2007). Until recently, when middle-class, white college students tore down expensive goalposts after football vic- tories or ransacked seats and threw seat pads and other objects onto the field, it was treated as dis- plays of youthful exuberance and loyalty to the university. However, in the wake of injuries and mounting property damage associated with these incidents, stadium security officials now prevent fans from rushing onto the playing field when games end.

Cases of celebratory violence still occur, but new methods of social control have been reason- ably successful in preventing them inside the sta- dium. But it is a slightly different story outside the stadium, where crowds gather in multiple loca- tions. Local police usually anticipate celebratory crowds around a stadium, but effective control in an entire metro region depends on advance plan- ning and having a requisite number of specially

nationalist affiliations and feelings, and these are regularly fused with various forms of racism, depending on which populations are perceived as threats or the cause of social and political problems. But nationalism and racism are never limited to stadium crowds alone. They are manifestations of realities in the larger community or society. Inside the stadium they become concentrated and magni- fied to the point that they cannot be dismissed or ignored. Of course, this is not a new strategy. Polit- ical leaders, patriots, sport team owners, and media commentators have used sports and sport venues to deliver political messages of all sorts, progres- sive as well as reactionary. As research continues, we will learn more about the complex, contentious, and sometimes senseless forms of fan violence as they occur in various regions of the world.

Panics as Venue Violence By far, more people have died and been injured in panics and violent accidents than by any form of intentional specta- tor violence. The largest number of deaths in a sport-related panic occurred in Lima, Peru, in 1964 during an Argentina versus Peru soccer match to qualify for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. When a well-known fan stormed the field to dispute a referee’s call late in the game, he was beaten by police, which caused thousands to rush onto the field, with 300 to 320 people trampled to death in the process.

Similarly, a panic was incited in 2001 at a Pre- mier League soccer match in Accra, Ghana, when police fired tear gas into an unruly crowd. Specta- tors rushed to exit doors, which had been locked, and 123 people were crushed to death by the force of the crowd (Langton, 2015). Most panics at sport venues follow this pattern: spectators are fright- ened and rush to limited or locked exits where many are trampled or crushed to death.

Whenever thousands of people gather together for an occasion intended to generate collective emotions and excitement, it’s not surprising that crowd dynamics and circumstances influence their actions. This is especially true at sport events, where collective action is easily fueled by what

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broke windows in a downtown area. Property dam- age was dramatic in terms of its apparent senseless- ness, and dozens of people were injured, primarily in confrontations with poorly prepared police offi- cers. Unlike riots that occur in connection with political, labor, or civil rights demonstrations, this one was short-lived and people quickly exited the area as the police presence grew.

Police and political authorities initially described the rioters as thugs and professional anarchists with criminal intent, but videos showed that most of them were from local Vancouver fam- ilies that strongly disapproved of their destructive actions (Mason, 2011). A classic example of this was captured in a photo of a young man trying to set fire to a rag stuffed in the fuel tank of a police car. The car did not blow up, but the young man was identified as a member of Canada’s junior men’s national water polo team and an academic all-star who had received an athletic scholarship to attend a U.S. university at the end of the summer. After he turned himself in to police, he was sus- pended from the national team. Research on this event has not been published, but it appeared that this young man and others like him were mimick- ing what they perceived to be the culture of Cana- dian hockey as they displayed male rage, tore off their shirts, and yelled as if they were claiming domination through the destruction they caused (Zirin, 2011b).

Controlling Spectator Violence

A prerequisite for effective crowd control strate- gies is an awareness of factors associated with spectator violence. These include the following:

∙ Crowd size and the standing or seating patterns of spectators

∙ Composition of the crowd in terms of age, sex, social class, and racial/ethnic mix

∙ The importance and meaning of the event for spectators

∙ The history of the relationship between the teams and among spectators

trained officers who can intervene without creating backlash in a crowd.

The use of social media by people in or around a collection of fans who engage in violence to cel- ebrate a victory can aid in identifying and arresting perpetrators of violence, but research is needed to determine whether social media deter violence or fuel it among those who want digital evidence of their celebrations. In the meantime, some cities are using strategically placed surveillance cameras to capture images of perpetrators.

Research done by sociologist Jerry Lewis, author of the book Sports Fan Violence in North America (2007), indicates that most celebratory riots are associated with the following six general conditions:

∙ A natural urban gathering place for fans ∙ The presence of a “cadre” of young, white men ∙ Strong identification with the team ∙ An event with high stakes such as a national or

international championship ∙ A key or deciding game or match in a playoff

or championship series ∙ A close, exciting contest

Although there is no tested theory to explain involvement in a celebratory riot, young men might be seeking reaffirmation of their identification with a winning team and seeking status by engaging in actions that document their presence at a memo- rable occasion that they can discuss and brag about for the rest of their lives.

Frustration Riots Frustration riots are rare and less common than celebratory riots. Fans of teams that lose a deciding game or match in an impor- tant event are more likely to exit the scene of the loss and deal with their disappointment by them- selves or with close friends. A notable excep- tion to this pattern was a 2011 post-event riot in Vancouver, Canada, following the loss of the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins in the deciding game of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup championship series. Hundreds of young people started fires, turned over cars, and

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Perceived hostility and violence might also be defused if players and coaches make pub- lic announcements emphasizing respect for the game and for opponents. The use of competent and professionally trained officials is also impor- tant, because when officials maintain control of a game and make calls the spectators define as fair, the likelihood of spectator violence decreases. Ref- erees also could meet with both teams before the event and explain the need to leave hostilities in the locker rooms. Team officials could organize pre- game unity rituals involving an exchange of team symbols and displays of respect between oppo- nents. These rituals could be covered by the media so that fans could see that athletes do not view their opponents as enemies. But these strategies conflict with commercial media interests in hyping games as wars without weapons; therefore, we’re faced with a choice: promote the safety of fans and play- ers or boost media profits and gate receipts for team owners.

One of the most important preventive measures is to know and respect the needs and rights of spec- tators. This requires that crowd-control officials be trained to intervene in potentially disruptive situations without escalating the violence. Alcohol

∙ Crowd-control strategies used at the event (police, attack dogs, surveillance cameras, or other security measures)

∙ Alcohol consumption by the spectators ∙ Location of the event (neutral site or home site

of one of the opponents) ∙ Spectators’ reasons for attending the event and

their expectations for outcomes ∙ The importance of the team as a source of

identity for spectators (class identity, ethnic or national identity, regional or local identity, club or gang identity)

In other words, there is a combination of back- ground and situational factors that influence the likelihood of spectator violence at a sport event (Spaaij and Anderson, 2010). Over the past forty years, sociologists and law enforcement officials have done a good job of identifying those factors and developing social control strategies that take them into account. But additional things could be done. For example, we know that when spectators perceive violence on the field, they are more likely to engage in violence in the venue. Therefore, it is not wise to promote sport events as violent con- frontations between hostile opponents.

We need research on so-called celebratory riots. Research on other forms of collective action suggests that celebratory riots may not be as spontaneous and unplanned as many people think.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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repression and feelings of frustration, indignation, and anger (Turk, 2004).

Unlike most warfare, terrorism targets civil- ians to create pervasive fear in a target popula- tion. Therefore, terrorism is seldom random; it is strategically planned so that there will be maxi- mum media coverage. The intent is that coverage will spread and sustain fear and make people feel that the very fabric of their social order is being torn apart. For example, the two terrorists directly responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bomb- ings chose the event because it occurred on Patri- ots Day in Massachusetts and is symbolically linked with the beginning of the American Revolu- tion and the formation of the United States. Also, the marathon is televised live and covered world- wide as a premier sport event. Therefore, news of a terrorist attack at the race would be communicated nationally and globally, and it would be linked to the very foundation of social order in the United States. The pressure cooker bombs used in Boston killed three people and injured 264, some seri- ously enough to require limb amputations. But the effects this terrorist act went far beyond Boston and marathons.

According to Bill Braniff, the executive director of START—the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, located at the University of Maryland—certain sport events are attractive targets for terrorism because of the following factors (Hruby, 2013c):

∙ The media are on location. ∙ The event is communal and seen as represent-

ing the values and spirit of a community or society.

∙ When people seek explanations for the attack, it provides the terrorists opportunity to deliver their political messages.

∙ The recurring media attention given to a special sport event serves as a regular reminder of the attack and perpetuates fears associated with it.

A marathon is a particularly soft target for terror- ism because there is no central security checkpoint for spectators, who can access the race at many

consumption should be regulated realistically, as done in many venues worldwide. Venues and the spaces around them should be safe and organized to enable spectators to move around while limiting contact between hostile fans of opposing teams. Exits should be accessible and clearly marked, and spectators should not be herded like animals before or after games. Encouraging attendance by families is important in lowering the incidence of violence.

Being aware of the historical, social, economic, and political issues that often underlie crowd vio- lence is also important. Restrictive law-and-order responses to crowd violence may be temporarily effective, but they will not eliminate the underly- ing tensions and conflicts that often fuel violence. Policies dealing with oppressive forms of inequal- ity, economic problems, unemployment, political marginalization, racism and other forms of big- otry, and distorted definitions of masculinity are needed. These factors often lead to tensions, con- flicts, and violence.

Shaping norms can be difficult, but it’s a more effective strategy than moving games to remote locations, hiring hundreds of security personnel, patrolling the stands, using surveillance cameras, scheduling games at times when crowds will be sparse, and recruiting police and soldiers to bran- dish automatic weapons. Of course, some of these tactics can be effective, but they should be last resorts or temporary measures used only during the time it takes to develop new spectator norms.

TERRORISM: PLANNED POLITICAL VIOLENCE AT SPORT EVENTS

Terrorism and terrorist are words that create an emotional response. This is because terrorism is a special form of violence designed to intimidate a target population of people for the purpose of achieving political or social goals. It can occur anywhere, but it occurs most frequently in divided societies and situations where an oppressed popu- lation has an oppositional political agenda. In most cases, it is a strategic response to political

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The only other terrorist incident at the Olympics occurred at the 1996 Atlanta Games when a former U.S. military explosives expert detonated several bombs that killed two people and injured over 100 to protest against abortion and the “global social- ism” that was “destroying” the United States.

The point of these examples is to show that ter- rorism has occurred at very few sport events. In fact, until the 2013 Boston Marathon, the attack during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was the only sport-related incident of terrorism in U.S. history. But then came September 11, 2001, and the hor- rific attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a hijacked plane that ultimately crashed in Pennsylvania. Over 3000 people were killed and thousands were wounded on that day. The perva- sive fear generated by 9/11 and the emerging narra- tives that imagined future terrorist attacks in vivid details have had a major impact on U.S. culture and on major sport events.

When 9/11 occurred, Salt Lake City was prepar- ing for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. This led some people—all with different motives—to focus on the Salt Lake Games as the frontline for a pos- sible global war on terror. Large security companies and other companies with security technologies to sell were influential in creating and promoting a new narrative of fear and the need for event organiz- ers to provide comprehensive security no matter the cost (Giulianotti and Klauser, 2012; Hassan, 2012; McMichael, 2012; Schimmel, 2012; Sugden, 2012; Toohey and Taylor, 2012). As a result, the Salt Lake City Olympics and all subsequent Olympic Games have been assumed to be prime terrorist targets, leading organizers to spend increasing amounts of money for security. To question this assumption is nearly impossible in a climate of fear fueled in part by companies wanting to profit from the sales of high-priced security products (Atkinson and Young, 2012; Graham, 2012).

As shown in Table  6.1, security costs for the pre-9/11 Sydney Games were $180 million, or $12,500 per athlete (all data include Olympic and Paralympic athletes). But after 9/11 security costs

points along the 26.2-mile course. But despite this, a study done by START revealed that of the hun- dreds of marathons held worldwide in the twenty years preceding the 2013 Boston Marathon, only six had been sites for terrorist attacks (START, 2013). Three of these occurred in Northern Ire- land (in 1998, 2003, and 2005) where political and social divisions between Protestants and Catholics have a long and violent history. But in each case, bombs were discovered and defused before they could explode.

Another “terrorist” (according to the START Report) attack occurred during a 1994 marathon in Bahrain (in the Persian Gulf) when a few run- ners were injured by men who allegedly objected to the proximity of the race course to the remains of a mosque and were offended by the shorts and tops worn by female runners. A terrorist attack also occurred in 2006 at a marathon in Lahore, Pakistan, where six buses were burned and four people were injured, including two police officers. The most recent terrorist incident prior to the 2013 Boston Marathon was a 2008 suicide bomb attack at a marathon in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that killed twelve runners and three spectators and injured about 100 others close to the starting line. Finally, in late-2015 there was a failed suicide bomb attempt during a soccer game in Paris’s Stade de France. When denied entry to the stadium, the three terrorists blew themselves up, but there were no other fatalities.

This record suggests that terrorists do not usu- ally target sport events. Through the 110-year his- tory of the Olympics there have been two terrorist attacks, one in 1972 when members of a Palestinian terrorist group called Black September entered the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, went to rooms being occupied by Israeli athletes and coaches, shot and killed a wrestling coach and a weightlifter, and captured nine Israeli athletes. After a 21-hour standoff and a poorly planned rescue attempt, seventeen people were dead—ten Israeli athletes, one coach, one West German police officer, and five terrorists. The remaining terrorists were sought out and killed by Israeli commandos.

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residents seeking upscale housing, restaurants, and entertainment—all in a highly policed and secure environment. At the same time, the new narrative of fear leads people to seek security over privacy and accept a new high-tech approach to policing and social control.

Today, security strategies are part of the every- day routine at major sport venues. Spectators are scanned or searched when they enter venues, and there is strict enforcement of rules governing what may be brought into the venues. However, most security measures are discreet and take place behind the scenes in the form of bomb searches, electronic surveillance, and undercover tactics. When terror- ist attacks don’t occur, those who support high- tech social control say their system is working; and if a terrorist attack does occur, they argue that even more security technology is needed. In either case, those profiting from fear and uncertainty win. This, of course, makes it increasingly expensive to attend high-profile sport events at the same time that security costs are frequently paid with public money, meaning that the general population pays for the safety and comfort of those wealthy enough to buy tickets. Fear has many consequences.

summary

DOES VIOLENCE IN SPORTS AFFECT OUR LIVES?

Violence is not new to sports. Athletes throughout history have engaged in actions and used strategies that cause or have the potential to cause injuries to themselves and others. Furthermore, spectators throughout history have regularly engaged in violent actions before, during, and after sport events. How- ever, as people define violence in sports as control- lable rather than as a fact of life, there’s a tendency to view it as a problem in need of a solution.

Violence in sports ranges from brutal body contact and borderline violence to quasi-criminal and criminal acts. It is linked with overconfor- mity to the sport ethic, commercialization, and cultural definitions of masculinity. It has become

for the much smaller winter games in Salt Lake City were $500 million, or $131,100 per athlete— a more than tenfold increase from two years ear- lier. This pattern continued with Beijing spending $6.5 billion for security in 2008, or $430,000 per athlete. For London 2012, the security bill was an estimated $1.6 billion, or $114,300 per ath- lete. Overall, security now constitutes about 12 to 20 percent of the total budget for the Olympics, and the worldwide security industry has gone from being worth $142 billion in 2009 to an estimated $3 trillion in 2014.

Another factor that has boosted security expenses for the Olympics and other sport mega- events is that police and political officials in host cities use the fears of local citizens to buy and install security systems and employ a militaristic command-and-control approach to policing that most people would find unacceptable under other circumstances (McMichael, 2012; Schimmel, 2012). This supports their desire to gentrify the city, move the poor and homeless out, increase property values, and provide services for new urban elite

Year City Security cost Cost per athlete†

2000 Sydney $180 million $12,500 2002 Salt Lake

City $500 million $131,100

2004 Athens $1.5 billion $103,000 2006 Turin $1.4 billion $350,500 2008 Beijing $6.5 billion $430,000 2010 Vancouver $1.0 billion $325,500 2012 London $1.6 billion* $114,300 2014 Sochi NA NA

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company News. *Estimates for London 2012 vary from $800 million to $1.6 billion †The summer games have at least four-times more athletes than the winter games.

Table 6.1 Olympic/Paralympic security costs, 2000–2014 (in U.S. dollars)

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by concussions and repetitive sub-concussive head hits has made many people aware of consequences that had been purposely hidden or had gone undiag- nosed. If further research indicates that permanent and severe damage can be caused by the violence inherent in certain sports, there will be significant changes in the popularity of those sports, especially football. In the meantime, participation in certain sports is connected with regular and sometimes severe injuries and long-term health problems.

The relationship between on-the-field violence and the off-the-field actions of athletes is difficult to untangle. In some cases—and under specific conditions—people may learn, even in violent sports, to control violent actions off the field. In other cases, players may have a difficult time draw- ing a line between “approved” on-the-field violence and what is appropriate action off the field. Addi- tionally, learning to use violence in a sport may not be as influential as the hubris, sense of entitlement, and all-male group dynamics that often are asso- ciated with off-the-field violence among athletes. This may explain why athletes in certain sports seem to have higher sexual assault rates than their peers who don’t play sports. But more research is needed on this possibility.

Violence occurs among spectators who view sport events through the media as well as those attending live events. Research is needed to explain the conditions under which violence occurs in crowds watching or listening to media represen- tations of events. Studies at the sites of events indi- cate that venue violence is influenced by perceived violence on the field of play, crowd dynamics, the situation at the event itself, the overall historical and social contexts in which spectators give mean- ing to the event, and their relationships with others in attendance.

In some cases, venue violence may be planned to publicly oppose the policies of a political regime or the actions of police; it may be used to attract attention to political issues, injustice, or the exis- tence of a population that seeks public recognition; or it may involve an expression of nationalism, racism, or bigotry directed against disliked groups

institutionalized in some sports as a strategy for competitive success, even though it causes injuries and permanent physical impairments among ath- letes. The use of enforcers is one example of insti- tutionalized violence in sports.

Controlling on-the-field violence is difficult, especially in men’s contact sports, because it is often tied to players’ identities as athletes and as men. Male athletes in contact sports learn to use violence and intimidation as strategic tools, but we don’t know if the strategies learned in sports influ- ence the expression of violence in relationships and situations that occur off-the-field.

Among males, learning to use violence as a tool within a sport is frequently tied to the reaffirmation of a form of masculinity that emphasizes a willing- ness to risk personal safety and intimidate others. If the boys and men who participate in certain sports learn to perceive this orientation as natural or appro- priate, and receive support for this perception from sources inside sports and the general community, then their participation in sports may contribute to off-the-field violence, including assault, sexual assault, and rape. However, such learning is not automatic, and men may, under certain circum- stances, even learn to control anger and their expres- sions of violence by playing heavy-contact sports.

The most important impact of violence in sports may be its reaffirmation of a gender ideology that assumes the “natural superiority of men.” This ide- ology is based on the belief that an ability to do violence is an essential feature of manhood.

Female athletes in contact sports also engage in aggressive and violent acts, but little is known about the connections between these acts and the gender identities of girls and women at differ- ent levels of competition. Many women prefer an emphasis on supportive connections between team- mates and opponents as compared with the power and performance aspects of sports. Therefore, aggression and violence do not occur in women’s sports as often or through the same identity dynam- ics as they occur in men’s sports.

Violence in sports has real consequences. Recent research on the incidence of brain damage caused

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Reading 3. The social psychological dynamics of violence in sports

Reading 4. Sport violence: More barbaric than you think

Reading 5. Fan violence: Ultras in Italy as a case study

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ People in sport marketing and management have in the past promoted events in terms of anticipated violence on the field of play. Is this a viable strategy today? Explain why it is or is not.

∙ Controlling on-the-field violence presents a dif- ficult challenge. Identify strategies for control- ling various types of violence, and explain why you have chosen those strategies.

∙ You are a new program manager in a large public sport and recreation center. The direc- tor of the center tells you to design a program through which young people will learn to be less violent in the local neighborhood. Describe the program you would develop, and how it will be organized to meet your supervisor’s expectations.

∙ You are the athletic director at a high school that is hosting an in-state rivalry game between your number-1-ranked football team and the number-2-ranked team in your division. Vio- lence has occurred at past games with this team. Describe the measures you will take to control player and spectator violence in con- nection with the game.

of people. Venue violence is sometimes dramatic. Usually it involves crowd panics during which people are trampled or crushed to death.

Post-event celebratory riots are the most com- mon form of spectator and fan violence in North America. Frustration riots are much less com- mon, but both types of riots can be prevented or controlled through the use of trained police offi- cers who know how to intervene in such situations without causing backlash and further fueling crowd violence. Controlling any form of spectator vio- lence requires a trained security and police force.

Terrorism at sport events is rare, but the threat of terrorism and the politics of security alters policies, procedures, and the cost of hosting sport events, especially mega-events such as the Olympic Games. The terrorist attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon reminds us that global issues influence our lives, even when we attend our favor- ite sport events. Just as violence in sports affects our lives, the social conditions in which we live affect violence in sports. The challenge in provid- ing security at sport events is that those responsible for the safety of spectators find that they must limit their security strategies in order to control costs or to protect personal privacy. In some cases, large expenditures on security technology are part of a larger effort to introduce coercive systems of social control and law enforcement.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Murderball: Violence in wheelchairs Reading 2. Violence and animal sports

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(Source: © AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

chapter

GENDER AND SPORTS Is Equity Possible?

7

The biggest milestones are no longer what happens if women are allowed to play; it’s how to make it pay so you survive and thrive.

—Johnette Howard, sport journalist (2013)

The NFL and the Pentagon walk comfortably together . . . because they present pumped-up versions of masculine invulnerability as admirable qualities.

—Dave Zirin, sport journalist (2014a)

. . . the main barriers to . . . gender equity no longer lie in people’s personal attitudes and relationships. Instead, structural impediments prevent people from acting on their egalitarian values . . . The gender revolution is not in a stall. It has hit a wall.

—Stephanie Coontz, sociologist (2013)

The athletic world remains another intimidating place for many people who aren’t heterosexual or have non- conforming gender identities.

—Maxwell Strachan, sport journalist (2015)

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Cultural Origins of Gender Inequities

Orthodox Gender Ideology and Sports

Mainstream Sports Reaffirm Orthodox Gender Ideology

Progress Toward Gender Equity

Gender Inequities Remain

Barriers to Equity

Gender Equity and Sexuality

Strategies to Achieve Equity

Summary: Is Equity Possible?

Chapter Outline

• Describe the two-sex classification system, and explain how it impacts the meaning and organization of sports as well as who participates in sports.

• Explain how orthodox gender ideology has influenced sports and how sports have influenced gender ideology.

• Understand the current approach to sex testing and how it is related to orthodox gender ideology.

• Identify reasons for the dramatic increase in sport participation rates among women of all ages since the mid-1970s.

• Identify existing gender inequities in sports and the barriers faced when trying to achieve equity.

• Understand what it means to say that sports and sport organizations today are male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered.

• Explain how orthodox gender ideology influences lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transsexuals in sports today.

• Identify effective strategies to promote gender equity in sports and sport organizations.

Learning Objectives

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I think that female athletes are completely accepted among both the guys and the girls. I mean I have played sports since I was 5 and I have never not been accepted by both the guys and the girls.

This statement by a high school basketball player echoes the feelings of most girls and young women in the United States today (Evans, 2011). Gone are the days when many female athletes endured nasty comments and were taunted by peers. But gender remains important in sports, and gender-related forms of exclusion and discrimination continue to exist. This is why people in the sociology of sport regularly focus on gender and gender relations as they study sports as social phenomena.

This chapter focuses on complex relationships between sports and the way people think and feel about masculinity, femininity, homosexuality, het- erosexuality, and other aspects of gender and sexu- ality in culture and society. The issues discussed are these:

∙ Why have most sports worldwide been defined as men’s activities?

∙ How have girls and women been excluded or discouraged from playing sports?

∙ What accounts for recent increases in women’s sport participation?

∙ Do gender inequities remain in sports? ∙ What barriers interfere with the achievement of

gender equity? ∙ What strategies can produce more progress

toward gender equity in sports?

CULTURAL ORIGINS OF GENDER INEQUITIES

In Chapter 1, we saw that gender ideology consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to define masculinity and femininity, identify people as male or female, evaluate forms of sexual expression, and organize social relationships. The dominant gender ideology used in many societies is organized around three ideas and beliefs:

1. Human beings are either female or male. 2. Heterosexuality is normal, and other expres-

sions of sexual feelings, thoughts, and actions are seen as unnatural, abnormal, deviant, or immoral.

3. Men are physically stronger and more rational than women and more naturally suited to pos- sess power and assume leadership positions in the public spheres of society.

Many people question or reject these ideas and beliefs today, but the traditional or orthodox ideol- ogy they support has long influenced how people (a) think about and identify themselves and others, (b) form and evaluate relationships, (c) develop expectations for themselves and others, and (d) organize and distribute rewards in social worlds.

Even if we oppose orthodox gender ideology, it is so deeply rooted in our experiences and the orga- nization of everyday life that we unknowingly use it as a cultural guide for making decisions about what we wear and how we talk, walk, present our- selves to others, choose college majors, and think about and plan for our future (Ridgeway, 2011; Risman and Davis, 2013).

Gender ideology varies from culture to cul- ture. In societies where men control most power and resources, people use a gender ideology based on a simple binary (two-sex) classification sys- tem. Therefore, they assume that all humans can be classified into one of two sex categories: male or female. These categories are viewed in terms of physiological and psychological differences. This is why many people refer to males and females as “opposite” sexes, why they believe that the two sexes are naturally different, and why they expect males and females to differ in many ways.

These expectations are the basis for defining gender, or what is considered masculine or femi- nine in a group or society. In most societies, gen- der and gender distinctions are so deeply integrated into language systems, identities, and relation- ships that people cannot ignore them, even when they don’t agree with them. Additionally, gender distinctions are expressed in different ways across

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social classes, cultural settings, and sports (Adams, 2011; Connell, 2011; Mennesson, 2012; Tagg, 2012; Weber and Barker-Ruchti, 2012).

The two-sex classification system is widely taken for granted. Most people use it as a basis for how they view the world and their place in it. Often they feel confused, uncomfortable, or even angry when they or others don’t fit neatly into one of the two orthodox sex categories. This is why so many people find it difficult to think critically about gen- der and why they become defensive when others do so.

In this chapter, I use the term orthodox gender ideology to represent the interrelated ideas and beliefs associated with this two-sex approach. Using the word orthodox is meant to show that this view of gender represents a traditional and widely established way of thinking that people view as unchanging “truth” linked to their religious beliefs or an overall sense of right and wrong.1

In societies where many people have access to science-based information about sex and gen- der and have personal experiences to support that information, there is a growing movement, as well as personal inclinations, to question all or part of orthodox gender ideology. As this occurs, some people form new perspectives on gender and what it means for how they see themselves, their relation- ships, and the organization of social worlds. This is happening mostly among young people whose expanding awareness of human and social variation leads them to feel uncomfortable with an inflexible two-sex classification system that has been used to marginalize and label as immoral or unnatural too many people, including some of their family mem- bers and friends. The new ideas and beliefs about gender have not become integrated enough to say that there is an identifiable and widely shared gender-inclusive ideology at this time. But an

1This choice of terms is inspired by the work of Eric Anderson (2009b, 2011b), who distinguishes orthodox masculinity from inclusive masculinity. His explanation for doing this can be extended to identify orthodox gender ideology and contrast it with inclusive gender ideology, which is increasingly used to think about gender in less rigid and dogmatic terms.

increasing number of people are moving in that direction, and this phenomenon is now being stud- ied (Anderson 2002, 2005b, 2008b, 2009b, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d; Anderson and McCormack, 2015; Jarvis, 2015; McCormack, 2012).

Even though many people worldwide cling to orthodox gender ideology, it is inconsistent with sci- entific evidence showing that anatomy, hormones, chromosomes, and secondary sex characteristics vary in complex ways that cannot be divided into two distinct, nonoverlapping sex categories. Noted scientists explain that sex is so biologically and cul- turally complex that it cannot be forced into two categories if we really want to understand its impli- cations in our lives (Bank, 2012; Fausto-Sterling, 2000a; Harper, 2007; Laqueur, 1990).

Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist who has spent her life studying sex and the human body, notes, “There is no either/or; rather, there are shades of difference” (Fausto-Sterling, 2000b, p. 3). In other words, real bodies have hundreds of continuous physical traits that vary on a scale from low to high rather than falling neatly into two separate and opposite categories. Additionally, differences vary and overlap, so that the only way to conclude that there are only two sex categories is to arbitrarily decide what characteristics are most important and then fit them into two separate categories.

This means that the use of a two-category sys- tem for classifying all bodies is a reflection of social and cultural ideas rather than biological facts. But the categories have important effects regardless of their biological validity, because using them pro- duces life-altering consequences for people. In fact, when people are born with physical traits that don’t fit neatly into one sex category or the other, the gender ideology used by many physicians and parents in the past led them to surgically “fix” gen- itals and reproductive organs so that infants would appear to be more clearly male or female (Fausto- Sterling, 2000a; Harper, 2007; Quart, 2008). This approach is changing as people realize that bod- ies are more complex than a two-sex system leads us to believe, and that sex as well as gender is a social construction. Today it is more customary for

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This fear and intolerance is created when people see others with an appearance or presentation of self that does not make sense to them in terms of the gender ideology they use. As long as the two- sex system is widely accepted, homophobia will exist in some form. For this reason, the achieve- ment of full gender equity depends on transforming that system.

Orthodox Gender Ideology as a Tool to Maintain the Status Quo

Another important aspect of orthodox dominant gender ideology is that it leads people to see males and females as different and unequal. For example, Figure 7.1 illustrates that males have greater access to higher levels of privilege, power, and influence than females have. Therefore, men occupy high public positions of power and influence in greater numbers than women do. Of course, this means that some men—but not all men—have a strong personal interest in preserving the two-sex system and the ideology it supports. This is why males are more likely than females to “police” gender bound- aries and discourage all boys and men from push- ing or crossing the line that separates “heterosexual men” from women and from anyone who is “out

the parents of children with ambiguous anatomical characteristics to wait and let their children make their own decisions about surgeries or other medi- cal treatments when they know how they want to identify themselves and understand the implica- tions of sex identification in society.

Being Out of Gender Bounds

Orthodox gender ideology creates problems when it causes people to have rigid, unbending ideas and beliefs about the ways that males and females are supposed to look, think, feel, and act. Further, it leads to the assumption that heterosexuality is nat- ural and normal and those who have an appearance or express feelings, thoughts, and actions that do not fit into the heterosexual male or female catego- ries are unnatural and abnormal and therefore “out of bounds” in terms of gender (see Figure 7.1).

This approach marginalizes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transsexuals, and intersex people (LGBTIs) and leads some people to view them as abnormal, unnatural, or immoral because they exist outside the two orthodox sex categories. This fos- ters homophobia, which is a generalized fear or intolerance of anyone who isn’t clearly classifiable as a heterosexual male or female (Griffin, 1998).

FIGURE 7.1 A two-category classification model: Identifying sex and defining gender in U.S. culture.

High Power Line

Heterosexual masculinity

Heterosexual feminity

Gender non-

conformity

Normative Boundaries (limits of natural & normal)

Normative Boundaries (limits of natural & normal)

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because being female is devalued in mainstream U.S. culture, and because some boys and men feel the need to reject any choices and actions associ- ated with femininity. Therefore, they make choices that perpetuate the notion that men and women are different, with men being more naturally suited for positions involving power, leadership, and control.

Disrupting Orthodox Gender Ideology

Various aspects of orthodox gender ideology are widely challenged today. An increasing number of people worldwide now understand that certain ideas and beliefs produce and perpetuate gender inequali- ties that are arbitrary, restrictive, hurtful, and far too often brutal in their effects. In Figure  7.1 the arrows that push against the normative boundar- ies of the heterosexual male and female categories represent efforts to bend, blur, and erase boundaries and escape their constraints. As boundary pushers and gender benders raise critical issues in society, they force others to either defend or critically assess prevailing beliefs about masculinity and femininity and the constraints and inequities created by those beliefs. Therefore, what we see today are cultural struggles between gender defenders and criti- cal gender benders as they try to close or open up spaces in the gender order of society.

When gender defenders are dominant in these struggles, gender benders are more cautious in their self-expression because the personal cost of being gender-nonconforming can be very high. But when gender benders are more domi- nant, people in society feel less constrained to be gender-conforming and they express a wider range of feelings, thoughts, and actions—which some people think is positive and exciting whereas oth- ers think it signals the end of moral order in soci- ety. At this point in the United States the gender benders have momentum on their side and people feel freer to challenge the constraints of orthodox gender ideology.

During these struggles most people find it dif- ficult to give up ideas and beliefs that are central to how they make sense of the world, even when

of gender bounds” in their view. Maintaining gen- der distinctions reaffirms orthodox gender ideol- ogy and legitimizes disproportionate male power in society.

When boys and men learn to accept orthodox gender ideology, they enforce restrictive normative boundaries for heterosexual masculinity. Addition- ally, to retain their greater access to positions of power and influence, they must also promote the belief that power and influence are legitimately linked with masculine characteristics and that exist- ing gender boundaries are normal and natural. This is why males are generally more likely than females to intimidate or reject people who push gender boundaries or live outside them. When other males push boundaries, they may be quickly labeled a “sissy,” which can put them in a dangerous position among male peers who accept orthodox gender ide- ology. In a strange way, this is the price that most boys and men must pay to preserve an ideology that leads to the belief that it is natural for men to control sports along with nearly all major sources of wealth and political power in the world.

Women, on the other hand, have less to lose and more to gain in terms of power and influence if they do push and blur gender boundaries. This is why some—not all—girls and women take or are given more latitude or permission to exhibit a range of feelings, thoughts, and actions that is wider than the accepted range for boys and men. Of course, they must also be sensitive to gender boundaries if they wish to avoid intimidation or rejection, but girls, at least until their mid-teens, often say that being labeled a “tomboy” is a good thing (Daniels, 2009; Orenstein, 2008).

For the past half century in the United States, orthodox gender ideology based on a two-sex clas- sification system has fostered forms of socialization in which boys learn to limit their sense of personal possibilities more than girls learn to limit their possibilities across a wide range of options. For example, girls and women are more likely to play hockey or take boxing lessons than boys and men are to become figure skaters or take synchronized swimming lessons (Adams, 2011). This is partly

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1. Male-dominated, so that ability and perfor- mance qualifications are associated with man- hood and men; therefore, being “qualified” in sports means possessing masculine characteris- tics, or performing “like a man.”

2. Male-identified, so that what men value is assumed to be valued by all “mankind,” mak- ing sports a “man’s world” that revolves around men and manhood; therefore, “ women’s sports” must be identified explicitly, such as “the Women’s World Cup” or “the Ladies Professional Golf Association.”

3. Male-centered, so that men and men’s lives are the expected focus of attention; therefore, there are few women and women’s sports repre- sented in sport stories, legends, records, events, halls of fame, and media programming (Johnson, 2006, 2013).

This helps us understand that sports are gendered social worlds in which competence is defined in connection with masculine traits, and female bod- ies and traits are viewed as athletically inferior. Therefore, when a female excels in sport, she might be described as “playing like a man,” and a female coach, official, or administrator is considered capable

when she does her job “like a man would do it.” Despite the progress made by women in other spheres of life, sports remain male-dominated social worlds.

In male-identified social worlds, the values and experiences of men are assumed to be the standards for everyone. Therefore, women in

positions of authority are “out of place” and arouse suspicion about how they obtained their power and how they might use it. If women attempt to reduce suspicions by “fitting in” or acting like men, they may be seen as phony or manipulative, and therefore undeserving of their position. This makes it easy to discredit women leaders in sports—people can say that they obtained their positions by unfairly gaining the favor of men, or by being shrewd “stealth femi- nists,” or closeted lesbians who don’t like men and

those ideas and beliefs sometimes put them at a dis- advantage. For this reason, deeply held ideologies tend to slow the rate and extent of change in any society. For example, we see that many men and some women use their resources to defend and pro- mote orthodox gender ideology because it supports their positions of privilege in the gender order. Therefore, they sponsor media programming, polit- ical candidates, community programs, laws, and informal norms that affirm the foundational ideas and beliefs on which that ideology rests—such as the views that women and men are different and suited for different tasks, and that anyone who is not a heterosexual is abnormal. But the legitimacy of their power and influence is not absolute, and it varies from one social world to another. In many places worldwide that influence is being eroded by science, social action, and the everyday deeds of those who push gender boundaries.

ORTHODOX GENDER IDEOLOGY AND SPORTS

When men created organized sports during the mid- nineteenth century, they were guided by gender ide- ology organized firmly around the three major beliefs that constitute the core of orthodox gender ideol- ogy today. This led them to select physical activities, develop rules, and establish governing bodies that reaffirmed those ideas and beliefs. This was not due to a conspiracy; they just never thought of alterna- tives. In their minds, sports were male territory and sites for establishing and proving heterosexual mas- culinity. Women were too weak and frail to partici- pate. The preferred sports were those that involved physical contact, competition, and conquest.

Although certain ideas and beliefs about gender have changed over time, the legacies of the men who established modern sports and shaped sport cultures remain influential today. For this reason, sports continue to be:

The inclusion of women at the Olympic Games would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.” —Baron Pierre de Coubertin, 1912

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state schools. A few of the most talented even made it onto U.S. Olympic teams.

Myths That Discouraged Female Invaders Through much of the twentieth century, medi- cal myths created anxieties about certain forms of sport participation. Girls and women were told that playing strenuous sports would damage the uterus, make child birth difficult, and produce unfeminine bodies. The exclusion of girls from Little League baseball was widely accepted through most of the 1950s due to the myth that being hit in the chest by a baseball or by an opponent sliding into a base could cause breast cancer later in life.

People believed these myths because they were consistent with orthodox gender ideology and the ideas that females were naturally weak and there- fore vulnerable to injuries and overexhaustion in sports. Their sport participation was generally lim- ited to activities involving solo performers (figure skating, gymnastics, equestrian events) or com- petitions in which nets, lane dividers, and other barriers separated opponents (tennis, badminton, swimming, short running races, golf, archery, fencing) and “protected” them from physical con- tact with each other. Basketball, field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and other open-field or open- court team sports were labeled unladylike, which is why a women’s team sport was not included in the Olympics until 1964—and it was volleyball. “Netless” team sports for women were added to the Olympics gradually: in 1976, basketball, team rowing, and team handball; in 1980, field hockey; in 1996, soccer and softball; and in 1998, ice hockey.

Because science has dispelled medical and over- exhaustion myths, today’s college students dismiss them. But those who lack access to current knowl- edge in biology and anatomy may still believe gender myths that discourage or exclude girls and women from sport participation. This is especially true in cultures where literacy rates are low and men control information, education, and sports.

In additional to myths, appeals to widely accepted values and norms also discouraged girls and women.

want to undermine traditional sport cultures. This seriously hinders the careers of women in coaching and administration.

In male-centered social worlds, people assume that men are the center of attention. The World Series, Super Bowl, Little League World Series, World Cup, and the Masters (golf tournament) are not described as “men’s events,” nor are pro football stadiums referred to as “men’s sport centers,” even though they’re all about men and men’s culture. In male-centered sports, men are the focus; women and their sports are secondary. Of course, this doesn’t mean that women’s sports are not important to the players and their supporters. But it does mean that on a general cultural level, they have less significance than men’s sports.

Female Athletes as Invaders

Male-dominated/identified/centered sports and sport organizations have never been female-friendly. In the early 1900s, women struggled against tradi- tion, male resistance, and legal prohibitions even to ride bicycles without being arrested and defined as immoral. In fact, the history of girls and women in sports during much of the twentieth century con- sists of individual and collective efforts to overcome exclusion and discrimination and to persistently claim spaces in which they could do sports.

In the early twentieth century, women began to overcome some barriers and claimed spaces in the “grace and beauty sports” of figure skating and gymnastics (Hart, 1981; Loy et al., 2009). These were considered artistic activities emphasizing coordination and attractive “body lines,” so they conformed to emerging ideas and beliefs about femininity at that time in U.S. history. Women also made their way into golf and tennis—individual sports played primarily by privileged white women who were careful to “act like ladies” on the course and court. African American women overcame barriers and participated on some track-and-field teams at segregated high schools and the histori- cally black colleges and universities in regions where black students were not admitted to “white”

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Ladies, Not Invaders To avoid being labeled as invaders, girls and women often chose to call themselves “ladies” when they played sports prior to the 1980s. This was done to let men know that they knew “their place” in sports and would not take resources away from the serious sports played by men. This tradition continues today as many female athletes and women’s teams are referred to as “ladies.”

A similar strategy to avoid being seen as invad- ers and gender nonconformers was for female ath- letes to dress and act like stereotypical “ladies” by wearing makeup, dresses, heels, nail polish, and engagement or wedding rings. During competitions they wore skirts, bright hair ribbons, ponytails, and other “heterosexual femininity markers” to make sure they didn’t push too hard against norma- tive gender boundaries. The goal was to highlight

Girls were told that cheering for boys in sports was more appropriate than playing sports. Women were told that the nation depended on them to focus on domestic activities and stay out of the man’s world of sports. Those who challenged these restrictions during the late 1940s through the 1960s in the United States were widely perceived as invaders of male territory and made targets of ridicule and con- demnation by both males and females who accepted orthodox gender ideology as “natural law.”

Although girls and women have continued to push gender boundaries so that most sports in the United States are now open to females, some people continue to believe that females should be banned from the “truly manly” sports of wrestling, football, boxing, and bull riding. Women who are serious about participating in those sports face significant challenges.

For most of the twentieth century, few schools sponsored competitive teams for girls and young women. Instead, they usually sponsored semi-annual “field days” or “sport nights” during which girls could compete in running races and other field events or give skills demonstrations to parents, as in this photo. Until the 1960s there were widely believed myths that vigorous sports would harm the female body and make it difficult for a woman to conceive, carry, and give birth to children. (Source: © Lisa Larsen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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Equipment and apparel companies use this reformed apologetic as a hook for marketing and selling products. There are bikinis in women’s beach volleyball; “bunhuggers” (compression shorts) in running and volleyball; “cute” workout clothes; and the pervasive ponytails and bows worn by young white women on soccer and softball teams across the United States (where short haircuts are as rare as players without cleats). The most extreme examples of this are the lingerie leagues in basketball (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8C1l0YTM_4), hockey (now defunct), and football (Conn, 2015; http://www.lflus.com/).

An encouraging exception to uncritical gender conformity occurred in 2012 when women box- ers challenged the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) to drop a new rule forcing them to wear skirts “to help spectators distinguish them from men” in the ring (BBC, 2012). Marianne Marston, a leader in women’s boxing, expressed the feelings of her peers when she said,

stereotypical femininity and downplay any connec- tion to masculinity by hiding their assertiveness and toughness. Even today there are men, a few women, and some sponsors who say that if women athletes want to attract spectators, they should hike up their shorts, tighten their shirts, and look like ladies (Scott, 2012).

Social science researchers referred to this self- presentation strategy as the “female apologetic” when it was used in the past (Adams et al., 2005; Krane et al., 2004). Female athletes today use a “reformed apologetic” that involves proudly expressing their assertiveness, toughness, and rightful place in sport at the same time that they communicate their femininity through clothes, makeup, accessories, and posing with and without clothes in magazines (Hendley and Bielby, 2012). In other words, they push gender boundaries to cre- ate more space to be female, but they don’t want to erase the boundaries or transform the prevailing gender ideology.

If women play what is culturally defined as a “man’s sport,” and want people to watch them, they must dress appropriately so that no one mistakes them for seriously pushing gender boundaries. Lingerie football is an extreme example of this. Would these women choose to play like this if there were other opportunities to play football seriously? (Source: © Ted Soqui/ /Corbis)

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the lived experiences of people for whom gender conformity is not an option.

Using Sex Tests to Maintain the Two-Sex System A clear example of how sports reproduce beliefs about male-female sex difference is the current International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy requiring women who appear unfeminine to prove that their bodies don’t produce and use testos- terone like male bodies do. If their bodies naturally produce and utilize too much testosterone, they are disqualified from competition because it is assumed that they have an unfair advantage when compet- ing against other women. Of course, if men produce “too much” testosterone, they are viewed as awe- some athletes when they win medals.

This new policy replaces the “fem testing” previ- ously used by sport governing bodies. Female ath- letes in the 1960s were regularly subjected to exams by medical professionals who would check their genitalia and secondary sex characteristics to docu- ment that they were females before they could com- pete in certain international events (Donnelly and Donnelly, 2013a). Athletes emphatically objected to this, and the test never identified a single gender imposter. But it did lead to unfairly disqualifying women who looked too unfeminine to the judges (Huening, 2009; Karkazis et al., 2012; Simpson et al., 2000). As a result, the international track and field federation as well as the Pan American Games and the Commonwealth Games abandoned such exams in 1967.

In late-1967, the IOC and other sport organiza- tions replaced the exams with a chromosome test that involved scraping cells from the inside of a woman’s cheek and analyzing them to identify “Barr bodies” associated with the XX sex chromo- somes typical for females. But human bodies are naturally diverse in terms of sex chromosome char- acteristics as well as genetic, cellular, hormonal, and anatomical characteristics (Fausto-Sterling, 2000a). Therefore, this “Barr body”/chromosome test was clearly invalid and unreliable, but it was used for over thirty years and led to the mistaken disqualification of many women who had no unfair

I have more important issues to deal with in wom- en’s boxing—the acceptance of women’s boxing [and] acceptance of women in boxing gyms—than whether they should wear skirts or not. I think they (AIBA) are saying that women’s sport won’t get accepted or viewed unless women are feminine, and boxing is not necessarily a sport that attracts particularly a feminine attitude from the women that compete in it. (BBC, 2012a)

Marston and her peers had already challenged the gender ideology used by officials in the boxing federation simply by putting on gloves and step- ping into the ring, and they were not about to step backward into skirts.

MAINSTREAM SPORTS REAFFIRM ORTHODOX GENDER IDEOLOGY

Sports have long been sites for reaffirming beliefs about male–female difference, celebrating hetero- sexual masculinity, and legitimizing male power and dominance in nearly all spheres of social life (Paradis, 2012). When these beliefs are challenged, struggles result because many people benefit from them and don’t want them changed. But challenges often raise questions that begin to erode traditional beliefs and create new ways of viewing sports and gender at all levels of competition. This is illus- trated in the following sections.

Sports Reaffirm Male–Female Difference

Sports remain one of the only activities in contem- porary liberal cultures in which sex segregation is expected, accepted, and mandatory in nearly all competitive events. Sex segregation continues because it is assumed that females are physically weaker and less capable than males and there- fore must be protected from them (Pappano and McDonagh, 2008a).

Orthodox gender ideology discourages discus- sions about how and when sex segregation should be eliminated in sports. This contributes to ambiv- alence, mixed messages, and confusion about female athletes, the realities of biological sex, and

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previous forty years had identified only one case of gender fraud.

Caster Semenya and New Tests The 2012 IOC gender determination policy and similar policies adopted by other sport governing bodies were developed in response to a 2009 case involving Mokgadi Caster Semenya, an eighteen-year-old woman from South Africa. Ms. Semenya was born and raised a female, always identified herself as female, changed clothes and showered with female teammates, and was treated as a female by every- one she knew. But when she ran a surprisingly good time and won a gold medal in the 2009 800- meter finals of the World Championships, some of her opponents and officials from other nations

biological advantage in their sports (Huening, 2009; Karkazis et al., 2012).

By 1991, there was clear consensus among scien- tists that human bodies do not fit neatly into the two distinct sex categories around which sports were organized; choosing one or more traits to determine if a woman is a female would always be arbitrary, subjective, and unfair to some people. Finally, in 1999, the IOC abandoned sex testing and verifica- tion. However, the organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing set up an “unofficial” gender test lab where they drew blood samples from female ath- letes who were identified as having a “suspicious” appearance. This received little attention and failed to identify anyone as a gender fraud (Boylan, 2008; Thomas, 2008b). In fact, all the testing over the

Ms. Semenya (on far right) is running in an 800-meter race in France in 2011 after being suspended by the IAAF for nearly two years while she was examined and tested to determine if she met the IOC requirements to compete as a woman. Women continue to be subjected to such a process if they appear abnormal and “suspicious” to others. But women in high-performance sports are by definition, abnormal, and their bodies often deviate from someone’s idea of “feminine.” As the leaders of sport organizations cling to orthodox gender ideology, they have difficulty coming to terms with this fact. (Source: © CHRISTOPHE KARABA/epa/Corbis)

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herself to be, and they allowed her to compete again in IAAF events for women. But the controversy that swirled around this young woman and information about her supposedly private test results attracted global media attention that severely humiliated her and pushed her into depression (Levy, 2009; Vannini and Fornssler, 2011). Fortunately, her sup- port system was strong and she made a comeback to run in 2011 and at the Olympics in 2012.

The “female fairness” policy that the IOC and other sport organizations developed in response to Semenya’s case was put into use in 2011 and 2012. It involves testing only women who “arouse sus- picion” by appearing “too masculine” to compete fairly in women’s sport events, which isn’t a new approach. What is new is that “ suspicious women” are not eligible to compete until they submit to a test for hyperandrogenism, a condition that exists when women have naturally elevated androgen levels. Androgens are steroid hormones produced by glands in the human body’s endocrine system. Although both female and male bodies produce androgens, people mistakenly refer to them as “male hor- mones” because, among other things, they stimu- late the development of secondary sex traits during puberty (deepening of the voice, growth of pubic and facial hair, and muscle and bone growth).

The IOC, with advice from a panel of scien- tists, decided that it would use testosterone level as the single biological indicator of “femaleness” in high-performance sports. Testosterone is naturally produced mainly by the testes and adrenal glands in men, but it is also produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. Therefore, it is naturally present in nearly all female bodies, just as estro- gens, which aid in protein synthesis, are naturally present in all male bodies, even though people mis- takenly refer to estrogens as “female hormones.”

The IOC and the IAAF ruled that women with hyperandrogenism were eligible to compete only if their testosterone level was below “the normal male range” (IAAF, 2011, p. 12). They also ruled that if a woman’s testosterone level was found to be in the normal male range, she could compete only if additional tests proved that her body is “androgen

questioned her sex identification. According to their (cultural) standards, she didn’t appear feminine, and they accused her of not being a “real” woman.

Complicating matters was that Semenya is a black African from a family and community with few resources and certainly no professional medi- cal providers, whereas those who questioned her sex were mostly whites from wealthy nations. Many black Africans believed that questions about Semenya were based on a combination of racism and white ignorance about people of color, whose beliefs about gender were not shaped by the global fashion industry and the women it used to repre- sent the feminine ideal (Moyo, 2009; SAPA, 2009; Smith, 2009; see also Cooky et al., 2013).

Semenya’s time of 1:55:45 when she won the 800-meter race was fast, but prior to 2009 twelve women from nine nations had posted twenty-five times that were faster (http://www.alltime-athlet- ics.com/w_800ok.htm). Additionally, Semenya had never recorded an indoor time better than any of the top 75 indoor racers in history, her 2009 winning time was more than 2 seconds slower than the world-record time, and there were at least 340 officially recorded 800-meter times that were within 2 seconds of Semenya’s 2009 winning time. Therefore, her time was neither abnormal nor record-breaking. But according to some people who viewed the world through the distorting filters of orthodox gender ideology in North America and Europe, she looked “too masculine.”

Unlike many eighteen-year-old women in wealthy nations, Semenya did not come from a culture where body management practices involve styling hair, using makeup, whitening teeth, remov- ing most facial and body hair, raising voice pitch, adopting particular gestures and speech styles, wearing “cute” clothing, and having cosmetic sur- geries to appear feminine. So the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body for track and field, demanded that she have multiple examinations and tests to identify her “true” sex.

Nearly a year later the officials in the governing body announced that Semenya was who she knew

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than 200 biological factors that provide advan- tages to high-performance athletes (Ostrander et al., 2009), and research has shown that nei- ther hyperandrogenism nor testosterone levels accurately predict success in athletic events.

6. The policy claims to be about fairness, but it ignores unfair differences in access to train- ing, quality coaching, equipment, technology, sport medicine, and nutritional foods—which influence performance in women’s events more than testosterone does.

7. The policy undermines the inclusion of all intersex and transgendered persons because they will be defined as “suspicious.”

8. The policy ignores hormones as a source of unfairness in men’s events, even though hor- monal variations influence the athletic perfor- mances of men.

These problems, along with a long, sad history of women failing gender tests, suggest the need for a new approach to defining sex in sports, one that respects athletes’ rights to bodily integrity, privacy, and self-identification, and promotes the inclusive- ness that should characterize sports as human activi- ties. Many scientists who have studied sex variations recommend that if a person believes she is female, is raised as a female, is identified as female by those who know her, and is legally recognized as a female in her nation, she can compete as a female (Dreger, 2012; D. Epstein, 2009; Jordan-Young and Karkazis, 2012; Karkazis et al., 2012). This is not perfect, but it may be more practical and fair than the new policy that requires every National Olympic Committee to “actively investigate any perceived deviation in sex characteristics” for the purpose of maintaining “the essence of the male/female classification.”

Alice Dreger, a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern Univer- sity, has argued that it is unfair to eliminate female athletes with relatively high levels of naturally pro- duced testosterone; she uses this analogy:

Men on average are taller than women. But do we stop women from competing if a male-typical height

insensitive,” meaning that it does not process or utilize any amount of testosterone (which could actually put her at a disadvantage in many events). But if the tests indicate she is not androgen insensi- tive, she cannot compete as a woman until she has drug treatments to suppress her natural production of testosterone to the point that her testosterone level is well below that of a normal man, which makes her a woman according to the IOC and international sport federations.

Unsurprisingly, access to tests and drug treat- ments under the supervision of a trusted and expe- rienced physician is not equally available to female athletes worldwide. But the IOC and other sport organizations did not see this as being unfair enough to alter their new “female fairness” policy. Accord- ing to scientists who don’t work for or advise the IOC and other sport organizations, there are many problems with the policy (Karkazis et al., 2012; Robson, 2010; Sailors et al., 2012; Shani and Bari- lan, 2012; Sullivan, 2012; Viloria and Martinez- Patino, 2012; Wahlert and Fiester, 2012). Among them are the following:

1. Policing femininity isn’t easy (or fair) because human bodies cannot be divided into two non- overlapping categories.

2. Basing women’s eligibility on appearance invites discrimination, discourages females from participating in elite sports, and encour- ages women to use gender makeover strategies to look “feminine” as defined in “Western” cultures.

3. The testing and treatment requirements are unfair to women who lack resources or who live in places where “Western” medicine is scarce or unavailable.

4. The policy can have harmful psychological consequences for women who are told they are not “woman enough” to compete in high- performance sports.

5. The policy assumes that testosterone is the only factor that identifies sex, and that varying levels of testosterone create unfairness in wom- en’s events. But research has identified more

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form of masculinity that is most widely accepted in society. As a result, sports are a primary site where boys learn the language and meanings of manhood in their social worlds and use them as reference points for their identities and everyday “manhood acts” that signify heterosexual mas- culine selves (Anderson, 2009b; Bridges, 2009; Coles, 2009; Connell, 2008; Cooley, 2010; Drum- mond, 2010; Fair, 2011; Gregory, 2010; Hickey, 2008; Hirose and Kei-ho Pih, 2010; Lee et al., 2009; Light, 2008a; Messner, 2011; Schrock and Schwalbe, 2009; Wellard, 2012).

The celebration of masculinity is vividly pre- sented through the bodily performances of popu- lar male athletes. In many societies today, “great athletes are now kings of the human jungle [and] male athletes have displaced soldiers as the mas- culine ideal” (Kuper, 2012, p. 14). For example, male athletes who train and sacrifice their bodies for the sake of victory are described as “warriors,” and their achievements in power and performance sports are used as evidence of men’s aggressive nature, their superiority over women, and their right to claim social and physical space in social worlds. Sociologist Doug Hartmann (2003a) explains:

[Sport] makes male advantages and masculine values appear so normal and “natural” that they can hardly be questioned. Therein may lie the key to the puzzle connecting men and the seemingly innocent world of sports: they fit together so tightly, so seamlessly that they achieve their effects—learning to be a man, male bonding, male authority, and the like—without seeming to be doing anything more than tossing a ball or watching a Sunday afternoon game. (p. 20)

Hartmann helps us understand how sports repro- duce an orthodox ideology that privileges men and favors a form of manhood that clearly sepa- rates heterosexual men from women and LGBTIs in the gender order. This is why many men resist changes in rules that would “sissify” their sport by restricting violence or reducing injuries, although the incidence of brain injures is leading some men to rethink their commitment to this dangerous form of masculinity.

gives them an advantage over shorter women? Can we imagine a Michele Phelps or a [Lebrona James] being told, “You’re too tall to compete as a woman?” So why would we want to tell some women, “You naturally have too high a level of androgens to compete as a woman?” There seems to be nothing wrong with this kind of natural advan- tage. (Dreger, 2009)

Natural physical traits have always contributed to an athlete’s ability and performance, but as this statement shows, sports continue to be shaped by the ideas and beliefs that constitute orthodox gen- der ideology. When women have unique anatomi- cal, mutational, or biochemical advantages, they are seen as deviant and freaks of nature; but when men have them, they are seen as “supermen” and wonders of nature that inspire our sense of human potential.

Sports Celebrate Masculinity

Gender is not fixed in nature. Ideas and beliefs about masculinity and femininity are changeable. For these reasons, it takes never-ending “culture work” to preserve a particular way of thinking about gender and what it means to be a man or woman. This work involves being aware of gender boundaries, voluntarily maintaining them through myths and rituals, and “doing” or “performing” gender in conformity with the prevailing gender ideology. It also involves policing gender boundar- ies by sanctioning (teasing, bullying, or marginal- izing) those who push or ignore the boundaries.

Pushing gender boundaries is risky because the two-sex system usually becomes an embodied aspect of self for most people and influences how they experience the world and identify themselves and others (Fenstermaker and West, 2002; Ridge- way, 2009). This makes sports culturally impor- tant in many societies, because sports consist of body movements, norms, thinking processes, and organizational structures that reproduce a form of masculinity revolving around strength, power, and conquest. In the social sciences we often refer to this as hegemonic masculinity—that is, the

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sons to success in the labor market, and work- ing in “male jobs”—certain sports have become sites where masculine identity is learned, demon- strated, proved, and acknowledged by others. This is why many men and some women object when women play heavy-contact sports. Watching women wrestle on high school and college teams and watching them play hockey, wrestle, and box in the Olympics, causes these people enough dis- comfort that they demean and make jokes about those women, trivialize their sports, and express moral or safety concerns about the females who participate in them.

This also is why some people pay high prices to see championship boxing bouts between men, and why male boxers are the world’s highest-paid ath- letes in terms of single-event pay and pay per min- ute of active competition or game time. In fact, no athletes come close to the boxers’ pay per minute.

Sports Legitimize Male Power and Dominance

In 1994, Mariah Burton Nelson, a former Stanford basketball player and an author, wrote a contro- versial book titled The Stronger Women Get, the More Men Love Football. Her point was that strong women, including strong female athletes, threaten people who uncritically accept dominant gender ideology and take football and other heavy-contact sports as “proof” that men and women are different, with men being naturally superior to women. Inter- estingly, since 1994, women have clearly become stronger in society and sports; at the same time, football, perceived in the United States as the most “manly” sport, has become ever more popular.

With the fading of the symbolic value of tra- ditional markers of masculinity—such as being the sole breadwinner in a family, mentoring

Orthodox gender ideology is reproduced in many men’s sports. Some of those sports provide a vocabulary and a set of symbols and stories that erase diverse and contradictory masculinities and present a homogenized manhood in which the heroic warrior is the model of a real man. For boys this can inspire fantasies in which playing the role of warrior and superhero is the substance of being a man. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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uniforms, and next to no funding” (Obama, 2012, p. 11).

Recent progress toward gender equity was evi- dent during the 2012 Olympics in London, where for the first time in Olympic history:

∙ There were no male-only sports (boxing was the last all-male sport).

∙ Every nation’s athletes included women. ∙ The U.S. team had more women than men. ∙ An African American woman won a gold

medal in all-around gymnastics. ∙ A female Saudi athlete wore a hijab in judo.

These and other forms of progress have resulted from the following factors:

∙ New opportunities ∙ Government legislation mandating equal rights ∙ The global women’s rights movement ∙ The health and fitness movement ∙ Increased media coverage of women in sports

New Opportunities

New opportunities account for most of the increased sports participation among girls and women since the mid-1970s. Prior to that time, many girls and

women did not play sports simply because there were no teams and programs for them. Today, access to sport participation varies, with white girls and women in middle- and upper-income families hav- ing greater access than their peers who are less well-off and living in predominantly ethnic minority neighborhoods. Despite this varia- tion, new teams and programs have inspired and supported interests that were ignored in the past.

Government Legislation Mandating Equal Rights

Many girls and women would not be playing sports today if it weren’t for local and national legislation

For example, in a 2012 bout Floyd Mayweather received $32 million, or nearly $890,000 per minute over twelve 3- minute rounds, and in 2011 he received $25  million, or $2.1 million per minute in a four-round bout. Even Aaron Rogers, who earned $22 million for the 2015 season as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, makes about $40,000 per minute for his time on the field.

Although playing sports empowers many girls and women as individuals, sport as an institu- tion remains gendered in ways that reaffirm het- erosexual male power (McDonald, 2015). A clear example of this is that men control much of the power in women’s sports, whereas women control practically no power in men’s sports. Girls and women have participation opportunities, but they play sports in contexts where it appears that men are better than women when it comes to being lead- ers and wielding power. Even in unstructured sport settings, boys and men claim physical space and leadership roles as girls and women almost always resign themselves to being followers rather than leaders (Parker and Curtner-Smith, 2012). Until this gendered form of organization is changed, women will not have equal access to power in busi- ness, politics, and other spheres of life.

PROGRESS TOWARD GENDER EQUITY

The single most dramatic change in sports over the past two genera- tions has been increased participa- tion among girls and women. This phenomenon has occurred mostly in wealthy postindustrial nations, but there also have been increases in many developing nations. To remind people in the United States that this change is recent, President Obama noted in 2012 that “it wasn’t so long ago that something like pursuing varsity sports was an unlikely dream for young women in America. Their teams often made do with second rate facilities, hand-me-down

To this generation [of young men], mixed martial arts has come to represent everything that boxing once did to their fathers and grandfathers: the ultimate measure of manhood, endurance, and guts. —Douglas Quenqua, New York Times journalist (2012)

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mandating equal rights (Brown and Connolly, 2010). Policies and rules requiring equal opportunities and treatment for females are primar- ily the result of persistent political actions advocating gender equal- ity (Brake, 2010). For example, the U.S. Congress passed Title IX of the Educational Amendments in 1972 only after years of lobbying by feminists and other concerned citizens. Title IX law declared that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimi- nation under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The penalty for not following this law is that an educational insti- tution could lose some or all of the funds it receives from the federal government. See Reflect on Sport, “Title IX Compliance” for an explanation of gender equity.

This law made sense to most people when it was applied to education in the classroom, but when it was applied to sports, many people criticized and resisted it. The men who controlled athletic programs in high schools and colleges thought that sharing half of all sport resources with women was outrageous and subversive. Their resistance delayed the enforce- ment of Title IX for seven years and undermined enforcement of the law through much of the 1980s and between 2005 and 2009. Even today, opposition to Title IX remains strong, but after more than forty years, all court decisions have upheld its legality and its enforcement guidelines.

Initially, those objecting to the law claimed that mandating equity was unfair because boys and men were naturally suited for sports, whereas girls and women were not. In fact, in 1971, there were 3.7 million boys and only 295,000 girls playing high school sports—that is, boys outnumbered girls on teams by 12.5 to  1. Similarly, out of every dollar spent on high school sports, boys received 99 cents and girls received a penny. Overall, the men who ran these programs assumed that these differences actu- ally proved their orthodox ideas about gender and

demonstrated that Title IX contra- dicted the laws of nature.

At the college level, it was much the same. In 1971, there were 180,000 men and 32,000 women on intercollegiate teams; 1 of every 10 male college students and 1 of every 100 female students played intercollegiate sports. Women’s sport programs received only

1 percent of university athletic budgets, even though student fees and state taxes paid by women were used to fund intercollegiate athletic programs. For many years women subsidized men’s college sports with no benefit for themselves.

The impact of Title IX in school sports is clear. Between 1971 and 2014, the number of girls play- ing varsity high school sports increased from 295,000 to 3.2 million—an increase of more than 1000 per- cent! Instead of 1 of every 27 high school girls play- ing on teams, today 1 in 3 play on teams. Similarly, the number of women on college teams increased from 32,000 to over 200,000—an increase of more than 600 percent! Today, about 5 percent of all female college students play intercollegiate sports.

As opportunities for girls and women have increased, the number of boys on high school teams increased from 3.7 million to 4.5 million, and the number of men on college teams increased from 180,000 to 270,000. Another important outcome of Title IX is that many boys and men have learned to see and respect women as athletes—something that rarely occurred prior to the 1990s.

The Global Women’s Rights Movement

The global women’s rights movement over the past half century has emphasized that girls and women are enhanced as human beings when they develop their intellectual and physical abilities. This idea has inspired a wide range of sport participation, even among girls and women who in the past never would have thought of playing sports.

The global women’s movement has also influ- enced changes in the occupational and family roles

There is arguably no piece of progressive legislation that’s touched more people’s lives than Title IX, which allowed young women equal opportunity in education and sports. —Dave Zirin, sport journalist (2012)

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reflect on S P O R T S

Title IX compliance requires that a school meet any one of three equity tests: 1. Proportional participation test—meaning that the

proportion of women on sports teams is similar to the proportion of women enrolled as full-time under- graduate students.

2. History of progress test—meaning that a school can document that it has a clear history and continuing practice of expanding its sports programs for female athletes.

3. Accommodation of interest test—meaning that a school can prove that it has fully and effectively accommodated the sport participation interests of female students currently enrolled and potential future students in nearby high schools. Tests 2 and 3 were often used to comply during the

early years of enforcing Title IX. But eventually schools had to present concrete numbers to pass test 1 or have exceptional reasons for continuing to claim compliance under tests 2 and 3.

National sport participation numbers for 2015 showed that there were 1.23 million fewer girls than boys

playing on high school sport teams (http://www.nfhs.org/ ParticipationStatistics/ParticipationStatistics). In NCAA universities, there were nearly 62,000 fewer women than men on teams. In 2015, 43 percent of NCAA athletes were women and 57 percent of NCAA athletes were men.

Participation inequity in universities has become an increasingly serious and contentious matter, as the average student body is now 57 percent female and 43 percent male. In 2005, the George W. Bush admin- istration altered the criteria for complying with the accommodation of interest test to appease those who continued to believe that the proportional participa- tion test was unfair to men. Instead of demanding mul- tiple indicators to prove that a school met the interests of its female students, the new criteria required only that an email or web-based survey be conducted to identify interests in playing sports. Proponents of Title IX objected to this change, and the Obama adminis- tration reversed course and went back to demanding multiple indicators to show that interests were being met (Brake, 2010; Lederman, 2010).

Title IX Compliance What Counts as Equity?

of women and enabled some of them to acquire the time and resources they need to play sports. When women’s rights expand and male control over women’s lives and bodies is weakened, more girls and women choose to play sports. Additional changes are needed, especially in poor nations and among low-income women in wealthy nations, but participation opportunities today are far less restricted than they were two generations ago.

The Health and Fitness Movement

Since the mid-1970s, research has made people more aware of the health benefits of physical activ- ity (CDC, 2011; World Health Organization, 2013). This has encouraged girls and women to seek opportunities to play sports. Although much of the

publicity associated with health and fitness cam- paigns is tied to the prevailing feminine ideal of being thin and heterosexually attractive, there have been campaigns promoting the development of phys- ical strength and competence.

Within ever-shifting cultural limits, well- defined muscles are increasingly accepted as appropriate for women of all ages (Dworkin and Wachs, 2009; Ross and Shinew, 2008; Sisjord and Kristiansen, 2009). Traditional ideas about body image remain strong, as illustrated by fitness fashions and marketing images of women’s fitness (Kennedy and Markula, 2010), but many women today reject or temporarily ignore those ideas and focus on physical strength and competence in sports rather than aspiring to look like airbrushed and “photoshopped-to-be-thin” models.

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course, parents, teachers, physical educators, and those who promote public health offer alternatives to commercially driven messages and images. As these alternatives have influenced the everyday lives of girls and women, sport participation has increased.

Increased Media Coverage of Women in Sports

Women’s sports are covered far less often and in less detail than men’s sports, but social media and expansion of traditional media now enable girls and women to see and read about the

Overall, the health and fitness movement has made many people more aware of the tensions between public health and the companies that pro- duce sporting goods and apparel. Although more girls and women are aware that these companies use insecurity and dissatisfaction with self to pro- mote consumption, they are constantly bombarded with messages and images that stress gender dif- ferences and use unreal body images to market products. This often creates mixed message for girls and women: they are encouraged to partici- pate in sports, but the encouraging messages repro- duce aspects of orthodox gender ideology that have created past and current inequities in sports. Of

The global health and fitness movement has had a significant impact on creating possibilities for women to participate in sports. However, in some parts of the world, women have played certain sports as part of general community activities. This is the case in Chiapis, Mexico, where the first thing built in a village may be a basketball court that will be used by women and men. In this image, an organized team from the region is playing an informal team from a village. (Source: © Tim Russo, Latin America for Free Speech Radio News)

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effectiveness of this approach and how it might be expanded to reach more girls and women and show how various forms of sport participation can be integrated into their lives.

GENDER INEQUITIES REMAIN

Anti-discrimination laws combined with the women’s rights movement and other factors have produced dramatic increases in sport participation among girls and women. But equity is far from being achieved in the United States and world- wide. The primary areas in which inequalities remain are participation, support for athletes, and access to positions of power (Brake, 2010; Burton, 2015; Cox and Pringle, 2011; Donnelly and Don- nelly, 2013b; Donnelly et al., 2015; Erhart, 2011; Grainey and Timko, 2012; Laine, 2012; Sabo and Snyder, 2013; Thomas, 2011; Travers, 2011).

Participation Inequities

Today most people in the United States and many other nations agree that girls and women should have opportunities to play sports. But there continue to be disagreements about the sports they should play and the funding and other resources that should support their participation. These disagreements perpetuate gender inequities worldwide (Donnelly and Don- nelly, 2013b; Goldsmith, 2012; Henry and Rob- inson, 2010; Laine, 2012; Sabo and Snyder, 2013; Smith and Wrynn, 2010). Female athletes remain underrepresented in U.S. high school, college, and professional sports; in most sports and competi- tions involving teams worldwide, including the Olympics and Paralympics; and in nearly all infor- mal and alternative sports globally.

High School and College Sports in the United States Gender inequities remain in many high schools and colleges, and there is little chance that these schools will be investigated or penalized for violating Title IX. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is charged with enforcing Title IX, but it also handles, for the entire United States, all cases

achievements of female athletes in a wide range of sports (Beaver, 2012; Kearney, 2011; MacKay and Dallaire, 2012; Pavlidis and Fullagar, 2013). For example, espnW (http://espn.go.com/espnw/) isn’t a heavily promoted website, but for those seeking information about women in sport it pro- vides a full range of news, stories, images, and vid- eos. Such exposure encourages girls and women by publicly legitimizing their participation and pro- viding alternatives to media content that portrays women in powerless or sexually objectified terms. When girls see women who are physically strong and competent athletes, it becomes easier for them to envision themselves as athletes and define sports as human activities rather than male-only activities (Daniels, 2009). However, we need research on when and how this occurs.

Media people who make decisions about sports programming realize that they can use women’s sports to attract a female audience that they can sell to sponsors. This raises another issue that needs to be studied: Do girls and women who consume medi- ated women’s sports prefer narratives and images that challenge dominant gender ideology, or does such coverage make them uncomfortable? Addi- tionally, do various narratives and images influence girls and women to participate in sports or to aban- don ideas and beliefs that might limit their choice of sports, how seriously they play them, and how they integrate sport participation into their lives?

Important today, however, are the new media that increasingly enable girls and women to cre- ate their own coverage by posting stories and images online. For example, MacKay and Dallaire (2012) discovered that a Montreal-based group of sportswomen created a “Skirtboarders” blog that presented coverage highlighting alternative femi- ninities and portraying skaters as a polygendered collection of females who revise and poke fun at the paradoxes and socially imposed limitations that come with orthodox gender ideology. This approach, increasingly used by women athletes, provides opportunities for women to present their sport on their terms to all those who follow them online. However, we need more research on the

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them on rosters for multiple teams, even though teams were the same, such as the indoor and out- door track teams (Thomas, 2011a). Officials also listed on rosters women who had never tried out for the teams or were cut before seasons began. Some universities counted as women the men who practiced with women’s basketball and volleyball teams. In a highly publicized Title IX case, Quinnipiac University did all these things, plus they counted cheerleaders as athletes, even though the cheer team had no budget and no com- petition schedule that would provide “genuine var- sity athletic participation opportunities” (Moltz, 2010, 2011; Sander, 2010).

High schools are seldom investigated for gender inequities in sport participation, even though there were well over 1000 complaints filed from 2010 through early 2012 (Bryant, 2012). In 2010 the National Women’s Law Center filed complaints against twelve U.S. school districts where the per- centage of female athletes was significantly lower than the percentage of female students according to district data ( Nadolny, 2010). The difference was 33 percentage points for Chicago public high

of discrimination related to age, race, and disabil- ity. Therefore, it lacks resources to investigate more than a few Title IX complaints about gender inequities in sports. Even though reported Title IX violations have been widespread over the past four decades, no school has lost federal funding for violating the law. Noncompliant schools are usually asked to investigate themselves and report back to the OCR, but this process is slow and pro- duces mixed results, with some schools making changes and others resisting or delaying changes for years or indefinitely.

Universities face compliance challenges, but budget crises provide a convenient excuse for not changing athletic programs in ways that would be met with strong protests from those who have a vested interest in men’s sports (Pearson, 2010).

A 2011 investigation by reporters at the New York Times indicated that even before the bud- get crisis, dozens of universities had manipulated sport participation data to avoid OCR investiga- tions. Coaches and school officials would count women athletes two and three times by listing

Personal attitudes about gender have become more progressive and less constraining. However, the application of these attitudes in everyday life often lags behind. For example, men are more likely to claim spaces for sports (Kidder, 2013), and women are often left to sit and watch them as seen here at Brighton Beach in England. Additionally, the long-established rules in most sports favor the skills of men and often lead women to be marginalized when they play in mixed-sex games. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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reflect on S P O R T S

Many high schools and colleges fail to meet equity goals because of the size and cost of football teams. When a men’s football team has 80 to 120 members, awards eighty five scholarships, employs up to ten coaches, and has high operational costs, there is little chance for a women’s sport program to match the men’s program in terms of budget and number of athletes. Despite this, university officials resist cutting the size and budgets of football teams—even though at least 70 percent of all Division I (that is, “big-time”) football programs have more expenses than revenues each year.

This management decision puts many athletic direc- tors in a position where they must save money by drop- ping men’s teams such as wrestling, gymnastics, and diving. When men on these teams become angry, they blame Title IX rather than the management priorities that make football untouchable. But these men don’t challenge football, because the culture and structure of the entire athletic department often revolves around it. Defining the loss of men’s teams in terms of a men- versus-women conflict makes more sense to many men than challenging the sport (football) that reproduces the

gender ideology that many of them have used to form their identities and achieve social status since they were young boys.

When football is the “cultural and structural cen- terpiece” in schools and communities, gender equity is chronically out of reach. Ironically, some of the best- funded intercollegiate women’s sport programs exist in the few dozen universities where big-time football teams enjoy large payouts from bowl games and media rights revenues. The other universities—over 400 of them— have football teams that don’t play in lucrative bowl games. These teams incur major financial losses and depend on support from boosters whose identities are deeply grounded in football and the ideologies it repro- duces. These ideologies aren’t compatible with achiev- ing gender equity, and it is important to understand their impact on the distribution of power and resources in sports.

The point here is that until the status and organization of football is changed, high schools and universities will fail to meet gender equity requirements for participation or access to power in athletic programs.

Face Off with Football

schools. Similar complaints were filed against numerous districts nationwide. Nine hundred high schools were named in a complaint filed in Califor- nia alone.

This flood of complaints occurred in 2009 because people had not filed for the past eight years, knowing that the Bush administration would not investigate them. But despite the Obama admin- istration’s commitment to enforce Title IX, there were so many complaints that the OCR dismissed nearly all of them due to a lack of resources to investigate them. With a budget crisis facing the federal government as well as local schools and school districts, there continues to be a strong likeli- hood that gender inequities will remain or increase simply because there are not enough resources to fully enforce Title IX.

Professional Sports The most glaring gender inequality occurs at the professional level, where women’s sports struggle to exist. The WNBA, founded in 1996, is the most successful professional team league for women, but it is floundering finan- cially (Sally Jenkins, 2013). The league has never been profitable, and six of the twelve teams are now owned and supported by NBA teams as the twenti- eth season (2016) begins. The league’s total payroll in 2014–2015 was less than the individual salaries of forty nine NBA players. No WNBA player could earn more than $107,000 for the 2014–2015 season, although bonuses were paid for personal awards, making the playoffs, and winning the WNBA cham- pionship. It is also interesting that women playing in leagues outside the United States can make much more than they can in the WNBA. For example,

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in the modern Olympic Games have always had fewer events and participants than men have had. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had no women members from 1894 to 1981 (87 years), and did not approve a 1500-meter run for women until the 1972 Games in Munich. It was not until 1984 in Los Angeles that women were allowed to run the marathon. Women waited until 1988 and 1996 to run the 10,000- and 5000-meter races, respectively. Wrestling and boxing were not approved until 2004 and 2012, respectively.

The Paralympic Games have an even more dismal record on gender, although some progress occurred recently. Table 7.2 shows that in the Para- lympic Winter Games for both 2006 and 2010, male athletes outnumbered female athletes by 4 to 1. This ratio was nearly the same for delegations sent by the United States in those years. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the U.S. Olympic team had equal numbers of men and women for the first time in history, whereas only 41 percent of the Paralympic team were women—94 out of 227 ath- lete. For the Paralympic Games as a whole, women constituted 35 percent of registered athletes. This issue will be discussed more fully in Chapter 10.

Informal and Alternative Sports Informal games and alternative sports often have gender dynamics

standout player Brittney Griner made twelve times more playing one season in China than she made during her first year in the WNBA.

Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) began operations in 2009 but shut down before the 2012 season, and the Women’s United Soccer Associa- tion, launched in 2000, closed in 2003 with over $100 million in losses. There are “semiprofes- sional” women’s leagues in volleyball, football, and other sports, but most lose money or operate as nonprofits, and players seldom are paid unless there are cash prizes for winning well-sponsored tournaments.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the Women’s Tennis Association are long-standing professional organizations. They sponsor tournaments worldwide, but their total annual prize money is considerably smaller than for men’s golf and tennis. Interest in these tourna- ments has declined recently among U.S. specta- tors and corporations because golfers from Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan now win many of the tournaments and because tennis players from the United States now are rarely ranked among the top twenty or even the top 100 in the world.

Olympic and Paralympic Sports The data in Figure  7.2 and Table 7.1 illustrate that women

FIGURE 7.2 Number of women’s and men’s events in selected Summer Olympic Games, 1908–2012. 

Men's events

Women’s events

4

1908

106

1932

14

103

1964

32

130

1984

159

73

1980

50

153

1988

72

165

1992

86

171

1996

97

174

0 2004

176

125

2000

120

180

2008

175

127

2012

132

170

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Table 7.1 Male and female athletes in the modern Summer Olympic Games, 1896–2012

Year Place Countries Represented Male Athletes Female Athletes

Percent Female

1896 Athens 14 241 0 0.0 1900 Paris 24 975 22 2.2 1904 St. Louis 12 645 6 0.9 1908 London 22 1971 37 1.8 1912 Stockholm 28 2359 48 2.0

1916 Olympics scheduled for Berlin canceled because of World War I. 1920 Antwerp 29 2561 63 2.5 1924 Paris 44 2954 135 4.4 1928 Amsterdam 46 2606 277 9.6 1932 Los Angeles 37 1206 126 9.5 1936 Berlin 49 3632 331 8.4

1940 Olympics scheduled for Tokyo canceled because of World War II. 1944 Olympics canceled because of World War II. 1948 London 59 3714 390 9.5 1952 Helsinki 69 4436 519 10.5 1956 Melbourne 72 2938 376 11.3 1960 Rome 83 4727 611 11.4 1964 Tokyo 93 4473 678 13.2 1968 Mexico City 112 4735 781 14.2 1972 Munich 122 6075 1059 14.8 1976 Montreal 92 4824 1260 20.7 1980 Moscow 81 4064 1115 21.5 1984 Los Angeles 140 5263 1566 22.9 1988 Seoul 159 6197 2194 26.1 1992 Barcelona 169 6652 2704 28.9 1996 Atlanta 197 6806 3512 34.0*

2000 Sydney 199 6582 4069 38.2 2004 Athens 201 6262 4329 40.9 2008 Beijing 205 6450 4746 42.4 2012 London 205 6098 4362 41.7

Source: http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympics/trivia/number-of-participants.html. *Twenty-six countries sent only male athletes to the 1996 Summer Games. Note: These data show 112 years of gradual progress toward gender equity. At this rate, the 2020 Summer Games may have equal numbers of men and women. The number of athletes participating in 1976, 1980, and 1984 was lower than expected, due to boycotts.

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participation of girls and women in alternative and informal sports have received little attention in the sociology of sport. However, we do know that various forms of marginalization and exclu- sion account for significant inequities across most of them (Laurendeau and Sharara, 2005; Whea- ton, 2013). At the same time, many boys and men assume that they have priority when using spaces, facilities, or resources.

Research also shows that alternative sports are organized around the values and experiences of boys and young men (Honea, 2007; Laurendeau, 2008; Laurendeau and Sharara, 2008; Rinehart and Syndor, 2003). Observing nearly any skateboard park reaffirms this point. Girls and young women are usually spectators—“skate Bettys” (“group- ies” with boards), or they’re cautiously assertive participants who work harder than male peers to be taken seriously as athletes (Beal and Weidman, 2003). Additionally, when females do claim space for themselves in bowls or ramp areas, they do so on terms set by the males.

Many so-called extreme sports focus on fac- ing one’s fears, taking risks, and pushing norma- tive limits. The boys and young men in these sports say that inclusion is based on skill, guts, and aggressiveness, not gender. However, the vocabu- lary used in these activities highlights the need to

that create access challenges for most girls and women. These activities are nearly always male- dominated/identified/centered. Boys and men usually control the spaces in which they occur and the norms used to acknowledge the identity claims of participants. This discourages girls and women, who must have exceptional skills to be given a chance to participate and be accepted as an athlete by their male peers. In some cases, entry into these activities is “sponsored” by influential male partici- pants who convince others that a particular girl or woman should have a chance to demonstrate her skills as an athlete.

Compared to men, women’s access to sport par- ticipation opportunities is also limited by the time constraints they face in connection with household chores, child care, and other family responsibilities. Men are more likely than women to compartmen- talize their lives, put job and family issues on hold, and take time to work out or play sports (Taniguchi and Shupe, 2014). In the case of married couples, even when both people work full time, women often “subsidize” the sport participation of their male partners by dedicating more of their time to household and family responsibilities.

Title IX law does not apply to informal activities, so changes come slowly. The meth- ods and dynamics of excluding or restricting the

Recent Paralympic Games* Number of Females (%)

Number of Males (%)

Total Number of Athletes

2012 Summer Games–London 164 nations 1513 (35%) 2756 (65%) 4269 2010 Winter Games–Vancouver 44 nations 121 (24%) 381 (76%) 502 2006 Winter Games–Turin, Italy 39 nations 99 (21%) 375 (79%) 384

2012 Summer Games–London U.S. delegation 94 (41%) 133 (59%) 227 2010 Winter Games–Vancouver U.S. delegation 13 (26%) 37 (74%) 50 2006 Winter Games–Turin, Italy U.S. delegation 11 (20%) 45 (80%) 56

Source: Smith and Wrynn, 2010; International Paralympic Committee; www.teamusa.org. *Data for China are unavailable

Table 7.2 Female and male athletes at recent Paralympic Games, all nations and U.S. delegation

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In response to the masculinized cultures in most alternative sports, some women have created new sports or revised others so they are organized around their own experiences and goals. A good example of this is the rapidly growing flat-track roller derby. The Women’s Flat Track Derby Asso- ciation (WFTDA) in 2016 had about 369 member leagues and 76 apprentice leagues worldwide. As one participant—a young lawyer from Houston— described it,

The roller derby of today is . . . an empowering sport for female athletes. It’s also a sisterhood. This is not a sport for dainty girls. Most of the girls are extremely muscular and have some heft to prevent them from being knocked down. . . . (Murphy, 2012)

Roller derby team cultures are organized around the values and experiences of women (Beaver, 2012;

possess “big cahones” and the willingness to go “balls to the wall” to be accepted (Meadows, 2006; Roenigk, 2006). Therefore, females must “have balls”—that is, enough skill and guts to attempt and occasionally accomplish creative and danger- ous tricks that boys and men deem to be crucial in the identity-claiming process. This vocabulary and the associated norms privilege males and puts females at a disadvantage.

The consequences of the male-dominated/ identified/centered culture and organization of alternative sports are seen in media-created, corporate-sponsored versions such as the X Games, Street League Skateboarding Pro Tour, the Maloof Money Cup, and the Dew Tour. Pat- terns vary from one sport to another, but includ- ing women is not usually a high-priority goal in extreme sports.

Roller derby teams are becoming widespread as women seek new sport experiences and form new sport cultures. The athletes on these teams embrace a wide array of ideas and beliefs about femininity; many reject a two-category model of gender. Derby bouts are sites where alternative definitions of femininity are presented to spectators. (Source: © Bryan Winter/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)

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them to spectators, and sold them to sponsors. Dur- ing this time, public funds and facilities, student fees, and private sponsorships were used to fund, promote, and expand programs for boys and men. Few sports for girls and women have enjoyed the support received in the past by sports for boys and men. Today publicly funded, neighborhood-based sport programs have nearly disappeared, and pri- vate programs exclude many girls and women who would enjoy local park and recreation funded sports that boys enjoyed from the 1950s through the early 1980s.

Access to Positions of Power

Gender inequality is most glaring when it comes to who holds positions of power in sports. As the visibility and importance of sports for girls and women has increased, most of the positions of power in those sports have been taken by men, and women seldom hold positions of power in men’s sports. Data at all levels of competition show that women are severely underrepresented in coaching and administration jobs, especially at the highest levels of power in sports.

Men today coach the majority of women’s teams, they occupy the top positions of power in women’s sport programs, and they make most of the decisions that impact girls and women in sports. At the same time, women have no noticeable power in men’s sports and struggle to gain access to power in women’s sports. A forty-year longitudinal study by Vivian Acosta and Linda Carpenter (2012) doc- uments these gender trends for college coaching and administration positions in NCAA institutions:

∙ When Title IX became law in 1972, women coached 90 percent of women’s teams in the NCAA; by 1978 the proportion dropped to 58 percent; in 2016 it was about 43 percent.

∙ Between 1998 and 2012, there were 2928 new NCAA teams for women; of the head coaches hired for those teams, 1962 (66 percent) were men and 966 (33 percent) were women.

∙ In 1998, there were 188 woman serving as ath- letic directors in NCAA institutions (19 percent

Donnelly, 2013; Gieseler, 2014; Murphy, 2012; Pavlidis and Fullagar, 2013, 2015). They emphasize inclusion and bring diverse women together in sup- portive relationships. Attending one of the WFTDA “bouts” shows they have a very different “feel” than male-dominated alternative sports.

Support for Athletes

Female athletes in many U.S. high schools and col- leges receive less sport-related support than boys and men receive. This pattern also exists in sport- sponsoring organizations worldwide. Historically, inequities have existed in the following areas:

∙ Access to facilities ∙ Quality of facilities (playing surfaces, weight

training, locker rooms, showers, and so on) ∙ Availability of scholarships* ∙ Program operating expenses ∙ Provision and maintenance of equipment and

supplies ∙ Recruiting budgets* ∙ Scheduling of games and practice times ∙ Travel and per diem expenses ∙ Opportunity to receive academic tutoring* ∙ Numbers of coaches assigned to teams ∙ Salaries for administrators, coaches, trainers,

and other staff ∙ Provision of medical and training services and

facilities ∙ Publicity and media coverage for women’s

teams and events

Inequities in some of these areas remain a prob- lem in many schools, but they are a greater problem in community programs, where they often go unde- tected unless someone digs through data from many sources to identify them.

Most people today realize that a lack of sup- port subverts sport participation among girls and women. For well over a century, men built their programs, shaped them to fit their interests and val- ues, generated interest in participation, marketed

*These apply primarily to U.S. colleges and universities.

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Eight of the other nine sports showed at least a 13 percentage point decline in female head coaches. If nearly 80 percent of the administrators and head coaches of all NCAA athletic departments and intercollegiate teams were women, men would be outraged, demand affirmative action programs, and file lawsuits. Up until now, women have been far less demanding as they face limited access to power positions in sports.

The exclusion and underrepresentation of women in coaching and administration exists worldwide (Fagan and Cyphers, 2012; Henry and Robinson, 2010; Laine, 2012; Smith and Wrynn, 2010). The IOC, the world’s most pow- erful sport organization, had no women members for eighty-five years (1896 to 1981) and it has never had a female president. In 1996, the IOC promised that in the Olympic movement, women would make up 20 percent of its decision-making boards by 2005. But in 2013, this goal remained far out of reach: Women made up 19 percent of IOC members (20 of 105 total members), but the fifteen-member executive committee has only two women (13 percent). Only two of the twenty-five

of all ADs); this number grew slightly to 215 (20 percent) in 2012 (men held this position in 807 institutions in 1998 and in 843 institutions in 2012).

∙ The athletic departments that had female athletic directors in 2012 also had higher proportions of women coaches, and the proportion of female coaches and administrators is lowest in Division I and highest in Division III.

∙ Only 9.8 percent of all NCAA institutions had a female full-time sports information director in 2012, and 30.7 percent of these schools had a female head athletic trainer (most of these schools are in Division III).

∙ Since 1971, women constituted between 2 and 3.5 percent of head coaches for men’s or gender- combined teams in swimming, cross- country, or tennis.

Table 7.3 presents longitudinal data on the proportion of women’s teams with female head coaches for ten popular women’s intercollegiate sports from 1977 to 2012. Only soccer had a higher proportion of women coaches in 2012 than in 1977.

Sport 1977* 1987 1997 2008* 2012 Percentage Point

Change, 1977–2012

Basketball 79.4 59.9 65.2 59.1 59.5 −19.9 Volleyball 86.6 70.2 67.8 55.0 53.3 −33.3 Cross-country 35.2 18.7 20.7 19.2 21.2 −14.0 Soccer 29.4 24.1 33.1 33.1 32.2 +2.8 Softball 83.5 67.5 65.2 64.7 62.1 −21.4 Tennis 72.9 54.9 40.9 29.8 29.9 −43.0 Track and field 52.3 20.8 16.4 18.0 19.2 −33.1 Golf 54.6 37.5 45.2 38.8 41.6 −13.0 Swimming/diving 53.6 31.2 33.7 24.3 26.2 −27.4 Lacrosse 90.7 95.1 85.2 84.6 85.1 −5.6

Source: Carpenter and Acosta (2008) and Acosta and Carpenter (2012); see http://www.acostacarpenter.org/. *Data for specific sports prior to 1977 and for 2007 are not available.

Table 7.3 Percentage of female head coaches in the ten most popular women’s sports in all NCAA schools, 1977–2012

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∙ Men use well-established connections with other men in sport organizations to help them obtain jobs in both women’s and men’s sports; and compared with men, female applicants for coaching and administrative jobs have fewer strategic connections and networks to obtain jobs.

∙ Job search committees are primarily composed of men who use evaluative criteria based on orthodox gender ideology, which means that they perceive female applicants as being less qualified than male applicants.

∙ Many women have not had the support systems and career development opportunities that many men have had.

∙ Women might not choose careers in coaching and administration, knowing that they would face special challenges working in sport orga- nizations that are male-dominated/identified/ centered and where they may be judged more harshly than men are judged.

∙ Women are more likely to experience sexual harassment, which sets them up to fail or dis- courages them from remaining in coaching and administration jobs.

These factors affect opportunities and aspira- tions. They influence who applies for jobs, how applicants fare during the hiring process, how coaches and administrators are evaluated, who enjoys coaching, and who is promoted into higher- paying jobs with more responsibility and power (Bruening and Dixon, 2008; Laine, 2012).

People on job search committees seek, inter- view, evaluate, and hire candidates that they think will succeed in male-dominated/ identified/cen- tered organizations. After assessing objective qual- ifications, such as years of experience and win–loss records, search committee members subjectively assess such things as a candidate’s abilities to recruit and motivate players, raise money, com- mand respect in the community (among boosters, fans, sport reporters), build toughness and character among players, maintain team discipline, and “fit into” the athletic department or sport organization.

IOC Commissions are chaired by women, and most women in the IOC serve only on the Women and Sport Commission, which has less power than other commissions. Table 7.4 shows that in 2010 only nine of the 205 National Olympic Commit- tees were headed by women; many of those com- mittees had no women members. The same was true for the International Sport Federations, where men have always occupied all positions of power. Even the influential board of the 2012 London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) had only one woman (Princess Anne) among its nineteen members.

Coaching numbers worldwide show that few women coach women’s or men’s national teams, and women coaches are very rare in professional leagues outside of North America.

The major reasons for the underrepresentation of women in coaching and administrative posi- tions include the following (Henry and Robison, 2010):

∙ Women are not considered for half of all coach- ing and administration jobs—that is, coaching men or managing men’s programs—due to the mistaken belief that women can’t meet expecta- tions in men’s sports.

National Olympic Committees

International Sport Federations

Women on executive boards 18% 18% Women presidents 4% 3% Women secretaries general 9% 4%

Source: Henry and Robinson, 2010. Note: Data are based on responses received from 110 of the 205 National Olympic Committees—a 54% response rate, and from 70% of the International Federations.

Table 7.4 Women in National Olympic Committees and International Sport Federations, 2010

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who wish to be taken seriously in the structure and culture of sport organizations and programs. This means that people in the programs must criti- cally assess the impact of male-dominated/identi- fied/centered forms of social organization on both males and females. Unless this assessment takes place and changes are made, gender equity will never be achieved in coaching and administration.

BARRIERS TO EQUITY

Progress toward gender equity has been signifi- cant, but it has stalled since the early-2000s and there continue to be inequities in several important spheres. As strategies are developed to eliminate those inequalities, it is essential to be aware of bar- riers that will be encountered along the way. These include the following:

1. Budget cuts and privatization of sport programs 2. Resistance to government regulations 3. Few models of women in positions of power 4. A cultural emphasis on “cosmetic fitness” for

women 5. Trivialization of women’s sports 6. Male-dominated/identified/centered sport

organizations

Budget Cuts and the Privatization of Sports

Gender equity is often subverted by budget cuts. Compared with programs for boys and men, pro- grams for girls and women are more vulnerable to cuts because they are less well-established and have less market presence and revenue- generating potential, and less administrative, corporate, com- munity, and institutional support. As relatively new programs they also have development and promotional costs that programs for boys and men no longer have. Therefore, to cut funds equally from sport teams and programs for everyone has a greater negative impact on programs for girls and women. Programs for boys and men are less vul- nerable because they’ve had more than a century

None of these assessments occurs in a vacuum, and some are influenced by gender ideology in addition to past-performance records. Although people on search committees do not agree on all things, many think in terms that favor men over women. This is because coaching and other forms of leadership often are seen as consistent with tra- ditional ideas about masculinity: a good coach is one who “coaches like a man”—a taken-for-granted principle in male-dominated and male-identified sport cultures.

Under these conditions, women are hired only when they present compelling evidence that they can do things as men have done them in the past. In sport programs and athletic departments where women are scarce, there often is pressure to recruit and hire women so that charges of discrimination can be deflected. Then when women are hired, people often say that the committee “had to hire women.” But a more accurate statement would be: “We so blatantly discriminated against women in the past that we would have faced charges of gen- der discrimination if we didn’t hire women now.”

When women are hired, they are less likely than men to feel welcome and fully included in sport organizations. Therefore, they often have lower levels of job satisfaction and higher rates of job turnover. This causes some people to conclude that women simply don’t have what it takes to survive in sports. But this conclusion ignores the fact that job expectations in sports have been developed over the years by men who have had wives to raise their children, provide emotional support to them and their teams, host social events for teams and boosters, coordinate their social schedules, handle household finances and maintenance, make sure they’re not distracted by family and household issues, and faithfully attend games season after season. If female coaches and administrators had an opportunity to build programs and coach teams under similar conditions, job satisfaction would be higher and turnover would be lower.

Finally, some sport organizations have records of being negligent in controlling sexual harass- ment and responding to complaints from women

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research by Hardin et al. (2012) found that even some sports information directors at Division I uni- versities had negative attitudes toward Title IX and gave women’s teams little coverage in their press releases and other information about university sports.

Few Models of Women in Positions of Power

During the years after Title IX became law, women’s sports became more visible and impor- tant. As this occurred they were taken over by existing men’s programs looking to extend their power and influence (Grundy and Shackelford, 2005; Suggs, 2005). During this process, many women lost their jobs as men were hired as coaches and administrators for women’s teams and programs. The men who took these jobs were less likely than women to mentor, recruit, and sup- port women seeking jobs in sports. And women coaches often felt pressure to hire male assistant coaches to avoid the perception that they preferred women and disliked men.

As young female athletes observed this, they were less able to envision themselves as future leaders in sports. In their experiences, positions of power automatically went to men and the abilities and contributions of women were valued less than those of men. This remains a barrier to achieving gender equity.

Discussions of this issue often overlook the fact that sex discrimination is illegal in every U.S. pub- lic school. This applies to recruiting and hiring new employees in all departments. But nearly every athletic department in those schools discriminates against women when they hire coaches and admin- istrators for men’s teams and programs (Sullivan, 2012). They don’t even pretend that women can- didates would be taken seriously as they interview and hire men. As they do so, they violate national nondiscrimination laws. Men would certainly complain if the same thing occurred when hiring coaches and administrators for women’s teams and programs.

to develop legitimacy, institutional support, loyal fans, and sponsors.

As public, tax-supported sport programs are cut, opportunities to play sports become privatized, which also has a disproportionately negative impact on girls and women, especially in low-income areas. Public programs are accountable to voters and regulated by government rules mandating equal rights and opportunities. But private programs are accountable only to the market, meaning that they respond to the needs of dues-paying participants and private sponsors rather than a commitment to gender equity. “Free-enterprise sports” are great for people with money. But they are neither “free” nor “enterprising” when it comes to providing oppor- tunities for girls and women with few financial resources. Commercial programs serve only those who can buy what’s for sale, so they are rare in low- income and many ethnic minority areas.

When sport programs are cut in public schools, booster organizations are more likely to step up and provide funds and facilities for boys’ sports, such as football, than for girls’ sports. Neither boosters nor private providers are required to follow Title IX law, because they receive no support from the federal government. When these resource provid- ers are not committed to gender equity, girls and women lose opportunities.

Resistance to Title IX and Gender Equity

Those who benefit from the status quo often resist government legislation that mandates change. This has been the case for the entire history of Title IX. People today continue to argue that Title IX repre- sents unwarranted government interference in local sport programs, that equity will never be achieved because girls and women are not naturally attracted to sports, and that trying to achieve equity only hurts boys and men (Gavora, 2002; Knudson, 2005). This type of resistance to government legis- lation has a long history in the United States, and it will not disappear any time soon.

Resistance also occurs among those who are simply opposed to gender equity. For example,

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Trivialization of Women’s Sports

The most visible and popular sports in society are based on the values and experiences of men. They usually emphasize skills and evaluative standards that disadvantage women, especially at the elite level. For example, women play football, but they don’t hit as hard as men do. They play basketball, but they don’t dunk like men. They play hockey, but they don’t check or fight like men. They do sports, but they don’t do them like men do them.

This logic is grounded in orthodox gender ide- ology and it is often used to explain why women’s sports have lower attendance rates than men’s sports and what might be done to boost atten- dance. For example, in 2012 the international governing body (FIBA) that controls women’s professional basketball in Europe told players that they were required to wear shorter shorts to reveal more of their legs. A male executive from FIBA explained that the players are “beautiful athletes and there’s no reason not to show it” (Scott, 2012). When Diana Taurasi, a star player in Europe and a former All- American at the University of Con- necticut, refused to follow the new rules, she was fined $2600 a game through the eighteen-game season—a total of $47,000, which amounted to half of her salary for the season.

The men at FIBA assumed that the players’ sex appeal could attract spectators, recruit spon- sors, and boost television rights fees. They did not understand that this strategy had failed in the past (Kearney, 2011). Nor did they know that research by Mary Jo Kane showed that sexualized images of female athletes often lead young people to see the athletes as hot, but they don’t increase their inter- est in women’s sports. Kane’s conclusion was that “sex sells sex, not women’s sports” (Kane, 2011). But many people don’t believe this because it doesn’t mesh with their orthodox gender ideology.

Male-Dominated/Identified/Centered Sport Organizations

Sports remain closely linked with orthodox forms of masculinity. Males have long used sports as

Cultural Emphasis on “Cosmetic Fitness”

Girls and women receive confusing cultural mes- sages about body image and sport participation. Although they see powerful female athletes, they cannot escape images of fashion models whose bodies are shaped by food deprivation, cosmetic surgery, and digital modifications. They hear that physical power and competence are impor- tant, but they see rewards going to women who appear young, vulnerable, and nonathletic. They are advised to be strong but thin, fit but feminine, in shape and shapely. They see attractive athletes packaged and presented as fashion models rather than strong, skilled performers. And they often conclude that even when you’re a good athlete, being hot is what really matters.

Cultural messages promoting appearance and beauty clearly outnumber those promoting the plea- sure of playing sports. People in marketing depart- ments know that females consume more products when they are insecure about their appearance. Therefore, even ads that show women doing sports are carefully staged to make female consumers feel insecure rather than confident about their bodies. This marketing strategy is so powerful that some females avoid sports until they are thin enough to look “good” and wear “cute” clothes; others combine their sport participation with pathogenic weight-control strategies to become dangerously thin or undernourished.

Overall, the tensions between cosmetic fitness and being physically strong and skilled keep girls and women out of sports, focused on using sports to burn calories so they can eat without guilt, or focused on disciplining themselves through intense training after they’ve gained weight. Additionally, young women seeking cosmetic fitness sometimes drop out of sports if they gain weight while they train, and others drop out after achieving weight- loss goals. Cultural messages about cosmetic fitness are here to stay, and they continue to be a barrier to gender equity in sports—unless they are critically assessed as subversive tools that foster insecurity and drive consumption.

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and reaffirming a shared sense of manhood asso- ciated with feelings of power and control.

The point here is that persistent gender inequi- ties are not due to a lack of interest among girls and women as much as they are due to sports and sport organizations that do not directly reflect girls’ and women’s lived experiences in the same way that they reflect and reaffirm the lived experiences of boys and men.

Research shows that when programs and teams are organized to enable girls and women to control and claim ownership of sports on an organizational and institutional level, gender equity becomes more achievable (Cooky, 2004, 2009). This reminds us that in addition to influencing identity, cultural expectations, and social interaction, gender is embedded in the logic of organizations and insti- tutions (Messner, 2011; Risman and Davis, 2013). It is this organizational and institutional dimension of gender that now slows progress toward equity in sports. In other words, we can change our attitudes and personal relationships to be more inclusive and less constrained by orthodox gender ideology, but until we change the taken-for-granted gender logic that structures so much of sport and sport organi- zations, full gender equity will not be achieved. When the logic of gender that shapes cultural and organizational processes in sports is based on the values and experiences of men, these processes privilege men more than women and lead women to feel less welcome and less personally accepted in all aspects of sports than their male peers feel.

GENDER EQUITY AND SEXUALITY

Sports have long been associated with male hetero- sexuality and have been sites for the expression of homophobia and the performance of heterosexual masculinity as a cultural ideal. The history and sociology of sport have clearly documented these patterns and how they have impacted the lives of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transsexuals, and intersex persons (LGBTIs). However, in certain regions of the world, including much of northern and western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and

sites to establish their identities as men and gain status in the larger community. The cultures cre- ated around sport programs and teams were created to nurture and reaffirm a shared sense of manhood. This gave boys and men a sense of agency—that is, a feeling that they had control over their selves and how others perceived them.

When girls and women finally had opportuni- ties to play sports, the numbers of females playing sports grew exponentially. But their participation has not yet matched male participation rates. The standard explanation for this persistent inequity is that girls and women “just aren’t as interested in sports as much as boys and men are.” But a more accurate statement would be this: Compared to boys and men, girls and women experience fewer positive vibes and less support in sports and sport cultures that have been created by and for men for the sake of learning about masculinity

Amy Wamback, former captain of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, said that teammate Alex Morgan would benefit women’s soccer because she had “the mainstream popularity of being the pretty girl” and attracted attention from fifteen- to twenty-five-year- old men. However, research shows that it is the skills of female athletes, not their looks, that sustain interest in women’s sports. (Source: By permission of Rachel Spielberg)

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∙ Sport organizations, groups of athletes, and Outsports.com have discussed strategies that might be used by athletes if and when they decide to come out (Branch, 2011b).

∙ The National Hockey League (NHL) and its Players’ Association (NHLPA) in early 2013 became the first major men’s sport organization to issue a formal statement condemning anti- LGBTI bigotry and promising support for play- ers who come out.

∙ Major League Soccer has suspended and fined players for using homophobic slurs.

∙ The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) suspended a mixed martial arts fighter and mandated that he do community service for

North America, there have been changes that are based on a rejection or qualification of orthodox gender ideology (Pew Global Attitudes Project, 2013). As a result, sports have become a less sup- portive context for homophobia. Examples include the following:

∙ Players using homophobic slurs have been crit- icized by other players, reprimanded by team and league officials, and portrayed negatively in mainstream media.

∙ Both male and female athletes have publicly supported LGBTI rights and marriage equality, and have occasionally been among the most vocal and visible supporters of LGBTI rights.

The gendered choices faced by athletes are also faced by women who apply for cheerleading and dance teams in men’s professional sports. The bodies of these women are being assessed to see if they meet the criteria of the “judges” for an NBA team. If they do, they will be allowed to try out. In the process, the women view one another in objectified ways, as this photo illustrates. If these women had the power to choose how they are included and represented in sports, would they choose this? (Source: © Michele Eve Sandberg/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

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Homophobia continues to exist. It is based on the notion that homosexuality is abnormal, deviant, or immoral—out of normative boundaries accord- ing to orthodox gender ideology. It fuels prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and violence directed toward those identified or believed to have identi- ties or sexual orientations that are something other than heterosexual.

When LGBTIs play sports, many remain care- ful to keep their sexual identities private or dis- closed only to select friends and family members. They either have mixed or confused feelings about themselves or they fear possible negative responses from others. But as more people come out publicly, it normalizes gender nonconforming identities. Still, the anticipated challenges of coming out can be overwhelming, so most LGBTI athletes remain closeted, pass as heterosexual, selectively reveal their identity only to trustworthy others, or choose sports in which they are less likely to confront homophobia.

Lesbians in Sports

Acceptance of gender-nonconforming athletes is greater in women’s than in men’s sports. But even today, homophobia discourages some females from playing certain sports and from appearing “too mas- culine” or “too unfeminine” if they do play sports. Additionally, it still causes some parents to steer daughters away from teams, programs, and sports that they believe attract lesbians or have lesbian coaches.

When girls and women fear the label of les- bian or fear being associated with lesbians, they may avoid certain sports, limit their commitment to sports, de-emphasize their athletic identities, or emphasize a “presentation of self ” that explicitly portrays heterosexuality. For example, some young women in the United States avoid cutting their hair short because it could elicit “homophobic teasing” from peers. At the same time, homophobia prompts lesbian athletes to keep their identity secret even though it limits their relationships with teammates and leads to loneliness and isolation (Sartore and Cunningham, 2010).

the LGBTI community as a result of his trans- phobic comments about a fighter who had undergone male-to-female gender reassignment surgery.

∙ The coverage of and response to Jason Collins, the first gay man in a major men’s spectator sport (basketball), to come out was positive and supportive with very few exceptions (Collins, 2013). The same occurred when Robbie Rogers came out and rejoined the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer (Witz, 2013) and when Steven Davies, a cricket player in England, came out in 2011 (Davies, 2011). There was even public support for Orlando Cruz, a Mexican boxer, who came out in 2012 (Eberle, 2012).

∙ More than a dozen U.S. states now have rules to enable transgender students to compete on teams that correspond with their gender identi- ties rather than the sex designation listed in their school records. The NCAA has a policy supportive of transgender participation, and other sport organizations, including the IOC, LPGA, USGA, and many Olympic sport feder- ations, now have policies that specify the con- ditions under which transgendered athletes may participate ( Griffin and Carroll, 2012; Griffin and Taylor, 2011).

∙ The high-profile women athletes who have come out recently have received little news coverage because it has been thirty five years since Martina Navratilova came out in 1981, and coming out today is accepted to the point that it is no longer a major news story.

This list should not be taken to mean that LGBTIs face no challenges or live free of the sting of homophobia and significant forms of discrimi- nation. Men in elite sports are not knocking the door down coming out, and fears about the nega- tive consequences of coming out remain strong in both men’s and women’s sports. More serious fears are felt by bisexuals and transgendered people, and people with intersex characteristics are not making public announcements about their sexuality.

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Pat Griffin encourages people to be open and truthful about sexual identity, but she explains that lesbians must be prepared to handle everything from hostility to cautious acceptance when they come out. She points out that handling challenges is easier when (a) friends, teammates, and coaches provide support; (b) there are local organizations that challenge homophobia and advocate tolerance; and (c) there is institutionalized legal protection and support for gays and lesbians in organizations, com- munities, and society.

Pat Griffin’s groundbreaking book Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homopho- bia in Sports (1998) provides clear evidence that “sports and lesbians have always gone together” (p. ix). She notes that this evidence has been ignored in the popular consciousness, largely because of cultural myths about lesbians. Although most myths have been challenged and discredited, some people continue to believe them. For exam- ple, some think that lesbians are predatory and want to “convert” others to their “way of life,” which is judged to be immoral and depressing. When lesbian athletes, coaches, and administrators perceive that people think this way, they often feel undervalued and experience a sense of isolation (Norman, 2012). When heterosexual peers believe these myths or even wonder about their veracity, they fear or avoid lesbian athletes and coaches; when coaches and administrators believe them, they’re less likely to hire and promote lesbians in coaching and sport management.

The homophobic statement “No bow, Lesbo” is still used on some women’s teams and accounts for what has become a standard practice of girls and young women wearing cute bows with their pony- tails when they play games (Soffian, 2012). In col- lege sports there are still heterosexual coaches who describe their teams as “wholesome” and being grounded in “ family values” to indicate that they are anti-lesbian; and they may infer that competing programs don’t have the same values—implying that their coaches or some players are lesbian. Such expressions of homophobia have discouraged many young women from pursuing careers in coaching, especially at the college level where recruitment competition can be intense.

Some women’s sports and teams are characterized by a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture in which lesbians hide their identity to play the sports they love without being harassed or marginalized. However, this strat- egy has costs, and it slows changes that might defuse or erase homophobia. Overall, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach affects both heterosexual women and lesbians, all of whom restrain their actions to avoid suspicions or being labeled as lesbians.

When Martina Navratilova came out as a lesbian in 1981, she was a top-ranked tennis player. The response to her was vicious and personal. She lost millions in endorsement deals and faced challenges from other players, fans, the media, and the general public. But she initiated a sport-based conversation about sexuality that continues today. Additionally, she opened the door for many to follow her, including—over thirty years later—a few men in professional sports. (Source: © Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/ TempSport/Corbis)

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that disguise intimacy. These “man gestures” may make boys and men feel good, but they also keep them in the “act like a man box,” which limits pos- sibilities in their lives ( Glickman, 2011).

Intersex and Transgender Persons in Sports

What happens to people born with a combination of male and female sex traits or those who have a gender identity or behavior that falls outside stereo- typical norms (for example, transgender) or does not match the gender they were assigned at birth (for example, transsexual)? This population consists of an estimated 120 million intersex people worldwide and many times that number who identify them- selves as “trans” in some way (Fausto- Sterling, 2000a). Where do they fit in sports mostly organized

around a rigid two-sex system? Although intersex and “trans”

women and men have been ignored or routinely excluded from nearly all organized sports, recent policy changes have allowed transsexuals to participate in sports if they meet certain conditions related to stan- dard medical practices and hormone therapy (Cavanagh and Sykes, 2006;

Griffin and Carroll, 2012; Randall, 2012; Torre and Epstein, 2012).

The IOC policy approved in 2004 states that trans athletes may compete in their chosen gender category if they undergo sex-reassignment surgery and have had two years of approved medically supervised hor- mone therapy—either testosterone suppression for a male-to-female transition or testosterone supplemen- tation for a female-to-male transition.

The IOC policy is relatively restrictive com- pared to the NCAA policy, which does not require surgery because it is prohibitively expensive for college students and sometimes takes a few years to complete—and genitalia have no influence on sport performance. Additionally, NCAA policy states that only one year of tes tosterone suppres- sion is needed for trans women to be eligible to

Gay Men in Sports

Changes related to attitudes about homosexuality have not been as significant in men’s sports as in women’s sports. The culture of many men’s sports continues to support a vocabulary of homopho- bia. However, heterosexual male athletes have in recent years been generally supportive of team- mates who come out to them. This has led sociol- ogist Eric Anderson and others (Anderson, 2009b, 2011a, 2011c; Jarvis, 2013) to conclude that there is a more inclusive form of masculinity emerg- ing among young men, a form that rejects the rigidity of orthodox gender ideology (Adams and Anderson, 2011). But Anderson and others note that homophobia remains a serious threat in men’s sports and discourages nearly all gay athletes, coaches, and administrators from coming out, especially in highly visible elite sports where it would attract wide- spread media attention and could seriously disrupt the person’s life and interfere with meeting expec- tations as a player or manager.

Playing certain sports remains a rite of passage for boys to become men. Male athletes in power and performance sports remain models of heterosexual manhood in most societies today. Therefore, there is much at stake in maintaining silence about gay men in sports, discouraging them from revealing their identities, and policing gender boundaries in and through men’s sports. This pre- serves the integrity of existing normative gender boundaries, the glorified status of male athletes, and male access to power and influence in society.

A seldom discussed consequence of homophobia is that it creates a context in which boys and men resist or feel ashamed of their feelings of affection toward other men. When this occurs, they may mimic violent caricatures of masculinity to express their manhood—or it may force male athletes to express their connections with each other through head-butts, belly bashers, arm punches, forearm crosses, fist bumping, and other ritualistic actions

Instead of having sport based on sex, we’re basing it on ability. We’re moving away from the idea of sex- based sport. —Kristen Worley, transgender Canadian cyclist (Findlay, 2012)

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Most players in the league used a hormone- centered perspective to determine if a person was female enough to play without raising questions about fairness. As a person’s testosterone and strength declined, she was accepted in the league, but as tes- tosterone and strength increased it was difficult to know when a person should drop out and play on a men’s team. When players were making a female-to- male transition, some others were upset that the per- son had chosen to identify and live as a man instead of remaining a lesbian, and those making the transition felt unfairly abandoned after they had spent much of their lives working for lesbian rights and sustaining supportive lesbian communities and networks.

As Travers and Deri (2011) observed and ana- lyzed these dynamics, they noted “how deeply complicated it is to attempt to re- negotiate sexed boundaries.” But they also noted that it was pos- sible to shift away from organizing sport around a rigid two-sex system. This shift is a work in pro- cess, and whether or how it will continue is uncer- tain. The next challenge for the softball league might be how to include those who reject gender as an identity category because it imposes unneces- sary limits on who they can be, how others treat them, and how they live their lives.

STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE EQUITY

Achieving gender equity requires action by people possessing the critical awareness needed to trans- form gender ideology and how we do sports, so that participation is accessible and meaningful regard- less of gender. This is a complex and challenging task (Packard, 2009). There are practical and effec- tive ways to accomplish it, but they involve both women and men and a willingness to critically assess how we do sports today.

Using the Law and Engaging in Grassroots Activism

In societies where laws mandate equal gender opportunities, as in the case of Title IX in the

compete in women’s sports; and trans men have a medical exemption to take testosterone under approved medical supervision so they can compete with men without violating drug rules, but they are not eligible to compete in women’s sports.

Trans athletes push gender boundaries, but intersex people born with “a reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or chromosome pattern that doesn’t fit typical definitions of male or female” create confusion for those using orthodox gender ideology (Griffin and Carroll, 2012, p. 50). The policies developed in the wake of the controversy over Caster Semenya attempt to deal with this by forcing athletes to make a choice that is medically unnecessary—which means that they will be chal- lenged through lawsuits.

Taken collectively, these policies illustrate how difficult it is to develop regulations so that human bodies will fit into sports that are organized around a rigid two-sex classification system (Pieper, 2012). Even more difficult, is renegotiating the meaning of sex to eliminate the traditional normative boundar- ies that separate females and males into nonover- lapping categories. Gender activists refer to “the queering of sport” as the process of renegotiating or eliminating the two-sex system and becoming fully gender-inclusive. The dynamics of this pro- cess have been studied by Ann Travers and her colleagues at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia (Travers, 2006, 2013b; Travers and Deri, 2011). Travers spent over four years observing and interviewing participants in lesbian softball leagues throughout North America. In the process, she investigated tensions around the inclusion of trans- gender and transsexual persons on teams. Initially she found that many players in the leagues used the two-sex system to identify themselves and oth- ers, even though nearly all of them rejected parts of orthodox gender ideology. Therefore, many were uncertain or uncomfortable about allowing a person to play in a “lesbian-women’s league” if that person could not be clearly classified as female. In particu- lar, this affected those just beginning the transition from male-to-female and those close to completing the transition from female-to-male.

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revenue producers, so there will be financial incentives to increase participation opportuni- ties for women.

∙ Recruit female athletes into coaching by estab- lishing internships and training programs.

∙ Use women’s hiring networks when seeking coaches and administrators in sport programs.

∙ Create a supportive work climate for women and establish policies to eliminate sexual harassment in the athletic department.

These actions involve a combination of research, public relations, advocacy, political participation, and education. They’re based on the assumption that equity will be achieved only through persistent strug- gle, effective political organization, and changes that enable girls and women to play sports on their own terms rather than exclusively on terms set by boys and men with power and influence.

Boys and Men Benefit from Gender Equity

When discussing gender, people often focus on girls and women and overlook the fact that ideas and beliefs about gender have major relevance for boys and men, whose lives may be negatively affected by hegemonic masculinity (Brand and Frantz,

2012). This is true in sports, the military, work occupations, and on the streets, where men are seriously injured, killed, and put in situations that damage their health and well- being at alarming rates.

Gender equity in sports is not just a woman’s issue. It also involves creating options for boys and men to play sports based on pleasure and participation more than power and performance. The widely accepted belief that the actions of boys and men are driven by testosterone, innate aggressive tendencies, and a need to dominate others cre- ates havoc in everyday life, and it

United States, those laws must be consistently enforced over time. If this does not occur, backslid- ing into past inequities is likely, due to the continu- ing male-dominated power structure in most sport organizations. Even though nearly everyone in the United States supports the idea of gender equity, those who control sport organizations often resist changes because they are likely to lose some power in the process ( Gregory, 2009). Additionally, many head coaches who have grown up in the post–Title IX era have little understanding of the meaning of gender equity, how to achieve it, and how it relates to their jobs (Staurowsky and Weight, 2011). This means that legal action is one strategy, but certainly not the only or most important strategy, for achiev- ing gender equity (Love and Kelly, 2011). Most effective are grassroots actions that identify ineq- uities and support needed changes. Such actions include the following:

∙ Confront discriminatory practices in your ath- letic department and become an advocate for female athletes, coaches, and administrators.

∙ Insist on fair and open employment practices in the entire organization, including the athletic department.

∙ Keep a record of equity data and have an inde- pendent group issue a public “gender equity report card” every three to four years for your athletic depart- ment or sport program.

∙ Learn and educate others about the history of gender discrimi- nation in sports and how to recognize the subtle forms of discrimination that operate in sport worlds that are male- dominated, male-identified, and male-centered.

∙ Object to practices and policies that decrease opportunities for women in sports, and inform the media of them.

∙ When possible, package and promote women’s sports as

One thing standing in the way of further progress for many men is the same obstacle that held women back for so long: overinvestment in their gender identity instead of their individual personhood. Men are now experiencing a set of limits—externally enforced as well as self- imposed. —Stephanie Coontz, social historian (2012)

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ideology. Instead, they avoided violence, expressed their emotions, demonstrated compassion, and nur- tured relationships on and off the field that blurred rigid divisions between masculine and feminine. As more boys and men do this, there will be more social and cultural space for inclusive masculinity as well as various forms of gender-inclusive ide- ology. This makes gender equity more achievable, and opens up possibilities to create sports that pro- vide people of all ages and abilities with more wel- coming and satisfying experiences.

Empowering Girls and Women Through Sports

Sport participation offers girls and women oppor- tunities to connect with the power of their bodies and reject notions that females are naturally weak, dependent, and powerless. It helps them overcome the feeling that their bodies are objects to be viewed, evaluated, and consumed. The physical skills and strength often gained through sport participation help some girls and women feel less vulnerable, more competent and independent, and more in con- trol of their physical safety and psychological well- being (Kane and LaVoi, 2007; Ross and Shinew, 2008; Weiss and Wiese-Bjornstal, 2009).

However, empowerment does not occur auto- matically when a girl or woman plays sports, nor does a sense of personal empowerment always lead to actions that push the normative boundaries of heterosexual femininity or promote gender equity in sports or other spheres of life. Feeling compe- tent as athletes does not guarantee that women will critically assess gender ideology and gender rela- tions or work for equity in sports or society. Those who play at elite levels often avoid becoming “boat rockers” critical of the gender order (Cole, 2000b; Cooky, 2006; Cooky and McDonald, 2005; J. S. Maguire, 2006, 2008; McDonald, 2015).

The reasons for this lack of action and activism include these:

1. Many female athletes feel they have much to lose by promoting civil and human rights

promotes heavy-contact sports as primary molders of manhood. But those sports don’t fit the inter- ests and body types of most boys and young men, who would benefit if resources and attention were not so disproportionately dedicated to football in high schools and colleges. In fact, most adult males never play tackle football, primarily because they know it is not healthy to do so. Offering opportu- nities to learn and enjoy sports that can be played throughout life would be a sounder educational choice, and such opportunities could be available if those who control education were not so influenced by dominant gender ideology and the myths of mas- culinity developed a century ago.

Sports currently privilege men over women, but they also privilege some men over other men. When men realize that certain sports perpetuate attitudes and orientations that often undermine their relationships with one another and with women, they are more inclined to view sports critically and become agents of change. Men who want to move beyond express- ing their fondness for each other by teasing, pranking, hazing, mock fighting, and getting memorably drunk at the next football game have good reason to join with those women concerned with critically assessing dominant sport forms in their society. In the process they will learn how to work, play sports, and live with men and women in mutually supportive relationships. The alternative is to remain stuck in the mud of hege- monic masculinity, blame women for problems, and seek refuge by watching bigger, stronger, faster men play sports in which they hurt each other.

Research indicates that growing numbers of young men today, including those who play sports, are more critical of hegemonic masculinity than was common in previous generations. Studies by Becky Beal (1995), Belinda Wheaton (2004), Eric Anderson (2015), and Hamish Crocket (2012) each found that there are growing numbers of male ath- letes who use “alternative,” “ambivalent,” “inclu- sive,” and “moderated” masculinities, to identify and assess themselves and male peers. Although this was often an individual or small group/team phenomenon, these young men did not view them- selves or others through the lens of orthodox gender

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Developing physical skills often improves health and provides girls and women with a sense of empowerment. This is true for Reshma, a seven-year-old in Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, if the culture and social structure in Bangladesh are organized to systematically prevent females from gaining power in society, Reshma’s joy and sense of empowerment from winning this race will be temporary and difficult to convert into the power to make needed institutional changes as an adult (see Musto, 2013). (Source: Photo courtesy of The Hunger Project; www.thp.org/)

issues for women, because others might iden- tify them as ungrateful or tag them with labels such as radical, feminist, or lesbian.

2. The corporate-driven “celebrity feminism” promoted through media sports today focuses on individualism, attractiveness, and consump- tion rather than the everyday struggles faced by ordinary girls and women who want to play sports but also require child care, health care, a decent job, and safe access to sport facilities.

3. The “empowerment discourses” in women’s sports emphasize individual self- empowerment through physical changes that enhance

self-image and self-esteem; they do not empha- size social or cultural changes at an institu- tional level, which is where gender equity must be achieved.

4. Female athletes, even those with high media profiles and powerful bodies, have little con- trol over their own sport participation and little political voice in sports or society as a whole.

Similarly, women hired and promoted into lead- ership positions in major sport organizations are expected to promote power and performance sports

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during their first competitive sport experiences that “Dad knows sports” and “Mom knows how to pack a lunch.”

Fourth, sports are so sex-segregated that many females see them as representing ideas and beliefs that sustain aspects of orthodox gender ideology that are questioned outside of sports. When high schools and colleges fail to sponsor sex- integrated sports, they miss an opportunity to challenge those ideas and beliefs.

Fifth, when males and females play together, males usually assume leadership roles even when they may not be the best leaders. This might make boys and men feel good, but it doesn’t make play- ing sports much fun for girls and women.

Of course, there are notable exceptions to each of these points, and that is partly why many girls and women do play sports today. But equity isn’t achieved through “exceptions.” Nor is it sustainable when sport providers say that “girls just aren’t interested” when girls fail to show up for or stay involved in sports that are just like the sports that the boys play. It takes work to critically assess sport programs in terms of gender equity and look beyond the girls and women who learned to love sports and remain in them because they overlook, pas- sively accept, or actively endorse

the hypermasculinized discourse, organization, and culture that often characterize them. When sports reproduce orthodox gender ideology, and when orthodox gender ideology is embedded in the logic and structure of sports and sport organizations, those who feel constrained by that ideology will not feel welcome.

From a practical (and pragmatic) standpoint this means that there is a need for new and creative sport programs, discourses, and images that enable more people to see space for themselves as participants. To some degree this has been done in small, exclu- sive schools where there are no varsity sport teams

in society. The men who control sport organiza- tions are not usually eager to hire women who put women’s issues on the same level as sport issues. Of course, not all female leaders become uncritical cheerleaders for power and performance sports, but it takes effort and courage to critically analyze sports and use one’s power to change them.

Changing the Way We Do Sports

Gender equity involves more than just pushing boundaries to make space for new ways to define and perform masculinity and femininity. It also requires erasing normative boundaries so that sports are fully gender-inclusive—for LGBTIs and heterosexual males and females. This process has begun, but much more needs to be done before it is achieved (Bartholomaeus, 2012; Packard, 2009).

When people talk about gender equity, they usually focus on how to increase opportunities for girls and women to play competitive sports in the same way that boys and men play them. The standard policy posi- tion is that the best way to serve girls and women is to provide the same programs and opportunities that boys and men have. But research has shown that this approach does not effectively attract most females or keep them involved (Flintoff, 2008).

The reasons for this are many. First, compared with boys, girls are less likely to see themselves as having sport skills, so they are less likely to take advantage of sport participation opportunities.

Second, the discourse that pervades competitive sports at nearly all levels is and always has been heavily masculinized and is full of military terms and metaphors that appeal more to boys than girls.

Third, men are more likely than women to be coaches and managers in these programs, which leads girls and women to question who is really valued in sports. Additionally, many girls see

For women, pain and injury are simply the price of playing elite sport; for men, they are badges of masculinity . . . Sports is a gendered institution, whose values, symbols, and core audience are masculine, even with the rise of women’s sports and women athletic stars. —Judith Lorber, professor emerita, City University of New York (2007)

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today, but it has shaped the current culture and organization of sport.

Sports today are sites at which this gender ide- ology is reaffirmed and resisted. However, because most sports are based on a two-sex model, the impact of resistance is limited. Even when women achieve excellence in sports, it occurs in a context in which ideas and beliefs about male–female differ- ences and the “natural” physical superiority of men over women are reaffirmed. Gender inequities per- sist because sports have traditionally been organized to be male-dominated, male-identified, and male- centered. This makes them very difficult to change, and at the same time they provide a less welcoming context for girls and women than for boys and men.

Orthodox gender ideology also leads to the mar- ginalization of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans- gender, and intersex persons in sports. The culture and organization of sports today celebrate primar- ily a form of masculinity that leaves little space for those who do not conform to it. This means that sports often are sites where people must push gen- der boundaries to increase normative spaces for themselves and to be acknowledged as athletes.

Despite orthodox gender ideology, sport par- ticipation among girls and women has increased dramatically since the late 1970s. This change is the result of new opportunities, equal rights legisla- tion, the women’s movement, the health and fitness movement, and increased publicity given to female athletes. But full gender equity is far from being achieved, and future increases in participation rates will not be automatic.

The reasons to be cautious when anticipating more changes in the future include budget cuts and the privatization of sports participation oppor- tunities, resistance to government policies and legislation, backlash in response to changes favor- ing women, a relative lack of female coaches and administrators, a cultural emphasis on cosmetic fit- ness among women, the trivialization of women’s sports, and the existence of homophobia.

More women than ever are playing sports and working in sport organizations, but gender inequities continue to exist in participation opportunities, support

but there are sport participation opportunities for all students. It has also been done in the Gay Games, the lesbian softball leagues studied by Travers and Deri (2011), and in community-based programs where men and women have collectively created welcom- ing sport cultures and meaningful sport experiences that begin to erase constraining normative boundar- ies tied to the two-sex system (Atencio and Beal, 2011; Beaver, 2012; Crocket, 2012; MacKay and Dallaire, 2012). Research will help us understand if and when these new approaches are really moving close to gender equity.

In the long run, achieving gender equity requires a dual approach: creating new and different sports as well as expanding opportunities and creating for women and gender nonconformers access to power positions in established sports. Changes are more likely if people currently in positions of power can envision and create alternatives for the future, and if those who already envision new forms of sport gain access to power and resources so they can make their visions a reality.

All of us contribute to achieving gender equity when we critically assess how we talk about and do sports. After all, there is no need for all sports to rep- resent the perspectives of men who are fascinated by domination and conquest. Full equity means that all people have a wide range of choices when it comes to organizing, playing, and giving meaning to sports.

summary

IS EQUITY POSSIBLE?

Gender equity in sports is integrally tied to ideol- ogy, power, and structural issues. Although ideas and beliefs about masculinity and femininity are fluid and subject to change, the prevailing gen- der ideology in many societies remains organized around the assumption that there are essential dif- ferences between females and males, that excep- tions to heterosexuality are abnormal, and that men are physically stronger and more rational than women. This orthodox ideology is questioned

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Reading 7. History, impact, and current status of Title IX

Reading 8. Building muscles: Pushing boundaries of femininity?

Reading 9. Lost between two categories: The girl who didn’t fit

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You’ve been asked to address the directors of international federations for Olympic sports. They want you to identify for them the major areas in which gender equity has not been achieved and how they might move more quickly toward the achievement of equity. List the main points you would include in your address.

∙ You have just been appointed chairperson of a special committee charged with studying gender equity in your university’s sport programs. You must develop a research design and present it to the rest of the committee members. Outline the kinds of data you will collect to assess whether equity has been achieved. What do you expect to find at your university?

∙ As an assistant athletic director you have been asked to recommend changes to produce full gender inclusion in athletic department culture. The existing culture has been created by het- erosexual men over the years as they occupied positions of power and made all major deci- sions about the organization of the department. Discuss the major issues that will be covered in your recommendations and the major strategies to creating full inclusion.

for athletes, jobs for women in coaching and adminis- tration, and informal and alternative sports. Even when sport participation gives women a feeling of personal empowerment, the achievement of full gender equity is impossible without a critical analysis of the gender ideology used in sports and society. Critical analysis is important because it guides efforts to achieve equity and it shows that there are reasons for men to join women in trying to achieve equity.

Historically, gender ideology and sports have been organized around the values and experiences of heterosexual men. Real and lasting gender equity depends on changing the dominant definitions of masculinity and femininity and the way we do sports. Useful strategies include developing new sports and sport organizations and changing existing sports. Changes also depend on using new ways to talk about sports. Until there are significant changes in gender ideology and the logic embedded in sports and sport organizations, full gender equity will not be achieved.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Definition and explanation of sexual terms used in Chapter 7

Reading 2. A continuing struggle: Women’s profes- sional basketball in the United States

Reading 3. Reasons for men to police gender boundaries: Preserving access to power

Reading 4. Using myths to exclude women from sports

Reading 5. Links to South African newspaper coverage of Caster Semenya

Reading 6. “The stronger women get, the more men love football”

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(Source: © Michael Boyd, Irish Football Association)

chapter

RACE AND ETHNICITY Are They Important in Sports?

8

It is American culture that is principally responsible for the perpetuation of the concept of race well after its loss of scientific respectability by the mid-20th century.

—Justin E. H. Smith, philosopher, Concordia University, Montreal (2013)

Native American mascots and other stereotypes persist because most Americans remain thoughtless, lacking the resources, knowledge, and skills to think critically about them.

—C. Richard King, author of Redskins: Insult and Brand (2016)

There is no [big-time college] football team without black labor. . . . [no] million dollar coaching salaries . . . [no] weekly economic boon . . . bringing in millions in revenue to hotels, restaurants, and other assorted businesses without black labor.

— Dave Zirin, independent sport journalist (2015a)

South Asian American men are not usually depicted as ideal American men. . . . To combat such stereotypes, some use sports as a means of performing a distinctly American masculinity. . . . [B]asketball, for these South Asian American players is not simply a whimsical hobby, but a means to navigate and express their identities in 21st century America.

— Stanley Thangaraj, author of Desi Hoop Dreams (2015)

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Defining Race and Ethnicity

Creating Race and Racial Ideologies

Sport Participation Among Ethnic Minorities in the United States

Race, Ethnicity, and Sport in a Global Perspective

The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Relations in Sports

Summary: Are Race and Ethnicity Important in Sports?

Chapter Outline

• Understand the concepts of race, ethnicity, and minority group, and distinguish between them.

• Explain why race is a social construction and how racial categories are based on social meanings rather than a valid biological classification system.

• Explain how and why race and racial ideology have been linked with sports in the United States.

• Explain why scientists and others have searched for sport performance genes in bodies with dark skin and why this is a misleading and futile exercise.

• Explain the author’s sociological hypothesis about the relationship between skin color and athletic performance.

• Identify factors that have influenced sport participation among African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and Latinas, and Asian Pacific Americans.

• Explain why the use of Native American images for team names, logos, and mascots has been a contentious issue in the United States.

• Understand the expressions of racism and bigotry in European sports and the factors that currently influence those expressions.

• Identify the major challenges related to race and ethnic relations in sports today, and explain how they are different from the challenges faced throughout most of the twentieth century.

Learning Objectives

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Sports involve complex racial and ethnic issues, and their relevance has increased as global migra- tion and political changes bring together people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The challenges created by racial and ethnic diversity are among the most important ones that we face as we live, work, and play together in the twenty-first century (Edwards, 2000).

Ideas and beliefs about race and ethnicity tradi- tionally influence self-perceptions, social relation- ships, and the organization of social life. Sports reflect this influence and are sites where people challenge or reproduce racial ideologies and exist- ing patterns of racial and ethnic relations in society. As people make sense of sports and give meaning to their experiences and observations, they often take into account their beliefs about skin color and ethnicity. The once-popular statement, “White men can’t jump,” is an example of this.

Not surprisingly, the social meanings and experiences associated with skin color and ethnic background influence access to sport participa- tion, decisions about playing sports, the ways that people integrate sports into their lives, and the organization and sponsorship of sports. People in some racial and ethnic groups use sport participa- tion to express their cultural identity and evaluate their potential as athletes. In some cases, people are identified and evaluated as athletes, coaches, or media commentators based on the meanings given to their skin color or ethnic background. Sports also are cultural sites where people formulate or change ideas and beliefs about skin color and eth- nic heritage.

This means that sports are more than mere reflections of racial and ethnic relations in society: they’re sites where racial and ethnic relations per- petuated and changed. Therefore, the depth of our understanding of sports in society depends on what we know about race and ethnicity in various social worlds.

This chapter focuses on the following topics:

1. Definitions of race and ethnicity, as well as the origins of current ideas about race

2. Racial classification systems and the influence of racial ideology in sports

3. Sport participation patterns among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States

4. The dynamics of racial and ethnic relations in sports worldwide

DEFINING RACE AND ETHNICITY

Discussions about race and ethnicity are confus- ing when people don’t define their terms. In this chapter, race refers to a population of people who are believed to be naturally or biologically distinct from other populations. Race exists only when people use a classification system that divides all human beings into distinct categories, which are believed to share genetically based physical traits passed from one generation to the next. Racial cat- egories are developed around the meanings that people give to real or assumed physical traits that they use to characterize a racial population.

Ethnicity is different from race in that it refers to a cultural heritage that people use to identify a particular population. Ethnicity is not based on biology or genetically determined traits; instead, it is based on cultural traditions and history. This means that an ethnic population is a category of people regarded as socially distinct because they share a way of life, a collective history, and a sense of themselves as a people.

Confusion sometimes occurs when people use the term minority as they talk about racial or eth- nic populations. In sociological terms, a minority is a socially identified population that suffers dis- advantages due to systematic discrimination and has a strong sense of social togetherness based on shared experiences of past and current discrimi- nation. Therefore, not all minorities are racial or ethnic populations, and not all racial or ethnic populations are minorities. For example, whites in the United States often are identified as a race, but they would not be a minority unless another racial or ethnic population had the power to sub- ject them to systematic discrimination that would

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collectively disadvantage whites as a population category in American society. Similarly, Polish people in Chicago are considered an ethnic popu- lation, but not a minority. Mexican Americans, on the other hand, are an ethnic population that is a minority because of past and current discrimina- tion experienced by people with Mexican heritage.

African Americans often are referred to as a race because of the meanings that people have given to skin color in the United States; additionally, they are referred to as an ethnic group because of their shared cultural heritage. This has led many people to use race and ethnicity interchangeably without acknowledging that one is based on a classification of physical traits and the other on the existence of a shared culture.

Sociologists attempt to avoid this conceptual confusion by using the term “race” only when they refer to the social meanings that people have given to physical traits such as skin color, hair texture, facial characteristics, stature, and others. These meanings, they say, have been so influential in society that shared ways of life have developed around them. Therefore, many sociologists today focus on ethnicity rather than race, except when they study the social consequences of widespread ideas and beliefs about skin color in particular.

This information about race confuses many people who have been socialized to take for granted that race is a biological reality. To be told that race is not a biological fact but a social cre- ation based on the meanings given to skin color is difficult to accept. But it begins to make sense when they learn why the concept of race was cre- ated and how ideas and beliefs about race were used to gain political and economic power around the world.

CREATING RACE AND RACIAL IDEOLOGIES

Physical and cultural diversity is a fact of life, and people throughout history have categorized one another, often using physical appearance and

cultural characteristics to do so (AAA, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c). However, the idea that there are distinct, identifiable races is a recent invention. Europeans developed it during the seventeenth century as they explored the world and encoun- tered people who looked and lived unlike anything they’d ever known. As they colonized regions on nearly every continent, Europeans created clas- sification systems to distinguish the populations they encountered. They used the term race very loosely to refer to people with particular religious beliefs (Hindus), language or ethnic traditions (the Basque people in Spain), histories (indig- enous peoples such as New World “Indians” and “Aborigines”), national origins (Chinese), and social status (chronically poor people, such as Gypsies in Europe or the Untouchables in India).

More specific ideas about race emerged during the eighteenth century in connection with religious beliefs, scientific theories, and a combination of political and economic processes ( Fredrickson, 2003; HoSang et al., 2012; Omi and Winant, 1994, Winant, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2015). Over time, peo- ple in many societies came to use the term race to identify populations they believed were naturally or biologically distinct from other populations. This shift from a descriptive to a biology-based notion of race occurred as light-skinned people from northern Europe sought justification for colo- nizing and exercising power over people of color around the world.

Intellectuals and scientists in the seventeenth though twentieth centuries facilitated this shift by developing appearance-based racial classifica- tion frameworks that enabled them to “discover” dozens of races, subraces, collateral races, and collateral subraces—terms that many scientists used as they analyzed the physical variations of people in colonized territories and other regions of the world (see http://www.understandingrace .org/history/science/early_class.html).

Faulty “scientific” analyses combined with the observations and anecdotal stories told by explorers led to the development of racial

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strip humanity from “black, red, brown, and yel- low” people.

Racial Ideology in the United States

Racial ideology in the United States is unique. It emerged during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as proslavery colonists developed moral justifications for enslaving Africans and treating them inhumanely. By the early nineteenth century, many white people believed that race, represented primarily by skin color, was a mark of a person’s humanity and moral worth. Africans and Indians, they concluded, were subhuman and incapable of being civilized. By nature, these “colored peoples” were socially, intellectually, and morally inferior to light-skinned Europeans—a fact that was accepted without question by most light-skinned Euro- Americans (Morgan, 1993; PBS, 2006; Smedley, 1997). This ideology came to be widely shared for three reasons.

First, as the need for political expansion became important to the newly formed United States, the (white) citizens and government officials who pro- moted westward territorial expansion used racial ideology to justify killing, capturing, and confining “Indians” to reservations.

Second, after the abolition of slavery, white Southerners used the “accepted fact” of black inferiority to justify hundreds of new laws that restricted the lives of “Negroes” and enforced racial segregation in all public settings; these were called Jim Crow laws (DuBois, 1935).

Third, scientists at prestigious universities, including Harvard, did research on race and pub- lished influential books and articles claiming to “prove” the existence of race, the “natural superior- ity” of white people, and the “natural inferiority” of blacks and other people of color (St. Louis, 2010).

The acceptance of this ideology was so perva- sive that the U.S. government established policies to remove Native Americans from valued lands, and in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to legal- ize the segregation of people defined as “Negroes.” The opinion of the court was that “if one race be

ideologies—interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to classify human beings in categories assumed to be biological and related to attributes such as intelligence, temperament, and physical abilities. The racial classification models developed in Europe were based on the assumption that the appearance and actions of white Europeans were normal and that all deviations from European stan- dards were strange, exotic, primitive, or immoral (Carrington, 2007; Carrington and McDonald, 2001). In fact, Europeans captured dark-skinned people to put them in exhibitions at which they were displayed to demonstrate that they were natu- rally inferior to light-skinned Europeans (AAA, 2006c). In this way, the “whiteness” of northern Europeans became a standard against which the appearance and actions of others (“those people”) were measured and evaluated. In other words, the regions that were white-dominated also became white- identified and white-centered in a social and cultural sense.

From the eighteenth through much of the twen- tieth century, people from northern and western Europe used these racial ideologies to conclude that people of color around the world were primitive beings driven by brawn rather than brains, instincts rather than moral codes, and impulse rather than rationality. This way of thinking, they believed, gave them “moral permission” to colonize and subsequently exploit, subjugate, enslave, and even murder dark-skinned peoples without guilt or sin in religious terms (Carrington, 2007; Carrington and McDonald, 2001; Fredrickson, 2003; Hoberman, 1992; PBS, 2006; Smedley, 1997, 1999, 2003; Winant, 2001, 2004, 2006). Some also used racial ideology to define people of color as pagans in need of spiritual salvation. These people worked to “civ- ilize” and save the souls of dark-skinned “others” to the point that white historians identified people of color as “the white man’s burden.”

Over time, these racial ideologies became widely accepted, and white people used them to connect skin color with other traits including intel- ligence, character, physical characteristics and skills and, in the United States, they were used to

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of race is modified in connection with (a) new patterns of immigration from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; (b) new expressions of anti-immigrant attitudes; and (c) the racializa- tion of Latino and new Asian immigrant popu- lations (Kretsedemas, 2008). But this has not changed the traditional belief that whiteness is a pure and innately special racial category and this has, through recent history, created a deep cultural acceptance of racial segregation and inequality and strong political resistance to policies addressing the racial and ethnic inequities that remain part of American society ( Kochhar et al., 2011).

The Problem with Race and Racial Ideology

Research since the 1950s has produced over- whelming evidence that the concept of race is not biologically valid (Fox, 2012; Graves, 2002, 2004; Omi and Winant, 1994; PBS, 2006; Smith, 2012). This point has received powerful support from the Human Genome Project, which demonstrates that external traits such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape are not genetically linked with patterns of internal differences among human beings. We now know that there is more biological diversity within any so-called racial population than there is between any two racial populations, no matter how different they may seem on the surface (AAA, 1998; PBS, 2006; Williams, 2005).

Noted anthropologist Audrey Smedley (2003), explains that the idea of race has had a powerful impact on history and society, but it has little to do with real biological diversity among human beings. This is because the concept of race identifies cate- gories and classifications that people use to explain the existence of social differences and inequali- ties in social worlds. In this sense, race is a myth based on socially created ideas about variations in human potential and abilities that are assumed to be biological.

This conclusion is surprising to most people in the United States because they’ve learned to “see” race as a fact of nature and use it to sort people

inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them on the same plane” (U.S. Supreme Court, Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896). This ruling, even more than slavery, has influ- enced race relations from 1896 until today because it legitimized hundreds of laws, political policies, and patterns of racial segregation that connected whiteness with privilege, full citizenship, voting rights, and social-intellectual-moral superiority over people of color in the United States (Nobles, 2000).

As patterns of immigration changed between 1840 and 1920, people came to the United States from Ire- land, southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Sicily), China, Japan, and Israel. At the same time, racial ideology was used to link whiteness with one’s identity as an American. Therefore, the question of who counted as white was often hotly debated as immigrant popula- tions tried to claim American identities.

Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, Irish, Jewish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and all Eastern European and Western Asian populations were considered to be nonwhite and, therefore, unquali- fied for U.S. citizenship or running for a federal political office. As some members of these ethnic populations objected to being classified as “col- ored” and denied citizenship, they took legal cases all the way to the Supreme Court to prove that they had ancestral links to “real” white people. It took some of these people many years to establish or prove their whiteness because whites with West- ern and northern European backgrounds carefully maintained racial ideology to preserve their privi- lege in U.S. culture and society.

These cases confused the Supreme Court because the justices differed on how to define “white.” For example, in one case the court ruled that even though a Japanese man was light- skinned, he was not a true Caucasian, so he could not become a citizen. But in another case the court ruled that even though a man had ancestors from the Caucasus region, his dark skin disqualified him for citizenship (Dewan, 2013).

Today we are witnessing changes in the form of white and black racial categories as the idea

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we should draw along the height continuum. This could be done only if the people in charge of draw- ing the lines could come to an agreement about the meanings associated with various heights. But agreements made in one part of the world would likely vary from agreements made in other parts of the world, depending on social and cultural factors that influenced the relevance of height. Therefore, in some societies a 5-foot, 10-inch-tall man would be classified as tall, whereas other societies might define “tall” as 6 feet, 5 inches or more. To make classification matters more complicated, people sometimes change their ideas about what they consider to be short or tall. Additionally, evidence clearly shows that the average height of people in different societies changes over time as diets, life- styles, and height preferences change, even though height is a physical, genetically based trait (Bilger, 2004). This is why the Japanese now have an aver- age height nearly the same as Americans, and northern Europeans have surpassed Americans in average height (Komlos and Lauderdale, 2007).

Like height, skin color also is a continuous physical trait. As illustrated in Figure  8.1, it var- ies from snow white at one end of the spectrum to midnight black on the other, with an infinite array of shades in between. When skin color is used to identify racial categories, the lines drawn to iden- tify different races are based on the meanings given to skin color by the people doing the classifying. Therefore, the identification of races is based on social agreements about where and how many racial dividing lines to draw; it is not based on objectively identifiable biological division points.

Racial classification in the United States was traditionally based on the “one-drop rule.” This meant that any person with a black ancestor was classified as “Negro” (black) and could not be con- sidered a white person in legal terms even if he or she appeared to be white, although some peo- ple with black ancestors “passed” as white. This approach to racial classification was based on deci- sions that white people made in an effort to per- petuate slavery, maintain the “purity” of the “white race,” discourage white women from forming

into what they believe are biology-based catego- ries. They’ve also used ideas and beliefs about race to make sense of the world and the experiences of various people. Racial ideology is so deeply rooted in U.S. culture that many people see race as an unchangeable fact of nature that cannot be ignored when it comes to understanding human beings, forming social relationships, and organizing social worlds.

To put biological notions of race aside requires a major shift in thinking for many people. This complicates the world and changes our sense of how it is organized and how it operates. But when we move beyond traditional racial ideology in the United States, we see that definitions of race and approaches to racial classification vary widely across cultures and over time. Thus, a person clas- sified as black in the United States may not be con- sidered “black” in Brazil, Haiti, Egypt, or South Africa, where approaches to racial classification have been created under different social, cultural, and historical circumstances. For instance, golfer Tiger Woods is classified as a black person in the United States, Asian in Japan, and Thai in Thailand where his mother was born.

Definitions of race have also varied from one U.S. state to another through much of the twenti- eth century. This created confusion because people could be legally classified as black in one state but white in another. To add more confusion, defini- tions within states changed over time as social norms changed (Davis, 2001). These cultural and historical variations indicate that race is a social construction instead of a biological fact.

Another problem with race is that racial clas- sification models force people to make clear racial distinctions on the basis of continuous traits such as skin color and other physical traits possessed to some degree by all human beings. Height is an example of a continuous physical trait: All humans have some height, although height measurements vary along a continuum from the shortest person in the world to the tallest. If we wanted to classify all human beings into particular height categories, we would have to decide where and how many lines

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human populations. These variations are real and some are meaningful, such as those having medi- cal implications, but they don’t correspond with the skin-color–based racial classification model widely used in the United States. Additionally, scientists now know that physiological traits, including par- ticular genetic patterns, are influenced by the expe- riences of individuals and the long-term, collective experiences of specific populations. Therefore, a population that has lived for centuries in a cer- tain mountainous region in Africa may have more or less of a specific trait than a population that has lived for centuries in Norway, but this does not jus- tify classifying these populations as different races due to skin color.

Even though race is not a valid biological con- cept, its social significance has profoundly influ- enced the lives of millions of people for three centuries. As people have developed ideas and beliefs around skin color, the resulting racial ideol- ogies have become deeply embedded in many cul- tures. These ideologies change over time, but they continue to exert a powerful influence on people’s lives.

The primary problem with race and racial ideol- ogies is that they have been used for three centuries

sexual relationships and having children with black men, deny interracial children legal access to the property of their white parent, and guarantee that white men would retain power and property in society (Davis, 2001). The uniquely American one- drop rule was based on a social agreement among white men, not on any deep biological significance of “black blood” or “white blood.”

The problem with using the one-drop rule to define race is that “mixed-race” people are erased in history (and sports). It also creates social and identity confusion. For example, when golfer Tiger Woods was identified as “black,” he declared that he was Cablinasian—a term he invented to repre- sent that he is one-fourth Thai, one-fourth Chinese, one-fourth African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth white European (Ca-bl-in- asian =  Caucasian + Black + Indian + Asian). How- ever, when people use the one-drop rule, they ignore diverse ancestry and identify people as black if they are not “pure” white. This is why mixed-race persons in sports are described as black, even though a par- ent or multiple grandparents are white, Asian, and/or Latino (Middleton, 2008).

To say that race is a social construction does not deny the existence of physical variations between

Skin color is a continuous trait that varies from snow white to midnight black with an infinite number of skin tones in between. As with any continuous trait,* we can draw as many “racial category lines” as we choose and locate them anywhere on the skin color continuum. We could draw two lines or thirty, depending on our ideas about “race.” Our decisions about the number and location of lines are determined by social agreements, not biological facts. Over the past four centuries, some people have drawn many lines; others have drawn few; and scientists today draw none, because they no longer try to classify human beings into distinct races.

*Continuous traits are such things as height, weight, nose width or length, leg length or leg length to body height ratio, number of fast or slow twitch muscle fibers, brain size or weight—any trait that varies continuously from low to high or from a few to many.

Snow white Midnight black

Skin color continuum

FIGURE 8.1 Racial ideology: Drawing lines and creating categories.

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we interact with family members, friends, neigh- bors, peers, teachers, and people we meet in our everyday lives. And it is reproduced in connec- tion with general cultural perspectives as well as images and stories in children’s books, text- books, popular films, television programs, video games, song lyrics, and other media content. We incorporate these perspectives, images, and sto- ries into our lives to the extent that we perceive them to be compatible with our experiences. In this sense, race is much like gender: it consists of meaning, performance, and organization (see Chapter 2, pp. 39–41).

The influence of race and racial ideologies in sports has been and continues to be significant in the

to justify the oppression and exploitation of one population by another. Therefore, they’ve fueled and supported racism, defined as attitudes, actions, and policies based on the belief that people in one racial category are inherently superior to people in one or more other categories. In extreme cases, racial ideology has supported beliefs that people in certain populations are (1) childlike beings in need of external control; (2) subhuman beings that can be exploited without guilt; (3) forms of property that can be bought and sold; or (4) evil beings that should be exterminated through genocide, or the systematic destruction of an identifiable population.

Another problem with race and racial ideologies is that they foster the use of racial stereotypes, or generalizations used to define and judge all indi- viduals who are classified in a particular racial category. Because stereotypes provide ready- made evaluative frameworks for making quick judgments and conclusions about others, they’re widely used by people who don’t have the oppor- tunity or aren’t willing to learn about those who have experiences influenced by popular beliefs about skin color. Knowledge, when used criti- cally, undermines racial stereotypes and gradually erodes the ideologies that support them and the racism that often accompanies them.

Race, Racial Ideology, and Sports

None of us is born with a racial ideology. We acquire it over time as we interact with others and learn to give meanings to physical charac- teristics such as skin color, eye shape, the color and texture of hair, or even specific bodily move- ments. These meanings become the basis for classifying people into racial categories and asso- ciating categories with particular psychological and emotional characteristics, intellectual and physical abilities, and even patterns of action and lifestyles.

This process of creating and using racial meanings is built into the cultural fabric of many societies, including the United States. It occurs as

Tiger Woods is only one-fourth African American, yet he is often identified as black because of the way race has been defined by most people in the United States. His mother, Kultida Woods, shown here, is half Thai and half Chinese. (Source: © AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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expected or a result of fortitude, intelligence, moral character, strategic preparation, coachability, and good organization. Therefore, few people want to study white-skinned bodies when all the finalists in multiple Olympic Nordic (cross-country skiing) events are “white.” When white skiers from Austria and Switzerland—countries half the size of Colo- rado, with one-twentieth the population the United States—win World Cup championships year after year, people don’t say that they succeed because their white skin is a sign of genetic advantages. Every- one already knows why the Austrians and Swiss are such good skiers: They live in the Alps, they learn to ski before they go to preschool, they grow up in a culture in which skiing is highly valued, they have many opportunities to ski, all their friends ski and talk about skiing, they see fellow Austrian and Swiss skiers winning races and making money in highly publicized (in Europe) World Cup competitions, and their cultural heroes are skiers. But this is a cultural explanation, not a biological one.

When athletes are white, racial ideology focuses attention on social and cultural factors rather than biological and genetic factors. This is why scientists don’t do studies to identify hockey genes among white Canadians, weight-lifting genes among white Bulgar- ians, or swimming genes among white Americans. Dominant racial ideology prevents people from see- ing “whiteness” as an issue in these cases because it is the taken-for-granted “normal,” standard against which “others” are viewed. When dominant racial ideology serves as the cultural foundation of a white- dominated, white- identified, and white-centered soci- ety, the success of white athletes is the benchmark against which the actions and achievements of others are assessed and interpreted. At the same time, the suc- cess of black athletes is seen as an invasion or a take- over—a “problem” in need of an explanation focused on dark-skinned bodies.

When people don’t ask critical questions about their own ways of viewing race and ethnicity, it will influence their explanations of human performance in sports. These explanations are based on three things: (1) the facts people choose to examine; (2) the ways that people classify and organize those

United States.1 Through the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century when African Americans engaged in clearly courageous acts, many whites used racial ideology to conclude that such acts among blacks were based on ignorance and desperation rather than real character. Some white people went so far as to say that black people, including black ath- letes, did not feel pain in the same way that white people did and this permitted black people to engage in superhuman physical feats and endure physical beatings, as in the case of boxers (Mead, 1985).

Many white people concluded that the success of black athletes was meaningless because blacks were driven by simple animal instincts instead of the heroic and moral character that accounted for the achievements of white athletes. For example, when legendary boxer Joe Louis defeated a “white” Italian for the heavyweight championship of the world in 1935, the wire service story that went around the world began with these words:

Something sly and sinister and perhaps not quite human came out of the African jungle last night to strike down [its opponent] . . . (in Mead, 1985, p. 91)

Few people today would use such blatantly racist language in public, but traditional ideas about race continue to exist and there is ample evidence of racist feelings in online comments and responses. Therefore, when eight “black” athletes line up in the Olympic finals of the 100-meter dash or play in an NBA All- Star game, many people talk about “natural speed and jumping abilities,” and some scientists study dark- skinned bodies to discover the internal physical traits that will explain why they outperform white athletes.

On the other hand, when white athletes do extraordinary physical things, dominant racial ide- ology leads people to conclude that it is either

1(Bass, 2002; Carrington, 2013; Cashmore, 2008, 2012; Cooley, 2010; Cooper, Gawrysiak, and Hawkins, 2013; Doidge, 2013; Elling and van Sterkenburg, 2008; Hallinan and Jackson, 2008; Hannah, 2011; Hartmann, 2012; Hawkins, 2010; Hylton, 2008; King, 2010; Leonard, 2011; Leonard and King, 2010, 2011; Lomax, 2008; Montez de Oca, 2011; Rowe, 2010; Seung-Yup Lim, 2012; Sailes, 2010; St. Louis, 2010; Sze, 2009; Thangaraj, 2012; Withycombe, 2011; Yep, 2012.)

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reflect on S P O R T S

When people seek genetic explanations for the achieve- ments of black athletes, sociologists raise questions about the validity and purpose of the research. Let’s use the search for “jumping genes” to explore whether these questions are justified. Our questions about research on this issue are based on two factors: (1) many cur- rent ideas about the operation and effects of genes are oversimplified and misleading, and (2) jumping is much more than a simple physical activity.

OVERSIMPLIFIED AND MISLEADING IDEAS ABOUT GENES Most people have great hopes for genetic research. They see genes as the building blocks of life that will enable us to explain and control everything from food supplies to human feelings, thoughts, and actions. These hopes have inspired studies seeking genes for violence and intelli- gence as well as genes that enable people to sprint fast, run record-setting marathons, and jump high. Genes, in the minds of many people, constitute the “magic bullets” that will enable us to understand the world and everyone in it.

According to Robert Sapolsky (2000), a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, this notion of the “primacy of the gene” fosters determinis- tic and reductionist views of human actions and social problems. The actions of human beings, he explains, cannot be reduced to particular genetic factors. Even though genes are important, they do not work indepen- dently of the environment. Research shows that genes are activated and suppressed by many environmental factors; furthermore, even the effects of genes inside the human body are influenced by numerous environmental factors, including the body itself (Cloud, 2010; Coop et al., 2009).

Genes are neither autonomous nor the sole causes of important, real-life outcomes associated with our bodies and what they do. The influence of genes is regulated by chemicals that exist in cells as well as chemicals, such as hormones, that come from other parts of the body. These chemicals and hormones are influenced, in turn, by a wide range of external environmental factors. For exam- ple, when a mother rat licks and grooms her infant, her actions initiate biochemical processes that activate genes

regulating the physical growth of the infant rat. Therefore, geneticists have concluded that the operation and effects of genes cannot be separated from the environment that switches them on and off and influences their effects in the body (Davids et al., 2007).

The point is this: Genes do not exist and operate in environmental vacuums. This is true for genes related to diseases and genes related to jumping. Furthermore, we know that physical actions such as jumping, running, and shooting a basketball all involve one or more clusters of multiple genes. To explain overall success in a sport such as basketball or soccer requires an investigation of “at least 124 genes and thousands, perhaps millions, of com- binations of those genes,” and this would provide only part of an explanation (Farrey, 2005). The rest would involve research on why people choose to do certain sports, why they’re motivated to practice and excel, how they’re recognized and identified by coaches and spon- sors, and how they’re able to perform under particular conditions.

This means that discovering “jumping genes” would be exciting, but it would not explain why one person jumps higher than another, nor would it explain why people from one population jump, on average, higher than people from other populations. Furthermore, no evidence shows that particular genes related to jumping or other complex sport performances vary systematically with skin color or any socially constructed ideas about race and racial classifica- tions (PBS, 2006, episode 1).

JUMPING IS MORE THAN A PHYSICAL ACTIVITY Jumping is much more than a mechanical, springlike action initiated by a few leg muscles. It is a total body movement involving neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, torso, waist, hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet, and toes. Jumping also involves a timed coordina- tion of the upper and lower body, a particular type of flex- ibility, a “kinesthetic feel,” and a total body rhythm. It is an act of grace as much as power, a rhythmic act as much as a sudden muscular burst, an individual expression as much as an exertion, and it is tied to a sense of the body in harmony with space as much as overcoming resistance through physical force.

“Jumping Genes” in Black Bodies Why Do People Look for Them, and What Will It Mean If They Find Them?

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Athletes in different sports jump in different ways. Gymnasts, volleyball players, figure skaters, skateboard- ers, mogul skiers, BMX bikers, wakeboarders, basket- ball players, ski jumpers, high jumpers, long jumpers, triple-jumpers, and steeple-chase runners all jump, but their techniques and styles vary greatly from sport to sport and person to person. The act of jumping among people whose skin color and ethnic heritage have been given important social meanings is especially complex because race and ethnicity are types of performances in their own ways (Clammer, 2015). In other words, performing race and ethnicity often involves physical expressions and body movements that are grounded in the cultural–kinesthetic histories of particular popula- tions and stereotypes about them.

Noted scholar Gerald Early (1998), explains that play- ing sports is an ethnic performance because the relevance and meaning of bodily movements vary from one cultural context to another. For example, jumping is irrelevant to the performances of world leaders, CEOs of major corpo- rations, sport team owners, coaches, doctors, and college professors. The power, influence, and resources that these people possess do not depend on their jumping abilities. The statement that “white men can’t jump” isn’t defined as a racial slur by most whites, because jumping deficien- cies have not stopped them from dominating the seats of power worldwide (Myers, 2000). Outside of a few sports, jumping ability has nothing to do with success, power, or wealth. As Public Enemy rapped in the 1998 film, He Got Game, “White men in suits don’t have to jump.”

To study the physical aspects of jumping, sprinting, and distance running is important because it helps us understand human biology more fully. But this research will not explain why people in some social and cultural populations jump high in certain sports and not oth- ers, or don’t jump at all. Such explanations must take into account the historical, cultural, and social circum- stances that make jumping and running important in some people’s lives and why some people work hard to develop jumping and running abilities. There certainly are genes related to jumping, but it’s wrong to assume that they operate independent of environmental fac- tors, are connected with skin color in physical terms, or correspond with the racial categories that people have

constructed for social and political purposes. Knowl- edge about genes is important, but it will never explain the complex physical and cultural performance of slam dunks choreographed by NBA players with vary- ing skin color from more than thirty-seven territories and nations (in 2015). Nor will it explain the amazing vertical leaps and hang times of European, Brazilian, Chinese, and Japanese volleyball players who have won so many international events. Nor will it tell us why whites always win America’s Cup yacht races and nearly every “big air” event in action sports. But when people see the world through a racialized lens, they miss most of what they don’t expect to see.

“Of course, white folks are good at this. After 500 years of colonizing the world by sea, they’ve been

bred to have exceptional sailing genes!”

This statement is laughable when made about whites. However, similar statements about blacks have been used by scientists as a basis for hundreds of studies over the last century. As a result, racial ideology has influenced the process of knowledge production as well as everyday explanations of social worlds and the actions of individuals.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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in terms of race as well as personal motivation (see the bottom section of Figure 8.2).

Does this sociological approach explain the notable achievements of African American men in basketball, football, track, and boxing? This is a difficult question to answer, but historical evi- dence indicates that a perceived collective sense of biological or cultural destiny can dramatically influence the achievements of an entire popula- tion. Three centuries ago, white men from the small island nation of England felt that it was their biological and cultural destiny to colonize and rule other parts of the world. This belief was so pow- erful that it led them to conquer over one-half the world as they formed the British Empire! This dwarfs the achievements of blacks in certain sports today. Further, it is clear that British colonization was driven by a combination of historical, cultural, and social factors; it was not due to British genes. Overall, when social worlds are organized to fos- ter a sense of destiny among particular people, it shouldn’t be surprising when those people achieve notable things in pursuit of what they believe they can accomplish.

The Challenge of Escaping Racial Ideology in Sports The most effective way to defuse racial ideology is for people to understand each other’s history and heritage and to depend on each other to achieve their goals. However, when ethnic segregation exists, as it does in U.S. resi- dential housing and schools, there is a tendency for black males to be “tagged” in a way that sub- verts their success in claiming identities that don’t fit expectations based on racial ideology. For instance, if black high school students play on sport teams and participate in the school’s hon- ors program, other students and teachers are more likely to identify the black males as athletes rather than honors students, whereas black females are identified in connection with both statuses. At the same time, if Asian and white students (male and female) are in the honors program and on school teams, they are more likely to be identified as hon- ors students rather than athletes. This tendency to

facts; and (3) the theories people use to analyze and interpret the facts that they have classified and orga- nized. Therefore, if people are not critically self- reflective as they observe, analyze, and explain the actions of human beings, racial ideology will influ- ence the process of producing knowledge. This is highlighted in the box “ ‘Jumping Genes’ in Black Bodies” on pages 234–235.

Racial Ideology and a Sense of Athletic Destiny Among African American Men Does racial ide- ology influence the ways that African Americans interpret their own physical abilities and poten- tial as athletes? This is a controversial question. Research combined with statements by athletes and coaches suggests that many young African Americans, especially men, grow up believing that the black body is superior when it comes to physi- cal abilities in certain sports (May, 2008; Steele, 2010). This belief inspires some young people to believe it is their biological and cultural destiny to play certain sports and play them better than others. This inspiration is intensified when young black men and women feel that their chances of gaining respect and material success are dismal in any realm other than a few sports (Bimper and Harrison, 2011; Harrison et al., 2011; May, 2008, 2009b; Shakib and Veliz, 2012; Singer and May, 2011; Smith, 2007).

Figure 8.2 outlines a hypothesized sociological explanation of the athletic achievements of African American male athletes. The top section of the fig- ure shows that racial stereotypes about the innate physical abilities of black people have been a part of U.S. history and culture. When these stereotypes are combined with restricted opportunities in main- stream occupations and heavily sponsored opportu- nities to develop skills in certain sports, many black youngsters are motivated to play those sports. Over time they come to believe that it is their destiny to excel in those sports, especially relative to whites (see the middle section of Figure  8.2). When this sense of destiny is widespread and strong, it creates a context in which young black men work hard to develop their skills and frame their achievements

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When these identity dynamics occur, relation- ships in schools may be organized so that black male students are academically marginalized. We need to know more about the conditions under which this marginalization occurs and how it affects those involved. At this point, many peo- ple say that black students, especially young men, avoid and devalue an academic identity, but this factor is less important than the perceptions of people and their tendency to acknowledge certain identities and skills and ignore others.

These identity dynamics can undermine the pos- itive consequences of sports in the lives of many black students, because it frames their achieve- ments in sports in racial terms and reduces the sig- nificance of other achievements and potential.

differentially identify students in connection with race has been consistently documented in research (Evans et al., 2011; May, 2008, 2009; Shakib and Veliz, 2012; Withycombe, 2011).

As two black male college athletes noted, “Every- one around perceives us being [on campus] only for our physical talents,” and “ Everything is white [on campus], only sports [are] for blacks” ( Harrison, 1998, p. 72). This is not a new phenomenon and it continues to exist with little change (Bimper and Harrison, 2011; el-Khoury, 2012; Harrison et al., 2011; Hodge et al., 2008; Melendez, 2008; Singer, 2008). But its consequences are frustrating for black men who want to expand their social identities beyond sports, or who don’t play sports and don’t want to be identified with them.

FIGURE 8.2 A sociological hypothesis to explain the achievements of black male athletes.

This sense of biological and cultural destiny, combined with motivation and opportunities to develop certain sport skills,

leads some black men and women, especially those with certain physical characteristics, to be outstanding athletes in certain sports

+ Young black men are motivated to use every opportunity

to develop the skills they need to fulfill their destiny as athletes

Many black men and women, especially young men, come to believe that it is their biological and cultural destiny to become great athletes

A long history of racial ideology has emphasized “black male physicality” and innate, race-based physical abilities among black people

+

+ A long history of racial segregation and discrimination has limited

the opportunities for black men to achieve success and respect in society

The existence of widespread opportunities and encouragement to develop physical skills and excel in a few sports

When these three social and cultural conditions are added together:

There are two intermediate consequences:

The resulting hypothesis is this:

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being labeled a “wannabe white.” Similarly, white girls and boys in certain areas might choose to play soccer or lacrosse because the school football and basketball teams have mostly black players.

Research is needed to determine the conditions under which sport participation choices are influ- enced by racial ideology, but doing this research can be tricky because these choices quickly become taken for granted and built into physical environments. Therefore, people are more likely to see them as “personal preferences” rather than as reflections of a pervasive racial ideology that shapes the social and physical environment as well as people’s choices ( Harrison, 2013).

Racial Ideology, Gender, and Social Class

Racial and gender ideologies are interconnected in U.S. sports. For example, the implications of racial ideology for black men are different from those for black women. This is partly because the bodies of black men in U.S. culture have been viewed and socially defined differently than the bodies of black women.

Over the past three centuries, but especially during the last century, many whites in the United States grew up fearing the power of black male bod- ies, feeling anxious about their sexual capacities and being fascinated by their movements. Ironically, this consequence of racial ideology has enabled some black men to use their bodies as entertainment commodities, first on stage in music and vaudeville theater and later on athletic fields. Black female bodies, on the other hand, were seen in sexualized terms or as the nurturing nanny—neither of which made them valuable entertainment commodities in sports (Collins, 2005; Corbett and Johnson, 2000).

This means that racial and gender ideology create slightly different challenges for black female athletes. For example, Donna Daniels, an African American studies scholar, suggests that the norms for physical appearance among females in predomi- nantly white cultures have been racialized so that black female athletes exist in a realm outside the nor- mal range of acceptance. To gain acceptance, they

Racial Ideology and Sport Choices Among Whites Research also shows that choices and achievements in sports are influenced by racial ide- ology and the stereotypes it supports (Allen et  al., 2011; Harrison and Lawrence, 2004; Harrison et al., 2011; Steele, 2010). The influence of ideol- ogy is subtle, but it continues to influence people’s lives and the organization of the social worlds in which choices are made.

Black girls and boys in certain areas of the United States might think twice before taking up a sport that is identified by their peers as “white,” for fear of

Many African American men grow up taking sports, especially basketball and football, very seriously. By age eleven this boy has learned not to smile when presenting himself as an athlete. His father reminded him to look serious and tough for this photo because it represented an identity that should be taken seriously. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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Racial ideology operates in diverse ways. In some cases, it influences whites to avoid the sports in which blacks have a record of excellence. This way of thinking did not influence the white teen on this team, nor does it influence whites in Europe and Australia where racial ideology does not discourage them from playing basketball and learning to run and jump as NBA players do. (Source: © Pat Miller)

must carefully “monitor and strategize about how they are seen and understood by people who are not accustomed to their physical presence or intellect, whether on the court, field, or peddling a product” (2000, p. 26). If they’re not careful, there’s a danger that people will interpret their confidence and intel- ligence as arrogance and cockiness or as an indi- cation that they are “too black.” 2 Therefore, some black women learn to present themselves to others

2This was experienced by Michelle Obama as the wife of Senator and President Barack Obama. Some people identified her as “too black” and a “typical angry black woman.” Her confidence and intelligence were viewed by many as arrogance and cockiness, which made it necessary for her to be especially diplomatic in how she presented herself in public.

in ways that tone down their toughness and make them appear amicable and nonthreatening—much

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and support (Carter and Hart, 2010)—and it may be that black families are more likely to offer and provide this support for their daughters than for their sons. When all these factors are combined, black female athletes and coaches face formidable challenges as they negotiate their way in sports, especially on predominantly white campuses.

SPORT PARTICIPATION AMONG ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

Sports in the United States have long histories of racial and ethnic exclusion. Men and women in all ethnic minorities traditionally have been underrepresented at all levels of competition and management in most competitive sports, even in high schools and community programs. Prior to the 1950s, the organizations that sponsored sport teams and events seldom opened their doors fully to African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, or Asian Americans. When members of ethnic minority groups played sports, they usually played among themselves in games and events segregated by choice or by necessity (Giles, 2004; Miller and Wiggins, 2003; Niiya, 2000; Powers-Beck, 2004; Ruck, 1987).

Sport Participation Among African Americans

Throughout much of the twentieth century, white people in the United States consistently avoided playing with and against black people. Black peo- ple of all ages were systematically excluded from participation in white-controlled sport programs and organizations because many white people believed that they didn’t have the character or for- titude to compete with them. As a result of various aspects of racial ideology, participation opportuni- ties for young black girls and boys were limited to only a few sports—usually those that their segre- gated schools could afford to provide. Even today, 44  million black Americans are underrepresented

like Oprah Winfrey—lest they face chronic margin- alization in the cultural mainstream (Withycombe, 2011).

This point was poignantly illustrated when radio and talk show host Don Imus saw the strength and toughness of the black women on the Rutgers University basketball team and could find no other words to describe them except “some rough girls from Rutgers  .  .  . some nappy-headed ho’s.” As for Rutgers’ opponents, Imus said, “The girls from Tennessee—they all looked cute.” Then the show’s executive producer said that the game pitted “the jigaboos versus the wannabes.” To Imus and his producer, both of whom were fired for their on-air conversation, the appearance of the women from the Rutgers team was “too black,” and outside of their normal range of acceptance.

This was reminiscent of ways that the media in the 1990s pathologized the bodies of Venus and Serena Williams as exotic yet repulsive, animal- istic yet supremely athletic, unfeminine yet erotic. These stories are put into a historical context in the Reflect on Sports box, “Vénus Noire.”

This type of response among potential fans was anticipated by the marketing people at the WNBA. When they first promoted the league, they pre- sented ad after ad highlighting black players who had modeling contracts or newborn babies (Banet- Weiser, 1999; A. Solomon, 2000). When lip gloss and cute infants were not used, the ads depicted nicely groomed black players in nurturing and sup- portive roles, especially with children.

Studies of black women playing sports or coaching in college suggest that they often feel a special sense of isolation on predominantly white campuses (Borland and Bruening, 2010; Carter and Hart, 2010; St. Louis, 2010). This is primarily due to dealing with the double jeopardy of racial and gender ideology. Compared with their male peers, black females are more likely to be patronized, lack access to power and the people who wield power in athletic departments, and have fewer mentors and sources of social support in the schools or depart- ments in which they play or work. As a result, they often depend heavily on their families for guidance

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The legacy of past racist beliefs about the black female body was resurrected again in December 2012 when Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki stuffed bulky towels over her sports bra and into the back of her tennis skirt to portray her caricature of Serena Williams dur- ing a match with Maria Sharapova in Brazil. Wozniacki probably did not know what that meant for her friends, Serena and Venus Williams. For them it was a naïve act of racism and a reminder of how they have been com- pared to “Hottentot Venus,” a South African woman whose real name was Saartjie Baartman.

Baartman was captured by British colonizers in 1810, brought to Europe, and displayed in exhibi- tions, World Fairs, and “freak shows” as an example of the primitive character of black Africans (AAA,

Vénus Noire A Legacy of Racism After 200 Years

2006c; Hobson, 2005; Holmes, 2007; Kechiche, 2005; A. Little, 2012; Martin, 2009; Maseko, 1998; Webster, 2000).

Baartman was a member of the Hottentot people, who had a genetic trait causing them to retain fat cells in their breasts and buttocks. Through the rest of her life Baartman was exhibited to whites as an animal-like crea- ture. Her genital region evoked special curiosity because white people at that time were fascinated by what they believed to be the innate hypersexuality of the black female body.

After Baartman died, the anthropologist who had sold her to a carnival showman years before repossessed her body for an inhumane postmortem in which he removed her brain and cut off, dissected, and examined her genitals

(Source: © AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Continued

reflect on S P O R T S

(Source: City of Westminster Archives Centre)

When Caroline Wozniacki mimicked Serena Williams in public she unwittingly revived a global legacy of racist beliefs about black female sexuality. For those who know racial history, this stunt was reminiscent of what happened to Saartjie Baartman, who is caricatured in this racist image that is 200 years old.

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in hopes of contributing to white knowledge about black female bodies and brains.

This widespread fascination with Baartman’s assumed hypersexuality marked an early chapter in a con- tinuing 200-year-old story of the beliefs that white people have had about the black female body (see Burton, 2012). Throughout much of the story, those beliefs were emo- tionally charged with a complex combination of desire and repulsion grounded in the racism of the day ( Hobson, 2005).

To illustrate the indirect impact of that story we can go back to the mid-nineteenth century, when beliefs about Baartman’s body reaffirmed the use of a bustle and corset to accentuate the buttocks (“booty” today) and breasts while thinning the waist. In England and other parts of Western Europe this “look” represented ideal- ized female sexual identity—a way to be sexy while cov- ering every inch of the body with layers of Victoria Era clothing. Anyone who has watched Disney’s animated “princess” films depicting women of this era is familiar with this “bustle and corset look.”

Of course, history books have told only the racially censored white interpretation of the “bustle and cor- set” fashion. But Venus and Serena Williams know the

African interpretation—as did Nelson Mandela, who, as the globally respected former president of South Africa, finally in 2002, succeeded in convincing the French gov- ernment to return Baartman’s body to her homeland to be buried there.

White journalists covering the match in which Caroline Wozniacki pulled her stunt represented it as “fun and games.” Anita Little, a young journalist writ- ing for Ms. magazine called it a case of “accidental racism.” But as an African American woman, Little knows that such accidents damage black women and reinforce a 200-year-old story about white superior- ity and black inferiority that has shaped recent human history. For Serena Williams, this accidental racism was probably interpreted in terms of that longer story combined with the fifteen years of nasty and racist comments about her body—comments naively reaf- firmed by someone she considered a friend.

Now that you know a small part of one chapter in that 200-year-old history, what would you tell Caroline Wozniacki to do the next time she sees Serena Williams in private? Regarding the larger picture, what does that history say about perceptions of female bodies today, especially those of black women?

Vénus Noire (continued)reflect on S P O R T S

in or absent from most sports at most levels of competition. This fact is often overlooked because a few of the most popular spectator sports involve high proportions of black athletes. People see this and don’t realize that black men and women are absent or nearly absent in thirty-nine of forty-four men’s and women’s sports played in college, most of the dozens of sports played at the international amateur level, and all but five of the dozens of professional sports in the United States. There is a similar pattern in Canada and in European coun- tries with strong sporting traditions.

The exceptions to this pattern of exclusion stand out because they are exceptions. The underrepre- sentation of blacks in most sports is much greater

than the underrepresentation of whites in basket- ball, football, and track and field. Additionally, there are proportionately many more white students who play basketball and football in high school and college than there are black students who play tennis or golf at those levels. Finding black driv- ers at an Indy-car or NASCAR race is difficult or impossible; drivers, support personnel, and nearly 100 percent of the spectators are white, but the races are never described as white events (King, 2007c; Kusz, 2007b).

In a white-centered cultural setting where the lives of whites are the expected focus of attention, whites don’t think about the whiteness of these sports. And in white-dominated, white-identified

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too black or too ethnic if they wish to succeed in these settings.

Throughout U.S. sports history, the participa- tion of black females has been severely limited and has received little attention, apart from that given to occasional Olympic medal winners in track events. As noted previously, research shows that black women are keenly aware of the need to “tone down” their toughness and confidence lest they “threaten” white people who don’t know them or understand race relations in the United States.

In the case of black girls, a study by ethnomu- sicologist Kyra Gaunt (2006) shows that games in urban girl culture traditionally combine songs, chants, handclapping, footstomping, and rhythmic movement—a combination that doesn’t fit with widely used definitions of sport (Cole, 2006). Many of these games, including traditional double-dutch, involve complex physical challenges combined with a body-conscious physicality and embodied musicality traceable to African origins.

Overall, rates of sport participation in middle- and upper-middle-income white communities in the United States are much higher than those in most predominantly black communities, especially those where resources are scarce. Racial ideology causes many people to overlook this fact. They see only the black men who make high salaries in high- profile sports and assume that blacks have “taken over” sports, that racial discrimination no longer exists, and that the nation is now color blind. Over- all, this is how dominant racial ideology erases people and problems that cause discomfort for the racially privileged (Harrison, 2013; Lee-St. John, 2006).

Sport Participation Among Native Americans

There are 5.2 million “American Indian and Alaska Natives” in the United States and about 1.7 million live on or very close to 324 federally recognized res- ervations. Although the U.S. census counts Native Americans as a single demographic category, they comprise dozens of diverse cultural populations

settings where the characteristics of whites are used as the standards for judging qualifications, most white people never think that they might have an advantage when it comes to fitting in or being hired and promoted. At the same time, blacks and other ethnic minorities must be careful not to be

Black athletes were not taken seriously by most white people through much of the twentieth century. To earn a living playing sports, they often had to present themselves in ways that fit the racial (and racist) stereotypes held by white people. The Indianapolis Clowns baseball team and the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team joked around and behaved in childlike ways so that white people would pay to watch them. Racism restricted cultural space for black men and women to be entertainers, and they faced near-total exclusion in other spheres of social life, including mainstream sports. (Source: Library of Congress)

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and their way of life. These tensions increase when they encounter negative representations of their culture in the form of teams named Indians, Redskins, Redmen, and Savages and mascots and logos that mimic stereotypes of “Indians.” Watching or playing sports under such condi-

tions involves losing control of one’s identity (King, 2016). It is depressing to see a distorted or historically inappropriate carica- ture of a Native American on the gym wall or floor (!) of a school where students have no knowledge of local or regional native cultures. For Native Americans this means that they must (1) swallow cultural pride; (2) repress anger against insensitive, historically ignorant

non-Native Americans; and (3) suspend hope of being understood in terms of their identity and cul- tural heritage. Reflect on Sports, “Identity Theft,” on pages 246–247 discusses this issue.

Native American athletes also face the challenge of preserving their cultural identities when their orientations don’t fit with the culture of the power and performance sports sponsored by most schools. Through the years, some white coaches who have worked in reservation schools have tried to strip students of cultural traditions that emphasize coop- eration and replace them with Euro-American orientations that favor competition. When Native Americans don’t give up their cultural souls volun- tarily, coaches simply avoid recruiting them. This is a problem that affects many Native American high school students who play basketball, a popu- lar sport on reservations and one in which young Native Americans often excel (Longman, 2013b).

Fortunately, Native American sport experi- ences do not always involve dramatic cultural compromises. Some Native Americans play sports in contexts in which their identities are respected and supported by others (King, 2004a, 2004b; Longman, 2013b; Schinke et al., 2010). In these cases, sports provide opportunities for students to learn about the cultural backgrounds

and come from 566 federally recognized “Indian tribes,” according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The differences between many of these populations are socially significant. However, most non-Native Americans tend to erase these differences by referring generally to “Indians” and envisioning stereotypical habits and dress— long hair, feathers, buckskin, moc- casins, bows and arrows, horseback riding, war- whooping, tomahawk- chopping, and half-naked, even in cold northern states.

Native American sport par- ticipation patterns are diverse. They vary with cultural traditions, socioeconomic status, and whether people live on or off reservations. For example, participation patterns are heavily affected by a poverty rate of 30 percent and up to 50 percent on reservations—over twice the poverty rate in the United States as a whole (about 15 percent in 2014).

Many sports in traditional Native American cultures combine physical activities with rit- ual and ceremony. Although individual Native American athletes have done well and set records over the past century, public recognition has often been limited to those few standouts on the football and baseball teams from reservation schools. For example, when Jim Thorpe and his teammates at the Carlisle School, a segregated government training school, defeated outstanding college teams in 1911 and 1912, they attracted considerable attention (Bloom, 2000; Oxendine, 1988). But apart from a few teams and individ- ual athletes in segregated government schools, Native American sport participation has been limited by high rates of poverty and poor health, a lack of equipment and facilities, and little sup- port from those who control sports.

Native Americans who can play intercol- legiate sports often fear being cut off from their cultural roots and support systems. For those who grow up learning their culture, there often is ten- sion between the larger U.S. or Canadian culture

If you want [your mascot] to be a savage—use your own picture. . . . How would you feel if the team was called the Washington Darkies? —Former Colorado senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the only Native American senator in U.S. history (in Zirin, 2013c)

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of Colorado and Wyoming) was part of Mexico prior to the mid-nineteenth century, the ancestors of Latinos were living in this region long before 1620 when European pilgrims docked the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor. Therefore, Latino people have played major roles in establishing communities, schools, businesses, churches, hospitals, and sport programs in the Southwest, which is home to 25 percent of the total U.S. population. Unsurprisingly, they’ve also played and been successful in the same sports as others in the Southwest (Mendoza, 2007).

The exceptions to this pattern involve people who emigrated from Mexico and other parts of Latin America during the twentieth century to work in low-status jobs in U.S. industry and agri- culture. Many people in this category are natu- ralized citizens or children who were born in the United States. They frequently maintain family connections in Mexico and generally experience various forms of ethnic discrimination. Work pat- terns, poverty, segregation, general discrimination, and cultural traditions have influenced their sport involvement. Scarce time, resources, and little access to facilities and teams have restricted par- ticipation (Swanson et al., 2013). These patterns are similar to the ones that exist among Latinos and Afro-Caribbeans in Canada (Joseph, 2012).

When anthropologist Doug Foley (1990a, 1990b, 1999b) studied “Mexicano-Anglo rela- tions” associated with high school football in a small Texas town, he found that working-class Mexican males (vatos) rejected sport participation but used Friday night football games as occasions for publicly displaying their Mexican identities and establishing social reputations in the commu- nity. Foley also described how the Mexicans pro- tested a high school homecoming ceremony that marginalized Mexicans and gave center stage to Anglos (that is, white people with European ances- try). Additionally, the Mexican-American football coach resigned in frustration when faced with the bigotry and contradictory expectations of powerful Anglo boosters and school board members.

Foley concluded that despite being a site for resistance against prevailing Anglo ways of doing

of others. In other cases, Native Americans adopt Euro-American ways and play sports without expressing any evidence of their cultural heri- tage; that is, they “go along with” the dominant culture, even if they don’t agree with or accept all of it. And there are cases in which Native Americans redefine sport participation to fit their cultural beliefs—a strategy used by many eth- nic minorities who play sports developed by and for people in the dominant culture (Brenner and Reuveni, 2006; Maguire, 1999).

Sport Participation Among Latinos and Latinas

The 55 million Latinos in the United States include people from diverse cultures.3 They may share language, colonial history, or Catholic religious beliefs, but their cultures, histories, and migra- tion patterns vary greatly. Mexican Americans constitute the largest Latino/a group (63 percent), followed by Puerto Ricans (9   percent), Cubans (4 percent), Central and South Americans (15 per- cent), and other Hispanic people (9 percent).

When dealing with sports in the United States, it’s useful to distinguish between three catego- ries of Latinos: (1) U.S. born and naturalized citi- zens; (2) Latin Americans working as athletes in the United States; and (3) workers and their fam- ily members who are in the United States without legal approval. The role of sports varies greatly in the everyday lives of people in each of these three categories.

Native-Born and Naturalized Citizens with Latino Heritage Because much of the southwest- ern United States (California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts

3Latino is the term often used by people from Latin America to identify themselves as a single population with shared political interests and concerns. It was created as an alternative to His- panic, a term invented by the U.S. Census Bureau to refer to people of any race who have “Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin.” I use Latino because it is more socially and politically mean- ingful than Hispanic, which is mostly a demographic term.

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reflect on S P O R T S

Using stereotypes to characterize Native Americans is so common that most people don’t realize they do it. When people take Native American images and names, claim ownership of them, and then use them for team names, mascots, and logos, sports perpetuate an ideology that trivializes and distorts the diverse histories and traditions of native cultures. No other ethnic population is subject to this form of cultural identity theft. As sportswriter Jon Saraceno (2005) exclaims, “Can you imagine the reaction if any school dressed a mascot in an Afro wig and a dashiki? Or encouraged fans to show up in blackface?” (p. 10C).

To understand this issue, consider this story told by the group, Concerned American Indian Parents:

An American Indian student attended his school’s pep rally in preparation for a football game against a rival school. The rival school’s mascot was an American Indian. The pep rally included the burning of an Indian in effigy along with posters and banners labeled “Scalp the Indians,” “Kill the Indians,” and “Let’s burn the Indians at the stake.” The student, hurt and embarrassed, tore the banners down. His fellow students couldn’t understand his hurt and pain. This incident occurred in a public school in 1988,

twenty years after the National Congress of American Indians initiated a campaign to eliminate stereotypes of “Indians” in U.S. culture. In 1970, over 3000 schools were using Native American images, names, logos, and mascots for their sport teams. Many of these changed their names and mascots when they realized that it wasn’t right to use the identities of other human beings to represent and pro- mote themselves. However, a number of schools and a few professional teams still engage in this form of identity theft as they call themselves “Indians,” “Savages,” “War- riors,” “Chiefs,” “Braves,” “Redskins,” “Red Raiders,” and “Redmen” and have mascots that cross-dress as Indians by donning war bonnets and paint, brandishing spears and tomahawks, pounding tom-toms, intoning rhythmic chants, and mimicking religious and cultural dances.

Some schools continue to display “their Indian” on gym walls and floors, scoreboards, and products they sell for a profit. They say that they’re engaging in a

“harmless” tradition that “honors” the “Indians” from whom they’ve taken images and identities. But Native

Identity Theft? Using Native American Names and Images in Sports

Many high schools in the United States continue to cling to ownership of “their” Indian names, logos, and mascots, despite objections from Native Americans. Some school officials, coaches, parents, and students say that their intent is to “honor their Indian,” but they put his caricatured image on their gym floors and benches where people step and sit on them—actions unlikely to be accepted when honoring culturally important historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan. This [cartoon] image is used by a public high school in Colorado calling themselves the “Fightin’ Reds.” (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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Americans point out that they are not honored by peo- ple who don’t listen to them or respect their cultures.

What if the San Diego Padres’ mascot were a fear- some black-robed missionary who walked the sidelines swinging an 8-foot-long rosary and carrying a 9-foot-long plastic crucifix? And what if he led fans in a hip-hop ver- sion of the sacred Gregorian chant as spectators waved little crucifixes and rapped the lyrics of their chant? Peo- ple would be outraged because they know the history and meaning of Christian beliefs, objects, and rituals.

If more Americans knew the histories, cultural tradi- tions, and religions of the 566 Native American tribes and nations in the United States today, would they be as likely to use Native American team names and allow naïve students to dress in costumes made of items defined as sacred in the animistic religious traditions of many Native Americans? Would they allow fans to mimic sacred chants and perform war-whooping, toma- hawk-chopping cheers based on racist images from old “cowboy and Indian” movies?

Most public school officials and state legislators now realize that it’s cruel and inconsiderate to misrepresent people whose ancestors were massacred, ordered off their lands at gunpoint, and confined to reservations by U.S. government agents. They also realize that romanticizing a distorted version of the past by taking the names and images of people who currently experience discrimination, poverty, and the negative effects of stereotypes is a careless act of white privilege and hypocrisy. Therefore, some states and school districts now have policies banning such practices.

In 2003, the National Collegiate Athletic Associa- tion (NCAA) recommended that all universities using American Indian names, mascots, or logos review their practices and determine if they undermined the NCAA’s commitment to cultural diversity. In 2005, the NCAA banned the display of Native American names, logos, and mascots on uniforms and other clothing and at NCAA playoff games and championships. But NCAA officials made an exception for Florida State University (FSU),

whose officials claimed they had permission from the Seminole Tribe in Florida (but not the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) to use the Seminole name and logo image in an honorable way (Staurowsky, 2007). “Honorable” for FSU means having a white European American stu- dent paint his face, put on a headband and a colorful shirt, carry a feather-covered spear, and ride into the football stadium on a horse named Seminole. And fans can honor their “nole,” as they call “their Indian,” by buying prod- ucts adorned with the painted and feathered “Seminole face.” These products include floor mats, welcome mats, stadium seats, paper plates, and other things that fans use to sit, stand, and wipe their feet on. This is a strange way to show honor, but it makes money for the university and keeps the wealthy white boosters happy, even if it mocks the courses in their history department and makes the FSU diversity policy a symbol of hypocrisy.

The insensitivity of people at FSU is not an isolated case (Davis-Delano, 2007; King, 2016; Williams, 2007). For example, in 1999, a panel in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that “Redskins,” “Redskin-ettes,” and the logo of a feathered “Redskin” man as used by Washington, DC’s NFL team “disparaged” Native Americans. The panel can- celed six exclusive trademarks, ending the NFL’s exclusive ownership of the “Redskins” name and logo. But in 2003, a federal district court judge overturned the panel’s ruling because Native Americans had not objected back in 1967 when all NFL trademarks were registered. Although this decision is under appeal, the NFL still controls its “Red- skins”—located in the capital city of the government that broke all but 1 of over 400 treaties with Native Americans (Dorgan, 2013). This case symbolizes the history of oppres- sion endured by Native Americans.

However, in 2013, there were additional efforts to convince the owner of the Washington team to change its name, but he said he would NEVER do so. But that only increased the pressure being put on him and on the NFL, which claims to value racial and ethnic diversity (King, 2016; TheDailyCaller, 2013; Zirin 2013c, 2013d).

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interfere with playing sports in households where meeting expenses is a struggle and transportation to practices and games is unavailable or costly.

Second- and third-generation Latinas face fewer parental constraints, and many parents are willing to use family resources to fund their daughters’ sport participation. However, talented high school players often remain hesitant to play intercollegiate sports if it means going to a college far from home where there is little support for their Latina iden- tities and traditions. Katherine Jamieson’s (1998, 2005, 2007) research describes the unique iden- tity management experiences of Latina intercolle- giate athletes who must bridge a cultural divide as they live, study, and play with others who know little about merging cultural identities and man- aging relationships in two cultural spheres. But this research also needs to be updated, because ethnic relations are constantly emerging social phenomena.

things in the town, high school football ultimately perpetuated the power and privilege of the local Anglos. As long as Mexicanos saw and did things the Anglo way, they were accepted. But when they raised ethnic issues they were ignored, opposed, or marginalized.

There’s a need to update Foley’s work and to do research in urban areas as well as smaller towns. We know little about sports in the lives of young people who are first-, second-, and third-generation Latinos in the United States. There are anecdotal accounts of young people who overcome barriers to play on school teams or at the professional level, but in-depth, community-based research is lacking.

Similarly, there’s been little research on Puerto Ricans in northeastern states, especially New York, and Cubans in southeastern states, especially Florida. Among those who are second- or third-generation residents of the United States, sport participation patterns match the pat- terns of those with similar family incomes and levels of education. For example, the relatively poor Puerto Ricans in New York City and other urban areas on the eastern seaboard have sport participation patterns matching other populations with scarce resources. Boxing, baseball, and soc- cer are among the most popular sports. The rela- tively wealthy Cubans who came to the United States after Castro and the communist party came to power in 1959 have sport participation patterns that match their socioeconomic counterparts. More recent Cuban immigrants have patterns closer to those of recent immigrants from Mexico—boxing, soccer, and baseball among the men and softball and basketball among the women.

Research on Latinas in the United States indi- cates that diverse ethnic traditions and gender norms influence their sport participation (Acosta, 1999; Jamieson, 1998, 2005, 2007; Sylwester, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c). First-generation Latinas may lack parental support to play sports. Parents often con- trol their daughters more strictly than they control their sons, and daughters are expected to do house- hold tasks such as caring for siblings, assisting with meal preparation, and cleaning house—all of which

Marlen Esparza, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant father, grew up in Houston. After having trouble in school, she took up boxing and at sixteen-years-old became the youngest woman to win a national Golden Gloves championship, which she won six consecutive times along with a world championship in 2006. In 2012, she became the first woman in the United States to qualify for a spot in boxing at the Olympics in London, where she won a bronze medal. (Source: © DENNIS M. SABANGAN/epa/Corbis)

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desegregation and made it easier for Branch Rickey to convince his co-owners of the Brooklyn Dodgers to make Jackie Robinson a team member in 1947. This means that breaking the color line in baseball was a multi-ethnic process rather than a single event in black-white relations (Lapchick, 2010). Latino players had long been involved in weakening the color line and demonstrating that the definition of race used in the United States was arbitrary and inconsistent. In fact, during the early twentieth century, some African Americans were known to learn Spanish and take Spanish names so they could pass as Cubans or Dominicans and play on U.S. teams.

Latinos constitute 25 percent of the players in MLB today and about 40 percent of all minor league players; 85 percent of Major League play- ers born outside the United States come from Latin America. This is part of a century-long process through which players learned skills in community and professional leagues in Latin America, and more recently, in baseball train- ing academies, mostly in the Dominican Repub- lic (Klein, 2006). Baseball has long been seen as the ticket to take a young man out of poverty, enabling him to support his extended family and make contributions to his local community.

When scouts for MLB teams realized that there was so much baseball talent in the Domini- can Republic, they built training academies to gain access to the young players and then assess, develop, and control them. This began in the 1970s and continues today, although Dominicans with ties to their communities have now developed their own academies so they can “broker” players to acad- emies sponsored by Major League teams (Klein, 2006). In this way, the Dominicans have regained partial control over their own talent so that Major League teams don’t just take the best players and, as they do so, destroy local leagues and teams. The success of the academies is seen through the 95–100 Dominicans who currently play on MLB teams; in fact, over the years, seventy MLB players have come from San Pedro de Macorís, a city of 200,000 people, and in 1990 it was the birthplace

Young Latinas today are more likely than their peers in past generations to see athletes who look like them. There’s some media coverage show- ing Latinas in golf, softball, and soccer, but most inspiration comes from older sisters and neighbor girls who play sports. Research on the experiences of Latinas is important because it helps us under- stand the dynamics faced by young women caught up in the experience of immigration and making their way in a new society. At this point, we know little about the experiences of younger Latinas as they combine family life with school, sports, and jobs, and about adult Latinas who play sports in local leagues. Women playing in local leagues often use their participation to maintain regular contact with relatives and friends in the United States and Mexico, which makes soccer and softball especially important in their lives.

Latin Americans Working as Athletes in U.S. Sports For well over a century boys and young men from poor families in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela have dreamed about playing professional baseball in their home countries or the United States (Burgos, 2007; Regalado, 2008).

Between 1880 and the late 1930s, players from Latin America—often from Cuba—played on white U.S. professional teams and Negro League teams. Although they faced strong discrimination on white teams, they learned that they could negoti- ate team membership by using their Spanish names to claim they were Latino, not “black.” White players and management often accepted this in the interest of including highly skilled players on their teams, even when the Latino players were dark- skinned. Therefore, Latino players quietly passed through “the color line” and disrupted the “one- drop” racial classification model that was used in Major League Baseball. Additionally, many white, black, and Latino players had played in ethnically mixed Latin American leagues in the decades prior to the desegregation of MLB (Burgos, 2007).

These factors, according to historian Adrian Burgos (2007), helped erode resistance to

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over-the-counter drugs is common (Gordon, 2007; Jenkins, 2005; LeBatard, 2005). Many drugs are less regulated in Latin America than in the United States, and some, including anabolic steroids, are available over the counter. The cheapest and most accessible steroids are those used by ranchers and farmers to increase the growth of their animals. Therefore, when young baseball players are des- perate to escape poverty and hunger and hope to support their families, they may take these drugs despite risks to their health.

On the positive side of things, Latino players today enjoy the benefits of a visible and grow- ing Latino culture in the United States, a growing Spanish-language media, a shared identity with many other players, and increased salaries that give them financial leverage that players in previous eras never had. Stereotypes continue to exist, but they are not as widely held as in the past, and when they are used in public, they are more likely to be challenged.

Undocumented Workers and Their Family Mem- bers We know little about sports in the lives of undocumented Latino workers and their families, who number in the millions. Sport involvement patterns are likely to vary with their income, edu- cation, and the number of years they’ve been in the United States. In some cases, sports are used as a means of assimilating into and expressing famil- iarity with U.S. culture and developing relation- ships with non-Latinos. In other cases, workers and their families often use weekend soccer, baseball, and softball games to come together and exchange information about jobs, friends, and family in Mexico, transferring money home, obtaining med- ical care and housing, and other things crucial to survival and maintaining support that can be help- ful when a crisis strikes—a regular occurrence for many of these workers and their families.

A Need for Research Knowledge about the sport experiences of Latinos and Latinas is important because they are the fastest-growing ethnic popu- lation in the United States. Physical educators, coaches, and sport administrators need research

of five of the twenty-six starting shortstops in the major leagues (Dannheisser, 2008).

Once Latino players sign contracts with MLB teams, they face significant cultural adjustments and language problems and the strain of living in a society where few people understand their cultural backgrounds (Bretón and Villegas, 1999; Burgos, 2007; Klein, 1991, 2006). This is partly why 90 to 95 percent of Latino players who sign contracts never make it beyond the minor leagues. Even those lucky enough to make minor league teams often are cut after a year or two, and rather than return home as “failures,” they often find ways to remain in the United States as undocumented workers at low-wage jobs. Overall, this is a typi- cal pattern in the lives of young men recruited by teams seeking relatively cheap baseball talent from Latin America and the Caribbean (Breton, 2000, p. 15), but their stories remain untold in U.S. and Canadian media.

Since the 1970s, the proportion of Latin American players has increased in U.S. profes- sional leagues because they constituted a pool of cheap baseball labor. Established Latino stars are well paid, but young players have signed for a frac- tion of the money paid to new players born and trained in the United States. For example, a vice president of a MLB team said that it costs less to sign five Latin American players than one player from the United States. This “boatload approach” to signing these players has begun to change now that Latino “agents” are advocating the interests of many new players and as MLB teams have fewer visas they can give to non-citizen players because of new immigration and homeland security policies (Klein, 2006).

One of the problems now faced by Latino play- ers is that they are more likely to test positive for drugs than players raised in the United States (Gor- don, 2007). Since 2005 when MLB initiated its new drug-testing policy, most of the Latinos who have tested positive have spoken little English; have not known all the substances on the by MLB; and have come from countries where medical care is scarce and taking vitamins, supplements, and

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live on the West Coast and in cities where particular jobs have been plentiful. However, the heritage and histories of APAs are very diverse, representing at least twenty nations and dozens of cultures. This diversity is often ignored in media coverage and research that focuses on “Asians.”

Although people with Chinese and Japanese ancestry have long played sports in their own com- munities (Chen, 2012; Niiya, 2000; Yep, 2009, 2010, 2012), the recent success and popularity of APA ath- letes has raised important issues about ethnic dynam- ics in sports. For example, the popularity of Jeremy Lin (Taiwanese/Chinese) in the NBA; Japanese and Korean baseball players, and a number of Samoan, Tongan, and Hawaiian players in the NFL; along with golfers Tiger Woods ( Chinese and Thai) and Se Ri Pak (Korean); speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno; and figure skaters Kristi Yamaguchi (Japanese) and Michelle Kwan ( Chinese), highlights the extent to which many Asians and Asian Americans have embraced sports played in the United States.

The popular all-star baseball player Ichiro Suzuki attracted so many Japanese spectators to Safeco Field in Seattle that signs in the stadium are now posted in both Japanese and English—although we don’t have good information on the impact of Suzuki and other APA players on ethnic relations in the stadiums and communities where they play and live.

Historical research shows that certain sports have provided APAs with opportunities to chal- lenge and discredit stereotypes about their lack of height and strength, their introverted “nature,” and their singular dedication to intellectual devel- opment (Lapchick, 2007; Liang, 2007; Regalado, 2006; Yep, 2009, 2010, 2012). Yun-Oh Whang, a native Korean and a professor of sports marketing, acknowledged this point when he said:

Asian Americans put huge value on education. [Therefore, it] is common that coaches and teach- ers at schools presume that an Asian American kid belongs in the science lab, not on the football field. This is why it is so important that Asian American athletes have to rise to the top and show the general public that Asian Americans can also achieve excel- lence in sports (in Lapchick, 2007).

that helps them to provide services and opportuni- ties that meet the needs of Latinos. For example, the economic success of professional soccer in much of the United States depends on being sensitive to the interests and orientations of Latino athletes and spectators. Latinos are eager to have their cultural heritage recognized and incorporated into sports and sport experiences in the United States and into the awareness of their fellow citizens. In the public sector, there’s a growing need for inclusive programs that provide participants from diverse backgrounds with opportunities to learn about the heritage, personal orientations, and experiences of their Latino peers.

Existing research indicates that sports are related to ethnicity in three ways: (1) they can be used to break down social and cultural barriers, discredit stereotypes, and facilitate assimilation; (2) they can be used by ethnic groups to preserve and extend ingroup relationships that support eth- nic identities and make it possible to effectively bridge the gap between their native culture and dominant U.S. culture; and (3) they can be used to maintain segregated lifestyles that prevent people from having experiences and gaining knowledge that often leads to intergroup understanding, toler- ance, and cooperation.

Sport Participation Among Asian Pacific Americans4

There are just over 16 million Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) in the United States. The legacy of wars and the global migration of labor has brought people from many Asian Pacific cultures to the United States. Most

4At this point in time, the literature related to North America focuses primarily on Asians whose ancestry is from Pacific Rim nations and cultures. This excludes people from countries in South Asia, including India, and in Western Asia, including Persian Gulf countries and cultures (or “The Middle East” from a British geographical standpoint). The literature in Europe, especially research done in Britain, focuses more on ethnic populations from South and Western Asia (Fleming, 2007; Fleming and Tomlinson, 2007; Long et al., 2007).

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good schools, means that children who are recent immigrants have had few opportunities to meet peers from Japanese families. This hasn’t both- ered the children as much as it does their par- ents, who value preserving important aspects of Japanese culture and passing them on to the next generation.

One of the league’s founders explained that he started the sport program to provide an activity through which children could meet “other Japanese and give them the opportunity to eventually some- day marry if they want to. . . . We weren’t trying to say you have to marry Japanese, like some parents. I just wanted to expose them . . . to other Japanese” (Chin, 2012, p. 112). In addition to the matchmaking

Playing sports also has been a way for some APAs to gain greater acceptance in schools and local communities. This is especially true for recent immigrants who seek assimilation. How- ever, sociologist Christina Chin (2010; 2012; 2015) found that third- and fourth-generation Japanese American parents have used Japa- nese youth sport leagues to network and build relationships with other Japanese families. The league provides a context in which their chil- dren can meet and befriend Japanese American peers, including cousins and members of their extended family. The lack of recent immigrants from Japan and the current tendency of many families to choose housing to be close to jobs or

When Jeremy Lin came off the bench to propel the New York Knicks to a successful 2011–2012 season, his accomplishments created a “Linsanity” among basketball fans worldwide, especially in Taiwan and China, each of which claimed him as a native son because his mother and father are from Taiwan but his paternal grandparents are from mainland China (Chiang and Chen, 2013). Lin, who played for the Charlotte Hornets in 2016, initiated a socially important national discussion about Asian Americans and their contributions to U.S. culture and society. (Source: © Song Qiong/Xinhua Press/Corbis)

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the young men from the Dominican Republic see baseball. At this point, research is needed on the conditions under which this and other patterns occur.

Currently, we also need to know more about the ways in which images of Asian and Asian American athletes are taken up and represented in

the U.S. media and in the minds of Americans. Research is also needed on the dramatic rise in popularity of various martial arts in the United States. Karate, judo, taekwondo, and other sports with Asian origins have become especially popular among children, but we don’t know if par- ticipation in these martial arts has increased children’s knowledge and awareness of Asian cultures, influ- enced ethnic relations in elementary schools, or discredited anti-Asian stereotypes among children and oth- ers who participate in these sports. It may be that these sport forms become so Americanized that their Asian roots are lost or ignored by participants—but we don’t know.

RACE, ETHNICITY, AND SPORT IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Sociologist Mauro Valeri, director of Italy’s Observatory on Racism and Anti-Racism in Foot- ball (Soccer), collected data on racist incidents in Italian soccer from 2000 to 2009. After analyzing the data, he concluded that racism has become part of the structure of soccer in Italy. Although his research focuses on one country, his conclusion applies to many others. As global migration pat- terns change the demographic profiles of cities and nations, and as soccer teams and fans become more racially and ethnically diverse, the stereotypes and racism that have often been dormant are renewed as people encounter others with unfamiliar customs and cultures.

possibilities, the league also provides parents with a setting in which they can join with their Japanese American peers to become involved in their local communities. So they use the youth sport leagues to solidify relationships with other Japanese American families, perpetuate cultural values among their chil- dren, and form networks to support their involvement in the larger community.

Christina Chin’s research shows that the experiences and sport participation patterns of APAs often vary depending on their immigration histories. Chi- nese Americans and Japanese Americans whose families have lived in the United States for four or more generations have different experiences from those of first- and second-generation Americans from Vietnam, Thai- land, Cambodia, Laos, the Philip- pines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Researchers must be sensitive to these differences and the ways that they influence sport partici- pation patterns and experiences. Gender and social-class varia- tions among APAs also are important areas for study.

A relatively exceptional pattern exists in the case of young men from the Samoan Islands (American Samoa and Western Samoa, includ- ing Tonga) who come to the United States to play football (Feldman, 2007; Garber, 2007a, 2007b; T. Miller, 2007). With a population the size of Anchorage, Alaska (260,000 people), these islands are the birthplace of thirty NFL players in 2015, plus more than 200 college football players. Universities also recruit many players from neigh- boring Tonga Island, which has a population the size of Peoria, Illinois (115,000). The sport tradi- tions on all of these islands tend to involve rugby and cricket more than American sports, but young men from low-income families have defined foot- ball as their ticket to upward mobility, much as

With [NBA player Jeremy] Lin, Asian Americans have found a role model who combines both the traditional Asian values of our parents with the Western traits needed to excel. “Linsanity” [may] make . . . corporate executives . . . take a second look at an Asian American for a leading role, as the Knicks did with Jeremy. —Anthony Youn, author of In Stitches (2012)

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has become a persistent problem in many coun- tries, especially in Europe where immigration pol- icies are less strict than in other parts of the world (Massao and Fasting, 2010). Although these poli- cies reflect a desire to have access to cheap immi- grant labor, many citizens see the immigrants as threatening their cultural values, their quality of life, and the political stability of their cities and country. Some local citizens have turned to right- wing populist political candidates whose cam- paigns and policy positions include inflammatory rhetoric about certain racial, ethnic, or religious populations.

Because sport teams are sponsored by clubs with members from the local population, sport events often become sites for the expression of this rhetoric. This differs from North America, where fans don’t identify so closely with the management of teams, don’t see stadiums as sites for overt political expression, and are more con- trolled in the public expression of racist and big- oted comments.

As people around the world respond to changing global forces and conditions that push them away from certain geographical regions and pull them toward others, racial and ethnic relations become important social, political, and economic issues. When people have not had to deal with social and cultural diversity as a regular fact of life, they often resist coming to terms with rapidly growing immi- grant populations that have unfamiliar customs and cultures that they see as strange, disruptive, or immoral. At the same time, the new immigrants often find it difficult to adjust to local customs and

culture and resent the discrimina- tion they face as they try to make a living. There is no end in sight for these migration processes as regional economies and job oppor- tunities go through boom-and-bust cycles and as communications and transportation technologies make it easier for people to move around the globe in the hope of supporting themselves and their families.

Valeri’s (2010) analysis led him to identify three primary expressions of racism in soccer:

1. Direct racism in which fans insult players for ethnic, racial, or religious reasons. Examples of this include spectators who throw bananas and make monkey sounds when players with African ancestry take the field. In some cases this racism is even directed at players on the home team, as spectators have always seen their club and team as direct representations of their local or national culture, which for them is tied to ideas about race and ethnicity. Rac- ist chants and songs sung by groups of fans are so offensive that black players and their teammates have walked off the field to forfeit matches in protest, and referees have threat- ened to penalize the home team if officials do not control the racist expressions of spectators.

2. Indirect racism in which fans use chants or banners that promote a bigoted or discrimina- tory political agenda having no direct con- nection with soccer or players. These agendas often call for restricting immigration from certain countries, policing certain immigrant groups, or prohibiting ethnic forms of clothing or customs in public.

3. Racism on the field in which negative racial, ethnic, or religious comments are made by and to players, coaches, and referees. An example of this is players using bigoted slurs to demean opponents or referees. As these slurs have become public, soccer officials have created new anti-racist policies and fined players and referees who violate them. But the slurs continue and some fans cheer the players who make them.

Valeri found that each of these forms of racism increased signifi- cantly over the decade he collected data and they continue today.

This pattern of expressing rac- ist ideas and beliefs at sport events

Every professional footballer should be able to play competitive football in the knowledge that references to the color of his skin will not be tolerated. —English Football Association Commission (Fox Sports, 2011)

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in their communities and in sport leagues that cross national borders (Kassimeris, 2008, 2009; Llopis-Goig, 2013).

There also is a need for teams and leagues to sponsor carefully planned efforts to facilitate more tolerant forms of racial and ethnic relations. In some cases, diversity courses are needed for every- one from owners to athletes. To work in sports today and have positive experiences, people must

Sports are clearly involved in these global push- and-pull processes. Teams and athletes regularly vacate locations where they cannot survive or meet expectations for success; at the same time, they are attracted to locations where success is more likely, even when the spectators are of a different ethnic- ity. Teams now recruit athletes and coaches world- wide, elite athletes move wherever they have the best opportunity to make a living, and coaches and managers follow opportunities without giving much thought to national borders—unless visa require- ments create barriers they cannot overcome. Wealthy individuals and corporations that have made huge profits from global expansion and financial deals now shop for professional teams worldwide and may own teams in three or four different countries across multiple sports. Additionally, nations now bid to host global sport events so they can increase tourism and investments among diverse noncitizens.

Soccer players in Africa and parts of Latin America now look to European leagues and clubs for professional contracts, just as Latin American and some East Asian baseball players look to the United States. The United States is also a priority global destination for young people seeking high school and college athletic scholarships so they can attend school as they develop sport skills and earn degrees that will enable them to survive in a global economy. As China and India grow economically, they too will become sources and destinations for athletes seeking opportunities to play their sports at a professional level, and this will create new ethnic relations issues in sports.

These global processes now force people to deal with racial and ethnic issues for which they are unprepared and which they are often unwilling to consider. Sports are regularly described as sites for creating social integration, but it is clear that this does not occur automatically; in fact, the opposite often occurs when they sports become sites for the expression of racial, ethnic, and religious con- flict and prejudices. This has led to efforts among some people—in and outside of sports—to cre- ate programs designed to defuse racial and ethnic conflict and make sport venues “racist-free zones”

The Irish Football Association (IFA) in Northern Ireland was a pioneer in using sport to strategically intervene in the lives of young people to bridge social divisions related to race, ethnicity, and religion. They began in the early 1990s and have revised their approach as they learned what succeeded and what didn’t. Their success is due to the continuity of leadership and IFA support— things that similar efforts in other countries often lack. In response to increased racial incidents in recent years, many anti-racism organizations now exist in Europe. (Source: © Michael Boyd, Irish Football Association)

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the perspectives of others, understanding how they define and give meaning to the world, and then determining how to form and maintain relation- ships while respecting differences, making com- promises, and supporting one another in the pursuit of goals that may not always be shared. None of this is easy, and challenges are never met once and for all time.

Many people think in unrealistic terms when it comes to racial and ethnic relations. They believe that opening a door so that others may enter a social world is all that’s needed to achieve racial and ethnic harmony. However, this is merely a first step in a never-ending process of nurturing rela- tionships, producing an inclusive society, and shar- ing power with others. Racial and ethnic diversity brings potential vitality and creativity to a team, organization, or society, but this potential does not automatically become reality. It requires con- stant awareness, commitment, and work to achieve and maintain it (Adair et al., 2010; Cunningham, 2007a, 2007b 2009; Cunningham and Fink, 2006; Fink and Cunningham, 2005).

The following sections deal with three major challenges related to racial and ethnic relations in sports today: (1) eliminating racial and ethnic exclusion in sport participation; (2) dealing with and managing racial and ethnic diversity by cre- ating an inclusive culture on sport teams and in sport organizations; and (3) integrating positions of power in sport organizations.

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Exclusion in Sports

Racial and ethnic diversity is most likely to exist in a sport under the following six conditions:

1. When those who control teams personally benefit if they recruit and play the best players regardless of skin color or ethnicity.

2. When athlete performance can be measured in concrete, objective terms so that racism and prejudice are less likely to influence judgments about skills.

do their homework and learn about the cultural per- spectives of players, coaches, spectators, and even club and team owners from unfamiliar ethnic back- grounds. In this sense, as people in sports become more effective in facilitating amicable racial and ethnic relations, the better off their lives, teams, organizations, and communities will be.

From a sociological perspective it is interesting that as global migration creates a need for teams and sport organizations to become more ethnically and culturally inclusive, the growing inequality in many nations is leading to the creation of local sports and sport organizations that are more ethni- cally and culturally homogeneous. However, it is naïve for people in these homogeneous programs to assume that they can avoid facing the racial and ethnic issues that exist in the rest of the world.

Regardless of where they grow up, nearly all aspiring athletes will be required to deal construc- tively with ethnic differences on their teams and in their sport organizations. Coaches and team officials now must go beyond simply dealing with ethnic diversity and turn it into a competitive advantage if they wish to keep their jobs. Cultural and language issues present never ending challenges that call for creative solutions to bring athletes and other per- sonnel together in ways that help the team succeed.

THE DYNAMICS OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC RELATIONS IN SPORTS

Racial and ethnic relations in the United States are better today than in the past, but more changes are needed before sports are a model of inclusion and fairness. The challenges today are different from the ones faced twenty years ago, and experience shows that when current challenges are met, new social situations are created in which new chal- lenges emerge. For example, once racial and ethnic segregation is eliminated and people come together, they must learn to live, work, and play with each other despite diverse experiences and cultural per- spectives. Meeting this challenge requires a com- mitment to equal treatment, plus learning about

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As public programs are dropped and sports are offered primarily by commercial providers, pat- terns of exclusion reflect race and ethnicity to the extent that race and ethnicity influence residential location and income. This type of exclusion occurs regularly in the United States and is difficult to eliminate because market forces do the dirty work of segregation without race or ethnicity even being mentioned. Developing strategies to undermine these dynamics and make sports more inclusive is one of the most difficult challenges we now face worldwide.

Dealing With and Managing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Sports

History shows that, after Branch Rickey signed black player Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, many new challenges confronted Rickey, Robinson, the Dodgers organi- zation, players throughout the league, other base- ball teams in the National League, and spectators attending baseball games. Rickey had to convince his partners in the Dodgers organization and other team owners that it was in their interest to aban- don their practice of segregation. Robinson had to endure unspeakable racism from opponents, spec- tators, and others. To control his anger and depres- sion, he needed support from Rickey, his coach, teammates, and his wife, Rachel.

As thousands of African American fans wanted to see Robinson, the Dodgers and other teams had to change their policies of racial exclusion and segregation in their stadiums. Teammates on the Dodgers were forced to decide if and how they would support Robinson on and off the field. The team’s coach had to manage interracial dynamics he knew nothing about: Who would be Robinson’s roommate on road trips, where would the team stay and eat in cities where hotels and restaurants excluded blacks, and what would he say to players who made racist comments that could destroy team morale? These questions had never been asked in the past because Major League Baseball had excluded black players.

3. When an entire team benefits from a good performance by a teammate, regardless of the teammate’s skin color or ethnicity.

4. When excellence on the playing field does not give a player more power and authority on a team or control over players from the dominant racial or ethnic group in society.

5. When friendships and off-the-field social rela- tionships between teammates are not required for team success.

6. When all athletes are controlled by coaches, managers, administrators, and owners from the ethnically dominant group in society.

These six characteristics limit the threats that cause fear and create resistance to racial and eth- nic desegregation. Therefore, when the white men who controlled professional teams and revenue- producing college teams in the United States realized that they could benefit financially from recruiting ethnic minority players without giving up power and control and without disrupting the existing structure and relationships in their sports, they began to do so.

Desegregation occurs more slowly in sports that lack the characteristics listed above. Golf, tennis, swimming, and other sports played in private clubs where social interaction is much more personal and often involves male–female relationships have been slow to accept racial and ethnic diversity. As social contacts become increasingly personal, people are more likely to enforce various forms of exclusion. This is why informal forms of racial and ethnic exclusion still exist in many private sports clubs and why there are so few African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Pacific Americans in profes- sional golf and tennis or in club-based sports such as lacrosse.

The most significant forms of racial and ethnic exclusion today occur at the community level where they are hidden behind the fees and other resources required for sport participation. People can claim to have ethnically open sport programs when in reality their location, fees, and lack of public transportation preclude ethnically inclusive participation.

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in segregated white areas of the cities where they played, and when they challenged records set by whites, they received death threats. Stadium secu- rity became an issue, some teams became racially divided, and black players often felt marginalized because all coaches, managers, trainers, and own- ers were white men.

Even the positions of black and white play- ers fit patterns shaped by racial ideology. Black- players, expected to be fast and physically gifted, were assigned to the outfield in baseball and defensive back in football—positions believed to call for speed and quick reactions—whereas white players, expected to be smart, played posi- tions believed to require intelligence, leadership, and decision-making skills, such as pitcher and catcher in baseball and quarterback and offensive guard in football. These position placements, or “stacking” patterns, as they’ve been called in the sociology of sport, prevented most blacks from

White baseball fans who had never met a black person now faced the prospect of sitting next to one if they wanted to attend a game. Black fans, who were uncomfortable with white people, faced a simi- lar challenge. Stadium managers faced the challenge of serving food to people with different tastes and traditions; white, working-class service workers had to serve black customers—a totally new experience for them. Journalists and radio announcers had to decide how they would represent Robinson’s expe- riences in their coverage—would they talk about racism on the field and in the clubhouse and about the way Robinson handled it, or would they ignore race, even though it was relevant to the game?

These are just a few of the new challenges cre- ated when MLB was desegregated. And as these challenges were met, new ones emerged. For exam- ple, as other black players were signed to teams, players began to racially segregate themselves in locker rooms. Black players could not buy homes

Eliminating racial barriers to sport participation is as important today as it was when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. After the desegregation of Major League Baseball, there were new challenges associated with managing intergroup relations on teams and integrating positions of power in sport organizations. These challenges continue to exist. (Source: Library of Congress #LC-USZ62-119883)

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Integrating Positions of Power in Sport Organizations

Despite progressive changes in many sports, posi- tions of power and control are held primarily by white, non-Latino men. There are exceptions to this pattern, but they do not eliminate pervasive and persistent racial and ethnic inequalities related to power and control in sports.

Data on who holds positions of power change every year, and it is difficult to obtain consistent information from sport teams and organizations. Fortunately, Richard Lapchick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) and his colleagues at the University of Central Florida, regularly publish Racial and Gender Report Cards for the NCAA and many professional sports. They contain data on the racial and ethnic composition of players in major professional team sports and an analysis of the number and types of jobs held by women and people of color in major professional and university sports organizations. The report cards cover everyone from owners and athletic directors to office staff, athletic trainers, and radio and television announcers.

The recent report cards on professional leagues and teams show that white men are overrepresented in the top power positions in the major professional sports played in the United States. Blacks are over- represented among players in a few sports, but they generally play under the control and management of white men.

Patterns are similar in most sport organizations at nearly all levels of competition. Overall, data suggest that full inclusion in terms of sharing power is far from being achieved. In fact, the movement of women and ethnic minority persons into power positions in sports has stalled recently. Without constant attention and effective strategies, power remains in the hands of white men whose back- grounds position them to obtain leadership roles.

Overall, people do not give up racial and eth- nic beliefs easily, especially when they come in the form of well-established ideologies rooted deeply in their cultures. Those who benefit from dominant

playing the positions at which they would be iden- tified as good candidates for coaching jobs after they retired. This is related to a challenge that has become chronic in most sports: the lack of black CEOs, general managers, and head coaches.

This example illustrates that challenges related to race and ethnicity are an ever-present part of our lives; they will exist as long as skin color and ethnicity influence people’s lives and are viewed as socially important. This is not new, nor is it unique to sports. Managers and coaches must now be ready and able to work effectively with players from multiple cultural and national backgrounds, meld them into a team, defuse and debunk play- ers’ racial and ethnic stereotypes, and facilitate respect for customs and lifestyles they’ve not seen before. Even determining the food to be served in pregame meals now requires creative management strategies.

Athletes and coaches must learn new ways to communicate effectively on ethnically diverse teams, and marketing people must learn how to promote racially and ethnically diverse teams to predominantly white, Euro-American fans. Ethnic issues enter into sponsorship considerations and products sold at games, and ethnic awareness is now an important qualification for those who han- dle advertising and sponsorship deals. For exam- ple, the success of professional soccer in the United States depends partly on attracting ethnic specta- tors to games and television broadcasts. Spanish- speaking announcers are crucial, and deals must be made with radio and television stations that broad- cast in Spanish.

Teams in the NFL and NBA now face situa- tions in which 70 to 80 percent of their players are black, whereas 90 to 95 percent of their season ticket holders are white. Many people are aware of this issue, but it’s rarely discussed because Americans have a “civic etiquette” that keeps these issues “off the table” in public settings (Eliasoph, 1999). But if the challenges related to race and ethnicity in sports are to be met, changes in this etiquette are needed so that open and hon- est discussions can occur.

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The racial and ethnic diversity training sessions used over the past two decades have produced some changes, but promoting positive changes in eth- nic relations today requires leaders who are trained specifically to create more inclusive cultures and power structures in sport organizations. This means that training must go beyond athletes and include everyone from team owners and athletic directors to mid-level management, coaches, and people in mar- keting, media, and public information. When training programs are directed primarily toward employees, the employees won’t take them seriously if they don’t see their superiors making a personal commit- ment to them.

Even people who are sensitive to ethnic diver- sity issues require regular opportunities to renew and extend their knowledge of the experiences and perspectives of others who have different vantage points in social worlds. This means that effective training requires information and approaches orga- nized around the perspectives of underrepresented ethnic populations. This is crucial because pro- gressive change takes into account the interests of those least likely to be heard or to hold positions of power.

summary

ARE RACE AND ETHNICITY IMPORTANT IN SPORTS?

Racial and ethnic issues exist in sports, just as they exist in other spheres of social life. As people watch, play, and talk about sports, they often take into account ideas about skin color and ethnicity. The meanings given to skin color and ethnic back- ground influence access to sport participation and the decisions that people make about sports in their lives.

Race refers to a category of people identified through a classification system based on meanings given to physical traits among humans; ethnicity refers to collections of people identified in terms of their shared cultural heritage. Racial and ethnic

racial ideology generally resist changes in the relationships and social structures that reproduce it. This is why certain racial and ethnic inequities remain part of sports.

Sports may bring people together, but they do not automatically lead them to adopt tolerant atti- tudes or change long-standing practices of exclu- sion in the rest of their lives. For example, white team owners, general managers, and athletic direc- tors in the United States worked with black ath- letes for many years before they ever hired black coaches or administrators. It often requires social and legal pressures to force people in positions of power to act more affirmatively in their hiring practices. In the meantime, blacks and other eth- nic minorities remain underrepresented in coaching and administration.

Although there is resistance to certain types of changes in sports, some sport organizations are more progressive than others when it comes to improving racial and ethnic relations. However, good things do not happen automatically, nor do changes in peo- ple’s attitudes automatically translate into changes in the overall organization of sports. Challenging the negative beliefs and attitudes of individuals is one thing; changing the relationships and social structures that have been built on those beliefs and attitudes is another. Both changes are needed, but neither will occur automatically just because sports bring people together in the same locker rooms and stadiums.

The reports cards published by Lapchick and TIDES and similar studies on hiring practices done by the Black Coaches and Administrators asso- ciation have kept a bright light shining on the racial and ethnic composition of major sport organizations in the United States. This light creates heat that makes decision makers uncomfortable if they are not making progress toward full racial and ethnic inclusion. Public scrutiny is an effective strategy because progress comes only when those in power work to bring about change. It has never been easy for people to deal with racial and ethnic issues, but if it is done in sports, it attracts public attention that can inspire changes in other spheres of life.

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organizations worldwide. Racist and bigoted actions by spectators, athletes, coaches, and refer- ees have increased since the beginning of this cen- tury and now are a significant problem for which there must be local and sport-related solutions.

The fact that some sports have histories of racially and ethnically mixed participation does not mean that problems have been eliminated. Har- monious racial and ethnic relations never occur automatically, and ethnic harmony is never estab- lished once and for all time. As current problems are solved, new relationships and new challenges are created. This means that racial and ethnic issues require regular attention if challenges are to be anticipated accurately and dealt with successfully. Success also depends on whether members of the dominant ethnic population see value in racial and ethnic diversity and commit themselves to dealing with diversity issues alongside those with different ethnic backgrounds.

Sports continue to be sites for racial and ethnic tensions and problems. But despite this, they also can be sites for challenging racial ideology and transforming ethnic relations. This happens only when people in sports plan strategies to encourage critical awareness of ethnic prejudices, racist ideas, and forms of discrimination built into the culture and structure of sport organizations. This aware- ness is required to increase ethnic inclusion, deal with and manage ethnic diversity, and integrate ethnic minorities into the power structures of sport organizations. Without this awareness, ethnic rela- tions often become volatile and lead to overt forms of hostility.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Knowledge about race today (from PBS, “Race: The Power of an Illusion”)

Reading 2. Media coverage of Joe Louis Reading 3. Racial ideology in sports Reading 4. Native Americans and team mascots Reading 5. Samoan men in college and

pr ofessional football

minorities are populations that have endured sys- tematic forms of discrimination in a society.

The idea of race has a complex history, and it serves as the foundation for racial ideology, which people use to identify and make sense of “racial” characteristics and differences. Racial ideology, like other social constructions, changes over time as ideas and relationships change. However, over the past century in the United States, dominant racial ideology has supported the notion that there are important biological and cognitive differences between people classified as “black” as opposed to “white,” and that these differences explain the success of black athletes in certain sports and sport positions.

Racial ideology influences the ways that many people connect skin color with athletic perfor- mance. At the same time, it influences participation decisions and achievement patterns in sports. Race, gender, and class relations in American society combine to create a context in which black males emphasize a stylized persona that adds to the com- modity value of the black male body in sports and enables some black athletes to use widely accepted ideas about race to intimidate white opponents in sports.

Sport participation patterns among African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Pacific Americans each have unique histories. Combinations of cultural, social, economic, and political factors have influenced those histories. However, sport participation in ethnic minority populations usually occurs under terms set by the dominant ethnic population in a community or soci- ety. Minority populations are seldom able to use sports to challenge the power and privilege of the dominant group, even though particular individuals may experience great personal success in sports.

Racial and ethnic issues affect sports worldwide. Europe currently faces challenges as increased migration has created tensions between native-born citizens and immigrants. As a result, previously dormant racist attitudes are now being expressed in connection with sports, especially soccer. This has created new challenges for sport teams and

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sidelines holding and waving a plastic toma- hawk. A group of Native Americans from the local area tells you they are offended and asks you to convince people at the school to drop the name, the mascot, and team cheers that mimic Indian religious chants. Explain what you will do to respond to the group and to facilitate an educational solution for this issue.

∙ Your town has recently had a large influx of immigrants from Mexico and a few Asian countries. The editor of your local newspaper writes an editorial in which he suggests that the high school’s varsity sport program is an effective tool for establishing good inter- group relations in the town. You read it and conclude that he has not thought of the chal- lenges faced when trying to use sports in this way. You write a letter to the editor in which you explain these things to the readers of the paper. What does your letter say?

∙ Data clearly suggest that it is difficult to inte- grate positions of power in sport organizations. As a sport management consultant you have been hired to offer recommendations to enhance racial and ethnic diversity in a subur- ban school district on the West Coast. Describe your three primary recommendations, and explain why you made them.

Reading 6. Research on racial and ethnic diversity in sport organizations

Reading 7. Profit motives and desegregating sports

Reading 8. Sports as sites for transforming racial attitudes

Reading 9. Why aren’t all sports racially and eth- nically desegregated?

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ The athletic department in your predominantly white university has asked you to develop a campaign for the campus and community that will make it possible for African American students, especially young men, to be seen by teachers and students as students who take their education seriously. The ultimate goal is to change campus culture to support the stu- dent identities of African American students, especially those on sport teams. Where would you begin and what would be the focus of your program?

∙ You have been hired as the athletic director for a school district in Colorado. One of the high schools in the district has the nickname “Red- men,” and the school’s mascot is a caricature of a male Indian who dances and chants on the

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(Source: © Elizabeth Pike)

chapter

SOCIAL CLASS Do Money and Power Matter in Sports?

9

Children remain the poorest age group in America. . . . 37 percent of Black children and 32 percent of Hispanic children are poor, contrasted with 12 percent of White non-Hispanic children.

—Children’s Defense Fund (in Hassler, 2015)

. . . 26 percent of parents hope their child who plays high school sports will be able to do so professionally. The views of the parents vary by socioeconomic status. . . . 44 percent of parents with a high school education or less hope their children become a professional athlete, compared to 9 percent of parents who have graduated college.

—NPR et al., 2015

Richer kids are roughly twice as likely to play after- school sports. They are more than twice as likely to be the captains of their sports teams. . . . Poorer kids have become more pessimistic and detached.

—David Brooks, New York Times columnist (2012)

We’re moving toward an America that none of us have ever lived in, in which being affluent or being poor is inherited. . . . The most important decision any kid makes [today] is choosing their parents.

—Robert Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University (in Rinaldi, 2015)

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Social Class and Class Relations

Sports and Economic Inequality

Social Class and Sport Participation Patterns

Global Inequalities and Sports

Economic and Career Opportunities in Sports

Sport Participation and Occupational Careers Among Former Athletes

Summary: Do Money and Power Matter in Sports?

Chapter Outline

• Define social class, class ideology, and class relations, and explain how they are manifested in sports today.

• Identify who has power in sports today, and the interests that are served by that power.

• Critically assess the argument that professional sports franchises benefit everyone and create jobs in a city.

• Explain how class, gender, and ethnic relations come together and influence sport participation patterns in society.

• Explain why sports in the future are likely to be less diverse in terms of ethnicity and social class.

• Describe the ways in which social class impacts sport spectators today.

• Outline the economic and career opportunities that exist in sports today, especially for women and ethnic minorities.

• Identify the conditions under which sport participation is most likely and least likely to lead to upward mobility and occupational success.

• Understand the reality of college scholarships today. Assess the significance of athletic scholarships for occupational success.

Learning Objectives

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People like to think that sport is the great equal- izer, that it transcends issues of money, power, and economic inequalities. They see sports as open activities in which success comes only through individual ability and hard work. However, all organized sports depend on material resources, and those resources must come from somewhere. Therefore, playing, watching, and excelling in sports depend on resources supplied by individuals, families, governments, or private organizations.

More than ever before, it takes money to play sports and develop sport skills. Tickets are expensive, and spectators often are divided by social class in the stadium: The wealthy and well connected sit in lux- ury suites and club seats, whereas fans who are less well off sit in other sections, depending on their abil- ity to pay for premium tickets or buy season tickets.

Today, it takes money to watch sports on tele- vision as satellite and cable connections come with ever-increasing monthly subscriber fees, expensive sport packages, and pay-per-view costs. This means that sports and sport participation are closely linked with the distribution of economic resources in society.

Many people believe that sports are a new path to economic success for people from all social classes. Rags-to-riches stories are common when people talk about athletes. However, these beliefs and stories distract attention from the ways in which sports reflect and perpetuate existing eco- nomic inequalities.

This chapter deals with matters of money and wealth, as well as larger sociological issues related to social class and socioeconomic mobility. Our discussion focuses on the following questions:

1. What is meant by social class and class relations?

2. How do social class and class relations influ- ence sports and sport participation?

3. Are sports open and democratic in the provision of economic and career opportunities?

4. Does playing sports contribute to occupational success and social mobility among former athletes?

SOCIAL CLASS AND CLASS RELATIONS

Understanding social class and the related con- cepts of social stratification, socioeconomic status, and life chances is important when studying social worlds. Economic resources are related to power in society, and economic inequalities influence many aspects of people’s lives.

Social class refers to categories of people who share an economic position in society based on their income, wealth (savings and assets), educa- tion, occupation, and social connections. People in a particular social class also share similar life chances—that is, similar odds for achieving eco- nomic success and power in society. Social classes exist in all contemporary societies because life chances are not equally distributed across all people.

Social stratification refers to structured forms of economic inequalities that are part of the orga- nization of everyday social life. In other words, in comparison with people from upper social classes, people from lower social classes have fewer oppor- tunities to achieve economic success and power. Children born into wealthy, powerful, and well- connected families are in better positions to become wealthy, powerful, and well-connected adults than are children born into poor families that lack influ- ence and social networks connecting them with educational and career opportunities.

Most of us are aware of economic inequalities in society. We see them all around us. We know they exist and influence people’s lives, but there are few public discussions about the impact of social class on our views of ourselves and others, our social relationships, and our everyday lives. In other words, we don’t discuss class relations—the ways that social class is incorporated into the organi- zation of our everyday lives. We often hear about the importance of equal opportunities in society, but there are few discussions about the ways that people in upper socioeconomic classes use their income, wealth, and power to maintain their posi- tions of advantage in society and pass that advan- tage from one generation to the next. Instead, we hear “rags-to-riches” stories about individuals who

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overcame poverty or a lower-class background to become wealthy, stories about “millionaires next door,” and stories about CEOs who are “regular guys” with annual incomes of $10 million or more.

Ignored in the media and popular discourse are the oppressive effects of poverty and the limited opportunities available to those who lack eco- nomic resources, access to good education, and well-placed social connections. Those stories are too depressing to put in the news, claim execu- tives for the commercial media—people don’t like to hear about them, and they lower audience ratings. However, social-class differences in the form of socioeconomic inequalities are real; they have real consequences for life chances, they affect nearly every facet of people’s lives, and all of this is clearly documented by valid and reli- able data (Duncan and Murnane, 2011; Ferguson, 2013; Kochhar et al., 2011; Lardner and Smith, 2005; Reardon and Bischoff, 2011; Stiglitz, 2012; Wilkinson and Pickett, 2010).

People in the United States often shy away from critical discussions of social class and class rela- tions because they’re uneasy about acknowledg- ing that equality of opportunity is largely a myth in their society (Stiglitz, 2012). This is especially true in regard to sports and sport participation—a sphere of life in which most people believe that money and class-based advantages don’t matter.

The discussion of social class and class relations in this chapter is grounded in a critical approach that identifies who benefits from and who is disad- vantaged by the ways that sports are organized and played. The focus is on economic inequality, the processes through which inequality is reproduced, how it benefits wealthy and powerful people, and how it affects sports and the lives of people associ- ated with sports.

SPORTS AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Money and economic power exert significant influ- ence on the goals, purpose, and organization of sports in society. Many people believe that sports

and sport participation are open to all people and that inequalities related to money, position, and influence have no effect on the organized games we play and watch. However, formally organized sports could not be developed, scheduled, or main- tained without economic resources. Those who control money and economic power use them to organize and sponsor sports. As they do so, they give preference to sport forms that reflect and maintain their values and interests. As a result, sports emerge out of a context in which inequality shapes decisions and the allocation of resources. In the process, sports reproduce the very inequalities that so many people think are absent in them.

The wealthy aristocrats who developed the modern Olympic Games even used their power to establish a definition of amateur that favored ath- letes from wealthy backgrounds. This definition, which excluded athletes who used their sport skills to earn a living, has been revised over the years so the Olympics now include those who are not independently wealthy. However, money and eco- nomic power now operate in different ways as elite-level training has become privatized and very costly in many countries.

Elite and powerful people have considerable influence over what “counts as sport” and how sports are organized and played in mainstream social worlds. Even when grassroots games and physical activities become formally organized as sports, they don’t become popular unless they can be used to reaffirm the interests and ideologies of sponsors with resources. For example, ESPN orga- nized and televised the X Games to fit the needs of corporate sponsors that buy advertising time to promote their products to young males.

Even informal games require facilities, equip- ment, and safe play spaces—all of which are more plentiful in upper- and upper-middle-income neighborhoods. Low-income neighborhoods gen- erally lack what is needed to initiate and sustain informal activities; families don’t have large lawns at their homes, they don’t live on safe cul-de-sacs without traffic, and there is a short supply of well- maintained neighborhood parks. This is why social

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people obtain power in a social world, they define “character” in a way that promotes their inter- ests. For example, when wealthy and power- ful people play sports in exclusive clubs, such as Augusta National (golf club) in Georgia, they use a class ideology that legitimizes their right to do so and establishes their membership in such a club as a privilege they deserve for being winners in society. This also is reflected in the compensa- tion received by CEOs of large corporations: In 1965 they received about eighteen times more than typical workers that year. In 1978 it was twenty- seven times more, in 1995 it was 135 times more, and in 2013 it was over 300 times more (Mishel and Sabadish, 2013). As top executives took more pay for themselves, the pay for typical workers remained stuck at 1980 levels. This illustrates how power and position often influences class relations.

Over those same years corporate sponsorship of sports has increased exponentially. This, too, is linked to class relations because CEOs seek to sponsor sports that can be presented in ways that reaffirm the existing class structure in society and the ideology that supports it. This is partly why popular spectator sports worldwide emphasize competition, individualism, highly specialized skills, the use of technology, and dominance over opponents. When these values and cultural prac- tices are widely accepted, average people are more likely to believe that the status and privilege of the wealthy and powerful are legitimate and deserved.

Sports that emphasize partnership, sharing, open participation, nurturance, and mutual support are seldom sponsored because people with power don’t want to promote values that reaffirm equality and horizontal forms of social organization in society.

As the globalization of money, commer- cial trade, and financing opened up in the late 1970s, class relations in many societies changed to increase the income, wealth, and consumption gaps between the poor and the powerful. These economic changes enabled those who were con- nected with the flow of capital around the world to increase their power and wealth (Saez and Piketty, 2006; Stiglitz, 2012). As a result, the gap between

class and class relations must be taken into account when we study sports in society and try to explain the patterns of sport participation we see around us.

The Dynamics of Class Relations

To understand the dynamics of class relations, think about the ways that age relations operate in sports. Even though young people are capable of creating and playing games on their own, adults intervene and create organized youth sport programs. These programs emphasize the things that adults think are best for their children. As noted in Chapter 4, adults have the resources to develop, schedule, and maintain organized sports that reflect their ideas of what children should be doing and learning. Chil- dren often enjoy these adult-controlled sports, but their participation occurs in a framework that is determined by adults and organized to legitimize and reproduce adult control over their lives.

Age relations are especially apparent in youth sports when participants don’t meet adult expecta- tions or they violate the rules developed by adults. The adults use their power to define deviance, identify when it occurs, and demand that children comply with rules and expectations. Overall, the adults use their superior resources to convince young people that “the adults’ way” is “the right way” to play sports. When young people comply with adults’ rules and meet adults’ expectations, they’re rewarded and told that they have “charac- ter.” This is why many adults are fond of college and professional coaches who are autocratic and controlling. These coaches reaffirm the ideas that it is normal and necessary for adults to control young people and that young people must learn to accept that control. In this way, sports reproduce a hierarchical form of age relations, with adult power and privilege defined as normal and neces- sary aspects of social worlds.

Class relations work in similar ways. People with resources sponsor sports that support their ideas about “good character,” individual respon- sibility, competition, excellence, achievement, and proper social organization. In fact, whenever

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economically and live a happy life based on con- sumption. It focuses attention on individual aspira- tions and often blurs an awareness of social class differences in material living conditions and dif- ferential life chances among categories of people. The uniquely American belief that “you can be anything you want to be” never acknowledges that a person’s class position influences life chances or that life chances influence patterns of social and economic mobility in all social classes. Therefore, Americans often dream about what they hope to be in the future rather than critically examining their current economic circumstances and the ways that class relations affect their lives. The belief that “you can be anything” also discredits poor

the rich and the poor expanded in terms of income, wealth, and political influence.

Class Ideology in the United States

Sociologists define class ideology as interrelated ideas and beliefs that people use to understand economic inequalities, identify their class position, and evaluate the impact of economic inequalities on the organization of social worlds. Dominant class ideology in the United States has long been organized around two themes: the American Dream and a belief that the United States is a meritocracy.

The American Dream is a hopeful vision of boundless opportunities for individuals to succeed

The belief that wealth and power are achieved through competitive success implies that being wealthy and powerful is proof of one’s abilities, qualifications, and overall moral worth. Exclusive sports clubs reaffirm this belief and reinforce the idea that the class privileges enjoyed by wealthy and powerful people are deserved; and the clubs are sites for establishing relationships used to perpetuate mutually beneficial privileged status. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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Americans who work hard and haven’t achieved success in the form of the American Dream or have seen their success disappear due to factors beyond their control. Therefore, people in the upper classes are most likely to retain their posi- tion and status if they can create and perpetuate widespread agreement that competition is a natu- ral and fair way to allocate rewards and that the winners in competitive processes deserve the rewards they receive. This, of course, is how sports come to be connected with class relations in society. Sports offer “proof” that inequali- ties are based on merit, that competition identi- fies winners, and that losers should work harder or change themselves if they want to be winners, or simply get up and try again. Most important, sports provides a metaphor for society that por- trays social class as a characteristic of individuals rather than an economic structure that influences life chances and the distribution of resources in society (Falcous and McLeod, 2012).

Alan Tomlinson, a British sociologist who has studied power and social class for decades, has noted that sport, as it is sponsored and played today, “ultimately serves to reproduce social and economic distinctions and preserve the power and influence of those who control resources in soci- ety.” As a result, he says, sports today “cannot be fully understood unless this key influence and core dynamic is fully recognized” (2007, p. 4695).

and low-income people by associating poverty with individual failure, laziness, and weakness of character.

The American Dream is usually connected with a belief that the United States is a meritocracy—a social world in which rewards go to people who deserve them due to their abilities, qualifications, and recognized achievements. Believing that the United States is a meritocracy helps people explain and justify economic inequalities. It supports the assumption that success is rightfully earned and fail- ure is caused by poor choices and a lack of ambition.

Sustaining a belief that the United States is a meritocracy depends on related beliefs that individ- ual ability, qualifications, and character are objec- tively proven through competitive success; that humans are naturally competitive; and that compe- tition is the only fair way to allocate rewards in a society. This is why people with money and power like to use sports as a metaphor for life—it iden- tifies winners like them as deserving individuals who have outperformed others in a natural process of individual competition and achievement.

Figure  9.1 shows that class ideology in the United States consists of interrelated ideas and beliefs about the American Dream, meritocracy, and competition; it illustrates that inequality is a result of people receiving what they deserve; it emphasizes that opportunities exist and that suc- cess is achieved only when people develop abilities and work hard; and it justifies inequality as a natu- ral result of competition in a society where merit counts.

One of the outcomes of such an ideology is that competitive success comes to be linked with moral worth. The belief that “you get what you deserve, and you deserve what you get” works to the advan- tage of people with wealth, because it implies that they deserve what they have and that inequality is a fair and natural outcome of competitive processes. A related belief is that as long as competition is free and unregulated, only the best will succeed and only the lazy and unqualified will fail.

Promoting this ideology is difficult when it conflicts with the real experiences of many

FIGURE 9.1 The two primary beliefs that inform and support class ideology in the United States.

Belief in the American

Dream

Belief that the United States is a

Meritocracy

CLASS IDEOLOGY

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Table 9.1. There are no coaches or athletes on the list because they are simply hired hands—workers who serve at the discretion of those who run the business of sport. Therefore, the journalists who did the selecting and ranking focused on who could make decisions that would have a profound influ- ence on the organization and culture of sports. At the same time, they realized that “all power is con- textual” and that power depends on the positions of people in the overall business of sports.

Among the top twenty are seven CEOs in major sport organizations, five in media companies, and two from corporate sponsors; there also are four team owners, the CEO of IMG (the largest sports

Class Relations and Who Has Power in Sports

Decisions that affect the meaning, purpose, and organization of sports are made at many levels— from neighborhood youth sport programs to the International Olympic Committee. Although schol- ars who study sports in society identify people who exercise power in various settings, they usually don’t rank those with power in and over sports. But this has been done by journalists at The Sporting News in the past and more recently at Sports Illus- trated (Rushin, 2013).

The list of the top twenty most powerful from the 2013 Sports Illustrated rankings is shown in

Rank Name Position

1. Roger Goodell NFL commissioner 2. David Stern NBA commissioner 3. Philip Anschutz AEG owner 4. John Skipper ESPN president 5. Bud Selig MLB commissioner 6. Stan Kroenke Kroenke Sports Enterprises owner 7. Mark Lazarus NBC Sports chairman 8. Jacques Rogge IOC president 9. Phil Knight Nike chairman 10. Hedge Fund Dude [investment advisor(s)] 11. Mark Walter Guggenheim Partners CEO & Dodgers owner 12. Robert Kraft Patriots owner 13. Sean McManus CBS Sports chairman 14. Michael Dolan IMG Worldwide CEO 15. Eric Shanks Fox Sports co-president 16. Sepp Blatter FIFA president 17. Mike Slive SEC commissioner 18. Adam Silver NBA deputy commissioner 19. Jerry Jones Cowboys owner 20. Larry Ellison Oracle CEO

Source: Rushin, 2013; http://gamedayr.com/sports/sports-illustrated-50-most-powerful-people-in-sports/

Table 9.1 The 2013 top twenty in the Sports Illustrated “Power 50” list

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marketing company in the world), and an anony- mous hedge fund advisor who made it possible for many men on the list to accumulate billions of dol- lars so they could buy teams or exert influence over what occurs in sports. The list is unapologetically U.S.-centric, although it includes four powerful European men; everyone on the list is a white man.

It is clear that white men hold nearly 100 percent of the major power positions in elite sports today. These men have much in common with other economic elites in the United States. Collectively, they benefit from a class ideology that legitimizes the existing status and power hierarchy in American society and supports the idea that the current level of economic inequality, even though it is greater than it has been for a century, is good for the country. This is why they are sincerely committed to a form of sport—elite men’s sports—in which competition, conquest, individualism, authority, and consumption are highlighted in everything from media coverage and stadium design to team logos and ads for upcoming games and contests.

Although the power wielded by these and other powerful people in sports does not ignore the interests of common folk in the United States and worldwide, it clearly focuses on the expansion and profitability of the organizations represented by the power hold- ers. Therefore, sports are sponsored and presented to highlight the meanings and orientations valued by eco- nomic elites at the same time that they provide exciting and enjoyable experiences to people like you and me.

This relationship between sports and social class explains why many of us in the sociology of sport use a combination of structural and cultural theories to help us understand sports in society. For example, Antonio Gramsci, an Italian political theorist, developed a the- ory stating that members of the “ruling class” in con- temporary societies maintain their power to the extent that they can develop creative ways to convince most people that their society is organized as fairly and effi- ciently as possible under current social and economic conditions. One of the strategies for doing this is to become the primary providers of popular pleasure and entertainment so that people see the ruling class as sponsors of their joy and excitement. This strat- egy is especially effective if the ruling class can use

entertaining events to promote particular ideas and beliefs about what should be important in people’s lives. In this way, sports and other forms of exciting entertainment become cultural vehicles for establish- ing “ideological outposts” in the minds of people who are ruled. These outposts can then be used to deliver other messages into the popular consciousness— messages from sponsors and media commentators who reaffirm a class ideology legitimizing current forms of class inequality in society. This critical theo- retical approach helps us see the dynamics of class relations and the process of hegemony at work in sports and other spheres of our lives.

SOCIAL CLASS AND SPORT PARTICIPATION PATTERNS

In all societies, social class and class relations influence who plays, who watches, who consumes information about sports, and what information about sports is available in mainstream media. Pat- terns of sport participation and consumption are closely associated with money, power, and privi- lege. At a basic level, organized sports are a luxury item in the economies of many nations, and they are most prevalent in wealthy nations where people have discretionary money and time.

Active sport participation, attendance at events, and consuming media sports are positively corre- lated with a person’s income, education, and occu- pational status. Training at the elite level of sports requires considerable resources. Some costs may be covered by sponsors for those lucky enough to have them, but others must be covered by personal funds. For example, when the record-setting swim- mer Dara Torres trained for the 2008 Olympics, she spent about $100,000 per year for her support staff, including a pool coach, a strength and conditioning coach who also is her dietician, two full-time peo- ple who stretch her muscles, a physical therapist, a masseuse, and a nanny to care for her daughter (Crouse, 2007). Torres was forty-one years old, but she represents a widely accepted approach to train- ing for elite athletes of any age.

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use. This has interesting implications in the United States, where companies pay the club memberships of their top executives and then classify most club expenses as “business deductions” on the corpora- tion’s tax returns. Taking these deductions reduces the company’s taxes and reduces the tax revenues that fund public sport programs for people who cannot afford golf, tennis, or elite health club mem- berships. At the same time, executives and their

friends and relatives enjoy free perks worth untold billions of dol- lars, which they refer to as “invest- ments” rather than “welfare.”

The lifestyles of middle-income and working-class people, on the other hand, tend to include sports that by tradition are free and open to the public, sponsored by public funds, or available through public schools. When these sports involve the use of expensive equipment or clothing, participation occurs in connection with various forms of financial sacrifice. For instance,

buying a motocross bike so his child can ride and race means that a father must work overtime, can- cel the family vacation, and organize family leisure around motocross races.

The lifestyles of low-income people and those living under the poverty line seldom involve regu- lar forms of sport participation, unless a shoe com- pany identifies a young potential star and sponsors his or her participation. When people struggle to stretch the family budget, they seldom can main- tain a lifestyle that includes regular sport participa- tion. Spending money to play or watch sports is a luxury that most low-income people can’t afford.

Homemaking, Child Rearing, and Earning a Living: Class and Gender Relations in Women’s Lives

The impact of social class on sports participation often varies by age, gender, race and ethnicity, and geographic location. For example, married

Most elite sports require expensive equipment and training. For example, in any form of motor racing the costs can reach $200,000 per year, plus private driving coaches at $5000 per weekend (Cacciola, 2012). Clearly, this influences who can become seri- ously involved and successful in these sports.

Even the health and fitness movement, often described as a grassroots phenomenon in North America, involves mostly people who have higher-than-average incomes and education and work in professional or managerial occupations. For the most part, people in low-income jobs don’t run, bicycle, or swim as often as their high-income coun- terparts. Nor do they play as many organized sports on their lunch hours, after work, on weekends, or during vacations. This pattern holds true throughout the life course, for younger and older people, men and women, racial and ethnic popula- tions, and people with disabilities: Social class is related strongly to participation among all categories of people (Federico et al., 2013; Kahma, 2012; Kamphuis et al., 2008; Stokvis, 2012; White and McTeer, 2012).

Over time, economic inequality in society leads to the formation of class-based lifestyles that involve particular forms of sports ( Bourdieu, 1986a, 1986b; Falcous and McLeod, 2012; Kahma, 2012; Mehus, 2005; Stempel, 2005, 2006; Stokvis, 2012; Wheeler, 2012). For the most part, sport participation in various lifestyles reflects patterns of sponsorship and access to participation opportu- nities. For example, the lifestyles of wealthy people routinely include golf, tennis, skiing, swimming, sailing, and other sports that are self-funded and played at exclusive clubs and resorts. These sports often involve expensive facilities, equipment, and/ or clothing, and generally require that people have jobs and/or lives in which they have the control, freedom, and time needed to participate; some peo- ple also combine sport participation with their jobs by using facilities that their business associates also

It cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years [to pay for his training and competitions]. But I knew I was going to do whatever I had to make sure he followed his dream. —David Ali, father of a 19-year-old boxer on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team (in Ellin, 2008)

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chauffeur one or more children to their youth sport games.

Women in middle- and lower-income families are most constrained by homemaking and child rearing responsibilities. Unable to pay for child care, domestic help, and sport participation fees, these women have few opportunities to play sports. They also lack time, transportation to and from sport facilities, access to gyms and playing fields in their neighborhoods, and the sense of physical safety that enables them to feel secure enough to leave home and travel to places where they can play sports.

When playing a sport requires multiple partici- pants, the lack of resources among some women

women with children are less likely than their male counterparts to have the time and resources to play sports (Taniguchi and Shupe, 2012). To join a soccer team that schedules practices late in the afternoon and plays games in the evening or on weekends is all but impossible when you’re the family cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, and home- work supervisor.

On the other hand, married men with children are less likely to feel such constraints ( Taniguchi and Shupe, 2012). When they play softball or soc- cer after work, their wives may delay family dinners or keep dinner warm until they arrive home. When they schedule a golf game on a Saturday morning, their wives make breakfast for the children and then

Young people in low-income families usually play sports at public parks and schools. These activities often are creatively arranged, as shown by these slackliners. But they lack the support and consistency characterized by organized sports. Young people in upper- and upper-middle- class families have resources to purchase access to privately owned sport facilities and spaces. This results in different sport experiences and different sport participation patterns from one social class to another. (Source: © Basia Borzecka)

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drive them to practices, lessons, and games; make sure they are well-fed and have all the equipment they need; and provide access to cars when they are old enough to drive themselves to practices and games.

The implications of social-class dynamics become very serious when health and obesity issues are considered. Limited opportunities to exercise safely and play sports are among the factors con-

tributing to high rates of obesity, dia- betes, and heart disease, especially among girls and women from low- income households (Edwards et al., 2013). The availability of facilities, safe spaces, transportation, and sports programs all vary by social class, and girls and women in low-income house- holds experience the effects of social class in different and more profound ways when it comes to involvement

in physical activities and sports (Kelley and Car- chia, 2013; NPR et al., 2015).

Being Respected and Becoming a Man: Class and Gender Relations in Men’s Lives

Many boys and young men use sports to estab- lish a masculine identity, but the dynamics of this process vary by social class. For example, in a qualitative analysis of essays written about sports by fifteen- and sixteen-year-old French Canadian boys in the Montreal area, Suzanne Laberge and Mathieu Albert (1999) discovered that upper-class boys connected their sports participation with mas- culinity because playing sports, they said, taught them leadership skills, and being a leader was cen- tral to their definition of masculinity. Middle-class boys said that playing sports provided them with opportunities to be with peers and gain acceptance in male groups, which fit their ideas of what they needed to do to establish identities as young men. According to working-class boys, playing sports enabled them to display toughness and develop the rugged personas that matched their ideas of

affects others, because it reduces their prospects for assembling the requisite number of players. This is also true for men, but women from middle- and lower-income families are more likely than their male counterparts to lack the network of relation- ships out of which sport interests and participation emerge and are sustained over time.

Women from upper-income families, on the other hand, usually face few constraints on sport participation. They can afford child care, domestic help, car- ryout dinners, and sport fees. They participate by themselves and with friends and family members. Their social networks include other women who also have resources to play sports. Women who grow up in these families play sports during their childhoods and attend schools with well-funded sport programs. They seldom experience the same constraints as their lower- income counterparts, even though their opportuni- ties may not equal those of their upper-income male peers.

The sport participation of girls and young women also is limited when they’re expected to shoulder responsibilities at home. For example, in low-income families, especially single-parent and immigrant families, teenage daughters often are expected to care for younger siblings after school until early evening when parents return from work. In some cases, schools or teams could organize cooperative child care for students who must care for siblings. This would enable them to play sports or participate in other extracurricular activities. Such cooperative strategies are foreign to individu- alistically oriented people in the United States and might be rejected as being “socialist.” But without arrangements that help them with their child-care responsibilities, such students will typically drop out of sports or never try out.

Boys and girls from higher-income families seldom have household responsibilities that force them to drop out of sports. Instead, their parents

Nothing is more sacred in sports than a level playing field. Too bad it doesn’t exist. . . . it now takes more resources—a lot more—to compete at the highest level. —Peter Keating, Senior writer, ESPN (2011)

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reflect on S P O R T S

The dynamics of class relations sometimes have ironic twists. This is certainly true when public money is used to build stadiums and arenas that are then used by wealthy individuals who own professional sport teams that often bring them large profits. Between 1990 and 2008, over $22 billion of public money in the United States was spent to build these facilities that add to the wealth of powerful individuals and corporations and then subsidize their real estate developments in the area immediately around the facilities.

Furthermore, wealthy investors often purchase the tax-free municipal bonds that cities sell to obtain the cash to build these facilities. This means that while city and/or state taxes are collected from the general popu- lation to pay off the bonds, wealthy investors receive tax-free returns, and team owners use the facilities built by taxpayers to make large amounts of money for them- selves. When sales taxes are used to pay off bonds, peo- ple in low- and middle-income households pay a higher percentage of their annual incomes to build the stadiums than people in higher-income households. This amounts to a case of the poor subsidizing the rich with govern- ment approval.

Ironically, the average residents whose taxes build stadiums and arenas usually can’t afford to buy tick- ets to sports events in these venues. One reason for high ticket prices is that corporate accounts are used to buy so many tickets to games that the team owners raise ticket prices to match the demand. Higher prices seldom discourage corporate executives because they claim a portion of the ticket costs as a business deduc- tion, thereby reducing their taxes so they receive an indirect reduction in ticket costs of 18–35 percent. As a result, tax revenues decline and the government has less money to fund sport programs for average taxpayers,

and most of those taxpayers can’t afford the expensive tickets. This means that stadiums today seldom are places where social classes mix as they cheer for the same team. In fact, when corporate credit cards are used to purchase blocks of season tickets, as they are in most venues, the only mixing of social classes is between

Public Money and Private Profits When Do Sports Perpetuate Social Inequality?

“I thought they said ‘Sport brings everyone together’ when they used our tax money to build this place!”

Many stadiums today have policies that create the equivalent of “gated neighborhoods” for high rollers with premium tickets. Stadiums may be built with public money, but they are full of no-trespassing areas for the public. Who benefits from this example of class relations in action?

manhood. In this sense, social class influenced the ways that sports and sport experiences were inte- grated into the lives of these young men.

Boys in U.S. culture are more likely to make commitments to athletic careers at a young age

when they perceive limited options for other careers and when their family situation is financially inse- cure (Gregory, 2013b; May, 2009). This means that the personal stakes associated with playing sports are different and often greater for boys from

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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“the haves” and “the have-mores.” Meanwhile, team owners misleadingly blame players’ salaries for esca- lating ticket prices.

The dynamics of class relations do not stop here. After contributing public money to build stadiums and arenas, local and state governments often give discounted property tax rates to team owners and their real estate partners who develop areas around the new venues. Property taxes are the main source of revenues for public schools, so urban public schools often have less money as team owners and develop- ers increase their wealth. Meanwhile, professional teams sponsor a few charity programs for “inner- city kids” and occasionally send players to speak at urban schools—all of which garner press coverage that describes team owners and millionaire athletes as great public servants! As school systems fail due to poor funding and teachers complain about this scam, local editorials and letters to the editor accuse educa- tors of wasting public money and demand that they become more frugal.

This method of transferring public money into the private pockets of wealthy individuals has occurred as social services for the unemployed, the working poor, children, and people with disabilities are being cut.

WHAT ABOUT JOBS CREATED BY SPORTS? Jobs are created whenever hundreds of millions of dol- lars are spent in a city. But those jobs also would be cre- ated if the arenas and stadiums were privately financed. Furthermore, when cities spend public money to build stadiums for professional teams, they create far fewer jobs than could be created by other forms of economic development. Measuring the true cost of job creation is

tricky. The type of job created and the economic con- ditions at the time and place that the job is created all influence costs. However, for the money spent to build a major sport facility, the returns in the form of new jobs are relatively low—the facilities employ relatively few people, the facilities are closed much of the time, and most of the jobs in the facility are seasonal and low pay- ing. Therefore, after reading reports of studies done by independent economists, it appears to me that for each job created by a new stadium, between ten and twenty new jobs could have been created if the same amount of public money had been invested in more strategically chosen development projects. This means that stadiums and large arenas are lousy job creators for the public money spent on them.

WHO ELSE BENEFITS? Sport team owners are not the only wealthy and pow- erful people who benefit when stadiums and arenas are built with public money. New publicly financed sport facilities increase property values in urban areas in which major investors and developers can initiate profit- able projects. Others also may benefit as money trickles down to the rest of the community, but the average tax- payers who fund the facilities will never see the benefits enjoyed by the wealthy few. Additionally, these devel- opments often require the displacement of housing for people living near or below the poverty line, and this housing is seldom replaced.

Publicly financed sport venues may provide the illusion of unity and generally beneficial development in a city, but they are mostly vehicles for transferring public money to wealthy individuals and corporations. Behind the illusion often exists disunity and class inequality.

low-income households than they are for boys from higher-income households. Similarly, male athletes from poor and working-class households often use sport participation to obtain “respect” in a society where they often lack other means to do so.

Because young men from low-income house- holds often have more at stake when it comes to playing sports, they face more personal pressure than wealthier peers, because they often lack the material resources required to train, develop skills, and be

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1995b, 2004). As noted in Chapter 6, Wacquant spent over three years training and hanging out at a boxing gym in a low-income Chicago neighborhood. During that time, he documented the life experiences of fifty professional boxers, most of whom were African Americans. His analysis shows that deciding to dedicate oneself to boxing in the United States is related to a combination of class, race, and gender relations.

The alternative to boxing for these young men often was the violence of the streets. When Wacquant asked one boxer where he’d be today if he hadn’t started boxing, he said,

If it wasn’t for boxin,’ I don’t know where I’d be . . . Prob’ly in prison or dead somewhere, you never know. I grew up in a tough neighbo’hood, so it’s good for me, at least, to think ‘bout what I do before I do it. To keep me outa the street, you know. The gym is a good place for me to be every day. Because when you’re in d’gym, you . . . don’ have to worry about getting’ into trouble or getting shot at (in Wacquant, 2004, p. 239).

Wacquant explains that most boxers know they would not be boxing if they had been born in households where resources and other career opportunities existed. “Don’t nobody be out there fightin’ with an MBA,” observed a trainer-coach at the gym (in Wacquant, 1995a, p. 521). Wacquant notes that these men see boxing as a “coerced affection, a captive love, one ultimately born of racial and class necessity” (1995a, p. 521). When he asked one boxer what he would change in his life, the answer represented the feelings of many men at the gym:

I wish I was born taller, I wish I was born in a rich family, I . . . wish I was smart, an’ I had the brains to go to school an’ really become somebody real important. For me I mean I can’t stand the sport, I hate the sport, [but] it’s carved inside of me so I can’t let it go (in Wacquant, 1995a, p. 521).

Overall, these men were simultaneously com- mitted to and repulsed by their trade, and their participation was clearly connected with the dynamics of social class in their lives. Boxing

noticed by people who can serve as their advocates. Unless public school athletic programs and coaches can provide these things, these young people—boys and girls alike—have fewer opportunities for moving up to higher levels of competition than their upper- income peers have. The last remaining exceptions to this social-class discrepancy are in football, basket- ball, and track, which are usually funded in public schools with qualified coaches and enough visibility for some players to be seen by potential mentors and advocates.

Young people from upper-income households often have so many opportunities that they sel- dom see sports as high-stakes, career-related activities in their lives. For a young person with a car, nice clothes, money for college tuition, and good career contacts for the future, playing sports can be fun, but it’s not perceived as necessary for economic survival, gaining respect, or estab- lishing an identity. Therefore, young men from middle- and upper-income backgrounds often disengage gradually from childhood dreams of becoming professional athletes and develop new visions for their futures. For them, playing sports does not hold the same life significance as it does for their peers from working-class and low- income households (NPR et al., 2015).

Fighting to Survive: Class, Gender, and Ethnic Relations Among Boxers

Chris Dundee, a famous boxing promoter, once said, “Any man with a good trade isn’t about to get himself knocked on his butt to make a dol- lar” (in Messner, 1992, p. 82). What he meant was that middle- and upper-class boys and men have no reason to play a sport that destroys brain cells, that boxers always come from the lowest and most economically desperate income groups in society, and that boxing gyms are located in neighborhoods where desperation is most intense and life-piercing (Wacquant, 2004).

The dynamics of becoming and staying involved in boxing have been studied and described by French sociologist Loïc Wacquant (1992, 1995a,

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that has not been converted into a permanent lunch- room or classroom.

School sport programs in middle- and upper- income areas also may be threatened by financial problems, but they’re maintained by “participation fees” paid by athletes’ parents. These fees, as high as $250 or more per sport, guarantee that teams across many sports are available for young people lucky enough to be born into well-to-do house- holds. Additionally, when school teams don’t meet the expectations of well-to-do parents, they either vote to raise more public funds or use private funds to build new fields and facilities, hire coaches, and run high-profile tournaments that often attract col- lege coaches who recruit athletes by giving them scholarships. Therefore, when tax revolts and political decisions cause public programs to disap- pear, well-to-do people simply buy private sport participation opportunities for their children.

This highlights the influence of social class in sports. In fact, when it comes to sport participation today, the socioeconomic status of an athlete’s family has never been more important, because participation now depends almost exclusively on family resources.

Therefore, we can expect that sport participa- tion, the development of sport skills, and rewards for sport performance will increasingly go to peo- ple in households with above-average income and wealth.

When we compare the availability and quality of school and club sport programs by social class, we see that economic inequalities have a major impact on opportunities for sport participation today. With funds being cut and coaches laid off, schools in poor neighborhoods struggle to main- tain sport programs while looking for new fund- ing from corporations. But corporations usually sponsor only the sports that promote their brand and products. For example, a shoe company will support basketball because it fits with its market- ing and advertising programs. Corporate funders support individuals, teams, and sports that gener- ate product visibility through media coverage and high-profile state and national tournaments. This

and the gym provided for them refuge from the violence, hopelessness, and indignity of the rac- ism and poverty that framed their lives since birth. They excelled at the sport because being a young, poor, black man in America “is no bed of roses” (Wacquant, 2004, p. 238).

This case of boxing shows that all sport par- ticipation is embedded in a particular social and cultural context. For young people from resource- deprived areas and families, sport participation may help them cope with or survive the immediate circumstances of their lives, but it does not auto- matically provide them with “lifelines” or “hook- ups” that connect them with other social worlds in which opportunities may be more plentiful. Philosopher-boxer Joseph Lewandowski (2007, 2008) points this out in his research on boxing in communities characterized by “social poverty”— that is, there is an absence of vertical social capital that connects young persons to real opportunities to move “up and out” of their immediate circum- stances, or even to change them. In other words, playing a sport may earn a person respect in the local neighborhood, but this respect comes in the form of horizontal social capital that is useful only in managing current circumstances. For sport par- ticipation to pay off, it must also enable a young person to earn vertical social capital that opens doors to real hope and possibility.

Class Relations in Action: Changing Patterns in Sport Participation Opportunities

Publicly funded youth sport programs have been reduced or eliminated in many U.S. communities, and varsity teams in low-income school districts are being eliminated (Kelley and Carchia, 2013). When this occurs, fewer young people from low- income neighborhoods have opportunities to play sports, especially those requiring large fields and safe, functional facilities. This is why basketball remains a primary focus among low-income boys and girls; public schools usually can offer basket- ball teams and coaches if they have a usable gym

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households possess $104,033 less wealth, and Latino households possess $102,798 less wealth. Wealth serves as a cushion that provides stability in a household, and it certainly has an impact on family decisions about spending money for sport participation. These income and wealth gaps will influence who has opportunities to develop elite sport skills, receive athletic scholarships, and play sports at elite levels.

Class Relations in Action: The Cost of Attending Sport Events

It remains possible to attend some sports events for free. High school and many college games and

keeps certain sports alive, but only on terms that continue to meet corporate interests.

Tables 9.2 and 9.3 show that the socioeco- nomic playing field is not level when it comes to race and ethnicity. Black and Latino households are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to financial resources that could be spent on sports and sport participation. In terms of annual income, Latino and black households, respec- tively, have incomes that are $17,307 and $23,672 less than the annual incomes of white house- holds. The racial and ethnic wealth gaps as shown in Table 9.3 are even more influential when it comes to making financial decisions in a family. When compared with white households, black

Boxing has long been a sport for men from low-income groups. As a long-time boxing coach says, “If you want to know who’s at d’ bottom of society, all you gotta to do is look at who’s boxin” (in Wacquant, 2004, p. 42). (Source: © RD/ Kabik/Retna Ltd./Corbis)

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126 percent, and 154 percent for MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL respectively, during the same period. Therefore, ticket prices have increased three to four times the rate of inflation—partly due to increased costs at new stadiums and arenas, but mostly due to team owners wanting to attract people who have money to spend on food, drinks, apparel, and everything else they sell. This is why new facilities resemble giant circular shopping malls built around a central entertainment stage. They house expensive luxury suites and separate club seating, where high-income spectators have special services available—waitstaff, hot food menus,

meets in the United States are affordable for most people, and in some communities the tickets for minor league sports are reasonably priced. But tickets to most major intercollegiate and profes- sional games are beyond the means of most peo- ple, even those whose taxes were used to build the venues in which the games are played. The cost of attending these events has increased much more rapidly than the rate of inflation over the past fif- teen years.

Table 9.4 shows that the inflation rate between 1991 and 2012 was 69 percent, whereas average ticket prices increased 213 percent, 209 percent,

Table 9.2 Median household income in United States by race and Hispanic origin, 2013

Category Income

All categories $51,939 Asian households $67,065 White households (not Hispanic) $58,270 Latino households (any race) $40,963 Black households $34,598

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1968 to 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplements.

Table 9.3 Median household wealth in United States by race and ethnicity, 2011

Category Median wealth*

White households $111,146 Latino households (any race) $8,348 Black households $7,113

Source: Traub and Ruetschlin, 2015 *Household wealth consists of all assets in the form of money in the bank; equity in a home, car, or other appraised possessions; and retirement funds in investments or savings.

AVERAGE TICKET PRICE* 21-Year Increase (%)

1991 ($)

1996 ($)

2001 ($)

2004 ($)

2008 ($)

2012 ($)

Major League Baseball 9 11 19 20 25 27 213 National Football League 25 36 54 55 67 78 209 National Basketball Association

23 32 51 45 49 51 126

National Hockey League 24† 38 48 44 50 61 154†

U.S. inflation rate from 1991 to 2012 = 69%§

Source: Adapted from data in Team Marketing Report, www.teammarketing.com. *Ticket prices are rounded to the nearest dollar. Data for the NBA and NHL for 2004–2012 do not include premium ticket costs in the average, and this makes it difficult to do totally accurate long-term comparisons. †This is an estimate because no NHL data were available prior to 1994. §Represents the official rate of inflation as determined by the U.S. government.

Table 9.4 Escalating ticket prices versus inflation in the United States, 1991–2012

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social-class differences are transcended at the events, and the reality of social class and inequal- ity returns as soon as people leave the stadium.

Efforts by some fans wanting to reduce ticket prices seldom develop traction because people in luxury boxes, club seats, and other premium seats don’t want to join or be identified with spectators who can’t afford high-priced tickets and conces- sions. Expensive tickets are status symbols for wealthy spectators; they want class distinctions to be part of the sport experience, and they are willing

private restrooms, televisions, refrigerators, lounge chairs, temperature controls, private entrances with no waiting lines or turnstiles, and special parking areas—so that attending a game is no different from going to an exclusive private club.

As tickets become more expensive and spec- tators are increasingly segregated according to their ability to pay, social class and class rela- tions become more evident in the stands. Specta- tors may cheer at the same times and experience similar emotions, but this is the extent to which

Children in middle-class suburban areas often have safe streets on which to play. The boys in this cul-de-sac have multiple portable basketball goals, and they occasionally play full-court games in the street. They have many sport participation options in their lives, which their families often use as opportunities for sociability. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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that we face today. Research shows that the gap between the richest and poorest people world- wide is growing wider. For example, people in the United States, on average, spend about $65 per day to live as they do—and this includes everyone, even newborns. In the forty-eight nations classi- fied as “least developed countries” (LDCs), people spend about 60 cents a day to live as they do. In terms of consumption, an average person in the United States spends per day about 100 times more than nearly half the individuals in the world spend per day.

The meanings given to this global gap between the wealthy and poor differ depending on the ide- ologies that people use to guide their understand-

ing of world affairs. But apart from ideological interpretations, it is clear that about 40 percent of all people in the world have few resources to use on anything beyond basic survival. They may play games, but they seldom have the resources needed to organize and play sports as we know them. For these people, the sports played in the United States and other post-industrial nations are clearly out of reach.

They can’t understand how or why boxer Floyd Mayweather made $300 million in 2015, an amount that is more than 600,000 times what someone like them would spend during an entire year. Similarly, the workers who make less than $3 a day producing the balls, shoes, and other equipment and clothing used by most Americans who play sports, would question the fairness of such inequality.

The Olympic Games provide a clear example of the impact of global inequality in sports. Those who follow the Summer or Winter Olympics through mainstream media hear and read that these are celebrations of athlete commitment, dedication, hard work, and sacrifice. Absent in the coverage is recognition that the Games are also a celebration of wealth and inequality. For example, coverage for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, regardless

to pay—or have their corporations pay high prices so they can conspicuously display their status and have an experience with other wealthy people.

Attendance and seating at many events, from the opening ceremonies at the Olympics to the NFL Super Bowl, are now tied to conspicuous displays of wealth, status, influence, and corpo- rate power. After observing a recent Super Bowl and the events leading up to the game, journal- ist Dave Zirin (2008a) concluded that “Before it is anything else, before it’s even a football game, the Super Bowl is .  .  . a two-week entertainment festival for the rich and shameless.” Those attend- ing the game in 2008 had an average household income of $222,318—nearly five times greater than the median U.S. household (Thomas, 2008a). This is an important point, because efforts to make games affordable to the people whose taxes build the facilities will fail as long as corporations use them as party sites for executives and cus- tomers. In 2016, this pattern of mega- events being designed for the wealthy became even more apparent with the Super Bowl. Ticket prices ranged from $4370 to over $10,000 depend- ing on which pre-game party a person wanted to attend. But most of these tickets were purchased using company credit cards and partly deducted as “business expenses.”

GLOBAL INEQUALITIES AND SPORTS

When we discuss social class and sports, it is essen- tial to think beyond our own society. Inequalities exist at all levels of social organization—in fami- lies, groups, organizations, communities, socie ties, and the world.

Global inequalities related to per capita income, living standards, and access to developmental resources cause many of the most serious problems

The Super Bowl as a live event is primarily a perk for the nation’s elite, and an opportunity for companies to sell their products to a coveted demographic of influencers and decision- makers. —Katie Thomas, New York Times journalist (2008a)

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in these communist countries, central state plan- ners used public money to train and support an impressive number of medal winners.

Other exceptions are individual athletes who have wealthy corporate sponsors. For example, U.S. hurdler, Lolo Jones, was able to use her tal- ent, face, and physique to attract corporations that wanted to capitalize on the media attention she receives (Longman, 2012b). But even Red Bull, her major sponsor, hedged its investment in Jones by hiring twenty-two scientists and technicians to work with her exclusively from 2005 through 2012. These performance specialists monitored her training runs with forty motion-capture cam- eras. An Optojump system replicated her feet

of where in the world the coverage occurred, did not mention that 80 of the 204 participating nations had never won an Olympic medal, and another 51 had won fewer than five medals in Olympic his- tory. Many nations had not won a medal for at least forty years. The United States, on the other hand, with its combination of wealth and population size, had won 2,549 medals—many more than any other nation.

Even in wealthy countries, a disproportionate share of medals has always been won by athletes with support from families. Exceptions to this pat- tern are few. The former Soviet Union, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), China, and Cuba have experienced considerable success. But

Since 2003, the annual Homeless World Cup has been held in different cities where national teams comprised of homeless people, mostly men, compete during a three-day tournament. This event was initiated by two editors of newspapers that serve homeless people. Their readers sometimes played informal soccer games, so they recruited sponsors and have organized the event each year. In 2015, teams from more than seventy countries competed in Amsterdam. In addition to being a sport event, the tournament is a site for initiating and sustaining political strategies advocating the rights of homeless people worldwide. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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rates are high, people with physical or intellectual impairments have little or no opportunity to partici- pate in sports.

ECONOMIC AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN SPORTS

Many people in the United States see sports as a sphere in which people from low-income and poor backgrounds can experience upward social mobility—an affirmation of the American Dream (Green and Hartmann, 2012). Social mobility is a term used by sociologists to refer to changes in wealth, education, and occupation over a per- son’s lifetime or from one generation to the next in families. Social mobility can occur in downward or upward directions.

On a general level, career and mobility opportu- nities exist in sports and sport organizations. How- ever, as we consider the impact of sports on mobility in the United States, it is useful to know the follow- ing things about sport-related opportunities:

1. The number of paid career opportunities in sports is limited, and the playing careers of most professional athletes are short-term.

2. Professional opportunities for women are growing but remain limited on and off the field relative to men.

3. Professional opportunities for ethnic minorities are growing but remain limited on and off the field relative to whites with European heritage.

These points are discussed in the following sections.

Career Opportunities Are Limited

Young athletes often have visions of playing pro- fessional sports, and their parents may have similar visions. But the chances of turning these visions into realities are remote. The odds or chances for a person to become a college or professional athlete are difficult to calculate, and many different meth- ods have been used. For example, we could cal- culate odds for all high school or college athletes

hitting the track surface on her every stride during 110 meters of hurdling. The Phantom Flex high- speed camera moved astride her and recorded 1500 frames per second as she ran. The resulting analyses of these data and input from other spe- cialists were then used to customize daily train- ing for Jones (McClusky, 2012). This makes the idea of a “level playing field” laughable, despite claims by the IOC and NBC commentators that it is so.

Because athletes are now pushing the perfor- mance limits of the human body, they increas- ingly seek technologies that will bring them success. But these technologies are expensive, especially when they are delivered and managed by physiologists, biomechanists, medical experts, biochemists, strength coaches, nutritionists, psy- chologists, recovery experts, and statistical ana- lysts who work with coaches to turn scientific findings into training programs. Access to this training costs more than most villages in develop- ing nations produce every four years between the Olympic Games!

Patterns are similar for the Paralympics, where GDP—gross domestic product, or the monetary value of all goods and services produced annually— along with the population size of a country are highly correlated with the number of medals won by athletes (Buts et al., 2013). Traveling to the Paralympics is especially costly for Paralympians because they often must bring with them prosthe- ses, wheelchairs, and a person to help them navi- gate unanticipated barriers. This is why athletes from the nation that hosts the Paralympics win 80 percent more medals than it’s athletes won in the previous Paralympic Games. Travel is not a major issue for them, and they know what to anticipate while in the host city. Additionally, host cities and nations make special efforts to make sure that their athletes confront as few bar- riers as possible.

Athletes from nations with relatively low GDP are extremely unlikely to have access to the train- ing and support required to qualify for and travel to the Paralympics. In countries where poverty

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footnotes for the table explain the limitations of these calculations and suggest that most of the odds listed in the table are overestimates of the chances of moving from one level of competition to the next in these sports. At any rate, the NCAA calculations indicate that playing at the professional level is a long shot. In fact, if there was a race horse that had similar odds of winning a race, nobody would even think of betting on it.

Additionally, professional sport opportunities are short-term, averaging three to seven years in team sports and three to twelve years in individual sports. This means that, after playing careers end, there are about forty additional years in a person’s work life. Unfortunately, many people, including athletes, coaches, and parents, ignore this aspect of reality.

Media coverage focuses on the best athletes in the most popular sports, and they often have longer

in a particular sport, or for high school or college athletes from particular racial or ethnic groups, or for any male or female in a particular age group of the total population of the United States. Addition- ally, the calculations could be based on the num- ber of players in the top league in a sport, such as the NHL in hockey, or they could be based on the number of professional hockey players in all major and minor league teams worldwide. The fact that about 80 percent of the players in the NHL come from outside the United States means that it is meaningless to calculate the odds of a U.S. high school hockey player making it to the NHL with- out taking this into account.

The point here is that all calculations must be qualified, and many estimates reported in the media are inaccurate. The data in Table 9.5 represent cal- culations made by NCAA researchers in 2012. The

Athletes Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball Football Baseball

Men’s Ice Hockey

Men’s Soccer

HS athlete 535,289 435,885 1,095,993 474,219 35,720 411,757 HS senior athlete 152,940 124,539 313,141 135,491 10,209 117,645 NCAA athlete 17,890 16,134 69,643 31,999 3,891 22,987 NCAA 1st-year roster slots 5,111 4,610 19,898 9,143 1,112 6,568 NCAA senior athlete 3,976 3,585 15,476 7,111 865 5,108 NCAA athlete drafted 51 31 253 693 10 37

Percent HS to NCAA 3.3 3.7 6.4 6.7 10.9 5.6 Percent NCAA to pro 1.3 0.9 1.6 9.7 1.2 0.07 Percent HS to pro 0.03† 0.02 0.08 0.5 0.1 0.03

Source: NCAA, 2012. *The numbers do not include players at non-NCAA schools, players from outside the United States recruited by NCAA schools, players in North American professional leagues who haven’t attended high school or college in the United States, or U.S. high school and college players that play professional sports in other countries. Therefore, the odds of a U.S. high school or college athlete making it to the next levels of competition in these sports are lower than these numbers suggest. †How to read the last line: For men’s basketball, 3 of every 10,000 high school players will be drafted by the NBA, or 1 of every 3,333. But this does not mean these selected players will make teams. In women’s basketball, 2 in 10,000 high school players, or 1 of every 5000 will be drafted; in football it is 8 of every 10,000 high school football players, or 1 of every 1250.

Table 9.5 Estimated probability of competing in athletics beyond the high school interscholastic level*

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forty women golfers out of the approximately 90 million adult women in the United States make enough prize money to cover their expenses as professional golfers.

There are opportunities in professional basket- ball, volleyball, soccer, figure skating, bowling, skiing, bicycling, track and field, and rodeo, but the number of professional female athletes in these sports remains low, and only a few women make decent money. For example, when Forbes maga- zine ranked the top 100 moneymaking athletes dur- ing 2015, only tennis players Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were on the list.

Professional leagues for women now exist in basketball and beach volleyball, but they have pro- vided career opportunities for fewer than 400 ath- letes at any given time in recent years. The National Women’s Soccer League was established in April 2013 as the third attempt to make women’s profes- sional soccer a spectator sport. It employed about 185 players on eight teams, with a league salary cap of about $2.7 million. Players’ salaries in 2015 ranged from $6842 to $37,800, with most players making less than $15,000 for the season. To assist the league, the soccer federations from the United States, Canada, and Mexico pledged to pay the

and more lucrative playing careers than others. Little coverage is given to the more typical cases— that is, those who play for one or two seasons before being cut or forced to quit for other reasons, especially injuries or lack of resources to pay for training. We hear about the long careers of popular NFL quarterbacks, but little about the many play- ers whose one-year contracts are not renewed after their first season. The average age of players on the oldest NFL team in 2015 was less than twenty- seven years old. This means that few players older than thirty are still in the league. Much more typical than thirty-year-old players contemplating another season are twenty-four-year-olds facing the end of their professional sport careers.

Finally, many professional athletes at the minor league level make less than workers in nonsport occupations. For example, many of the players in minor league baseball and hockey make no more than minimum wage when all their hours of train- ing, completion, and traveling are added together (Hayhurst, 2014). Elementary school teachers have higher salaries than these players, and they also have better working conditions, greater financial security and stability, and a pension plan.

Opportunities for Women Are Growing but Remain Limited

Career opportunities for female athletes are limited relative to opportunities for men. Tennis and golf provide opportunities, but the professional tours for these sports draw athletes worldwide. For women in the United States, this means that the competi- tion to make a living in these sports is great. More than 2100 players competed in Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments during 2015, but only the top 200 players won enough money to fully pay for their expenses on the tour. Of those, only twenty-five were from the United States. In fact, most U.S. players are among the 1300 that had made less than $4000 during the year.

In the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), only 30 of the top 100 money winners in 2015 were from the United States. Fewer than

“Ah, the glamorous life of a spoiled, overpaid professional athlete!”

Only a few professional athletes achieve fame and fortune. Thousands of others play in minor and semipro leagues in which salaries are low and work- ing conditions are poor.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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precise enforcement procedures when it comes to equity in coaching and administration. Title IX enforcement focuses almost exclusively on athletes, and hasn’t had as much impact in other aspects of school sports and no direct impact on sports outside of schools that receive money from the federal government. Therefore, a pattern of female underrepresentation exists in nearly all job categories and nearly all sport organizations.

Opportunities for women in sports may continue to shift toward equity, but many people resist mak- ing the structural and ideological changes that would produce full equity. In the meantime, there may be gradual increases in the number of women coaches, sports broadcasters, athletic trainers, administrators, and referees. Changes will occur more rapidly in certain sport industries that target women as con- sumers and need women employees to increase their sales and profits. But the gender ideology used by influential decision makers inside many sports orga- nizations will continue to privilege those perceived as tough, strong, competitive, and aggressive—and men are more likely to be perceived in such terms.

Many women who work in sport organizations continue to deal with organizational cultures that are primarily based on the values and experiences of men. This contributes to low job satisfaction and high job turnover among women (Bruening et al., 2007; Bruening and Dixon, 2008; Dixon and Bruening, 2005, 2007; Dixon and Sagas, 2007; Gregory, 2009). Professional development pro- grams, workshops, and coaching clinics have been developed since the late 1990s to assist women as they work in and try to change these cultures and make them more inclusive. However, full equity won’t occur until more men in sport organizations change their ideas about gender and its connection with sports and leadership.

Opportunities for African Americans and Other Ethnic Minorities Are Growing but Remain Limited

The visibility of black athletes in certain spectator sports often leads people to conclude that sports

salaries of players on their national teams—about fifty players in all.

In the WNBA, the pay is a fraction of what men in the NBA make—an average of about $75,000 in 2015, with a league minimum salary of about $34,500. None of the 146 players is allowed to make more than $107,000 for the season. The total salaries for all WNBA players amounted to less than $11  million, which was 44  percent of what Kobe Bryant alone made for the 2015–2016 season. Another way to compare is to say that for every salary dollar that an NBA player makes, a WNBA player makes less than 2-cents, and NBA players outnumber WNBA players about four to one.

Of course, there are opportunities for women athletes to play professional sports in other parts of the world. For example, U.S. national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe has played for a professional team in France, where she made $14,000 a month. Most of the top WNBA players also play on teams in Europe where they often make more than during their seasons in the United States.

What about other careers in sports? There are jobs for women in coaching, training, officiating, sports medicine, sports information, public rela- tions, marketing, and administration. As noted in Chapter 7, most of the jobs in women’s sports continue to be held by men, and women seldom are hired for jobs in men’s programs, except in peripheral support positions. In the United States, when men’s and women’s high school or college athletic programs are combined, men become the athletic directors in about 80 percent of the cases. Women in most post-industrial nations have chal- lenged the legacy of traditional gender ideology, and progress has been made in some sports orga- nizations. However, a heavily gendered division of labor continues to exist in nearly all organizations. In traditional and developing nations, the record of progress is negligible, and very few women hold positions of power in any sports organizations.

Job opportunities for women have not increased as rapidly as women’s programs have grown. This is partly due to the persistence of orthodox gender ideology and the fact that Title IX does not have

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the same time, some of the most lucrative sports for athletes are almost exclusively white—tennis, golf, hockey, and motor racing are examples. My best guess is that fewer than 6000 African Ameri- cans, or about 1 of every 6660 African Americans, currently make significant incomes as professional athletes in the United States.

This indicates that sports don’t provide excep- tional upward mobility opportunities and that there are better career opportunities outside of sports—if there are educational opportunities to take advan- tage of them. Of course, these facts are distorted in media content that presents disproportionately more images of successful black athletes than

offer abundant career opportunities for African Americans. Anecdotal support for this conclusion is provided by successful black athletes who attri- bute their wealth and fame to sports. However, the extent to which job opportunities for blacks exist in sports has been greatly overstated. Very little pub- licity is given to the actual number and proportion of blacks who play sports for a living or make a liv- ing working in sport organizations. Also ignored is the fact that sports provide very few career oppor- tunities for black women.

African American athletes are involved almost exclusively in five professional spectator sports: boxing, basketball, football, baseball, and track. At

The U.S. team celebrates a victory over Sweden in the Fed Cup World Group playoff tennis matches in 2013. From left to right, team members are Mary Joe Fernandez, Varvara Lepchenko, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Sloane Stephens. Their victory guaranteed the United States a place in the coveted 2014 Fed Cup World Group. This photo that includes three black women provides a misleading picture of diversity in U.S. tennis, because they are a total of only five black women who play regularly on the WTA tour, and only one Latina. (Source: © Arnold Drapkin/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

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plantation-like hiring practices—they employed black workers but hired only white managers. Since the mid-1990s, the rate at which blacks have been hired in managerial positions has varied by sport. There’s been slow progress in most sport organizations, especially those associated with col- lege and professional football.

To rectify the lack of black coaches, legal pres- sures forced the NFL in 2003 to adopt the “Rooney Rule,” which required teams to interview minority candidates for open coaching positions. Although the impact of this affirmative action policy is not clear, only five of the thirty-two NFL teams had black head coaches during the 2015 season. Over two-thirds of the players are black men, but twenty- seven of thirty-two coaches are white men.

Discriminatory hiring patterns have also been troubling in big-time college football. Although the NCAA claims a commitment to diversity, their progress in achieving it has been slow. In 2007, Keith Harrison, a scholar at the University of Cen- tral Florida, completed a thorough study of NCAA hiring practices and concluded that the head foot- ball coach position “is the most segregated posi- tion in all college sports” (Harrison, 2007). At the start of the 2015–2016 season, there were only thirteen African American head football coaches in the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), down from twenty one during the 2013–2014 season; 88 percent of the head coaches were white men. The percentage of black head coaches across all men’s and women’s sports in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III hovers around 5 percent. Overall, black men and women make up less than 5 percent of the athletic directors at more than 1200 NCAA univer- sities, and in the thirty Division I conferences there is only one black commissioner.

Research indicates that when chief executive offi- cers (CEOs) recruit candidates for top management positions, they favor people with backgrounds and orientations similar to their own, and they often hire people they know or have worked with in the past (Cunningham and Sagas, 2005; Harrison, 2012). Familiar people are “known quantities” and per- ceived to be predictable and trustworthy. Therefore,

blacks in other positive roles. If young African Americans use media images as a basis for mak- ing choices and envisioning their future, there will be less progress toward achieving racial equality in the United States (Archer et al., 2007; Singer and May, 2011).

Employment Barriers for Black Athletes When sports were first desegregated in the United States, blacks faced entry barriers—that is, unless they had exceptional skills and exemplary personal characteristics they were not recruited or given professional contracts. Racial prejudice was strong and team owners assumed that players, coaches, and spectators would not accept blacks unless they made immediate and significant contributions to a team. Black athletes without exceptional skills were passed by. Therefore, the performance statis- tics for black athletes surpassed those of whites, a fact that many whites used to reinforce their stereo- types about black physicality.

As entry barriers declined between 1960 and the late 1970s, new barriers related to retention took their place. Retention barriers existed when contracts for experienced black players were not renewed unless the players had significantly bet- ter performance records than white players at the same career stage. This pattern existed through the early 1990s, but it no longer exists.

Race-based salary discrimination existed in most sports immediately following desegregation, but evidence suggests that it has faded in major team sports. This is because performance can be objectively measured, tracked, and compared to the performances of other players. Statistics are now kept on nearly every conceivable dimension of an athlete’s skill. Players’ agents use these statistics during salary negotiations, and they have an incen- tive to do so because they receive a percentage of players’ salaries and don’t want racial discrimina- tion to decrease their incomes.

Employment Barriers in Coaching and Off- the-Field Jobs During the 1980s and 1990s, many college and professional sport teams had

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procedures that cause minority men and all women to be underrepresented in positions of power and responsibility.

Opportunities for Ethnic Minorities The dynamics of ethnic relations in every culture are unique (see Chapter 8). Making generalizations about ethnic relations and opportunities in sports is difficult. However, dominant sport forms in any culture tend to reproduce cultural values and the social structures supported by those values. This means three things:

1. Members of the dominant social class in a society may exclude or define as unqualified job candidates with characteristics and cultural backgrounds different from their own.

2. Ethnic minorities often must adopt the values and orientations of the dominant social class if they want to be hired and promoted in sport organizations.

3. The values and orientations of ethnic minorities are seldom represented in the culture of sport organizations.

Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, and Native Americans are clearly underrepresented in most sports and sport organizations in the United States

(Lapchick, et al., 2012). Many Euro- Americans feel uncomfortable with ethnic diversity in situations in which they must trust and work closely with co-workers. Most often, this feeling is caused by a lack of knowledge about the heritage and customs of others and little exposure to ethnic diversity involving meaningful communica- tion. Exceptions to this are found in Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer teams that have many Latino players and a fair representa- tion of Latinos in management. How- ever, neither Asian Pacific Americans nor Native Americans fare very well in any U.S. sport organizations, partly because they are perceived as having

if a team owner or university athletic director is a white male, which is true in nearly all cases, he may wonder about the qualifications of ethnic minority candidates, especially if he lacks exposure to diver- sity (Roberts, 2007a). He may wonder if he can trust them to be supportive and fit in with his mana- gerial style and approach. If he has doubts, conscious or uncon- scious, he’ll choose the candidate he believes is most like himself. Additionally, black head coaches in professional and big-time col- lege sports appear to be assessed more critically than white head coaches, and when they are fired, they are less likely to be rehired at the same level (Bell, 2013b; Harrison, 2012).

These dynamics, which are seldom identified as “racial” or “ethnic,” often exist in sports and other organizations. But they continually reproduce an orga- nizational culture and operating

Black women are seriously underrepresented at all levels of coaching. When Natalie Randolph was named head coach of a high school football team in Washington, DC, she and her team took her job seriously, but everyone else saw her as a novelty. For this reason, many jobs in sports are not available to women. (Source: © AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The boosters of inequity, the true power brokers of college football . . . take comfort in their “white-like-me” hires as a perk of owning the program with their six- figure donations. . . . [But their] contribution to higher education is not enlightenment but enwhitenment. They tailgate for ignorance. —Selena Roberts, sports journalist (2007b)

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abilities, which then serve as the basis for career success.

∙ Former high-profile athletes may have reputa- tions that help them obtain and succeed in cer- tain occupations, such as sales and service jobs.

∙ Playing sports under certain circumstances (see the numbered list below) may enable athletes to develop social networks consisting of social relationships that help them obtain good jobs after retiring from sports.

After reviewing much of the research on this topic, I’ve tentatively concluded that playing sports is positively related to future occupational success and upward mobility when it does the following things: 1. Increases opportunities to complete academic

degrees, develop job-related skills, and/or extend one’s knowledge about the world out- side of sports.

2. Increases support from significant others for overall growth and development, not just sport development.

3. Provides opportunities to develop social net- works that are connected with career possibili- ties outside of sports and sport organizations.

4. Provides material resources and the guidance needed to successfully create and manage opportunities.

5. Expands experiences, identities, and abilities unrelated to sports.

6. Minimizes risks of disabling injuries that restrict physical movement or require expen-

sive and/or regular medical treatment.

This list suggests that playing sports can either expand or con- strict a person’s overall develop- ment and future career possibilities. When expansion occurs, athletes develop abilities and forms of social and cultural capital that lead to career opportunities and success. When constriction occurs, abilities and social and cultural capital may

little sports knowledge and experience, regardless of the reality of their lives (Lapchick, 2007, 2008a; Lapchick et al., 2012a).

SPORT PARTICIPATION AND OCCUPATIONAL CAREERS AMONG FORMER ATHLETES

What happens in the occupational careers of for- mer athletes? Are their career patterns different from the patterns of others? Is sport participation a stepping-stone to future occupational success and upward social mobility? Does playing sports have economic payoffs after active participation is over?

Research suggests that, as a group, young peo- ple who played sports on high school and college teams experience no more or less occupational suc- cess than others from comparable social class and educational backgrounds. This doesn’t mean that playing sports has never helped anyone in special ways; it means only that research findings don’t allow us to conclude that former athletes have a systematic advantage over comparable peers in their future occupational careers.

Research on this topic becomes out-of-date when the meaning and cultural significance of sport participation changes over time. Such changes are likely to influence the links between playing sports and success in later careers. However, past research suggests that, if playing sports is connected with career success, the reason may involve one or more of the following factors: ∙ Playing sports under certain cir-

cumstances (see the numbered list below) may teach young people interpersonal skills that carry over and enable them to succeed in jobs requiring those skills.

∙ The people who hire employees may define former athletes as good job prospects and give them opportunities to develop and demonstrate work-related

A player’s career is always a blink in a stare . . . There is a tipping point in a player’s career where he goes from chasing the dream to running from a nightmare. . . . It is a downhill run and it spares no one. —Doug Glanville, MLB player, 1996–2004 (2008)

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be so limited that career opportunities are scarce and unsatisfying.

Highly Paid Athletes and Career Success After Playing Sports

Conclusions about sport participation, career suc- cess, and social mobility must be qualified in light of the following recent changes related to elite and professional sports in the United States and other wealthy societies:

∙ An increase in salaries that began in the mid- 1970s has enabled some athletes to save and invest money that can be used to create future career opportunities.

∙ An increase in the media coverage and overall visibility of sports has created greater name recognition than past athletes enjoyed; there- fore, athletes today can convert themselves into a “brand” that may lead to career opportunities and success.

∙ Athletes have become more aware that they must carefully manage their resources to maxi- mize future opportunities.

Of course, most professional athletes have short careers or play at levels at which they do not make much money. When they retire, they face the same career challenges encountered by their age peers, and they experience patterns of success and failure similar to patterns among comparable peers who didn’t play sports. This means that playing sports neither ensures nor boosts one’s chances of career success.

In Chapter 3 it was explained that retirement from sports is best described as a process rather than a single event, and most athletes don’t retire from sports on a moment’s notice—they disengage gradually and revise their priorities as they disen- gage. Although many athletes handle this process smoothly, develop other interests, and move into relatively satisfying occupations, others experi- ence short- or long-term adjustment problems that interfere with occupational success and overall life satisfaction.

The four challenges that retiring athletes face are to (1) reaffirm or reconstruct identities in terms of activities, abilities, and relationships that are not directly related to sport participation; (2) nur- ture or renegotiate relationships with family and friends so that new identities can be established and reaffirmed (Sheinin, 2009); (3) re-engage with the normal, everyday world in ways that provide a personal sense of meaning (Brissonneau, 2010); and (4) come to terms with the totality of their life in sports (Tinley, 2012, 2015a, 2015b). Meeting these challenges successfully may take time, and it always involves relationships that support nonsport identities.

The fact that athletes today have had to make such a complete commitment to their sports from an early age has often cut them off from the very experiences and relationships they need when they must adjust to life after they stop competing. They have never had an “off season” as athletes had in the past, nor have they had the time or energy to focus on personal development away from the intense seven-day-a-week training and competition schedule. The longer athletes are cut off from non- sport relationships and experiences, and the greater

Only a few former athletes can cash in on their ath- letic reputations. The rest must seek opportunities and work just like the rest of us. Those opportuni- ties vary, depending on qualifications, experience, contacts and connections, and a bit of luck. In some cases, former athletes face hard times after their sport careers end.

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

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2. College students receiving tuition waivers or other forms of partial athletic aid sometimes lead people to believe that they have full scholarships.

3. Athletic scholarships often are one-year renew- able contracts, but when they are not renewed, many people assume that those who had them last year also have them this year and the next.

4. Many people assume that everyone who makes a college team, especially at large universities, has a scholarship, but this is not true.

There were over 13 million full-time undergradu- ate students in 2012–2013. Table  9.6 shows that 517,849 (about 4 percent) of these students were on intercollegiate teams. Approximately 177,559 athletic scholarships were available for those team members. Some received full scholarships cov- ering tuition, room, meals, and fees, but many received partial scholarships amounting to half or one-fourth of the value of a full scholarship. The average amount of a scholarship in NCAA Division I schools was about $14,270 for men and $15,162 for women in 2013, but these dollar amounts were much lower for athletes in NCAA Division II, NAIA, and NJCAA schools.

When parents and athletes discover that full scholarships are available to only one-third of the athletes playing on college teams, they are shocked. Their shock may turn into disbelief when they remember that they spent $5000 or more a year to keep their son or daughter in a sport from age six to seventeen—a minimum “investment” of $60,000, to say nothing of the time, energy, and long week- ends spent driving to and sitting at practices, games, and tournaments—and eating fast food. Even if their son or daughter does receive a schol- arship in an NCAA Division I school, he or she will work very hard for 35 to 40 hours per week for all or nearly all of the academic year. Scholarships may be lost due to injuries or coach decisions, and some athletes may quit teams because they don’t feel that the scholarship is worth the effort. Addi- tionally, the dollar value of an average scholarship is often far less than parents have “invested” into their child’s sport career. This means that spending

the centrality of their athlete identity, the more difficulty they will have when making the transi- tion out of sport and into non-sport-related social worlds.

Studies also show that adjustment problems are most likely when injuries force an athlete to retire without notice (Empfield, 2007; Swain, 1999; Tinley, 2012; Weisman, 2004). Injuries link retire- ment with larger issues of health and self-esteem and propel a person into life- changing transitions before they’re expected. When this occurs, athletes often need career-transition counseling.

When athletes encounter problems transitioning out of sports into careers and other activities, sup- port should be and occasionally is provided by the sport organizations that benefited from their labor (McKnight et al., 2009). Some sport organizations, including universities and national governing bodies for Olympic sports do this through transition pro- grams focusing on career self-assessments, life skills training, career planning, résumé writing, job search strategies, interviewing skills, career placement contacts, and psychological counseling. Retiring athletes often find it helpful to receive guidance in identifying the skills they learned in sports and how those skills can be transferred to subsequent careers.

Athletic Grants and Occupational Success

Discussions about sport participation and social mobility in the United States often include refer- ences to athletic scholarships. Most people believe that these grants-in-aid are valuable mobility vehi- cles for many young people. However, NCAA data indicate that the actual number of full athletic schol- arships is clearly exaggerated in the popular con- sciousness. This occurs for the following reasons:

1. High school students who receive standard recruiting letters from university coaches often tell people they are anticipating full scholar- ships when in fact they receive only partial aid or no aid at all, and they don’t disclose this dis- appointing outcome.

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by recent studies. Amanda Paule’s (2012) study of the recruiting strategies of college coaches showed that they looked for athletes from upper-income backgrounds who could afford to take a partial rather than a full scholarship, or athletes from very low-income backgrounds who could qualify for need-based aid that came from outside the athletic department. Additionally, because many coaches had small recruiting budgets, they sometimes limited their scouting to camps and tournaments at which young people from middle- and upper- income families were usually overrepresented.

A study investigating the social class and family backgrounds of NBA players led Joshua Dubrow and Jimi Adams (2012) to conclude that white athletes from low-income backgrounds were 75 percent less likely to play in the NBA than ath- letes from families that were better off. For black athletes, those coming from low-income families were 37 percent less likely to become NBA play- ers than their peers from well-off families.

Second, the college sports that offer high school seniors the best odds for a scholarship include row- ing, golf, equestrian events, gymnastics, lacrosse, swimming, fencing, and water polo—all of which are upper-middle-class, suburban, and white (Farrey, 2008).

money to develop a child’s sport skills in the hope of seeing a return in the form of a college scholar- ship makes no financial sense.

Another way to make sense of the data in Table 9.6 is to say that among all full-time under- graduate students only about 2 percent receive some form of athletic aid. In fact, academic schol- arships amount to many millions of dollars more than the total amount of athletic scholarships, even though many high school students and their parents don’t know this.

Class, gender, and race dynamics are strongly connected with athletic scholarships. First, young people in upper-middle-class families (with house- hold incomes of $100,000 per year or more) have resources to develop skills in highly privatized sports such as lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, rowing, swimming, water polo, field hockey, softball, and ice hockey. As a result, they are more likely than athletes in middle- and lower-income families to receive athletic scholarships, although most could afford college without athletic aid.

When Tom Farrey (2008), an Emmy-Award- winning journalist at ESPN, investigated this issue he concluded that “college athletics in general are more the province of the privileged than the poor” (p. 145). Farrey’s observation is supported

Table 9.6 Number of college athletes and maximum number of scholarships available, 2013.

Total Men Women

Total number of college athletes* 517,849 308,171 209,678 Maximum number of athletic scholarships* 177,559 92,658 84,901 Average athletic scholarship per athlete in NCAA Division I $ 14,270 $ 15,162 NCAA Division II $ 5,548 $ 6,814 NAIA $ 6,603 $ 6,964 NJCAA $ 2,069 $ 2,810

Source: http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html (retrieved, 12-4-15) * Includes athletes in all three divisions of the NCAA and athletes in schools aligned with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). ** Each college team has a maximum number of scholarships that can be awarded in any year. However, the actual number of scholarships awarded is less than the maximum due to budget constraints and decisions by athletic directors and coaches.

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Despite these studies and what we now know about social class and sport participation, people in the media regularly feature stories that highlight young people who rise from poverty to achieve fame and financial security. This recycles the myth that sports are a path to a better life at the same time that it reaffirms the American Dream, reinforces the image of the United States as a true meritocracy, and promulgates the class ideology supported by those beliefs (Green and Hartmann, 2012).

Third, the only college sports that consistently generate revenues are those in which the major- ity of players are black men: Division I football and men’s basketball. On average, these men come from households with less wealth and income than the households from which most other Division I athletes come. This creates an interesting class- and race-based scenario: Black men from households with little wealth work in their sports to generate revenues that provide scholarships to white athletes from households generally having far greater wealth. White parents, students, and athletes don’t think about this pattern of resource distribution, but black football and basketball players are well aware of it.

Overall, when athletic aid goes to financially needy young people who focus on learning and earn their degrees, college sports increase their chances for career success. But this is the exception rather than the rule (Mackin and Walther, 2011; Singer and May, 2011). This does not mean that athletic aid is a problem, but it does mean that it contributes little to overall upward social mobility.

summary

DO MONEY AND POWER MATTER IN SPORTS?

Social class and class relations are integrally involved in sports. Organized sports depend on resources, and those who provide them do so in

ways that support their interests by establishing eco- nomic arrangements that work to their advantage.

This is why dominant sport forms in the United States and other nations with market economies promote an ideology based on a belief in meri- tocracy and the idea that people always get what they deserve, and they always deserve what they get.

In the United States this belief combined with belief in the Amer- ican Dream constitutes a class ideology that promotes favorable

conclusions about the character and qualifications of wealthy and powerful people at the same time that it disadvantages the poor and powerless. Fur- thermore, it leads to the conclusion that economic inequality, even when it is extreme and oppressive, is natural and beneficial for society as a whole.

Class relations also are tied to patterns of sport team ownership, event sponsorship, and media cov- erage of sports. As public funds are used to build stadiums and arenas, wealthy team owners receive subsidies that expand their income and power. At the same time, economic and political elites, includ- ing powerful transnational corporations, sponsor the teams, events, and media coverage that bring peo- ple pleasure and excitement. Although fans don’t always give sports the meaning that sponsors would like them to, they seldom subject sports to critical analysis and usually don’t see sports as perpetuating a class ideology that justifies inequality and public policies that foster inequality. But this is part of what makes sports useful tools for influencing popular assumptions about how the world works.

Sport participation patterns worldwide are con- nected with social class and the distribution of mate- rial resources. Organized sports are a luxury that people in many regions of the world cannot afford. Even in wealthy societies, sport participation is most common among those in the middle and upper classes, and class-based lifestyles often go hand-in- hand with staging and participating in certain sports.

Sport participation patterns also are connected with the intersection of class, gender, race, and

“Beneath the thin layer of sport entertainment that makes its way onto television are the bulk of college athletes: Well-off and white.” —Tom Farrey, ESPN journalist (2008)

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ethnicity in people’s lives. This is seen in the case of girls and women who have low participation rates when resources are scarce and among men who see sports as a means of obtaining respect when they are living on the social and economic margins of society. Boxing provides an example of a sport in which class, gender, race, and ethnicity intersect in a powerful combination. As a result, the boxing gym often becomes a safe space that offers tempo- rary refuge for minority men who live in neighbor- hoods where poverty, racism, and despair spawn desperate acts of violence among their peers.

The same social forces that bring ethnic minor- ity men to boxing also fuel many variations of hoop dreams that captivate the attention of young ethnic minorities, especially black males. These dreams are sources of hope but they seldom come to frui- tion amid the reality of school and gym closings, school teams being dropped, and a lack of access to the resources required for training and the develop- ment of elite sport skills.

Patterns of watching sports also are connected with social class and class relations. This is demonstrated by the increased segregation of fans in stadiums and arenas. Luxury suites, club seating, and patterns of season-ticket allocations separate people by a combi- nation of wealth, power, and access to resources. In the process, inequality becomes increasingly normal- ized to the point that people are less likely to object to policies that privilege those with the money to buy a spot at the front of the line, or to establish their own line-free VIP entrance to the luxury suites.

Opportunities for careers that hold the hope of upward social mobility exist for some people in sports. For athletes, these opportunities often are scarce and short-lived, and they reflect patterns of class, gender, and ethnic relations in society. These patterns take various forms with regard to careers in sport organizations. Although opportunities in some of these jobs have increased, white men still hold most of the power positions in sport organiza- tions. This will change only when the organizational cultures of sport teams and athletic departments become more inclusive and provide new ways for women and ethnic minorities to participate fully in

shaping the policies and norms used to determine qualifications in sports and organize social relations at the workplace.

Research generally indicates that people who use sport participation to expand their social and cultural capital often have an advantage when seeking occu- pational careers apart from sports. However, when sport participation constricts social and cultural capital, it’s likely to have a negative effect on later career success. The relevance of this pattern varies by sport and is affected by the resources that athletes can accumulate during their playing careers.

Ending athletic careers may create stress and personal challenges, but most athletes move through the retirement process without experienc- ing excessive trauma or difficulty. Problems are most likely when identities and relationships have been built exclusively in connection with sports. Then professional help may be needed to success- fully transition into satisfying careers and relation- ships in which mutual support encourages growth and the development of new identities. Otherwise, it is possible to become stuck in the “glory days” of being an athlete instead of facing the challenges presented in life after sports.

Athletic scholarships help some young people further their educations and possibly achieve career success, but athletic aid is relatively scarce com- pared with other scholarships and forms of finan- cial aid. Furthermore, athletic scholarships do not always change the future career patterns of young people because many recipients would attend col- lege without sport-related financial assistance.

In conclusion, sports are clearly tied to patterns of class, class relations, and social inequality in society. Money and economic power do matter, and they matter in ways that often reproduce exist- ing patterns of social class and life chances.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Social class and the future of high school sports

Reading 2. Home countries of the 100 highest-paid athletes

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∙ Your soccer coach tells you and everyone else on the university lacrosse team that sports are uniquely American activities because they embody the American Dream and are orga- nized so that money has no influence on per- formance. He also says that sports are the best way for young people from “ disadvantaged” backgrounds to get ahead in life. One of your teammates doubts the truth of what the coach said and asks you to critique his comments. Explain what you would tell your teammate.

∙ One of your classmates is an international student from Brazil. When she learns you’re taking a course on sports, she tells you that sports are luxury items that distract people from political realities in their lives and use valuable resources that should be spent on meeting basic human needs. She wants to know what you think. List and explain at least five points that you will make in your response.

Reading 3. Year round sport participation and future career options

Reading 4. Professional football players and pov- erty rates by state

Reading 5. The World Cup and the Olympics: Who will benefit in Brazil?

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You have a job with a multi-state youth soccer organization. One of your assignments is to pre- pare a “Guide for Parents” in which, among other things, you tell parents what they can expect for their children. You include a realistic discussion of the probability that a son or daughter would receive a scholarship. However, the head of the organization tells you to take it out of the guide. Explain what you initially wrote to parents, and also explain why the head of the organization told you to eliminate it from the guide.

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(Source: © Rich Cruse/Photo courtesy of the Challenged Athletes Foundation, http://www.challengedathletes.org)

chapter

AGE AND ABILITY* Barriers to Participation and Inclusion?

10

. . . as a younger person I was never successful. I was never really good at something and when I discovered that at this age group I could win things and get recognition from it, it just really spurred me on.

—Marlene, a 66-year-old Masters swimmer (in Dionigi et al., 2013)

. . . we must demolish the false dividing line between ‘normal’ and ‘disabled’ [meaning impaired] and attack the whole concept of physical normality. We have to recognise that disablement [impairment] is not merely the physical state of a small minority of people. It is the normal condition of humanity.

—Allan Sutherland, British author, performer, and activist (1981)

I am a disabled woman interested in sport and I do not know of one disabled athlete who has made a difference in the lives of the people who are disabled in my circle of disabled friends.

—Esther, Disability Rights activist (in Braye et al., 2013)

We’re going to see a point in this century where the running times, the jumping heights, in the Paralympics, are all superior to the Olympics. The Paralympics won’t constrain technological development . . . [and] will be this exciting human- machine sport like race-car driving. It will make normal human bodies seem very boring.

—Hugh Herr, director, Biomechatronics Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012)

*Coauthored with Elizabeth Pike

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What Counts as Ability?

Constructing the Meaning of Age

Constructing the Meaning of Ability

Sport and Ability

Disability Sports

Technology and Ability

To “Dis” or Not to “Dis”

Summary: Are Age and Ability Barriers to Participation?

Chapter Outline

• Know the meaning and consequences of ableist ideology, ageism, and ableism.

• Explain the relationship between age and sport participation patterns and why older people are playing sports more frequently today.

• Distinguish between handicaps, physical impairments, and disabilities, and give examples of each.

• Understand the differences between the medical and social models of disability.

• Describe what it means to live in “the empire of the normal” for those who have a disability and want to play sports.

• Explain how the media and gender are involved in the social construction of disability.

• Identify the barriers that impact the sport participation of people with disabilities.

• Understand the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion processes involving sports and people with disabilities.

• Describe the major challenges facing disability sports, especially the Paralympics and Special Olympics.

• Explain the pros and cons associated with the use of new technologies in disability sports.

Learning Objectives

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Are you able-bodied? If so, what makes you so? If not, why not? Will you always be this way, regard- less of your age or circumstances?

Trying to answer these questions helps us real- ize that abilities are variable and impermanent. They change over time, sometimes increasing, sometimes declining. Some abilities may be very important in some situations but irrelevant in oth- ers. This means that being able-bodied is a tempo- rary and variable condition.

How able must you be to think of yourself as able- bodied? Which abilities matter the most? If you wear contacts to see more clearly, are you able-bodied or merely “passing” as such? Are you disabled if you have a prosthetic knee or hip replacement? What if your legs are amputated below the knees and you can use prosthetic legs to run faster than most of your peers with legs of flesh and bones?

Does age affect how you assess your ability? If at age twenty you are physically stronger, faster, and more coordinated than a four-year-old or a forty-four-year-old, would you consider them dis- abled? If strength, speed, and coordination have nothing to do with accomplishing a task, what does it mean to be able-bodied?

These questions force us to consider how abil- ity is defined and who defines it. For example, we might ask a person born without sight to talk about ability and learn how she understands it from her perspective. We could compare her ideas and perceptions with those who have 20/20 vision and with those who must wear glasses or contacts to see properly. Similarly, we could ask people who are eight, twenty-two, forty-five, and seventy-years- old to do the same. This would provide a good starting point for discussing the meaning of ability and the extent to which meanings vary from one perspective to another.

Fortunately, others have already done this and given us a basis for discussing how age and ability are linked with sport participation. We will use their research to explore four questions in this chapter:

1. What counts as ability, who decides this, and how do ideologies related to age and

ability influence the meaning of disability in sports?

2. How do ideas and beliefs about age and ability influence physical activity and sport participation?

3. What issues do people who are defined as “dis- abled” face when they seek or take advantage of opportunities to play sports?

4. What are the connections between human beings, technology, and ability in sports?

WHAT COUNTS AS ABILITY?

A primary theme in this book is that our lives and the social worlds in which we live are influenced by ideologies—the ideas and beliefs commonly used to give meaning to the world and make sense of experiences. In this chapter, we consider the ways that age and ability are related to sport participation. This is partly because the body is central to our sense of self and our social iden- tity (Thualagant, 2012). From an early age we learn norms for evaluating and classifying bod- ies—whether they are tall, short, fit, frail, thin, fat, attractive, unattractive, young, old, athletic, awkward, disabled, and so on. As we learn these norms, most of us maintain, modify, and fashion our bodies as part of a self-identity project.

When sports were first organized during the late 1800s and early 1900s, an emerging social psy- chological theory at that time stressed that proper physical and character development required young people to participate in organized physical activities (Addams, 1909; Cavallo, 1981; Goodman, 1979; Mrozek, 1983). At the same time, it was widely believed that people older than forty should avoid vigorous activities, including strenuous sports, and not overstress themselves, because they had passed their prime and were facing inevitable and unavoid- able physical decline.

Similarly, people with particular physical and intellectual impairments were denied access to sport participation because it was believed that vigorous activity would overexcite them and be

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dangerous for them and for others around them. As a result, persons defined as old or disabled accord- ing to standards used at the time were marginalized or excluded from physical activities and sports.

Unfortunately, the legacies of these historical practices and standards remain with us. They exist in the form of ableist ideology consisting of inter- related ideas and beliefs that are widely used to identify people as physically or intellectually dis- abled, to justify treating them as inferior, and to organize social worlds and physical spaces without taking them into account.

This ideology is common in meritocracies where people are frequently compared and ranked in terms of abilities, qualifications, and recognized achievements. As it informs everyday social inter- action, people tend to patronize, pity, patholo- gize, demean, and sometimes dehumanize those perceived to be incapable of meeting particular standards of physical or intellectual performance. Over time, ableist ideology leads to forms of social organization in which older and disabled people are marginalized and segregated from mainstream settings and activities, especially organized, com- petitive sports.

Ableist ideology is based on a rejection of physical and intellectual variation as a natural and normal part of human existence. It also ignores the fact that the meanings given to different abili- ties change from one situation to another and that everyone’s abilities vary over time and can change suddenly as a result of injury or disease.

An irony associated with ableist ideology is that those who use it to categorize others as dis- abled overlook the temporary nature of their own abilities. When people use gender, racial, or class ideologies to claim superiority over others, they usually escape being negatively evaluated by oth- ers who use them. But this is not the case with ableist ideology, because others will use it to nega- tively evaluate those who used it earlier in their lives (Harpur, 2012).

Ableist ideology is also based on the assump- tion that impairments are abnormalities, disregard- ing the fact that no mind or body works perfectly

in all situations and at all times. We might have an ideal image of a human being without any impair- ments, but such a person does not exist. Each of us is impaired in some way. This is simply part of the human condition. If we are lucky, we live our lives around our impairments without major incon- venience, we are appreciated for the abilities we have, and we avoid being labeled by others as sub- normal and disabled. When we think of our future, we hope to avoid profound impairments that pre- vent us from being who we want to be and doing what we want to do.

So if none of us is perfect and everyone who lives long enough is limited by impairments at some point during the lifecourse, how is it possible to divide people into two categories: able-bodied and disabled? Who decides which impairments count when classifying people as disabled—a term that implies a condition worse than “unable.” For example, if a ten-year-old with an impaired left arm and hand uses an adapted ski pole and skis faster and with more control than her friends, should she be classified as disabled? Who makes that decision and for what reason? Likewise, if the same ten- year-old cannot do cartwheels and backflips like her best friend but can tie her shoes one-handed and run a 5-kilometer race faster than her friend, is it appropriate to say she is a disabled runner?

These questions are meant to encourage critical thinking about the meaning of ability and disabil- ity and how we distinguish between able-bodied and disabled. They are not meant to dismiss or understate the real challenges faced by people with impairments that force them to make substantial and often difficult adjustments in their lives. Some of these challenges may also influence their oppor- tunities and choices, especially when others take a visible impairment to be a mark of general inabil- ity. But when and under what conditions does a particular impairment become a disability?

To answer these questions and understand the meaning of ability and disability in sports, it is important to know about the two “isms” that form the foundation for ableist ideology. These are age- ism and ableism.

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to those who have passed through middle age and become old. This belief is so widespread in some cultures that most people take it for granted, joke about older people, and develop a general fear of their own aging. This belief also accounts for much of the age discrimination that has become one of the most frequently reported forms of workplace discrimination in many countries today. Reported cases of age discrimination in U.S. workplaces out- number race or sex discrimination cases by three to one (Age Concern, 2006; EEOC, 2013). The irony of this in the United States is that when people in the baby-boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, were young, they were guilty of negatively stereotyping older people, and now that they are in their fifties and sixties, they are fighting against ageism and age discrimination.

Although people in the baby-boom generation saw many of their parents passively accept age dis- crimination in employment and other spheres of life and even internalize aspects of ageism, many of

Ageism

The term ageism was first used in 1969 by Robert Butler, a physician and psychiatrist who was inspired to study how older people were treated in society when his teachers in medical school used rude and sarcastic terms as they talked about older patients and their medical conditions. He grew up with his grandparents, so he was angered by this. As he learned more about the negative attitudes and stereotypes that shaped the treatment of older people in the United States, he defined ageism as an evaluative perspective that favors one age group—usually younger people—over others and justifies discrimination against par- ticular age groups that are assumed to be incapa- ble of full participation in mainstream activities. According to Butler, this perspective distorted relationships with older people and denied their abilities, both physical and intellectual.

The perspective of ageism rests on the belief that younger people are more capable than and superior

Ageism affects relationships in North America and many parts of Europe today. This leads to age segregation, especially in physical activities and sports. As a result, older people, such as these volleyball players in the 2013 U.S. National Senior Games in Cleveland, Ohio, seldom engage in sports or physical activities with younger people. (Source: © Angelo Merendino/Angelo Merendino/Corbis)

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when ableism shapes our decisions, it usually leads us to make “the world unwelcoming and inacces- sible for people with disabilities” (Hehir, 2002, p. 13). In the case of schools, says Hehir, ableism leads people, including parents and teachers, to assume that “it is preferable for a child to read print rather than Braille, walk rather than use a wheel-

chair, spell independently rather than use a spell-checker, read writ- ten text rather than listen to a book on tape, and hang out with non- disabled kids rather than with other disabled kids” (Hehir, 2005, p. 13).

In this way, ableism leads people to forget that variations in ability are a normal part of human existence, occur over time for each

of us, and exist across multiple ability dimensions. Similarly, it leads people to overlook the possibil- ity that able-bodied persons could become disabled tomorrow due to injury, disease, or other events in their lives. This means that being able-bodied is a temporary condition, and to classify people as dis- abled and able-bodied tells us little about people’s lives, even though it may be useful for political purposes and to identify special service and support needs for particular people. We know that there are many types of abilities used for many purposes, and even though it might be possible to rank people from low to high on a particular ability in a par- ticular situation or in reference to a specific task, it is impossible to have one ability-based ranking system that is meaningful across all situations and tasks, or across all sports.

So how do we decide when to use a “disability vocabulary” and what are the implications of doing so? This question will be answered in the following sections.

CONSTRUCTING THE MEANING OF AGE

Ideas and beliefs about age vary over time and from one culture to another. They even vary from one

them now defy ageist stereotypes and blur the nor- mative boundaries that limited their parents’ lives. One strategy is to critique the words that others use to describe them. For example, “the elderly,” “golden agers,” “seniors,” “senior citizens,” “the aged,” and “dear” or “honey”—terms commonly used in the past and occasionally used today—are now seen as patronizing, inaccu- rate, or based on ageist stereotypes.

Older people is the age iden- tification term preferred by older people today, because it locates age on a continuum along which peo- ple are identified as “younger” or “older,” depending on the point of reference. This approach challenges ableist ideology and recognizes that aging is a natural process and that everyone remains a person at every point along the way. This and other strategies have been effective to the point that attitudes about aging and older people are changing.

Ableism

The dominant form of ableist ideology today is also shaped by ableism, an evaluative perspective in which the label of disability marks a person as inferior and incapable of full participation in main- stream activities. People using this perspective tend to patronize, pathologize, or pity those who cannot meet particular standards of physical or intellectual ability due to a visible or inferred impairment— which is a physical, sensory or intellectual condition that potentially limits a person’s full par- ticipation in social and/or physical environments.

Over time, ableism leads to forms of social organization in which people with disabilities are marginalized and segregated from settings and activities created by those who don’t currently have a visible impairment that could mark them as disabled, that is, as a person with an impairment that is determined to cause significant functional limitations.

Thomas Hehir, director of the School Leader- ship Program at Harvard University, explains that

Being active is no longer simply an option—it is essential if we are to live healthy and fulfilling lives into old age. —U.S. Department of Health (2004, p. iii)

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strength, and make sure they had enough rest on a daily basis. Even doctors in North America and much of Europe advised older patients, especially women, to avoid depleting their energy by “doing too much.” Therefore, older people have tradition- ally avoided strenuous physical activity and even feared it as a threat to their health and well-being. For them, playing sports was out of the question because it would put too much strain on their hearts and create shoulder, back, hip, and knee problems. “Acting your age” meant being inactive for people defined as old, although the age at which a person is defined as old varies widely by ethnicity, social class, and gender both within and between societ- ies (Tulle, 2008a).

The legacy of this approach to aging remains influential, even in societies where research has shown that physical exercise will not harm older

people unless they have certain chronic conditions or are not physi- cally prepared to engage in activi- ties requiring certain levels of strength and flexibility. But we may still hear an older person say, “I’m too old to do that”—when he really means that he is not physically pre-

pared to do it, or he doesn’t want to show that he can’t do it as well as he did it in the past.

Aging as a Social and Political Issue

In most societies today, birthrates are declining and people are living longer, due to improved access to health care and rising literacy rates. In 2013, the average life expectancy worldwide was sixty- eight-years-old; for women it was seventy and for men it was sixty-six. Nearly thirty countries had an average life expectancy over eighty years old (WHO, 2013). While many people celebrate longer life expectancy, others are concerned that it will make health care and social services unsustainable at current levels of public funding.

These concerns are intensified by ageist assumptions that older people make no contribu- tions to society and ultimately are a burden that

situation to another, depending on the activities and attributes valued in particular social worlds. In societies characterized by high rates of change, youth is generally valued over age. Being “old” in such societies is associated with being inflexible, out of touch, resistant to change, and possessing outdated knowledge. When this view is combined with beliefs that aging involves physical and intel- lectual decline, many people develop negative atti- tudes about becoming older. These attitudes may then become stereotypes of the experience of being older. For example, children in North America often learn that ability is associated with youth and inability is associated with being old. Therefore, a five-year-old girl may describe her grandfather as old if he has health-related impairments and does not play with her in physically active ways. At the same time, she may describe her grandmother of the same age as young—or not old—because she enjoys physical activities and plays soccer with her in the park. Through her relation- ships and experiences, this five- year-old has learned to equate old age with inactivity and a lack of physical abilities. For her, being physically able and active is a sign of youth.

When this perception of age is widely accepted and incorporated into the general narratives and stories about aging in a culture, it perpetuates nega- tive beliefs about becoming and being old (Pike, 2013). This leads people to reduce physical activity as they age, and it supports the notion that com- munities should not be concerned about providing publicly funded opportunities for older people to be active and play sports. Under these conditions, those who wish to be active have little social sup- port and few opportunities to play active sports (Pike, 2012; Tulle, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c).

Until recently, older people in many parts of the world were expected to withdraw from everyday work routines due to their frailty and weakness, or as a reward for many years of hard work. During most of the twentieth century, older people were often told to take it easy, preserve their energy and

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. —George Bernard Shaw

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for older people. In this way, people who think that physical activity and sports are the answer to numerous social and health problems provide support for a neoliberal political and cultural ide- ology stressing that when people take personal responsibility for their own lives, most problems will be solved (Collinet and Delalandre, 2015). In connection with aging, this is one way that sports and sport science can influence political decisions that impact people’s lives.

Age, Sports, and Ability

Societies in which more than 50 percent of the population live to at least seventy years old are becoming more numerous. Cambridge Univer- sity historian Peter Laslett (1987, 1996) used the term Third Age Societies as he studied what occurs when entire populations become older. One thing that occurs is that the field of gerontology, which involves the study of aging and later life, becomes increasingly important.

Most social gerontologists today point out that while aging is an intrinsically physical process of irreversible decline, the social significance given to this process is important. In particular, their research seeks to address an imbalance in sociolog- ical research, which has been dominated by studies of youth as the future producers and consumers of society; at the same time, older people have been overlooked because they’ve been seen as having few productive and consumptive capacities. The research of social gerontologists also helps those of us in the sociology of sport to develop our own studies of age, sports, and ability, and the meanings given to sport participation at different points dur- ing the life span.

There are innumerable studies of the develop- mental implications of youth sport participation, and we have learned much about age-appropriate physical activity involvement from early childhood through adolescence (Balyi et al., 2013; CS4L, 2013). But studies of the implication and dynamics of sport participation among older people are rare. This is partly because older people are assumed to

younger people must bear (Pike, 2011). To make matters worse, these assumptions further marginal- ize older people, encourage them to be physically inactive, separate them from contexts in which they can make contributions, and deny them opportu- nities to participate in continuing education and professional development needed to maintain their contributions. Also, when ageism and ableist ideol- ogy are pervasive in a society, older people often internalize these assumptions and voluntarily with- draw from activities, ceasing to be vital members of their communities and society. As a result, age- ism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Another social and political issue that has emerged in recent years is grounded in the belief that rigorous exercise enables people to stay youth- ful because it delays and minimizes natural decre- mental changes that occur with aging. Although we still have much to learn about the effects of various forms and intensity of physical activity on the over- all well-being of older people, there are sport sci- entists and medical practitioners who confidently assert that being physically active is always a good thing—that it will extend and improve the quality of people’s lives and help them avoid the illnesses and diseases that older people often experience.1 But they don’t talk about the frequency of sport injuries and the heavy dependence on health care among older athletes who need medical assistance to continue training and competing.

This leads people to believe that if older people do become ill or have a disease, it is due to their life choice not to take care of themselves prop- erly. Evidence shows that this is not true (Tulle, 2008c). But if policy makers believe it, they are unlikely to recommend services and medical care for older people, because only “lazy and irre- sponsible” older people need them. This creates a political situation in which there is little concern about national and community-based programs

1This is an important and complex issue. It is discussed directly and in detail by Emmanuelle Tulle (2008a, 2008b, 2008c) and less directly by Elizabeth Pike (2011, 2012) and Brad Millington (2012).

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be “grown up”—that is, their growth and develop- ment are complete, so there is little reason to study physical activities and sports in their lives.

This approach is shortsighted and ignores demo- graphic data indicating that people over the age of sixty are the fastest-growing segment of the popula- tion in many societies. Additionally, as the cohorts of people turning fifty years old and older now see themselves as capable of engaging in sports and related vigorous physical activities, there is a need

Fauja Singh, a 101-year-old British amateur runner, currently holds the record for the oldest runner to complete a marathon. Here, at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013 in Mumbai, India, he participates in a 4.3-kilometer run for older people. (Source: © Divyakant Solanki/epa/Corbis)

to understand the full implications of their partici- pation. Historically, public policies and private sec- tor funding has focused on providing young people with opportunities and encouragement to partici- pate in sport activities, but the provision of oppor- tunities and encouragement for older people has largely been ignored (Pike, 2012; Tulle, 2008a).

Unsurprisingly, popular sports worldwide cel- ebrate youth and youthfulness. They often are viewed as stages on which “the future” of societies is exhibited. Sports played by older people are given little attention. Apart from seniors golf tournaments used by corporate sponsors to market products and services to wealthy, influential older men who make product choices for large corporations, there is no consistent coverage of sports involving older ath- letes. The exception is coverage in which older peo- ple make the news as novelties by being the oldest person to run a marathon or the first eighty-year-old to climb a mountain or swim across the local lake.

With this said, many of us have noticed that some elite athletes now play to older ages than in the past (Tulle, 2014). Advances in sport science have improved nutrition and training so that athletes have shorter recovery time as they continue to train intensely. Commentators often refer to the longev- ity of older players, and sponsors that want to sell products to older consumers are now willing to sup- port older athletes who retain their celebrity personas and their ability to sell products. For example, when David Beckham’s contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Major Soccer League ended in 2013, most player personnel directors for elite soccer teams around the world felt that at age thirty-eight he was too old to be of any competitive value. However, several clubs did compete to have Beckham sign a contract with them because of his commercial value. For them, “Brand Beckham” was worth sustaining, even if Beckham himself had passed his prime as a player. But in the end, Beckham decided to retire.

Emerging Ideas About Aging and Sports

The baby-boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, has until recently been the largest age-based

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their aging with hair dye, diet regimes, cosmetic surgery, drugs, and other enhancement proce- dures. Some, of course, use sport participation and exercise routines in the hope of looking younger longer—hope fostered through billions of dollars of advertising by the appearance enhancement industry (Pike, 2010).

The point here is that the sheer size of the baby-boom generation, along with its access to resources, has enabled it to have a high degree of cultural clout. And many boomers approach older adulthood with the expectation that if they wish to be active, there should be opportunities for them to do so, or else they will create those opportuni- ties on their own (Brown, 2013). In this sense they are challenging the prevailing ableist ideology and popular ideas about what is natural and normal for older people (Collinet and Delalandre, 2015; Dionigi and O’Flynn, 2007).

At the same time, older people today are chal- lenging the ways in which sports are organized. Many of them combine elements of power and per- formance with elements of pleasure and participa- tion (see Chapter 3). This provides space for people with differing interests: some focus on results, per- sonal bests, and other aspects of achievement, and others seek social experiences in settings where people are interested in doing physical things for the joy of it.

Older People Only: Age-Segregated Sports

For various reasons, some older people prefer to participate in age-segregated sports. Long-time sport participants may seek events involving peers who share their age-related interests and experi- ences, whereas new participants often avoid events involving younger people, who may not be sensi- tive to the concerns of older athletes.

A number of individual sports now sponsor mas- ters or veterans competitions. Cycling, dance, ski- ing, table tennis, tennis, and triathlon are examples. Swimming and track and field (athletics) have the longest histories of masters-level events. The first

segment of the population in the United States, the United Kingdom, and a few other countries where there was a strong sense of hope and possibility after World War II ended. This positive outlook led couples to have many children over that eighteen- year period, and demographers labeled them the Baby Boom Generation.

Over the years, baby boomers have had a strong influence on everything from the rise of popu- lar culture to the expansion of science and higher education. They also grew up with more access to youth sports, and they attended high school and college at higher rates than previous generations. Now they are in their fifties and sixties and are more physically active than people of that age were in the past. As a result, they are challenging ageist beliefs about older people. Now when active older people receive media attention, commentators are likely to describe them as part of a trend rather than novelties.

On average, baby boomers are healthier than previous generations of older people and they have more resources to continue their physical activities and sport participation. They also have been privi- leged to live during a period of economic expan- sion and were children during a time of widespread public support for sport programs. Additionally, the youngest women in this generation were the first in the United States to benefit from the oppor- tunities created by Title IX and similar gender equity laws in other countries. As these factors merged together, many baby boomers made sport participation a total family activity—something that was rare in the past. As a result, they now have more support from family and friends for continu- ing or initiating sport participation than any previ- ous older generation (Pike, 2012).

This generational shift in ideas and beliefs about age and physical activity does not mean that all older people today are physically active. In fact, the rates of physical inactivity, obesity, and related health problems are disappointingly high. Addi- tionally, some baby boomers accept ableist ideol- ogy and deny their own aging, and some others succumb to ageist stereotypes and attempt to hide

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The World Masters Games present themselves as inclusive events that focus on the health advan- tages of lifelong sport participation. They include disability sports events within the regular program, and there are many events designed for athletes of all ages with various impairments. Although these and other veteran events are becoming more popu- lar, they involve only a fraction of the older popu- lation worldwide.

Studies of middle-age and older people who participate in masters events are now helping us understand more about the role of sport partici- pation in the aging process (Dionigi, 2006, 2010, 2011; Dionigi and O’Flynn, 2007; Dionigi et al., 2011, 2013; Pike, 2012; Pike and Weinstock, 2014; Tulle, 2007, 2008b). Data from these stud- ies indicate that in most cases, continuing sport participation helps people negotiate the process of getting older. As they move from middle age to later life, they recognize and accept that the level of their performance in sports will decline, although competition remains exciting for them. Some con- stantly push themselves to excel; others might do

World Masters Swimming Championships were held in Tokyo in 1986 (Weir et al., 2010), and the same event held in Italy in 2012 attracted nearly 10,000 competitors from seventy-seven affiliated national federations.

The World Masters Games is a multi-sport event held every four years since 1995 for competi- tors over thirty-five years old. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and partners with the International Paralympic Committee to support the Olympic Movement and the sport-for- all philosophy of the Olympic Charter. In 1995, the International Masters Games Association (IMGA) was officially organized with International Federa- tions as its members. More than 8000 athletes par- ticipated in the 1983 Games, and the 2013 Games in Torino, Italy, brought together 50,000 athletes representing 100 nations to compete in thirty core sports; athletes at these events were even allowed to form multinational teams. This event attracted less media coverage and fewer spectators than the 2012 Olympic Games, but it had four times as many participants.

This is one of many three-generation entries into the 5- and 10-Kilometer Human Race in Fort Collins, Colorado, during the summer of 2013. These family members—ages 69, 44, 16, and 14—regularly run races together. (Source: © Nancy Coakley)

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involved progressively less competition and more diversity in terms of how sports were organized (Klostermann and Nagel, 2012).

It is difficult to track changes in how people inte- grate sport participation into their lives as they age, but from what we know at this time it appears that as people age, they prefer modified versions of com- petitive activities that are organized to emphasize the pleasure of movement, social experiences, and con- trolled challenges. Many older people also choose to engage in walking, swimming, strength training, yoga, tai chi, and similar activities that involve no competition or achievement tracking such as times and rankings. They take these activities seriously at the same time that they focus on health, fitness, social experiences, and the overall pleasure of par- ticipation. Evidence also indicates that some older people now choose to play physically active video games so they can exercise in the safety and comfort of their homes (Diaz-Orueta et al., 2012).

Overall it is likely that images of older people who are active, fit, healthy, and accomplished ath- letes will become more visible over time. This might inspire others to be active in ways that challenge the credibility of those who use ageism and ableism to mark older people as incapable and inferior (Pike, 2012). On the other hand, the images could be used by people with a political agenda based on ableist ideology to argue that older people who don’t meet exercise expectations should not receive public sup- port because they lack moral worth. This means that as older people become more physically active, the meanings given to age and ability can vary signifi- cantly as people promote different social and eco- nomic policy agendas.

Age, Ability, and Context

As we grow older, our age intersects with other social factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and this influences our experiences of sports in later life. For example, older white men’s experiences and opportuni- ties are very different from those of older black women; and wealthier people have more choices

so mostly when they enter a new age category and have a chance to place high in their age group in a particular event.

When these athletes talk about sports in their lives, it appears that they use them “to simultane- ously resist and accept the aging process” (Dionigi et al., 2013, p. 385). They experience stress, illness, and acute injuries, but staying in sports enables them to maintain their sense of physical compe- tence, experience social and mental stimulation, and feel resilient in the face of advancing age. They don’t want age to define them and are pleased when others do not define them in terms of age or think they look younger than they are.

Unfortunately, most of the existing research focuses on white, middle-class people, who often use a particular fitness discourse when they talk about sport participation. At this time we know little about the participation of people of color or people who lack material resources. It is likely that their par- ticipation rates are relatively low, but for those who are involved in Masters and other events, it would be useful to know the meanings they give to their experiences and how those meanings change in con- nection with aging and shifting life circumstances.

There is little doubt that veterans and masters sport programs will increase as a growing popula- tion of older people demand them and as people see them as a way to create careers and make money (Brown, 2013; Weir et al., 2010). Economic devel- opment officials in cities worldwide now see sport events for older people as a way to increase tour- ism and bring into the city people who are likely to have money to spend on hotels, restaurants, and other local tourist attractions.

Active older people are also attracted to events in which they can compete without feeling the pressure to constantly improve their performance. Instead of focusing on progressive improvement, they emphasize maintaining their physical abili- ties so they can remain active as they become older. For this reason, older people often avoid sports with high injury rates. Research in Europe has recently found that the sport participation his- tories reported by 1739 people over fifty years old

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and sport participation. Ethnicity issues are com- plex in the United States and other countries where immigrants come from a wide array of cultures and have immigration patterns that span multiple gen- erations. Patterns for first-generation immigrants from China are likely different than patterns among fifth-generation or later Chinese Americans who have ideas and beliefs about age and ability that are based on their experiences in the United States. Similarly, patterns among first- and later-generation people with Mexican ancestry will differ with their unique experiences. For the most part, research indicates that the longer an immigrant population lives in the United States, the more likely it is that their lifestyles will match those of their status peers in U.S. culture.

As noted in Chapter 9, socioeconomic status is strongly related to patterns of physical activity and sport participation in the United States. Participa- tion is perceived as a personal choice, but choices expand with a person’s financial resources. There- fore, older people who are able to maintain their lifestyles will continue with their previous physi- cal activity habits to the extent that their health and general social situation permit.

Most U.S. media images of active older peo- ple portray those who are well-off and healthy (Marshall and Rahman, 2015). The images are pri- marily in commercial ads promoting the “ideal” way to live as retired people, and that life involves cruising and jetting off to attractive tourist destina- tions and joining friends engaged in never-ending consumption of goods, services and a combination of supplements and prescription drugs. However, more than 90 percent of older people cannot live such a consumption-oriented lifestyle. Their life choices are based on limited financial resources and the accessibility of opportunities to engage in physical activities with friends. Cost, accessibil- ity, and sociability matter the most in their choices about physical activity participation (Pike, 2012). For most older people living primarily on social security and limited savings, choices outside the home are scarce or nonexistent. Research is sorely needed on this topic.

than people with few material resources. Addition- ally, the relationship between age and gender has been described as a “double jeopardy,” with older women being doubly constrained by age and gen- der (de Beauvoir, 1972). But this might more accu- rately be described as “multiple jeopardy” as we also consider the effects of race/ethnicity, socio- economic status, and other variables (see Pike, 2010, 2012).

Women have longer life expectancies than men in all societies, a social condition described as the “feminization of aging” (Davidson et al., 2011). However, statistics indicate that women are less physically active than men throughout the life span and their activity levels decline significantly in later life (Sport England, 2013; Wilińska, 2010). This is due to their continued domestic responsi- bilities in later life as they maintain their role as caregivers for grandchildren and their own parents (see Pike, 2010).

Although many sports remain male-dominated, an increasing number of women in some sectors of society see physical activity and sport participa- tion as part of an overall program to maintain their health, strength, and flexibility as they age. The pace and extent of this trend varies greatly from one society and population to another, depending on patterns of gender relations, the popularity and accessibility of personal enhancement technolo- gies, and the experiences and perspectives of older women (Pfister, 2012).

Women sometimes exercise to delay the appear- ance of aging, which reaffirms ageist ideology at the same time that it may support personal health (Tulle, 2008). Older women, particularly those with high socioeconomic status, can engage in sports activi- ties and belong to leisure clubs as a way to embrace and negotiate the aging process or as a way to fight it (Dionigi et al., 2013). This raises interesting research questions: Do those who use physical activ- ity to fight or “delay” the aging process benefit more or less, and do they drop out more or less often, than those who exercise or play sports for other reasons?

Age and gender also intersect with ethnicity and social class in connection with physical activity

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precisely defined, because they are used to identify the topics we study and the questions we pose. To that end we must also be sensitive to how others define and respond to particular words. Mistakes and oversights interfere with communication and obtaining valid information from others.

The same goes for ability’s often misunderstood sibling: disability. This point is emphasized by Damon Rose, the editor of the disability website Ouch! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/ouch/). Rose is registered as blind and understands how people with disabilities respond to the words used to identify them (Rose, 2004). For example, handi- capped is an offensive designation. For most people with a disability, handicapped means being held back, weighed down, and marked as inferior due to perceived physical or intellectual impairments. The word is based on the perspective of non-disabled peo- ple who decided that particular impairments should define the identity of those who live with them.

CONSTRUCTING THE MEANING OF ABILITY

“Ability” is a loaded concept. Different people see various abilities as essential as they view the world from their vantage point. Ask an engineer about ability, and the response will be different from what an artist or auto mechanic might say. On average, men will describe ability in terms that don’t match up with what women say, and the same goes for older and younger people, African Americans and Euro-Americans, the wealthy and the poor. Varia- tions also occur from one culture and situation to another (Spencer-Cavaliere and Peers, 2011).

You get the point: Ability is a complex phenom- enon, and its meaning shifts depending on the situ- ation and a person’s vantage point and experiences. To discuss ability, it is important that we choose our words carefully so we understand each other. In the case of science and research, words must be

Participants in running and cycling races in Scottish Highland Games have “handicaps” based on past performances. This means that in the 100-meter sprint, the starting line for a sprinter who is sixty-eight years old might be 7 meters closer to the finish line than the starting line for the national Scottish high school champion in the event. This allows men and women of all ages to compete with each other in the same event. (Source: © Mark Bryan Makela/In Pictures/Corbis)

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None of us is physically or mentally perfect, and we regularly make personal adjustments to reduce the impact of our own lack of ability. If we are lucky, we have access to support systems and assistive devices that make those adjustments more effective and less disruptive. Those of us with cor- rective lenses, for instance, may take clear vision for granted, but only because an assistive device reduces the impact of our sight impairment in our lives.

It is also important to avoid arbitrary barriers that turn our impairments into disabilities. For example, prior to the late 1990s, if your leg was amputated below the knee, you could not have been a mem- ber of your national powerlifting team, because the rules of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) stated that to be eligible for official events, a competitor doing a bench press and other com- pulsory lifts must have two feet in contact with the floor—and a prosthetic foot did not qualify as a foot. This meant that you would have been “dis’d” by the IPF—that is, disqualified due to disability. After a few dis’d athletes legally challenged this rule, it was changed so that a prosthetic leg and foot were permitted as replacements for a flesh-and- bones leg and foot.

In this example, the original IPF rule had con- verted an impairment into disability. The revised rule eliminated disability by removing the barrier that restricted participation. However, the connec- tion between impairments and abilities is often more complex than this. We saw this with Oscar Pistorius, the 100- and 200-meter sprinter from South Africa, who fought a long legal and scientific “classification” battle to qualify for participation in the 2012 Olympics as a runner with two below-the- knee prostheses. The prostheses that Pistorius wore were Flex-Foot Cheetah blades. As he set records in the Paralympics and won a world championship in track and field (athletics), Pistorius was nick- named “the blade runner” and “the fastest man on no legs.” But he was “dis’d” when the IOC and the IAAF ruled that he could not participate in the Olympic Games because his prostheses gave him an “unfair advantage” over other Olympic runners in the 100- and 200-meter sprints. After reviewing

Rose realizes that words have power and may be used to discredit people with certain attributes and perpetuate the barriers that disrupt and influ- ence their lives. This means that as we work to understand the meaning of disability in sports, it is important that we use terminology that does not unwittingly disadvantage those who already face the challenge of living with and around their physi- cal or intellectual impairments.

The definition of the term “disability” has been debated for many years by health and medical pro- fessionals, government officials, school administra- tors, physiologists, psychologists, social scientists, and those who live with physical or intellectual impairments (Harpur, 2012). This is because offi- cial definitions are used to determine who qualifies for public assistance in schools and government programs, who is protected by antidiscrimination laws, who may park in reserved areas and use des- ignated facilities, who may or may not participate in mainstream or “disability sports,” and so on.

According to the World Health Organization, definitions should be taken seriously because dis- ability “is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives” (WHO, 2011). This is relevant in connection with sports, because disability is nearly a universal aspect of experience. With rare exceptions, each of us will be impaired at some point in time in a way that lim- its how we function in everyday life—and the likeli- hood of this being permanent rather than temporary increases with age. The challenges we face when this occurs are many, and often take the form of barriers that are common features of our everyday social and physical environments. This makes it a matter of self-interest to support interventions to remove bar- riers that limit and restrict activities and participation among people with varying abilities. These barriers are present in (a) physical environments designed solely for people without movement impairments; (b) social norms and organizational structures that ignore, marginalize, or exclude people with certain impairments; and (c) personal attitudes and vocabu- lary that link disability with inferiority.

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demented, retarded, retard, and feebleminded in reference to people with intellectual impairments.

During most of the twentieth century people believed that impairment and disability were same thing. This belief was consistent with the medical approach used to understand physical and intel- lectual impairments and how to deal with them. This approach is represented by the medical model as illustrated in Figure  10.1. In this model it is assumed that the goal is to diagnose the origin of the impairment and then use medical strategies to fix, heal, cure, or correct it. If successful, the body or mind would be “normalized” and the person could rejoin mainstream society. If not success- ful, the next alternative was a rehabilitation pro- gram to help the person overcome his or her flawed condition to an extent that would permit at least partial participation in society. As these attempts were made to normalize the body or mind under the guidance of medical experts, people with dis- abilities were passive recipients of diagnoses and treatments.

The medical model of disability is based on the perspectives of those who are not impaired in ways that lead them to be classified as disabled. But it has remained popular for two reasons. First, many peo- ple continue to accept ableist ideology and see dis- ability as an individual condition in need of expert diagnosis and treatment. Second, a massive industry has been built around this approach, and it prospers

considerable research evidence and deliberating for nearly a year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport concluded that the carbon-fiber devices used by Pistorius did not give him a net advantage in his events.

The Pistorius case attracted massive media cov- erage, and it raised many issues about the meaning of ability and disability in sports. These issues are important, but most people with physical impair- ments are concerned with more basic and practi- cal matters, such as access to sport participation opportunities, adaptive sports equipment, knowl- edgeable coaches, barrier-free facilities, transpor- tation to and from practice and competitions, and basic support for training.

The Emerging Meaning of Disability

The discussion of ability in this chapter is based on the hope that we will gradually replace the cur- rent language of disability with a new language of ability that focuses on making sure that no one is denied human rights due to their physical or intel- lectual abilities (Harpur, 2012). At the same time it also is important to know that the terms disability and disabled were first used by people who wanted to replace widely used negative terms such as freak, deformed, invalid, cripple, gimp, lame, spaz, spas- tic, and handicapped in reference to people with physical impairments, and imbecile, idiot, lunatic,

FIGURE 10.1 Medical model of disability.

Special training programs

Impairment is the problem

Ultimate goal: Fix impairments People with disabilities are

passive recipients of treatment

Benefits agencies

Group homes

Segregated activities

Community mental health teams

Specialists

Diagnosis

Doctors

Surgeons

Psychiatrists

Drug treatment

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solution rather than a personal trouble in need of medical treatment. The focus on treatment and reha- bilitation shifted to a focus on political actions that confronted barriers created by negative attitudes, poorly organized and managed social arrangements, and thoughtlessly designed physical environments. The goal implied by the social model was cultural and environmental transformation instead of medi- cal and pharmacological fixes.

Embracing the social model of disability did not mean that individuals no longer sought medi- cal assistance and treatment to ameliorate the pain or inconvenience caused by impairments. But it did mean that problems caused by disability were most effectively solved through social and cultural change (Couser, 2009; Oliver, 1983, 1990).

The social model identified barriers as the prob- lem and removing them as the goal. For over two decades, this approach unified people in the “disabil- ity community” who shared common experiences of oppression and misrepresentation across all disability categories (Beauchamp-Pryor, 2011; Shakespeare and Watson, 2002).

The social model inspired changes worldwide. Locating disability in culture and society rather

when the primary goal is to fix or rehabilitate bodies and minds. Both these reasons ignore the possibil- ity that impairments are a normal part of the human condition and that they are converted into disabili- ties by a combination of negative attitudes, stereo- types, and barrier-filled social arrangements and built environments.

Disability rights activists in the 1960s rejected the passivity prescribed for them by the medical model. An alternative to this model was presented in 1983, when Mike Oliver, a disability studies scholar in England, introduced and advocated the use of a social model to conceptualize and under- stand disability (see Figure  10.2). Oliver argued that the experience of being disabled was actually a product of social oppression rather than a the result of personal defect requiring a medical “fix” to become “normal” (Oliver, 1983, 1990).

People with disabilities already considered them- selves to be normal and resented being seen as flawed and inferior. From their perspective, impair- ment was a fact of life but their disability was caused by the social and cultural responses to various physi- cal and intellectual impairments. Therefore, dis- ability became a social issue in need of a political

FIGURE 10.2 Social model of disability.

Ultimate goal: Make changes in the world People with disabilities are agents of change

Distorted media coverage

Prejudiced attitudes

Ableist ideology

Lack of inclusion

“Cure” givers

Fear

Building design

Social isolation

Charity based on pity

Job locations inaccessible

No accessible transportation

Over protective family

Inaccessible schools

General ignorance

No interpreters

Stereotyping

Poverty

Costly services

Poor job prospects

Assumed limitations

Patronizing attitudes

Limited housing choices

Disabling world

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and if the league does not have to make burden- some changes or fundamentally alter its game rules to accommodate her participation. Additionally, if tryouts are required for everyone wanting to play in a program, the girl with the brace may not be pro- hibited from trying out because of her impairment. However, she may be cut if she does not meet the physical skills standards applied to everyone being assessed. The coach may not require that all play- ers on the team must run without a limp, but she may say that being able and willing to run at a rea- sonable pace is a standard requirement for team membership.

Unfortunately, the fiscal austerity policy approach that has become common in many coun- tries following the global economic crisis has undermined many of the hard-won changes inspired by the social model. This situation and criticisms of the model have fragmented the disability com- munity and enabled people with neoliberal political agendas to revive the medical model and its empha- sis on the need for people to be personally respon- sible for keeping and making themselves well. As a result, programs for people with disabilities have been severely cut or eliminated. Even military vet- erans with severe impairments caused by injuries sustained in recent wars have seen their programs downsized or eliminated. As this continues there are renewed calls for a revival of political action based on the social model (Oliver, 2013; Oliver and Barnes, 2012).

The Meaning of Ability Differences

Before reading this book, what would have hap- pened if you had been asked to close your eyes and imagine five different sport scenes? Would one or more of those scenes have involved athletes with a disability? Unless you have played disability sports or seen them played by others, it is unlikely that any scene would have included athletes with a disability.

This imagination exercise is not meant to evoke guilt. Our views of the world are based on personal experiences; and our experiences are influenced by

than in the bodies and minds of individuals shifted the focus from rehabilitation to full access, from charity to opportunity, and from risky surgeries to dependable support systems.

As people learned more about disabling barriers built into the structure of everyday life, they called for changes that acknowledged normal variations in human abilities. They realized that they could not eliminate the paralysis caused by a spinal cord injury, but that it was possible to provide wheel- chairs to people with those injuries and make sure that the physical environment was designed to accommodate wheelchairs.

The political activism fueled by the social model was liberating and empowering for people with impairments. To focus on social oppression rather than their own bodies as the problem served to legitimize previously repressed anger and boost their sense of self-worth. Fighting for rights rather than depending on charity was fulfilling. Most important, their actions led to the passage of new laws mandating accessibility and prohibiting able- ism and discrimination. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a pri- mary example of such a law.

The ADA was passed and signed into law by President George Bush in 1990. It stated that all programs and facilities that are open to everyone must also be open to people with disabilities unless such access creates direct threats to the health and safety of the people involved. When applied to sports this means that people with disabilities must be allowed to participate in programs open to everyone as long as they and the accommodations they require do not threaten the health and safety of other players, cause “undue burden” for the spon- soring organization, or fundamentally change the sport being played (Block, 1995).

Threats to health and safety must be real, based on objective information, and unavoidable, even after reasonable efforts have been made to eliminate them. For example, if a child wears a metal brace to stabilize a leg impaired by cerebral palsy, she must be allowed to play in a youth soccer league if the brace can be covered so it will not hurt anyone

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(“para” meaning parallel with, not paraplegic). Words like retard, spaz (spastic), cripple, freak, deaf and dumb, handicapped, and deformed have been driven out of favor. But comments such as “She’s a quad,” “They’re amputees,” and “What a retard!” can still be heard on occasion.

Improvements have occurred, but when people with a disability are defined as “others,” encountering them often forces people to deal with their vulnerabil- ity, aging, and mortality. And when it challenges their faulty assumptions about normalcy around which they have constructed their social worlds, it can be very upsetting. Therefore, those identified as physi- cally and intellectually “normal” often ignore, avoid, or patronize people with a disability. This reproduces ableism and undermines the possibility of abandoning ableist ideology.

The fear of “otherness” is powerful, and people in many cultures traditionally restrict and manage their contact with “others” by enlisting the services of experts. These include doctors, mental health workers, psychiatrists, healers, shamans, witch doc- tors, priests, exorcists, and all professionals whose assumed competence gives them the right to examine, test, classify, and prescribe “normalizing treatments” for “impaired others.” Therefore, the history of dis- ability is also the history of giving meaning to differ- ence, creating “others,” and using current and limited knowledge to treat “otherness” (Foucault, 1961/1967; Goffman, 1961, 1963).

Disability activist and writer Thomas Couser points out that by defining people with physical and intellectual impairments as others, we margin- alize them and create for ourselves the illusion that we live in a normal reality. The implications of this are explored in the Reflect on Sports box “Living in the Empire of the Normal.”

Media Constructions of DisAbility

Disability sports receive little media coverage apart from the Paralympic Games, which may be given some coverage in newspapers and televi- sion programming, but this occurs only once every two years (Schantz and Gilbert, 2012). World

the meanings given to age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, disability, and other socially significant characteristics in our culture. Neither culture nor society forces us to think or do certain things, but the only way to mute their influence is to critically examine them and learn the ways in which cultural meanings and social organization create constraints and opportunities in people’s lives, including people with a disability. Once these things are known, strategies for disrupting them can be created.

Consider the case of Danny: At the age of twenty- one he was a popular and highly skilled rugby player. Then came the accident, the amputation of his right arm just below the shoulder, the therapy, and even- tually, getting back with friends. But reconnecting with friends after suddenly becoming impaired was not easy. Danny described his experience with these words: “A lot of them found it very difficult . . . to come to terms with it . . . And they found it hard to be around me, friends that I’d had for years” (in Brittain, 2004b, p. 437; see also Smith, 2013).

Chris, an athlete with cerebral palsy and one of Danny’s teammates on the British Paralympic Team, explains why his friends felt uncomfortable: “They have very little knowledge of people with a disabil- ity, and they think that if they leave me alone, don’t come in contact with me, and don’t get involved, its not their problem” (in Brittain, 2004b, p. 437).

Chris raises a recurring issue in the history of disability: What happens when people define physi- cal or intellectual impairments as “differences” and use them to create a category of “others” who are distinguished from “us normals” in social worlds?

Throughout history, people with disabilities have been described by words that connote revul- sion, resentment, dread, shame, and limitations. In Europe and North America, it took World War II and thousands of returning soldiers impaired by injuries to raise widespread concerns about the words used to describe people with disabilities. Language changed. Today people with intellec- tual disabilities now have the Special Olympics as a participation option. Elite athletes with physi- cal disabilities may qualify for the Paralympics

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legs” and the athletes who used them were covered as if they were new models of race cars and drivers. But wheelchairs received less coverage and the ath- letes using them were regularly described as “wheel- chair bound” rather than wheelchair users. The inference in this coverage was that wheelchairs were confining, whereas the artificial legs were liberating, even transforming. For the commentators viewing these devices from their vantage point in the empire of the normal, this is not surprising. Sleek, effi- cient legs were for them supernormalizing, whereas through ableist eyes the wheelchair, even a $10,000 racing chair, remained an indicator of disability.

Carla Silva and David Howe at Loughborough University in England were led to similar conclu- sions by their research (Silva and Howe, 2012). They found that media coverage of Paralympic ath- letes often represented them as “supercrips” who have overcome astonishing odds to do what they do. This was also true in two promotional media campaigns they analyzed—one in Portugal and one in the United Kingdom. The former focused on Portuguese Superatleta—“super athletes”—and used a Superman “S” in the campaign logo. Media ads depicted a person in a wheelchair negotiating his way around an illegally parked car that blocked sidewalk access—as if disability mysteriously infused power into his body. The UK campaign was titled Freaks of Nature, and it was launched by a major commercial television company want- ing to hype the “staggering ability” of Paralympic athletes at the upcoming 2012 Paralympic Games.

Both campaigns created controversies. Silva and Howe explain that this wasn’t surprising, because there is little consensus on how to represent dis- ability in sport events. In the absence of public discourse about the meaning of disability and the experiences of people who face disability in their everyday lives, media people did not know how to talk about it, much less present it to a commercial television audience seeking entertainment.

Silva and Howe fear that the supercrip narra- tives currently used when covering the Paralym- pics may reaffirm the neoliberal ableist idea that it is up to people with disabilities to overcome them

championships and other major events receive little or no mainstream media coverage.

People who make programming decisions for commercial media assume that covering disability sports is a money-losing proposition. Additionally, most media people have never played or even seen disability sports, and they lack the words and expe- riences that would enable them to provide coverage that might build a media audience.

Research shows that when disability sports have been covered in mainstream media, athletes often are portrayed as “courageous victims” or “heroic supercrips” who engage in inspiring athletic per- formances (Schantz and Gilbert, 2012; Silva and Howe, 2012; Tynedal and Wolbring, 2013). Soci- ologist Ian Brittain (2004) analyzed this coverage and found that media images and narratives usually fell into one of the following categories:

Patronizing: “Aren’t they marvelous!” Curiosity: “Do you think she can really do that?” Tragedy: “On that fateful day, his life was changed forever.” Inspiration: “She’s a true hero and a model for all of us.” Mystification: “I can’t believe he just did that!” Pity: “Give her a hand for trying so hard.” Surprise: “Stay tuned to see physical feats you’ve never imagined!”

Images and narratives organized around these themes construct disability in terms of the medi- cal model—focused on personal impairments that must be overcome. This leads people to ignore why particular social meanings are given to disabili- ties and how they shape the lives of people with specific impairments (Brittain, 2004; Smith and Thomas, 2005). As a result, media coverage often perpetuates the ableist belief that disabilities are abnormalities and that people with disabilities have identities based on abnormalities.

Media coverage of the 2012 Paralympics in London highlighted certain technologies used by athletes (Wolbring, 2012b). Artificial “running

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Mainstream media images of bodies in contemporary cultures highlight healthy, fit, and traditionally attractive models with no visible impairments. Images of impaired bodies are rare, except in notices for fund-raising events to “help the disabled”—usually children shown in vul- nerable situations. Only recently have a few people with physical impairments been positively represented in pop- ular media, and most have been skilled athletes. But this is a typical pattern in the “Empire of the Normal,” where people with impaired bodies or minds are exiled to the margins of the Empire and controlled by medical experts and “rehab” programs (Couser, 2000, 2009; Goffman, 1961, 1963).

Visible impairments in the Empire of the Normal require polite responses as residents of the Empire repeat- edly ask: What happened to you? Why are you this way? Why are you not like me and everyone else in the Empire? Answering these questions is the price of admis- sion into the Empire. Knowing this, people with visible impairments develop “body stories”—narratives that account for their abnormality in a manner that prevents

them from being exiled before they complete their busi- ness in the Empire. But completing business often is difficult because the story must be told again and again and again. As a result, their identity comes to be shaped around their impairment rather than their abilities or other traits (Thomson, 2000, 2009).

When people with visible impairments play sports in the Empire, it is usually on the invitation of an estab- lished resident, or on the recommendations of a medi- cal expert—physical therapist, doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist. In fact, the first version of what we now call Paralympic sports was created in a British medical center for war veterans with spinal cord injuries. Ludwig Guttmann, the neurosurgeon who founded the center, felt that playing sports was effective rehabilitation ther- apy for patients. When he scheduled these events to be played publicly at the same time that the 1948 Olympic Games were being staged in London, he was described as a radical. His action had disrupted the Empire of the Normal and forced its residents to encounter bodies with serious physical impairments. This violated the Empire

Living in the Empire of the Normal

on their own so they can live normal lives like “the rest of us.” Alternatively, Silva and Howe hope that future coverage will represent Paralympic athletes with a narrative emphasizing that physical differ- ence is a naturally occurring phenomenon that cre- ates for each of us an opportunity to accommodate those differences in ways that make our families, schools, communities, and societies more humane and inclusive.

The Special Olympics for people with intellec- tual disabilities presents a slightly different chal- lenge to journalists and commentators, because events are organized as competitive at the same time that they emphasize the importance of par- ticipation over winning. For example, a study of the television news coverage of the 2009 National Special Olympics in Great Britain found that

commentators used complex and “mixed” mes- sages in their representations of the event (Carter and Williams, 2012). They sustained a relentlessly “positive” tone in their comments, focused on human interest stories, ignored larger social and political issues related to disabilities, and tended to become emotional and use words like courageous and inspirational when they interviewed family members of the athletes. However, the researchers stated that the commentators did a reasonably good job, given that they had little experience or training preparing them to discuss learning disability issues or to interview people with varying intellectual abilities.

Despite misguided media representations, most athletes with a disability will accept coverage con- taining misrepresentations over no coverage. Like

reflect on S P O R T S

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meaning of physical disabilities in their lives. This is illustrated in the following stories about Anna, Nick, and Mark, all of whom have participated in research projects on disability.

Anna was born with underdeveloped arms and feet. Despite encouragement and support from a close friend, she resisted going to the gym and becoming involved in sports. She explained her resistance in the following way:

I really wanted to go—inside, I was dying to be physical, to have a go at “pumping iron”. . . But at the time I just couldn’t say yes . . . I was too ashamed of my body. . . . It was the same thing with swimming. I just couldn’t bear the thought of people looking at me. I felt really vulnerable (in Hargreaves, 2000, p. 187).

other athletes, they want to be acknowledged for their physical competence. But they also hope that their visibility and accomplishments will challenge traditional stereotypes and make people aware of issues related to ableism and the need for inclusion in all spheres of society. For this to occur, and to avoid replacing negative stereotypes with a simi- larly unrealistic supercrip stereotype, people in the media need guidance to provide coverage from vantage points outside the empire of the normal.

Gendering DisAbility

In cultures where femininity is associated with physical attractiveness and sexual desirability, and masculinity is associated with power and strength, gender shapes the ways people negotiate the

norm, “Out of sight, out of mind,” which had always been respected in the past.

It is rare for people with physical or intellectual impair- ments to play sports in the Empire because there is a short- age of accessible opportunities, resources for transportation, adapted equipment, knowledgeable coaches, and programs designed to support their achievement and success. Even when opportunities are available, decisions to take them are influenced by responses anticipated from residents of the Empire: How will they define my body? Will they treat me as an athlete or patronize me as a courageous cripple?

Research in the Empire indicates that people identi- fied as disabled define and give meaning to their sport participation as they integrate sport experiences into their lives. When their participation is treated by people from the Empire as trivial or “second class,” they can develop self-doubt and a sense of inferiority. Patron- izing and artificial praise create anger, disappointment, and loneliness. But when people are genuinely support- ive, take players’ participation seriously, and appreciate their skills, it builds confidence and confirms a sense of

normalcy, which often is fragile and unstable in the con- fines of the Empire.

Because power and performance sports are given high priority in the Empire of the Normal, athletes with physi- cal impairments often are discouraged from playing with or alongside athletes residing in the Empire. Instead, they play in “special” programs with others like them, and this influences the meanings they give to their experiences.

In recent years, athletes with physical or intellectual disabilities have seen their sports as sites for challenging dominant body images and expectations in the Empire of the Normal. Developing sport skills, many hope, is a way to break through the walls of the Empire and discredit residents who accept ableist ideology and believe that until impaired bodies are fixed they should not play in the Empire (Thomson, 2002).

At this point in time, it is difficult to say that residents of the Empire will abandon arrangements that privilege them in a manner they’ve come to expect. So what will it take for the Empire to pull down its walls and work to achieve inclusion?

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back, and “laid him out.” Not being able to do so led him to say, “Now I’m useless . . . my manhood has been shattered” (in Sparkes and Smith, 2002, p. 269).

Although Mark did not use the same words that Anna used, they each felt vulnerable due to cul- tural definitions of gender. Some men with a dis- ability who feel vulnerable might, like Anna, avoid participating in sports, whereas others might view sports as sites for asserting or reaffirming their masculinity.

Sociologists Brett Smith and Andrew Sparkes (2002) point out that people create their identities, including gender identities, through narratives— that is, the stories that show and tell others about themselves. Their research indicates that playing power and performance sports is consistent with a narrative in which manhood is constructed through physical accomplishments and dominance over other men.

When traditional gender narratives are not criti- cally assessed, and when alternative or opposi- tional narratives are not available, both women and men with certain physical impairments will experi- ence challenges related to ability and participation in sports. Women might avoid participation for fear that their bodies will be seen as unfeminine, and men might avoid participation for fear that they will not be able to assert themselves and overpower other men. Therefore, anyone dealing with physi- cal impairment and disability benefits by having access to counter-narratives that construct gender in more inclusive terms.

When there are multiple ways to be a woman or a man, people with visible disabilities have more options for negotiating the meanings that they and others give to their bodies. This was documented in a study of women wheelchair users playing sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball, and table ten- nis (Apelmo, 2012). The women challenged ste- reotypical notions of gender in sport by displaying determination, strength, and risk taking, while simul- taneously embodying a more traditional femininity in resisting the widespread view of disabled women as non-gendered and asexual. Such an approach might

Anna’s fear of her body being seen and judged is not unique. Negotiating the meanings that we and others give to our bodies is a complex and challeng- ing process. Women who accept dominant gender ideology often make choices that reduce their sport participation. For example, a young woman with an amputated leg might choose a prosthesis that is more natural looking, rather than one that is more functional and better suited to playing sports. As one woman explained, “It’s one thing to see a man with a Terminator leg . . . . It may inspire people to say, “Cool.” But body image for women in this country is model thin and long sexy legs” (Marriott, 2005).2

Nick, a twenty-year-old American college student whose legs had to be amputated after he contracted a rare bacterial disease when he was fourteen, agrees with this explanation. He wears Terminator legs and loves them. He points out that whenever his legs run short on their charge, he doesn’t hesitate to plug them into the nearest electrical outlet.

Even though Nick has no problem with people seeing his “Terminator legs,” he and other men with a disability face a challenge when negotiat- ing the meaning of masculinity in the face of a dis- abling physical impairment. This is especially true in the case of men who accept a gender ideology that ties masculinity to physical strength and the ability to outperform or dominate others. An exam- ple is provided by Mark.

AS a young man whose legs were paralyzed by an accident, Mark explains that his ideas about masculinity make dealing with his impairment especially difficult. For example, after filling his car with fuel and putting his wheelchair in the back, his car had an ignition problem and Mark could not start the engine. A man waiting for the pump impatiently honked his horn and shouted obscenities out his window. Mark said that before his accident he would have turned around, walked

2“Terminator leg” is how some people refer to the cyborg-like appearance of hi-tech, battery-powered prosthetic legs that have not been disguised to look like flesh and bone, so-called after the cybernetic character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film The Terminator and its many sequels.

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SPORT AND ABILITY

Sports are often at the center of inclusion battles involving people with impairments (LeClair, 2012). This is due to three factors:

1. Sports are highly visible and culturally valued activities, and sport participation is seen as self-affirming as well as a way to gain social acceptance.

2. It is widely believed that sport participation is important for personal and health development, because it teaches valuable lessons about hard work, teamwork, and task accomplishment at the same time that it prevents obesity and improves physical function across multiple body systems.

3. Sports are increasingly organized to be exclu- sive on the basis of ability, and resources for sports are disproportionately allocated to elite training and competition.

Activists have worked at regional, national, and global levels for a number of years to make sport participation a right for all people, including those with a disability. This influenced the pas- sage of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which clearly placed sport within the usual activities of citizenship and led to calls for accessibility in all sport places and spaces, increased funding, supportive policies, appropriate programs, effective disability organi- zations, and the involvement of people with a dis- ability in positions of power and influence in sport organizations.

At this point, the primary barriers to regular sport participation faced by people with disabilities include the following:

∙ Little encouragement and guidance for early physical skills development that is age- appropriate and ability-appropriate

∙ Few gymnasiums and other facilities that are fully accessible

∙ Irregular and inconvenient public transportation for people with a disability

enable women like Anna to become more physical and have a go at pumping iron, and it might enable Mark to accept help without feeling that he is sacri- ficing his manhood in the process.

A visible impairment often arouses curiosity and leads others to ask, “What happened [to you to make you different from ‘normal’ people]?” People with physical impairments answer this question with a story that explains “why my body is different from your body.” If this occurs regularly, identity may become linked with impairment and it becomes difficult to be recognized for more meaningful and important dimensions of self. To be known primarily in connection with impairment creates limitations and loneliness—it is disabling. Having older role models helps deal with this issue. (Source: Photo courtesy of the Challenged Athletes Foundation, http://

www.challengedathletes.org)

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∙ Too many one-time opportunities and events and too few regularly scheduled programs for participation, training, and competition

∙ A shortage of expertise in creating participation opportunities that people with a disability per- ceive as welcoming

∙ Overprotective family members and a lack of family resources to support regular participation

∙ Few advocates with the power and influence to mandate the elimination of barriers

∙ Scarcity of institutionalized sources of year-round information and resources to support participation

These barriers are common worldwide, but they are especially prominent in developing countries where resources are scarce and few people listen to the voices of people with impairments (Bickenbach, 2011; WHO, 2011). As disability rights activists have won incremental success in wealthy, democratic coun- tries, there is a widening gap between the life chances of disabled people in poor versus wealthy countries. Physical education and sport-for-all programs are luxuries that can seldom be afforded in the least devel- oped parts of the world, where access isn’t even an issue because sport facilities and programs are non- existent. Additionally, most people with physical or intellectual impairments in poor countries must focus all their personal energy and time on survival.

Religion, culture, language, and the lingering influence of colonialism may also create barriers in many parts of the world. At this point there is limited research investigating the dynamics of dis- ability in parts of the world where poverty, political instability, and wars have undermined possibilities for organized sports, including disability sports. However, in those areas sports may exist sporadi- cally in spaces created by informal collections of people, most often boys or men seeking an oppor- tunity to play (see http://archive.noorimages.com /series/1.34).

Exclusion and Inclusion

Sports are accompanied by mixed messages when it comes to inclusion and exclusion. On the one hand,

popular discourse and beliefs grounded in the great sport myth emphasize that sports are sites at which social barriers disappear as people come together and establish constructive forms of social integra- tion and cooperation. On the other hand, sports usu- ally are organized as exclusive activities in which the majority of hopeful participants are cut or mar- ginalized. Additionally, players often express nega- tive attitudes toward opponents, spectators loudly express their dislike or hatred for opposing teams and fans, and venues hire security forces to try to prevent extreme fan violence that can cause death and destruction.

It is useful to remember this when thinking about inclusion and exclusion in connection with ability and disability: we must seek as much evi- dence as possible. This is especially important because some people, including some researchers, tend to become emotional and see only positive things when witnessing sport programs that bring together participants.

From a sociological perspective, processes of exclusion and inclusion always involve power rela- tions. The situations in which these processes occur are organized around norms and traditions that influ- ence or determine who is welcome and who is not. Norms and power relations also influence interac- tion between those who are included, and even regu- late the limits of participation for particular people.

Exclusion and inclusion can occur formally or informally. For example, students in wheelchairs in U.S. high schools know that they are excluded from tryouts for the school basketball team just as they have been informally excluded by their peers who play intramurals and pickup games after school. Norms and expectations have been devel- oped by officials in the empire of the normal. For them, sports for students with a disability are an “extra”—something out of the ordinary, that would disrupt existing schedules for “normal” students and require coaches to have specialized knowl- edge. For these reasons, only a handful of U.S. secondary schools and universities have sports for students using wheelchairs or in need of adaptive equipment. Although the National Federation of

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A young person with cerebral palsy expressed the importance of these opportunities with these words (in Taub and Greer, 2000, pp. 406, 408):

[Playing games] makes me feel good ’cause I get to be with everybody . . . [We can] talk about how our day was in school while we play. Playing basketball is something that I can do with my friends that I never thought I could do [with them], but I can, I can!

Responses to Exclusion When people lack power, they usually respond to systemic and pervasive exclusion with resignation or by seeking contexts in which they feel welcome (Wolbring et al., 2010). Sometimes they find support by aligning themselves with others who have been excluded, or they might accept isolation and the self-doubts that accompany it. Over time, those who are excluded become invis- ible. In the case of students with a disability, this occurs regularly.

Students with a disability seldom see them- selves participating in school sports. For example, when Bob Szyman left his position as secretary general of the International Wheelchair Basket- ball Federation (IWBF) to teach special education and physical education in Chicago, his goal was to establish a wheelchair basketball league for city high schools. But his biggest challenge was finding students and parents who were excited about such a league. Students with disabilities had no expecta- tions, and there was no wheelchair sport culture in the schools. Additionally, there were no adminis- trators, teachers, or coaches asking why there were no “paravarsity teams” in their district or schools. When Szyman, who now teaches at Chicago State University, organized wheelchair sports camps and competitions, the participants went out of their way to thank him, but they didn’t ask why their schools had no sports programs for them. They were so accustomed to exclusion that they had no expectations to be included. Over the past decade, Szyman has had some success in establishing adaptive sport opportunities, but a high school league has not been organized.

Another way of responding to exclusion is illustrated by Tatiana McFadden, who has won

State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) may give token recognition to sports for athletes with a disability, the exclusion of disabled students from school sports is systemic, pervasive, and pos- sibly illegal.

Young people with a disability generally have only two options if they wish to play sports: find an organized adapted sports program, or play informal games in which peers are willing and able to develop adaptations. Few communities have adapted youth sport programs, and informal games seldom include young people with the skills needed to make accom- modations for a peer with a disability. The dilemma this presents was noted by a ten-year-old boy with cerebral palsy when he said that other kids like him, “but  .  .  . if I’m trying to get in a game without a friend, it’s kind of hard” (in Taub and Greer, 2000, p. 406). In other words, without a friend who has enough power with peers and enough experience with disabilities to facilitate a process of adaptation and inclusion, this ten-year-old does not play sports.

Other children with a disability have described their experiences in these ways (in Taub and Greer, 2000, p. 406):

“[Kids] try and shove me off the court, [and] tell me not to play.”

“They just don’t want me on their team.” “There’s a couple of people that won’t let me

play.” In a study of fifty-three European hearing-

impaired athletes, the participants reported that competing with hearing athletes increased their opportunities for competition. Participating in sports with hearing athletes played an important role in the integration of hearing-impaired athletes into mainstream society. If adaptations to commu- nication can be made in these integrated settings, it will greatly increase participation by athletes with certain impairments (Kurková et al., 2011).

Unless these opportunities occur, children with a disability miss opportunities to make friends and participate in activities that have “normalizing” effects in cultures where sports often are contexts for gaining social acceptance and self-validation.

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social distances and resource gaps that lead people to think in terms of us and them

∙ Creating contexts in which previously excluded people can see that they are valued, respected, and contributing members of a group or community

∙ A proactive, developmental approach to social well-being in which people are supported in connection with their needs

∙ Recognition of the reality of diversity as well as the commonality of people’s lived experiences and shared aspirations

This means that achieving and sustaining inclu- sion requires sensitivity, knowledge, experience, and hard work. It is an ongoing process rather than a destination, and if people forget to sustain it, back- sliding to previous forms of exclusion is likely.

Inclusion of people with disabilities is man- dated in the United States by the 1973 Rehabilita- tion Act. Similar to the mandate for gender equity brought about by Title IX (see Chapter 7), this Act applied to all programs receiving federal aid and stated that people with disabilities could not be denied benefits or opportunities received by other citizens. As with Title IX, it was not fully enforced because people in the empire of the normal claimed that they didn’t understand it. This led to the pas- sage in 1990 of the ADA, which mandated access and equity in more specific terms and applied to private as well as public facilities. For example, access was an issue when a building had stairs but no elevator, when streets had curbs that prevented wheelchair mobility, when there were no ramps to doorways and walkways, and when restrooms and toilets were clearly impossible to use by people with a disability. “Access” issues were usually easy to see, but equity was another matter—again, similar to Title IX and gender equity. Those who objected to making changes continued to claim ignorance about the exact meaning of equity.

After the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a research report showing that stu- dents with a disability were generally denied an equal opportunity to participate in school sport

ten Paralympic medals in wheelchair racing and won the gold medal in the marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London a week after winning the Boston Marathon race. McFadden was born with spina bifida in Russia. Both of her legs were paralyzed, and her mother, who had no means of caring for Tatiana, left her in an orphanage, where she used only her hands to scoot around for the first six years of her life. Near death, Tatiana was noticed by Deborah McFadden, a U.S. Department of Health official who was visiting Russian facili- ties. McFadden adopted her and used sports to help strengthen her. At eight years old, Tatiana began racing in her wheelchair. But when she went to high school, she was told she could not participate on the track team because her chair gave her an advantage over other runners and was a danger to them as they raced. This left her to race around a track alone in a “special competition,” which was meaningless and embarrassing.

Tatiana knew her rights, and she sued the school district and won the right to race on the track with runners, although her time did not count for her team. When she graduated, she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she could train in a disability sport program—the best among only a few university programs. Today she is known world- wide as a premier woman wheelchair distance racer as well as an activist who fights for disability rights in sports.

The Emerging Meaning of Inclusion Inclu- sion is the new buzzword in social worlds where various forms of diversity are common. However, people in the empire of the normal often use the term without knowing that it means much more than simply removing boundaries and barriers. They don’t understand that hanging up a “Now Open” sign after years of systemic exclusion will not bring about real inclusion.

Social inclusion is a complex process involving the following (Donnelly and Coakley, 2002):

∙ Investments and strategies that create the con- ditions for inclusion by closing physical and

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what inclusion means for their park and recreation programs. Officials in youth sports have seldom thought about these issues. And what does inclusion mean for the relationship between the Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games (Wolbring et al., 2010)? The politics associated with answering these questions are significant. For example, in the case of the Paralympics and Olympics, some people have adjusted to and succeeded in the currently separate programs and want to keep them that way. Others want them merged so that events from each would be held simultaneously instead of scheduling the Paralympics to follow the Olympic Games. Still oth- ers think that the technologies allowed in the Para- lympics will enable athletes to surpass the records of Olympians and that the Paralympics will eventually become the premier global sport event. However, in the meantime there will continue to be situations in which some athletes with a disability are “too able” for disability-specific sports programs but “not able enough” for mainstream sports programs.

Sport as a Cause of Disability

In Chapter 6, we discussed sports as sites at which disabling injuries occur. Such injuries occur partly because sports involve physical challenges in which risks are inherent. This cannot be avoided, although there are ways to control risks in most sports. But controlling risks is difficult when sports and sport performances are closely linked with issues of masculinity. This inserts physical risk into the identity formation process for males and it influences how they view what happens to their bodies in sports.

The cultural dynamics associated with risk, pain, and injury were outlined in Chapter 5 in the discussion of the sport ethic. To the degree that establishing and maintaining an athlete identity is important in a person’s life, overconforming to the norms of the sport ethic becomes an identity strat- egy that takes priority over risk-control strategies. “Paying the price” by enduring pain and injuries is normalized, even though it increases the chance of sustaining potentially disabling injuries.

programs and therefore denied the health and social benefits of athletic participation, U.S. Edu- cation Secretary Arne Duncan issued an equity “guideline” letter in January 2013 (Duncan, 2013; Galanter, 2013; Resmovits, 2013). It told all school officials that because “sports can provide invalu- able lessons in discipline, selflessness, passion, and courage,” they must make sure that “students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to benefit from the life lessons they can learn on the playing field or on the court” (see Galanter, 2013). Secre- tary Duncan also provided specific examples of the types of “reasonable modifications” that officials must consider in connection with “existing policies, practices, or procedures for students with intellec- tual, developmental, physical, or any other type of disability.” Examples included the following:

∙ Using a visual cue in addition to a starter pistol so that students with a hearing impairment who are fast enough to qualify for the track team can compete.

∙ Waiving a rule requiring a “two-hand-touch” finish in swim events so that a one-armed swimmer with the requisite ability can partici- pate at swim meets

This letter created panic among officials who see nothing but problems in making such accom- modations. But it opens the door for students pre- viously excluded from sports to expect that they should be included if they have the requisite skills to make teams. Therefore, a process of inclusion that began in 1973 is taken slightly more seriously today, after more than forty years of resistance to change. Duncan’s goal is to push officials to hire teachers and coaches with the sensitivity, experi- ence, and communication skills needed to bring about equity for students with disabilities. His guidelines caught many people off-guard and they will lead some to be overwhelmed, but they are a starting point for producing inclusive school cul- tures and sport programs.

Education is only one sphere in which inclusion is an issue. Community officials must also consider

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to normalize one’s body. During childhood people with an impairment become aware of what makes them different from others. Over time and through their social relationships they develop an under- standing of their (dis)ability and how to negotiate its meaning and relevance as they interact with oth- ers. In most cases, they also develop strategies that enable them to compartmentalize their impairment so it does not define them, especially in situations when it is irrelevant to what they are doing. This does not mean eliminating the impairment or dis- missing it as an irrelevant part of self. Instead, it means presenting one’s entire self in a way that does not connote lower status or less character, and it also means that others will see a person as worth knowing despite an attribute that influences ability in certain circumstances. And some people come to transform their impairment into a positive aspect of their lives. Research by Higgins et al. (2002) found that individuals who underwent this transformation process were more likely to accept themselves in ways that enabled them to move ahead with other forms of development. However, not all people with an impairment experience this transformation.

When Ben Quilter was seven years old, he took up judo in order to take part in the same sport as his brother. By the time he was twelve he was competing in regional and national competitions. But then Ben’s eyesight began to deteriorate, and at age sixteen he was categorized as a visually impaired competitor. The rules of judo are adapted for visually impaired participants so that they start bouts “gripped up” with their opponent, and there are some changes to the judo ring. However, Ben explains that these changes are sufficiently minor to allow visually impaired and sighted athletes to train and compete with each other. Also, the orga- nization and funding of judo is similar for sighted and visually impaired athletes. In 2008 Ben was selected for the Paralympic Team for the Beijing Games, and the team was announced at the same press launch as the judo team for the Olympic Games. Ben won a bronze medal in the London 2012 Paralympic Games and said that in judo “everything’s the same, just train full time with

Public discourse usually focuses on injuries in collision and heavy-contact sports, such as boxing, football, rugby, and ice hockey. How- ever, as “extreme” sports have become popular and increasingly commercialized, they also have become sites at which disabling injuries occur. Sponsorship money and media coverage have cre- ated a context in which athletes in these sports con- stantly underplay the possibility of serious injuries. Young males in motocross, half-pipe board events, BASE jumping, big air events, and dozens of other extreme sports have constructed narratives that glorify risk taking and confer hero status on those who incur the most gruesome injuries. The women in these events adopt the same narratives to main- tain their identities and participation opportunities in these male-dominated sports.

British sociologists Brett Smith and Andrew Sparkes (2002, 2003, 2004; Smith, 2013) have collected data over many years in their interviews with young men who suffered spinal cord injuries in rugby. Among other things, they continue to investigate the process through which these men negotiate the transformation from their former active “able” selves to being a person dealing with a serious physical impairment.

One important aspect of this research is that it can provide data on medical costs, which are assumed to decline with sport participation. For example, we know little about the medical care implications of sport participation among older people, for whom rigorous training and sport inju- ries often come with high medical costs. It may be that as older people participate in more physically adventurous activities, accidents, and sometimes disabling injuries increase. Does this generate more medical costs than are generated by less- active peers? At this time, we don’t know.

DISABILITY SPORTS

When disability is viewed as a weaknesses or defect that makes the person with an impairment inferior to others, it is important to have a strategy

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establish important identities; and they are sites for meeting others and forcing everyone who watches to acknowledge that impairments are a normal part of the human condition.

Paralympics: Sports for People with Physical Disabilities

Today’s Paralympic Games were first conceived by Ludwig Guttmann, a neurosurgeon and direc- tor of Stoke Mandeville, a British medical center for war veterans with spinal cord injuries. When he first came to the center in 1943, he was horrified by the way military veterans were treated. With severe paralysis due to war-related spinal cord injuries, they were merely kept alive without movement or hope. Guttmann came up with the idea that sports could be used as a form of therapy that would enhance the quality of life for his patients.

Guttmann was a strong advocate for his patients and felt that they had been pushed to the periphery of the empire of the normal so that people could avoid facing the reality of their impaired bodies. When the 1948 Olympic Games were scheduled to open in London, Guttmann decided that he could bring recognition to his patients and to the suc- cess of his therapeutic approach by scheduling a public display of wheelchair archery and the jav- elin throw on the same day as the opening of the Olympics. Sixteen people with spinal cord injuries participated.

Guttmann’s event received no publicity, but he was energized by its impact on the veterans and he foresaw a time when athletes with disabilities would compete alongside Olympic athletes. He hosted nine “annual” Stoke Mandeville Games, which in 1952 began to attract a few veterans from outside of England. In 1960 during the week after the Olympic Games were held in Rome, Guttmann and others hosted 400 competitors in Rome at the first Parallel Olympics. Most of the athletes, who competed in eight different events, were military veterans with spinal cord injuries.

Following the event in Rome, the Parallel Olympics was renamed the Paralympic Games,

the guys, I’m treated like everyone else really, you wouldn’t even know that I had a visual problem.”

Ben’s experience in judo is an example of how sports can be organized so that people with disabil- ities are treated on equal terms with other athletes. A related example is the Disability Sports Events (DSE), established in 1961. Based in England, the DSE sponsors competitions in a range of sports for people with any impairment at any age It also hosts a “mini games” multi-sport event for children six to twelve years old. The events include a series of inclusive sports and games to encourage young peo- ple with various impairments to become involved in sports. Other young people and volunteers are available to assist athletes if the need arises. One of the sports included is Zonal Tag Rugby, an adapted form of rugby in which participants with various impairments participate and compete in a safe and challenging sporting competition. However, DSE receives no government funding, and relies on fund-raising and sponsorships.

The kind of idealism seen in judo and the DSE is heartening to those who know children who can- not play in existing sports programs that are not organized to be inclusive. It is also heartening to the thousands of veterans returning from battle- fields with amputated limbs, sight and hearing impairments, and injuries that impede or prohibit walking. Making sports accessible to them would seem to be a no-brainer, even among those who lack idealism. As veterans return to communities, universities, gyms, parks, and workplaces, idealism is essential if barriers are to be eliminated.

Jayne Craike, who competes on the New Zealand Equestrian Federation national dressage circuit and also represents her country in the Paralympics, encourages people to be idealistic as they envision and work to create the future. She says, “I have to believe that there is still more to come in a world that is continually changing, and that we can make a difference” (Joukowsky and Rothstein, 2002b, p. 55). Craike knows that sports are more than thera- peutic tools for people with disabilities. In cultures where sport participation is highly valued, they are normalizing activities; they enable people to

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Dr. Jens Bromann, who had once competed in sports for blind athletes, guided disability sports through this challenging period and was elected president of the new ICC. His efforts, along with support from Korean Olympic officials, made the 1988 Paralympic Games a huge success. Held after the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, the Paralym- pics brought together more than 3000 athletes from sixty-one nations. At the opening ceremonies, the Korean organizers presented Bromann a flag they had designed specifically for the Korean Paralym- pic Games. It was white and had five tae geuks, or traditional Korean line symbols, that resembled teardrops in the same positions and colors as the five interlocking rings on the Olympic flag (see image A in Figure 10.3). This design was used to show the connection between the Paralympics and the Olym- pic movement, and that Paralympic athletes train and compete as Olympic athletes do (Sheil, 2000).

The new Paralympic logo and flag infuriated exec- utives at the IOC because they thought it infringed on their five-rings logo. To appease the IOC, a new logo was launched at the 1994 IPC World Champi- onships (see image B in Figure 10.3). The tae geuks again appeared as teardrops, but officials explained that they now represented the Paralympic motto: “Mind, Body, and Spirit.” This flag was used through the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. In 2008, after the IPC and IOC resolved many of their differences and agreed to hold events in the same host cities, the IPC adopted a new symbol and flag to represent the unique purpose and identity of the Paralympic Games (see image C in Figure 10.3). It consisted of three elements in red, blue, and green—the colors most often used in national flags. The elements are known as Agitos (a Latin word meaning, I move), and they appear to be in motion around a central point, rep- resenting a dynamic, global “Spirit in Motion”—the new motto of the Paralympics.

The Spirit in Motion flag was first used at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, and the IOC did not object. At this point, the “one bid, one city” agree- ment has been successful, but tensions remain between the two organizations as they compete for sponsors, funding, and media coverage.

which have been held every four years after 1960, with the first Winter Paralympics held in Swe- den in 1976. The Summer and Winter Paralympic Games have grown in scope and popularity, largely due to efforts of people who have worked to nur- ture and sustain them through significant financial and political challenges.

The mission of the Paralympics is to enable athletes with disabilities to achieve sporting excel- lence and to inspire and excite the world. Addi- tionally, the hope is to make a better world for all people with physical impairments by challeng- ing the negative attitudes and stereotypes that are significant barriers to the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all spheres of society (Brittain, 2012b; Legg and Gilbert, 2011).

Despite intertwined histories and some shared values, the relationship between the Olympic and Paralympic movements has been complicated and tension-filled. For example, in 1983 IOC presi- dent Juan Antonio Samaranch told representatives of Paralympic athletes and disability sport orga- nizations that they could no longer use Olympic images, including the “Olympic rings,” at any of their events. The Olympics, explained Samaranch, was a global brand with its own commercial inter- ests and goals, and this meant that the IOC would take legal action against anyone using its logo and other symbols. Even the Olympic flag, he told them, was now a licensed logo, and it could be used only by those who paid for the right to do so (Jennings, 1996a).

Disability sport organizations and their athletes did not want to split from the IOC, so they focused on organizing the Paralympic Games that would follow the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. But neither the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Com- mittee nor the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) would support them and their event. So they were forced to hold smaller simultaneous events in New York and Stoke Mandeville, England. At the same time, they formed the International Coordinating Committee of World Organizations for the Dis- abled (ICC) and made it the governing body for the Paralympic Games.

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depends heavily on the sale of media rights to events. As we will see in Chapter 11, this shifts the focus from the athletes to spectators and sponsors, and it alters the orientations of those who plan, program, and manage events. Storylines are needed to attract spectators. Individual athletes must be highlighted to keep people interested in who they are and how they perform. The drama and excite- ment of particular events is crucial, and this must be the focus of marketing.

The Paralympics have never been a highly rated media event and have received little media attention in the past. However, there was a concerted attempt to change this with the 2012 games in London. The media in the United Kingdom covered the Paralym- pics at an unprecedented level, devoting to it over 150 hours of live television coverage on a primary channel with additional coverage on three cable

Today the IPC uses a commercial approach similar to the one used by the IOC. Its flag is now a licensed logo—like the IOC flag. But this change raises ques- tions about who will benefit from and be hurt by the commercialization of elite disability sports. Athletes who can attract spectators and sponsors will certainly benefit, but will a focus on these top performers inspire sport participation among people with a dis- ability or will it turn them into spectators? Will peo- ple be inclined to donate money to support only elite athletes, or will the Paralympics open doors into the empire of the normal so that people with a disability are seen as deserving the same opportunities received by residents of the empire? Research is needed to answer these questions.

Media Coverage of the Paralympics Now that the IPC has adopted a commercial model, its survival

A. C.

B.

FIGURE 10.3 Logos used on Paralympic flags in 1988 (A), 1994 (B), and today (C). These three logos have been used by the Paralympics in response to IOC demands that they not use any image that could be compared to the five-rings Olympic logo and flag. The five-teardrops flag and logo (A) was used in Seoul, Korea in 1988; the three-teardrops flag and logo (B) was used from 1994 through 2004, and the Spirit in Motion flag and logo (C) was used at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008. (Source: Images courtesy of the International Paralympic Committee)

Courtesy of International Paralympic Committee

Courtesy of International Paralympic Committee

Courtesy of International Paralympic Committee

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channels and two major radio channels. The Aus- tralian Broadcasting Company provided 100 hours of live coverage, including the opening and closing ceremonies. Media companies in Canada provided nearly 600 hours of live coverage through four online streams along with a daily one-hour highlight program on major English- and French-language channels.

In the United States, NBC paid for the rights to televise the 2012 Paralympics but provided no live coverage and only minimal highlight cover- age. This was a great disappointment to officials, athletes, and those spectators in the United States who had followed the progress of athletes and were aware of events that promised interesting match- ups. Critics pointed out that NBC never fails to use uniformed military to market the coverage of NFL games and other professional sports, but they ignored the military veterans participating on the U.S. Paralympic team. This was a financial deci- sion, in that the company executives didn’t expect high enough ratings to make money selling adver- tising time for the events. This is a typical way to do business in the empire of the normal, but it makes NBC stand out as a crude profit seeker at a time when more attention and publicity were given to the Paralympics than ever before in history.

As the IPC goes forward, it will negotiate with the IOC for a share of rights revenues that come in a sin- gle amount for both events (Purdue, 2013). In cases where the IPC negotiates exclusive rights for the Paralympics only, its officials will be under pressure to produce large enough audiences to drive the bid amounts up to the levels they need to maintain their organization and present spectator-friendly events. As this occurs, the marketing people at the IPC will present Paralympic events as spectacles. Much atten- tion will be given to popular athletes, high-tech pros- theses such as the carbon-fiber legs worn by runners, events where athletes will inspire awe and amaze- ment, and medal counts for countries.

Attempts to market the Paralympics as a spec- tacle are met with widespread criticism (Brittain, 2004; Darcy and Dowse, 2012; Schantz and Gil- bert, 2012; Wolbring, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2012d,

2012e). People object to commercialization and what it means for disability sports. Market forces determine who is funded, which countries win med- als, and specific aspects of media coverage. Media companies that buy the rights to the Paralympics and to world championships may hype “bionic athletes” and high-tech prostheses that will catch the attention of spectators. At the same time, the IPC may further complicate an already confusing classification sys- tem with new classes of competitors likely to attract spectator attention.

Classification Issues Creating fair competition has always been a primary challenge for those who organize disability sports. Variations in physical impairments are nearly infinite, and the full impact of impairments is unique to each individual com- petitor. This means that there are complex rules for determining how athletes are classified and grouped into competition categories. The IPC pub- lishes a twenty-page Layman’s Guide to Paralym- pic Classification (IPC, 2007a), another guide for winter sports, and an eighty-two-page classifica- tion code book (IPC, 2007b).

The classification code has always created con- troversy in both its content and implementation (Beckman et al., 2009; Brittain, 2012a; Burkett et al., 2011; van Hilvoorde and Landeweerd, 2008; Wolbring, 2009, 2012d). It requires that each ath- lete be examined and evaluated, and it allows for protests and appeals when athletes feel they have been misclassified. The code also requires that each federation provide classifier training and certifica- tion, because each sport involves different abilities and has its own classification code.

The current categories for the Summer Para- lympics include amputees, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, and visual impairment. A category for intellectual disability was added in 1996 but then removed when ten of the twelve members of the Spanish basketball team in 2010 were found to have no disabilities. The category was reinstated for a few sports in 2012. In the Winter Paralympics, the categories are visually impaired, seated, and stand- ing. Hearing-impaired athletes don’t constitute a

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Olympics athletes and the community” (http://www .specialolympics.org/mission.aspx).

Some local groups and organizations spon- sor and manage sport programs for people with an intellectual disability, but the Special Olym- pics stands out in terms of its size and influence. It sponsors 50,000 competitions a year—136 each day—around the world. About 6500 athletes from 177 nations participated in the 2015 World Sum- mer Games in Los Angeles, California. The Spe- cial Olympics World Games are held every two years, alternating with summer and winter events.

major category in the Paralympics because they compete primarily in the Deaflympics, which have taken place since 1924. But this may change in the future.

Ian Brittain (2004), a longtime expert on disability sports, and others have criticized the IPC classifica- tion code because it is based solely on medical cri- teria and it reinforces disability stereotypes (Darcy and Dowse, 2012). Officials at the IPC realize that the code is complex and cumbersome, and they are revis- ing it to accommodate the new commercial realities of disability sports. The new code will be complete by the end of 2016, and it will acknowledge the increased stakes for performing well and winning medals in the Paralympics. The new code also intends to promote the “viewability” of the Paralympics by reducing the number of competitive categories.

Regardless of the changes, athletes in wealthier nations will continue to have a significant advan- tage over other athletes. Participation in disabil- ity sports is especially expensive because it often requires special transportation arrangements, adap- tive equipment, and specialized training venues. Therefore, medal counts very closely reflect aver- age per capita income for countries—a pattern even more pronounced in the Paralympics than in the Olympic Games (Buts et al., 2013).

Special Olympics: Sports for People with Intellectual Disabilities

In 1968 the International Olympic Committee granted Eunice Kennedy Shriver permission to use the word “Olympics” for a sporting event that would offer adults and children with an intellectual disabil- ity year-round training and competitions in Olym- pic-type sports (Foote and Collins, 2011). Today the Special Olympics is a multifaceted global organiza- tion that sponsors research, builds support commu- nities, and offers health education programs. But its primary purpose is to offer people with an intellec- tual disability “continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experi- ence joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special

During the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Olympic rings hung from Tower Bridge, London. Immediately following the Games, the rings were removed and replaced with the Paralympic Agitos for the duration of the Paralympic Games.  (Source: © Elizabeth Pike)

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To create those opportunities in sports requires a level of awareness and support that remains rare in most social worlds. In the meantime, people with an intellectual disability seek opportunities to play sports in supportive environments that positively connect them with peers and the larger community. One young person who was interviewed in a recent study puts it this way (Darcy and Dowse, 2012, p. 406):

No one seeks out me or my career to be involved in their program or find out what I’d like to do or pro- vide me with opportunities to try sports on a regular basis like normal kids and if I like it I’ll keep doing it but if I don’t or it doesn’t suit me I want the free- dom to choose not to do it again but have another option to try.

Disability Sport Events and Organizations

The range and frequency of physical or intellectual impairments is vastly underestimated in the empire of the normal. People conceal or disguise their physical impairments in public or avoid being seen by others who are likely to stare and then pity or reject them. People with intellectual impairments often are vulnerable to exploitation, so those who care about them often keep them at home or in pri- vate, safe settings. Despite these factors, people who share similar characteristics or impairments have created sport organizations to sponsor events. The Dwarf Athletic Association of America (http:// www.daaa.org/) sponsors the World Dwarf Games in connection with the annual National Conference for Little People of America (LPA).

The summer and winter Deaflympics are orga- nized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf—known in much of the world through its French name, Comité International des Sports des Sourds (CISS). The Deaflympics are run exclusively by the hearing impaired, and only deaf people are eligible to serve on the board and executive bodies. With ninety-six member nations, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf is organized into four regional confederations: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Pan-America, and Africa (http://www.deaflympics.

As an organization, the Special Olympics raises funds and organizes events more efficiently than most NGOs in the world. But it has been criti- cized for organizing its programs in ways that reinforce negative stereotypes and ableist ideology (Hourcade, 1989; Storey, 2004, 2008). Participants in the programs don’t learn functional skills that are transferable to their lives in the community, they are treated in paternalistic ways by volunteers and spectators, they are not connected with people who can advocate their interests or be their friends after events are over, and there is no evidence that their lives are changed in any significant ways because of their participation.

In response to these criticisms, people managing the Special Olympics recently developed Unified Sports, a global program in which people with an intellectual disability are paired with teammates from the general community in competitive, developmen- tal, or recreational sports, depending on their interests. The program is designed to facilitate friendships and inclusion in the larger community and enable individ- uals with impairments to engage with others on the basis of their abilities. The Unified Sports program is based on research and theory, and it is revised as eval- uation research identifies weaknesses and strengths (Dowling et al., 2010).

When it was created in 1968, the goal of Spe- cial Olympics was to provide dedicated spaces and activities for a population of people who at that time were feared, ridiculed, mistreated, and usually cut off from the empire of the normal. It managed to accomplish this goal, but it had no strategy for systematically engaging participants in the larger community or preparing the com- munity to include people with an intellectual dis- ability into everyday activities so they could live more independently.

Today the organization is actively addressing oversights while retaining its traditional programs for people who need more direct support and assistance. However, most people in the empire of the normal have no experience interacting with intellectually impaired people who have not had opportunities to participate in everyday activities.

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with an intellectual disability. In this sense, the great sport myth carries over into disability sports and often causes people to overlook what must be done if sports are to have the positive developmen- tal impact they expect them to have.

Until recently people in disability sport organi- zations had not thought of doing systematic evalu- ation research that would critically assess whether their goals were being achieved. Of course, dif- ferent organizations have different goals. In some cases, the primary goal is to give people with par- ticular characteristics or impairments opportuni- ties to play sports with peers under conditions that they control. Having been excluded so completely from sports in the empire of the normal, they have established their own sports and sport events in which they don’t have to deal with negative atti- tudes, curiosity and staring, and feeling like they are oddities. In other cases, the goal is for sport programs and events to empower people with a disability, foster positive public attitudes, and enable people to fully participate in the general community (Brittain, 2012b; Wedgwood, 2013).

Although research on the impact of disability sports is scarce, a few recent studies provide initial assessments of what may or may not be occurring. Interviews with Paralympic stakeholders—people personally associated with the organization—indi- cated that the athletes were perceived to be person- ally empowered by their involvement, but other positive outcomes were few (Purdue and Howe, 2012). In fact, the athletes were not perceived as models that inspired people with a disability, because they did not describe themselves as dis- abled and were never shown dealing with everyday issues that others face. Similarly, data collected by Wolbring (2012c) indicated that the physical activ- ity and recreational sport participation rates among people with a disability had not increased with the growing popularity of the Paralympics because structural barriers continued to exist in societies. Being inspired by Paralympic athletes did nothing to eliminate negative attitudes, increase funding for disability sports, improve accessibility to ven- ues, provide convenient transportation, or create

com). Hearing-impaired athletes and teams have athletic skills similar to those of the general popu- lation, so they do not feel they fit neatly into the Paralympics.

The Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Rec- reation Association (CPISRA) is the international governing body that coordinates and oversees sports for people with cerebral palsy—that is, those people with disabilities caused by neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injuries.

The United States Association of Blind Ath- letes (USABA) supports athletes who are visually impaired. In 2013, it joined with the International Blind Sports Association to sponsor World Youth Championships and the 2013 IBSA Pan American Games in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Skiing and goalball are their most popular sports.

There also are generalist organizations that work with and sponsor events for athletes with a wide range of physical and intellectual impairments. For example, the Challenged Athletes Foundation oper- ates in the United States and works with individu- als who want to live active lifestyles by training and participating in one or more sports. The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) was formed in the United States to assist veterans wounded in the military on or after September 11, 2001. As of early 2014, this included over 51,000 wounded men and women, an estimated 320,000 veterans with traumatic brain injuries, and over 400,000 veterans with post- traumatic stress syndrome. The annual Warrior Games provide competitions and serve as an access point for veterans to become involved in Paralympic sports.

Disability Sport Legacies

The legacy goals of disability sports vary with the organizations that sponsor them. As with sports generally, intended or assumed legacies often differ from reality. As noted above, the Special Olympics may have provided many participants with enjoy- able experiences and opportunities to meet people, but the impact was short-lived and did not alter public attitudes about intellectual impairments, foster inclusion, or expand opportunities for people

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ableist ideology and ableist attitudes (Braye et al., 2012; Rival, 2015).

Finally, males are disproportionately overrep- resented among athletes in disability sports. This is partly because more boys and men engage in risky actions that can cause physical impairments, and girls and women with physical or intellectual impairments may be more protected by family members and not encouraged to seek sport partici- pation opportunities. In any case, the culture of dis- ability sports is heavily masculine and this may lead females to feel unwelcome. There may also be sub- tle sexism in the referral process that moves people from rehabilitation programs into sport programs. If doctors and therapists don’t encourage girls and women to move into sports as much as they encour- age boys and men, it would reproduce an already male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified sport culture. The visibility and popularity of wheel- chair rugby, or “murderball” as it is known by men in disability sports, reaffirms this point.

TECHNOLOGY AND ABILITY

When athletes use technologies to adapt their bod- ies to the physical challenges presented by sports, they blur the line between body and machine. Of course, this is neither new nor unique to disabil- ity sports. Specialized equipment and technolo- gies (such as climbing shoes or special rowing blades) have long been used in all sports, similar to the wheelchairs, crutches, and prostheses used by people with physical impairments—they help them move more efficiently (Apelmo, 2012).

Various forms of “assistive” performance enhancements are used in most sports. Tennis and baseball players have “assistive” elbow and knee reconstructions using super strong synthetic ligaments or stronger ligaments taken from other parts of their bodies. Endurance athletes sleep in “assistive” hyperbaric chambers to increase endur- ance by boosting the oxygen-carrying capacity of their red blood cells. Lionel Messi, reputedly the best soccer player in the world today, took growth

knowledgeable and experienced coaches and sup- port staff (Wilson and Khoob, 2013).

Observations made by disability rights activists support these findings (Ahmed, 2013; Braye et al., 2012). Watching athletes run on $15,000 prosthe- ses or play rugby and race in $6000 wheelchairs did not make disability “cool” or change the real- ity of dealing with impairments. Also, the dozens of impairment classification categories used to sort competitors seemed irrelevant to many activists, who felt that people could not see themselves in cat- egories created by the IPC. Additionally, individual needs continued to be unmet after the Paralympics. It is true that a few people in the empire of the nor- mal saw athletes perform during the Paralympics, but seeing them did not motivate those people to support local disability programs or vote for legisla- tion to bring about equity. In fact, the activists wor- ried that the opposite was more likely: after seeing the ability of the athletes, people would conclude that disability was not an issue, thereby reproducing

Wheelchair rugby—also known as “quad rugby” and “murderball”—is played in the Paralympics and in national and world championships. Some rugby players use a highly masculinized vocabulary to describe the intimidation and violence that occur in their sport. Although wheelchair rugby challenges stereotypes about people with a disability, it reaffirms a gender ideology in which manhood is defined in terms of the ability to do violence. (Source: © Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)

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winning a gold medal and setting a world record time of 11.51 seconds in two Paralympic categories: the T44 class for athletes with a “single leg below knee amputation” and the T43 class for “double leg below knee amputation.”

His success in these races led to his competing in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, where he won a silver medal in the 100-meter and a gold medal in the 200-meter sprint. Overall, he set four world records at those games, and went on to compete and win in the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games.

Team OSSUR has sponsored Pistorius and other record-setting Paralympic sprinters who wear Ossur’s carbon-fiber Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthesis. The Flex-Foot replicates the hind leg of a cat, with a small-profile foot that extends and reaches out to contact the ground while the large thigh muscles pull the body forward. These pros- thetic legs return about 95  percent of the energy put into them by the runners’ upper legs. A human

lower leg returns about 200 per- cent of the energy put into them, which OSSUR researchers have taken as a challenge to duplicate the running power of a human leg, a goal that will take some time to achieve.

In 2007, Pistorius began train- ing like an Olympic sprinter in a quest to qualify for the 2008 Olym- pics in Beijing. However, his quest was foiled when the IAAF, the global governing body for track and field, disqualified him. After reviewing research they had com- missioned, the IAAF executive committee concluded that his pros- thetic legs gave him an advantage over Olympic runners (IPC, 2008).

In a sense, Pistorius was “dis’ed” by the IAAF for being abnormally able.

Pistorius appealed the IAAF decision and asked the International Court of Arbitration for Sport to consider other studies that went beyond the IAAF

hormones that added inches to his unusually short stature, and dozens of baseball players and golfers have had Lasik eye surgery to obtain 20/15 vision and the ability to see a baseball or golf ball more distinctly. These athletes don’t think of themselves as disabled nor do they see the use of such “assis- tive” and performance-enhancing procedures as compensation for weakness or cheating, and it is certain that none of them ever thought of partici- pating in the Paralympics.

In the 1980s, biologist Donna Haraway (1985) made the case that many people could be described as cyborgs because they depended on machines and communication technologies to navigate their way through everyday life, and this was well before smartphones appeared as fixed components of human hands. But the most intense and com- plex example of this cyborg hybridization is prob- ably experienced by severely impaired people who merge technologies with their own bodies to claim and sustain their humanity.

Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter, has recently been the most visible sporting cyborg. Identified as “Blade Runner” or “the fastest man on no legs,” he was born with no fibula bones in his legs. Oscar’s parents decided when he was eleven months old that below-the-knee prosthetic legs and feet would enable him to move more freely, and the surgery was completed in 1987.

As an active, athletic boy, Oscar dreamed of playing elite rugby. Never having experienced a body without prosthetic legs, he did everything his friends did. Through middle school and high school he wrestled and played cricket, rugby, water polo, and tennis. But after he shattered his knee playing rugby in late 2003, his doctor prescribed running as physical therapy. In January 2004 at the age of seventeen he began to train as a sprinter. Two months later he competed in his first 100-meter race,

The goal for many amputees is no longer to reach a “natural” level of ability but to exceed it, using whatever cutting-edge technology is available. As this new generation sees it, our tools are evolving faster than the human body, so why obey the limits of mere nature? —Daniel H Wilson, robotics engineer, 2012.

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that there will be “extreme interfaces” between soft and hard materials integrated with skin, bone, muscle, and nerves, making prosthetic body parts move naturally with messages delivered from the brain through synthetic nerves (Moss, 2011; Rago, 2013). This prediction aligns Herr with oth- ers described as transhumanists, a collection of dreamers and scientists described in the Reflect on

laboratory tests, which did not assess the carbon- fiber leg in a running situation. He knew from expe- rience that the bladelike legs slowed him at the start of a race, provided poor traction on a wet track, pro- duced rotational forces that were difficult to con- trol, and supplied none of the maneuverability and control supplied by the human leg, ankle, and foot (Longman, 2007a).

After independent researchers conducted fur- ther studies, and the international court reviewed the data, the IAAF overturned its ban in May 2008 and ruled that Pistorius was eligible to qualify for the Olympics and participate in other international events. Although he failed to qual- ify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Pistorius continued training and qualified to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He was nei- ther the first athlete with a physical impairment to compete in the Olympics, nor the first to use a prosthetic limb, but his story resonated with peo- ple as they followed it through globalized media coverage.

Virtual Bodies and Cyborg Identities

The issues raised by Pistorius and his carbon- fiber legs received massive attention. The image of cyborg athletes, as informed by science fiction action films featuring mechanically and geneti- cally engineered bodies, created moral panic among people worried about altering human nature. At the same time, others used the medi- cal model to imagine the liberating possibilities of bionic body parts that could fix physical impair- ments, make people better than normal, and be improved over time to even negate the effects of aging.

A visible spokesperson for the bionic dreamers has been Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechatron- ics Research Group at MIT. Herr became a bilateral amputee at seventeen years old, and his dissatisfac- tion with painful and poorly designed prosthetics inspired him to obtain a PhD in engineering as he developed innovative prostheses, including for his own lower leg, ankle, and foot. Herr predicts

Normal, enhanced, or disabled? The lines between these categories are becoming increasingly blurred. This is creating ethical and practical dilemmas in sport organizations, because it is difficult to preserve a level playing field when engineered enhancements are used. People in Paralympic and related organizations may be ahead of others in dealing with this, because they have already confronted enhancements and developed a classification code that takes them into account. (Source: © Rich Cruse/ Photo courtesy of the Challenged Athletes Foundation,

http://www.challengedathletes.org)

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reflect on S P O R T S

Ableism leads people in different directions. One of the emerging pathways is being charted by transhumanists, who use the medical model as a lens for imagining the future of human bodies.

Transhumanists believe that all bodies can be improved so that people can achieve goals currently out of reach. They claim that we have not taken full advantage of available enhancement procedures and technologies because we cling to outdated beliefs based on religion and cultural traditions—beliefs no longer in sync with twenty-first-century knowledge.

In the case of sports, transhumanists predict that athletes will seek and use various forms of body- and performance-enhancing technologies that are undetect- able without monitoring, scanning, and controlling bod- ies from birth onward. As athletes demonstrate what is possible by using innovative enhancements, they will expand our sense of what is possible in our relationship with the physical world. This process is already under way with corrective lenses for eyes, joint replacements, ligament transfers and replacements, muscle generation, bone grafts, stem cell therapies, and a wide array of sur- geries that enable athletes to return to their sports more quickly than ever before and train themselves back to 100 percent.

The credibility of transhumanists is challenged by crit- ics of ableist ideology, by people panicked about turning humans into cyborgs, and by skeptics who say that trans- humanists are opportunists who profit by intensifying people’s insecurities about their bodies and then selling them expensive enhancement procedures or technologies.

As you consider the pros and cons of transhumanism, imagine this: You are a top college basketball player look- ing forward to signing a professional contract, but during your junior year you rupture your ACL during the final minutes of the NCAA finals. Your orthopedic surgeon says she can repair it to provide stability for walking but not for playing competitive basketball, or she can surgi- cally insert a synthetic ligament that is stronger than the original and perfect for playing basketball. Your insurance will cover either surgery. Which one would you choose?

If you choose the synthetic ligament, what would pre- vent others from having similar surgeries so they could do more intense muscle conditioning to improve their speed and vertical jumping ability? Where and for whom would you draw the line when it comes to such body enhancements? We may find this form of transhumanism to be troubling, but we cannot escape these questions as new technologies are being developed. What will happen if no lines are drawn?

Nobody’s Perfect Does That Mean I’m Impaired?

Sport box “Nobody’s Perfect: Does That Mean I’m Impaired?”

Sport philosophers and others present argu- ments for banning prosthetics in sports. They say that the precise contribution of prosthetics to per- formance may never be known, which may put athletes with a disability at an unfair advantage over those who do not or cannot use such technol- ogy. Also, the impact of technology on the design of prostheses is likely to affect athletes’ abilities and unfairly advantage those with the resources to access the most recent innovations (Burkett et al., 2011; Dyer et al., 2010; Marcellinia et al.,

2012; Normana and Moolab, 2011; Swartz and Watermeyer, 2008; Treviño, 2013).

The proponents of banning prostheses are up against powerful corporations that will showcase and market their new performance-enhancing tech- nologies through the bodies of athletes in the Para- lympics and other disability sport events (Wolbring, 2012a, 2012e). In turn, this will be attractive to amputees who see a possibility for exceeding nat- ural limits and “evolving faster than the human body” (Wilson, 2012). Popular culture has already introduced this idea in the form of “iron man” exo- skeletons that permit unnatural physical feats.

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can sponsor only a few runners, which means that it would be very costly for an unsponsored athlete to complete against people like Pistorius in the Paralympics.

The cost of adaptive equipment is a significant barrier to sport participation for many people with physical impairments. Adding further to these constraints is the fact that compared to adults in the general population, U.S. adults with disabili- ties are:3

∙ Twice as likely to have less than a high school degree

∙ More than twice as likely to be unemployed ∙ Three times more likely to live in households

making less than $15,000 per year ∙ Twice as likely to live in households with

incomes under or just above the poverty line ∙ Three times more likely to depend on public

subsidy programs

People with disabilities also have higher expenses for daily living and required care. These are the realities of social class and disability in the United States. For young elite athletes, there are a handful of sponsorships available from com- panies that develop and manufacture prostheses and other adaptive technologies. This enables a select few to bypass resource barriers, but others continue to face formidable barriers in terms of accessing and regularly participating in sports at any level.

Federal government assistance for people with disabilities was cut in 2013, even for recent mili- tary veterans. States have not made up for these cuts; charity support is unpredictable and declin- ing; and community programs are scarce, even for people with dependable transportation. Such class- based barriers force many people with disabilities to join Diane Cabrera and “make do right now.”

3U.S. Department of Labor, 2011; http://disabilitycompendium .org; http://disabilitystatistics.org/reports/acs.cfm.

Access to Technology

We occasionally hear heartening stories about people using assistive devices made of Kevlar, carbon-fiber biologics, and other high-tech materials. For people who compete in the Paralympics, these materials are now used to make light and fast racing wheelchairs, revolutionary running prostheses, racing mono-skis to maneuver down steep mountain slopes, and other assistive devices that extend skills and broaden the experiences through which people can feel joy and accomplishment.

This technology is often seductive when we see it for the first time—so seductive that we may focus on the device and overlook those who might benefit from it. However, as most athletes know, technologies are only as good as the people who use them. And most people with disabilities know that adaptive technologies for sports are prohibi- tively expensive.

American athlete Diane Cabrera discovered this when cancer took her leg in 2001. A new prosthe- sis enabled her to walk, but it cost $11,000 and her medical insurance covered only $4000 per year. She spread payments over two years and struggled to find $2200 for additional payments related to diagnostics, fitting, tuning, and maintaining the device. When she needed a new leg socket in 2005 because her original prosthesis no longer fit cor- rectly, she put it off due to cost.

That’s what many people do today when they need prostheses. Whereas standard prostheses may be partially covered by insurance, prosthetic limbs and adaptive devices for sports involve additional costs that must be paid by individuals in nearly all cases. Sport prosthetics require replacement every year or two, and other prosthetic limbs should be replaced every four to six years. Racing wheel- chairs can cost $5000 or more, and Kevlar wheels push the cost up even higher. When they are cus- tomized for rugby, add another $1600. Although Oscar Pistorius does not himself pay for his Flex- Foot Cheetah prostheses, they cost $15,000 to $18,000 for each leg, and they must be replaced or refurbished regularly when training full time. Ossur

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TO “DIS” OR NOT TO “DIS”

Ability is variable, relational, and contextual: it ranges from low to high, and the meaning of that variation depends on the relationships involved, the tasks being done, and the resources avail- able to accomplish them. When people trust and cooperate with each other, they find ways to uti- lize everyone’s abilities so that each person makes contributions to the group. Even when tasks require particular combinations of abilities, abili- ties are what matter and disabilities are secondary or irrelevant.

Sport teams are perfect examples of this ability complementarity. All team members have differ- ent attributes and abilities, and the team’s success depends on finding the best ways to combine those abilities during competitions. This approach elimi- nates disability, because it does not involve anyone drawing a line between those identified as able and unable and then assigning them to two mutually exclusive sport participation categories.

The category of “disabled person” or “person with a disability” has become central to obtain- ing health care, government insurance cover- age, academic support, public subsidies, and the identities of people with particular impairments. Therefore, any attempt to change current categori- zation methods will meet heavy resistance. Many individuals and families know that they could not survive without the help they currently receive due to a disability classification. But there also are the following problems associated with the current system:

∙ Classifying a person as disabled is based on political agreements and compromises about the types and degrees of impairments required to be defined as officially incapable.

∙ The category “disabled” has meaning only when distinguished from the category “able- bodied,” and this obscures recognition of the abilities of people with impairments and creates a label that is a barrier to participation in main- stream society.

∙ An official disability classification system leads many people to assume that an unimpaired body is natural and normal, and that people classified as disabled are subnormal, below average, and less than whole as a human being.

∙ When people classified as disabled seek equity and full rights of citizenship, people with able- ist attitudes see them as wanting “special privi- leges” and reject their requests.

As long as we use a vocabulary that establishes these contrasting categories, we tend to think, talk, and act in either/or terms, which creates an unequal power relationship and sets into motion social dynamics that undermine inclusion, privilege people in the “able-bodied” category, and marginalize those in the “disabled” category. This fosters social and physical segregation by category, imposes second class citizenship on persons with certain physical and intellectual impairments, encourages their with- drawal from activities, and creates a culture in which everyone spends vast amounts of time and money to eliminate or hide characteristics and impairments that are relatively common among human beings.

As people use the two opposing ability cat- egories as a basis for developing expectations and organizing social relationships, they overlook the complexity of ability, develop distorted views of ability differences, and do not learn to deal with ability variations in constructive and inclusive ways. At the same time, people who are classified as disabled find it difficult to establish and maintain positive self-esteem and to develop and utilize abili- ties that would enable them to meaningfully par- ticipate in mainstream activities (Nario-Redmond et al., 2013).

This is why many people with physical impair- ments, including athletes at the Paralympic Games, do not describe themselves as disabled. They iden- tify themselves in terms of what they can do, not in terms of what they cannot do. They organize their lives around their abilities, as most other people do. Most people would say this is a normal way to live, and that creating a category that defines peo- ple who live normally as subnormal and disabled

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is likely to interfere with achieving fairness and equity in society.

At this point in time, rejecting the notion of dis- ability and defending an “anti-dis-ing” position is seen as extreme. However, it also is clear that most people living with an impairment want to be acknowledged for what they can do instead of what they cannot do. If they decide that they do not want to be “dis-d,” they may challenge others with words similar to these: “My body is normal for me. Your belief that my body is the problem simply hides the fact that the real problem is your fantasy-based defi- nition of a ‘normal’ body.”

This approach implies that to be dis’d is coun- terproductive to development and that achieving a fair and equitable future depends less on knowl- edge about disability and more on knowledge about whose interests are served by particular ideas and beliefs about age and ability.

Similarly, knowing how people develop ideas and beliefs about what is normal when it comes to bodies, and who benefits from or is disadvantaged by particular conceptions of normal, is crucial for transforming society. Therefore, future discussions should focus on how we can eliminate age- and abil- ity-based barriers to sport participation and achieve forms of inclusion that meet everyone’s needs.

Summary

ARE AGE AND ABILITY BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION?

Sports and sport participation are closely tied to culturally based ideas and beliefs about ability and the body. These ideas and beliefs impact each of us, because they serve as a baseline for our own defi- nition of “normal.” We experience this impact to different degrees as our abilities and bodies change over time due to aging and impairments caused by injuries, illness, or chronic disease. Because abil- ity and the body are involved in sports and physi- cal activities, these ideas and beliefs affect rates of sport participation and a society’s provision of opportunities to participate in sports.

Ableist ideology, ageism, and ableism nega- tively impact sport and physical activity participa- tion among people whose abilities and bodies do not measure up to prevailing or dominant social conceptions of normal. This occurs despite natural physical and intellectual variations among human beings. This is similar to the dynamics of sexism and racism, except that ableist ideology, ageism, and ableism will eventually impact everyone, even those who previously used it to marginalize or disadvan- tage others.

Ageism accounts for various manifestations of age discrimination. In the case of sports, ageism leads to age-segregated patterns of participation and provision of participation opportunities. This affects older people negatively because of the wide- spread belief that playing sports is not developmen- tally important for people who are “grown up.”

Ableism accounts for the creation of a disabil- ity category in society and in sports. People are assigned to this category due to visible or functional characteristics and impairments. This locates them outside of the realm of “the normal” and leads them to be seen by many people as flawed and inferior.

Ideas and beliefs about aging vary over time and from one social world to another, but in soci- eties characterized by rapid social and technologi- cal change, being younger is valued over being older. This has turned age into a social and political issue in many societies, especially those in which the average age of the population is increasing and older people are becoming increasingly pow- erful in political terms. This is occurring in the United States and other societies in which numeri- cally large cohorts of people born in the years after World War II are in their fifties and sixties—and soon, seventies and eighties.

Because older people have used a dispropor- tionate share of medical care resources in many societies, sports and physical activities have been identified in neoliberal societies as tools that older people must use to stay healthy and cut medical costs. This new focus raises issues related to gen- der, ethnicity, and social class, because women, first-generation ethnic immigrants, and people with

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that interfere with a wide range of participation opportunities.

In the face of exclusion or poorly managed and inconvenient sport programs, people with par- ticular disabilities have created their own sport organizations and events to meet their needs and expectations. In other cases, individuals or groups of people have challenged traditions of exclusion through protests and legal actions. As this occurs, the meaning of inclusion has changed and come closer to involving full equity of opportunities. But there is much left to be done.

Disability sports have traditionally been viewed through the lens of the medical model and seen as forms of physical therapy and rehabilitation. As elite athletes with a disability have attempted to change this approach and be treated like other elite ath- letes, they have faced resistance from established sport organizations. The IPC, for example, has faced resistance from the IOC, and disability sport events such as the Paralympics receive little support or media coverage compared to other sport events. At the same time, disability sport organizations face their own challenges related to competition classi- fications based on impairment and potential ability.

The Special Olympics have become a significant global nonprofit organization. With annual revenues approaching $100 million, it provides training and competition opportunities in 170 nations for over 4 million people with an intellectual disability. Because research has indicated that special Olympics programs have not achieved their goal of integrating people with an intellectual disability into mainstream society, the organization has created new programs to emphasize social integration and equity.

The overall legacy of disability sports is now being questioned, because the publicity given to the Paralympics and other elite events has not led to structural changes and new programs benefiting the vast majority of people with disabilities. In fact, much of the attention in elite events focuses on technologies used by athletes with amputations— a classic example being the carbon-fiber Flex-Foot Cheetah prostheses used by Oscar Pistorius and other record-setting runners.

lower income and education often have very low levels of sport participation. Additionally, the cost of participation in private, for-profit programs puts membership out of reach for nearly all people in these categories.

The meaning of ability varies by situation, but it has been defined in many societies in a way that “dis’s”—or classifies as disabled—people perceived as incapable of fully participating in mainstream social and economic life. This turns disability into a social and political category that has significant implications for many people.

The meaning of disability differs depending on the assumptions used when defining it. When assumptions are based on the medical model, impairments are the problem, and “fixing” them through treatment and rehabilitation is the solution. When assumptions are based on the social model, problems rest in a world full of physical and social barriers that could be minimized by responsive designs, education, and political change.

Many people with impairments prefer the social model because it provides them with a strategy for challenging the power of the empire of the nor- mal, where they are seen as subnormal outsiders due to their physical or intellectual attributes. The media generally reproduce the norms of the empire as they portray athletes with disabilities as coura- geous victims or heroic supercrips. Such portray- als are based on misinformation and will change only when media personnel develop the vocabulary that takes them beyond disabilities into the realm of abilities.

Because of their visibility and cultural impor- tance, sports have become sites at which disabil- ity issues are confronted and contested. Processes of ability-related exclusion and inclusion in sports have become a focus of many governmental and nongovernmental organizations and officials from international to local levels. Belief in the great sport myth has led to policies that foster inclusion based on the assumption that sport participation will change the lives of people with disabilities. Although this has led to some new programs it has not eliminated the social and structural barriers

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Reading 4. Paying the price: The cost of sport prostheses

Reading 5. Tensions in the Olympic family: Sib- lings with disabilities

Reading 6. “One of God’s favorites”: Religion and disability

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ As the new manager of a community sport cen- ter in a region with many middle- and working- class older people, your success depends on programming that attracts older people. Iden- tify the issues you will discuss with your new programming and management staff during a two-day training session with them.

∙ You are the assistant athletic director in a major urban public school district, and you are responsible for compliance with the new U.S. Department of Education’s guidelines on sports for students with disabilities. Outline two dif- ferent program proposals that you will present to the district school board when they make decisions about how the district will allocate funds to comply with federal guidelines.

∙ As a sport management student you have been asked by students in special education to work with them in developing a sport and physical activity program for people with disabilities in the surrounding community. The first brain- storming session is soon, and you are preparing the list of issues you will bring to the session. Identify and explain the five most important issues you want the group to consider.

These technologies have led to discussions and heated debates about physically engineered bodies and turning athletes into cyborgs. The influence of ableist ideology and ableism has led some people to promote transhumanism, which assumes that all human bodies can and should be improved with technology—a position that incites moral panic among people who fear that this will eventually dehumanize individuals and disrupt the social order.

These debates cool down once people realize the cost of the technologies being used in the Paralympics today and the estimated costs of future technologies. Due to the practical issue of cost, most people with a disability are not concerned about futuristic prosthe- ses. They don’t see themselves buying exoskeletons so they can perform superhuman feats. More realis- tically, they hope to see restrooms designed so that they can use toilets without performing gymnastics routines and miraculous wheelchair moves.

Finally, the classifications “able-bodied” and “disabled” have been challenged by people with physical impairments who do not consider them- selves to be “disabled” and do not want to be dis’d. For them, the problem is not disability, but the way people have constructed their conception of “nor- mal” ability.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. We’re not handicapped: We just can’t hear

Reading 2. How can I wear shoes if I don’t have feet?

Reading 3. The hit isn’t real unless it bends steel: Men and murderball

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(Source: © Elizabeth Pike)

chapter

SPORTS AND THE ECONOMY What Are the Characteristics of Commercial Sports?

11

Professional sports have become vast global industries, billion-dollar enterprises and powerful cultural forces. Where does this leave their fans?

—Jason Kelly, editor, University of Chicago Magazine (2014)

When sport is regarded solely within economic parameters, . . . there is the risk of reducing athletes to mere merchandise through whom profit may be obtained. The athletes themselves enter into a mechanism that overwhelms them, causing them to lose sight of the true meaning of their activity. . . . Sport is harmony, but if the unrestrained pursuit of profit and success prevails, this harmony is lost.

—Pope Francis (2013)

Having proved [the] effectiveness [of sporting events] in connecting successfully with consumers in existing markets, companies are keen to use sponsorship in order to drive awareness in new, sizeable emerging markets.

—Karen Earl, European Sponsorship Association (in Blitz, 2010)

I see myself as an actor . . . . They tell us who’s going to win or be disqualified and we take it from there. . . . Consumers are smarter now, so we admit what we do is entertainment. And we’ve changed programming. But the bones are the same. Pro wrestling, like action films, is still about good vs evil.

—John Cena, WWE wrestler (2009)

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Emergence and Growth of Commercial Sports

Commercialization and Changes in Sports

The Organization of Professional Sports in North America

The Organization of Amateur Sports in North America

Legal Status and Incomes of Athletes in Commercial Sports

Summary: What Are the Characteristics of Commercial Sports?

Chapter Outline

• Identify the conditions under which commercial sports emerge and grow in a society.

• Identify economic and ideological reasons why sports have become so popular in society today.

• Explain how the corporate branding of sports is related to the establishment of ideological outposts around the world today.

• Discuss how commercialization affects the rules, culture, and organization of sports.

• Distinguish differences between aesthetic orientations and heroic orientations, and explain how they are influenced by the commercialization of sports.

• Explain how the owners of the major professional sports have benefited from being allowed to establish cartels, monopolies, and monopsonies.

• Identify the major forms of public assistance received by professional sport franchises and leagues in the United States.

• Identify differences in the legal status of professional and amateur athletes in both individual and team sports.

• Describe the patterns of income received by professional and amateur athletes, and explain why the range of incomes received by athletes is so great today.

Learning Objectives

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Sports have been used as public entertainment through history. However, they’ve never been so thoroughly commercialized as they are today. Never before have economic factors so totally dominated decisions about sports, and never before have eco- nomic organizations and corporate interests had so much power and control over the meaning, purpose, and organization of sports.

The economic stakes for athletes and sponsors have never been higher than they are today. The bottom line has replaced the goal line. Sports are now evaluated by gate receipts, concessions and merchandise sales, licensing fees, media rights contracts, and website hits. Games and events are evaluated using media criteria such as market share, ratings points, and the cost of commercial time. Athletes are evaluated by their entertainment value as well as physical skills. Stadiums, teams, and events are named after corporations and linked to corporate logos instead of people and places that have local historical meaning.

Corporate interests influence team colors, uni- form designs, event schedules, media coverage, and the comments of announcers during games and matches. Media companies and other corporations sponsor and plan events, and they own a growing number of sport teams. Many sports are corporate enterprises, tied to marketing concerns and pro- cesses of global capitalist expansion. The mergers of major corporate conglomerates that began in the 1990s and now continue in the twenty-first century have connected sport teams and events with media and entertainment companies. The names of trans- national corporations are now synonymous with the athletes, events, and sports that bring pleasure to the lives of millions of people.

Because economic factors are so important in sports, this chapter focuses on the following questions:

1. Under what conditions do commercial sports emerge and prosper in a society?

2. What changes occur in the meaning, purpose, and organization of sports when they become commercial activities?

3. Who owns, sponsors, and promotes sports, and what are their interests?

4. What is the legal and financial status of athletes in commercial sports?

EMERGENCE AND GROWTH OF COMMERCIAL SPORTS

Commercial sports are organized and played for profit. Their success depends on gate receipts, con- cessions, sponsorships, the sale of media broad- casting rights, and other revenue streams associated with sport images and personalities. Therefore, commercial sports grow and prosper best under five social and economic conditions.

First, they are most prevalent in market econo- mies where material rewards are highly valued by athletes, team owners, event sponsors, and spectators.

Second, they usually exist in societies that have large, densely populated cities with high concen- trations of potential spectators. Although some forms of commercial sports can be maintained in rural, agricultural societies, their revenues would not support full-time professional athletes or sport promoters.

Third, commercial sports are a luxury, and they prosper only when the standard of living is high enough that people have time and resources to play and watch events that have no tangible products required for survival. Transportation and communi- cations technologies must exist for sponsors to make money. Therefore, commercial sports are common in wealthy, urban, and industrial or post-industrial societies; they seldom exist in labor-intensive, poor societies where people must use all their resources to survive.

Fourth, commercial sports require large amounts of capital (money or credit) to build and maintain stadiums and arenas in which events can be played and watched. Capital can be accumulated in the public or private sector, but in either case, the will- ingness to invest in sports depends on anticipated payoffs in the form of publicity, profits, or power.

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Private investment in sports occurs when investors expect financial profits; public investment occurs when political leaders believe that commercial sports serve their interests, the interests of “the pub- lic,” or a combination of both.

Fifth, commercial sports flourish in cultures where lifestyles emphasize consumption and mate- rial status symbols. This enables everything associ- ated with sports to be marketed and sold: athletes (including their names, autographs, and images), merchandise, team names, and logos. When people express their identities through clothing, other pos- sessions, and their associations with status symbols

and celebrities, they will spend money on sports that have meaning in their social world. The suc- cess of commercial sports depends on selling sym- bols and emotional experiences to audiences, and then selling audiences to sponsors and the media.

Class Relations and Commercial Sports

Sports most likely to be commercialized are those watched, played, or used for profit by people who control economic resources in society. For example, golf is a major commercial sport in the United States, even though it does not lend itself

Sports are played in nearly all cultures, but professional sports seldom exist in labor-intensive, poor nations. The Afghan horsemen here are playing buzkashi, a popular sport in their country, but Afghanistan lacks the general conditions needed to sustain buzkashi as a professional sport with fulltime paid athletes and paying fans.  (Source: © IGOR KOVALENKO/epa/Corbis)

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nor will it be given cultural significance in soci- ety. A sport won’t become a “national pastime” or be associated with “character,” community spirit, civic unity, and political loyalty unless it’s favored by people with resources.

This is why football is now known as “ America’s game”—it celebrates and privileges the values and experiences of the men who control and ben- efit from corporate wealth and power in North America. This is why men pay thousands of dol- lars to buy expensive season tickets to college and professional football games, why male executives use corporation money to buy expensive blocks of “company tickets” to football games, and why cor- poration presidents write hundred-thousand-dollar checks to pay for luxury boxes and club seats for themselves, friends, and clients. They enjoy foot- ball, but most important, it reproduces an ideology that fosters their interests.

Women who want to be a part of the power structure in the United States often find that they must learn to “talk football” so they can com- municate with the men who have created organi- zational cultures and control women’s careers. If female executives don’t go to the next big football game and take clients with them, they risk being excluded from the “masculinity loop” that is central to corporate culture and communication (Gregory, 2009). When they go to work every Monday during the fall, they know that their ability to “talk foot- ball” can keep them in touch with male co-workers.

The Creation of Spectator Interest

Sport spectators are likely to be plentiful in soci- eties where there’s a general quest for excitement, an ideological emphasis on material success, child- hood experiences with sports, and easy access to sports through the media.

The Quest for Excitement When social life is highly controlled and organized, everyday rou- tines often cause people to feel emotionally con- strained. This fosters a search for activities that offer tension-excitement and emotional arousal.

to commercial presentation. It’s inconvenient to stage a golf event for a live audience or to tele- vise it. Camera placement and media commentary are difficult to arrange, and live spectators see only a small portion of the action. Golf does not involve vigorous action or head-to-head competi- tion, except in rare cases of match play. Usually, if you don’t play golf, you have little or no reason to watch it.

But golf is popular among wealthy and power- ful men, who are important to sponsors and adver- tisers because they make consumption decisions for themselves, their families, their businesses, and thousands of employees who work under their supervision. They buy luxury cars and other high- end products for themselves, but more important to advertisers is that they buy thousands of company cars and computers for employees and make large investment decisions related to pensions and com- pany capital.

This collection of golf supporters has economic clout that goes far beyond personal and family lives. This makes golf an attractive sport for cor- porations that have images and products that appeal to consumers with money and influence. This is why auto companies with high-priced cars sponsor and advertise on the PGA, LPGA, and Champions (Senior) PGA tours. This also is why major televi- sion networks cover golf tournaments: They can sell commercial time at a high rate per minute because those watching golf have money to spend—their money and the money of the companies they con- trol. The converse of this is also true: Sports attract- ing low- and middle-income audiences often are ignored by television or covered only under special circumstances. If wealthy executives bowled, we would see more bowling on commercial television and more bowling facilities on prime real estate in cities; but wealthy people seldom bowl, and bowl- ing receives little coverage.

Market economies always privilege the inter- ests of those who have the power and resources to select sports for promotion and coverage. Unless those people want to play, sponsor, or watch a sport, it won’t be commercialized on a large scale,

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success as well as the use of science and technology (Hoberman, 1994). When high-profile athletes can deliver this message for corporations, lucrative endorsements come their way.

Youth Sport Programs and Spectator Interest Spectator interest often is initiated during child- hood sport experiences. When organized youth sport programs emphasize skills, competition, and success, participants are likely to grow up want- ing to watch elite athletes. For young people who continue to play sports, watching elite athletes pro- vides them with models for playing and improving skills; for those who discontinue active participa- tion, watching elite athletes provides continuous connections with the images and experiences of success that they learned while playing organized youth sports.

NFL executives understand the importance of this connection between youth sports and spectator interest. For example, as parents learn more about the dangers of brain injuries in football, the NFL has joined with USA Football to conduct a major public relations campaign to convince parents that football is being made safer and that they should encourage their sons to play the game. If youth football programs decline, so does the number of future players, season ticket purchasers, and media consumers of football.

Media Coverage and Spectator Interest Media promote the commercialization of sports by pub- licizing and covering events in ways that sustain spectator interest (Cooky et al., 2013). Television increases spectator access to events and athletes worldwide and provides unique representations of sports. Camera coverage enables viewers to focus on the action and view replays in slow motion as they listen to the “insider” comments of announcers—all of which further immerses spec- tators into vicarious and potentially exciting sport experiences.

On-air commentators serve the media audience as fellow spectators who embellish the action and heighten identification with athletes and teams.

According to sociologists Eric Dunning and Norbert Elias, historical evidence suggests that this is common in modern socie ties. Sports, they contend, provide activities in which rules and norms can be shaped to foster emotional arousal and exciting actions, thereby eliminating bore- dom without disrupting social order in society (Dunning, 1999; Elias and Dunning, 1986).

Sports generally involve a tension between order and disruption. To manage this tension, norms and rules in sports must be loose enough to allow exciting action, but not so loose that they permit uncontrolled violence or other forms of destructive actions. When norms and rules are too constrain- ing, sports are boring and people lose interest; when they are too loose, sports become sites for reckless and dangerous actions that jeopardize health and social order. The challenge is to find and maintain a balance.

This explanation of spectator interest raises the question, “Why do so many people give priority to sports over other activities in their quest for excite- ment?” Cultural theorists suggest that answers can be found by looking at the connection between ide- ology and cultural practices. This leads us to con- sider the following factors.

Class Ideology and Spectator Interest Specta- tor interest in sports is highest among those who believe in a meritocratic ideal: the idea that success is always based on skill and hard work, and skill and hard work always lead to success. This belief supports a widely held class ideology in societ- ies with capitalist economies. Those who hold it often use sports as a model for how the social world should operate. When sports promote the idea that success is achieved through hard work and skill, their ideology is reaffirmed, and they become more secure in their beliefs. This is why sport media commentators emphasize that athletes and teams succeed when they work hard and have talent. This also is why corporations use the bodies of elite athletes to represent their public relations and marketing images—the finely tuned bodies of athletes are concrete examples of skill, power, and

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Economic Factors and the Globalization of Commercial Sports

Commercial sports are now global in scope. Glo- balization has occurred because (1) those who control, sponsor, and promote sports seek new ways to expand markets and maximize profits, and (2) transnational corporations use sports as vehicles for introducing their products and ser- vices around the world. This makes sports a form of global cultural trade that is exported and imported in a manner similar to other products.

Commentators provide inside stories, analyze strate- gies, describe athletes as personalities, and magnify the importance of events.

Television recruits new spectators by teaching newcomers the rules and strategies of a sport at home with family and friends without purchasing expen- sive tickets. This is a painless way to be socialized into a spectator role, and it increases the number of people who will eventually buy tickets, watch televised games, pay for cable and satellite sports programming, and even become pay-per-view cus- tomers in the future.

Football is the most widely watched sport in the United States. It offers excitement in the form of rule- governed violence, and it reaffirms the notion that success is achieved through competition and dominating opponents. Youth football teams are very popular, and more young men play high school football than any other high school sport. Football lends itself to media coverage during which replays, slow motion, and expert commentary are used to dissect plays and game plans. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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FIFA—the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The top soccer clubs in Europe have used multiple strategies to expand their global marketing reach. The best current example is Real Madrid Football Club (FC) in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, or La Liga, the premier twenty-team league in Spain. It is valued at $3.3 billion and is owned by about 60,000 club members. It has 50 million social media followers and is rated as one of the twenty most recognizable brands in the world.

Two other sport teams with similar global rec- ognition and value are Manchester United FC in England’s Premier League and Barcelona FC in La Liga with Real Madrid. Barcelona, long known as a football club of the working class, has 101 mil- lion social media followers worldwide and may be the most recognizable sport brand in the world because of its working-class identification.

As a point of comparison, the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys are valued at $3.2 billion each, but they have fewer than 20 million social media followers between them. Barcelona FC has ten times more followers than the Dallas Cowboys, and about the same number of followers as all thirty- two NFL teams combined. The only U.S. team with a strong global profile is the Los Angeles Lakers, with 26 million social media followers and high brand recognition. These data have attracted the attention of the leaders of U.S. sport leagues because they indicate that there is much room for global expansion.

Corporations Use Sports as Vehicles for Global Expansion Because certain sports capture the attention, emotions, and allegiance of so many people worldwide, corporations are eager to spon- sor them. Corporations need symbols of success and productivity that they can use as “marketing hooks” for products and as representations of their images. For example, people around the world still associate Michael Jordan with the “Air Jordan” trademark copyrighted by Nike; and many people now assume a connection between the Olympics and both McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.

Sport Organizations Look for Global Markets Commercial sport organizations are businesses, and their goal is to expand into as many markets as possible. In fact, future profits for major profes- sional sports depend on selling media rights and consumer merchandise. Most leagues now market themselves outside their home countries and use various strategies to develop identification with their sport, teams, and players. In this way, sport organizations become exporters of culture as well as products to be consumed.

The desire for global expansion was the main reason why the NBA allowed its players to compose the so-called Dream Team that played in the 1992 Olympics. The global media attention received by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and other players provided the NBA with publicity worth many mil- lions of dollars. This exposure helped market NBA broadcasting rights and official NBA products worldwide. Today, the NBA finals and the NBA All-Star games are televised annually in over 200 countries and there are 76 international players from 31 countries now playing in the league. Outside the United States, China constitutes the largest NBA market and player development focus. More than 50,000 stores in China sell NBA merchandise, and about 30  percent of all visitors to NBA.com enter through the Mandarin language portal at the site.

The desire for global expansion has led NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB teams to play exhibition and regular season games in Mexico, China, Japan, England, France, Germany, and Australia and to subsidize leagues and outreach programs for mar- keting purposes. This spirit of globalization is neither new nor limited to North American sport organizations. The International Olympic Com- mittee (IOC) has incorporated national Olympic committees from every nation worldwide and has turned the Olympic Games into the most successful and financially lucrative media sport events in his- tory. Furthermore, the IOC, like some other sport organizations, has turned itself and the Olympics into a global brand.

The sport with the longest history of global expansion is soccer, which is governed by

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(Budweiser) spent over $370 mil- lion for commercial time during Super Bowls between 2003 and 2016. Like other multinational corporations, these companies buy commercial time during sport events to promote the belief that pleasure and excitement in peo- ple’s everyday lives depend on them. They use this belief as an ideological outpost in the minds

of people worldwide, and as information is filtered through these outposts, corporate executives hope to defuse opposition to the products and opera- tional practices of their companies. When suc- cessful, this strategy boosts their legitimacy and contributes to corporate hegemony worldwide.

The success of this strategy led a Coca-Cola executive to tell IOC officials that they owed loy- alty to Coke. He explained that

Just as sponsors have the responsibility to preserve the integrity of the sport, enhance its image, help grow its prestige and its attendance, so too, do you [in sports] have responsibility and accountability to the sponsor (cited in Reid, 1996, p. 4BB).

IOC officials know that drinking cola does not meet the nutritional needs of elite athletes or the health goals of the Olympic movement, but they respond supportively to this executive’s message. Coca-Cola has worked for nearly a century to colo- nize their minds and establish the outposts through which this message has been transmitted. This is why the official program brochure for the Olym- pics contains these words:

Without sponsors, there would be no Olympic Games. Without the Olympic Games, there would be no dreams. Without dreams, there would be nothing (cited in Horne, 2007).

Of course, the sponsors themselves could not have written a statement better suited to their pur- poses. They want people to focus on dreams rather than the realities related to consumption and global corporate expansion; the Olympic Games continue

In the United States, the “gold medal” achievement for a corporation is to convert the company into a brand that can be associated with various forms of status and identity. Sports serve as effective sites for doing this as sport images and products can be used to represent people’s identities at the same time that they can repre- sent other things that give them sta- tus in particular social worlds. This dynamic drives consumption and corporate profits. As a result, most people inadvertently boost brand power by wearing clothes that prominently display logos. But corporations have convinced them that this is part of personal identity construction rather than free advertising for a company that cares noth- ing about them personally.

Companies whose profits depend on selling alcohol, tobacco, fossil fuels, fast food, soft drinks, and candy are especially eager to have their prod- ucts associated with sports. This enables them to defuse negative publicity about unhealthy and negative aspects of their products and production processes. They want people to think that “if the sports we love are brought to us by beer, cigarettes, liquor, soft drinks, beef burgers, deep-fried foods, candy bars, and fossil fuels, these things must have some redeeming qualities.”

We now live in an era of transnational corpo- rations (TNCs) that influence economic activity worldwide, affecting who has jobs, the kinds of work people do, salaries and working conditions, the products that people can buy, where they can buy them, and what they cost. When these corpo- rations sponsor sports, they negotiate deals that promote their interests, increase their power, and create positive images of themselves as “global citizens and leaders.” This is worth an invest- ment of billions of dollars each year. For example, eleven global corporations, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Dow (Chemical), each paid $100 million just for the rights to advertise in connec- tion with the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games in Vancouver and London; and Anheuser-Busch

By unrolling the red carpet to the advertising and marketing of junk- food giants, the IOC is setting a toxic trap to hundreds of millions of parents and kids. —Monika Kosinska, European Public Health alliance (in Jack, 2012)

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presented by Outback [Steakhouse]” (in Penning- ton, 2004, p. 1).

As corporations brand public spaces, commu- nity identities often come to be linked with brands, thereby converting the physical embodiments of local traditions and histories into highly visible signs that promote consumption and identify cor- porations as providers of pleasure and excitement. In the process, the public good is replaced by the corporate good, even in spaces paid for and owned by citizen-taxpayers.

Sport events also are branded. College football fans in the United States watch everything from the Capital One Orange Bowl to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl during December and early January. College football is clearly branded, as are the athletes who wear corporate logos on their shirts, shoes, hel- mets, and warm-up clothing.

NASCAR auto and truck racing has always been heavily branded. Although they have changed their branding strategies recently, they still have branded races such as Coca Cola 600, Coke Zero 400, Cheez-It 355, Hollywood Casino 400, and Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500. Additionally, race- cars are billboards with surface spaces purchased by companies selling products that often cannot be advertised on network television, such as hard liquor and tobacco. This is why it was so impor- tant for NASCAR to be nationally televised—the liquor and tobacco companies wanted their brand names in front of a national audience for 250 to 600 laps during races.

Professional events in golf, tennis, beach vol- leyball, skiing, ice skating, and most other sports are now named after global corporations that want their names and products to be recognized world- wide. Corporations also brand teams in cycling, soccer, rugby, and many other sports. Professional baseball teams in Japan are named after corpora- tions, not cities. Players and even referees in most sports wear the corporate logos of sponsors on their uniforms. Because European soccer was televised for many years by public TV stations that had no commercials, corporations put their logos on the players themselves and around the walls of the

to be awash in Coca-Cola imagery as outposts continue to be established in the minds of billions of potential consumers of soft drinks.

Outposts in Action: Branding Sports When ranchers want to show ownership of animals, they burn their logos into the animals’ hides. The brand is their mark of ownership. And in the realm of sports, nearly all major stadiums and arenas in North America now display the brands of airlines, banks, brewers, and a gang of companies selling cars, oil, auto parts, energy, soft drinks, and com- munications services and products. For the venues in which NFL, NBA, and MLB teams play, these branding or naming rights sell for $3 million to $20 million per year. Deals usually are for ten to thirty years and often include signage in and around the venue, the use of luxury boxes and club seats, pro- motional rights for events, and exclusive conces- sion rights (for example, the four Pepsi Centers in the United States sell only Pepsi products to fans). This benefits corporations, especially in major cities where four large billboards can cost up to $100,000 a month ($1.2 million per year). Having multiple billboard-like surfaces inside and outside a stadium is viewed as a good investment by corpo- rate executives, especially when the name of their company is used in everyday conversations and they receive “sport perks” for themselves, custom- ers, and friends.

The branding of sports also is apparent inside stadiums, where nearly every available surface is sold for corporate displays. Surfaces without cor- porate messages are now defined as wasted space, even in publicly owned facilities. This occurs at all levels of sports. For instance, many corpora- tions desperately want to establish outposts in the minds of high school students who are in the pro- cess of forming lifelong preferences for products such as soft drinks. David Carter from the Sports Marketing Company in California knows that high school sports need revenues, so he predicts that “commercialism is coming to a school near you: the high school cheerleaders will be brought to you by Gatorade, and the football team will be

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of skateboards and other products. However, this strategy is possible only for athletes whose celebrity is great enough to be converted into a brand.

In all other cases, it is corporations who choose who and what they wish to brand. For example, some athletes as young as twelve years old may be known as Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour athletes. Corporate executives now try to brand athletes as early as possible so that they can socialize the ath- letes to develop marketable personas that can be used to effectively promote corporate interests.

The Super Bowl, far too expensive for any single corporation to brand on its own, is known as much for its ads as for the game itself. Corporate spon- sors of the 2016 Super Bowl paid about $5 million for thirty-second commercial spots during the tele- cast of the game—that’s $166,000 per second! Corporate sponsors pay this rate because their ads are seen by live viewers who can’t “fast forward” through commercials and they receive exposure beyond the game itself—in terms of previews, summaries, highlights, evaluations, and rankings in other media coverage—and they will be avail- able for years on the Internet where people can see every ad starting with the 1969 Super Bowl. Cor- porations have branded the Super Bowl to such an extent that it has been described as a program where the commercials are the entertainment, and the game may or may not be entertaining.

Future forms of corporate branding are difficult to predict because it’s hard to say where people will draw the line and prevent corporations from colonizing their lives. Ads during television cover- age are now inserted digitally on the field, court, and other surfaces of arenas and stadiums so that viewers cannot escape them even when they record events and delete commercials. Corporations spend more of their advertising money today to purchase brand-placement rights, so their names, logos, and products appear directly in the content of sports. This maximizes the branding of playing fields/ spaces, uniforms, and athletes’ bodies.

The Limits of Corporate Branding Can corpora- tions go too far in their branding of sports? People

playing fields so that spectators would see them constantly. This tradition continues even though commercial media now own the rights to televise most sport events worldwide.

Corporate branders now give priority to sports that appeal to young males, a demographic cat- egory defined as “hard to reach.” So there are the X Games, Dew Tour, numerous events spon- sored by Red Bull Energy Drink, Van’s Triple Crown ( surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding), McDonald’s All-American High School Basket- ball Games, the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, and the Nike Hoop Summit.

Sports agents today tell athletes that they can be brands and their goal should be to merge with other commercial entities rather than simply endorse a company’s products. Michael Jordan was the first to do this. He initially endorsed Nike products but gradually became a brand in his own right. Today he has his own line of products in addition to “Air Jordan.” Tony Hawk has done this with his own line

“This is Pepsi McDonald at Mad Max Fury Road Park where the Microsoft Raiders will battle the Wal-Mart Titans. Team captains, Nike Jones and Budweiser

Williams, prepare for the Franklin Mint Coin Toss, right after this message from our sponsor, Ford trucks—

giving you power on demand!”

Televised versions of commercial sports have become inseparable from the logos and products of corpo- rate sponsors.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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ideas and present them in a form that most people see as normal, acceptable, and even entertaining.

COMMERCIALIZATION AND CHANGES IN SPORTS

What happens to sports as they shift from being activities organized for players to activities orga- nized for paying spectators and sponsors? Do they change? If so, in what ways?

When a sport is converted into commercial entertainment, its success depends solely on spec- tator appeal. Although spectators watch sports for many reasons, their interest is tied to a combination of four factors:

∙ Attachment to those involved (“Do I know, like, or strongly identify with players and/or teams?”)

∙ The uncertainty of an event’s outcome (“Will it be a close contest?” and “Who might win?”)

∙ The stakes associated with an event (“How much money, status, or danger is involved in the contest?”)

∙ The anticipated display of excellence, heroics, or dramatic expression by the athletes (“Are the players and/or teams skilled and entertaining?” and “Might they set a record?” or “be the best team ever?”)

When spectators say they saw “a good game,” they usually mean that it was one in which (1) they were attached personally or emotionally to an ath- lete or a team; (2) the outcome was in doubt until the last minutes or seconds; (3) the stakes were so high that players were totally committed to and engrossed in the action; or (4) there were skilled and dramatic performances. Events containing all four of these factors are remembered and discussed for many years.

Because attachment, uncertainty, high stakes, and performance attract spectators, successful commercial sports are organized to maximize the probability that all four factors will exist in an event. To understand how this affects sports, we

in New Jersey didn’t resist when a local elemen- tary school sold naming rights for its gym to Shop- Rite, a supermarket chain. Most high school and college sport programs have not resisted. Football fans don’t object when McDonald’s is touted as the NFL’s Official Fast-Food Sponsor, and Olym- pic officials, who claim to be dedicated to health and fitness, have long accepted McDonald’s as the Official Restaurant of the Olympic Games. Despite a handful of cases where people objected to ads located on the actual field of play, sports are for sale, and corporations are willing buyers when deals boost their power and profits and promote consumption as a lifestyle.

In less than a generation, sports have been so thor- oughly branded that many people, especially those younger than thirty years old, see this situation as “normal”—as the way it is and should be. Does this mean that corporations have established ideological outposts in their heads to the point that they accept corporate power as inevitable and even desirable? If so, corporate hegemony is deeply entrenched, even if some people resist and argue that the control of sports should not rest in the hands of corporate enti- ties accountable only to market forces. If so, com- mercial sports are a site where people with political and financial resources can package their values and

The goal of branding is to establish outposts in people’s heads by connecting personal pleasure and excitement with corporations and their products. This is why “sport spaces” are filled with corporate logos and messages. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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provide “commercial time-outs.” A review of rule changes in many sports shows the importance of these factors. For example, the designated hitter position in baseball’s American League was added to increase scoring opportunities and heighten dra- matic action. Soccer rules were changed to prevent matches from ending in ties. Tennis scoring was changed to meet the time requirements of televi- sion networks. Golf tournaments now involve total stroke counts rather than match play, so that big- name players aren’t eliminated in an early round of a televised event. Free throws were minimized in basketball to speed up action. A 3-on-3 players sudden-death overtime period followed by a player versus goalie shootout (if needed) is now used by the National Hockey League to eliminate tie games and provide spectators with exciting action.

Although these changes are grounded in com- mercialization, they haven’t altered the internal structure and goals of long-established sports. Teams remain the same size with similar positions, and outscoring opponents remains the primary goal. But games and matches are presented as total entertainment experiences. There’s loud music, rapidly changing video displays, light displays, cheerleaders and mascots that present entertain- ing performances, and announcers that heighten drama with excited and colorful descriptions of the action. This entertainment package represents a change, but it affects the context surrounding a game or match rather than the structure and goals of the sport itself.

Orientations of Athletes, Coaches, and Sponsors

Commercial sports occur within a promotional cul- ture created to sell athletic performances to audi- ences and sell audiences to sponsors. These sports are promoted through marketing hype based on stories, myths, and images created around play- ers, teams, and even stadiums or arenas. Athletes become entertainers, and the orientations of nearly everyone in sports shift toward an emphasis on heroic action and away from aesthetic action. As

will consider the impact of commercialization on the following three aspects of sports:

1. The internal structure and goals of sports 2. The orientations of athletes, coaches, and

sponsors 3. The people and organizations that control

sports

Internal Structure and Goals of Sports

Commercialization influences the internal structure and goals of newly developed sports, but it has less influence on long-established sports. New sports developed explicitly for commercial purposes are organized to maximize whatever a target audience will find entertaining. This is not the only factor that influences the internal structure and goals of new sports, but it is the primary one. It is apparent in indoor soccer, indoor lacrosse, arena football, beach volleyball, roller hockey, and commercial action sports. Therefore, rules in the X Games are designed to maximize “big air,” dangerous and spectacular moves, and the technical aspects of equipment, often manufactured by event sponsors. And when mixed martial arts was commercialized in the form of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), holding the fights in a cage was clearly an entertainment strategy—and it has worked!

Commercialization also forces more established sports to make action more exciting and under- standable for spectators, but the changes seldom alter the basic internal organization and goals of the sports. For example, rules in the NFL have been changed to protect quarterbacks, increase passing as an offensive strategy, discourage field goals, protect players from career-ending injuries, establish “tele- vision/commercial time-outs,” and set game sched- ules to fit the interests of commercial sponsors. But the basic organization and goals of the game have remained the same.

Changes in commercialized spectator sports usually do a combination of these six things: (1) speed up the action; (2) increase scoring; (3) balance competition; (4) maximize drama; (5) heighten attachment to players and teams; and (6)

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technical knowledge about basketball are more impressed by slam dunks than a well-coordinated defensive strategy that wins a game.

Players realize what a mass audience wants and often “play to the crowd” with heroic displays and exciting or controversial personas. They may even refer to games as “showtime.” In commercial terms, a player’s style and persona often are as valuable as technical skills. This is why announcers and jour- nalists focus on athletes who can make the big plays and are willing to talk in dramatic terms about their performances. A mass audience is thrilled by long touchdown passes, home runs, and athletes who collapse as they surpass their physical limits.

Overall, commercialization involves a shift in orientations so that the danger of movement becomes important in addition to the beauty of movement; style and dramatic expression become important in addition to skills; pushing beyond personal limits becomes important in addition to exploring limits; and commitment to victory for the team and sponsor becomes important in addition

illustrated in Figure  11.1, this shift is designed to attract a mass audience.

Because many people in a mass audience lack technical knowledge about the sport they watch, they are entertained mostly by intense action, danger, the dramatic expressions of athletes and coaches, and manifestations of commitment to victory. These things are easily understood by spectators who don’t know enough about the sport to be captivated by precise physical skills and subtle strategies.

When spectators lack technical knowledge about football, for example, they are entertained more by a running back’s end-zone antics after a touchdown than by the lineman’s block that enabled the running back to score the touchdown. Those who know little about the technical aspects of ice skating are entertained more by triple and quadruple jumps than routines that are carefully choreographed and flawlessly executed. Without dangerous jumps, naïve spectators become bored because they don’t recognize subtle differences in the skills and routines of skaters. Those who lack

FIGURE 11.1 Shifting orientations: What happens when there is a need to entertain a mass audience.

Need to entertain a mass audience

Low need to entertain

Aesthetic orientations

High need to entertain

Heroic orientations

Emphasis on • Beauty and pleasure of movement • Ability/mastery of technical skills • Willingness to explore limits • Commitment to staying active and involved as a participant

Emphasis on • Danger and excitement of movement • Style/mastery of dramatic expression • Willingness to go beyond limits • Commitment to victory and success of the team/sponsor

Note: The orientations associated with commercial spectator sports involve a shift from aesthetics to

heroics—from skills to spectacle. Spectators need technical knowledge about a sport to be entertained by

aesthetic action; when spectators lack this knowledge, they seek and focus on heroic action. Therefore,

athletes and others associated with the game emphasize heroic orientations in their performances. “Heroic,”

as used here, refers to those who “play to the crowd” with entertaining forms of dramatic expression. The

extreme version of this occurs in professional wrestling where stereotypical heroes and villains engage in

heroic, dramatic, spectacular, and dangerous performances in the ring. Concerns about beauty, mastery,

reasoned engagement, and athlete well-being are not the stuff of mass entertainment sports.

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The People and Organizations That Control Sports

When sports depend on the revenues they generate, control in sport organizations shifts away from the athletes and toward those with the resources to pro- duce and promote sports. Athletes in heavily com- mercialized sports generally lose effective control over the conditions of their own sport participation. These conditions are controlled by a combination of general managers, team owners, corporate spon- sors, advertisers, media personnel, marketing and publicity staff, professional management staff, accountants, and agents.

The organizations that control commercial sports are designed to maximize profits. Decision making promotes economic interests and deals with athletes as commodities to be managed. Therefore, athletes in commercial sports usually are cut out of deci- sion-making processes, even when the decisions affect their health and the rewards they receive for playing. This leads them to develop strategies to represent their interests relative to the interests of team owners, agents, advertising executives, media people, and corporate sponsors. For example, ath- letes in ESPN’s X Games constantly struggle to maintain the spirit and norms of their sport cultures as they participate under conditions controlled by ESPN and corporate sponsors.

Like many athletes before them, the athletes in action sports find it difficult to oppose the power of the media and corporate sponsors. If they want the rewards offered in commercial sports, they answer first to the sponsors. This isn’t new; sponsors tradi- tionally define the conditions of sport participation. But some people view the power shifts that come with commercialization in critical terms, assessing carefully the pros and cons of a commercial model in which corporations set the terms and conditions of playing sports. Commercialization may not sig- nificantly change the structure and goals of some sports, but it does come with major changes in power relations and the organizational contexts in which sports are played.

to the personal joy of participation. Aesthetic ori- entations don’t disappear in commercial sports, but they are combined with heroic orientations to produce changes in what constitutes a memorable sport event.

Because there are dangers associated with heroic orientations, some athletes try to limit an emphasis on heroic actions in their sports. This has occurred in figure skating as some athletes favor restrictions on the number of triple jumps required in skating programs. They worry that the quest for commer- cial success jeopardizes their bodies. Other skat- ers, however, adopt heroic orientations to please audiences and conform to shifts in the orientations of judges, coaches, and other skaters. As a result, they train to successfully land a succession of triple jumps along with quad jumps without breaking bones or destroying the continuity of their skat- ing programs. Aesthetic orientations still exist, but heroic orientations have been woven into popular definitions of “quality” in skating performances.

As heroic orientations become more important, so do concerns about athletes becoming entertain- ers and sports turning into circus spectacles. For example, as accidents in NASCAR races have been linked to issues of revenge between drivers and strategies to prevent certain drivers from winning series championships, some people wonder if the sport is turning into a weekly circus act (Gluck, 2015). The challenge facing NASCAR executives is to decide whether the races are a form of honest competition or spectacles that pit drivers against each other in demolition derbies.

This issue is not limited to NASCAR. Those who control commercial sports must eventually deal with similar questions. For example, what hap- pens to a sport when heroic orientations are pushed to extremes? Are spectators willing to have aes- thetic orientations abandoned in favor of the heroic? What would events be like if this happened? One way to answer this question is to study professional wrestling—a sport turned into heroic spectacle in a quest to be entertaining. This topic is discussed in the Reflect on Sports box “Extreme Heroic Action.”

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reflect on S P O R T S

Professional wrestling is commercialization pushed to an extreme. It isolates elements of commercial sports and dramatizes them through parody and caricature (Sammond, 2005; Schiesel, 2007a; Smith, 2008). In the process, it abandons aesthetic orientations and high- lights the heroic.

Starting in the late 1990s, professional wrestling cap- tured widespread spectator interest and was a smashing commercial success. It bodyslammed its way into popu- lar culture worldwide. Its featured events in sold out stadiums nearly every night in North American cities.

Raw Is War and Smackdown! were top-ranked programs on ad-supported cable television. Pay-per-view events often subscribed over half a million viewers at $30 per month and up to $50 for special events. Matches were televised in nine languages in 120 countries, wrestling videos were the best-selling “sports videos” in the world, and wrestling action figures outsold all other characters in popular culture.

Branded as World Wrestling Entertainment, profes- sional wrestling events have been among the highest- rated programs on major cable channels. For many

Extreme Heroic Action: Professional Wrestling as “Sportainment”

Continued

Professional wrestling turns sport into spectacle. Popular worldwide, it is organized around heroic orientations. In Spanish-speaking countries, pro wrestling is known as Lucha Libre—open wrestling in which masks are worn, with the exception of Cassandro, “Queen of the Ring” and the first openly gay celebrity wrestler. Most matches are representations of battles between what fans perceive as good and evil. This well-attended match occurred at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. (Source: © Splash News/ /Splash News/Corbis)

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THE ORGANIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS IN NORTH AMERICA

Professional sports in North America are privately owned by individuals, partnerships, or corpora- tions. The wealth and power of owners is greatest at the top levels of professional sports and less so in minor leagues and sports with relatively small audiences. Similarly, sponsors and event promoters range from individuals to large transnational cor- porations, depending on the size of events.

The Owners of Sport Teams

Most of the individuals or companies that own minor-league teams in North America don’t make

much money. Many are happy to break even and avoid the losses that are commonplace at this level of sports ownership. Also, many teams, leagues, and events have been financial disasters over the past fifty years. Four football leagues, a hockey league, a few soccer leagues, a volleyball league, four men’s and five women’s basketball leagues, a team tennis league, and a number of basketball and soccer teams have gone out of business, leav- ing many owners, sponsors, and promoters in debt. This list covers only the United States and doesn’t include all those who have lost money on tourna- ments and special events.

The owners of major men’s professional sport franchises in North America are very different from owners at other levels of commercial sports. Teams or franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB in

“addresses the anxiety and angst associated with com- munity breakdown, social disenchantment, and politi- cal correctness” (2005, p. 174). He explains that when community ties are strong and social satisfaction is high and social control is not overly constraining, people have little anxiety and little need to be entertained by dramatic parodies of heroic wrestling action.

Cultural theories, on the other hand, lead to other hypotheses based on past evidence that the popular- ity of any cultural practice, including professional wrestling, depends on the extent to which it reaffirms the ideologies that people use to make sense of their lives and the world around them. Therefore, the goal of those who produce sport entertainment is to provide people with pleasure and excitement without fostering opposition to the power structure that sustains com- mercial entertainment. In this way, professional wres- tling and most commercial sports reproduce the status quo and existing forms of power relations by present- ing actions, story lines, and characters that constitute soap operas for men of all ages and for the women who identify with the orientations and perspectives of men (Schiesel, 2007a).

reflect on S P O R T S

Extreme Heroic Action (continued )

years, popular Monday Night Nitro and Monday Night Raw have cut into the audience for Monday Night Football and the finals of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Most wrestling programs have had viewer ratings consistently higher than NBA games and always higher than NHL games.

The popularity of professional wrestling is grounded in the heroic actions of performers combined with story lines and personas that engage spectators’ concerns with issues related to social class, gender, ethnicity, job secu- rity, and national identity. In most cases, story lines and personas are performed by hypermasculine, heterosex- ual, and homophobic strong men who are arbitrarily vic- timized or privileged by greedy, underhanded corporate bosses or random, unpredictable events. The men are either supported or undermined by women, represented as alluring and vulnerable sex objects or exotic and heav- ily muscled sadomasochists. Overall, events are staged to represent male fantasies and fears about sex and power, and their concerns about work in a world where men feel they are losing control.

Sociologist Brendan Maguire uses structural theory to hypothesize that pro wrestling is popular because it

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2015 were valued from about $186 million (Florida Panthers in the NHL) to about $3.2 billion (Dallas Cowboys in the NFL). Therefore, the owners of teams in these leagues are large corporations and a few very wealthy individuals with assets ranging from hundreds of millions to many billions of dol- lars. Each of these four major men’s leagues is orga- nized as a monopoly, most teams in these leagues play in publicly subsidized facilities, owners make good to excellent returns on their investments, and support from media companies and corporate spon- sors almost guarantees continued financial success at this level of ownership.

Similarly, the large corporations that sponsor particular events, from major golf and tennis tour- naments to NASCAR and Grand Prix races, know the costs and benefits involved. Their association with top events provides them with advertising platforms and connects them with clearly identified categories of consumers. Media companies also sponsor events so they can control their own pro- gramming, as in the case of ESPN’s X Games, Red Bull sports, and others.

Major sport sponsorships enable companies that sell tobacco, alcohol, and junk food to link their products and logos to popular activities. Execu- tives at these companies know that people asso- ciate sports with strong, healthy bodies instead of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, tooth decay, and other forms of poor health associated with their products. Their hope is to use sports to increase their legitimacy as “corporate citizens” and defuse resistance to their policies and products.

Investments in sports and sport events are moti- vated by many factors. In some cases, investors are wealthy fans looking to satisfy lifelong fantasies, build their egos, or socialize with celebrity ath- letes. Buying a team or sponsoring major events gives them more enjoyment and prestige than other business ventures, often making them instant celebrities.

Those who invest in sports enjoy their status, but they don’t allow fun and fantasy to interfere with business and the growth of their capital. They don’t enjoy losing money or sharing power. They

may look at their athletes as heroes, but they want to control them and maximize investment returns. They may be civic boosters and supporters of pub- lic projects, but they define the “public good” in terms that emphasize capitalist expansion and their own business interests, usually to the exclusion of other definitions. They may not agree with fellow owners and sponsors on all issues, but they do agree that their investments must be protected and their profits maximized.

Team Owners and Sport Leagues as Cartels

The tendency to think alike has been especially strong among the owners of teams in the major North American sport leagues. Unity among own- ers has led to the formation of effective cartels. A cartel is a centralized group that coordinates the actions of a selected collection of people or busi- nesses. Therefore, even though each sport franchise in each league is usually a separate business, the team owners in each sport come together to form a cartel representing their collective interests. The cartel is used to control inter-team competition for players, fans, media revenues, and sales of licensed merchandise. Additionally, it’s used to eliminate competition from others who might form teams and leagues in the same sports. When a cartel succeeds, as it has in each of the major men’s professional team sports, it becomes a monopoly—the one and only provider of a particular product or service.

Each league—the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB—is also a monopsony, or a single buyer of a product or service—in this case, elite ath- letic labor in a particular sport. This means that if a college football player wants to play professional football in the United States, he has one choice: the NFL. And the NFL, like other monopsony leagues, has developed a system to force new players to negotiate contracts only with the team that drafts them. This enables owners to sign new players to contracts without bidding against other teams, which might be willing to pay particular players more money.

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out, and why cable and satellite fees are so high when fans wish to purchase access to more than the primary games telecast by the major networks. Such a strategy enables team owners to make huge sums of money in their media contracts while forc- ing people to buy tickets to games and pay high monthly cable or satellite service bills.

Being part of a legal cartel enables most team owners to make impressive sums of money. Dur- ing the mid-1960s, NFL teams were bought and sold for about $10 million; in 2015 the average franchise value was $2 billion. That’s an aver- age per-team capital gain of $1.9 billion, which amounts to an average annual return of $38 million on an original investment of $10  million. This is what a cartel does: it limits the supply of teams and drives up the value of existing teams. Of course, team owners do not include capital gains when they announce that annual profits are low and they must raise ticket prices and have a new stadium so they can be “competitive” with other teams. When you are in a cartel, you can get away with this deception and blackmail without going to jail. Of course, team owners have also used their power to influence the rule makers who set the rules that govern them.

Each league also has unique internal agreements regulating how teams can negotiate the sale of local broadcasting rights to their games. The NFL does not allow teams to sign independent television or radio contracts for local broadcasts of their games, but MLB does. This creates significant disparities in the incomes of baseball teams, because the New York Yankees can negotiate a local media rights deal that may be a hundred times higher than what the Kansas City Royals can negotiate in a much smaller media market.

The biggest differences between the major men’s sport leagues are related to their contractual agreements with the players’ association in each league. Although each league gives players as few rights and as little money as possible, athletes have struggled over the last five decades to gain control over their careers, regulate the conditions

As a cartel, the owners prevent new leagues from being established and competing with them for players, and they also prevent new teams from entering their league without their permis- sion. When permission is given, it involves con- ditions set by the cartel. For example, the new team owner is charged an entry fee to become a part of the league and must give back to the cartel some of the team’s profits for a certain number of years. Furthermore, a new owner can locate only in a city approved by the cartel, and no current owner can move a team to another city without cartel approval.

Acting as a cartel, the owners in each sport league collectively sell national broadcasting rights to their games and then share the revenues from the media contracts. This maintains the cartel’s control over the conditions under which fans can view tele- vised games. This is why games are not televised in the home team’s region when they’re not sold

“Winning is easy when you form a cartel, prevent others from playing, and maintain exclusive control over a highly

desired product.”

The growth and profitability of commercial sports worldwide have little to do with athletes. Owners, sponsors, and media executives control sports today, and they make money when governments allow them to operate as cartels and keep competitors out of the game.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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owners. However, impact studies done by inde- pendent researchers generally reach the following conclusions:1

1. Teams and stadiums create jobs, but apart from highly paid athletes and team executives, these jobs are low paid, part-time, and seasonal. Additionally, many athletes on the team don’t live in the city or spend their money there.

2. The companies that design and build stadiums are seldom local, and construction materials and workers on major projects often come from outside the region or even from outside the country. Therefore, much of the money spent on a stadium or arena does not circulate as sta- dium boosters predict.

3. Stadiums attract other businesses, but most are restaurant and entertainment franchises head- quartered in other cities. These franchises often have enough cash to undercut and drive out locally owned businesses. Some out-of-town people come to the city to attend games, but most people who buy tickets live close enough to make day trips to games, and their purchases inside the stadium don’t benefit businesses out- side the stadium gates.

4. Stadiums and teams generate public relations for the city, but this has mixed results for tour- ism because some people stay away from cities on game days. Most important, regional eco- nomic development often is limited by a new facility because fans who spend money in and around the stadium have fewer dollars to spend in their own neighborhoods. A stadium often helps nearby businesses, but it often hurts out- lying businesses. For example, when a family of four spends about $10,000 for average NBA season tickets, and another $4000 for meals

1Studies of this issue are numerous; the most recent include: see Bandow (2003); Brown et al., (2004); Curry et al., (2004); Delaney and Eckstein (2003); deMause and Cagan (2008); Friedman and Andrews, 2011; Friedman et al., (2004); Lewis (2010); Silk (2004); Smith and Ingham (2003); Spirou and Bennett (2003); Troutman (2004).

of their sport participation, and increase their sala- ries. This topic is discussed in the section below titled “Legal Status and Incomes of Athletes in Commercial Sports.”

Team Owners and Public Assistance

The belief that cities cannot have “major league status” unless they have professional sports teams and sports megaevents has enabled sports team owners and promoters to receive public money (Delaney and Eckstein, 2003; deMause and Cagan, 2008; Friedman and Andrews, 2011; Scherer and Davidson, 2010; Silk, 2004). Most common is the use of public funds to build arenas and stadiums. As noted in Chapter 9 (pp. 266–267), this “sta- dium socialism” enables wealthy and powerful capitalists to use public money for personal gain, but when the media discuss this transfer of funds, it is usually described as “economic development” rather than “welfare for the rich.”

Team owners and their supporters justify sta- dium subsidies and other forms of public assistance with a five-point argument (Lavoie, 2000):

1. A stadium and pro team creates jobs; those who hold the jobs spend money and pay taxes in the city so that everyone benefits.

2. Stadium construction infuses money into the local economy; this money is spent over and over as it circulates, generating tax revenues in the process.

3. The team attracts businesses to the city, and this increases local revenues.

4. The team attracts regional and national media attention, which boosts tourism and contributes to overall economic development.

5. The team creates positive psychic and social benefits, boosting social unity and feelings of pride and well-being in the local population.

These arguments often are supported by the eco- nomic impact studies commissioned by team

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improved by a men’s sport team that reaffirms traditional masculinity and values related to domination and conquest.

Independent researchers explain that positive effects are bound to occur when a city spends $500 million to a billion dollars of public money on a project. However, they also point out that the pub- lic good might be better served if tax money were spent on things other than a stadium. For example,

and parking for 41 home games, it will spend less money on dinners and entertainment close to home—if they have any money left!

5. A pro sport team can make some people feel good and may enhance general perceptions of a city, but this is difficult to measure and little is known about its consequences for the city as a whole. Additionally, the feelings of fans often vary with the success of a team, and the feelings of those who are not fans may not be

New Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, was remodeled in 2002 with private funds and $432 million of public money—a large government subsidy for a private, family-owned business. Used only ten times a year by the Bears, it is maintained and managed year-round by the city of Chicago. This arrangement made the McCaskey family and other team owners happy because it helped to increase the franchise value of the Chicago Bears from $362 million prior to opening of the new stadium to $1.06 billion six years later. Chicago residents built the stadium and pay maintenance bills, and the team owners enjoy a $702-million increase in team value. (Source: © Mike Smith of Aerial Views Publishing, October 5, 2003)

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increased considerably as the league has negotiated large media rights contracts. The schools remain in poor condition, but the owners have saved consider- able money on the sweetheart tax deals they struck with the city and county, so the public subsidies have paid off nicely and made them financial winners.

The people who object to stadium subsidies sel- dom have resources to oppose the well-financed, professionally packaged proposals developed by the consultants hired by team owners. The social activists who might lead the opposition already deal full time with problems related to unemployment, underfunded schools, homelessness, poor health, and the lack of needed social services in cities. They cannot abandon these tasks to lobby against using public money to benefit billionaire team own- ers and millionaire celebrity athletes. At the same time, local people are persuaded to think that team owners will abandon their city if they don’t pony up public money to build a new facility with the requi- site number of luxury suites and club seats.

When thinking about public subsidies to sport teams, it’s helpful to consider alternative uses of public funds. For example, my former hometown of Colorado Springs used $6 million of public money in 2000 to construct a youth sport complex consist- ing of twelve baseball, softball, and T-ball fields of various sizes with bleacher seating; ten soccer/foot- ball fields; six volleyball courts; an in-line skating rink; a batting cage (for baseball hitting practice); and multiple basketball courts. At the same time, $300 million of tax money from six Denver metro counties was used to build a new stadium for Pat Bowlen, the wealthy owner of the Denver Broncos. Instead of doing this, the counties could have done what Colorado Springs did and used the $300 mil- lion to build 600 baseball, softball, and T-ball fields; 500 soccer/ football fields; 300 volleyball courts; 50 in-line skating rinks; 50 batting cages; and 250 basketball courts around the metro area.

Which of these two alternatives would have had the most positive impact on the overall quality of life in the Denver metro area? If the money had been spent on local recreation facilities, individu- als and families in the region would now have easy

during the mid-1990s, the city of Cleveland spent nearly a billion dollars of public money to build three sport facilities and related infrastructure. Inner-city residents during the same years pleaded with the city to install a drinking fountain in a park in a working-class neighborhood, and teachers held classes in renovated shower rooms in local public schools because there was no money to fund new educational facilities for inner-city students. At the same time, the owners of the three sport teams received a fifty-year exemption on taxes related to their teams and facilities, and $120 million in tax abatements on other real estate development in the area around the stadiums. This means that the city annually forfeited about $50 million in city and county tax revenues. In the meantime, the fran- chise values for the NFL, NBA, and MLB teams in Cleveland increased dramatically, giving multi- million-dollar capital gains to each of the wealthy owners.

Sociologists Kevin Delaney and Rick Eckstein (2003) studied the Cleveland case along with eight other cities where public money was used to build stadiums for private use. They concluded that the results in Cleveland were better than in the other cit- ies. However, they found no evidence that the three stadiums fostered a downtown rejuvenation, as sta- dium proponents had predicted. Neither the num- ber of businesses nor job creation rates increased, and in the three years following the construction, the cost for each new job created was $231,000, nearly twenty times higher than the cost to develop jobs with public programs. The new sport facilities failed to lower poverty rates, improve schools, or increase the availability of safe, low-cost housing (deMause and Cagan, 2008), but they did force poor people to move to other areas of town which gave developers cheap access to land on which they could build.

During the years since these facilities were built, the teams using them have had losing records, and the people of Cleveland see them as confirming their status as losers (Lewis, 2010). But the revenues for the team owners have been more predictable (Rascher et al., 2012), and their franchise values have

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facilities, and priorities for spending public money related to sports.

Sources of Income for Team Owners

The owners of top pro teams in the major men’s sports make money from (1) gate receipts; (2) media revenues; (3) stadium revenue; (4) licens- ing fees; and (5) merchandise sales. The amounts and proportions of each of these revenue sources vary from league to league and team to team.

The recent and continuing wave of new stadium construction and renovation is the result of owners demanding venues that can generate new revenue streams. This is why these stadiums resemble shop- ping malls built around playing fields. Sociologist George Ritzer (2005) describes them as “cathedrals of consumption” designed so that consumption is seamlessly included in spectator experiences. Owners see this as important because it enables them to capture a greater share of the entertainment dollar in a highly competitive urban entertainment market. According to a report in Forbes magazine, team owners use the following formula:

Build new facilities with fewer seats and more lux- ury boxes, charge higher prices, earn more revenue, hire better players, and reap more wins. Then turn around and raise ticket prices (Van Riper, 2008).

The rest of the formula is to build the stadium mostly with public money so if things go wrong, the local taxpayers are stuck with the losses.

When a new stadium is built, the value of the team that plays there increases at least 25 percent. This means that if a city builds a $700 million sta- dium for an NFL team that is valued at $2 billion, the franchise value will increase about $500 mil- lion to $2.5 billion. This increase goes directly to the owners as part of the assets of the franchise.

To prevent people from realizing how public money is used to subsidize their wealth, the own- ers make sure that announcers describe their teams as your New York Giants, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Red Wings, or Colorado Rockies. The owners are happy to support the illusion that their

access to one or more of them seven days a week for a nominal cost. Maybe people in the region would be more physically active and healthier. Instead, the region has a 72,000-seat stadium used by the Denver Broncos ten times a year, or thir- teen times if they make the playoffs with home- field advantage and win all games leading up to the Super Bowl. Since the stadium was built, the team has played fewer than eleven home games per season except in 2015, and spectators have paid an average of over $85 a seat for 162 games from 2001 through 2015. This amounts to about $820 million; with parking and concessions expenditures, people have paid about $1.4 billion to attend games in a stadium subsidized by their taxes.

Most of this money has gone into the pockets of team owners, executives, and players, who spend part of it in Denver but much of it elsewhere. Also, the owners keep half of the stadium naming-rights money and the other half goes into the public fund to pay maintenance costs for the stadium, which is the responsibility of the taxpayers. Many of the stay-at-home fans of the team pay larger cable and satellite costs to see games and spend at least fifty hours a year sitting down watching Bronco games and consuming food and drinks at home or in bars. They become emotionally invested in the team, players, and outcomes of games and sea- sons, and they have fun with family and friends when watching and talking about things related to “their” team.

Some people prefer the NFL stadium, but many others might prefer an abundance of local recre- ation facilities, if they had a choice. Among those preferring the stadium are people with the power and resources to obtain what they want. And they want new stadiums and access to the revenue streams that a stadium generates. They have mem- berships in athletic and fitness clubs and don’t care about building public recreation centers. Even their children play sports in private clubs and on teams that use private facilities. Additionally, they have mini fitness centers in their homes.

This is how power and social class shape local cultures, access to particular kinds of sport

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and individual sponsors, and each one sets its own policies to supplement the rules and policies of the USOC and IOC. The USOC has long tried to establish continuity in American amateur sports, but the NGBs and other organizations are very protective of their own turf, and they seldom give up power; instead, they fight to maintain exclu- sive control over rules, revenues, and athletes. This has caused many political battles in and among organizations.

All amateur sport organizations share an inter- est in two things: (1) controlling the athletes in their sports and (2) controlling the money generated from sponsorships and competitive events. Sponsorship patterns in amateur sports take many forms. Univer- sities, for example, “sell” their athletic departments, allowing corporations to brand their athletic teams and the bodies of athletes in exchange for money, scholarships, equipment, and apparel. Corporations and universities usually enter these agreements out- side of any democratic processes involving votes by

teams belong to the community, as long as they collect the revenues and capital gains while tax- payers take the risks and receive little benefit apart from the emotional perks that come from living in a region that has a professional men’s sport team located there.

THE ORGANIZATION OF AMATEUR SPORTS IN NORTH AMERICA

So-called amateur sports don’t have owners, but they do have commercial sponsors and governing bodies that control events and athletes. Generally, the sponsors in the United States are corporations interested in using amateur sports for publicity and advertising purposes. The governing bodies of ama- teur sports operate on a nonprofit basis, although they use revenues from events to maintain their organizations and exert control over amateur sports. They generally hire for-profit companies to orga- nize, publicize, and administer the events for them.

Centralized state-sponsored sport authorities administer amateur sports in nearly all countries except the United States. They work with the national governing bodies (NGBs) of individual sports, and together they control events, athletes, and revenues. Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Associa- tion are examples of such centralized authorities; they develop the policies that govern the various national sport organizations in Canada, from youth sports to national teams.

In the United States, the organization and con- trol of amateur sports is much less centralized. Policies, rules, fund-raising strategies, and meth- ods of operating all vary from one organization to the next. For example, the major governing body in intercollegiate sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). For amateur sports not connected with universities, the major con- trolling organization is the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). However, within the USOC, each of more than fifty separate NGBs regulate and control a particular amateur sport. NGBs raise most of their own funds through corporate

Recently built stadiums resemble shopping malls, and some fans see attendance as a shopping opportunity. They’re a captive audience, and team owners want to capture as many of their entertain- ment dollars as possible. This fan has taken the con- sumption bait and is less interested in the game than buying products to prove he was there.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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professional sports as a form of labor relations. Most people associate sports with play, and they see athletes as having fun rather than working. How- ever, when sports are businesses, players are work- ers, even though they may have fun on the job. This isn’t unique; many workers enjoy their jobs. But regardless of enjoyment, issues of legal status and fair rewards for work are important.

This section focuses on the United States and does not consider all the sports that collect gate receipts but never make enough money to pay for anything but basic expenses, if that. Therefore, we don’t dis- cuss high school sports, non-revenue- producing col- lege sports, or other nonprofit local sports in which teams sell tickets to events.

Professional Athletes

The legal status of athletes has always been the most controversial issue in professional team sports.

Legal Status: Team Sports Until the mid-1970s, professional athletes in the major sport leagues had little or no legal power to control their careers. They could play only for the team that drafted and owned them. They could not control when and to whom they might be traded during their careers, even when their contracts expired. Furthermore, they were obliged to sign standard contracts saying that they agreed to forfeit to their owners all rights over their careers. Basically, they were bought and sold like property and seldom consulted about their wishes. They were at the mercy of team owners, managers, and coaches.

In all sports, this form of employee restriction was called the reserve system because it was a set of practices that enabled team owners to reserve the labor of athletes for themselves and control the movement of athletes from team to team in their sport.

As long as the reserve system was legal, owners could maintain low salaries and near-total control over the conditions under which athletes played their sports. Parts of the reserve system continue to

students, athletes, or the citizens whose taxes fund the universities.

The NGBs of U.S. amateur sports depend on corporate sponsorships to pay for athlete training, operating expenses, and competitive events. Cor- porate logos appear on the clothing and equipment of amateur athletes. A few top athletes may sign endorsement deals as individuals, but they cannot do so when the deals conflict with the interests of NGB sponsors.

When this model of corporate sponsorship is used, the economics of sports are linked to the fluctuations of market economies and the profits of large corporations. Corporations sponsor only those sports that foster their interests, and eco- nomic conditions influence their ability and will- ingness to maintain sponsorships. For example, when the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and its 180 professional athletes needed $20 million in 2003 to survive another year, Nike could have reduced the $450-million deal they made with Manchester United, a men’s soccer team in England, so it could support WUSA, but it didn’t because corporations are about profits, and wom- en’s soccer didn’t fit into their business plans.

LEGAL STATUS AND INCOMES OF ATHLETES IN COMMERCIAL SPORTS

When sports are commercialized, athletes are entertainers. This is obvious at the professional level, but it’s also true in other commercial sports such as big-time college football and basketball. Professional athletes are paid for their efforts, whereas amateur athletes receive rewards within limits set by the organizations that govern their lives. This raises these two questions:

1. What is the legal status of the athlete- entertainers in sports?

2. How are athlete-entertainers rewarded for their work?

Many people don’t think of athletes as work- ers, and they overlook owner–player relations in

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services. This change has had a dramatic effect on the salaries of top professional athletes from the late

1970s to the present. Table  11.1 lists average salaries in major sport leagues from 1950 to 2015, and the data show the dramatic increases that occurred after the mid-1970s.

Prior to the mid-1970s pro ath- letes made from two to four times the median family income in the United States. After free agency was allowed in the 1970s, salaries skyrocketed. With rising revenues from gate receipts and media rights, salaries increased rapidly as teams competed for players and negotiated new Collective Bargaining Agree- ments (CBAs) with players’ unions. In 2015, the ratio of average salaries

relative to median family income was 76:1 for the NBA; 64:1 for MLB; 39:1 for the NHL; 32:1 for the NFL; 4.2:1 for the MLS, and 1.1:1 for the WNBA.

Owner–athlete relations change every time a new CBA is negotiated and signed. Although team owners, league officials, and some fans dislike the players’ unions, these organizations have enabled players to gain more control over their salaries and working conditions. Labor negotiations and play- ers’ strikes in professional team sports have focused primarily on issues of freedom and control over careers, rather than money, although money has certainly been an issue. As a result, free agency now exists for all players after they’ve been under con- tract for a certain number of years, and owners no longer have absolute control over players’ careers.

Although it’s been a struggle for professional team athletes to maintain their unions, they realize that crucial labor issues must be negotiated every time they renew their CBA with the owners’ cartel. At this time, the main issues negotiated in CBAs include the following:

1. The definition of league revenues, “and the percentage of those revenues that must be allo- cated to players’ salaries and benefits”

exist in professional sports, but players’ associations (that is, unions) in each of the major professional leagues for men have challenged the system in court and forced sig- nificant changes that increased their rights as workers so they could negotiate with owners to control conditions of their work and estab- lish guidelines for their salaries.

In any other business, a reserve system of the type used in sports would violate antitrust laws. Com- panies cannot control employee movement from firm to firm, and they certainly cannot draft employ- ees so that no other company can hire them, nor can they trade them at will to another company. But this type of reserve system, with modifi- cations since the 1970s, has been defined by the U.S. Congress as legal in sports, and owners use it with minimal interference from any government agency.

Team owners justify the reserve system by say- ing that it’s needed to maintain competitive balance between teams in their leagues. They argue that, if athletes could play with any team, the wealthiest owners in the biggest cities and TV markets would buy all the good athletes and prevent teams in smaller cities and TV markets from being winners. The irony of this argument is that team owners are free-market capitalists who argue that free-mar- ket processes would destroy their business! They embrace regulation and “sport socialism” because it protects their power and wealth; they form car- tels to restrict athletes’ rights and salaries, but they advocate deregulation in the economy as a whole. Their positions are ideologically inconsistent, but profitable for them.

Professional athletes always have objected to the reserve system, but it wasn’t until 1976 that court rulings gave professional athletes the right to become free agents under certain conditions. The meaning of free agency varies, but in all leagues it allows some players whose contracts have expired to seek contracts with other teams that bid for their

The NFL is a machine. The operators of the machine pull its levers more frantically every season, pushing it past its breaking point. So the league has stockpiled interchangeable spare parts. The broken ones are seamlessly replaced and the machine keeps rolling. —Nate Jackson, former NFL player (2011)

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If owners don’t like the terms of a current CBA and the players’ association refuses to talk with them about changes, the owners may use a lockout, or an employer-imposed work stoppage that, in the case of professional sports, suspends all games and practices until the dispute is resolved and the CBA is revised to the owners’ satisfaction. If players don’t like the terms of a current CBA and the owners refuse to talk with them, the players may call a strike, which is a work stoppage in which employees refuse to work until a labor dispute is resolved, and in the case of sports, players agree to sign a new CBA.

Strikes or lockouts occur in either of two situa- tions: (a) when business conditions change to the point that owners or players decide that the existing CBA is no longer fair or reasonable, and (b) when a CBA has expired and the owners and players can- not come to an agreement. Back when players had low salaries and little control over working condi- tions in their sport, strikes were more likely than lockouts. But now that players have legal leverage

2. The extent to which teams can share revenues with one another

3. Salary limits for rookies signing their first pro contract, salary restrictions for veteran players, and minimum salary levels for all players

4. The conditions under which players can become free agents and the rights of those who are free agents

5. A salary cap that sets the maximum player payroll for teams and a formula determining the fines that an owner must pay if the team’s payroll exceeds the cap

6. A total team salary floor that sets the minimum payroll for each team in a league

7. The conditions under which players or teams can request an outside arbitrator to determine the fairness of an existing or proposed contract

8. Changes in the rules of the game

Each of these issues can be contentious in CBA negotiations, or even before a CBA is up for renewal.

SPORT LEAGUE Median U.S. Family Income†Year NFL NBA WNBA NHL MLB MLS

1950 15,000 5,100 NA 5,000 13,300 NA 4,000 1960 17,100 13,000 NA 14,100 19,000 NA 5,620 1970 23,000 40,000 NA 25,000 29,300 NA 9,867 1980 79,000 190,000 NA 110,000 143,000 NA 21,023 1990 395,400 824,000 NA 247,000 598,000 NA 35,353 2000 1,116,100 3,600,000 60,000‡ 1,050,000 1,988,034 100,000 50,732 2010 1,900,000 5,150,000 52,000‡ 2,400,000 3,298,000 140,000 60,236 2015 2,100,000 5,100,000 72,000‡ 2,620,000 4,250,000 283,000 66,632

*Data on players’ salaries come from many sources, but I try to be accurate. Average salaries before 1971 are estimates because players’ associations did not exist and teams had notoriously inconsistent payroll data. †This is median annual income for families—that is, households consisting of parents and children. Half of all families fall above the median, and half fall below it. Data are from the U.S. Census; figures for 1950 and 2015 are estimates based on trends (http://www .census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/families/). ‡Estimate based on the salary cap and stated salaries based on years in the league and the round in which players were drafted.

Table 11.1 Average salaries in major U.S. professional leagues, compared with median family income, 1950–2015*

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to compete with each other when trying to sign good players to contracts. Unregulated free agency gives leverage to the players, and owners don’t like that kind of “free-market” situation. Finally, the owners usually want the CBA to contain limits on what they pay top players on their teams. This makes it easier for them to negotiate deals without paying what the players might receive from other teams. In general, the owners don’t want to spend more than 40 to 50 percent of total revenues on players’ salaries and benefits. Ideally, they’d like to keep 60 percent or more of all revenues so there would be plenty of money left over after they pay all the bills. At this point, most players in the big spectator sports think they should be entitled to 50 cents of every dollar of revenue that is collected by the league and teams. Through the recent lockouts the owners have suc- ceeded in pushing the players’ percentage lower. Future lockouts will indicate how low they can force the share of revenues going to players.

As opposed to athletes in high-revenue sports, athletes in most minor leagues and lower- revenue sports have few rights and little control over their careers. The players at this level far outnumber play- ers in the top levels of professional sports, and they often work for low pay under uncertain conditions, and with few rights. Owners almost always have the last word in these sports, although the owners don’t usually make large amounts of money.

Legal Status: Individual Sports The legal status of professional athletes in individual sports varies greatly from sport to sport and even from one ath- lete to another. Although there are important differ- ences between boxing, bowling, golf, tennis, auto racing, rodeo, horse racing, track-and-field, skiing, biking, and a number of recently professionalized alternative and action sports, a few generalizations can be made.

The legal status of athletes in individual sports largely depends on what athletes must do to train and qualify for competitions. For example, few athletes can afford to pay for all the training needed to develop professional-level skills in a sport. Furthermore, they don’t have the knowledge or

as they negotiate their salaries and have been able to control important aspects of their working condi- tions through CBAs, strikes have become very rare.

At the same time, as corporations and outside investors have become team owners, they seek high investment returns and predictability in their finan- cial projections and feel that they must have more control over players’ salaries and benefits. Addi- tionally, they generally detest players’ associations because they are much like labor unions. One of owners’ strategies has been to request that certain parts of an existing CBA be renegotiated because there are new issues that they face. But if players are happy with the existing CBA, they are not inter- ested in talking about anything with owners.

The result of this situation is that owners have imposed lockouts on players, which means that there are no more games or practices, and play- ers receive no paychecks. NHL owners locked out players in 2004–2005 and 2012–2013; NBA own- ers locked out players in 2011, as did NFL owners. The owners know that they can outlast the players through a work stoppage. They are independently wealthy and will take short-term losses for long- term gains. The players, on the other hand, have short careers and must take advantage of their youth while they have it. A season-long lockout would mean a 15 to 33 percent loss of sport career lifetime income for each player; for the owners, it’s a minor blip in their investment portfolios. Additionally, the owners know that younger, lower-paid players have different contract concerns than highly paid stars, and this will eventually erode unity among the players. Then the owners can make a deal that favors themselves.

The issues in each of the owner-imposed lock- outs over the recent past have been different, but in each case the owners wanted to keep a larger share of revenues and give players less. They also wanted lower “caps,” or payroll limits for each team so they could pay players less and give teams in the smaller markets a better chance to compete more success- fully with wealthier teams in larger markets. The owners also wanted to limit when and how players become free agents, because free agency forces them

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organizations, athletes in these sports would have few rights as workers.

Income: Team Sports Despite publicity given to the supercontracts of some athletes in the top profes- sional leagues, salaries vary widely across the levels and divisions of professional team sports. For exam- ple, in 2013, there were about 3500 minor league baseball players on 176 teams in North America, and they made from $150 a game at the lowest levels to a high of about $75,000 per year at the top minor league level. The same was true in minor league hockey, where there were at least 2000 players in 2013. The average salary in the nine-team Canadian Football League was about $100,000 but the median salary was half that amount.

Major League Soccer in the United States had an average salary of $115,000 in 2013, but 30 percent of the players made less than $18,000 per year. In the Major Lacrosse League (outdoor) and National League Lacrosse (indoor), average salaries were about $13,000 and $15,400, respectively; and

connections to meet the formal requirements to become an official competitor in their sport, which may include having a recognized agent or man- ager (as in boxing), being formally accepted by other participants (as in most auto racing), obtain- ing membership in a professional organization (as in most bowling, golf, and tennis tournaments), or gaining a special invitation through an official selection group (as in pro track-and-field meets).

Whenever athletes need sponsors to pay for training or agents to help them meet participation requirements, their legal status is shaped by the contracts they sign with these people and then with the organizations that regulate participation. This is why the legal status of athletes in individual sports varies so widely.

Let’s use boxing as an example. Because many boxers come from low-income backgrounds, they lack the resources to develop high-level boxing skills and arrange official bouts with other boxers. They must have trainers, managers, and sponsors, and the support of these people always comes with conditions that are written in formal contracts or based on informal agreements. In either case, box- ers must forfeit control over much of their lives and a portion of the rewards they may earn in future bouts. This means that few boxers have much con- trol over their careers, even when they win large amounts of prize money. They are forced to trade control over their bodies and careers for the oppor- tunity to continue boxing. This is an example of how class relations operate in sports: when people lack resources, they are limited in the ways they can negotiate the conditions under which their sport careers occur.

The legal status of athletes in certain individual sports is defined in the bylaws of professional orga- nizations such as the Professional Golf Association (PGA), the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA), the Association of Tennis Profession- als (ATP), and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). When athletes play a role in controlling these organizations, the policies sup- port athletes’ rights and enable them to manage the conditions under which they compete. Without such

Help me, Doc! I make $20 million a year, and I don’t feel guilty.”

Most athletes generate revenues that match their salaries or prize money. Like other entertainers, a few of them benefit from national and international media exposure. Sport events are now marketed in connection with the celebrity status and lifestyles of high-profile athlete-entertainers.

(Source: By permission of William Whitehead)

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and support themselves comfortably. Many golf- ers, tennis players, bowlers, track-and-field athletes, auto and motorcycle racers, rodeo riders, figure skaters, and others must carefully manage their money so that they don’t spend more than they win as they travel from event to event. When tournament winnings are listed in the newspaper, nothing is said about the expenses for hotels, food, and transpor- tation or about other expenses for coaches, agents, managers, and various support people. The top money winners don’t worry about these expenses, but most athletes in individual sports are not big money winners.

The majority of men and women playing pro- fessional tennis, golf, and other individual sports do not make enough prize money to pay their train- ing and travel expenses each year, although many have sponsors that subsidize them. Some athletes with sponsors may be under contract to share their winnings with them. The sponsors/investors cover expenses during the lean years but then take a per- centage of prize money if and when the athletes win matches or tournaments.

Sponsorship agreements cause problems for professional athletes in many individual sports. Being contractually tied, for example, to an equip- ment manufacturer or another sponsor often puts athletes in a state of dependency. They may not have the freedom to choose when or how often they will compete, and sponsors may require them to attend social functions, at which they talk with fan- consumers, sign autographs, and promote products.

Overall, a few athletes in individual sports have large incomes, whereas most others struggle to cover expenses. Only when sport events are broad- cast on television can athletes compete for major prize money and earn large incomes, unless they are amateurs or have not bargained for their rights as workers.

Amateur Athletes in Commercial Sports

The term, amateur, can mean many things, but it is used here to refer to athletes whose eligibility requires that they make no money from their athletic

the most an NLL player could make was $27,948. The average salary in the Arena Football League was increased to $85,000 in 2013. WNBA players averaged about $52,000 per season, with a $34,500 minimum for rookies and $95,000 maximum for veterans. In most cases, being a professional athlete in team sports continues to be a seasonal job with few benefits and little or no career security.

To understand the range of incomes in pro sports, consider that in recent seasons the total sala- ries of 15 percent of MLB players have been about the same as the total salaries of the other 85 percent of players. This is why the average—or mean— salary in Major League Baseball was about $4.2 million per year, whereas the median salary is less than one-third that amount at $1.2 million per year. The big salaries for a few players drive up the aver- age for the entire league.

Mega-salaries in men’s professional team sports did not exist before the 1980s. The data in Table 11.1 show that players’ average salaries have grown far beyond median family income in the United States. For example, players in 1950 had sal- aries not much higher than median family income at that time. In 2012–2013, the average NBA sal- ary was nearly eighty times greater than the median family income!

The dramatic increase in salaries at the top level of pro sports since 1980 can be attributed to two factors: (1) changes in the legal status and rights of players, which have led to free agency and the use of a salary arbitration process, and (2) increased rev- enues, especially through the sale of media rights, flowing to leagues and owners (see Chapter 12). Data in Table 11.1 show that the increases in player salaries correspond closely with court decisions and labor agreements that changed the legal status of athletes and gave them bargaining power in contract negotiations with team owners.

Income: Individual Sports As with team sports, publicity is given to the highest-paid athletes in individual sports. However, the reality is that many players in these sports don’t make enough money from tournament winnings to pay all their expenses

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retained. All other Olympic athletes may compete for prize money and work in sports, which had been prohibited for most of the twentieth century.

Apart from sport governing bodies like the U.S. Golf Association and the U.S. Tennis Associa- tion that continue to sponsor official tournaments for amateurs, the only sport governing bodies that use an amateur status eligibility requirement are the Amateur Athletic Association (AAU) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The AAU has a long history of sport sponsor- ship, but today it focuses mostly on youth sports.

performances or in connection with their status as an athlete. In the past, the IOC and the NGBs of many sports required all competitors to be amateurs. But this became increasingly impractical as national and international athletes trained full time. Keeping the amateur requirement would exclude anyone who didn’t come from a wealthy background. So the IOC and other sport organizations changed their rules.

The only amateur athletes in the Olympics today are boxers and wrestlers. Allowing profes- sionals to compete in these two sports is seen as a safety issue, so the amateur requirement has been

The NCAA strictly limits rewards received by college athletes, even those who generate millions of dollars of income for their universities and the NCAA. A ticket to this University of Nebraska football game costs the same as a ticket to an NFL game, but players receive only “in-kind” rewards for tuition and basic living expenses. When universities profit from big-time football and men’s basketball, it’s only because they have access to cheap athletic labor. (Source: © Bobak Ha’Eri )

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in-kind rewards and they cannot have worked in a job where they were hired for their sport skills. However, the NCAA has changed the meaning of amateur many times in its history, especially as it applies to athletes in the Division I revenue- producing sports of football, men’s basketball (Schneider, 2011; Zimbalist and Sack, 2013). These changes have been justified in various and sometimes contradictory terms, but they have been made primarily to retain control over athletes while avoiding the charge that big-time college sport programs are using a professional business model and, therefore, should pay players cash salaries and pay taxes on the income made by profit-generat- ing teams (Huma and Staurowsky, 2011, 2012). In fact, it takes 40 bylaws to define “amateur sta- tus” in the NCAA rule book, because it is difficult to make sense of amateurism in connection with teams and athletic programs operated as businesses but described as non-profit educational activities.

A recent study by Ramogi Huma and Ellen Stau- rowsky (2011) found that if football and men’s basketball players at 121 universities in the Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the NCAA in 2010 were compensated according to their fair market value (that is, relative to the money they generate), they would “be worth approximately $121,048 and $265,027 respectively for each year they played (not counting individual commercial endorsement deals). This means that collectively those players are annually denied about $1.5 billion of their “fair market value,” according to the computations of Huma and Staurowsy (2012)—or about $6 billion over four years. Instead, they received scholarships providing living expenses that, on average, left them living about $3000 or more below the federal poverty line” (Huma and Staurowski, 2011, p. 4). At the same time, their head coaches were making $3.5 million annually, not counting bonuses.

As amateurs, college athletes lack power to negotiate the conditions of their sport participa- tion. Even in revenue-producing college sports, they have few rights and no formal means of filing complaints when they’ve been treated unfairly or denied the right to play their sports. The athletes

It continues to exist only because it signed in 1994 a thirty-year cooperative deal with Walt Disney World Resort. The deal specified that the AAU would hold most of its national championships in over 25 different youth sports at the Wide World of Sports facilities in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. These facilities are located next to Disney World, which meant that as tens of thousands of young athletes came to national AAU tournaments, they would be escorted by families that would turn the trip into a vacation and spend extra days and much money at Disney World. When Disney merged with Capital Cities/ABC in 1995 and acquired the upstart ESPN in the deal, the AAU had another new partner.

This symbiotic relationship between the non- profit AAU and the for-profit Walt Disney Com- pany (and ESPN) was a major marketing triumph for both organizations. The AAU relocated its headquarters to Lake Buena Vista and now holds over 40 national tournaments at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. This gave new program- ing opportunities the young ESPN; it also enabled them to track young athletes and develop storylines for those who might be successful in the future, and it gave them a golden opportunity to recruit new ESPN viewers/subscribers at a young age. Dis- ney World benefitted from the tourism generated by the tournaments and the AAU leaders had new headquarters, an attractive marketing position, and financial security. As they have recruited young athletes and youth sport teams into their organiza- tion, families have spent untold millions of dollars as their children have played in what are hyped as national championships year after year after year. This, of course, is a new monetized version of ama- teurism in which people can generate massive rev- enues under the cover of non-profit organizations that operate with and like businesses.

This pattern also exists in the NCAA although most NCAA Division III institutions and many Division II institutions are truly amateur. Eligibil- ity for all NCAA sports requires amateur status. This generally means that athletes cannot have played any sport in which they received cash or

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seeking global markets and corporations using sports as vehicles for global capitalist expansion. This growth will continue as long as it serves the interests of multinational corporations. As it does, sports, sport facilities, sport events, and athletes are branded with corporate logos and ideological mes- sages promoting consumption and dependence on corporations for excitement and pleasure.

Commercialization leads to changes in the inter- nal structure and goals of certain sports, the orienta- tions of people involved in sports, and the people and organizations that control sports. Rules are changed to make events more fan-friendly. People in sports, especially athletes, emphasize heroic ori- entations over aesthetic orientations and use style and dramatic expression to impress mass audiences. Overall, commercial sports are packaged as total entertainment experiences for spectators, mostly for the benefit of spectators who lack technical knowl- edge about the games or events they’re watching.

Commercial sports are unique businesses. At the minor league level, they generate modest revenues for owners and sponsors. However, team owners at the top levels of professional sports have formed cartels to generate significant revenues. Like event sponsors and promoters, team owners are involved with commercial sports to make money while hav- ing fun and establishing good public images for themselves or their corporations and corporate products and policies. Their cartels enable them to control costs, stifle competition, and increase revenues, especially those coming from the sale of broadcasting rights to media companies. Profits also are enhanced by public support and subsidies, often associated with tax breaks and the construc- tion and operation of stadiums and arenas.

It is ironic that North American professional sports often are used as models of democracy and free enterprise when, in fact, their success has been built on carefully planned autocratic control and monopolistic business practices. In practical terms, these team owners have effectively eliminated free- market competition in their sport businesses and used public money and facilities to increase their wealth and power.

are not allowed to share the revenues that they may generate and have had no control over how their skills, names, and images can be used by the uni- versity or the NCAA.

Many college athletes recognize that they lack rights, but it has been difficult for them to lobby for changes. Challenging universities or the NCAA in court is expensive and would take years of a young person’s life. Forming an athletes’ organiza- tion might make it possible to bargain for rights, but bringing together athletes from many campuses and sports would require resources that athletes don’t have. As a result many college athletes are in a dependent status and under the control of their coaches and athletic departments.

Although the NCAA now allows its Division I member institutions to award multiple year schol- arships and adjust scholarship amounts to cover the full cost of attending a particular university, it con- tinues to require that athletes remain amateurs. The NCAA resists defining college athletes as employ- ees, which would change the entire landscape of college sports in the United States.

summary

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMERCIAL SPORTS?

Commercial sports are visible parts of many soci- eties today. They grow and prosper best in urban, industrial, and post-industrial nations with rela- tively efficient transportation and communications systems, a standard of living that allows people the time and money to play and watch sports, and a culture that emphasizes consumption and material status symbols.

Spectator interest in commercial sports is based on a combination of a quest for excitement, ideolo- gies emphasizing success, the existence of youth sport programs, and media coverage that intro- duces people to the rules of sports and the athletes who play them.

The recent worldwide growth of commer- cial sports has been fueled by sport organizations

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shaped the character of all commercial sports, profes- sional and amateur.

The commercial model of sports is not the only one that might provide athletes and spectators with enjoyable and satisfying experiences. However, because most people are unaware of alternative models, they continue to express a desire for what they get, even when it is largely determined by the interests of people with wealth and power. There- fore, changes will occur only when spectators and people in sports develop visions for what sports could and should look like if they were not shaped so much by the economic interests of wealthy and powerful people and people hoping to become wealthy and powerful.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Women’s professional team sports can’t get traction

Reading 2. Turning spectacle into sport: Mixed martial arts

Reading 3. Red Bull and high-energy sports Reading 4. Why business and political leaders

love new stadiums Reading 5. Franchise values and making money in

professional sports Reading 6. A tale of two hockey lockouts

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You are in a sport studies course that has stu- dents from multiple countries. They ask you what is needed to develop successful com- mercial sports in a country. Outline the major points that you will make when talking with them, and explain those points in a way that will make sense to people from social and cul- tural backgrounds that are different than your background.

∙ Powerful and wealthy people in a country undergoing economic expansion want to cre- ate a high level of spectator interest in sports throughout their society. They hire you to

The administration and control of amateur com- mercial sports rest in the hands of numerous sport organizations. Although these organizations exist to support the training and competition of amateur athletes, their primary goal is to control both athletes and revenues generated through membership fees, tournaments, sponsorships, and donations. Those with the most money and influence usually win the power struggles in amateur sports, and athletes sel- dom have the resources to promote their interests in these struggles. Corporate sponsors are now a major force in amateur sports, and their goals strongly influence what happens in them.

Commercialization transforms athletes into entertainers. Because athletes generate revenues through their performances, issues related to players’ rights and their fair share of revenues generated by their performances are very important. As rights and revenues have increased, so have players’ incomes. Media coverage and the rights fees paid by media companies have been key in this process.

Most athletes in professional sports do not make vast sums of money. Players outside the top men’s sports and golf and tennis for women have incomes that are surprisingly low. Income among amateur athletes is limited by the rules of governing bodies in particular sports.

Intercollegiate athletes in the United States have what amounts to a regulated maximum wage in the form of athletic scholarships, which many people see as unfair when some athletes generate millions of dol- lars of revenue for their universities. In other amateur sports, athletes may receive direct cash payments for performances and endorsements, and some receive support from the organizations to which they belong, but relatively few make large amounts of money.

The structure and dynamics of commercial sports vary from nation to nation. Commercial sports in most of the world have not generated the massive revenues associated with a few high-profile, heavily televised sports in North America, Australia, Western Europe, and parts of Latin America and eastern Asia. Profits for owners and promoters around the world depend on supportive relationships with the media, large cor- porations, and governments. These relationships have

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survey the sociology of sport to discover how to create spectator interests. Using material in this chapter, what do you tell them?

∙ You live in a large city that has been undergoing a steady process of social and eco- nomic decline. The state has made $300 mil- lion available to build a new arena for the professional hockey team in the city. You have been asked to discuss whether this is a good use of public money. City leaders say that a new arena and a successful hockey team will revitalize the city and create a supportive con- text for development. You are asked to agree or disagree and to explain your answer.

∙ You are the athletic director for a large private high school in your community. The school is facing a budget crisis that affects your sport programs. The local soft-drink distributor tells you that his company will give you $50,000 a year if he can put his drink logo on the scoreboard and in a dozen other places in the sport facilities and put soft-drink machines in the locker rooms. He also wants you and the coaches to do a local commercial for his com- pany. The principal and parent board say it is your decision. Now you must explain to them what you’ve decided. Outline the points you will make to them.

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(Source: © PCN/Corbis)

chapter

SPORTS AND THE MEDIA Could They Survive Without Each Other?

12

. . . we’re in other businesses besides the business of winning baseball games. . . . We’re a media and entertainment company, not just a sports team.

—Larry Baer, San Francisco Giants president & CEO (in Costa, 2015)

We are entering a time of commercial and policy confusion for sports broadcast and advertising. . . . The supplementation, augmentation, or replacement of broadcast sports is a generational time bomb.

—Brett Hutchins, 2015 (in McHugh et al., 2015)

The NFL and the networks don’t want us to experience football as a game, but as a hyper-real production of a game, in the way war movies are hyper-real versions of war.

—David Zweig, writer and musician (2012)

Sports is a stealth definer of social values, particularly among young people, and ESPN, the self-described World Wide Leader, is sports’s 24/7 purveyor on countless radio stations, TV channels and websites.

—Robert Lipsyte, sports journalist (2015)

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Characteristics of the Media

Sports and Media: A Two-Way Relationship

Images and Narratives in Media Sports

Experiences and Consequences of Consuming Media Sports

Sport Journalism

Summary: Could Sports and the Media Survive Without Each Other?

Chapter Outline

• Identify the major forms of media, what they provide to people, and the influence of commercial forces on media content.

• Discuss whether and how new media, including the Internet, change sport spectator experiences.

• Identify factors that influence the images and narratives presented in the media.

• Discuss how sports and the media depend on each other for commercial success.

• Identify major trends in televised sports and media rights fees.

• Identify economic and ideological factors that influence relationships between sports and the media.

• Explain why corporations that sell alcohol, tobacco, soft drinks, confectionery products (candy), and fast foods are likely to sponsor sports in the media.

• Identify ideological themes around which the media coverage of sports is constructed.

• Describe the major differences in the ways that men and women and blacks and whites are represented in media images and narratives.

• Discuss research findings on audience experiences and the media impact on sport-related behaviors, such as active participation, game attendance, and gambling.

• Identify the factors that influence relationships between sports journalists and athletes.

Learning Objectives

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Mass media, local media, and social media pervade our cultures and our lives. Although each of us incorporates media into our lives in different ways, the things we read, hear, and see in the media are increasingly crucial parts of our experience. They frame and influence many of our thoughts, conver- sations, decisions, and actions.

We use media images and narratives as we eval- uate ourselves, give meaning to other people and events, form ideas, and envision the future. This does not mean that we are slaves to the media or passive dupes of those who produce and present media content to us. The media don’t tell us what to think, but they greatly influence what we think about and, therefore what we discuss in every- day conversations. Additionally, our experiences are clearly informed by media content, and if the media didn’t exist, our lives would be different.

The Internet and social media have added a new layer to our media experiences. They enable us to go beyond consumption and create images and narratives that we incorporate into our thoughts and actions. But this doesn’t occur automatically, nor does it empower us unless we use new media in strategic and informed ways to build relationships and change the world around us.

Sports and the media are interconnected parts of our lives. Sports provide content for all forms of media, and many sports depend on the media for publicity and revenues. To better understand these interconnections, five questions are considered in this chapter:

1. What are the characteristics of the media? 2. How are sports and media interconnected? 3. What images and messages are emphasized

in media coverage of sports in the United States?

4. How are media involved in our sport participa- tion and consumption?

5. What are the implications of new media for sport journalism and sportscasting?

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEDIA

Revolutionary changes are occurring in the media. The media landscape is changing rapidly and dra- matically. Personal computers, the Internet, wire- less technology, and mobile communication devices have propelled us into a transition from an era of sponsored and programmed mass media into an era of multifaceted, on-demand, interactive, and per- sonalized media content and experiences; in fact, the time spent each day watching traditional TV is now surpassed by digital media consumption (Hu, 2013). The pace and implications of this transition are influencing our personal and social lives.

Although it’s important to discuss new trends and explain what may occur in the future, it is important to understand traditional media and their connections with sports.

Media research in the past often distinguished between print and electronic media. Print media included newspapers, magazines, fanzines, books, catalogues, event programs, and even trading cards—words and images on paper. Electronic media included radio, television, and film. But video games, the Internet, smartphones, tablets, and online publications have nearly eliminated the dividing line between these media forms.

Today, media provide information, interpreta- tion, entertainment, and opportunities for interac- tivity and content production. When media content is provided for commercial purposes, entertain- ment is emphasized more than information, inter- pretation, or opportunities for interactivity and content production. In the process, media consum- ers become commodities sold to advertisers with the primary goal of promoting lifestyles based on consumption.

The media also put us in touch with information, experiences, people, images, and ideas outside the realm of our everyday, real-time lives. But most media content is edited and “re-presented” to us by others—producers, editors, program directors, programmers, camerapersons, writers, journalists,

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commentators, sponsors, bloggers, and website pro- viders. These people select for us information, inter- pretation, entertainment, and even opportunities for interactivity to achieve one or more of five goals: (1) make financial profits; (2) influence cultural values and social organization; (3) provide a public service; (4) enhance personal status and reputation; and (5) express themselves creatively or politically.

Commercial forms of sports and traditional media have always had a close relationship. Long before television, newspapers provided sports infor- mation, interpretation, and entertainment. Radio did the same. When television began to show people video images of the action, newspapers and radio, including sportswriters and announcers, were forced to change their approach to maintain sales and rat- ings. There are similar challenges for traditional media today as they compete with on-demand, inter- active digital programming as well as privately pro- duced content.

Power and Control in Sports Media

In nations where mass media are privately owned, the dominant goals are to make profits and to dis- tribute content that promotes the ideas and beliefs of people in positions of power and influence. These aren’t the only goals, but they are the most influen- tial. Years ago, media expert Michael Real explained that there was no greater force in the construction of media sport reality than “commercial television and its institutionalized value system [emphasizing] profit making, sponsorship, expanded markets, com- modification, and competition” (1998, p. 17).

Of course, as the Internet and wireless technol- ogy extend content and access, media sport reality is now being constructed in diverse ways. This can be a contentious process as corporations and power- ful interest groups attempt to control online access and content. The resulting struggle is a crucial fea- ture of contemporary social worlds.

In nations where mass media are controlled pri- marily by the state, the primary goals are to influence

cultural values and social organization and provide a public service (Lund, 2007). However, state con- trol has steadily declined as media companies have been privatized and deregulated, and as more indi- viduals obtain online access to information, inter- pretation, entertainment, and opportunities for interactivity and content production.

Power relations in a society influence the prior- ity given to the five goals that drive media content. Those who make content decisions for mass media programming act as filters as they select and create the images and messages to present. In the filter- ing and presentation process, these people usually emphasize images and narratives consistent with ideologies that support their interests in addition to attracting large audiences. As deregulation and private ownership have increased, the media have become hypercommercialized and media content focuses more on consumption, individualism, com- petition, and class inequality as natural and neces- sary in society. Seldom included in the content of commercial media is an emphasis on civic values, conservation, anticommercial activities, and pro- gressive political action. In fact, when groups with anticommercial messages want to buy commercial time on television, media corporations and net- works have refused to sell it to them.

There are exceptions to this pattern, but when people use mass media to challenge dominant ide- ologies, they often encounter difficulties. This dis- courages transformational programming and leads people to censor media content in ways that defer to the interests of the powerful.

We saw this in 2013 when ESPN withdrew from a partnership with PBS (the Public Broadcast- ing System) on a Frontline program investigating the NFL’s handling of head injuries (Miller and Belson, 2013; Sandomir, 2013a). The two-part program, “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concus- sion Crisis,” had just been completed when the NFL commissioner met the president of ESPN for lunch. Soon after, ESPN announced it was no lon- ger associated with the Frontline program, even

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profits and maintain a business and political climate in which commercial media can thrive. In the pro- cess, people who control media are concerned with what attracts readers, listeners, and viewers within the legal limits set by government agencies and the preference parameters of individuals and corpora-

tions that buy advertising time. As they make programming decisions, they see audiences as collections of consumers that can be sold to advertisers.

In the case of sports, those who control media decide not only which sports and events to cover but also the images and com- mentary presented in the cover- age. When they do this, they play an important role in construct-

ing the overall frameworks that people in media audiences use to define and incorporate sports in their lives (Albergotti, 2011; Boyle, 2014; Bruce, 2013; Dart, 2012; Rowe, 2009, 2013; Wenner, 2013; Zweig, 2012).

Media Representations of Sports

Most people don’t think critically about media con- tent (Bruce, 2013). For example, when we watch sports on television, we don’t often notice that the images and commentary we see and hear have been carefully presented to create engaging narra- tives, heighten the dramatic content of the event, and emphasize prevailing ideologies in American society, especially those that reaffirm the inter- ests of sponsors as well as the media companies. The pregame analysis, the camera coverage, the camera angles, the close-ups, the slow-motion shots, the attention given to particular athletes, the announcers’ play-by-play descriptions, the color commentary, the quotes from athletes, the post- game summary and analysis, and all associated website content are presented to entertain media audiences and keep sponsors happy. In some cases, sport leagues and their governing bodies hire their own writers and commentators to produce media

though two of its top reporters continued work on the project. Both organizations denied that the $15.2 billion media rights contract between the NFL and ESPN had been the reason ESPN disas- sociated itself from the PBS program. However, ESPN reporters received a clear message: censor yourself, or others will do it for you when your news reporting could jeopardize income from entertain- ment programming (Zirin, 2013e).

This does not mean that those who control the media ignore the truth and “force” media audiences to read, hear, and see things unre- lated to reality or their interests. But it does mean that, apart from con- tent that individuals create online, average people influence the media only through consumption and program ratings. Therefore, the public receives edited informa- tion, interpretation, entertainment, and interactive experiences that are constructed primarily to boost

“Quick! Bring the camera—the viewers will love this crash!

Commercial media representations of sports are carefully selected and edited. Commentary and images highlight dramatic action, even when it’s a minor part of an event.

Ten years ago, if you wanted to connect with fans, you had to go through a newspaper. Now we connect with them directly and immediately. —Patrick Smyth, director of media relations, Denver Broncos (in Klemko, 2011)

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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Even though media coverage of sports is carefully edited and represented in total entertainment pack- ages, most of us believe that when we see a sport event on television, we are seeing it “the way it is.” We don’t usually think that what we see, hear, and read is a series of narratives and images selected for particular reasons and grounded in the social worlds and interests of those producing the event and con- trolling the broadcast. Television coverage provides only one of many possible sets of images and narra- tives related to an event, and there are many images and messages that audiences do not receive (Galily, 2014). If we went to an event in person, we would see something quite different from the images selected and presented on television, and we would develop our own descriptions and interpretations, which would be different from those carefully presented by media commentators.

New York Times writer Robert Lipsyte (1996) described televised sports as “− sportainment”— the equivalent of a TV movie that purports to be based on a true story but actually provides fiction- alized history. In other words, television constructs sports and viewer experiences. But the process occurs so smoothly that most television viewers believe they experience sports in a “true and natu- ral” form. This, of course, is the goal of the direc- tors, editors, and on- camera announcers who select images and narratives, frame them with the stories they wish to tell, and make sure they please spon- sors in the process.

To illustrate this point, think about this ques- tion: What if all televised sports were sponsored by environmental groups, women’s organizations, and labor unions? Would program content be dif- ferent from what it is now? Would the political biases built into the images and commentary be the same as they are now? It is unlikely that they would be the same, and we would be quick to identify all the ways that the interests and political agendas of the environmentalists, feminists, or labor leaders influenced images, narratives, and overall pro- gram content.

Now think about this: Capitalist corpora- tions sponsor nearly 100 percent of all sports

content, or they deny press credentials to journal- ists who present content that sport officials don’t like (Jennings, 2010).

Sport media commentaries and images in the United States highlight action, competition, aggres- sion, hard work, individual heroism and achievement, playing despite pain, teamwork, and competitive out- comes. Television coverage has become so seamless in its representations of sports that we often define televised games as “real” games—more real than what is seen in person at the stadium. Longtime mag- azine editor Kerry Temple explains:

It’s not just games you’re watching. It’s soap operas, complete with story lines and plots and plot twists. And good guys and villains, heroes and underdogs. And all this gets scripted into cliffhanger morality plays. . . . And you get all caught up in this until you begin to believe it really matters (1992, p. 29).

Temple’s point is especially relevant today. The focus on profits has increased soap opera story- telling as a means of developing and maintaining audience interest in commercial media sports cov- erage. Sports programming is now “a never-ending series of episodes—the results of one game create implications for the next one (or next week’s) to be broadcast” ( Wittebols, 2004, p. 4). Sports rivalries are hyped and used to serialize stories through and across seasons; conflict and chaos are highlighted with a predictable cast of “good guys,” “bad guys,” and “redemption” or “comeback” stories; and the story lines are designed to reproduce ideologies favored by upper-middle-class media consumers— the ones that corporate sponsors want to reach with their ads. This was apparent in NBC’s regular ref- erences to athletes’ mothers during the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. This narrative was planned to fit nicely with Proctor and Gamble’s “Thank you, Mom” ad campaign that the company cre- ated after it became a $100-million sponsor of the Olympics and paid NBC many millions of dollars for commercial time during the games. It is likely that people at NBC have positive attitudes about mothers, but they had other reasons for making them a centerpiece in the Olympic coverage.

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programming in commercial media, and their goals are to create compulsive consumers loyal to capitalism and generate profits for themselves and their shareholders. Says media scholar Law- rence Wenner (2013): “The economic influences of media have changed sport, changed our associa- tions with it, and have affected the stories that are told through sport, both in everyday communica- tion and in the service of commerce.” For those who are “tuned in” to the commercial media, their experiences as spectators are heavily influenced— that is, “mediated”—by the decisions of those who control programming and media representations.

New Media and Sports

New media, including all digital and social media, radically alter relationships in the production and consumption of accessible content related to sports worldwide. They make possible individually cre- ated and selected information, interpretation, and entertainment. Additionally, online interactivity enables people to bypass the gatekeepers of content in the “old” media—that is, journalists, editors, and commentators—as they construct their own inter- pretations of events, athletes, and the overall orga- nization of sports (McHugh et al., 2015).

In the case of sports, the recent proliferation of mobile devices and growing connectivity change the way many of us access and respond to sport media content. Additionally, many people now have the ability to produce and distribute sport content and commentary. We can interact with fellow fans, ask questions of players and coaches, follow them on twitter, identify scores and sta- tistics, and play online games that either simu- late sports or are associated with real-time sport events around the world. This transforms media experiences and mediated realities in dramatic ways (Antunovic and Hardin, 2013a, 2013b; Clavio, 2010; Gantz and Lewis, 2014; Hutchins and Rowe, 2009; Liu and Berkowitz, 2013; MacKay and Dallaire, 2013; McCarthy, 2012; Norman, 2012, 2014).

The X Games were created by ESPN. ESPN is owned by ABC. ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The power behind the X Games makes it difficult for the athletes to maintain the culture of their sports on their terms. (Source: © Becky Beal)

New Media Consumption Although people often access online sport content to complement con- tent they consume in traditional media, there is a growing number of others who use new media to replace traditional content (McHugh et al., 2015). This shift in consumption patterns concerns peo- ple in media companies that broadcast live sports worldwide, because their revenues in the past have depended on controlling this content and maintain- ing large audiences to sell to advertisers.

At the same time, sport organizations such as MLB, the NFL, the English Premier Football (Soc- cer) Division, and others have become more active

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landscapes, especially in urban areas where walls, buildings, and other obstacles normally impede movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Parkour; www.americanparkour.com/). Research on new media representations of these activities is sorely needed. Such representations of parkour have made it a global phenomenon as young men (for the most part) have become aware of the possibility of using the physical environments around them as “sport spaces” in which they can develop skills, express themselves, and even gain widespread recognition by doing things and posting videos that catch the attention of other parkour athletes.

Researchers in many disciplines are now exploring these possibilities as the media land- scape is changing in character and scope at a rate unprecedented in human history. Most of this research deals with how people use new media to complement or create informational and inter- pretive content related to sports already covered in mainstream media.1 However, there also are a few studies of people using new media to report on sports ignored by mainstream media (Antu- novic and Hardin, 2012, 2013, 2015; MacKay and Dallaire, 2012, 2014).

This research highlights and describes excit- ing possibilities, but it also identifies factors that may undermine those possibilities. Powerful cor- porations have a high stakes financial interest in controlling new media and using it to add to their bottom line. This includes massive, monopoly-like companies that provide connectivity; mainstream

1The major sources I’ve used to explore this issue are these: Boyle, 2014; Browning and Sanderson, 2012; Burroughs and Burroughs, 2011; Connolly and Dolan, 2012; Dart, 2014; Ferriter, 2009; Frederick et al., 2012; Galily, 2014; Gantz and Lewis, 2014; Hutchins, 2014; Hutchins and Rowe, 2009; Kassing and Sanderson, 2013; Kruse, 2011; Lebel and Danyl- chuk, 2012; Leonard, 2009; Liang, 2013; Liu and Berkowitz, 2013; Madianou and Miller, 2013; McCarthy, 2012; Merrill et al., 2012; Millington and Darnell, 2012; Norman, 2012a, 2012b; Oates and Furness, 2015; Ross, 2011; Sanderson, 2011; Sanderson and Kassing, 2011; Schultz and Sheffer, 2010; Sheffer and Schultz, 2010; Smith and Brenner, 2012; Wenner, 2014; Whannel, 2014; Zimmerman, 2012.

in managing media representations of their sports so they can directly control information, analysis, and entertainment to promote themselves on their terms. For example, MLB.com offers a $130 per year subscription to access real-time coverage of all regular season games on multiple devices. The site also provides game previews, highlights, sta- tistics, and general commentary, among dozens of other video, audio, and text materials on baseball. This enables MLB and other professional sports to provide media content and control the ways that their brands are represented.

Overall, new media allow people to control when and how they consume sports content, but this changes little from the days of traditional media when content was created by a limited num- ber of powerful sources (Dart, 2014). The real transformational potential of new media rests in how people use them to produce content that offers alternatives to traditional media sources.

New Media Production At the same time that corporations try to maximize control over online representations of sports, YouTube and other sites provide people opportunities to upload their own information and interpretation of sports as well as representations of sports events and performances. For example, for more than three decades now, young people in alternative and action sports have found creative ways to photograph, film, and dis- tribute images of their activities. Photos and VCR tapes were mailed and passed person-to-person, but distribution today occurs online with images acces- sible worldwide. Although these images represent what may be described as “performance sports,” they’re central to the media experiences of many young people who find highly structured, overtly competitive sports such as baseball or football to be constraining and uncreative.

In some cases, young people use new media to represent sports involving transgressive actions such as skating in empty private swimming pools at night or doing parkour (“PK”), an activity in which young men and a few young women use their bod- ies to move rapidly and efficiently through existing

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know about sport and feel like they are in control as they consume mediated sports? “Fantasy leagues” have become the current answer to this question.

Although the first fantasy sport league, invented in 1979 by a baseball fan, didn’t require online access, most fantasy sports today are played online on platforms licensed or controlled by media and sport organizations, such as ESPN and the NFL. For example, playing fantasy football makes every participant a “team owner” who creates a team roster by taking turns with other “owners” to draft current NFL players for their fantasy teams. The weekly performance statistics of the players on an “owner’s” team roster are converted into points so that each fantasy team player competes against other team “owners.” Usually, all participants pay fees to one of the online services that compile players’ sta- tistics, compute scores, and track team records.

Over 40 million people in the United States and Canada play fantasy sports. Players are mostly col- lege-educated white men (over 85 percent) between eighteen and fifty years old with higher-than-average incomes. Collectively, they spend over $5 billion annually to obtain data about players and compete in organized fantasy leagues. Owners typically devote six to ten hours per week consuming media sports and another three hours managing their teams dur- ing the season (FSTA, 2013; Ruihley and Billings, 2013). They also spend close to $500 per year for fees to enter a league, draft and trade players, pay the website host, collect information about players, buy prizes for the owner who wins the season, and play challenge matches with other individual team owners (like side bets during a season).

Fantasy football, baseball, NASCAR, basket- ball, hockey, and other sports transform the rela- tionship between sport media consumers and media content (Schirato, 2012). To “own” players, man- age a team, and compete against others in an offi- cial league gives consumers a sense of control over the sport they enjoy watching and the media content they consume. Media interactivity provides contact with other dedicated fans, reaffirms fan identities, and provides a forum in which status can be gained and the status of others can be challenged.

media companies built around newspapers, maga- zines, radio, television, and film; and sport orga- nizations that survive or prosper because of their financial relationships with mainstream media companies. Leaders in this industry are using their resources to enter the new media market, and retain and extend their control over how new media are used, who benefits from their use, and how con- tent is regulated. Therefore, they continue to lobby federal legislators on copyright law, definitions of intellectual property, public domain parameters, lia- bility laws, and a host of other issues that they can use to prevent anyone from threatening their finan- cial interests. At the same time, they extend their control by using new media in strategic ways. Fan- tasy sports and video games are examples of how they enlist people as allies to sustain their power.

The major sociological question related to new media is this: Will they democratize social life by enabling people to freely share information and ideas, or will they become tools controlled by corporations to expand their capital, increase con- sumption, reproduce ideologies that drive market economies, and maintain the illusion that we need them to provide pleasure and excitement in our lives? The answer to this question will emerge as the struggle for control over the media unfolds. At this point the struggle does not involve a fair fight, because people who will benefit from the potential democratizing effects of new media are not even aware of the fight—and the leaders of corporate media are doing all they can to keep it that way.

Fantasy Sports Consuming sports through the media is a passive activity. People may talk with friends, respond to commentary, even yell at play- ers, coaches, and referees, but these are simply reactions to what is presented by ESPN, NBC, or other media companies. This lack of control can be frustrating to those who follow sports closely and have a deep knowledge of players, game strate- gies, and the decisions made by coaches and upper management. For people accustomed to being in positions of power and control, it can even be alienating. How can these people use what they

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each Sunday afternoon. Even the regular NFL announcers have changed their commentary to call attention to “the red zone,” and alert viewers of impending scores so they can learn the fate of their fantasy teams.

The power to control the content of media sport and who may access it under what conditions is a crucial issue in the business plans of sport leagues and media companies, including ESPN/ABC Sports, FOX Sports Media Group (Fox Sports, and Fox Sports 1, launched in August 2013), NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and others. Sports today are global phenomena, which means that sport leagues and media companies think in terms of global power and control. The sponsors that buy com- mercial time on television and ad space in news- papers and websites are not interested in making deals with media companies or sport organizations unless there are guarantees that media sport pro- gramming is dedicated to supporting their products and supporting consumption as a lifestyle. This is especially true in the United States, where all sports are broadcast on commercial television. This means that the feelings of empowerment enjoyed by fantasy league participants are an illusion that is actively reproduced by the sport leagues and media companies that use fan fantasies to increase their power and profits.

Video Games as Simulated Sports John Madden, known to football fans over the age of forty as a for- mer NFL coach and longtime NFL commentator, is known to the under-forty-year-old game player as a video game brand. Madden NFL games are among the most popular video products on the market. When Madden was asked to comment on the video game craze, he said that designers have made video games that look so much like the games on televi- sion that television producers are now using spe- cial lenses and filters to make televised NFL games appear more like video games.

Game developers work with athletes so that video game situations and players’ movements are lifelike. Leagues and players cooperate because they receive rights fees for the use of players’ images and

The outcomes of real games often matter little to fantasy players who focus on the performance statistics of their players, who are on many differ- ent teams. Although they often subscribe to expen- sive cable and satellite television “sport packages” that enable them to watch their players, they focus primarily on the performances of individuals rather than teams. While they watch, they also scout other players and take note of injuries because during the season they can cut, trade, and acquire new players on their fantasy rosters.

Fantasy sports reposition fans relative to play- ers. For example, they can provide the white men who play them with a sense of power and con- trol over players who are unlike them at the same time that they are connected with fellow “own- ers” who share their interests and backgrounds.

Fantasy league players feel empowered by their “ownership” of teams and players—but the NFL, Major League Baseball, and other sport leagues, as well as mainstream media companies, now use fantasy sports to generate new revenues and to “re- enchant” the spectator experience for those who may become bored as they passively watch games week after week, season after season.

When media executives, team owners, and players discovered in 2002 that fantasy sports increased media sport consumption and fan loy- alty in addition to generating $1.5 billion annually, they decided they should control the fantasy busi- ness and merge it with their own. Over the next ten years they did just that and began to use their own fantasy league to boost loyalty and encour- age consumers to buy expensive cable and satellite packages (at $60 to $100 per month depending on service providers) in which all games in the league are available to consumers.

The NFL, which now provides information for fantasy participants on its NFL Network channel, has also created an NFL RedZone chan- nel to provide game-day only coverage of every NFL team whenever it is inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. At a subscription cost of $5 to $10 per month, this enables fantasy league players to see every touchdown scored by every team

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Meanwhile, a small but growing number of chil- dren are now introduced to sports through video games. For example, children who play games on Nintendo’s Wii platform learn rules and game strat- egies as they play. They see the moves involved in a sport as they manipulate images in the games, and their initial emotional experiences in certain sports are felt in front of computer monitors or televisions rather than on playing fields.

This raises many research questions. After playing interactive video sports, will six-year- olds want to listen to whistle-blowing coaches when they’re accustomed to being in complete control of players, game strategies, and game con- ditions? Will these children bring new forms of game knowledge to situations in which they play informal and formally organized games? How will that knowledge influence the games they play? Will some children simply stay home with their video devices and control their own games without worrying about coaches, playing time, or parental pressure?

Adult game players outnumber children who play, and the majority of players are males between the ages of twelve and thirty. Many male college students are regular game players to the point that status in certain groups reflects prowess in video gaming. Playing games also provides regular social occasions similar to those provided by live sport events, although the players set schedules for video games and can play them when they wish.

At this point, studies of simulated sports and video games indicate the following:

∙ Gamers often commit many hours to play (Niman, 2013).

∙ When they play sport-themed video games, the gamers often create their own narratives or stories that fit their interests and perceptions of sports (Crawford and Gosling, 2009).

∙ Social relationships are formed and nurtured in connection with video games (Hutchins et al., 2009).

∙ Digital gaming involves a wide range of experiences, feelings, and understandings

the NFL name and logo, but players also want to be portrayed accurately in video games. Even unique mannerisms related to their dramatic on-field perso- nas are included in the game action.

Professional team coaches now worry that video games distract players from live games. Some NFL and NBA players prefer to play video game sports over watching live games. NASCAR, Formula One, and Indy Car video games are so realistic that some racecar drivers use the games to familiarize themselves with the tracks and prepare for the split- second responses required during actual races.

The financial stakes associated with creating realistic and entertaining games are significant. This constantly pushes designers to refine graph- ics, action, and game possibilities. It also leads them to talk with potential sponsors about product placements and advertisements built into the story- lines and actions in the games. As more young peo- ple play these video games, corporations see them as vehicles for developing outposts in the heads of game players, fostering a commitment to consump- tion, and generating revenues for game producers.

A major issue for game developers is obtaining the rights to use the names and images of athletes and sport leagues in their games. Madden NFL 13, for example, is produced by EA Sports with permis- sion from the NFL and the NFL Players Associa- tion, which receive rights fees from sales of the games. But this also means that everything in the game is subject to NFL approval. Midway Games, on the other hand, developed Blitz: The League, a video game modeled after pro football, without buying rights from the NFL. Therefore, they could not use references to the NFL or NFL players’ names and images, but they could include images and actions that would not have been approved by the NFL. To heighten the dimension of spectacle in Blitz, they incorporated images of blood and gory injuries, near-naked cheerleaders, dirty hits, in- your-face celebrations after big plays, drug use (for energy and strength), and off-field controversies that might boost sales. But Midway Games went out of business just before its 2008 version of the game was released.

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Commercial sports require media to provide a combination of coverage, publicity, and news. Sports promoters and team owners know the value of coverage, and they provide free access to report- ers, commentators, and photographers. For example, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) accredited 21,000 journalists, media technicians, producers, and camera operators to cover nearly 15,000 athletes during the Olympics and Paralympics; another 6000 to 8000 were credentialed to cover nonsport aspects of the events. NBC sent 2700 people. The BBC deployed 756 staff, and the Associated Press (AP) had 200 journalists and photographers working full time during the games. This made the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the most comprehensively covered event in history. Credentialed media per- sonnel often are given comfortable seats in press boxes, access to the playing field and locker rooms, and summaries of statistics and player information. In return, promoters and owners expect and usually receive supportive media coverage.

Although commercial spectator sports depend on media, most have a special dependence on tele- vision because television companies pay for the rights to broadcast games and other events. Table 12.1 and Figure 12.1 indicate that “rights fees” provide sports with predictable, significant, and increasing sources of income. Once “rights con- tracts” are signed, revenues are guaranteed regard- less of bad weather, injuries to key players, and the other factors that interfere with ticket sales and on- site revenue streams. Without these media rights contracts, spectator sports seldom generate much profit.

Television revenues also have greater growth potential than revenues from gate receipts. The number of seats in a stadium limits ticket sales, and ticket costs are limited by demand. But tele- vision audiences can include literally billions of viewers now that satellite technology transmits signals to most locations worldwide. For exam- ple, the IOC and sponsors of other sport mega- events seek to package the entire world into an audience that can be sold to sponsors.

because it occurs on the terms desired by the gamers themselves (Crawford, 2015; Witkowski, 2012).

∙ Sport-themed video games involve embod- ied experiences different from those associ- ated with the consumption of televised sports (Crawford, 2015).

Future research will try to answer questions such as these: Does playing video games influence how peo- ple play sports or what they expect when they play them? If children are introduced to sports through video games, will this influence their expectations and the meanings they give to experiences in live, real-time games? As new media become increas- ingly integrated into our everyday lives, they will influence sport participation and consumption expe- riences? Predicting the future is risky, but it is likely that video game experiences will carry over into real-time sports in some way.

SPORTS AND MEDIA: A TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP

The media and commercialization are related top- ics in the sociology of sport. The media intensify and extend the process and consequences of com- mercialization. For this reason, much attention has been given to the interdependence between the media and commercialized forms of sports (Galily and Tamir, 2014). Each of these spheres influ- ences the other, and each depends on the other for part of its popularity and commercial success.

Sports Depend on Media

People played sports long before media coverage of their events. When sports exist for participants only, there’s no need to advertise games, report the action, publish results, and interpret what hap- pened. The players already know these things, and they’re the only ones who matter. It is only when sports become commercial entertainment that they depend on the media.

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the NFL received $400 million in television rights fees, and in 2013 it received over $4.9  billion. Similarly, the rights fees paid to televise the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles amounted to $287 million—ten times more than was paid to televise the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, and five times less than the $1.42  billion that will be paid to televise the 2020 Olympic Games.

This growth in television rights fees makes commercial sports more profitable for promot- ers and team owners and increases the attrac- tiveness of sports as sites for national and global advertising. Increased attention allows athletes to demand higher salaries and turns a few of them into national and international celebrities, who then use their status to endorse products sold worldwide. For example, the global celebrity and endorsement value of athletes such as David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Maria Sharapova, Usain

Additional reasons for increased rights fees include the following:

∙ The deregulation of the television industry ∙ A growing demand to watch certain spectator

sports ∙ Increased connectivity with satellite and cable

worldwide ∙ Sponsors willing to pay top prices for access to

live sport audiences because commercials are seen by people rather than being skipped over in recorded programs

∙ The growth of ESPN and other cable channels that collect money from cable and satellite companies as well as commercial sponsors, which gives them two sources of income

These reasons have driven the increases in rights fees as shown Figure 12.1 and Table 12.1. In 1986

Sport 1986 1991 1996 2001 2008 2015

NFL 400 900 1100 2200 3750 4950 MLB† 183 365 420 417 670 1550 NBA 30 219 275 660 765 925 NHL‡ 22 38 77 120 70 200 NASCAR 3 NA NA 412 560 683 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament 31 143 216 216 560§ 771 NCAA (all championships) NA NA NA NA 18.5 35.7** WNBA 0 0 0 ¶ ¶ 12

*These amounts have not been adjusted for inflation. Data come from multiple sources, and amounts change whenever new contracts are negotiated. †Amounts for baseball do not include local television and radio rights fees negotiated by individual teams, national radio rights fees negotiated by the league, or Internet revenues received by the league from individual subscriptions paid to receive games on MLB. com. ‡Includes U.S. rights only for 2001 and 2006; there also are Canadian rights and European rights. §Includes rights to broadcast on television, radio, and the Internet the men’s basketball tournament and other championship events, excluding football. ¶Information has never been disclosed; the new contract that began in 2016 will pay $12 million annually. **This includes the women’s basketball tournament and all NCAA championships in twenty-four Division I sports each year, excluding football.

Table 12.1 Escalating annual media rights fees for major commercial sports in the United States (in millions of dollars)*

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FIGURE 12.1 Escalating media rights fees paid by U.S. media companies to televise the Olympics (in millions of dollars). *The local organizing committee for the Olympic Games also receives rights fees from other television companies around the

world. Europe, Japan, and continental Asia are paying increasingly higher fees. For U.S. rights for Vancouver 2010 through the

Summer Games in 2020, NBC Universal has paid the IOC $6.39 billion.

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Bolt, Ronda Rousey, and Tiger Woods is primar- ily due to the invention of satellite television.

The rights fees in Table 12.1 do not include certain streaming rights. For example, in late 2013 the NFL signed a four-year $1 billion deal allow- ing games to be live-streamed on Verizon phones. But this deal did not include streaming on tablets, which will bring even more money to the NFL, and will force them to define the difference between tablets and smartphones!

The global reach of the web creates new possi- bilities for large corporations wanting to “teach the world” to consume. However, it also creates chal- lenges because new corporations will compete with traditional media companies for the video rights to sports. This is why NBC developed NBCOlympics. com in 2008, a portal enabling consumers to view events in the 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 Olympic Games in Beijing, Vancouver, London, and Sochi, along with on-demand replays and highlights. Cov- erage was available on mobile devices and cable VOD packages, and other features were available for consumers interested in athlete profiles and gaming experiences. As this approach is expanded, rights fees will continue to increase.

Are Commercial Sports Controlled by the Media? Most commercial sports depend on television and online coverage for revenues and publicity. To accommodate the interests of media companies, com- mercial television has required numerous changes in scheduling and rules to make sports more “telege- nic.” Some of these changes include the following:

∙ The schedules and starting times for many sport events have been altered to fit television’s pro- gramming needs.

∙ Halftime periods in certain sports have been shortened to keep television viewers tuned to events.

∙ Prearranged schedules of time-outs have been added to games and matches to make time for as many commercials as possible.

∙ Teams, leagues, and tournaments have been formed or realigned to take advantage of

regional media markets and build national and international fan support for sports, leagues, and teams.

Other efforts to make sports entertaining for media audiences often go unnoticed. For example, the num- ber of words used by announcers and commentators during games has nearly doubled over the past half century (Biderman, 2010a, 2010b). A former director of media relations for an NFL team notes, “Watch- ing sports is mostly boring. Talking and speculating about sports is riveting” (Pearlman, 2011). He real- izes that a typical 200-minute NFL game contains an average of 11 minutes of action and 3 minutes of video replays. That leaves 184 minutes to be filled with entertainment that keeps the audience interested. About 60 of those minutes are used by commer- cials, and commentators fill the rest with observa- tions, analysis, stories, and anything that hypes the meaning and significance of the game for players, teams, owners, coaches, the city, the league, and the fans. The same is true for Major League Baseball games, which typically involve 14 minutes of action during a 150-minute game. Commercials take up 45 minutes, and the rest of the time is filled by the commentators who have studied what will retain viewers’ interest. As in all mediated sports, the best commentators are the ones who can create a narrative that keeps the viewers engaged until the game is over and the postgame comments have been made.

In the United States, ESPN has developed a unique connection with commercial sports. It not only broadcasts half of all live sports, but it uses doz- ens of ESPN-branded television, web, and mobile platforms to provide people with 24-hour access to sports and sport information. When players, coaches, teams, or events are discussed on ESPN’s Sports Center program, they assume that their pub- lic profiles will be enhanced. Business Week maga- zine reporter Karl Greenfield notes that 25 percent of all cable channel revenues in the United States go into ESPN, and it uses its power to shape “the ways in which leagues, teams, and athletes are packaged, promoted, marketed, and consumed by the public.” He adds, “In a real sense, ESPN no longer covers

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in visual broadcast media. Overall, the media most dependent on sports for commercial success are newspapers and television.

Newspapers Newspapers at the beginning of the twentieth century had a sports page, which consisted of a few notices about upcoming activities, a short story or two about races or college games, and pos- sibly some scores of local games. Today, there are daily and weekly newspapers devoted exclusively to sports, and nearly all daily newspapers have sports sections often making up about 25 percent of their news content.

Major North American newspapers give more daily coverage to sports than any other single topic of interest, including business or politics. The sports section is the most widely read section

sports. It controls sports” (Greenfield, 2012). This conclusion is put in historical context in a book on ESPN by New York Times journalists James Andrews and Tom Shales, who point out that televi- sion depended on sports in the past, but today this relationship is reversed, so that now sports depend on television and the new media that keep fans con- nected to sport “infotainment” 24/7.

Media Depend on Sports

Apart from newspapers and magazines devoted to specific sports, the print media do not depend on sports; nor do films, radio, and the video game industry as a whole. The urgency and uncertainty that are so compelling in sports are not captured and represented in any of these media as they are

The media enable some athletes to become global celebrities and benefit from windfall income related to their popularity. They know that their celebrity depends on using and maintaining close connections with the media. Tennis player Maria Sharapova, like many top athletes today, is adept at dealing with the media in ways that work to her advantage.  (Source: © DANNY MOLOSHOK/Reuters/Corbis)

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worldwide, many local, small-market newspapers have established online sites for breaking news, regular columns, and blogs. Their print editions may contain this content, but they focus more on local sports, including high school varsity teams, small college teams, and even youth sports.

Television “Broadcasting right now . . . is about event television, live television, sports events. . . . That’s what’s really attracting . . . the real eyeballs and the real advertising dollars.” This observation by Jeff Zucker (in Gelles and Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2011, p. 9), the former CEO of NBC Universal, explains why media companies in the United States

of the paper. It accounts for at least one-third of the total circulation and a significant amount of the advertising revenues for big-city newspapers. It attracts advertisers who want to reach middle- aged males with ads for tires, automobile supplies, new cars, car leases, airline tickets for business travelers, alcoholic beverages, power tools, build- ing supplies, sporting goods, hair-growth products, enhancing sexual performance, testosterone, and hormone therapies. Ads for these products and ser- vices are unique to the (men’s) sports section, and they generate needed revenues for newspapers.

As the Internet has become a primary source of information about big-time sports nationally and

Digital media are especially invasive technologies. Everyone with a smartphone can create media content. Privacy is difficult to maintain, especially among celebrity athletes. They can be represented from multiple and surprising vantage points. This exposes them to scrutiny that athletes prior to this century seldom experienced. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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hours of the 2012 Olympic Games, although it ignored the Paralympics.

An attractive feature of sport programming for the major U.S. networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) is that events often are scheduled on Satur- days and Sundays—the slowest days of the week for television viewing. Sport events are the most popular weekend programs, especially among male viewers who don’t watch much television at other times. For example, NFL games have consistently accounted for 80 percent of the most-viewed televi- sion programs during recent years, and they provide sponsors access to young and middle-age males. Nearly all sport programming is ideal for promoting sales of beer, life insurance, trucks and cars, com- puters, investment services, credit cards, air travel and erectile dysfunction products. Sponsors realize that sports attract men who make purchasing deci- sions for hundreds, if not thousands, of employees, as well as for family members when it comes to buying beer, cars, computers, investments, and life insurance.

Golf and tennis are special cases for television programming. They attract few viewers and the rat- ings are exceptionally low, but the audience for these sports is very attractive to certain advertisers. It com- prises people from upper-income groups, including many professionals and business executives. This is why television coverage of golf and tennis is spon- sored by companies selling luxury cars and high- priced sports cars, business and personal computers, imported beers, investment opportunities with bro- kers and consultants, and trips to exclusive vacation areas. This is also why the networks continue to carry these programs despite low ratings. Advertisers will pay high fees to reach high-income consumers and corporate executives who make decisions to buy thousands of “company cars” and computers at the same time that they invest millions of dollars for employee pension plans or 401k plans. With such valued viewers, golf and tennis don’t need high rat- ings to sell their television rights for high fees.

Women’s sports also attract television cover- age although the amount pales in comparison with coverage of men’s sports. Women’s events don’t

have collectively signed deals paying sport organi- zations $72 billion for the rights to broadcast their games, matches, and events now and over the next decade.

Such high payouts for sports are a recent devel- opment. For example, the NFL’s first television contract with CBS in 1962 amounted to $4.65 million, or $330,000 per team. In 2015 the NFL received $4.95 billion—a windfall of $155 million per team. Other sports don’t have such lucrative deals, but they have also seen significant increases in their rights fees. For sports that don’t share in this media bounty, it is difficult to survive at a profes- sional or elite level.

At a time when television audiences are frag- mented and new media capture the interests of many younger viewers, there is a collective urgency asso- ciated with certain men’s sports and the Olympic Games that creates unified audiences that watch for long stretches without prerecording and editing out commercials. As a bonus for media companies, sports also attract eighteen- to thirty-five-year-old males, a highly sought-after demographic that sponsors can- not reach through other television programming.

Sports now account for a growing proportion of media company income. Half of the operating income of the massive Disney Company is gener- ated by ESPN, as it collects over $6 billion from fees paid by about 100 million cable and satel- lite subscribers and it sells commercial time to its programming sponsors. Other channels feature sports programming, but ESPN in 2012 produced 35,000 hours of programming and accounted for half of the live sport events televised in the United States (Sandomir et al., 2013).

In an effort to break ESPN’s monopoly-like con- trol of premium sports programming, Fox Sports launched Fox Sports 1 in 2013 as a new 24-hour sports programming channel. However, generat- ing the revenues and viewer loyalty possessed by ESPN will be a formidable challenge. NBC Uni- versal (owned by Comcast) has been successful in retaining its hold on the Olympic Games through 2020. Using its cable channels, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, and USA Network, it presented over 5500

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races will be limited. When interest in special events is especially strong among particular viewers, pay- per-view (PPV) sports programming can push rights fees to high levels; this continues to occur for cham- pionship boxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts. PPV can generate massive revenues, but events must be chosen selectively because most peo- ple are not willing to pay upfront for a single event on television. In the meantime, pay TV has become part of people’s lives in the form of subscription fees for cable and satellite connections and special sports channels and packages.

Sports and the Media: A Relationship Based on Economics and Ideology

Global economic factors have intensified the interde- pendence between commercial sports and the media. Major transnational corporations need ways to develop global name recognition, cultural legitimacy, and product familiarity. They also want to promote ideologies that support a way of life based on con- sumption, competition, and individual achievement.

Media sports offer global corporations a means of meeting these needs. Certain sport events attract worldwide attention; satellite technology transmits television signals around the world; sport images are associated with recognizable symbols and plea- surable experiences by billions of people; sports and athletes usually can be presented in politically safe ways by linking them with local identities and then using them to market products, values, and lifestyles related to local cultures or popular forms of global culture. Therefore, powerful transnational corporations spend billions of dollars annually to sponsor the media coverage of sports. This in turn gives global media companies significant power over sports worldwide.

Finally, many male executives of large media corporations are dedicated sports fans, and they like to be associated with sports as sponsors. Masculine culture is deeply embedded in most of the corpora- tions they control, and they use their sponsorship money to receive VIP treatment at sport events and reaffirm the legitimacy of the masculinized

receive more coverage partly because female viewers of women’s games have not been identi- fied as a target demographic by advertisers who reach women through other means. Furthermore, men make up over half the viewing audience for most women’s sports, but they also watch men’s sports where sponsors already reach them.

Some cable and satellite television companies attract advertising money by covering sports that appeal to clearly identified segments of consum- ers. The X Games, for example, attract young males between twelve and thirty years old, which in turn attracts corporate sponsors selling soft drinks, beer, telecommunications products, and sports equipment such as helmets, shoes, skateboards, and dozens of other sport-specific products.

Over the past two decades, television companies have paid rapidly increasing amounts of money for the rights to televise certain sports, as indicated in Table 12.1. This includes nearly $5  billion annu- ally for NFL games and $1.23  billion for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is because NFL games, especially play- off games and the Super Bowl, are the top-10 most watched programs on U.S. television each year; and the Olympics captures high ratings for 16 consecu- tive days during summer months when ratings are usually low.

Television companies occasionally lose money on sports programming, but potential profits and other benefits are usually worth any risks. Furthermore, regular sports programming is a platform to promote other programs and boost ratings during the rest of the week; and it enhances the image and legitimacy of television among people who watch little other than sports.

As choices for sports television viewing have increased, audiences have fragmented and ratings for many sports have declined, especially during prime- time hours, even as the total number of people watch- ing television sports has remained relatively steady. This means that rights fees for the very large events will remain high, but fees for other events, includ- ing “special-interest” events such as bowling, in- line skating championships, and international skiing

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Much research in the sociology of sport has decon- structed these images and narratives and analyzed the ideas or themes on which they are based. The scholars who have done these studies assume that media sports are symbolic constructions, much like Hollywood action films, television soap operas, and Disney cartoons.

To say that a telecast of an American football game is a symbolic construction means that it presents the ideas that certain people have about football, values, social life, and the characteristics of the viewing audi- ence. Although each of us interprets media images and narratives differently, many of us use mediated sports as reference points as we form, revise, and extend our ideas about sports, social life, and social relations (Bruce, 2013; Crawford and Gosling, 2009; Wenner, 2013).

Because media sports are part of everyday experience today, it’s important to consider the following:

1. Media production and representation of sports 2. Ideological themes underlying media coverage 3. Media consumers and the ways they integrate

media content into their lives

Media Production and Representation of Sports

When media are privately owned and organized to make financial profits, sports are selected for coverage on the basis of their entertainment and revenue-generating potential. Media images and narratives are selected to represent the event so it meets the perceived interests of the audience and sponsors. Sports that are difficult to cover profit- ably usually are ignored by the media or covered only with selected highlights.

Sports coverage generally consists of images and narratives that exaggerate the spectacular, such as heroic injuries or achievements. Images and narratives also invent and highlight rivalries and explain why events are important. Further- more, they create and maintain the celebrity sta- tus of athletes and teams. Cultural studies scholar Garry Crawford explains:

corporate cultures in their companies. They also use sport events to entertain clients, fellow execu- tives, and friends as they pay with company credit cards. This combination of masculine ideology and government-supported tax deductions for sport entertainment in the United States is a key factor in the media dependence on sports.

The long-time marriage of sports and media is clearly held together and strengthened by vast amounts of money from corporations whose execu- tives use sports to increase profits and promote ideologies consistent with personal and corporate interests. Ideology is a key factor in the sport– media marriage. This is not a marriage based solely on money, but the goal of the sport–media partner- ship is to create a global family of eager consumers.

IMAGES AND NARRATIVES IN MEDIA SPORTS

To say that sports are “mediated” is to say that they consist of selected images and narratives.

A few powerful global media companies control most of the media representations of sports worldwide. This monopoly has serious implications for what sports we see or don’t see.

(Source: By permission of Rachel Spielberg)

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the case of sports, the most central ideologies that influence what we see and hear are those related to success, consumption, gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality.

Success Themes in Media Narratives Media coverage of sports in the United States emphasizes success through individual effort, self-control, competition, teamwork, aggression, adherence to rules, and effective game plans. Also important are big individual plays such as home runs, long touchdown passes, and single-handed goals. The idea that success can be based on empathy, support for others, sharing resources, autonomy, intrinsic satisfaction, personal growth, compromise, incre- mental changes, or the achievement of equality is seldom included in media narratives, even though these elements exist in sports.

Media representations exaggerate the impor- tance of competitive rivalries as well as winning and losing in athletes’ lives. For example, ESPN has organized its coverage of the X Games around the competitive quest for medals when, in fact, many of the athletes and the spectators aren’t very concerned about competition or medals (Honea, 2004). Ath- letes in the X Games and similar events enjoy the external rewards that come with winning, and they certainly want to demonstrate their competence, but they often emphasize self-expression and creativity more than the final scores determined by official judges. Furthermore, friendships with others in the event are more important than media-hyped rival- ries and competitive outcomes. However, media narratives highlight rivalries and the desire to win because this reaffirms widely accepted cultural val- ues and can be used to attract sponsors and consum- ers who may not understand the culture and skills possessed by athletes in action sports.

The success ideology regularly emphasized in U.S. media coverage is less apparent in the coverage that occurs in other nations. Narratives in the United States focus on winners, records, and final scores. Even silver and bronze Olympic medals are often viewed as consolation prizes, and games for third place are seldom played or covered by the media.

The mass-media construction of celebrity often lacks depth of character, as figures are frequently painted in one-dimensional terms. . . . Much of the language used to describe sport stars . . . draws on the narra- tive of melodrama. Heroes rise and fall, villains are defeated, and women play out their roles as support- ing cast members to men’s central dramatic roles (2004, p. 133).

Narratives even redeem villains who demon- strate that they can be heroic warriors, with com- mentators describing them as “loyal blue-collar players”—“willing to take figurative bullets for their teammates”—and “always being there when the chips are down,” even if they sometimes have broken rules in the past.

The major media also emphasize elite sport competition. For example, U.S. newspapers and television networks increased their coverage of professional sports through the twentieth century and decreased coverage of amateur sports with the exception of college football and men’s bas- ketball. This shift was accompanied by a growing emphasis on the importance of winning and heroic actions and the desire to attract corporate sponsors and a mass audience. It’s important to understand this process and the ways that particular images and narratives in media coverage inform popular ideas about sports and about social relations and social life in general.

Ideological Themes in Media Images and Narratives

Sports are represented in the media through images and narratives that are selected from a vast array of possibilities. The traditional media resemble win- dows through which we view what others choose to put in our range of sight and hear what others choose to say. Therefore, the only way to avoid being duped is to become a critical media con- sumer or work with others to produce grassroots media representations of sports.

To become a critical media consumer involves learning to identify the ideologies that guide others as they construct media representations for us. In

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serious injuries, permanent sport-related physical and cognitive impairments, athletes in major men’s sports coming out as gay, and athletes supporting gay marriage has led to a more multifaceted media narrative about masculinity in sport (Anderson and Kian, 2012). References to men as warriors doing battle and sacrificing their bodies for victories are now accompanied by discussions of safer sports, athlete health, and acceptance of difference. Of course, one reason for this is to create a more posi- tive media image of sports and preserve lucrative revenue flows for media companies. Research is needed to track media narratives to see if this appar- ent shift is more than superficial, if it exists across sports, and if it persists over time.

Media coverage of women’s sports has never been a media priority, and research suggests that this has not changed over the past two decades. In fact, longitudinal research done by Cheryl Cooky, Mike Messner, and their colleagues at the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California shows that sports news and highlights about women’s sports have declined since data were first collected in 1989 (Cooky et al., 2013). Track- ing coverage on the three major network evening sports news programs in Los Angeles and coverage on ESPN’s Sports Center, the data showed that LA sports news devoted 1.6 percent of airtime to women’s sports and Sports Center devoted only 1.3 percent.

When Messner and his colleagues issued the first Gender and Televised Sports report in 1990, they found that 5 percent of sport news and high- lights were devoted to women’s sports, but they predicted that this percentage would increase as more girls and women played sports ( Duncan et al., 2005). Significant participation increases occurred over the next twenty years, but the airtime given to women’s sports has actually declined. The only positive change is that when women’s sports have been covered in recent years, the quality of cover- age has improved: it is more likely to be serious, and less likely to involve sexist jokes or comments that trivialize and sexualize women athletes. The most recent data for local sports news programs indicated

The “We’re number 1” conceptualization of success that is so common among Americans is seldom used as a media focus in other nations where tie scores are acceptable competitive outcomes and aren’t seen as the equivalent of “kissing your sister.”

Sportswriters and announcers in the United States focus on “shootouts,” sudden-death playoffs, dominating others, and big plays or big hits. Rare are references to learning, enjoyment, and com- peting with others, even though many players see their participation in these terms. Thus, the media don’t “tell it like it is” as much as they tell it to reaf- firm a discourse of competitive success that closely matches the interests of sponsors and advertisers. This ideological bias does not undermine the enjoy- ment of sports for most people, but it ignores that there are many ways to enjoy sports, even when they are organized to promote corporate interests.

Consumption Themes in Media Representations of Sports The emphasis on consumption is clear in most media coverage of sports (Gee et al., 2014; Scherer, 2007; Scherer and Jackson, 2008). About 20 percent of televised sports in the United States consists of commercial time. Ads fill newspapers and magazines, and Internet sites use multiple strategies to present ads mixed with content. “TV time-outs” are now standard in football, basketball, and hockey games. And announcers remind media spectators that “This game is being brought to you by [corporate name].”

Commercials are so central in the telecast of the Super Bowl that the media audience is polled to rate them. Audiences for media sports are encour- aged to express their connections to teams and ath- letes by purchasing thousands of branded objects.

Gender Themes in Media Representations of Sports Masculinity rules in media sports (Bruce, 2013; Cooky et al., 2013; Cooky et al., 2015; Godoy- Pressland, 2014; O’Brien, 2015; Keats and Keats- Osborn, 2013; Weber and Carini, 2013). Men’s sports receive about 95  percent of sports coverage in the media, and both images and narratives tend to reproduce traditional ideas and beliefs about gender. However, recent media coverage of concussions,

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Appropriate femininity—that is, highlighting personal characteristics that distinguish women from men in terms of stature, strength, power, speed, emotional control, and vulnerability. Infantilization—that is, referring to women athletes as girls and calling them by their first names in a way that reduces them to a status subordinate to men, who are referred to by last names and never called boys. Nonsport issues—that is, calling attention to a woman athlete’s personality, personal appear- ance, and personal or family life in a way that makes her athlete identity seem secondary to these important “female matters.” Sexualization—that is, representing women athletes with images that highlight physical attractiveness to the exclusion of sport-related physical attributes, and giving special attention to women athletes who have “redeemed their femininity” by posing for such representations in videos or photo shoots. Ambivalence—that is, using narratives that recognize and praise sporting skills but also include comments that trivialize or undermine a woman’s identity and prowess as a serious athlete.

Toni Bruce notes that coverage today is less likely to involve these things than coverage in the past. But that does not mean that they have disappeared or that coverage no longer belittles elite women’s sports as deserving less media attention. For exam- ple, coverage during the 2012 Olympic Games gave much more attention to Gabby Douglas’s hairstyles and her diminutive stature than to her physical strength and fortitude. But the coverage of men’s events made no mention of the men’s hair- styles or short stature. This is only one example among hundreds of similar cases of media cover- age containing stories organized around one or more of the seven factors listed above.

These patterns of media coverage exist world- wide. In an impressive multinational study of 17,777 articles about sports in eighty newspapers from twenty-two countries, it was found that

that men appeared as anchors 100  percent of the time, and 99.5 percent of all anchors and ancillary announcers were men. Only one woman appeared as an announcer in any of the programs. Women accounted for 11 percent of the news anchors and ancillary announcers on Sports Center in 2009, down from 12 percent in 2004.

These findings indicate that progressive change in the media coverage of women’s sports is neither inevitable nor permanent. This conclusion is sup- ported by a recent review of published research on media coverage of women’s sports by soci- ologist Toni Bruce (2013). Bruce notes that the mainstream media message on women appears to be this: “Go ahead and play but don’t expect us to pay attention to your activities.” Bruce also explains that media workers don’t “actively or consciously try to marginalize women’s sport”; however, the standard discourses they use to con- struct knowledge about sports and create narratives revolve around men and men’s sports. Therefore, when news is produced, women’s sports are not even on their radar. This means that changes will occur only if those discourses can be disrupted and revised to bring women’s sports into the field of vision used by sports media personnel at all levels of news production.

When women’s sports events are televised, the narratives constructed by commentators today are more sensitive to the physical skills of women ath- letes. Over time, and with the help of research by sociologists and communications scholars, announc- ers and commentators have developed a vocabulary and an approach to telling stories that are less likely to involve the following (Bruce, 2013):

Gender marking—that is, referring to men’s events as the events and to women’s events as women’s events. Compulsory heterosexuality—that is, mention- ing that women athletes are “normal” because they have a boyfriend, husband, or child, and ignoring the reality that some women athletes are lesbians and that sexuality has nothing to do with athletic ability.

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For instance, there has always been “The World Cup” and “The Women’s World Cup” in soc- cer coverage. This terminology reflects the male- identified and male-centered orientation used by people in the media.

Traditional gender patterns in media coverage have been slow to change partly because sports media organizations worldwide have cultures and structures that are deeply gendered. They’ve been organized and scheduled around men’s sports, just like the work routines and assignments of sport reporters. Therefore, the coverage of women’s events often requires changes in institutionalized patterns of sports media work. Furthermore, the

85 percent of the articles were about men and men’s sports, with female athletes or women’s sports being the central focus in only 9 percent of the arti- cles (Horky and Nieland, 2011; Toft, 2011). Further analysis showed that only 8 percent of the articles were written by women, and this percentage had not changed during the past decade.

Men’s sport events often are promoted or described as if they had special historical impor- tance, whereas women’s sports events usually are promoted in a less dramatic manner (Kian et al., 2008). Men’s events usually are unmarked by references to gender, whereas women’s events almost always are referred to as women’s events.

Football is the most popular media sport in the United States, and the demographics of the media audience for college football are attractive for commercial sponsors wanting to reach young people with higher levels of education and higher than average incomes. The coverage reproduces traditional gender ideology.  (Source: © Bobak Ha’Eri)

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and commentaries, particularly in reference to black athletes. This made white journalists and commenta- tors increasingly aware that the quality of their work depended on avoiding words and inferences based on discredited racial stereotypes. As a result, most of them became more critical about what they wrote and said, and they chose their words more carefully.

But making these changes was difficult for whites who accepted dominant racial ideology and had never viewed it critically or from the per- spectives of blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. Some media personnel made careless or naïve mistakes, and a few were suspended or fired for them.

Avoiding stereotypes and covering racial and ethnic relations in an informed way are two dif- ferent things. Sports coverage today pretends that race and ethnicity don’t exist; it assumes that sports is a racially and ethnically level playing field and that everyone in sports faces the same challenges and odds for success. But race and eth- nicity are influential to such an extent that people cannot talk about them without discovering real, meaningful, and socially important racial and eth- nic differences in what they think and feel. Ignor- ing this story about real differences allows whites in the media and media audiences to be comfort- ably color blind and deny the legacy and continu- ing relevance of skin color and cultural heritage in society and sports.

At the same time, blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans are reminded that mainstream sport cultures have been shaped by the values and experiences of white men, and sport organizations and media companies are con- trolled by white men. This is simply a fact, and it is not meant to be an indictment of white men. But it does create tension for ethnic minority athletes and unique social dynamics in sports where players are racially and ethnically mixed. This in itself is a newsworthy story, but it would make many people, especially powerful white men, uncomfortable, and it would be difficult for most journalists to tell without being censored. But as long as it remains untold, white privilege in sports will persist without

vast majority of sports media personnel are men, and the highest-status assignments in sports media are those that deal with men’s sports.

Female reporters and announcers today under- stand that their upward mobility in the sports media industry demands that they cover men’s events in much the same ways that men cover them. If they insist on covering only women’s events or if they are assigned only to women’s events, they won’t move up the corporate ladder in media organizations (Bruce, 2013). Advancement also may be limited if they insist on covering men’s sports in new ways that don’t reaffirm the “correctness” of the cover- age patterns and styles developed by men. Although women in the print media regularly cover men’s sports, very few women have done regular com- mentary for men’s sports in the electronic media apart from occasional “sideline reporters” who often are expected to look cute and talk to the guys as if they were at a “frat house” with no other women around (White, 2005). One of the exceptions to this pattern occurred in 2008 when Doris Burke was a color commentator for NBA playoff games. Online comments, nearly all from men, were generally sup- portive of Burke and praised her competence. But a few men were upset. One stated, “I just don’t want to hear a woman caller announce my game” (empha- sis added), and another wrote, “I watched the entire 2nd half on mute because everytime I hear her talk it ruins the game for me.” The negative comments were influential, because Burke was removed and neither she nor any other woman has done color commentary on men’s games since then.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality Themes in Media Representations of Sports Just as gender ideology influences media coverage, so do racial and eth- nic ideology and the stereotypes associated with it (Coogan, 2015; Farrington et al., 2012; Ličen and Billings, 2013; Love and Hughey, 2015; Price et al., 2012; Rowe, 2013; Van Sterkenburg et al., 2012).

Research in the 1970s and 1980s discredited the assumed factual basis of racial and ethnic ste- reotypes at the same time that media studies identi- fied the ways that ideology influenced sport stories

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where previously unquestioned racism has shaped the distribution of income and wealth and the everyday living conditions of nearly all people. When a color- blind approach governs the coverage of sports, media stories miss significant sport realities and reproduce the racial and ethnic status quo. This allows people in dominant racial and ethnic populations to see and use sports as forms of social escapism—as whitewashed worlds devoid of the complex, messy issues that characterize everyday life.

At the same time, a color-blind approach con- stantly reminds people in racial and ethnic minor- ity populations that their histories, heritages, and experiences are unrecognized in sports. As a result, some ethnic minority people avoid some or all sports, or they use sports as sites for seeking rec- ognition and respect in the dominant culture. When we view media critically, it becomes increasingly clear that they don’t “tell it like it is” as much as they tell it as their target demographics and adver- tisers want it told.

Ethnicity and Nationality in a Global Context Themes related to ethnicity and nationality also exist in sports media coverage worldwide ( Malcolm et al., 2010; Rowe, 2009, 2013). Although some sports reporters and broadcasters are careful to avoid using ethnic and national stereotypes in their repre- sentations of athletes and teams, evidence suggests that subtle stereotypes regularly influence sports coverage (Coogan, 2015; Kelly, 2011; Price et  al., 2013; Van Sterkenburg et al., 2010). For example, some media coverage has portrayed Asian athletes as methodical, mechanical, machinelike, mysteri- ous, industrious, self-disciplined, and intelligent. Their achievements are more often attributed to cognitive than to physical abilities, and stereotypes about height and other physiological characteris- tics are sometimes used to explain success or fail- ure in sports. Latinos, on the other hand, have been described as flamboyant, exotic, emotional, passion- ate, moody, and hot-blooded.

The sports journalists most likely to avoid such stereotypes are those who have worked to learn about national and ethnic histories and those parts

being recognized. Finally, if ethnic minority play- ers or coaches try to tell the story, they’re quickly accused of “playing the race card,” being arrogant and ungrateful, promoting political correctness, or being bitter because of “imagined abuse.”

Media coverage unwittingly reaffirms dominant racial ideology when whiteness is overlooked. For example, when journalists ignore the dynamics of liv- ing in a white-dominated, white-identified, and white- centered society, they unwittingly reproduce racial and ethnic stereotypes at the same time that they claim to be color blind.

Pretending to be color blind in a culture where a skin color–based racial ideology has existed for over three centuries ensures that white privilege is seam- lessly incorporated into the media coverage of sports. It allows people in sports media to avoid asking why nearly all sports at the high school, college, and pro- fessional level are exclusively white or becoming so. It allows the editors at Sports Illustrated to never even think of publishing an article about the under- representation of African Americans and Latinos in most sports, even when they live in communities where hundreds of high school and college teams in swimming, volleyball, softball, tennis, golf, soccer, lacrosse, rowing, gymnastics, wrestling, and other sports are all white.

It also allows journalists to avoid asking criti- cal questions about new patterns of residential and school segregation and growing income and wealth disparity that deeply influences who plays what sports in the United States today. They can put aside questions about why there are fewer African/ Asian/Native American and Latino professional golfers today than there were in 1981—fifteen years before Tiger Woods won his first PGA tournament as a professional in 1996. Most important, pretend- ing to be color blind allows media people to ignore whiteness and all racial issues, thereby maintaining a high racial comfort level among white media con- sumers and advertisers. In this way, ignoring reality becomes an effective strategy for boosting profits.

Scholars in ethnic studies explain that this self- declared colorblindness denies the real history and relevance of skin color and ethnicity in societies

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identity, opportunities to express emotions, and an exciting distraction for those who are passing time alone. However, few studies have investigated audi- ence experiences to see how people give meaning to media sports coverage and integrate it into their lives. Similarly, we know that media images and narratives influence what people feel, think, and do, but few studies have investigated the consequences of media sport consumption at the individual or col- lective level.

Audience Experiences

Studies of audience experiences suggest that peo- ple interpret media content and integrate media sport consumption into their lives in diverse ways (Bruce, 2013; Gantz, 2013; Wenner, 2013). More men than women are strongly committed to con- suming media sports, and strongly committed con- sumers constitute a relatively small segment of the overall population in most societies, including the United States and Canada (Adams, 2006). How- ever, these studies don’t tell us much about the ways that people give meaning to and include the consumption of media sports in their lives.

One exception is a creative study of twenty white men and a few women who had grown up in various towns in western Pennsylvania but had moved to Fort Worth, Texas (Kraszewski, 2008). By various means each person joined with others who had started a tradition of meeting in a sports bar where they watched Pittsburgh Steelers games from August through December. As they met each week their interaction focused on rekindling and nurturing their sense of western Pennsylvania as “home” and their identities associated with their geographical origins. In the process they created a place-image of western Pennsylvania that matched the blue-collar, white European-American, steel- worker image of the Steelers. They wore Steel- ers jerseys, drank Iron City (Pittsburgh) beer in aluminum bottles, and were identified as Steelers fans by the Dallas Cowboys fans in the bar. They avoided talking about social class, race, and jobs and focused on “where they were from”— talking

of the world in which teams and athletes live. This is what all good journalists do when they cover events and people. For example, when 28 percent of MLB players are Latino and more players are com- ing from certain Asian countries, it is reasonable to expect the journalists covering baseball to do their homework and learn about the cultures and baseball histories in those countries, and about the experi- ences of the athletes who have grown up there.

It also would be professionally responsible for media companies to hire sports reporters and broad- casters who are bilingual and culturally informed so that they could talk meaningfully with players whose lives on and off the field are not understood by most baseball fans. These are important stories as all sports become increasingly globalized. For the media to ignore them is to ignore the reality of sports today.

The most effective way to reduce subtle forms of racial, ethnic, and national bias in the media is to hire reporters, editors, photographers, writers, producers, directors, camerapersons, commentators, and statis- ticians from diverse racial, ethnic, and national back- grounds. Lip service is paid to this goal, and progress has been made in certain media, but members of racial and ethnic minorities are clearly underrepresented in nearly all sports newsrooms and media executive offices where over 85 percent of the full time report- ers and editors are white (Lapchick, 2013).

This skewed pattern is unfortunate because ethnic diversity among media people would enrich stories and provide multiple perspectives for understand- ing sports and the people who play and coach them. Of course, neither skin color nor gender precludes knowledge about sports or the people involved in them, but knowledge is based on a combination of experience and the richness of the perspectives one uses to make sense of the ethnically and racially diverse social worlds that constitute sports today.

EXPERIENCES AND CONSEQUENCES OF CONSUMING MEDIA SPORTS

Media sports provide topics of conversation, occa- sions for social interaction, a sense of belonging and

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committed fans, their patterns of watching and responding to sports on television were similar to men’s patterns. Gantz did find that some couples experienced conflicts related to viewing sports, but most resolved them successfully. Partners usually learned to adjust to each other’s viewing habits over time, and when they didn’t, it usually meant that they had general relationship problems unrelated to watching sports.

In another study of viewing habits, Whiteside and Hardin (2011) found that even though women participate in sports more often today than in the past, they don’t regularly watch women’s sports as

about roads, towns, and other features of the land- scape of western Pennsylvania. For them, watching the Steelers on television was a social occasion for interacting with others who reaffirmed their sense of home and their regional identities, despite living over 1200 miles away from where they grew up.

When media scholar Walter Gantz (2013) stud- ied male-female married couples in the United States, he found that they often watched televised sports together and that this usually was a positive activity in their relationships. Men watched sports more than women did and were more likely to be committed sports fans, but when women were

As outdoor screens are used to televise major sport events, such as the Rugby World Cup in Paris (2007), there are new social dynamics associated with media consumption. This crowd was predominantly French, but it also included groups of fans from at least ten other nations. Access to this plaza was open, and spectators were orderly despite a packed crowd and no reserved seats. No sociological research has been done on this phenomenon. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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media spectators. Data indicated that women’s lei- sure time is often spent doing things that fit the inter- ests of other family members rather than using their leisure time for their own interests. They watched men’s sports because they watched with the men in their lives. Under these conditions, watching wom- en’s sports seldom became a high priority for them.

Future studies will tell us more about the ways that people integrate media sport experiences into their lives and when media sports become impor- tant sites at which social relationships occur. For example, we know that social media magnify the voices of sport spectators and provide opportunities to raise their own issues in connection with sports (Millington and Darnell, 2014; Norman, 2012, 2014), but we don’t know what that means in terms of their relationships and everyday lives at home, work, school, and in their own sport participation. It will be important to include the use of the Internet and video games in future studies.

Consequences of Consuming Media Sports

Research on the consequences of consuming media sports has focused on a wide variety of issues. Here we’ll focus on three: active participation in sports, attendance at sport events, and betting on sport events.

Active Participation in Sports Does consuming media sports lead people to be more active sport participants or turn them into couch potatoes? This is an important issue, given the health problems associated with physical inactivity in many societ- ies today.

When children watch sports on television, some copy what they see if they have or can make oppor- tunities to do so. Children are great imitators with active imaginations, so when they see and identify with athletes, they may create informal activities or seek to join youth sport programs to pursue television-inspired dreams. However, participation grounded in these dreams usually fades quickly, especially after children discover that it takes years

of tedious, repetitious, and boring practice to com- pete successfully and reach the victory podium.

Research examining the legacies of the Olympics for people in the country hosting the games has shown consistently that watching sports on television is more likely to lead to more television watching than actively playing sports (Conn, 2012; Donnelly, 2008; Green, 2012; Kortekaas, 2012; Thornton, 2013). In light of this evidence it appears that a posi- tive link between watching and doing sports may exist only when parents, teachers, or physical educa- tors strategically connect media representations with everyday sport participation. Research is needed to explore this possibility. In the meantime, an ad for TV coverage of the Olympics on Fox television in late 2012 told viewers that the network had so much sports programming that “there is no need to leave your couch all month long.”

Many adults don’t play the sports they consume in the media, but some do. Research suggests that those who are not regular participants use media sports as entertainment, whereas those who are avid participants are the ones who use media sports as a source of inspiration for their own participa- tion. In the absence of more research on this topic, we can say only that consuming sports through the media may be connected with activity or inactivity in different situations and with different people.

Attendance at Sport Events Game attendance is related to many factors, including the consumption of media sports. On the one hand, many people say that they would rather watch certain sport events on television than attend them in person. On the other hand, the media publicize sports, promote interest, and provide information that helps people to identify with athletes and teams and become potential ticket purchasers for events.

Although consuming media sports has gener- ally been positively related to attending live events, this may be changing with widespread use of new media and the existence of large HD televi- sions. Whereas media companies in the past tried to duplicate the live-event experience on televi- sion, now stadium managers try to duplicate the

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home-viewing experience for those who attend live events. Spectators now want broadband Wi-Fi and high-speed mobile phone connections in stadiums, large HD replay screens, and video screens by con- cessions and in restrooms so they don’t miss the action they paid to see. These stadium upgrades are costly, but without them, more people may choose to stay at home, where they have access to every- thing they want during a game.

Additionally, there may be circumstances when people who normally pay for their ticket at the gate will stay home to watch a televised game rather than go to the stadium. This might occur when they expect that there will be a large crowd at the game, violent or uncivil behavior on the part of other fans, or bad weather.

Gambling on Sports Consuming media sports is clearly connected with gambling, but there is no evidence that it causes gambling.

Formal gambling on sports dates back centu- ries and continues today at horse and dog tracks, in limited terms in Delaware, and in Nevada where people may bet legally on nearly every possible outcome in sport events—such as number of points, who scores first, points in first half or second half, who beats the point spread, and so on.

It has been estimated that sports wagering in the United States amounts to as much as $380 bil- lion annually with over $2 billion bet legally in Nevada during 2014. Sport gambling is most popu- lar among younger men who have above-average income and at least some college education. Male college students have higher rates of gambling than other categories of people, mostly because they think they know more about sports than others.

A 2012 NCAA study (Paskus and Derevensky, 2013) of more than 23,000 students across all three NCAA divisions showed that nearly 60  percent of male students reported gambling for money and 26 percent of the male athletes had bet money on sports, which is a violation of NCAA rules. About one in twenty athletes reported being contacted by outside gamblers looking for inside information they could use to guide their bets on college games. About

60 percent of male athletes and 40 percent of female athletes approved of betting on sports, excluding their own games, and most thought that people could consistently make money by betting on sports.

Sport gambling debts can have destructive conse- quences, but betting on sports is not generally seen as an important moral or legal issue. Many people today are accustomed to buying state lottery tick- ets and going to casinos, and they don’t favor new restrictions that would limit or ban betting on sports, nor are they seduced by online betting opportunities. However, gambling constitutes a threat to sports because it elevates the stakes associated with com- petitive outcomes and may lead people to seek an edge by convincing one or more athletes to control the scores of games and matches so that bets can be won when point spreads are not covered by favored teams or athletes. Even a rumor of game or match fixing or point shaving seriously threatens the integ- rity of competitive outcomes and destroys the foun- dation for much sport spectatorship. In this sense, consuming media sports does not influence gam- bling as much as gambling could influence media sport consumption.

SPORT JOURNALISM

Some people trivialize sport journalism by say- ing that it provides information about people and events that is entertaining but unrelated to impor- tant issues in everyday life. However, sports do matter—not because they produce a tangible prod- uct or make essential contributions to our survival, but because they represent ideas about how the world works and what is important in life.

Sports are not merely reflections of social worlds; they also are constitutive of those worlds— that is, they’re sites at which social worlds are produced, reproduced, and changed. Sport journal- ists are key players in these constitutive processes, because their representations of sports can influence the ideas and beliefs that people use to define and give meaning to themselves, their experiences, and the organization of social worlds.

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infotainment now takes the place of hard news, media personalities present opinions rather than fact-based stories, and stories holding the powerful accountable for their actions are killed, censored, or never produced.

There are capable investigative journalists working at Sports Illustrated and ESPN, but the entertainment side of these media companies lim- its independent reporting or fosters self- censorship by reporters (Miller and Belson, 2013; Sandomir et al., 2013; Zirin, 2013e). Independent journalists produce stories for blog sites such as Deadspin and SB Nation, but they are paid as contract workers and rarely have resources for sustained investiga- tive work.

Investigative journalism does not provide a good return on investment for media companies. ESPN is owned by the Walt Disney Company, the largest media conglomerate in the world, and they can make more money providing entertainment than presenting detailed investigations of concus- sions, tax-avoidance scams, media influence on sports, institutionalized forms of corruption, and other important issues that require critical analysis. They now make more money than ever before, but they are cutting or shortening contracts for their investigative reporters. The same is true for CNN/ Sports Illustrated, owned by Time Warner, the second-largest media conglomerate in the world.

As big media exert more control over sports worldwide, those of us who participate in and con- sume sport can expect fewer media stories about the meaning, purpose, and organization of sports apart from how they are represented by those who control and profit from them.

Sport Journalists on the Job: Relationships with Athletes

As the amount of video coverage of sports has increased, sportswriters have had to create stories that go beyond describing action and reporting scores. This leads them to seek increasingly inti- mate information about the personal lives of ath- letes, and this creates tension in athlete– journalist

Sport Journalists Are Not All the Same

Entertainment is a focus for nearly everyone work- ing in commercial media. Sportswriters generally provide specific information and in-depth analy- sis, whereas the announcers and commentators for visual electronic media usually focus on providing images and narratives that create anticipation and a sense of urgency among their audience. Exceptions sometimes occur in sport talk radio when analysis and “call-in” interactivity are structured into pro- gram format. Additionally, television also includes some sport programming that provides in-depth analysis, but this is relatively rare in its overall pro- gramming format.

As athletes, agents, team publicity directors, bloggers, and others contribute online content, tra- ditional sport journalism is changing. Independent investigative journalism has nearly disappeared in favor of entertainment journalism that focuses on personalities and “celebrity chasing” rather than social and political issues in sports. Flashy

There have always been tensions between elite athletes and journalists, but athletes tolerated journalists because they needed them to communicate with fans. Today that is no longer the case. Social media puts athletes in direct contact with fans, so some of them, like this Super Bowl player, have little patience when forced to deal with journalists and their “inane” questions.  (Source: © AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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summary

COULD SPORTS AND THE MEDIA SURVIVE WITHOUT EACH OTHER?

Media and media experiences have become ever- present in the lives of people living in many parts of the world today. This is why we study the rela- tionship between sports and the media.

Media sports, like other aspects of culture, are social constructions. They’re created, organized, and controlled by human beings whose motives and ideas are grounded in their social worlds, expe- riences, and ideologies. The media represent sports to us through selected images and narratives that usually reaffirm dominant ideologies and promote the interests of wealthy and powerful people who own media companies.

New media have altered the way people receive news, consume media content, interact with others who share their interests in sports, connect with athletes and teams, and even express their feelings about everything from on-the-field action to off- the-field management decisions. Therefore, new media extend the boundaries of what we study in the sociology of sport.

People now have access to sports content 24/7 on television, smartphones, tablets, and any Internet-connected device. This means that a per- son’s identity as a fan can be reaffirmed at anytime, anywhere. Fans can also follow athletes on digital sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and blogs. This eliminates the mainstream media filter and provides them with information that comes directly from athletes.

Fantasy sports and video games are an impor- tant component of new media. At this time, they complement existing media, but they’re beginning to provide unique sport-related experiences unlike those occasioned by traditional media.

Sports and the media have become increasingly interdependent as both have become more impor- tant parts of social worlds. They could survive with- out each other, but they would be different from the way they are now. Commercial sports have grown

relationships. Athletes today realize that they can- not trust journalists to hold information in con- fidence, even if the disclosure took place in the privacy of the locker room. Furthermore, the stakes associated with “bad press” are so great for athletes and teams that everyone in sport organizations lim- its what they say when talking with journalists. As a result, sport stories tend to contain similar and meaningless quotes from athletes game after game, week after week, and season after season.

Salary and background differences between journalists and athletes increase tensions in their relationships. Highly paid black and Latino ath- letes without college degrees have little in common with middle-class, college-educated, white, Euro- American journalists. As a result, some journalists don’t refrain from disclosing personal informa- tion about athletes to enhance stories, and athletes define journalists as “outsiders” who can impact their lives without fully understanding who they are and what their identity as an athlete means to them.

Team owners and university athletic depart- ments are so conscious of tensions between ath- letes and media personnel that they now provide players with training on how to handle interviews without saying things that might sound bad or be misinterpreted.

These tensions also call attention to ethical issues in sport journalism. Many, but not all journalists are aware that they should not jeopardize athletes’ reputations simply for the sake of entertainment, and they should not hurt them unintentionally or without good reason. Latino journalist Dan Le Batard, who works for ESPN and the Miami Herald, explains that he tries to be “nonjudgmental” when he covers athletes because all people have flaws and exposing the flaws of athletes who disappoint you with their actions smacks of self-righteousness and raises the ethical issue of invasion of privacy (2005, p.  14). However, journalists constantly face gray areas in which ethical guidelines are not clear, and the need to present attractive stories often encourages them to push ethical limits. As a result, tensions will remain in athlete–journalist relationships.

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uncritical celebration of media technology and the promotional culture of most sports coverage.

Few studies have investigated the experiences and consequences of consuming media sports. We know that people make sense of sports media images and narratives on their own terms and that this interpretive process of sense- making is influ- enced by the social, cultural, and historical condi- tions under which it occurs. People also integrate media sport experiences into their lives in diverse ways, but we know little about the patterns and con- sequences of this integration process. For example, research is needed to help us identify the condi- tions under which the consumption of media sports influences active participation in sports, attendance at live sport events, and gambling on sports.

To understand sports and the media, it helps to become familiar with basic features of sports journal- ism today. Journalists are key players in the overall process of representing sports to large audiences. In the process they influence ideas and beliefs about sports and social worlds. The interactivity made possible by new media makes journalists more accessible to their audiences while bringing members of the audience into the process of creating media content. Addition- ally, the need to create stories that capture the attention of media consumers has led journalists to seek stories that disclose private and personal information about athletes. This creates tensions between journalists and athletes, which then influence media representations of sports and the people who play them.

Sports and the media need each other, espe- cially when making profits is a primary goal for each. The sports–media relationship changes as it is negotiated by athletes, facility directors, sport team owners, event promoters, media representatives, sponsors, advertisers, agents, and spectators. Study- ing the dynamics of this relationship helps expand our understanding of sports in society.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. New media: Consuming sports 24/7 Reading 2. Putting media to use: The NFL as a

marketing machine

and prospered because of media coverage and the rights fees paid by media companies. Without the publicity and money provided by media, commer- cial sports would be reduced to local business oper- ations with much less scope than they have today, and less emphasis would be placed on elite, com- petitive sports in people’s lives.

Media could survive without sports, but news- papers and television would be different from their current format if they did not have sports content and programming to attract young male audiences and the sponsors who wish to buy access to those audiences. Without sports, newspaper circulation would decrease, and television programming on weekends and holidays would be different and less profitable for television broadcasters.

The symbiotic relationship between sports and the media in most societies today exists because certain sports can be used to attract audiences that sponsors want to convert into consumers of their products and services. The dynamics of this rela- tionship are also influenced by the interaction that occurs among athletes, agents, coaches, adminis- trators, sport team owners, sponsors, advertisers, media representatives, and a diverse collection of spectators. Power relations are a crucial feature of this interaction process, and it is important to understand them when studying the sports–media relationship.

Research indicates that media coverage of sports in the United States emphasizes images and narra- tives reproducing dominant ideologies related to success, consumption, gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. As a result, current patterns of power and privilege are portrayed as normal and natural and remain taken-for-granted.

Future research utilizing cultural, interaction- ist, and structural theories combined with a critical approach will tell us more about the various ways that people make sense of the media representa- tions they consume. This is especially important in connection with the Internet and video games. Patterns of media sport consumption are changing rapidly, and it is important to study them in ways that promote critical media literacy rather than the

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∙ You’re a new editor at Sports Illustrated. At your first editorial meeting the major item on the agenda is the February swimsuit issue. It is decided that it is economically unwise to drop the swimsuit issue, but it is also decided that if the swimsuit issue is continued, there must be other changes in the magazine to present a fair image of women in sports. As a new editor, you are called on to make some suggestions for changes. How would you respond?

∙ You are called in as an advisor to the Presi- dent’s Council on Fitness and Sports. The two topics being discussed are (1) whether televi- sion sports are turning people in the United States into couch potatoes, and (2) whether the television coverage of professional sports is destroying people’s interests in local high school, college, and amateur sports. The Council wants advice from you. What do you tell them?

Reading 3. Live by the tweet, die by the tweet: Learning to use new media

Reading 4. Virtual sports: Play safe, stay home Reading 5. Media rights deals: What sport has the

best deal? Reading 6. The stronger women get, the more

men watch football: A prediction from 1990

Reading 7. People who don’t watch sports on TV subsidize those who do.

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ Athletes at your university have gotten into trouble using social media. You have been hired to create a social media policy for the ath- letic department. Identify the three main com- ponents of the policy, and describe how you would explain to the athletes why you created each of them.

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(Source: © Lara Killick)

chapter

SPORTS AND POLITICS How Do Governments and Global Political Processes Influence Sports?

13

Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.

—Nelson Mandela, former president, South Africa (2000)

. . . the language of sports is universal; it extends across borders, language, race, religion and ideology; it possesses the capacity to unite people, together, by fostering dialogue and

acceptance. This is a very valuable resource!

—POPE FRANCIS (2013)

Many more people in the world are concerned with sports than with human rights.

—Samuel Huntington, political scientist (1997)

Just as athletes and athletic associations sell products, politicians try to associate with sport to help sell themselves and their agendas to a sport- loving public.

—Kyle Green and Doug Hartmann, sociologists, University of Minnesota (2012)

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The Sports–Government Connection

Sports and Global Political Processes

Politics in Sports

Summary: How Do Governments and Global Political Processes Influence Sports?

Chapter Outline

• Know the differences between politics and government and between power and authority.

• Identify at least five major reasons for governments to be involved in sports.

• Provide examples of how government intervention in sports protects the rights and safety of athletes and nonathletes alike.

• Identify examples of how government intervention in sports may benefit some people more than others.

• Identify the traditional ideals associated with international sports, and discuss those ideals in terms of the realities of international sports.

• Discuss why the Olympic Games are a socially valuable event, and what can be done to make them more socially sustainable.

• Explain the connections between cultural ideology and the sponsorship of sports by nation-states and transnational corporations.

• Discuss the political issues associated with the globalization of sports.

• Give examples of politics in sports, and explain why politics will always be a part of sports.

Learning Objectives

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Organized competitive sports have long been con- nected with politics, governments, and global politi- cal processes. When people say that politics has no place in sports, they usually mean that there is no place in sports for politics that differ from their own.

Politics refers to the processes of organizing social power and making decisions that affect people’s lives in a social world. Politics occur at all levels of social life, from the politics of friendship and family rela- tionships to national, international, and global affairs (Volpi, 2006). In the sociology of sport we study political processes in communities, local and national sport organizations, societies, and large nongovern- ment organizations (NGOs) such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Fédération Inter- nationale de Football Association (FIFA), the interna- tional federation that governs world soccer.

Governments are formal organizations with the power to make and enforce rules in a particular territory or collection of people. Because govern- ments make decisions affecting people’s lives, they are political organizations by definition. Govern- ments operate on various levels from local parks and recreation departments to nation-states, and they influence sports whether they occur in a public park or a privately owned stadium that hosts inter- national competitions. In the sociology of sport we often refer to “the state” because this concept includes the formal institution of a national gov- ernment plus those parts of civil society—such as education, family, media, and churches—that teach values and ideologies that extend the influence and control of the political agencies that make and enforce laws and govern a society.

Politics often involve the actions and interactions of governments, but rule-making in sports today goes beyond the political boundaries of the state and occurs in connection with global processes. For example, soccer is a global sport because British workers, students, and teachers brought the game to South America and British soldiers and mission- aries brought it to Africa, Asia, the West Indies, and other colonized areas of the nineteenth-century British Empire. Soccer grew around the world through the global processes of migration, capitalist

expansion, British imperialism, and colonization— all of which involve politics.

Governments usually are involved in political pro- cesses, but today’s world includes such rapid global movements of people, products, knowledge, ideas, technologies, and money that these processes tran- scend particular states and involve transnational cor- porations and nongovernmental organizations such as Greenpeace, the Red Cross, and sport organizations such as the IOC and FIFA.

This chapter focuses on the relationships between sports and politics. The goal is to explain the ways in which sports are connected with governments, the state, and global political processes. Chapter content focuses on four major questions:

1. Why do governments often sponsor and control sports?

2. How are sports connected with global politics that involve nation-states, transnational corpo- rations, and nongovernmental organizations?

3. What is the role of the Olympic Games and other sport mega-events in global politics and processes?

4. How are political processes involved in sports and sport organizations?

When reading this chapter, remember that power and authority are the key concepts used when studying politics and political processes. Power refers to an ability to influence people and achieve goals, even in the face of opposition from others (Weber, 1922a). And authority is a form of power that comes with a recognized and legitimate status or office in a gov- ernment, an organization, or an established set of relationships. For example, a large corporation, such as Nike or McDonald’s, has power if it can influ- ence how people think about and play sports and if it can use sports to achieve its goals. Sport organiza- tions such as the IOC, FIFA, the NCAA, and a local parks and recreation department have the authority to administer particular sports as long as the people associated with those sports accept the organizations as legitimate governing bodies. This highlights the fact that politics refers to the power to make decisions that affect sports and sport participation.

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THE SPORTS–GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

As sports grow in popularity, government involve- ment usually increases. Many sports require spon- sorship, organization, and facilities—all of which depend on resources that few individuals possess on their own. Sport facilities may be so expensive that regional and national governments are the only enti- ties with the power and resources to build and main- tain them. Government involvement also occurs when there is a need for a third party to regulate and control sports and sport organizations in ways that promote the public good in a community or society.

The nature and extent of government involve- ment in sports varies by society, but it generally serves one or more of the following purposes (Houlihan, 2000):

1. Safeguard the public order 2. Ensure fairness and protect human rights 3. Maintain health and fitness among citizens 4. Promote the prestige and power of a group,

community, or nation 5. Promote a sense of identity, belonging, and

unity among citizens 6. Reproduce dominant values and ideologies in a

community or society 7. Increase support for political leaders and

government 8. Facilitate economic and social development in

a community or society

Safeguard the Public Order

Governments are responsible for maintaining order in public areas, including parks, sidewalks, and streets, among other places. Here are two sections from the Los Angeles Municipal Code, enforced by the city in an effort to safeguard citizens and the public order:

SEC. 56.15. BICYCLE RIDING— SIDEWALKS. No person shall ride, operate or use a bicycle, uni- cycle, skateboard, cart, wagon, wheelchair, roller skates, or any other device moved exclusively by

human power, on a sidewalk, bikeway or boardwalk in a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property. (Los Angeles Municipal Code, 2013a)

SEC. 56.16. STREETS—SIDEWALKS— PLAYING BALL OR GAMES OF SPORT. No person shall play ball or any game of sport with a ball or football or throw, cast, shoot or discharge any stone, pellet, bullet, arrow or any other missile, in, over, across, along or upon any street or sidewalk or in any public park, except on those portions of said park set apart for such purposes. (Los Angeles Municipal Code, 2013b)

Laws similar to these, full of bureaucratic lan- guage, exist in nearly all cities and towns. They set boundaries for where, when, and under what cir- cumstances sports may be played.

Ideally, these laws promote safety and reduce conflict between multiple users of public spaces. For example, state and local governments in many coun- tries ban bare-fisted boxing, bungee jumping off pub- lic bridges, and basketball playing on public streets. In the case of commercial sports, governments may also regulate the rights and responsibilities of team owners, sponsors, promoters, and athletes.

Local governments may regulate sport partici- pation by requiring people to obtain permits to use public facilities and playing fields. Likewise, local officials may close streets or parks to the general public so that sport events can be held under con- trolled and safe conditions. Annual marathons in New York City, London, and other cities worldwide require the involvement of the government and gov- ernment agencies such as the city and state police.

Safeguarding the public order also involves policing sport events where safety may be threat- ened by crowds or unruly individuals. During the Olympics, for example, the host city and nation provide thousands of military and law enforcement officials to safeguard the public order. In the face of possible protests and terrorist actions, it is estimated that the Chinese government spent up to $6.5 billion to police and monitor the Beijing area in connec- tion with the 2008 Olympic Games. The Chinese

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they may provide funding and facilities for sport pro- grams. However, these programs are seldom effec- tive unless they are tied to other efforts to reduce the deprivation, racism, poverty, dislocation, unemploy- ment, community disintegration, and political pow- erlessness that often create “at-risk youth” and social problems in communities and societies (Coakley, 2002, 2011).

A study by Doug Hartmann and Brooks Depro (2006) suggests that these programs are most likely to be effective in reducing crime rates when they are sponsored in connection with other pub- lic efforts that make people in a particular neigh- borhood aware that the city government and law enforcement is taking them seriously and can be trusted to maintain public order. However, Wheelock and Hartmann (2007) also found that when members of the U.S. Congress debated anti- crime program funding in the 1990s, references to

government also employed over 43,000 soldiers, 47 helicopters, 74 airplanes, 33 naval ships, 6000 security guards on 18,000 buses, 30,000 guards at bus stops and terminals, and the personnel to moni- tor tens of thousands of surveillance cameras in and around Beijing.

Governments also sponsor sports that are used in military and police training. Military academies in the United States sponsor sports for cadets, and the World Police and Fire Games are held every two years because people believe that sport participa- tion keeps prepared soldiers, law enforcement offi- cials, and firefighters to safeguard the public order.

Finally, some governments sponsor sport events and programs for people defined as potential threats to the public order. When public officials believe that sports will keep young people— especially those labeled “at risk”—off the streets and thereby reduce crime rates, vandalism, loneliness, and alienation,

Local governments often regulate where and when certain sports can occur. This is true in Philadelphia’s “Love Park,” although “street skaters” do break the rules on weekends, holidays, and late at night. (Source: © Jay Coakley)

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forced the University of Michigan to increase its accessible seats for football fans from 88 (in 2007) to 329 in 2010 (out of 107,501 total seats) and to make restrooms accessible even though they were built in previous years not covered by existing ADA law (Lapointe, 2008; Pear, 2008).

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights clarified the existing legal obligations of schools “to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate alongside their peers in after-school athletics and clubs.” It also noted that “schools may not exclude students who have an intellectual, developmental, physical, or any other disability from trying out and playing on a team, if they are otherwise qualified” (Duncan, 2013).

In other examples of government actions to guarantee fairness and human rights, the U.S. Con- gress passed the Amateur Sports Act in 1978 and created the USOC, now the official NGO respon- sible for coordinating amateur sports in the United States. A major reason for doing this was to protect athletes from being exploited by multiple, uncon- nected, and self-interested sport-governing bodies that controlled amateur sports through much of the twentieth century. In 1998, the act was revised to require the USOC to support and fund Paralympic athletes because people with a disability were systematically denied opportunities to play elite amateur sports. However, people have differing opinions on how the act should be interpreted and this has led athletes with disabilities to file lawsuits to receive the support and funding that they and many others consider to be fair.

Disputes about fairness and human rights in sports are not always settled by legislative or judi- cial actions, but as the stakes associated with sports and sport participation increase, government offi- cials are more likely to pass laws and accept sport- related legal cases for judicial rulings. The 2005 and 2012 congressional hearings on steroid use in Major League Baseball were examples of this, even though the hearings accomplished nothing of substance.

these programs increased their fears of crime by “at-risk” populations (especially black men) and shifted their focus to funding social control pro- grams that emphasized policing and incarceration.

This emphasis on social control raises a critical question about the political interpretation of “safe- guarding the public order.” For example, it can be used as an excuse to limit the physical and sport activities of people defined by political officials as “undesirable” (Silk and Andrews, 2010). Addi- tionally, when cities host sport mega-events, the goal of “safeguarding public order” is now used to justify the relocation of poor people and the instal- lation of expensive video surveillance systems that effectively eliminate privacy in public areas ( Sugden, 2012).

Overall, when safeguarding the public order is the reason for government involvement in sports, the focus of that involvement can influence sports in many ways—sometimes restricting certain forms of sport participation at the same time that other forms are supported.

Ensure Fairness and Protect Human Rights

Governments may intervene in sports by passing laws, establishing policies, or ruling in court cases that protect the rights of citizens to participate in public sport programs. A classic example of this is Title IX in the United States and similar laws that other coun- tries have passed to promote gender equity in sports (Mitchell and Ennis, 2007; Sabo and Snyder, 2013).

Today, many national governments are consider- ing or have already enacted laws mandating the pro- vision of sport participation opportunities for people with a disability. For example, the United States Supreme Court made a ruling in 2001 that ensured fair treatment for Casey Martin, Tiger Woods’s for- mer roommate and golf teammate at Stanford Univer- sity. Martin sued the Professional Golf Association for the right to use a golf cart during competitions because a chronic leg problem impeded his walking.

A federal court in 2008 ruled in favor of the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America and

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specialized medical care to treat and rehabili- tate any injury or physical condition prevent- ing them from meeting their performance expectations.

In light of these factors, some government officials are now cautious and selective when they sponsor sports for health purposes, and they are more likely to support noncompetitive physical activities with clear aerobic benefits than sports with high injury rates.

Promote the Prestige and Power of a Community or Nation

Government involvement in sports frequently is motivated by a quest for recognition and prestige (Hubbert, 2013; Kang et al., 2013; Park et al., 2012; Silk, 2011; Tan and Houlihan, 2012; Yu and Bairner, 2010). This is especially the case for cities and countries that host major sport events such as FIFA World Cups in soccer and the Olympic and Para- lympic Games (Booth, 2011; Dorsey, 2013a, 2013b; Schausteck de Almeida et al., 2013; Smale, 2011).

This quest for recognition and prestige also underlies government subsidies for national teams across a wide range of sports, usually those desig- nated as Olympic sports. Government officials use international sports to establish their nation’s legit- imacy in the international sphere, and they often believe that winning medals enhances their image around the world. This is why many governments provide cash rewards to their athletes who win medals. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, many governments paid gold medal winners cash bonuses (V. Black, 2012; Caruso-Cabrera, 2012; C.  Smith, 2012). In Kazakhstan it was $250,000; in Italy, $182,000; France, $65,000; South Africa, $55,000; Mexico, $37,000. Canada, at $20,000, is among the lowest of international payouts. Russian medal winners received $135,000 for gold, $82,000 for silver, and $54,000 for bronze from the national government but reportedly up to $1 mil- lion from local governments in the regions where they resided.

Maintain Health and Fitness

Governments often become involved in sports to pro- mote health and fitness among citizens. In nations with state-funded, universal health care programs, governments often sponsor sports and physical activ- ity programs to improve health and reduce expen- ditures for medical care. Nations without universal health care may also sponsor or promote sports for health reasons, but they have a lower stake in preven- tive approaches and less incentive to fund them. For example, public schools in the United States have cut physical education programs and communities have defunded recreational sport programs because they are seen as too expensive to maintain.

Although people generally believe that sport participation improves health and reduces medical costs, there’s a growing awareness that the relation- ship between sports participation and health must be qualified because of the following research findings (Bhanoo, 2012; Bloodworth et al., 2012; Gregory, 2012; Leek et al., 2011; Waddington, 2000a, 2007):

∙ Many illnesses that increase health care costs are caused by environmental factors and living conditions that cannot be changed through sport or fitness programs.

∙ Some forms of sport participation, including ultra- endurance and heavy- contact sports, do not pro- duce overall health benefits because of the damage they do to the bodies of many participants.

∙ The culture in certain competitive sports often contributes to injuries and increased health care costs; for example, there are an estimated 300,000 sport-related concussions each year, and more than 62,000 of those are sustained by high school athletes in contact sports alone (Graham et al., 2013). Other injuries, including bone fractures, ligament tears, and tendon dam- age have increased significantly among high school and college athletes since 2000, and they are costly to treat and rehabilitate ( Fawcett, 2012; Healy, 2013; Leet, 2012).

∙ The demand for health care often increases among competitive athletes because they seek

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budgets or newer facilities (Coakley, 2011c; Hall, 2006; Topič and Coakley, 2010). This continu- ously pushes up the funds and other resources that must be allocated to sports, and it decreases resources for programs having more direct and concrete positive impact on citizens. Government officials often find that using this strategy to boost prestige for a city or nation is costly relative to the public benefits created, especially when most of the direct and tangible benefits go to a relatively small and predominantly wealthy segment of their constituency (Coakley and Souza, 2013).

Promote Identity and Unity

When people identify strongly with a sport, govern- ment officials often use public money to support ath- letes and teams as a representation of a city or nation. The emotional unity created by a sport or team is widely believed to establish or reaffirm an identity that further connects people with the city or nation (Sorek, 2007). For example, when the Brazilian men’s soccer team plays in the World Cup, the people of Brazil experience a form of emotional unity and a related sense of attachment to the nation. This attach- ment means different things to different people, but the expectation is that it will reaffirm national loyalty and highlight everything from the nation’s history and traditions to its geography and its place in the global economic or political order.

Research on national identity indicates that it is a much more dynamic social construct than many people have imagined.1 Its intensity, meaning,

1Beginning in the mid-1990s, the topic of national identity has received much attention in the sociology of sport. The research done over the last decade has been extensive. The following references are a good starting point for people interested in this topic: Bairner and Hwang, 2011; Bartoluci and Perasović, 2008; Brownell, 2008; Chiang and Chen, 2015; Coakley and Souza, 2013; Darby, 2011; Denham, 2010; Dóczi, 2012; Elling et al., 2014; Gibbons, 2014; Griggs & Gibbons, 2014; Juncà, 2008; Kang, Kim & Wang, 2015; Leng et al., 2014; Licen and Billings, 2013; J. Maguire, 2005; Mehus and Kolstad, 2011; Schausteck de Almeida et al., 2013; Sorek, 2011; Thomas and Anthony, 2015; Topič and Coakley, 2010; Van Hilvoorde et al., 2010; von Scheve et al., 2014.

Chinese gold medal winners were paid a reported $55,000, and provincial governments gave houses, luxury cars, or other significant gifts to gold medal winners. Host country Great Britain gave no cash awards to medal winners, although their pictures will go on Royal Mail stamps and they will receive royalties, sometimes reaching five figures, when the stamps are purchased.

U.S. athletes received no money from the gov- ernment, but the USOC paid medal winners $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. But each of the 529 U.S. athletes also received five duffle bags full of items provided by corporations, including a $600 ring (custom sized at registra- tion), an Omega watch worth several thousand dol- lars, and about 100 other items from Oakley, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and other companies that custom-fit clothes Olympians (Olmsted, 2012). Paralympic athletes also received the rings and additional items.

Attempts to gain recognition and prestige also underlie local governments’ involvement in sports. Cities fund sport clubs and teams and then use them to promote themselves as good places to live, work, locate a business, or vacation. Many people in North America feel that if their city does not have one or more major professional sport team franchises, it cannot claim world-class status (Del- aney and Eckstein, 2008; deMause, 2011; deMause and Cagan, 2008; Silk and Andrews, 2008).

Even small towns use road signs to announce the success of local high school teams to everyone driv- ing into the town: “You are now entering the home of the state champions” in this or that sport. State govern- ments in the United States subsidize sport programs at colleges and universities for similar reasons: Competi- tive success is believed to bring prestige to the entire state as well as the school represented by winning athletes and teams; prestige, it is believed, attracts out of state and international students that pay high tuition rates that help support educational programs.

When governments fund sports and sport facili- ties to boost the profile of a city or nation, they often become caught in a cycle where increased funding is regularly required to compete with other cities and nations doing the same thing with bigger

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and surrounding area used the team and its matches as opportunities to express deep personal feelings of nationhood shaped by war, economic hardship, recent peace, and hope for future prosperity.

The expressions of national identity in Zadar can be viewed as a sign of resilience and unity with the rest of Croatia, but their intensity, and the ways that they reaffirm a strong sense of separation from peo- ple in neighboring Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovena, cause some people to worry (Bartoluci and Perasović , 2009). They fear that sport-related expressions of national unity, pride, and identity are dangerous under conditions that can turn them into chauvinism and militaristic forms of nationalism (Mehus and Kolstad, 2011; Porat, 2012; Sorek, 2011; Vaczi, 2013).

When government involvement in sport is intended to promote identity and unity, it usually benefits some people more than others. Although emotional unity seldom lasts long, it often serves

and the forms through which it is expressed vary widely between and even within nations. Addition- ally, it changes over time with shifts in national experiences such as those that occur in times of peace or times of war, in the face of positive or negative economic conditions, or when immigra- tion patterns alter a nation’s demographic profile.

Consider a recent Olympic qualifying tournament for men’s team handball held in Zadar, Croatia. A city of 71,000 people on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, Zadar was repeatedly attacked during the early and mid-1990s by Yugoslav and Serbian forces as Croa- tia fought a war to break away from Soviet-aligned- Yugoslavia and become an independent nation. Croatia succeeded in gaining its independence, but the people in the Zadar region have only recently felt that the war and its aftermath are behind them. There- fore, when they hosted the handball tournament, the tickets sold out immediately and people from the city

Quantifying and measuring the long-term social impact of sports is difficult. People often assume that sport mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup create social integration and national identity. However, this was not the case for the 2014 Men’s World Cup or the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. One year before the Rio Games these protesters carried a sign asking, “Olympics for whom?” They knew that the 2016 Olympic Games would serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful rather than the general population. (Source: © Tasso Marcelo/Getty Images)

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The recent growth of global labor migration has intensified interest in the relationship between sport and national identity. As globalization has blurred national boundaries and made them less relevant for many people, government officials have used sports

and national teams to rekindle the idea of nationhood at the same time that they have used sports and multinational teams to inspire identification with newly created political and economic entities (Tamir, 2014; Topič and Coakley, 2010). For example, as European nations sponsor national sports to reinvigorate old feelings of national identity at a time when immigrant workers bring diverse identities to various nations, representatives of the twenty-eight-nation European Union use golf’s Ryder Cup pitting Team Europe against Team USA

to promote the formation of a European identity. Satellite and cable companies that serve most Euro- pean nations have fostered both forms of identifica- tion with their sports programming, depending on which one will increase ratings the most.

These developments complicate national iden- tity and make it more difficult to study and under- stand its connection with sports. Governments continue to use sports to promote identity and unity, but the long-term effectiveness of this strat- egy is difficult to assess. Many government offi- cials believe that sports create more than temporary good feelings of national “we-ness,” but nearly all these officials are men, and the sports they support usually have long histories of privileging men.

Research suggests that in well-established nations, the impact of successful national teams on feelings of national pride and identity is minimal (Elling et al., 2012; Van Hilvoorde et al., 2010), and most likely to be boosted among athletes, men, and non-immigrants in the country. Those who are aware of their nation’s history and current global status across economic, political, educational, and cultural spheres of life may see sports as important but as

the interests of people with power and influence because they have the resources to connect it with the images, traditions, and memories that constitute their ideas of nationhood and the importance of loyalty to the status quo. For example, when men’s sports are sponsored and women’s sports are ignored, the sense of national identity and unity among men may be strong, but women may feel alienated (Adams, 2006). When sports involve participants from only one ethnic group or a particular social class, there are similar divisions in the “imagined community” and the “invented tra- ditions” constructed around sports (Joseph, 2014; Mehus and Kols- tad, 2011; Porat, 2012; Shor and Yonay, 2011; Vaczi, 2013, 2015; Wise, 2015).

National and local identities are political in that they can be constructed around many different ideas about who or what the nation or com- munity is. Of course, these ideas can vary widely between particular categories of people. Furthermore, neither the identity nor the emotional unity created by sports changes the social, political, and economic realities of life.

When games end, people go their separate ways. Old social distinctions become relevant again, and the people who were disadvantaged prior to the game or tournament remain disadvantaged after it (Coakley and Souza, 2013; Majumdar and Mehta, 2010). But this raises interesting questions: Do privileged people feel more justified in their privi- lege, and do people who are systematically disad- vantaged in a city or nation feel less justified in making their disadvantage a political issue because everyone, even the rich and powerful, is part of the big “we” that is reaffirmed at sport events? The identity and unity created by sports clearly feels good to many people, and it can inspire a sense of possibility and hope, but it may obscure the need for social transformations that would make social worlds more fair and just.

The football pitch has become an important tool for integration and a measure of the success of European integration policies. As such, it constitutes a barometer that local, regional, and national policy makers in Europe cannot afford to ignore. —James Dorsey, journalist (2013b)

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and the like—are ineffective, unnatural, and even immoral.

The Cold War era following World War II was a time when nations, especially the United States, the former Soviet Union (USSR—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), and East Germany (GDR— the German Democratic Republic), used the Olym- pics and other international sport competitions to make claims about the superiority of their political and economic systems and ideologies.

Now that the Cold War is over, powerful global corporations use sports to promote free-market ideol- ogy, but governments have not stopped using sports to promote values consistent with ideologies that support their interests. In fact, since the late 1950s the U.S. military has provided “color guard” units to present the American flag at sporting events and has sponsored demonstration “fly-overs” by fighter jet teams to connect the status and place of the military with certain sports, especially NFL football, in the minds of Americans.

Increase Support for Political Leaders and Government

Government authority rests ultimately in legiti- macy. If people do not perceive political leaders and the government as legitimate, it is difficult to maintain social order. In the quest to maintain their legitimacy, political officials may use athletes, teams, and particular sports to boost their accep- tance in the minds of citizens. They assume, as Ital- ian political theorist Antonio Gramsci predicted, that if they support what people value and enjoy, they can maintain their legitimacy as leaders. This is why so many political leaders present themselves as friends of sport, even as faithful fans. They attend highly publicized sport events and associate them- selves with high-profile athletes and teams that win major competitions. U.S. presidents traditionally have associated themselves with successful athletes and teams and have invited champions to the White House for photo opportunities.

Some male former athletes and coaches in the United States have used their celebrity status from

only one aspect of national identity. Additionally, people with access to global media may develop attachments to athletes and teams from other coun- tries and pay less attention to the sport profile and accomplishments associated with their own country, except in the case of the Olympics or world champi- onships in certain sports (Topič and Coakley, 2010).

Another identity issue is whether a nation’s success in sports makes people in other countries more aware of the nation’s existence, attractions, accomplishments, and potential. This has not been studied in detail, but unless a nation receives exten- sive media coverage in connection with multiple sport events, it isn’t likely that winning medals or an occasional championship will lead to more than superficial knowledge about its history and heri- tage. But research is needed on this issue.

Reproduce Values Consistent with Dominant Political Ideology

Governments also become involved in sports to promote specific political values and ideas among their citizens. This is especially true when there is a need to reaffirm the idea that success is based on discipline, loyalty, determination, and hard work, even in the face of hardship and bad times. Sports are useful platforms to promote these values and foster a particular ideology that contains taken-for- granted assumptions about the way social life is organized and how it does and should operate.

It’s difficult to determine the extent to which people are influenced by sports that are represented in specific ideological terms, but we do know that in capitalist societies, such as the United States, sports provide people with a vocabulary and real- life examples that are consistent with dominant political and cultural ideologies.

The images, narratives, and the often-repeated stories that accompany sports in market economies emphasize that competition is clearly the best and most natural way to achieve personal success and allocate rewards to people, whereas alternative approaches to success and allocating rewards— democratic socialism, socialism, communism,

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to facilitate a particular form of urban economic development (Boykoff, 2014a; Curi et al., 2011; deMause, 2011; Hall, 2006, 2012; Lenskyj, 2008; Schausteck de Almeida et al., 2013; Schimmel, 2013; Silk and Andrews, 2008). National and city governments now spend mil- lions of tax dollars on bids to host the Olympic Games, World Cup tournaments, world or national championships, Super Bowls, College Bowl games, All-Star Games, high-profile auto races, golf tournaments, and track-and- field meets. In many cases, these

sports to gain popular support for their political candidacy. In fact, former athletes and coaches have been elected to state legislatures and to the U.S. Congress and Senate by using their status from sports and their sport per- sonas to increase their legitimacy as “tough,” “hard-working,” and “loyal” candidates who are “decisive under pressure” and “dedicated to being winners.”

Facilitate Economic and Social Development

Since the early 1980s, governments have supported or intervened in sports

The President and First Lady Michelle Obama welcome 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House lawn, where Navy Lieutenant Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED in Afghanistan, presented the president with a piece of the American flag that was carried during the opening Olympic ceremonies. President Obama has taken many opportunities to be publicly associated with U.S. athletes and sports, because it connects him with what many people see as symbols of U.S. national identity. (Source: © Christy Bowe/Corbis)

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations . . . Even if one didn’t know from concrete examples . . . that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles. —George Orwell, The Sporting Spirit (1945)

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Taken together, these studies indicate that sports may be associated with social development under certain conditions and that the social effects of this association may not be immediately observ- able in people’s lives. This doesn’t confirm the beliefs of public officials who use sports to promote social development as much as it provides informa- tion about how and when government can effec- tively facilitate social development and what can be expected in terms of social effects.

Additional Examples of Government Involvement in Sports

The previous eight sections did not identify all types of government involvement in sports. Other cases of involvement in the United states include the following:

∙ Making laws that ban animal sports such as bullfighting or dog and cock fighting and pro- tect the well-being of animals in horse and dog racing, fox hunting, and rodeo

∙ Making laws that ban, restrict, or regulate gam- bling on sports, thereby protecting the credibil- ity of competitive sport outcomes and reining in athletes who might be coerced to shave points or fix competitions

∙ Adjusting the tax code so that the cost of tickets and luxury suites at sport events are partially tax-deductible business expenses

∙ Interpreting tax law so that highly commercial- ized college sports are legally defined as non- profit educational programs

∙ Interpreting anti-trust and labor law to benefit pro- fessional sport team owners, and allowing major sport organizations to claim nonprofit status despite paying executives millions in salaries and bonuses

∙ Making public funding decisions that influence where public sport facilities are located and what sports they benefit

Even though many people say that politics have no place in sports, governments play a key role in

expenditures of public money are connected with private entrepreneurial projects designed to increase personal and corporate capital and “renew” blighted or declining areas. By using a sport team, a new stadium, or a major sport event to justify spending public money, business-oriented public officials can partner with developers to gentrify declining or dete- riorated urban neighborhoods by bringing in upscale businesses, shoppers, and residents, and moving out low-income and homeless people.

Using sports is an effective way to create public support for this type of development project, but many of the projects are risky and controversial as public investments. Most fail to meet the optimistic economic impact projections provided by develop- ers, and benefits are enjoyed by relatively few peo- ple (Coakley and Souza, 2013; Cornelissen, 2009, 2010; Darnell, 2010a; Hall, 2012; Kuper, 2010; Majumdar and Mehta, 2010).

Government involvement in sports may also be based on the presumed social effects of sports in a community or society. Many public officials believe the great sport myth and think that sports, in almost any form, bring people together and cre- ate social bonds that carry into other spheres of life and increase the social vitality of a city or society. Research generally contradicts this belief, often finding that relationships formed in connection with sports seldom carry over to other spheres, and that some relationships between individuals and groups are characterized by conflicts that can inter- fere with social development.

Two recent studies have raised additional ques- tions about this issue. Researchers doing an explor- atory (or “pilot”) study in Canada found that people who worked as volunteers with non-profit sport orga- nizations for longer than one year expanded their network of relationships and were put in touch with valuable resources in the realm of sports. At the same time, however, their involvement in other spheres was limited and nonsport social networks declined in scope (Harvey et al., 2007). Another study done in Canada found that people who had played youth sports were more likely to be involved in community activities through adulthood (Perks, 2007).

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SPORTS AND GLOBAL POLITICAL PROCESSES

Most people have lofty expectations about the impact of sports on global relations. It has long been hoped that sports would serve diplomatic functions by contributing to cultural understanding and world peace. Unfortunately, the realities of sports seldom match ideals. Nation-states and transnational corpo- rations (TNCs) regularly use sports to promote their interests and ideologies, and sports have become much more global today as athletes, teams, events, equipment, and capital investments cross national borders on a daily basis. Issues related to these global processes are often linked with politics, so it is useful to understand them when studying sports in society.

International Sports: Ideals Versus Realities

Achieving peace and friendship among nations was emphasized by Baron Pierre de Coubertin when he founded the modern Olympic Games in 1896. For over a century, his goals have been embraced by many people who assumed or hoped that sports would do the following things:

∙ Create open communication lines between people and leaders from different nations.

∙ Highlight shared interests among people from different cultures and nations.

∙ Demonstrate that friendly international relation- ships are possible.

∙ Foster cultural understanding and eliminate the use of national stereotypes.

∙ Create a global model for cooperative cultural, economic, and political relationships.

∙ Establish processes that develop effective lead- ers in emerging nations and close the resource gap between wealthy and poor nations.

Recent history shows that sports can be useful in the realm of public diplomacy, which consists of public expressions of togetherness in the form of cultural exchanges and general communication among officials from various nations. However,

sponsoring and regulating sports. People gener- ally take issue with government involvement only when it does not bring the results they want; other- wise, they seldom notice it.

Critical Issues and Government Involvement in Sports

Advocates of government involvement in sports justify it as serving the “public good.” It would be ideal if governments promoted equally the interests of all citizens, but differences between individuals and groups make this impossible. Therefore, pub- lic investments in sports often benefit some peo- ple more than others. Those who benefit most are the persons or groups who are capable of directly influencing policy makers. This doesn’t mean that government policies reflect only the interests of wealthy and powerful people, but it does mean that policy making is often contentious and creates power struggles among various segments of the population in a city or society.

Governments worldwide make decisions about allocating funds between elite sports and sports for all. Elite sports are highly organized, have strong backing from other organized groups, and base their requests for support on visible accomplishments achieved in the name of the entire country or city. Recreational sports serving large numbers of peo- ple are less organized, less likely to have powerful supporters, and less able to give precise statements of their goals and the political significance of their programs. This does not mean that government decision makers ignore mass participation, but it does mean that “sport for all” usually has lower pri- ority for funding and support (Conn, 2012; Green, 2006; Green and Houlihan, 2004; Schausteck de Almeida et al., 2012).

Those who believe the myth that there is no con- nection between sports and government are most likely to be ignored by public officials, whereas those who are aware of government involvement are most likely to benefit when it does occur. Sports are con- nected with power relations in society as a whole; therefore, sports and politics cannot be separated.

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a major focus of world powers, and many nations that seek to extend their political and economic power have used sports to gain international recog- nition and legitimacy.

For smaller nations, the Olympics, World Cups, and international championships have been stages for showing that their athletes and teams can stand up to and sometimes defeat athletes and teams from wealthy and powerful nations. For example, when the cricket teams from the West Indies or India play teams from England, the athletes and fans from India and the West Indies view the matches as opportuni- ties to show the world that they are now equal to the nation that once colonized their land and controlled their people. When their teams win, it is cause for political affirmation and great celebration.

National and city leaders know that hosting the Olympics is a special opportunity to generate inter- national recognition, display national power and resources to a global audience, and invite invest-

ments into their economies. This is why the bid committees from prospective host cities and nations have regularly used gifts, bribes, and financial incentives to encour- age IOC members to vote for them in the host city selection process. Illegal and illicit strategies were common during the bidding for the 2002 Winter Olympics, when offi- cials from Salt Lake City offered to IOC members and their families money, jobs, scholarships, lavish gifts, vacations, and the sexual ser- vices of “escorts” as they success- fully secured the votes needed to host the games (Jennings, 1996a, 1996b; Jennings and Sambrook,

2000). Efforts to influence votes and personally profit from decisions involving billions of dollars still occur, but they are usually done much more carefully and discretely (Booth, 2011; Jennings, 2013a, 2013b).

The link between sports and politics has been clearly exposed by protests and boycotts directed

sports have no impact in the realm of serious diplomacy, which consists of discussions and decisions about political issues of vital national interest. In other words, international sports pro- vide opportunities for political leaders to meet and talk, but they don’t influence the content of their discussions or their policy decisions.

Likewise, sports bring together athletes who may learn from and about one another, but athletes have seldom tried to make or influence political decisions, and their relationships with one another have no serious political significance.

Recent history shows that most nations use sports and sport events, especially the Olympic Games, to pursue their own interests rather than international understanding, friendship, and peace (Jennings, 2006). Nationalist themes going beyond respectful expressions of patriotism have been clearly evident in many events, and most nations regularly use sport events to promote their own military, eco- nomic, political, and cultural agen- das. This was particularly apparent during the Cold War era following World War II and extending into the early 1990s. During these years, the Olympics were extensions of “superpower politics” between the United States and its allies and the former Soviet Union and its allies.

The inherent links between international sports and politics were so clear in the early 1980s that Peter Ueberroth, president of the committee that organized the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, said that “we now have to face the reality that the Olympics consti- tute not only an athletic event but a political event” (U.S. News & World Report, 1983). Ueberroth was not being prophetic; he was simply summarizing his observations of events leading up to the 1984 games. He saw that nations were more interested in benefit ing themselves than pursuing global friendship and peace. The demonstration of national superiority through sports has long been

There is simply no sporting event on earth more entangled in politics than [the Men’s World Cup]. Anytime you have half the earth tuned in—as colonies play their former colonizers and dictatorships challenge democracies—politics follow like rainbows after rain. —Dave Zirin, independent sport journalist (2010b)

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Networks claim that Americans won’t watch an Olympics unless the global power and cultural val- ues of the United States are woven into the cover- age. Of course, the U.S. media aren’t the only ones to do this, but their impact far surpasses the impact of nationalist and ethnocentric coverage in other nations, because the military and economic power and policies of the United States affect the world much more than do the power and policies of other nation-states.

Nationalistic themes in media coverage of international sports are now accompanied and sometimes obscured by images and narratives pro- moting capitalist expansion and the products and services of transnational corporations. These issues are discussed in the Reflect on Sports box “Olymp- ism and the Olympic Games.”

Nation-States, Sports, and Ideological Hegemony

Global politics often revolve around issues of ideological hegemony—that is, whose ideas and beliefs are most widely accepted worldwide and used to guide everything from world trade to who starts wars with whom. In this process, sports usually serve the interests of wealthy and power- ful nations. For example, when nations with few resources want to participate in major interna- tional sports, they must look to wealthy nations for assistance in the form of coaching, equipment, and training support. As this occurs, people in poorer nations often de-emphasize their traditional folk games and focus on the global sports devel- oped around the values and experiences of nations powerful enough to export their games around the globe and make them the centerpieces of interna- tional competitions. If they want to play, those are the sports in which they must excel. To the extent that this makes poorer nations dependent, sports become vehicles for economically power- ful nations to extend their control over important forms of popular culture worldwide—and to claim that it is part of the “foreign aid” that they give to poor people and struggling nations (Coakley and

at the Olympics and other international sport events. For example, when Mexican college stu- dents used the 1968 Olympic Games hosted by Mexico City as an occasion for protesting police violence and the actions of an oppressive politi- cal regime, the police and military massacred hundreds of students and others in a public plaza in the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City (Poniatowska, 1975). Representatives of govern- ments and National Olympic Committees said little or nothing about the murders because they wanted a “secure” Olympic Games.

In 1980, the United States and sixty-two of its political allies boycotted the Olympic Games in Mos- cow, the capital of the Soviet Union (USSR), to pro- test the decision of the Soviets to invade Afghanistan and eliminate Islamic rebels, because the rebels opposed Soviet control of the region. The United States supported the autonomy of Afghanistan, armed the rebels, including Osama bin Laden, and helped to create the terrorist infrastructure that later became Al-Qaeda. In retaliation, the Soviet Union and at least fourteen of its allies boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to protest the commercial- ization of the games and avoid terrorist actions they expected from Americans who had made threats against their teams and athletes.

Each of these Olympic Games was held despite the boycotts, and each host nation unashamedly displayed its power and resources to the world and touted the fact that they topped the medal count for the respective games. Neither boycotting nor hosting the games had any major effects on U.S. or Soviet political policies, although they did inten- sify Cold War feelings and fears.

Global media coverage of sport mega-events has added new dimensions to the link between sports and politics. Television companies, espe- cially the American networks, have used politi- cal controversies to hype the games and increase audience ratings, and they edit programming to highlight the American flag and melodramatic sto- ries about athletes who overcame disadvantage to achieve success and participate in the American Dream (Greider, 2006).

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reflect on S P O R T S

According to the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Games are based on a special philosophy described in these words:

Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will, and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example, and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

This means that the Olympics should provide opportunities for people worldwide to learn about and connect with one another in ways that lead to respect and peace—a commendable goal given that our future and the future of the earth itself depends on global cooperation.

If the Olympic and Paralympic Games facilitate such an outcome, they are indeed special. But nation- alism and commercialism exert so much influence on the coverage of the Games that the goals of global understanding and peace receive only token attention (Lenskyj, 2008).

One factor undermining the philosophy of Olymp- ism is the current method of selling media broadcasting rights for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Andrews, 2007). Television companies buy media rights so they can re-present selected video images from the Olympics and Paralympics and combine them with their own nar- ratives to attract audiences in their countries. Therefore, instead of bringing the world together around a single unifying experience, the coverage consists of many heavily nationalized and commercialized versions of the Games. Of course, media consumers give their own meanings to this coverage, but they consume images and narratives from only their nation as starting points for making sense of and talking about the Olympics (Buffington, 2012; Licen and Billings, 2013).

Media consumers who want to use the Olympics to visualize a global community constructed around cul- tural differences and mutual understanding can do so, but current media coverage provides little assistance in this quest. Most coverage highlights the association between human achievement, selected cultural values, and corporate sponsors. In the process, many people

come to believe that corporations really do make inter- national sports possible. As they watch television coverage in the United States, about 25 percent of the programming consists of commercial messages from corporations, many of which claim to “bring you the Olympics.”

People don’t accept media images and narratives in literal terms, but corporate sponsors now bet billions of dollars on the possibility that associating their products and logos with the Olympics and Paralympics will dis- courage criticism of their products and policies, encour- age people to consume those products, and normalize a lifestyle organized around consumption.

The overt commercialism that now pervades the Olympics has led some people to question the meaning of the games themselves (Stockdale, 2012). Bruce Kidd (1996), a former Olympian and a physical and health educator at the University of Toronto, argues that if the Olympic Games are to be special, they must use sports to make people aware of global injustice and promote social responsibility worldwide.

Kidd says that in the spirit of Olympism, athletes should be selected for participation in the games on the basis of their actions as global citizens as well as their athletic accomplishments. There also should be a cur- riculum enabling athletes to learn about fellow competi- tors and their cultures. The games should involve formal, televised opportunities for intercultural exchanges, and athletes should be ready to discuss their ideas about world peace and social responsibility during media interviews.

The IOC should sponsor projects enabling citizen– athletes to build on their Olympic and Paralympic experiences through service to others around the world. A proportion of the windfall profits coming from rap- idly escalating TV rights fees should fund such proj- ects, thereby giving IOC members opportunities to talk about real examples of social responsibility that they support. The “up close and personal” stories pre- sented in the media could then highlight the socially responsible actions of athletes. Media consumers are increasingly aware that they don’t live in isolation from the rest of the world and may find such coverage

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Are They Special?

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as entertaining as the current soap opera–like stories of personal tragedies and triumphs.

Additionally, the IOC could control nationalism and commercialism more carefully as it organizes the games and sells broadcasting rights. There is no single best way to do this, but here are six recommendations that would emphasize the spirit of Olympism:

1. Add to each games “demonstration sports” native to the cultural regions where the games are held. The IOC should specify that all media companies purchasing broadcasting rights and receiving press credentials must devote 5  percent of their coverage to these native games. Because the media influence the ways that people imagine, create, and play sports, this would provide expanded images of physical activities and facilitate creative approaches to sport participation worldwide. At present, many Olympic sports are simply a legacy of former colonial pow- ers that exported their games as they conquered peoples around the world. But there are thousands of folk games that could inspire new forms of physi- cal activities and sports today, if people knew about them and saw them being played.

2. Use multiple sites for each Olympic Games. The cost of hosting the summer Olympic Games was $14.6 billion for Athens in 2004; well over $40 billion for Beijing in 2008; and about $15 billion for London in 2012. Such costs privilege wealthy nations and prevent less wealthy nations from hosting the games and highlighting their cultures. If Olympic events were split into three “event packages,” many more nations could host one of the packages and enjoy the benefits of staging the events without accumulating debts that burden local citizens for decades after the event and leave them with a legacy of underused facilities.

3. Emphasize global responsibility in media coverage. Television contracts should mandate an emphasis on global social responsibility in the media cover- age of the games. Athlete committees, working with scholars from the Olympic Academy, could identify individuals, organizations, and corporations that

have engaged in noteworthy forms of social respon- sibility and assist media companies in producing coverage of these cases. Additionally, a mandated amount of media time should be dedicated to public service announcements from nonprofit human rights groups that work with athletes and sport organiza- tions to promote social justice and sustainable forms of development. This would guarantee that media consumers receive information that is not created or censored by corporations and market forces.

4. Integrate the Olympics and Paralympics. Just as the Olympic Movement supports gender equality and opposes racial apartheid in sports, it should include Paralympic athletes in the Olympic Games.

McDonald’s and Coke bought the rights to a food and drink monopoly at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Using marketing logic based on widespread acceptance of the great sport myth, the McDonald’s Corporation and the Coca-Cola Company have spent billions of dollars in recent decades to link their logos with the Olympic rings. The hope is that beliefs in the purity and goodness of sports will be associated with their products that are difficult to market as pure and good. (Source: © Barbara Schausteck de Almeida)

Continued

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reflect on S P O R T S

This would involve common opening and closing ceremonies, awarding the same Olympic medals to athletes in both events, and referring to both as “Olympics.” This would send a powerful message to the world saying that the full inclusion of people with a disability is an achievable goal in all spheres of life.

5. Promote a fair method of calculating medal counts. National medal counts are contrary to the spirit and official principles of Olympism. They foster chau- vinism and hostility, present the achievements of athletes in divisive rather than unifying ways, and privilege large, wealthy nations with resources to train medal-winning athletes. To make medal counts fair, members of the Olympic Academy (scholars who study Olympism) should publish daily during each Olympic Games an “official medal count” in which the size of participating nations is statistically controlled.

Table  13.1 provides an example of how rank- ings would change if national population size were controlled. The list on the left side of the table ranks nations by the total number of medals won in all the Olympic Games from 1896 through 2013. The list on the right side of the table ranks nations in terms of the number of people in the overall population for each medal won by its athletes: the lower the population number per medal, the more efficient the country is in producing medal-winning athletes.

In this ranking system, Finland is most efficient, because it has had one medal-winning athlete for every 17,904 people in its current population. Great Britain, ranked 21st, has had one medal-winning ath- lete for every 79,720 people in its population. The United States is 37th with one medal-winning athlete for every 130,521 people in its current population. This could be taken to mean that Finland’s system of sport participation and elite athlete training is seven times more efficient than the U.S. system in produc- ing athletes that win Olympic medals, and this does not take into account that the United States has a

much higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per cap- ita than Finland has.*

6. Replace the Olympic motto Citius–Altius–Fortius (Faster–Higher–Stronger) with Health–Unity– Peace. The current motto creates problems for the Olympic Movement because athletes are reach- ing the limits of human performance in many sports. Therefore, the only way to go Faster–Higher–Stron- ger is to use performance-enhancing technologies that are often expensive and not accessible to man athletes worldwide. To ban some of these technolo- gies and spend millions of dollars testing for them seems hypocritical when the current Olympic motto inspires athletes to use them. Therefore, it would be more in keeping with the philosophy of Olympism to adopt a new motto of Health–Unity–Peace.

Of course, people will dismiss these suggestions as idealistic, but the Olympic Movement was founded on idealism and intended to inspire visions of what our world could and should be. Additionally, Olympism, it emphasizes that progress comes only through effort and participation. If the Olympic and Paralympic Games of today are little more than marketing opportunities for transnational corporations and stages for power displays by wealthy nations with medal-winning athletes, now is a good time for those who value Olympic ideals to take action and turn them into reality (Garcia, 2012).

*See http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=67 for informa- tion on GDP per capita for all countries. GDP per capita is a measure based on purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP GDP is gross domestic product converted to international dollars that have the same purchasing power in a particular country as the U.S. dollar has in the United States. This makes it a good statistic to use when comparing the standard of living from one country to another. For our example here, the PPP in the United States is $52,800 and in Finland it is $35,900 (presented in terms of the value of the U.S. dollar in 2014).

Olympism and the Olympic Games (continued)

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Table 13.1 Olympic medal count by total medals (left side) and population per medal (right side), 1896–2013

Rank Country Medals

1 United States 2401 2 Soviet Union 1,010 3 Great Britain 781 4 France 670 5 Germany 573 6 Italy 550 7 Sweden 483 8 Hungary 475 9 China 473 10 Australia 467 11 East Germany 409 12 Russia 407 13 Japan 398 14 Finland 302 15 Romania 301 16 Canada 278 17 Poland 271 18 Netherlands 266 19 South Korea 243 20 Bulgaria 214 21 Cuba 208 22 West Germany 204 23 Switzerland 184 24 Denmark 179 25 Norway 149

(Source: Adapted from http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals:all-time; and http://www.medalspercapita.com/ medals-per-capita:all-time.)

Rank Country Medals Population per Medal

1 Finland 302 17,904 2 Sweden 483 19,649 3 Hungary 475 20,972 4 Denmark 179 31,176 5 Bahamas 11 32,150 6 Norway 149 33,595 7 Bulgaria 214 34,413 8 East Germany 409 39,391 9 Estonia 33 39,939 10 Jamaica 67 40,385 11 Switzerland 184 42,772 12 New Zealand 99 44,773 13 Australia 467 48,994 14 Cuba 208 54,044 15 Netherlands 266 62,901 16 Romania 301 63,265 17 Bermuda 1 64,237 18 Czechoslovakia 143 72,153 19 Trinidad & Tobago 18 73,206 20 Belgium 142 77,121 21 Great Britain 781 79,720 22 Iceland 4 79,893 23 France 670 97,537 24 Greece 110 98,069 25 Austria 86 98,288

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Souza, 2013; Cole, 2012; Darnell, 2012; Forde, 2013).

If people in traditional cultures want to preserve their native games, they must resist dependency status, but this is difficult in international sports when the rules and other structural characteristics of the sports reflect and privilege power- ful nations (Topič and Coakley, 2010). For example, when an American sport such as football is introduced to another country, it comes with an emphasis on ideas about individual achievement, competition, winning, hierarchical authority structures, physical power and domination, the body, violence, and the use of technology to shape bodies into efficient perfor- mance machines. These ideas may not be accepted by everyone who plays or watches football, but they reaffirm orientations that privilege U.S. interests and obscure the cooperative values that are necessary for the collective survival of most traditional cultures. As an editor at Newsweek noted some years ago, “Sports may be America’s most successful export to the world. . . . Our most visible symbol has evolved from the Stars and Stripes to Coke and the Nike Swoosh” (Starr, 1999, p. 44).

Ideally, sports facilitate cultural exchanges through which people from different nations share information and develop mutual cultural under- standing. But true 50–50 sharing and mutual under- standing are rare when nations have unequal power and resources. Therefore, sports often become cultural exports from wealthy nations incorpo- rated into the everyday lives of people worldwide. Local people are free to reject, revise, or redefine these sports, but when “cultural trade routes” are opened through sports, nations that import sports often become increasingly open to importing and consuming additional goods, services, and ideas from the nations that brought them sports (Jackson and Andrews, 2004). To avoid this outcome, the less powerful nations must increase their political power and economic resources; if the imbalance is not corrected it becomes more difficult to resist

the political and economic dominance of wealthy and powerful nations.

Political Realities in an Era of Transnational Corporations

Global politics have changed dramatically since the 1970s. Massive corporations are now among the largest economies in the world today, and they share the global political stage with nation-states. This change occurred as nation-states

embraced a policy of deregulation, lifted trade restrictions, lowered tariffs, and made it easier for capital, labor, and goods to flow freely around the globe. Although nation-states remain central in global relations, the differences between national and corporate interests have nearly disappeared in connection with sports. This was implied by Phil Knight, CEO of U.S.-based Nike, when he dis- cussed shifts in fan loyalties in the Men’s World Cup in soccer:

We see a natural evolution . . . dividing the world into their athletes and ours. And we glory ours. When the U.S. played Brazil in the World Cup, I rooted for Brazil because it was a Nike team. America was Adidas (in Lipsyte, 1996, p. 9).

For Knight, teams and athletes represented cor- porations as much or more than nations; and corpo- rate logos were more important than national flags at international events. When Nike paid to sponsor Brazil’s national team and used its players to mar- ket Nike products, Knight was pushing consump- tion and brand loyalty over patriotism and public service as global values. For him, sports were out- posts in the heads of sport fans and could be used as receptors and transmitters for the messages com- ing from Nike and other corporate sponsors seek- ing global capitalist expansion. Like executives from other transnational corporations (TNCs), he believes that sports contribute to the growth of

Politics runs rampant throughout the sports world, a broad arena in which struggles for racial justice, gender equality, and economic fairness are played out. —The Editors, The Nation (2011)

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don’t represent an ideology of competition and win- ning, corporations don’t become sponsors and com- mercial media have no reason to cover them.

The global power of transnational corporations is neither unlimited nor uncontested. Individuals and local populations have used their own cultural perspectives to make sense of the images and nar- ratives that come with global sports and give them meanings that fit with their lives (Foer, 2004; J. Maguire, 1999, 2005). However, research that combines cultural theory and a critical approach shows that global media sports and the commercial messages that accompany them often cleverly fuse the global and the local through thoughtfully and carefully edited images that combine local tradi- tions, sport action, and consumer products in seam- less and technically brilliant media representations (John and Jackson, 2011; Scherer and Jackson, 2010). The researchers doing this work argue that such fused images “detraditionalize” local cultures by representing local symbols and lifestyles in connection with consumer products that, by them- selves, have nothing to do with those cultures.

On a similarly subversive level, Coca-Cola claims that it sponsors the Olympics because it wants the whole world “to move to the beat,” to “live Olympic,” and experience “unity on the Coke side of life.” McDonald’s uses a similar approach as the Official Restaurant of the Olympic Games from 1996 through 2016. When asked about the message being sent by having Coca-Cola and McDonald’s as sponsors, a spokesperson for the London Orga- nizing Committee explained, “Without our partners such as McDonald’s, the games simply wouldn’t happen” (Cheng, 2012). A Coca-Cola representa- tive added, “Without the support of sponsors such as Coca-Cola as many as 170 of the 200 National Olympic Committees would be unable to send ath- letes to compete” (Campbell and Boffey, 2012). A McDonald’s spokesperson avoided questions about nutrition and health and stated, “Ultimately it’s up to individuals to make the right food, drink, and activity choices for themselves” (O’Reilly, 2012).

The goal of these corporations is to con- vince people that without them the pleasure and

global well-being when they are used to promote a lifestyle of consumption and the values that sup- port it.

Corporate sponsors now exert significant influence over sport events, at least to the point of directing sport images and narratives toward spectator-consumers rather than spectator- citizens (Brown, 2012). Sports that can’t be covered this way—such as those that aren’t organized to attract spectators with high purchasing power, or those that don’t emphasize competitive outcomes and setting performance/production records—are not spon- sored. When spectators and potential media audi- ences are not valued consumers, and when sports

Efforts by the NFL to export football to other nations have failed, largely because it requires expensive equipment and facilities and is tied to meanings and ideologies unique to U.S. history and culture. This advertising poster shows how the NFL was represented by Japanese people as they hosted an NFL preseason game in Tokyo in 1992. The caricature shows a “superanimal” with bionic joints, protective equipment, and a cape.  (Source: © Susumu Matsushita)

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Political Realities in an Era of Globalization

Money, athletic skills, and sports media have all gone global. Even though we pretend that national political boundaries matter for the sake of patri- ots who track medal counts by country during the Olympics or cheer for their national team in other events, those boundaries have become very porous for many sports. Today, sports are global busi- nesses that transcend and blur political boundaries.

This is not to say that nation-states are unimport- ant (Rowe, 2013). Most national governments fund sport teams and training centers and present their ath- letes as representatives of the nation. Additionally, major sport leagues are generally nation-based, and national teams and athletes compete in the Olym- pic Games, World Cup tournaments, and World Championships. These structures sustain the impor- tance of nations, but as sports become increasingly

excitement of the Olympic Games would no longer exist. This is not true, although there would be less money for IOC expense accounts and the Games might be less glitzy and spectacular, but they could exist without fast-food and soft-drink sponsors. Of course, commercial images and messages do not dictate what people think, but they certainly influ- ence what people think about, and they become a part of the overall discourse that occurs in cultures around the globe.

This description of new global political reali- ties does not mean that sports have fallen victim to a worldwide conspiracy hatched by transnational corporations. It means only that transnational cor- porations have joined nation-states in the global political context in which sports are defined, orga- nized, promoted, played, presented, and given meaning around the world (Brown, 2012; John and Jackson, 2010; Scherer and Jackson, 2010).

“NBC Sports has eliminated nationalism in our Olympic coverage and replaced it with global consumer capitalism. Now our commentary will emphasize individualism, competi- tion, and conquest. Enjoy the games—and the commercials that bring the games to you!”

Global politics today involve the interaction of nation-states and transnational corporations. As a result the media coverage of global mega-events is organized around images and messages that link transnational corporations with flags, anthems, and athletes representing nation-states. Patriotic feelings and consumer desires are seamlessly woven together.

(Source: © Frederic A. Eyer)

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citizen of that country. Teams represented cit- ies or well-defined regions, and local owners even hesitated to hire players who were “outsid- ers.” But global media coverage of certain sports has given teams—especially those in the English Premier League, with soccer matches televised in more than 150 nations each week—the visibility needed to become global brands. At the same time the concentration of global wealth has created an international class of multibillionaire investors who see sport teams as investments that will pro- vide good returns if they are marketed worldwide.

As a result, the English Premier League, the highest-profile sport league in the world, has become an investment magnet. During 2003–2013 more than half of the teams were purchased by owners outside the United Kingdom; five of those teams were bought by investors from the United States. Therefore, when the Glazer family, which owns Manchester United, pays a $50  million trans- fer fee to acquire a player owned by Real Madrid in Spain, NFL fans in Tampa Bay worry. This is because Glazer family also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and its fans want the Glazers to spend $50 million for a quarterback who would take the team to the Super Bowl. The two teams have separate balance sheets, but the fans of each team wonder if investment decisions for the other team impact decisions for their team.

Professional teams in the United States have also attracted international investors. The Brooklyn (formerly New Jersey) Nets NBA team is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, and the Miami Heat NBA team is owned by Micky Arison, an Israeli-born U.S. businessman who co-founded the Carnival [Cruise Line] Corporation. The MLB Seat- tle Mariners team is owned by Nintendo of America after being purchased by Nintendo’s founder, Hiroshi Yamauchi of Japan. The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars team is owned by Pakistani-born U.S. businessman Shalid Khan, who also owns the Fulham Football Club in the English Premier League.

Major League Soccer has attracted investors from outside the United States, including Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of Red Bull New York

commercialized, super-rich investors buy sport teams in multiple countries; athletes, coaches, and technical personnel are recruited and seek opportunities and contracts worldwide; spectators follow sports, teams, and athletes outside their own countries; and sports are even transported around the globe as tourists and laborers visit or take up residence in new countries and maintain their connections with the sports of their birth nations. These patterns are not new, but they are more pervasive and growing faster than ever before. As a result, they raise political issues in and out of sports.

Globalization is a process through which finan- cial capital, products, knowledge, worldviews, and cultural practices flow through political borders and influence people’s lives. Globalization often involves exchanges of resources and elements of culture—but those exchanges are seldom equal, because some nations have more power to export and infuse their money and ways of life into other societies. The pace and pervasiveness of globaliza- tion increases as transportation and communica- tions infrastructures expand. Globalization is not new, because connections between continents and nations began to grow and encompass nearly all regions of the world in the nineteenth century. But today, the Internet and digital communication have increased the pace of globalization, and this has impacted sports.

Team Ownership and Event Sponsorship Sport team ownership has gone global. Billionaires world- wide see ownership of professional sport teams as investments that bring them worldwide recogni- tion. Oil-rich billionaires from Qatar now own Eng- lish soccer teams. Russians with billions of windfall dollars made by taking over companies previously owned by the state now own professional teams in top leagues around the world. Asian and North American entrepreneurs and global capitalists now see sport teams anywhere in the world as potential investments that come with publicity perks.

Prior to this century it was unthinkable that a major professional sport team in any coun- try would be owned by someone who was not a

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soccer; France, Spain, or the United States for wom- en’s soccer; France or Croatia for men’s team hand- ball; Denmark for women’s team handball; England, India, or the West Indies for cricket; England, Austra- lia, or New Zealand for netball; and Argentina, Brazil, or the United Kingdom for Formula 1 racing.

In basketball alone, as of late 2013, more than 6700 men and women from the United States had played professionally in other countries during the previous five years (see http://www.usbasket.com/ Americans-Overseas.asp). About 850 of those ath- letes played or are currently playing for teams in Germany; and that’s about the same number of U.S. men that played in the NBA over the same period. Additionally, about 230 men and a few women from the United States coach professional or national bas- ketball teams in other countries. These numbers are growing as professional leagues prosper and new leagues are established in China, Russia, Japan, and countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America. For example, former NBA player Stephon Marbury has become one of the most popular athletes in China; he has played on three different Chinese profes- sional teams and in 2015 led the Beijing Ducks to their third Chinese Basketball Association champi- onship in the four years he has played with them.

Athlete migration to U.S.-based professional leagues and the athletic departments of major uni- versities is significant. Athletes born outside the United States make up 80 percent of the players in the NHL, 40 percent of the players in the MLS, 28 percent of players on MLB teams, and 20 percent of NBA players. This has made “translator” a new job category in certain sports. It also creates new chal- lenges for leagues and coaches that have taken on athletes who speak very little English. The English Premier League has players from 100 countries; 62 percent of the players were born outside the United Kingdom, and two of the teams have more than 90 percent of their players from outside the United Kingdom.

Data from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing indicated that universities from the Pac-12 Confer- ence had athletes from forty-eight different coun- tries competing in Beijing. Twenty-two universities

(and NASCAR’s Team Red Bull in addition to soc- cer and Formula 1 teams in Europe). Chivas USA, an MLS team in Los Angeles, is owned by Jorge Vergara, also the owner of Chivas de Guadalajara, a high-profile team in the Mexican soccer league.

The impact of globalization at the level of team ownership is evident worldwide in soccer, basket- ball, cricket, and rugby. It is also evident in event sponsorship for auto racing, tennis, golf, rodeo, boxing, mixed martial arts, various extreme sports, and professional wrestling. These sports have tours taking athletes to dozens of different countries each year, which makes them ideally suited for global corporations who want to sponsor sports with global appeal among identifiable demographic segments of populations across all countries. The PGA, LPGA, ATP, and WTA now spread their officially sanc- tioned events in men’s and women’s golf and tennis in a number of different countries each year to attract spectators, sponsors, and future players worldwide. In fact, the LPGA has so many golfers from Asian countries that it has established a traveling language school to teach English and help native-English speakers learn the basics in other languages so they can communicate with other golfers.

Athletes Athletes have also gone global. Managers and scouts at soccer and baseball academies see ath- letes as global commodities that can be trained and then sold around the world to the highest-bidding teams. Professional and U.S. college teams scout for athletic talent worldwide in the hope of finding regions or even towns where genetically gifted and “coachable” (that is, “controllable”) athletes can be recruited to come away with them.

Skilled athletes in many sports now also see their job market in global terms and are willing or even des- perate to travel to any place in the world where they might be offered a desirable contract (Elliott, 2013).

Most team sports have a hierarchy of “best places to work”—Sweden, Canada, or Russia for men’s hockey; the United States or Japan for baseball; the United States or Germany for men’s basketball; Ger- many, the United States, or Australia for women’s basketball; England, Germany, or Spain for men’s

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to the Olympics? When long-time professional basketball player Becky Hammon was given notice that the U.S. national team had no room for her in 2008, she became a Russian citizen and played for the Russian national basketball team during the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. She was widely criticized for doing this, even though she lived part-time in Russia while playing for a profes- sional team there. However, this strategy is used by hundreds of athletes whose mixed ancestry allows them to make choices about which nation to repre- sent (Clarey, 2012). Fortunately for the U.S. team, Missy Franklin, who has dual U.S.-Canadian citi- zenship because her parents were born in Canada, chose to represent the United States. At least forty other members of U.S. Olympic squads were born in other countries but represented the United States because they had dual citizenship.

for which data were available had 481 members of their college teams go to the 2008 Olympics, and 258 of those athletes (54  percent) competed for countries other than the United States ( Bachman, 2012). When Olympic-level athletes want to attend school and remain amateurs while they train with top coaches and state-of-the-art technology, they seek scholarships in the United States. They know that every Division I university with a full athletic program has training facilities, coaches, and support staff that surpass what is available at the national training centers in most other countries.

Global migration also leads to mixed nationali- ties and more people with dual or multiple pass- ports. For athletes, this makes country swapping possible. The athlete wants to know: What country shall I represent, or in what country do I have the best chance of making the national team and going

After learning that the U.S. team had no place for her, Becky Hammon (second from left) became a Russian citizen so she could play on the Russian national team in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. When the Russian team played the U.S. team in London, she displayed her feelings for her home country as the U.S. national anthem was played before the game. Hammon is one of many athletes who change their citizenship or take advantage of dual citizenship to play in international events. (Source: © AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

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return home during the off-season. Some encounter prejudice against foreigners or racial and ethnic big- otry, whereas others are socially accepted and form close friendships. Some cling to their national iden- tities and socialize with fellow athletes from their homelands, whereas others develop global identities unrelated to any one national or cultural background. Some teams and clubs expect foreign athletes to adjust on their own; others provide support for those who must learn a new language or become familiar with new cultural norms.

Worker rights vary by nation, and athletes may find that they have more or less protection than they antici- pated when it comes to working conditions and how they are treated by management. Much of this depends on their contracts, but state regulations may also apply beyond the contract (Engh and Agergaard, 2015).

The nations from which athletes are recruited usually have less power and resources than the recruiting countries. Over time, there may be such a depletion of talent in a country that the infrastructure for a particular sport is destroyed and local people are forced to follow the sport as it is played in the country that has taken all their best talent (Elliott and Weedon, 2011). This form of “sport talent drain” has a significant impact on countries in Africa and Latin America, where athletes seek contracts in Europe and North America.

At this point little is known about the impact of athlete migration on the identities of the ath-

letes themselves and the feelings of national identity among people in the countries from which they emigrate. Do athletes become citi- zens of the country to which they are recruited? Does the move to a new country intensify or decrease their sense of national identity? Do people in the country from which athletes are recruited feel resentment about losing their best athletes, or do they see this recruitment as an affir- mation of their ability to produce tal- ent in sports? Research is needed to answer these questions.

Just as some athletes choose to represent one country over another, some countries poach ath- letes from other countries by promising the athletes rewards and putting them on a very fast track for citi- zenship (Shachar, 2012). Citizenship can be acquired in less than a day if the country wants the athlete and the athlete agrees to its terms. This form of govern- ment involvement in sports is relatively common, and nearly all countries have a “back door” through which athletes can obtain work visas if a professional team wants them to sign to a contract.

It might be difficult for skilled scientists and tech- nology entrepreneurs to obtain U.S. work visas, but the U.S. government waives rules for professional athletes who are granted a special O-1 or P-1 visa, which makes them guest workers with no questions asked and allows them to change teams as many times as they wish. No other workers are given such treatment (Cullen, 2013).

This special exemption from U.S. immigration rules allows the NHL, NBA, and other sport leagues to operate outside normal citizenship and employment restrictions, even if U.S. athletes could be hired instead of athletes from other countries. Members of Con- gress, even those who are anti-immigration, allowed this to occur because they see sports as special.

When athletes move from one country to another, regardless of their reasons, it raises issues related to (1) personal adjustments by migrating athletes; (2) the rights of athletes as workers; (3) the impact of talent migration on the nations from and to which athletes migrate; and (4) the national identities of athletes and fans (Bradbury, 2011; Carter, 2011; Elliott and Maguire, 2008; Evans and Stead, 2012; Maguire and Falcous, 2010; Roderick, 2012).

The personal experiences of migrating athletes vary from major culture shock and chronic loneli- ness to minor homesickness and life- style adjustments. Some athletes are exploited by teams or clubs, whereas others make much money and receive a hero’s welcome when they

Basketball is booming, globally. Almost one in five players last season was not American, and when the U.S. team played China in the 2008 Olympics, 1 billion people watched. Selling 1 percent of them an item of team apparel would mean serious money. —George Will, editorial, Washington Post (2011b)

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Finding answers to these questions requires research at local and global levels. Existing stud- ies suggest that sports favored by wealthy nations are not simply imposed on people worldwide. Even when people play sports that come from power- ful nations, they give them meanings grounded in local cultures. Global trends are important, but so are the local expressions of and responses to those trends (Chen, 2012; Cho, 2009; Cho et al., 2012; Dóczi, 2012; Gilmour and Rowe, 2012; Jijon, 2013; John and Jackson, 2011; J. Joseph, 2012a, 2012b; Kobayashi, 2012; Lee and Maguire, 2009; Merkel, 2012; Newman and Beissel, 2009; Poli, 2010; Scherer and Jackson, 2010; Shor and Galily, 2012; Silk and Manley, 2012; Tan and Houlihan, 2012). Power is a process, and it is always exercised through relationships and current forms of social organization. Therefore, research on sports world- wide must examine the processes through which powerful nations exert control over sports in other nations as well as the processes through which peo- ple in those nations integrate sports and sport experi- ences into their lives on their own terms.

POLITICS IN SPORTS

The term politics usually is associated with formal government entities in the public sphere. However, politics include all processes of governing people and administering policies at all levels of organi- zation, both public and private. Therefore, politics are an integral part of sports, and local, national, and international sport organizations are generally referred to as “governing bodies.”

Most sport organizations provide and regulate sport participation opportunities, establish and enforce policies, control and standardize competitions, and acknowledge the accomplishments of athletes. This sounds like a straightforward set of tasks, but they seldom are accomplished without opposition, debate, and compromise (Green and Hartmann, 2012). Mem- bers of sport organizations agree on many things, but conflicts often arise as decisions are made in connec- tion with the following seven questions:

Fans Fans have also gone global. Manchester United in England and the Barcelona Football Club in Spain have fans in nearly every country in the world. Now that many people can receive streamed or televised coverage of games, matches, and events, they often choose to give their sport allegiance to teams and athletes outside their own countries. For example, young soccer fans in Slovenia may pay little attention to club teams in their country because all the top Slovenian soccer players play on professional teams in other coun- tries across Europe. Many Latin American and African fans do the same thing. But in the process they may develop an attachment to one or more teams outside their countries and follow them for much of their lives, even when players from their country are no longer on the rosters.

For this reason the NBA has created a subsid- iary, NBA China, with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai (and Taipei, Taiwan). The opening of these offices was timed to precede the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and gave the NBA time to stock stores in China with official NBA products before the opening ceremonies. With 1.4 billion potential sport fans and consumers in China, most sport leagues now cultivate interest there. The NBA was pleased when over 150 million Chinese people watched the national Chinese team play the U.S. team made up of NBA players, or as NBA China would describe them, “shooting and dunking endorsements for NBA media rights and merchan- dise sales.”

Making Sense of Political Realities

It’s not easy to explain the relationships between sports and global political processes. Are sports today merely tools of capitalist expansion and new forms of cultural imperialism? Are they being used by wealthy nations to make poor, developing nations depen- dent on them, or do they enable emerging nations to achieve cultural and economic independence? As globalization occurs, are traditional sports and folk games being replaced by the organized, competitive sports favored by wealthy and powerful nations?

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7. How are rewards distributed to athletes and others associated with sports? When rewards are associated with participating in or staging an event, the question of “Who gets what?” is crucial to everyone involved. Rewards may

1. What qualifies as a sport? There is no univer- sal definition of sport, so each nation, com- munity, and international event, such as the Olympic Games, must develop a definition that makes sense within its circumstances. As a result, official as well as unofficial definitions of “sport” vary widely.

2. What are the rules of a sport? The rules in all sports are arbitrary and changeable. The gov- erning bodies of sports often change them to fit their interests or the circumstances in which the sports are played.

3. Who makes and enforces the rules in sports? The official rules of every sport are determined by the sport’s governing body, but confusion occurs when various organizations representing the interests of different people all claim to be the primary governing body of a sport.

4. Who organizes and controls sport events? Until recently, members of the governing body of a sport organized and controlled competitions, but events today may be organized and partially con- trolled by third parties such as sponsors, media companies, or management groups that special- ize in event organization.

5. Where do sport events take place? When ath- letes decide where to play a sport, they choose a place that is convenient for them. When events are staged for commercial purposes, they take place wherever they can generate the most revenue. In the case of international events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, various cities make bids to be the host and the members of the organization that owns the event (e.g., the IOC) select the bidding city that provides the most attractive proposal.

6. Who is eligible to participate in a sport? Eligi- bility decisions take into account factors that are defined as relevant by members of a governing body or people managing an event. Age, skill level, academic performance, gender, race/ ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, place of resi- dence, and other factors have been used to limit eligibility depending on the concerns and beliefs of the people making eligibility decisions.

Outside Southeast Asia, Sepak Takraw might be called kick volleyball with no hands or arms allowed; only feet, head, knees, and chest may contact the ball. Based on cuju, an ancient Chinese game, Sepak Takraw has been played in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar for five centuries. If these nations had conquered and colonized parts of the world and used this game to socialize colonial subjects into their cultures, as did Europeans with their sports, it would exist in enough countries to qualify as an Olympic sport. This is how politics has influenced even the definition of sports. (Source: © Chen Yehua/Xinhua Press/Corbis)

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unity among citizens; (6) reproduce values consis- tent with dominant ideology; (7) increase support for political leaders and government; and (8) facili- tate economic development.

The rules, policies, and funding priorities set by government officials and agencies reflect politi- cal differences and struggles among groups within a society. This doesn’t mean that the same people always benefit when government involvement occurs, but involvement seldom results in equal ben- efits for everyone. For example, funding priorities could favor mass participation instead of elite sports, but this is subject to debate and negotiation. This political process is an inevitable part of organized sports.

History shows government intervention in sports usually favors groups with the most resources and organization, and with goals that support the inter- ests of public officials. The groups least likely to be favored are those that fail to understand the connec- tion between sports and politics or lack resources to effectively influence political decisions. When people believe that sports and politics are unre- lated, they’re likely to be ignored when officials develop policies and allocate funds.

The connection between sports and global political processes is complex. Ideally, sports bring nations together in contexts supportive of peace and friendship. Although this can and does occur, most nations use sports to satisfy their own inter- ests. Displays of nationalism continue to be com- mon at international events. For example, people who work with, promote, or follow the Olympics often focus on national medal counts and use them to support their claims for national status.

If mega-events such as the Olympics are indeed special events with positive potential, efforts should be made to maximize that potential. Lim- iting nationalism and commercialism and empha- sizing the interdependence of nations would be helpful and could be done many ways.

Powerful transnational corporations have joined nation-states as major participants in global politi- cal processes. As a result, sports are used increas- ingly for economic as well as political purposes.

include affirmations of status, such as a Most Valuable Player award, or monetary compensa- tion as in the case of revenue- producing sports. The distribution of money often creates friction between the players and the people who orga- nize and manage the team or event.

These questions are inherently political because answers are determined in contexts where there are differences of interest that must be resolved through negotiation (Green and Hartmann, 2012). Most people understand this, but they complain about politics in sports when the outcomes of negotiations are not the ones they favor.

Eliminating politics in sports is not possible. However, it is possible to shape political processes so that the voices of all parties impacted by deci- sions are heard and taken into account. Many sport organizations are notorious for their lack of transpar- ency and accountability, and this often makes their decisions contentious because people don’t know how or why they were made. There will always be differences of interest, but people are more apt to accept political decisions when they have partici- pated in the process of making them and when they can hold accountable those who make them.

summary

HOW DO GOVERNMENTS AND GLOBAL POLITICAL PROCESSES INFLUENCE SPORTS?

Sports and politics are inseparable. Government involvement in sports is generally related to the need for sponsorship, organization, and facilities. The fact that sports are important in people’s lives and can be sites for social conflict often leads to govern- ment involvement. The forms of involvement vary by society, but their purposes are generally to (1) safeguard the public order; (2) ensure fairness and protect human rights; (3) maintain health and fitness among citizens; (4) promote the prestige and power of a community or nation; (5) promote identity and

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of rewards. These political issues are central to sports, and they illustrate why the organizations that make decisions about sports are often described as governing bodies. Overall, sports are inseparable from politics and political processes.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Reading 1. Politics in organized sports Reading 2. Protests and boycotts: Politics and the

Olympic Games Reading 3. There’s nothing so over as the World

Cup Reading 4. Global politics and the production of

sports equipment and apparel Reading 5. Qatar and Slovenia: Two approaches

to using sports as a developmental strategy

Reading 6. The soccer stadium as a political protest site: Looking back at the Arab spring

SPORT MANAGEMENT ISSUES

∙ You are working for a new office of Sport and Community Development in a midwestern city of 1 million people. As the new director begins to outline a five-year plan, she asks you to list all of the ways that the federal, state, county, and local governments are involved in sports in the city, especially in terms of funding. Identify all the possibilities that you will check out as you begin the project.

∙ You’ve been appointed by the International Olympic Committee to a special commission charged with prioritizing possible reforms of the Summer Olympic Games. At the first meeting, each member of the committee must present and justify three suggestions for reform. What are your suggestions, and how do you justify them?

∙ You work in the personnel office of the Major Soccer League (MSL) in the United States. You must make recommendations about the

Nationalism and the promotion of national interests remain part of global sports, but consumerism and the promotion of capitalist expansion have become more important since 1991 and the end of the Cold War.

Within the context of global relations, athletes and teams now are associated with corporate logos as well as nation-states. Global sport events have political and economic implications. They are sites for presenting numerous images and narratives asso- ciated with the interests of nation-states and corpo- rate sponsors. The dominant discourses associated with sports in the United States are clearly consistent with the interests of corporate sponsors, and they promote an ideology infused with the capitalist val- ues of individualism, competition, achievement, and consumption.

Global political processes also are associated with other aspects of sports, such as the migration patterns of elite athletes and the recruitment patterns of sport organizations. Political issues are raised when ath- letes cross national borders to play their sports and when leagues and teams bring players from multiple national backgrounds into their countries. The glo- balization of sports affects the ownership of teams, the movement of athletes around the globe, and the allegiance patterns of sport fans worldwide.

These and other issues associated with global political processes are best understood when stud- ied on both global and local levels. Data in these studies help determine when sports involve recip- rocal cultural exchanges leading to mutual under- standing among people and when they involve processes through which powerful nations and cor- porations exercise subtle influence over social life and political events in less powerful nations.

Politics also are part of the structure and orga- nization of sports. Political processes exist because people in sport organizations must answer questions about what qualifies as a sport, the rules of a sport, procedures for enforcing rules, the organization and control of sport events, locations of sport events, eligibility criteria for participants, and distribution

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should the league and its teams provide sup- port for the athletes who come from other countries? Explain your responses and discuss them in the general context of the glob al iza tion of sports.

league’s policies related to players who are not U.S. citizens. You must deal with two major questions: (1) Should there be a limit, for each team or the league as a whole on the number of players who are not U.S. citizens? (2) How

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(Source: © ELLEN OZIER/Reuters/Corbis)

chapter

SPORTS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE Do Competitive Sports Contribute to Education?

14

The problem with sports is once you combine it with academics, it starts to take over. So you have to be constantly vigilant to control it and make sure you’re sending kids a message about what’s going to serve their interests for decades to come.

—Amanda Ripley, writer and researcher (in Martin, 2013)

High school football has never had a higher profile. . . . As players grow bigger, faster, and stronger, there are growing concerns about their health and safety. . . . It all raises a critical question: has the amped-up culture of high school football outrun necessary protections for the boys who play the game?

—Rachel Dretzin, Documentary film maker, PBS (2011)

. . . inequity in college sports has reached such a comical level that it can no longer be justified with a straight face.

—Matthew Futterman, journalist, Wall Street Journal (2015)

. . . colleges still send a negative underlying message that black men are only worth educating if they can also play ball. The American university thus remains one of the biggest agents in maintaining stereotypes that say ordinary black men can’t think.

—Nate Jackson, journalist, Boston Globe (2015)

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Arguments For and Against Interscholastic Sports

Interscholastic Sports and the Experiences of High School Students

Intercollegiate Sports and the Experiences of College Students

Do Schools Benefit from Varsity Sports?

High School and College Sports Face Uncertainty

Summary: Do Competitive Sports Contribute to Education?

Chapter Outline

• Identify the arguments for and against interscholastic sports.

• Discuss the research findings about the experiences of athletes in high schools.

• Know the ways that varsity sports influence student culture and the overall social organization of high schools in the United States.

• Explain the conditions under which interscholastic sports may be valuable in high schools and the lives of students who play sports.

• Identify differences between intercollegiate sports in big-time athletic programs and smaller, lower profile programs.

• Explain the research findings on the experiences of college athletes and how participation in sports is related to grades and graduation rates.

• Discus the major reforms that have been made in intercollegiate sports, and explain the purpose and effectiveness of those reforms.

• Assess popular beliefs about the benefits of varsity sports in high schools and colleges.

• Identify the major issues faced by both high school and college sport programs, and explain how they might influence sports in the future.

• Explain why some athletes of color have become socially isolated on predominantly white college campuses.

Learning Objectives

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The emergence of today’s organized sports is closely linked with schools in England and North America. However, the United States is the only nation in the world where it is taken for granted that high schools and colleges sponsor and fund interschool varsity sport programs. In most countries, organized sports for school-aged young people are sponsored by community-based athletic clubs funded by members or a combination of public and private sources.

High schools and universities outside the United States may have teams, but they are usually con- nected with a national sport system and not solely dependent on individual schools or school systems (Brown, 2015; Erturan et al., 2012; Hédi, 2011; Dziubiński, 2011; Pot et al., 2014). Additionally, their meaning and purpose are unlike the meanings given to school teams in the United States, and they are not integral to the culture and social organization of the schools.

Interscholastic sports are an accepted and important part of U.S. high schools and colleges, but when they dominate the cultures and public profiles of schools, many people become con- cerned about their role in education.

This chapter is organized around four questions about interscholastic sport programs:

1. What claims do people make when they argue for and against the programs?

2. How are sport programs related to education and the experiences of students?

3. What effects do sports programs have on the organization of schools and the achievement of educational goals?

4. What are the major problems associated with high school and college sport programs and how might they be solved?

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS

Most people in the United States don’t question the existence of school-sponsored sports. However, budget cutbacks and highly publicized problems in some programs raise questions about the relationship

between these sports, the development of young people, and the achievement of educational goals. Responses to these questions vary and almost always are based on strong emotions.

Program supporters claim that interscholastic sports promote the educational mission of schools and the development of young people. Critics claim that they interfere with that mission and distract students from learning and taking seriously their emerging responsibilities as citizens. The main points made on both sides of this debate are sum- marized in Table 14.1.

When people enter this debate, they often exag- gerate the benefits or problems associated with interscholastic sports. Supporters emphasize glow- ing success stories, and critics emphasize shocking cases of excess and abuse. Research suggests that the most accurate descriptions lie somewhere in between these extreme positions. Nonetheless, supporters and critics call our attention to the relationship between sports and education. This chapter focuses on what we know about that relationship.

INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS AND THE EXPERIENCES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Do interscholastic sports affect the educational and developmental experiences of high school students? This question is difficult to answer. Education and development occur in connection with many activities and relationships. Even though interscholastic sports are important in most schools and the lives of many students, they constitute only one of many potentially influential experiences in the lives of young people.

Quantitative research on this issue has seldom been guided by social theories, and it generally con- sists of comparing the characteristics of athletes and other students. Qualitative research, often based on a critical approach and guided by combinations of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories, has focused on the connections between interscholastic sports, the culture and organization of high schools, and the everyday lives of students.

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High School Athletes1

Studies in the United States consistently show that high school athletes as a group generally have higher grade point averages, more positive attitudes toward school, lower rates of absenteeism, more interest in attending college, more years of college com- pleted, greater career success, and better health than students who don’t play school-sponsored sports.2 These differences usually are modest, and it’s dif- ficult for researchers to separate the effects of sport participation from the effects of social class, family background, support from friends, identity issues, and other factors related to educational attitudes and achievement.

Membership on a school team is a valued sta- tus in many U.S. schools, and for some students it

1The term “student-athlete” is not used in this book because all members of school teams are students, just like band members and debaters. The NCAA promotes the use of this term as a political strategy to deflect the criticism that big-time college athletic programs are unrelated to the academic mission of universities and to prevent people from defining athletes as employees.

2There are hundreds of these studies; the most methodologically respectable of these include the following: Brown, 2015; Carlson et al., (2005); Child Trends (2013); Eitle (2005); Fox et al., 2010; Fullinwider (2006); Guest and Schneider (2003); Hartmann (2008); Hill (2007); Hoffman (2006); Hunt (2005); Kniffin et al., 2015; Leeds et al., (2007); Lipscomb, 2006; Marsh and Kleitman (2002, 2003); Miller et al., (2005); Morris, 2013; Pearson et al., 2009; Pot et al., 2014; Sabo et al., 2013; Schultz, 2015; Shakib et al., 2011; Shifrer et al., 2013, 2015; Troutman and Dufur (2007).

seems to go hand in hand with positive educational experiences, reduced dropout rates, and increased identification with the school. However, research doesn’t explain much about why sport participation affects students, and why it affects some differently from others.

Why Are Athletes Different? The most logi- cal explanation for differences between athletes on school teams and other students is that school- sponsored sports attract students who have good grades and self-confidence, and are socially popu- lar in school.

Most researchers don’t have information about the pre- participation characteristics of athletes

Claims For Claims Against

1. They involve students in school activities and increase interest in academic activities.

1. They distract students from academic activities and distort values in school culture.

2. They build self-esteem, responsibility, achievement orientation, and teamwork skills required for occupational success today.

2. They perpetuate dependence, conformity, and a power and performance orientation that is no longer useful in society.

3. They foster fitness and stimulate interest in physical activities among students.

3. They turn most students into passive spectators and cause too many serious injuries to athletes.

4. They generate spirit and unity and maintain the school as a viable organization.

4. They create a superficial, transitory spirit that is unrelated to educational goals.

5. They promote parental, alumni, and community support for school programs.

5. They deprive educational programs of resources, facilities, staff, and community support.

6. They give students opportunities to develop and display skills in activities valued in society and to be recognized for their competence.

6. They create pressure on athletes and support a hierarchical status system in which athletes are unfairly privileged over other students.

Table 14.1 Claims that are made in arguments for and against interscholastic sports

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and lower grade point averages than those who remain on teams (Child Trends, 2013; Pearson et al., 2009; Pot et al., 2014; Shifrer et al., 2013; White and Gager, 2007). Furthermore, athletes who receive failing grades are declared ineligible and become “nonathletes” and have low grades when researchers collect data and compare their grades with the grades of eligible athletes!

Another factor that has not been studied is the control that parents, teachers, and coaches have over the lives of athletes on school teams, espe-

cially when the athletes are “in season” and their daily activities, especially academic activities, are closely monitored by coaches and parents (Riede, 2006). Homework checks, study halls, grade checks, and class attendance are standard procedures in the lives of athletes when their season is ongoing. Although this probably adds struc- ture to daily schedules, its impact on learning and academic growth is not known.

Overall, school sports have selection-in, filtering-out, and in-season control processes, each of which contributes to differences between ath- letes and other students. To control for these pro- cesses and determine if and when playing sports produces unique, positive educational or devel- opmental outcomes, researchers must collect data at regular intervals over four years from an entire sample of students so they can measure and track changes that are due to sports participation rather than other things.

Studying Athletes in Context Research pub- lished over the past half century presents mixed and confusing findings about the effects of play- ing school sports. This is because most researchers assume that playing on a school team has the same meaning in all contexts for all athletes in all sports and therefore must have the same consequences. But this is not true. Meanings vary widely depend- ing on three factors:

because they collect data at one point in time and simply compare students who play on sport teams with students who don’t. These studies are limited because they don’t prove that playing school sports changes young people in ways that would not have occurred otherwise.

Fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds grow and develop in many ways whether they play school sports or do other things. This is an important point, because young people who play on varsity sport teams are more likely than other students to come from economically privileged back- grounds and have above-average cognitive abilities, self-esteem, and past academic performance records, including grades and test scores (Child Trends, 2013; Hartmann et al., 2012; Morris, 2013; Shakib et al., 2011; Shifrer et al., 2013). Therefore, students who try out for, make, and stay on school teams are different from other students before they play high school sports.

This selection-in process is common; students who participate in official, school-sponsored activities tend to be different from other students (Helmrich, 2010). This differ- ence is greatest in activities in which student self- selection is combined with eligibility requirements and formal tryouts in which teachers or coaches select students for participation. Additionally, this combination of self-selection, eligibility, and coach selection, is an extension of a long-term process that begins in youth sports. Over time, students with lower grades and poor disciplinary records decide they don’t want to be involved in sports, or they aren’t academically eligible to participate, or coaches see them as troublemakers and cut them during tryouts.

Research also shows that students who play var- sity sports for three years during high school are different from those who are cut from or quit teams. Those who are cut or quit are more likely to come from less advantaged economic backgrounds and have lower cognitive abilities, lower self-esteem,

We let students know: If you participate [in sports], we will control your study life. For kids who really want to play, they’ve been playing their whole lives and they’ll do almost anything to play. —Jay Sailes, high school principal (in Riede, 2006)

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has produced many college and Olympic champi- ons. Similarly, being a young woman ranked the number-one high school tennis player in the state would involve different status and identity implica- tions from being a young woman who is a substi- tute on the junior varsity softball team.

When researchers at the University of Chicago used data collected over four years from two large samples of high school students, they found that interscholastic athletes at schools located in low- income areas were more likely to be identified as good students than were athletes playing at schools located in upper-middle-income and wealthy areas (Guest and Schneider, 2003). Additionally, having an athlete identity was positively associated with grades in schools located in lower-income areas but negatively associated with grades in wealthier areas where taking sports too seriously was possibly seen as interfering with preparing for college and careers. Therefore, the academic implications of being an interscholastic athlete depended on the dif- ferent meanings given to playing sports and having an athlete identity in different social class contexts in American society (Morris, 2015; Shakib et  al., 2011; Shifrer et al., 2013, 2015).

Research also indicates that the meanings given to playing interscholastic sports vary by gender and have changed since the late 1960s (Fox et al., 2010; Hoffman, 2006; Miller et al., 2005; Miller and Hoffman, 2009; Pearson et al., 2009; Shifrer et al., 2013, 2015; Troutman and Dufur, 2007). For example, young women on school teams have had lower rates of sexual activity (fewer sex part- ners, lower frequency of intercourse, and later ini- tiation of sexual activity) than their female peers who didn’t play sports, whereas young men on school teams had higher rates of sexual activity than other young men in the schools (Miller et al., 1998, 1999). This difference persists because play- ing on school teams enhances the social status of young people and gives them more power to regu- late sexual activity on their own terms (Kreager and Staff, 2009).

During the 1990s, it appears that many young women used this power to resist sexual relationships

1. The status given to athletes and sports in vari- ous contexts

2. The identities young people develop as they play sports

3. The ways that young people integrate sports and an athlete identity into their lives

For example, playing on a junior varsity team or being a mediocre player on the varsity fencing team often involves different implications for the status and identity of a young man in comparison with being an all-state football or basketball player on a state-championship team—even if the young man is on a fencing team at a private school that

Self-selection, combined with academic eligibility and coach selection, ensures that athletes often have different characteristics from other students before they ever play on school teams. Athletes may learn positive and/or negative things in sports, but it’s difficult to separate those things from other forms of learning and development that occur during adolescence. (Source: Jay Coakley)

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relations that exist in the United States. This does not mean that these men didn’t work hard or that sport participation was unrelated to their develop- ment, but the importance of playing varsity sports cannot be understood apart from many other fac- tors that are clearly related to becoming a CEO.

Overall, research in the sociology of sport indi- cates that the effects of playing school sports depend on the con- texts in which sports are played, the organization of sport programs and teams, and the social characteris- tics of athletes (Crissey and Honea, 2006; Fox et al., 2010; Hartmann, 2008; Hartmann and Massoglia, 2007; Hartmann et al., 2012; Pear- son et al., 2009). Therefore, when young, white women from upper- middle-class families play lacrosse in a small, private, elite prep school

where grades are all-important, the effects of par- ticipation are likely to be different from the effects that occur when young ethnic minority men from working-class families play football in a large public school where they have opportunities to be noticed in positive ways and to connect with adult mentors more than other students have.

Student Culture in High Schools

Sports are usually among the most important activi- ties sponsored by high schools, and being on a school team can bring students prestige among peers, formal rewards in the school, and recogni- tion from teachers, administrators, and people in the local community. Athletes, especially boys in high-profile sports, often are accorded recognition that enhances their popularity in student culture. Pep rallies, homecomings, and other sports events are major social occasions on school calendars. Stu- dents often enjoy these events because they provide opportunities for social interaction outside the class- room. Parents favor them because they’re associ- ated with the school and crowds are controlled by school authorities; therefore, they will allow their

that they defined as inappropriate or exploitive, whereas young men used their power to gain sexual favors from young women ( Risman and Schwartz, 2002). But these patterns could be different today or change in the future as the meanings given to being on school sport teams change and as there are shifts in students’ ideas about sex.

Research also suggests that identifying oneself as a “jock” in some U.S. high schools connects a student with peers who are socially gregarious and more likely than other students to engage in risky actions such as heavy and binge drinking (Miller and Hoffman, 2009; Miller et al., 2005; Veliz et al., 2015). This issue needs more study, but it seems that playing on certain school teams provides stu- dents with more choices for align- ing themselves with various cliques or social groups that have different priorities for what they like to do. The choices made by athletes probably influ- ence how others identify them and where they fit into the overall social organization of the school. In some cases, this “positions” them with others who value academic work, whereas in other cases, it positions them so that they focus on social activities with other jocks who like to party even if it detracts from academic achievement.

Identifying the influence of playing high school sports in a person’s adult life is much more diffi- cult than identifying the effects that occur during late adolescence. The meanings people give to sport participation change over time and vary with a wide range of social and cultural factors related to gender, race and ethnicity, and social class. For example, when we hear that many CEOs of large corporations played sports in high school, it tells us nothing about the role of sport participation in the long, complex process of becoming a CEO. The occupational experiences of top CEOs, most of whom are white men, are strongly related to their family backgrounds and social networks, and can- not be separated from the gender, ethnic, and class

You’re only 17 once. I have the rest of my life to worry about pain and stuff like that. I can only play football for so long. I might as well use the time I have and worry about the effects later. —High school football player in the Frontline documentary “Football High” (2011)

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such as physical appearance and social skills, are also important—more important than they are for young men.

Most high school students today are con- cerned with academic achievement and attend- ing college; furthermore, their parents regularly emphasize these priorities. But students also are concerned with four other things: (1) social acceptance; (2) personal autonomy; (3) sexual identity; and (4) becoming an adult. They want to have friends they can depend on, control their lives, feel comfortable with their sexual identity, and be taken seriously as young adults.

Because males and females in North America are still treated and evaluated differently, adoles- cents use different strategies for seeking accep- tance, autonomy, sexual identity, and recognition. For young men, sports provide opportunities to demonstrate the physical and emotional toughness that is traditionally associated with masculinity, and successfully claiming a masculine identity is

children to attend games and matches even when they forbid them from going other places.

The popularity of school sports has led soci- ologists to ask questions about their impact on students’ values, attitudes, actions, and experiences.

High School Sports and Popularity For many years, student culture was studied simply in terms of the factors that high school students used to determine popularity. Research usually found that male students wished they could be remembered as “athletic stars” in high school, whereas female students wished to be remembered as “brilliant stu- dents” or “the most popular.” Although these pri- orities have changed over the last two generations, the link between popularity and being an athlete has remained relatively strong for male students (Shakib et al., 2011). At the same time, the link between popularity and being an athlete has become stronger for female students, although other characteristics,

Sport participation often gives young women opportunities to establish personal and social identities based on skills respected by peers and people in the general community. However, even though playing sports often is enjoyable, as for the members of this soccer team, it usually does not bring as much status and popularity to girls as it does to boys in U.S. high schools. (Source: © Danielle Hicks)

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didn’t stand by and support their men were seen as gender nonconformists.

Bissinger also noted that high school sports were closely linked with a long history of racism in Odessa, and that football was organized and played in ways that reaffirmed traditional racial ideology among whites and produced racial resentment among African Americans. Ideas about race and certain aspects of racial dynamics have changed since 1988 when many whites in the Odessa area referred to blacks as “niggers” and blamed people of color for most of the town’s social and economic problems. White people are not as likely today to say that black athletes succeed on the football field because of their “natural physical abilities” or that white athletes suc- ceed due to character, discipline, and intelligence.

Bissinger’s book fails to deal with many aspects of high school life, but a study by anthropologist Doug Foley (1990a, 1999a) provides a more com- plete description and analysis of the place of sports in a high school and the town in which it exists. Foley studied an entire small Texas town but paid special attention to the ways that people incorpo- rated the local high school football team and its games into the overall social life of the school and the community. He also studied the social and aca- demic activities of a wide range of students, includ- ing those who ignored or avoided sports.

Foley’s findings revealed that student culture in the high school “was varied, changing, and inher- ently full of contradictions” (1990a, p. 100). Foot- ball and other sports provided important social occasions and defused the anxiety associated with tests and overcontrolling teachers, but sports were only one part of the lives of the students. Ath- letes used their sport-based status as a basis for “identity performances” with other students and certain adults, but for most students, identity was grounded more deeply in gender, social class, and ethnicity than sport participation.

Foley noted that sports were socially important because they presented students with a vocabulary they could use to identify values and interpret their everyday experiences. For example, most sports came with a vocabulary that extolled individualism,

assumed to bring acceptance, autonomy, and rec- ognition as an adult.

For young women, sports are not used so much to claim a feminine identity that brings acceptance, autonomy, and recognition as an adult, but playing sports is used to achieve and express the personal power that enables young women to achieve these things. My hypothesis is that young women in high school at this point in time are less likely than their male peers to view sports as a self-identification focal point in their lives and more likely to view them as part of a larger project of achievement that involves academic, social, and other personal accomplishments. If this is the case, the visibility and status gained by high school athletes have dif- ferent implications for young men than for young women in high school student culture and beyond (Shakib et al., 2011).

High School Sports and Ideology Sport programs do more than simply affect the status structures of high schools. When Pulitzer Prize–winning author H. G. Bissinger wrote the book Friday Night Lights about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, he observed that football “stood at the very core of what the town was about.  .  .  . It had nothing to do with entertainment and everything to do with how people felt about themselves” (1990: 237).

Bissinger noted that football in Odessa and across the United States was important because it cel- ebrated a male cult of toughness and sacrifice and a female cult of nurturance and servitude. Team losses were blamed on coaches who weren’t tough enough and players who weren’t disciplined and aggressive. Women stayed on the sidelines and faithfully tried to support and please the men who battled on behalf of the school and town.

Attending football games enabled students and townspeople to reaffirm their ideas about “natural differences” between men and women. Young men who did not hit hard, physically intimidate oppo- nents, or play with pain were described as “ladies,” and a player’s willingness to sacrifice his body for the team was taken as a sign of commitment, char- acter, and manhood. At the same time, women who

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as teachers, and there is an amazing lack of sys- tematically collected evidence documenting the dynamics of teaching and learning in various sports played by over seven million high school students

every year. The downside of this lack of knowledge is that we can’t prove what young people learn in sports or when and why they learn certain things, either positive or negative. Nor can we rate the effectiveness of various coaching strategies for teaching what we want young people to learn in sports. And what is it that we want young people to learn? If we knew these things, we could present evidence to school boards when they

make funding decisions. Too many people sim- ply assume and say the same things: sport teaches discipline, teamwork, and the value of hard work. But they provide only anecdotal evidence about themselves or someone they know. What we need is systematic research identifying the conditions under which school teams provide worthwhile edu- cational experiences for students.

INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORTS AND THE EXPERIENCES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Does varsity sport participation affect the educa- tional and developmental experiences of college athletes?3 This question cannot be answered unless we understand that college sport programs are very diverse. If we assume that all programs are like the ones we see or read about in the media, we are bound to have distorted views of athletes, coaches, and intercollegiate sports.

3This chapter focuses primarily on four-year institutions in the United States. Although junior colleges and two-year com- munity colleges comprise 25 percent of all higher education institutions with intercollegiate sport programs and have about 10 percent of all intercollegiate athletes, there is little research on them.

competition, and “natural” differences related to sex, skin color, ethnicity, and social class. As students learned and used this vocabulary, they perpetuated the culture and social organization of their school and town. In the process, traditional ideologies related to gender, race, and class continued to influence social rela- tions in the town’s culture, even though some people questioned and revised those ideologies and redefined their importance in their lives.

The point of Foley’s study and other research on socialization as a community process is that the most important social consequences of high school sports are not their impact on grades and popularity but their impact on the overall culture of the school and community as well as young people’s ideas about social life and social relations. Exam- ples of this are highlighted in the PBS Frontline documentary “Football High” (Dretzin, 2011).

High School Sports as Learning Experiences

Early in the twentieth century, educators included physical education and sports in U.S. schools because they believed that learning should encom- pass body and mind (Hyland, 2008). Physical activi- ties and sports, they thought, could be organized to teach important lessons. But the widespread accep- tance of the great sport myth and the related belief that “sports build character” led to the assumption that playing sports automatically transformed young people in positive ways, no matter how the sports were organized. There was no need for research to identify what participants learned or how to teach things beyond tactics and techniques. Individual tes- timonials about “sport making me what I am today” fueled the mythology that sport was like an auto- matic car wash: those who enter will be cleansed, dried, and sent off with a shiny new look.

As a result, there are no “learning evaluations” at the end of seasons, coaches aren’t held accountable

High school sports, once viewed as a bastion of wholesomeness, is being transformed into a cutthroat business at the highest levels of play, with teenage athletes the prized assets. —Benjamin Hochman and Ryan Casey, Denver Post journalists (2011)

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3. Non-Football (NF) subdivision consists of 100 universities that do not have football teams but have big-time basketball and/or other big-time sports.

NCAA Divisions II and III contain 300 and 444 schools, respectively. These schools have smaller programs and compete at less than a big-time level, although competition often is intense. Division II schools may award limited scholarships but rarely give a full scholarship to an athlete. Division III schools do not award athletic scholarships.

Some colleges and universities choose to affili- ate with the NAIA rather than the NCAA. The NAIA has about 250 member schools, an estimated 60,000 athletes, and a budget that is less than 1 percent of the NCAA budget. NAIA schools have teams in up to twelve sports for men and eleven for women. Athletic scholarships are not common and seldom cover more than 25 percent of college costs Most member institutions are small private schools, many with religious affiliation, and their athletic programs have minimal budgets. The NAIA strug- gles to maintain members in the face of NCAA power and influence.

Christian colleges and Bible schools also have sport programs. About 115 of these are affili- ated with the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), although many have dual membership in the NCCAA and either the NAIA or NCAA Division III. The National Junior Col- lege Athletic Association consists of about 436 junior and community colleges; some of its 50,000 athletes receive scholarships, nearly all of which cover only partial expenses.

Even though the vast majority of intercol- legiate sport teams are not big-time, people use what they see and read in the media to make conclusions about all college sports. But this is a mistake because most sports at most schools do not resemble the sports covered by the main- stream media. Tables 14.2 and 14.3 identify the percentage of schools in each category and the percentage of athletes that play in each category. For example, Table  14.2 shows that Division I

Intercollegiate Sports Are Not All the Same

The amount of money spent every year on intercol- legiate sports varies from less than $500,000 at some small colleges to over $160 million at the University of Texas. Large universities usually sponsor ten to eighteen varsity sports for men and a similar num- ber for women, whereas small colleges may have only a few varsity sports and many club teams. In small colleges, coaches may be responsible for two or more teams and teach courses as well. Larger universities may have twelve or more coaches for football alone and multiple coaches for most sports. Few of these coaches teach courses, and most have no formal connection with academic programs at universities.

Schools with intercollegiate sports are gener- ally affiliated with one of two national associa- tions: the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or the National Association of Intercolle- giate Athletics (NAIA). The NCAA is the largest and most powerful association, with 1200 member institutions, about 460,000 athletes, and a budget of over $500 million per year. Member institutions are divided into five major categories, reflecting program size, level of competition, and the rules that govern sport programs. Division I includes (in 2015–2016) 351 schools with “big-time” pro- grams. This division contains three subdivisions:4

1. Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) consists of 120 universities that have big-time football teams; each institution is allotted eighty-five full scholarships for football players.

2. Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) consists of 127 universities that have football programs and are allotted only sixty-three scholarships that can be awarded to (or split between) no more than eighty-five students.

4These numbers continue to change regularly as conferences and universities position themselves to maximize revenue gen- eration for their sport programs.

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discuss issues and problems because they vary widely from one division to the next.

Athletes in Big-Time Programs

Being an athlete in a big-time intercollegiate pro- gram is not always compatible with being a stu- dent. A recent survey of 21,000 NCAA athletes showed that most of them spend close to forty hours per week doing their sports; football play- ers reported spending forty-five hours a week on their sport (Petr et al., 2011), and most athletes said they spent more time on their sport than on academic work.

Research by sociologists Patricia and Peter Adler (1991, 1999) helps to put these data in con- text. After five years of observing, interviewing, traveling with, and hanging out with athletes and coaches for a big-time college basketball team, the Adlers concluded that playing on such a team and being seriously involved in academic courses sel- dom go hand in hand. The young men on the team

universities comprise 16.5 percent of all institu- tions of higher education with intercollegiate sports; and Table  14.3 shows that only 29 per- cent of all intercollegiate athletes play on teams in Division I universities. NCAA Division III has the highest proportion of athletes—30 percent— in 444 schools that award no athletic scholarships.

Although it’s important to study all these cat- egories, most research focuses on the Division I universities. Therefore, this chapter, based on the literature in the sociology of sport and other dis- ciplines, provides a limited view of intercollegiate sports. This is important to remember when we

Organization Division Percent of All Institutions

NCAA Div. I 16.5 NCAA Div. II 13.8 NCAA Div. III 20.9 NAIA 12.4 NJCAA* 24.5 All Others§ 11.9

Table 14.2 Percentage distribution of all colleges and universities with sport programs by athletic organization and division, 2014

Organization Division Percent of All Athletes

NCAA Div. I 29 NCAA Div. II 18 NCAA Div. III 30 NAIA 8 NJCAA* 9 All Others§ 6

Source: Adapted from association data, 2014. *National Junior College Athletic Association §Includes all colleges and universities having sport programs but not maintaining membership in any of the above organizations.

Table 14.3 Percentage distribution of all college athletes by athletic organization and division, 2014

Sports in Divisions II and III receive little attention. Little coverage was given to the 2012 Division III national lacrosse championship in which the Salisbury Sea Gulls defeated SUNY Cortland. The experiences of athletes in these programs differ from the experiences of athletes in big-time programs, but research documenting and analyzing the differences and their educational implications is lacking.  (Source: © Michael Tureski/Icon SMI/Corbis)

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Academic detachment did not occur for all team members. Those who managed to balance their athletic and academic lives were the ones who entered college with realistic ideas about academic demands, had parents and peers who were familiar with academic demands in college, and entered the university with solid high school preparation and the ability to develop relationships with faculty and other students. These relationships were important because they emphasized academic achievement and provided support for academic identities.

The Adlers also found that the structure of big- time intercollegiate sports worked against main- taining a balance between athletics and academics. For example, as high-profile people on campus, these young men had many social opportunities, and it was difficult for them to focus on course- work instead of their social lives. Road trips to away games and tournaments took them away from classes for extended periods. They missed lectures, study groups, and tests. Their tight connections with fellow athletes isolated them from the aca- demic life of the university.

Unlike other students, these young men gener- ated revenue and publicity for the university, the athletic program, and coaches. Academic detach- ment was not a problem for the school as long as the young men did not get caught doing some- thing illegal or resist the control of their coach. It became a problem only when it caused them to be ineligible.

The Diversity of Athlete Experiences

Some big-time intercollegiate sport teams are char- acterized by chronic problems, low graduation rates, and hypocrisy when it comes to education. However, teams in nonrevenue-producing sports are more likely to be organized so that athletes can combine sport participation with academic and social development. This combination is most likely when athletes enter college with positive attitudes about school and the value of a college education and then receive support for academic involvement and the formation of academic identities.

began their first year of coursework with optimism and idealism because they expected their academic experiences to contribute to their future occupa- tional success. However, after one or two semes- ters, the demands of playing basketball, the social isolation that goes along with being an athlete, and the powerful influence of the team culture drew them away from academic life.

The men discovered that selecting easier courses and majors was necessary if they were to meet coaches’ expectations. Fatigue, the pressures of games, and over forty hours a week devoted to basketball kept them from focusing seriously on academic tasks. Furthermore, nobody ever asked them about their academic lives; attention always focused on basketball, and few people expected these young men to identify themselves as students or give priority to coursework. Racial ideology and stereotypes accentuated this social dynamic as many people assumed that young black men play- ing basketball had no interests or abilities other than their sport.

When these young men received positive feed- back, it was for athletic, not academic, achieve- ment. Difficulties in their courses often led them to view academic life with pragmatic detachment— that is, they didn’t become emotionally invested in coursework and they chose classes and arranged course schedules that enabled them to meet the demands of their sport. They knew what they had to do to stay eligible, and coaches would make sure their course schedules kept them eligible. Gradu- ally, most of the players detached themselves from academic life on the campus.

Academic detachment was supported in the team culture. These young men were with one another constantly—in the dorms, at meals, during practices, on trips to games, in the weight room, and on nights when there were no games. During these times, they seldom talked about academic or intellectual topics, unless it was in negative terms. They encouraged cutting classes, and they joked about bad tests and failing papers. They provided each other with support for their identities as ath- letes, not students.

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relationships and experiences that expand con- fidence and skills apart from sports.