Organizing masculine bodies in rugby league football

Groomed to fail

Bibliographic Data

ID20501082
AuthorsChristine Coupland (0000-0002-9357-1587, Loughborough University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume22
Issue6
Pages793-809
Publication date2015-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350508413517409
OpenAlexW2044487889
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited48

In the article I argue that a study of high contact sports, such as rugby league, can illuminate a discursive space in which the production of organized, docile, masculine, bodies, engaged in emotional labour are crafted and mobilized through disciplinary practices. Participants from a rugby league football club and their trainers have been interviewed and observed as part of a larger ethnographic study. The analysis provides a contrast to and develops understanding from studies of the organized female body, which have long argued that they are subject to disciplinary forces in the workplace (e.g. Trethewey, 1999), by illustrating how masculine bodies may also be made docile in particular organizational contexts. The article explores the organization of masculine bodies in professional sport as an example of the production of masculinity in a work environment. I conclude by suggesting that these masculine bodies are worked upon to be fit for organizational purpose in a similar way to how women’s bodies are crafted to fit in male-dominated work environments. This is not simply through an imposition of more powerful ideologies but as simultaneous products and producers of the organized body. Furthermore, despite these efforts, the bodies become no longer fit for use with the passage of time. The erosion of ability due to injury and competition from younger, fitter, bodies ensure that their working lives are brought to an abrupt close

Club · Discipline · Ethnography · Football · Hegemonic masculinity · Ideology · League · Masculinity · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of sport · Emotional Labor in Professions · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Law · Sports, Gender, and Society