Essay On Sports And Sport Events

In a similar vein, the consumer culture in sport and sporting events is also greatly gendered in the past. The consumption of sport and sporting events appeared in every culture that provides a mechanism which reinforced and defined a separation between men and women. Studies throughout history (e.g. Hargreaves, 1994; Bell, 2008) noted that sports for women (e.g. golf and croquet) were more informal and recreational in nature, that women who consume sport are required to adorn beauty and indolence, instead of competiveness (Bell, 2008). Unlike women, the consumption of sports and sporting events has long been regarded as what Fischer and Gainer termed - a ‘male-only social institution’ (Fischer and Gainer, 1994: 42). It is perhaps best

Early studies (e.g. Fasteau, 1980; Sabo and Panepinto, 1990) during 1970s and 1980s discovered that the consumption of sports and sporting events represents an initial socialising experience and connection between fathers and sons. Sabo and Panepinto’s (1990) research found that majority of young men are presented to sports by their fathers, brothers or even schoolmates. The consumption of sports and sporting events, thus, serves as a way to obtain approval and attention of fathers or friends. They also discovered that the sporting consumption aided male form closer bonds with other male, whereas talented or knowledgeable men in regards to sport gain higher respect (Sabo and Panepinto, 1990). Messner (1992) supported this association between the consumption of sport and bounding, and further observed that the consumption of sports is a means to discriminate men as ‘not feminine’ from female (Messner, 1992). The existence of the biological and societal constructions between gender order and the sporting consumption explained the highly gendered nature of the consumption of sport and sporting events, by perceiving sport as something harmful to women’s bodies and their femininities, and something as helpful for men’s masculinities and solidarity