Intro to Anthropology 3/15/10

Extremely popular professional sport, popularity reveals something larger about our society and our deep seated valuesRepresents "happy and escalating violence" - What are the social repercussions when extreme violence is presented as harmless fun?Glamorizes violence, furthers the gender role that real men are expected to be physical, defined as bully, dominate over others by establishing their weakness through physical and psychic domination Normalizing Gender Violence Continuous scenes violence against humiliation (sexual) of women Violence against women presented in a way that arouses men Gender stratification – men’s violence against women normalized, justified rationalized

Gender, violence and sexual degredation in the prison settingGender redefined in prison context.Male and female gender roles emerge in all male society.Males create females (the ones who are weaker), then dominate and subjugate them.Main Points: Example of how gender is culturally constructed. The caricatures of men/women that are created reflect gender concepts in society at large.

Real Men Defined by - ability to fight to protest/resist sexual advances, ability to keep and protect women Ladies/Queens Those who come out voluntarily high status, control over self-concept Kids Kept in servitude by others Signifies owner’s power and prestige Gumps and Punks Kept in servitude by gangs Property – prostituted for money Gumps: “turned out” willingly Punks: “turned out” unwillingly The only women actually present - female guards Dykes Position of power and authority over men Defined in non-feminine terms

Female guards – considered asexual Control (male) à Ladies (autonomy, female) à kids, punks (subordination)

· Soap opera for males o Long-term engagement with characters and story lines · Role models for males o Emulating how to “be a man” o Glorifying the bully (fame, fortune, and sexual domination of women) · Blurring reality o Owner and actor (McMahon) o Actor and abuser (Austin)

Lighthearted, looking at football as ritual, sexual banter that goes on in it Dundes’ Psychoanalytic Approach Examine “football folk speech” (slang, etc.). Analogous to “male verbal dueling.” Idioms and metaphors reveal pattern of personal interaction. What kind of a pattern does it reveal? Psychoanalytical Approach Winners are the men; losers are women or passive homosexuals (they’ve been violated and humiliated). Dundes’ Psychoanalytical Approach Football terminology is unambiguously sexual (and homosexual) in nature. Football viewed by Dundes as form of “ritual homosexuality.” Masculinity is defined and affirmed by protecting your endzone while penetrating that of your opponent.