Rethinking Masculinity in the Neoliberal Order: Cameroonian Footballers, Fijian Rugby Players, and Senegalese Wrestlers

Abstract

In the Global South since the 1980s, when economic downturns under pressure from the forces of neoliberalism eroded social relations, sport and athletes’ bodies have become major loci where masculinity is constituted and debated. Sport masculinity now fills a vacuum left by the evacuation of traditional forms of masculinity, which are no longer available to the new generations of men. For them, the possibility of employment in the sport industries in the Global North has had a transformative effect, despite the extremely limited probability of success. During the same period of time, the world of sport has become commoditized, mediatized, and corporatized, transformations that have been spearheaded by the growing importance of privatized media interests. Professional athletes have become neoliberal subjects responsible for their own destiny in an increasingly demanding and unpredictable labor market. In Cameroon, Fiji, and Senegal, athletic hopefuls prospectively embody this new gendered subjectivity by mobilizing locally available instruments that most closely resemble neoliberal subjectivity, such as Pentecostalism and maraboutism. Through the conduit of sport, the masculine self has been transformed into a neoliberal subject in locations where this is least expected. What emerges is a new approach to masculinity that eschews explanations based on the simple recognition of diverse and hierarchically organized masculinities, and instead recognizes masculinity in its different manifestations as embedded, scalar, relational, and temporally situated.

Sports migrants in ‘Central’ and ‘Eastern’ Europe: beyond the existing narratives

“…22 Under the notion of "precarity of masculinity", Besnier and his team of researchers have been advocating for a gendered lens to approach sports migration (Besnier, Guinness, Hann, and Kovač 2018). However, because of their methodological choices, these researchers have mostly been interacting with young aspiring athletes.…”

Men, Masculinities and the Modern Career

“…It refers to an athlete's ability to provide for their extended families, 14 and to assert respectable masculinities. In Besnier's ethnographic works with Fijian migrant rugby players, they constantly compare themselves with other migrant workers to assert that they can send more remittances back home (Besnier 2012(Besnier , 2014(Besnier , 2015Besnier, Brownell and Carter 2017;Besnier, Guinness, Hann and Kovač 2018). These comparisons are one of the ways in which they strive to gain "respect".…”

“…However, a growing number of ethnographic works have been challenging the assumption that hegemonic masculinity is predominant in sport. This scholarship has raised issues such as the unpredictability of sports migration routes (Carter 2011;Kovač 2018), the precariousness of sports careers (Roderick 2006;Besnier, Guinness, Hann and Kovač 2018), the importance of family negotiations in sports migration processes (van der Meij and Darby 2017) and religious affiliations of sports migrants (Rial 2012;Guinness 2018).…”

“…Previous research conducted in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and Brazil analysed the importance of sports careers to young people in the Global South. Sports careers are often conceived as a form of enacting a "respectable masculinity" (Besnier, Guinness, Hann and Kovač 2018;Esson 2015b;Hann 2018;Guinness 2018;Klein 1991). In sports migration studies, "respectable masculinity" is usually associated with the ability of athletes to provide for extended family members, through remittances.…”

Corporal destinies: Faith, ethno-nationalism, and raw talent in Fijian professional rugby aspirations

“…The system promotes a player's sense of responsibility for their career, and teaches players that they must alter many aspects of their lives in order to maximize their potential. Ultimately, each individual is in control of their own performance, a style of neoliberal governmentality prevalent in contemporary sports industries (Besnier et al 2018), and a characteristic of neoliberal industries more generally (Gershon 2011). Many athletes internalize the ideology of professionalism.…”