Campbell-September 30th

September 30th-Campbell

Wahl (2007) discussed the influence of David Beckham in America and the impact he had on soccer in American society. I found this article interesting because we just had a World Cup this past summer and it seems that soccer in America is so different than it was even as little as three years ago.

Personally, I know nothing about the game of soccer. I actually did not even know that the MLS was a professional soccer organization until David Beckham was announced as signing with the LA Galaxy. Although, I still do not know much about the game itself, today, I am much more aware our societies growing love of the game of soccer.

When I think of soccer in America currently I think of nationalism. We are proud to have a soccer team. We fill stadiums at MLS games. I recently heard on ESPN that the MLS is third when it comes to average attendance among professional sports in America. Soccer has a higher game attendance than the NBA. The MLS is growing constantly. The influence that David Beckham had on bringing the spotlight to American soccer was huge.

Unfortunately, in America it takes a celebrity to do something to make another thing popular. For example, let’s take Ray Rice and domestic violence. We know that domestic violence has been occurring since about forever, but there has not been a public discussion on the topic on this large of a scale ever. We need celebrities to do something in order for us to talk about it. Beckham made talking and watching soccer an okay thing to do in America. It no longer became a foreigner’s game.

I also think that David Beckham was one of the first athletes in the US that broke through masculine barriers. He is what some call metrosexual and he created a new masculinity in America. Cashmore and Parker (2003) discussed how he transcended norms in a positive way. Beckham changed not only the popularity of soccer in America, but also what being a masculine man can look like in America.

September 30th – The Status of Beckham in Celebrity Culture & Masculinity Construction (Yannick Kluch)

I really enjoyed reading “One David Beckham? Celebrity, Masculinity, and the Soccerati” by Ellis Cashmore and Andrew Parker this week. In this article, Cashmore and Parker (2003) analyze soccer player David Beckham as a “key site through which cultural change can be viewed” (p. 214). I find it extremely interesting how the authors (2003) examine Beckham’s images in popular culture in terms of the role they play in the construction of identity, consumption, and masculinities (p. 214).

Cashmore and Parker (2003) describe Beckham as a new kind of celebrity in the UK and the world; they describe him as the following:

Enter Beckham. Emerging master, global phenomenon, chosen-one, sporting messiah, corporate and commercial standard bearer. Calm, considered, slight yet strong, tattooed for the cause, quintessential sporting icon. What shapes his identity? Fame, fortune, fatherhood, fashion: all of these and much more. (p. 216)

The authors show Beckham’s unique standing in global sports culture, and beyond, here. At the core of this characterization is Beckham’s ability to “[push] at the boundaries between sport and show business” (Cashmore and Parker, 2003, p. 217). Because of his marriage with Victoria Beckham, former member of the Spice Girls, and his multiple marketing campaigns for the fashion industry, Beckham has become both a first-class soccer player, an important brand, and a well-known celebrity.

While he clearly markets himself beyond the sport of soccer itself, Beckham’s athletic ability is rarely questioned. I think that this is one of the major differences in the construction of male and female sport celebrities. While it is tolerated (and even appreciated and celebrated) for men to be both amazingly talented at a sport and to be at the center of celebrity culture, the media (and our culture in general) tends to reinforce constructions of women athletes in sports as the latter. A good example of this is Russian former tennis player Anna Kournikova, who is probably one of the most well-known tennis stars in the world. However, few would say that she achieved this status by her accomplishments in the sport of tennis. I would speculate that, when thinking of Kournikova, most people do not acknowledge and remember her being no. 8 in the world at one time (and even world no. 1 player in doubles) but certainly remember her for dating Enrique Iglesias. As such, her popularity was not based on her athletic ability but on her physical appearance and celebrity status in the media.

Finally, Cashmore and Parker also make great points about Beckham’s position in the construction of masculinities. They write (2003):

To this end Beckham’s inclusive popularity should be seen as a positive step in terms of the masculine norms which he clearly transcends and the subversive trends and behaviors he explicitly displays. Indeed, what he is portraying (whether he knows it or not) is a version of masculinity that contradicts, confuses, and conflates all in one. He is “new-man” (nurturer, romantic, compassionate partner) and “new-lad”/”dad-lad” (soccer hero, fashionable father, conspicuous consumer – [...] cosmetically conscious “metrosexual”) while still demonstrating vestiges of “old industrial man” (loyal, dedicated, stoic, breadwinning). (p. 225)

Beckham is successful at continuously negotiating his masculinity in relation to the hegemonic ideal; and I think part of his huge success is due to the fact that he pushes the boundaries of traditional masculinity. Much like the authors, I think that his popularity is a big step towards making sport more inclusive. The presence of Beckham (and his ambiguous masculinity) in the media encourages young athletes to not follow the hegemonic ideal as strictly, and instead be more welcoming of other forms of masculinity.

September 30th - Americanization of Beckham

This weeks reading, titled "The Americanization of David Beckham" discusses in detail the considerable effect that David Beckham being transferred to the MLS' LA Galaxy, as well as the possible failure scenario of the "experiment." The article includes quotes from Beckham, his ex-teammates at Real Madrid, MLS executives, and future teammates with the LA Galaxy. Rather than discuss the specifics of the article, which was generally explanatory and did not provide much information for debate or discussion, I would like to add some of my own opinion on the growth of the MLS in recent years and similar situations to the Beckham-LA transfer.

The MLS has visibly grown in recent years, including an expansion, a rise in talent level, and the remaining legacy of Beckham that is meant to include an eventual expansion team owned by Beckham himself. The MLS is adding a second New York team, which has already made a point to sign some still viable but aging European stars to the team. The World Cup this past year created a large new following for the MLS as the US Mens National Team had considerable hype and success compared to recent World Cups and international tournaments. A young international star, Julian Green, made one of the most miraculous plays in a losing effort for the USMNT against his original national choice, Germany. All of these individual events going on in the US soccer world give hope to the MLS in finally garnering some of the national spotlight in the US sports world. Beckham may have given the MLS a spark when it needed it most, creating maybe a year of national and international attention, but the MLS has risen to the challenge in meeting that hype with a rising level of talent and good management to minimize losses.

My point; the MLS is looking like a league ready to turn a corner in its history and make a jump from the bottom of the pile of world soccer leagues. The league is growing in size, growing in skill, growing financially, and now growing in popularity. It may not be at the level that the NFL, MLB, or NBA have grown to but I do think there is a lot of future potential for the MLS if it keeps moving at the pace it has been.

Joey Durant

September 23rd - Reading Sport Critically

Joey Durant - Reading Sport Critically

The article for this week discusses the topic of critical theories in sports. Things such as "race, class, nationality, ability, age, gender, and sexuality" are explained and the increased attention these topics have been, deservedly, getting in research and analyses (McDonald & Birrell, 1999). An interesting point is made early in the article that these individual stereotypes, for lack of a better word, are independent forces aligned against one another rather than as potent interacting forces in our culture" (McDonald & Powell, 1999). This is further explained by using the OJ Simpson case in media being described strictly as a racial conflict, and not one that might have involved gender biases. Another point made explains that the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinski scandal may have been treated completely differently had the president involved been of a different race.

I find this of great interest because it is brought up in such a way that makes you consider theses facts that may not have been discussed in great detail at the time of the event or in recantations in more recent stories. Would a Barack Obama sex scandal result in an immediate impeachment, or a more scrutinized trial? What would be the story if OJ Simpson's ex-wife and husband were both black, or if the opposite had happened and OJ Simpson was murdered by his ex-wife? These stories, I think, would have a much different outcome than those in the past. They also should be analyzed more in depth than what typical media portrays them as so cut-and-dry simple cases of a disadvantaged category doing something wrong.

I think an interesting case to study more deeply in to the causes of what happened would be the Ray Rice case. Although it has been mostly studied as a simple case without much tie to the stereotypes that could be at play, I would be interested to know more about Ray Rice's background to see if there is any history to what he did, or if it has any ties to a disadvantaged background. Also, it will be interesting to see if the media eventually does portray it as such.

September 23rd: Reading Sport Critically (Yannick Kluch)

McDonald and Birrell’s reading was definitely one of the more challenging ones so far. I liked that McDonald and Birrell point out the importance of the study of sport when examining the power relations in a society. Even further, both authors “advocate focusing on a particular incident or celebrity as the site for exploring the complex interrelated and fluid character of power relations as they are constituted along the axes of ability, class, gender, and nationality” (1999, p. 284). I agree with McDonald and Birrell that sport is an are(n)a in which power structures can be identified, negotiated, challenged, or reinforced. I also think that the authors make a great point when arguing that cultural studies of sport scholars need to examine the intersectionality of multiple social identities; McDonald and Birrell state that “a focus on one axis [that is, on either gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, nationality, or religion], isolated from the others, is insufficient as a complete analysis” (1999, p. 286).

I found it very interesting that the authors point out that, according to cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall, “ideologies, identities and meanings are never fixed in time and place, but are forged (articulated) and remade (rearticulated) to take on fresh meanings in particular moments and locations” (McDonald and Birrell, 1999, p. 294). While the authors refer to the example of O.J. Simpson in this context, the more recent case of handicapped South-African runner Oscar Pistorius came to my mind. Like that of O.J. Simpson, Pistorius’ cultural meaning was rearticulated after he was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Similarly, the cultural meaning of athletes Michael Sam and Derrick Gordon surely changed significantly after they came out as homosexual. It is particularly interesting to study these particular cases when examining the power structures that underlie our contemporary society.

I was, however, surprised to find that McDonald and Birrell put a lot of emphasis on the importance to examine actual incidents and celebrities in the sports world, but do not explicitly mention the role of the (sport) media in the construction of (hegemonic) power structures. I would argue that we can – in addition to the study of incidents and celebrities – learn a lot about dominant ideology as well as about hegemonic ideals and forces by looking at how the media portrays individuals and events and by analyzing how (and to what extent) athletes receive coverage in the media. The media, to me, play a crucial part in the embodiment of power as surveillance, and thus need to receive an equal amount of attention by scholars who want to read sport critically.

Reading Sport Critically

By Dr. Spencer

The assigned reading for Tuesday, September 23 is entitled "Reading sport critically: A methodology for interrogating power" (McDonald & Birrell, 1999, p. 283). The blog entry below is revised slightly from an entry that I posted for a previous Sport & Society class.

Birrell & McDonald wrote above
book based on this article.

This reading provides the foundation for doing textual analysis, which we will read more about in subsequent articles about Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, the Williams sisters, and other celebrity athletes. The idea of doing textual analysis (or reading sport critically) is borrowed from literary theory and has frequently been used in cultural studies. In British Cultural Studies, Graeme Turner (1990/2002) detailed the concept of textual analysis as it fits within the rich tradition of cultural studies. The notion of "reading texts" also stems from semiotics or semiology, which is the science of signs. It can be compared to what movie critics such as Siskel and Ebert did when they analyzed meanings of films.  

While the idea of being a film critic may seem fairly straightforward, the methodology of reading sport critically is complicated by multiple theoretical perspectives that inform its scholarly practice. As McDonald and Birrell (1999) explain, the reason for employing this methodology is to produce "counter-narratives" which are "infused with resistant political possibilities" (p. 283). In order to do that, we need to see how "power" operates, and we can do that by "reading narratives" that circulate throughout popular culture. We might not immediately recognize the operation of power without being informed by critical theories that enable us to see in ways that would not otherwise be visible to us. Now that the social media has become so pervasive in our culture, there are multiple sites through which narratives are produced - ranging from Twitter (consider how quickly the story about the Hudson River plane crash traveled through Twitter) to facebook, and other popular sites.

In order to fully appreciate what McDonald and Birrell (1999) outline in this article, it would help to be familiar with tenets of cultural studies, postmodernism and poststructuralism. However, assuming that you may not be familiar with these disciplinary areas, I advise you to take what you can from this reading. For the textual analysis assignment, you will be asked to focus on a specific incident or personality (examples include the Tonya Harding vs. Nancy Kerrigan incident; Wayne Gretzky's trade to the L.A. Kings; more recently, we could examine the dynamics of power surrounding domestic abuse amongst players in the NFL and in women's soccer, for that matter). Underlying our analyses, McDonald and Birrell (1999) suggest that we should try to see the "nexus of power that helps produce their meanings" (p. 284). Among the relationships of power we are particularly interested in uncovering are those related to "race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality" (p. 284). It is important to examine intersections of multiple "axes of power" (p. 284) rather than individual axes, as in the example of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. For example, if we focused only on the racial aspect, we might lose sight of the allegations of physical abuse (a gendered narrative). So, we are encouraged not to 'privilege' one axis over another.

What we ultimately want to be able to "say as cultural critics is that at this historical moment, in this particular place, these discourses on race, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality are produced around this particular incident" (McDonald & Birrell, 1999, p. 284). 

What do we mean by power?
Most of us have an idea of what we mean by "power." We may think of the power that "states" or "nations" or "political parties" have. During the Cold War, the super powers appeared to be the countries with the greatest political power. So, hegemony (dominance) was contested between these super powers. We may also think of "power" in terms of "prestige." Celebrities seem to have the greatest supply of "cultural currency" that can be thought of in these terms (Think: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or Beyonce and Jay-Z). However, the theory of power that McDonald and Birrell utilize is one that was articulated by Michel Foucault, a French philosopher who said that power is not "locatable." In other words, we could not go to a building where "powerful people" ruled and blow up the building and expect to destroy power. An example could be taken from the "War on Terror." If we could destroy power, then shouldn't the killing of Bin Laden have provided the death knell to terrorism (at least as understood by citizens of the U.S.)? Yet, it appears that it did not. Likewise, can we really expect to diffuse the threat of ISIS by bombing?

Foucault's vision of power stemmed from Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.

Instead, Foucault conceived of power as in the Panopticon (above) wherein a jail was structured with a tower in the middle where the guards kept watch. Because of the lights that were always on, and which provided visibility into the cells, the guards could always see into the cells, but the lights kept prisoners from seeing the guard - or even whether a guard was in the tower. This type of surveillance (not knowing if the guard was even present or watching) led to a type of self-surveillance, much like we see with "Big Brother." So, reality TV provides an example of how power operates in modern society. In McDonald and Birrell's reading of Foucault, "power is not possessed by a dominant class or the state, nor imposed coercively from above. Instead power is diffuse, ubiquitous, and capillary, permeating all aspects of social life" (p. 288).

Hopefully this blog entry helps to explain what we mean by "reading sport critically." If you have specific questions about the assigned reading that you would like to discuss in class, please feel free to post them before Tuesday's class.

Sept 16-Campbell

Campbell Query

September 16, 2014

                I found the article by Duncan (1998) to be very interesting and a different style of writing than I am used to reading. I took the qualitative research class last year and I was introduced to a different style of writing than I had learned in previous classes. This article in particular reminded me of what I learned. Research can take on so many different styles and this article in particular showed me how research can vary.

                I am currently writing for my thesis and reading this style of writing was kind of refreshing. I think story-telling is a great way to keep a reader entertained. So frequently we(I) read quantitative literature and numbers can become monotonous. I like the idea of writing through stories from a reading perspective. However, I do not think that I would be particularly good at writing in this way. Duncan provides so much detail. It is evocative. I think that if I tried to tie several different stories together I would lack detail and lose my train of thought.  

                I also like what she said stories provide. In the first paragraph she said, stories have the power to evoke the truth and vividness of an experience. I had never looked at story telling that way before. After reading the first story she wrote I understand what she means. Steven’s story was vivid. You could see the transformation. Telling a story provides the opportunity to transform something so that the reader can begin to understand the issue. I think that story-telling in research is a very hard skill to acquire but can be very effective.

September 16th - Joey Durant

Seeing is Believing by Burroway & Stuckey-French (2007)

After reading this article, written on the fine details and writing techniques involved in producing an evocative story, I found the section about "significant detail" both interesting and applicable to our upcoming epiphany project.

The authors of this article dive right in to explain the experiences readers feel as they turn the pages through a well-written fiction novel; feeling as though they are in the book or even that they are the main character, experiencing the highs and lows as they unfold in the story. These feelings are evoked by the authors ability to write in such a way that details what is felt by the characters of the book. In the article this is simply explained, "the writer must deal in sense detail. The second (point) is that these must be details 'that matter'." (Burroway & Stuckey-French, 2007) The larger point of tho section of the article is to give great examples of fictional writing styles that evoke feelings from the reader. The examples include an excerpt from another text, followed by an explanation of the different senses the author intends to cater to in the story and how the words are used to pull a specific sense and feeling from each line of writing.

I think this is a great tie-in to our epiphany project, as with such an event we should be trying to allow our readers to feel exactly how we felt in our epiphanic moments. If our epiphany brought us an overwhelming amount of joy, we should be able to describe in "sense detail" each part of that feeling so the reader can feel as though they were in that moment, experiencing it with us. The epiphany project is meant to explain a turning point in our lives, and moments like that, good or bad, must have had been sensational in every way in order for them to truly have turned our lives in a different direction.

Joey Durant
 

September 16: Blog Post #3 – "The Way We Ran" (Yannick Kluch)

I really liked reading Denison’s “The Way We Ran: Reimagining Research and the Self” this week. Denison emphasizes the importance of personal narratives and stories within academia; he argued that “performative writing, which demands writers to consider a range of critical perspectives, infuses our work with tremendous transformational and transgressive potential” (2006, p. 339). Denison underlines that we need “stories, therefore, where the outcome … offers the possibility of change” (2006, p. 338). I think that performative writing is especially beneficial for athletes (and individuals in general) belonging to minority groups, for it is a sufficient way to create understanding rather than knowledge about that group. While most athletes are under a certain amount of pressure to succeed, minorities often have to deal with immense societal pressure placed on them as well. Through performative writing (“stories”), minorities have the potential to give insight into their lives, thus signifying change and progress to the masses.

What I found also interesting about Denison’s essay is his argument that who we are - our identity - shapes our research and scholarly activities. He writes about himself:

I once was a runner, but now I am an academic who writes about running. And to an extent, the way that I write does speak volumes about the kind of runner I was, that is, careful, critical, observant, … . I performed running, too – the race as art, movement as expression – just like I try to write in ways that perform culture. Feel, rhythm, and pacing were as important to me as speed and results. (2006, p. 334)

Just like Denison’s scholarly identity is reflected in his athletic identity (and vice versa, as can be seen in the passage above), I think that some of the characteristics of my athletic life (even though it is rather for recreational than competitive purposes) shape my identity as a scholar and academic. Like my academic work, recreational bodybuilding requires me to be very organized and disciplined. In order to see satisfactory results, I need to not only plan each workout in detail (What muscle group do I work on, with what workouts, on what day of the week, in what order? When do I do cardio, for how long, in what intensity, what time of the day?), I also have to keep track of the weights I use and the repetitions I do for each workout.  Just like with the process of writing an academic essay, I need to be accurate and thorough in how I carry out my workouts.

I think Denison makes a very strong point here, and I agree with him that the characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes that shape who we are in sports, also interact with and underline who we are outside of sports. What do you think? How does your participation in sports reflect yourself as a person, and vice versa? How are your behavior patterns as a scholar, or in your job, based on the sport you play?

Sept. 9--Campbell Query

For this week’s blog entry I thought I would talk a little more about the stereotypes of being a Millennial. I looked up what several of the stereotypes are currently for people in our generation:

                -entitled

                -not loyal

                -lazy

                -tech savvy

                -only want positive feedback

                -impatient

                -delusional

I personally see how these could be applied to our generation, but I definitely do not agree that every person matches these stereotypes. I would argue that every generation has groups of people that fit into these characteristics. I agree that we are tech savvy. Our forms of communication are written through technology. We would much rather text than call. I think this is what makes us impatient. We want fast results and when we do not get a response or a quick result we get annoyed. I definitely know that I can be impatient a times.

I think what bothers me the most about these stereotypes is that people think our generation is lazy. We are the most educated generation. More of us are attending college and graduate degrees are more common now than ever before. I am sure that a lot of people in our generation like to take the easy route, but maybe it is because we are doing so many different things at once. We are known to multi-task. We also have the greatest amount of debt to overcome. If the majority of us ever want to help ourselves we cannot be lazy when it comes to repaying our debt. I definitely think the lazy stereotype bothers me the most.

When I was looking up several different webpages I came across a Buzzfeed quiz that asked the question, “So How Big Of A “Millennial” Stereotype Are You Really?” The format was 145 questions and you clicked yes on the questions that matched something you have done. I received a score of 26 out of 145. The quiz told me that I am not that big of a stereotype. I was probably born before 1980 or after 2000, or that I am just a real eclectic kind of person. It also said that I am probably missing out on some stuff. I know Buzzfeed quizzes are not serious, but I had a good laugh at the results. I posted the link to the quiz below if you are interested in taking it for yourself.

I also found a video on YouTube that showed several Millennials challenging the stereotypes placed upon them and they place the blame on the Boomer generation. The title is called Millennials: We Suck and We’re Sorry. They offer several apologies as to why we Millennials suck so badly. I think it is pretty funny. So I also posted the link below.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/so-how-big-of-a-millennial-stereotype-are-you-really#2e1fyxk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4IjTUxZORE

 

 

 

 

September 9, 2014 - Joey Durant

The two readings from this week emphasized the human aspects of sport, the sociological effects of major events, and also the effect that human nature can have on sport. Denzin, the main focus of the article "Imagining Sociological Narrative" by Denison and Rinehart, is explained to have had a profound impact on the authors by opening their minds to the question, "…why is social science largely stuck in the scientific tradition of Positivism?" (2000, pg. 1). This question implies that at the time of being asked, social sciences had not advances into the realm of quantitative research and had ignored the interpretive value of research. The second article, written by Denzin in 1989 titled "The Interpretive Point of View," explained the idea of an "epiphany." Epiphanies, according to Denzin, are " interactional moments that leave marks on people's lives, ... have the potential for creating transformational experiences for the person."(1989 pg. 15). Denzin, along with his two students, both seem to push the idea that sport can change an individual psychologically depending on the event and how a person views the event in respect to their lives. 

I found the idea of an epiphany in sports particularly interesting because I have never truly thought of any sport event in that light before. Typically speaking, an epiphany is a turning point or a major realization in one's life; I don't know if most people would try to envision such an event from the sporting world or their own sports experiences. I now have had time to reflect on that premise, and see that sports really can be seen in this way because sports do hold a major presence in society and in peoples' lives. Humans grow up playing sports, watching sports, and generally hearing about and watching sports. With something so prevalent in our lives, it is actually quite easy to see how people could have an epiphany-type event in relation to sports. These articles helped me to see that, and to understand the magnitude of those types of occurrences. 

Blog Post: September 9

 “The Interpretive Point of View”

I found both articles for today very interesting, as they both apply a rather humanistic research approach to the study of the motives, values, and experiences of individuals in contemporary society. In his work, Denzin points out that interpretive interactionism “attempts to make the world of lived experience directly accessible to the reader” (1989, p. 10). Denzin states that “the focus of interpretive research is on those life experiences that radically alter and shape the meanings persons give to themselves and their life projects” (1989, p. 15). He calls these transformational, life-changing (“turning point”) experiences “epiphanies” (1989, p. 15).

I think that it is in sports – as an arena in which social identities are constantly constructed, reinforced, and negotiated – that these epiphanies become especially meaningful and are worth to be studied and examined. I believe that many athletes, especially (but not exclusively) on the professional level, undergo multiple of these in their athletic career. For instance, many athletes describe their first participation in a major international sporting event (such as the Olympics or the World Cup) as an epiphany that changed their life forever. Many of these moments are loaded with significant emotional meanings leading to a (mentally) transformational experience.

I also think that these experiences become extremely important for individuals who do not fit the hegemonic ideals of a society, e.g. women or minorities in sports. Oftentimes, sports for them becomes a platform through which they can “escape” from the immense pressure of hegemonic forces. While they might feel discriminated in the practices of their everyday lives, sports can become a facilitator of epiphanies in the realm of their social identities.  

While I never participated in competitive sports on any level higher than the local level, I definitely think that one does not have to participate in a sport in order to experience an epiphany related to sport; sometimes, being a spectator can also be a significant, life-changing experience for a person. I think that my experience with the 2006 World Cup is a good example of this. While I did not participate in the Soccer World Cup 2006 in Germany myself, the event itself had a huge impact on my life, and my view on patriotism and nationhood in relation to Germany has definitely changed tremendously during the event.