Sports and Masculinity Further Research - DOCUMENTARIES AND BOOKS

https://thesocietypages.org/teaching/2013/10/25/sport-and-society-films-and-documentaries/
Kyle Green on October 25, 2013

• First Descent (2005) – A history of snowboarding and insight into the gender and age dynamics within core action sport groups.

• Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008) – examples of hegemonic masculinity and how the media influences males’ self-images (not just females, as is so commonly discussed).

• STRONG! – an awesome new documentary on Cheryl Hayworth, Olympic weightlifter. It deals well with questions of athleticism, gender, and normativity. http://strongthefilm.com/

• The Code (2010) – about hockey’s unwritten law of fighting and the men who live by it.

• Gaea Girls (2000) – on female wrestlers in Japan. 

• Brighton Bandits (2007) – first ever in-depth documentary about a gay soccer team trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvKN3X_RCxY

• Justin (2008) — about gay footballer Justin Fashanu and a campaign against homophobia trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_o1IEhRuiE&list=UUoLTOkSW0_Taj3iL9KTi44w&index=7

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER 
- Hulkmania in wrestling, heavy weight champion 
- Rocky defeating Ivan Igo in the movie 
- Movie Rambo "In the spirit of Rambo, let me tell you, we're going to win this time" = Ronald Raegon 
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- People would sleep in vans and cars just to be near the 'Gold's Gym' where arnold trained, chasing the dream 
- Documentary creater found all his 'stars' took steroids = fake dream 
- Baseball nearly died in 1994: Big Mac came along and got 70 home runs. Barry Bonds, 2001, 73 bombs. 
- Baseball players were no longer scrawny, there looked like pro-wrestlers = turned out they were using steroids 
- 2005 Congress 151 days in session, 8 days were spent on the subject of steroids in baseball: more time than on national healthcare or the war on Iraq 

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Media Sport Stars, Masculinities and moralities, Garry Whannel, Routledge, 2002 

"Many of their heroes, like famous footballers, are loud-mouthed and swaggering...it's a pity that [they] aren't more aware of the damage they do"
(Letter of the week in Woman's Realm 6 Feb 1997)

- Sport stars, morality and masculinity are entwined subjects 
- As media coverage of sport increases and sport stars become central to this coverage, their images become the point of convergence over the subject of social anxieties around morality and masculinity (pg. 1)
- Sport is significant in cultural life: the cultural history of the nation is presented and celebrated through major traditional rituals - the Cup Final, the Derby, Wimbledon. Similarly in the US, there is the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby and World Series Baseball.
- 19th century "it was seen as a means of teaching moral values" (Mangan 1981) 
Mangan, J. A. (1981) Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School, London: Cambridge University Press
- Perspective of there being a 'moral crisis'. The contemporary world has a supposed 'collapse of authority'. From a conservative perspective the disintegration of the patriarchal family, decline of religion and loss of respect for the educational authority have all contributed to the weakening social authority which moral values are transmitted. Sport stars can become symbolic figures that embody moral principles. In a society where there is a void of social authority figures, these sports stars assume greater importance. (pg 5)
- With the crisis of morality comes the parallel crisis of masculinity