Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science

This article explores the ethical implications of recent discussions that naturalize the relationship between race, the body and sport within the frame of genetic science. Many suggestions of a racially distributed genetic basis for athletic ability and performance are strategically posited as a resounding critique of the `politically correct' meta-narratives of established sociological and anthropological forms of explanation that emphasize the social and cultural construction of race. I argue that this use of genetic science in order to describe and explain common-sense impressions of racial physiology and sporting ability is founded on erroneous premises of objectivity and disinterest, and inflates the analytical efficacy of scientific truth claims. I suggest that assertions of a value-free science of racial athletic ability reify race as inherited permanent biological characteristics that produce social hierarchies and are more characteristic of a longer history of `racial science'

A HERMENEUTIC OF FREEDOM IN PLAY (LEISURE, RECREATION, INTERPRETATION)

This investigation began with the observation that the body of play literature is chaotic and nonprogressive; play theorists frequently advance conflicting if not contradictory theories; they rarely build on the findings of their scholarly predecessors; and they favor a classification system based on chronological, not thematic similarities. The purpose of this study was to locate thematic continuities in the literature which might shed some light on the experience of play and unify the large and diverse collection of play theories. Using the interpretive method of hermeneutics, the researcher uncovered two themes which are either implicitly or explicitly expressed in virtually all the mainstream play theories: freedom and self-creation/realization. These themes specifically address the experience of play, an aspect often overlooked by theorists in favor of the source, functions, or anatomy of play. An examination of some philosophical freedom literature (the ideas of G. W. F. Hegel, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frithjof Bergmann, and Paul Ricoeur) disclosed an important connection between freedom and self-creation/realization in the notion of existential commitment. Existential commitment, or the personalization of experience, was revealed to be what renders an act free and what creates and authenticates the self. This notion of commitment was then used to generate a new interpretation--a metatheory--of play which provides a unifying framework from which to understand the multitude of extant play theories. The researcher concluded that in play, existential commitment--or in more technical philosophical terms, the dialectic and unity of the voluntary (freedom) and the involuntary (nature)--is most decisively illustrated. The researcher also concluded that for the purposes of her study, it is most enlightening to conceive of play as a bipolar dimension of human experience present in countless fields of human endeavor, rather than a particular activity occurring within a limited context. This metatheory of play was found to have theoretical, scientific, philosophical, personal, and practical significance

The photographic representation of female athletes in the British print media during the London 2012 Olympic Games

The London 2012 Olympic Games were widely reported as the ‘Women's Games’ but was this reflected in the photographic representation in British print media? This study focused upon photographic representation of athletes in the British print media during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The original dimension of this investigation is the triangulation of gender with location, position and camera angle of photos. From a feminist perspective, content analysis was used to compare the amount and prominence of the coverage devoted to female and male athletes and photographs during the Games findings indicate that media coverage of female athletes continues to lag behind that of male athletes in quantity of photos. However, there are signs of increased gender equality in the location, page prominence and camera angle of photos of sportswomen compared to previous studies on the media representation of female athletes at Olympic Games

Flying the flag: gender and national identity in English newspapers during the 2006 World Cup

This essay analyses selected English newspapers\u27 gendered narratives about the English soccer team\u27s star player, Wayne Rooney, and the captain, David Beckham. Narratives are compared with those devoted to Rooney\u27s fiancée, Coleen McLoughlin, and Beckham\u27s wife, Victoria, who with other players\u27 wives and girlfriends (WAGS) travelled to Germany to support England during the 2006 World Cup. It uses textual analysis to examine how the newspapers\u27 gendered narratives intersected with nationalistic discourses. Theoretical insight is drawn from Connell\u27s theory of gender power relations. Narratives about Rooney emphasize his northern working-class roots in the construction of his hegemonic hypermasculinity and role as a \u27patriot at play,\u27 while narratives about McLoughlin illustrate her subordinate role. More fluid and contradictory narratives are reserved for Beckham, who is known for his more androgynous image, and his wife Victoria, whose strong influence over \u27the skipper\u27 challenged the traditional gender order. © 2011 Taylor & Francis