In the Game , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Eric Anderson

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142 pages

English

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2005 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Using interviews with openly gay and closeted team-sport athletes, Eric Anderson examines how homophobia is reproduced in sport, how gay male athletes navigate this, and how American masculinity is changing. By detailing individual experiences, Anderson shows how these athletes are emerging from their athletic closets and contesting the dominant norms of masculinity. From the locker rooms of high school sports, where the atmosphere of "don't ask, don't tell" often exists, to the unique circumstances that gay athletes encounter in professional team sports, this book analyzes the agency that openly gay athletes possess to change their environments.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Overview
Outline

1. Warming Up

The Link between Sport and Homophobia
Methods

2. Sport, Masculinity, and Hegemonic Oppression

One Athlete's Story: Dale, High School Football Player
Masculinity as Hegemonic Oppression
Masculine Capital, Orthodox Masculinity, and Hegemonic Masculinity
Maintaining Masculinity: Homophobia at Work
Hegemonic Masculinity in School Culture
Problematizing Sport Culture
Sporting Hegemony and Gay Athletes

3. The Relationship between Gay Athletes and Sport

One Athlete's Story: Aaron, Closeted NHL Player
The Relationship between Gay Athletes and Sport
Gay Athletes: Challenging Masculine Domination
Representation of Gay Athletes in Sport

4. Systems of Masculine Reproduction

One Athlete's Story: Terry, Retired Closeted NFL Player
The Structure of Sport
Sport as a Near-Total Institution
Sport as a Gender-Segregated Institution
Sport as a Closed-Loop Institution

5. Coming Out in Sport

One Athlete's Story: Blake, High School Basketball Player
Fear of Coming Out
Coming Out in Sport
Feelings of Liberation
Reverse Relative Deprivation
Homophobic Discourse
The Evolving Coming Out Story

6. Mitigating Gay Stigma

One Athlete's Story: Bob, Collegiate Track Star
Using Masculine Capital to Mitigate the Stigma of Being Gay
Increasing Masculine Capital through Performance
The Effect of Masculine Capital on Coming Out
Adopting All Other Tenets of Orthodox Masculinity

7. Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Resisting a Culture of Gay Athleticism

One Athlete's Story: John, High School Basketball Player
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
The Price of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

8. Factors That Influence Acceptance

One Team's Story: The Troubadours Cheerleading Team
Factors That Influence Homosexual Acceptance
The Coach
Social Support Networks
Institutional Attitudes
The Intersectionality of Race and Coming Out
Nature and Origin of the Sport
Other Factors

9. The Center of Masculine Production: Gay Athletes in Professional Sports

One Athlete's Story: Steven, Closeted NFL Player
Professional Sports
The Relationship between Professional Athletes and Homosexuality
Professional-Sized Fear
Professional Pressure
Gay Athletes and the Sport-Media Complex
The Employer
Cracking the Center

10. Doing Something about It

Research Findings
Factors in a Positive Coming Out Experience
How to Come Out to Your Team
Avoiding the Bisexual Trap
After Coming Out
Dealing with Uncomfortable Situations
On Being Attracted to Your Teammates
When Things Don't Go Well
The Importance of Comebacks
Specific Issues for Gay Coaches
Handling the Privacy Issue
Warming Down

Notes

References

Index

SUNY Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations

Sujets

Sport

Autres sports

Gay Studies

Sociology

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	10 mars 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780791482872
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

IN THE GAME
SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations
CL Cole/Michael A. Messner, editors
IN THE GAME
Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity
Eric Anderson
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2005 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Eric. In the game : gay athletes and the cult of masculinity / Eric Anderson. p. cm. - (SUNY series on sport, culture, and social relations) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6533-0 (hardcover: alk. paper) - ISBN 0-7914-6534-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Gay athletes. 2. Masculinity in sports. 3. Sports-Social aspects. 4. Homophobia in sports. I. Title. II. Series.
GV708.8.A43 2005 796.086 64-dc22
2004021367
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my partner, Grant Tyler Peterson
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Overview
Outline
1. Warming Up
The Link between Sport and Homophobia
Methods
2. Sport, Masculinity, and Hegemonic Oppression
One Athlete s Story: Dale, High School Football Player
Masculinity as Hegemonic Oppression
Masculine Capital, Orthodox Masculinity, and Hegemonic Masculinity
Maintaining Masculinity: Homophobia at Work
Hegemonic Masculinity in School Culture
Problematizing Sport Culture
Sporting Hegemony and Gay Athletes
3. The Relationship between Gay Athletes and Sport
One Athlete s Story: Aaron, Closeted NHL Player
The Relationship between Gay Athletes and Sport
Gay Athletes: Challenging Masculine Domination
Representation of Gay Athletes in Sport
4. Systems of Masculine Reproduction
One Athlete s Story: Terry, Retired Closeted NFL Player
The Structure of Sport
Sport as a Near-Total Institution
Sport as a Gender-Segregated Institution
Sport as a Closed-Loop Institution
5. Coming Out in Sport
One Athlete s Story: Blake, High School Basketball Player
Fear of Coming Out
Coming Out in Sport
Feelings of Liberation
Reverse Relative Deprivation
Homophobic Discourse
The Evolving Coming Out Story
6. Mitigating Gay Stigma
One Athlete s Story: Bob, Collegiate Track Star
Using Masculine Capital to Mitigate the Stigma of Being Gay
Increasing Masculine Capital through Performance
The Effect of Masculine Capital on Coming Out
Adopting All Other Tenets of Orthodox Masculinity
7. Don t Ask, Don t Tell: Resisting a Culture of Gay Athleticism
One Athlete s Story: John, High School Basketball Player
Don t Ask, Don t Tell
The Price of Don t Ask, Don t Tell
8. Factors That Influence Acceptance
One Team s Story: The Troubadours Cheerleading Team
Factors That Influence Homosexual Acceptance
The Coach
Social Support Networks
Institutional Attitudes
The Intersectionality of Race and Coming Out
Nature and Origin of the Sport
Other Factors
9. The Center of Masculine Production: Gay Athletes in Professional Sports
One Athlete s Story: Steven, Closeted NFL Player
Professional Sports
The Relationship between Professional Athletes and Homosexuality
Professional-Sized Fear
Professional Pressure
Gay Athletes and the Sport-Media Complex
The Employer
Cracking the Center
10. Doing Something about It
Research Findings
Factors in a Positive Coming Out Experience
How to Come Out to Your Team
Avoiding the Bisexual Trap
After Coming Out
Dealing with Uncomfortable Situations
On Being Attracted to Your Teammates
When Things Don t Go Well
The Importance of Comebacks
Specific Issues for Gay Coaches
Handling the Privacy Issue
Warming Down
Notes
References
Index
SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations
Acknowledgments
After coming out of the closet as an openly gay high school track coach in 1993, I was urged by my friend to read Patricia Nell Warren s The Front Runner . Depressed after a poor performance at the California State Cross-Country Meet, I asked my assistant coach to drive the six hours home so that I might read the novel that I had purchased the night before. I read with speed at first, simply trying to get through the novel so I could return to the more important stack of nonfiction books I had waiting for me at home. I read the story of Harlan Brown, a gay coach at a premier distance running university. His sexuality is discovered, he is jeered, and his name blackened. I periodically cried the entire drive home, for the struggle he and his athletes endured was both an accurate representation of my life and a foretelling of my future.
I was so inspired after reading The Front Runner that I penned my own autobiography, Trailblazing: The True Story of America s First Openly Gay High School Coach . Also, in an attempt to understand my experience and the extreme hostility my athletes and I withstood, I returned to graduate school to earn my PhD in sociology so that I might better understand the nexus of men, sport, and homophobia.
It was at the University of California, Irvine that I found a sharp gender scholar as a mentor. Francesca Cancian supervised my intellectual growth and supported the public dissemination of that knowledge. She encouraged me to spread out from our sociology department and suggested that I read and contact the author of Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity , Michael Messner of the University of Southern California. I found in Messner both a friend and mentor, and I am extremely grateful to both Francesca and Michael for their support and friendship.
As a burgeoning academic, I discovered a wealth of knowledge and support at the annual meetings of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, but none more so than from the only other openly gay male member and author of The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex , Brian Pronger. Brian s groundbreaking book was the first detailed theoretical exploration into the relationship between homosexuality and sport. Brian and I quickly united as friends, sharing similar ideology over many social and academic terrains. Brian encouraged me to think in new directions and supported my every move. His influence can be found in every page of this book. Finally, as a young graduate student, I came across Pat Griffin s Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport . As a brazen second-year graduate student, I wrote to her and said, I m going to write your book, but for gay male athletes. Her book has largely served as the model for this research.
These authors, of course, are just a few of those who have intellectually inspired and socially promoted me. I am in great debt to Judy Treas, Pat Walsh, David Meyer, David Frank and the faculty of the Sociology Department at the University of California, Irvine; Susan Zeiff at San Francisco State University; Sharon Guthrie at California State University, Long Beach; Michael Kimmel at the State University of New York, Stony Brook; Gail Kligman at the University of California, Los Angels; Ellen Staurowsky of Ithaca College; Donald Sabo at D Youville College; and many of the members of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. I also thank Jim Buzinski and Cyd Zeigler for their passionate, persistent, and important work on the website Outsports.com. Their website has morphed from one about sport statistics to important social issues, and their expertise in the world of gays in sport was called upon numerous times for this book. I d also like to recognize the pioneering efforts of all of those involved with the Gay and Lesbian Athletic Foundation. Finally, I would like to thank Priscilla Ross at the State University of New York Press for taking an interest in this project and helping me prepare it and Dave Prout, who not only copyedited the book but taught me a great deal in the process.
Of course, the intellectual stimulation and support from my peers would be useless if it were not for the support of those at home. I am profoundly lucky to have come from parents, Raymond and Margaret Anderson, who supported me in my academic and personal lives, and even though my father passed away years ago, I know he would have been proud. I am also indebted to my mother for her support in my decision to return to graduate school at the age of twenty-nine, and her assistance through it. I am also thankful to my new parents through my partner, Vic and Judy Peterson, and the support their family provides to my partner and me. Most importantly, I thank my life-partner, Grant Tyler Peterson, who has, since 1997, been my strength through everything. I am grateful to have his intellect, his theoretically prudent mind, and for the volumes of proofreading he has done for my academic works.
Grant supported me in the research and writing of this book, which took place simultaneous to the research and writing of my dissertation on another topic. It was through what essentially amounted to writing two dissertations at once, while also trying to maintain my activist work and public speaking in our conservative county that I owe him a nice, long vacation. At times it was tough. I often felt alone in my struggles and occasionally doubted my ability. During one particularly bad span in which I felt as if I was fighting uphill battles all alone, he brought home a gift and said, You ve told me that you feel like you re running up an endless hill, that you re the only one around here pushing for change