Physical education, sport and hyper-masculinity in schools

Abstract

Among widening social anxieties about practices and performances of contemporary masculinity are questions about the place of hyper-masculine (contact) sports, such as games of football. Foremost are concerns about some of the values and attitudes that appear to circulate within such contexts. With their historical leaning towards character attributes aligned to hardness, solidarity and stoicism, there is growing pressure on coaches and teachers to manage and mediate the participation of young males in this arena. Against this backdrop, this paper explores some of the tensions that emerge in schools when the codes and mores frequently associated with a hypermasculine sporting identity are seen to flourish. Foremost here is the emergence of cultures of entitlement, abuse and exclusion. Following the illumination of such cultures across three research narratives, this paper discusses the sorts of reforms that are needed to promote more educative and responsible engagement with hyper-masculine sports in, and beyond, schools.

A subculture of mental toughness in an Australian Football League club

“…Through these attributes, athletes (and the watching public) learn "lessons" about how to respond to setbacks, how to express themselves physically, how to impose themselves forcefully, how to mask pain and how to follow team rules (Hickey, 2008). At its roots, mental toughness signified an accepted term in the club for inciting athletes to live up to exaggerated (white, Westernised) male norms, where being strong, competent, in control, competitive, assertive, rational and instrumental form an identity that is admired and gets rewarded (cf.…”

Understanding young Chinese Australian's (dis)engagement in Health and Physical Education and school sport

“…Most of the research in 'Western' countries focuses on Anglo-Celtic 2 student populations (Wright, Macdonald, and Groom 2003;Macdonald et al 2005;Hickey 2008;O'Flynn and Lee 2010). There is limited research in relation to ethnic minority student populations such as South Asians 3 in the UK (Stride 2014), Muslim girls in the UK and Australia (Dagkas and Benn 2006;Knez 2007), Aboriginal people in Australia (Nelson 2012), Māori and Pasifika (Pacific Island) in New Zealand (Fitzpatrick 2013), migrants in Switzerland (Barker et al 2014), Black and minority ethnic groups 4 in the UK (Flintoff 2012) and African Americans (Oliver and Lalik 2000).…”

“…Common to this research is that some young people are excluded from health and physical activity practices on the basis of structural factors such as race and ethnicity, social class, gender and sexuality, and familial and schooling systems (Macdonald et al 2009). Body appearances and performances such as slenderness (Oliver 2001;Tinning and Glasby 2002;Garrett 2004;Azzarito 2010), muscularity (Hickey 2008), whiteness (Azzarito 2009) and physical ability (Hay and Macdonald 2010) are often valued in HPE and within physical cultures in Western societies.…”

The Importance of Touch in Sport: Athletes’ and Coaches’ Reflections

“…Sport-specific rituals seemed to play a more significant role in determining acceptability than either gender or sexual orientation. As an example, touch in the form of butt-patting was reportedly used and accepted by football athletes and coaches in the current study while the sport of football has historically been characterized as being hyper-masculine and hostile to homosexual players (Hickey, 2008;Welch, 1997).…”