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Establishing and challenging masculinity: The influence of gendered discourses in organized sport

Adams, A.; Anderson, E.; McCormack, M.

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Authors

A. Adams

E. Anderson

M. McCormack



Abstract

This study examined how coaches and players constructed and regulated masculinity in organized sport. Using participant observation, the authors examined the role of discourses in the construction and regulation of sporting masculinity within a semiprofessional British football (soccer) team. Two predominant discourses were present: (a) masculinity establishing discourse and (b) masculinity challenging discourse—heuristic tools to understand the use of toxic language in the construction and maintenance of masculinity. Coaches frequently used discourses that drew on narratives of war, gender, and sexuality to facilitate aggressive and violent responses for enhancing athletic performance. However, the authors also found that these discourses have limited influence beyond the playing field, highlighting the segmentation of the sporting and social identities of these players and a loosening of the traditional and empirically evidenced ability of sports to socialize men into narrow forms of masculinity.

Citation

Adams, A., Anderson, E., & McCormack, M. (2010). Establishing and challenging masculinity: The influence of gendered discourses in organized sport. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29(3), 278-300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x10368833

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2010
Deposit Date Sep 10, 2012
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Print ISSN 0261-927X
Electronic ISSN 1552-6526
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 29
Issue 3
Pages 278-300
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x10368833
Keywords Heteromasculinity, Masculinity, Hegemony, Football, Soccer, Discourse.

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Copyright Statement
The final definitive version of this article has been published in the journal Journal of language and social psychology 29/3, 2010 © SAGE Publications Ltd by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Journal of language and social psychology page: http://jls.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/




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