Performing Polynesian Masculinities in American Football

From ‘Rainbows to Warriors’

Bibliographic Data

ID22939709
AuthorsTy P Kāwika Tengan (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa), Jesse Makani Markham (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
Year2009
Volume26
Issue16
Pages2412-2431
Publication date2009-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of the History of Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-3367 • E-ISSN: 1743-9035
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09523360903466768
OpenAlexW2086729638
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited28

In recent years, the place of Polynesians in American football has received considerable attention as the news media complex has featured stories on Hawaiians and Tongans performing Maori war dances in New Mexico and Texas, while the life stories of Samoan players appear in film and in hardcover. In this essay we argue that the performances of Polynesian warriorhood and masculinity in American football embody the larger history of islander engagements with US empire, militarism and global capitalism in the Pacific. We focus on the University of Hawai'i (UH) football team, whose 'macho makeover' as 'The Warriors'– including a rejection of its 'Rainbow' traditions – reveals the racialized and gendered nature of sports marketing and recruiting. Our history of Hawaiians and Samoans in UH football sheds light on the ways that present flows of capital, images, and bodies follow familiar patterns of settler colonialism, military occupation, islander diaspora and indigenous struggle.

Diaspora · Militarism · Samoan · Cinema and Media Studies · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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