The Arena of Masculinity : Sports, Homosexuality and the Meaning of Sex
107: Gay Men's Press, 1990. Hardcover. Text in English. 306 pp. edge wear on the dust jacket.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, sports have been considered one of the preeminent signs of masculinity in our culture–indeed, women were originally excluded from them. Athletic activity was the school in which boys were taught the manly virtues–strength, skill, endurance, teamwork and the competitive desire to beat your opponent. The Arena of Masculinity is a brilliant analysis of the relation between sports and the myths of gender-what constitutes masculinity and femininity-in our society, and it analyzes how athletic activity has become one of the major arenas in which this gender myth is articulated, dramatized, and reinforced But if traditional masculinity is the major symbolic message of sports, that same masculinity is also the object of erotic desire for gay men, and this brings up some major paradoxes Pronger examines first the gay athlete in straight sports, having interviewed a cross section of gay men active in high-performance amateur athletics, including a number of Olympic gold medalists. Looking at the paradoxes involved when gay men excel in activities normally seen as defining straight masculinity, he explores why the symbols involved in sports have such erotic appeal to gay men Pronger then examines the extraordinary explosion of sports within the gay community–in many cities the gay athletic leagues are the largest leagues, and in New York, as well as elsewhere the games between the champions of the police softball league and the gay league are major community events Pronger explores what this explosion of gay athletic activity means in terms of the attempt by gay men since Stonewall to redefine the traditional concept of masculinity.
The Arena of Masculinity is a brilliant book, of intense interest to anyone who wants to think about the phenomenon and meaning of sports today. Very Good / Very Good. Item #4222
ISBN: 9780854491520
Price: $30.00