This groundbreaking work explores masculinity and the body within sports. Sports continue to retain expectations for presentations of specific forms of masculinity. The body is central to these presentations. These everyday bodily performances are rehearsed and performed either successfully or unsuccessfully - and the consequences of these actions play a significant part in the ability of the individual to continue to take part. Through participant observations, sporting life-history interviews (with over forty men) and research with children, this book examines the ways in which 'appropriate' sporting masculinities are learned and enacted to varying degrees of success. Wellard highlights the social processes which impact upon individual constructions and formulations of masculine identity and reviews these in relation to broader debates on gender, embodiment and sporting participation. This book contributes not only to the academic fields of sport and gender, but also to the efforts to confront continued forms of 'accepted' gender discrimination.
Author(s): Ian Wellard
Edition: 1
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 174
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
1 Introduction: Reflexive Approaches to Sport, Masculinities and the Body......Page 10
2 Sport and Masculinities......Page 19
3 Bodies and Masculinities......Page 34
4 ‘Expected Masculine Performances’ in Mainstream Sports: Serious Competitors, Natural Athletes and Casual Enthusiasts......Page 51
5 Young Bodies, Schools and Sport......Page 76
6 A Lifetime of Sporting Bodily Practices......Page 95
7 Non-Heterosexual Sporting Bodies......Page 118
8 Conclusions: Looking at the Bigger Picture......Page 142
Appendix......Page 152
Notes......Page 162
References......Page 164
Index......Page 172
