Sports and Cultural Politics: The Attraction of Modern Spectator Sports

Whiners Go Home

“…For participants, the Tough Mudder event may provide rhetorical proof of their ability to overcome obstacles found in the corporate world. However, as Jhally andLivant (1991/2006) contend, sports may be viewed as a metaphor for capitalist competition, but one that is incomplete. ''The secret then, of the immense attractiveness of sports is that they present a spectacle of unmystified competition .…”

“…Thus, while sports provide an arena of competition where the rules are clear, the competitors are observable, and where the criteria that define success are clearly articulated, they may perpetuate a kind of false consciousness among those who feel that success in sports translates into professional empowerment in general. As Jhally andLivant (1991/2006) argue, capitalism operates through a process of mystification where the rules and the criteria that define success in everyday are not clearly understood or expressed. Therefore, participating in the Tough Mudder may not actually develop skills and habits of thinking that fully translate into the world, despite the perception otherwise.…”

“…Further, Kassing et al (2004) argue that enactments of sport serve as ''social lessons'' that act to inculcate individuals into privileging specific cultural values and ways of thinking. Furthermore, Jhally andLivant (1991/2006) contend that all societies require various rituals to celebrate, reproduce, and reinforce dominant values and that sports are commonly desirable and appropriated for this purpose. As Whannel (1983) suggests, ''sport offers a way of seeing the world'' and that ''it is part of the system of ideas that supports, sustains, and reproduces capitalism'' by making it appear ''natural, correct, and inevitable'' (p. 27).…”