Citation

Messner MA, Solomon NM. J. Sport Soc. Iss. 2007; 31(2): 162-178.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0193723507301048

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Men's superordinate status sets the stage for them to understand their interests as opposed to those of women. But hierarchies among men complicate this. Through an examination of the narratives by critics of Title IX at the U.S. Secretary of Education's 2002 hearings on Title IX, the authors argue that subordinated groups of men within sports (i.e., those in vulnerable "nonrevenue" sports like wrestling, tennis, and gymnastics) tend to articulate their interests as congruent with men in central, privileged sports (American football and basketball). But this articulation of men's interests does not take the form of antiwoman backlash. The critics tell stories of individual men who are victimized by the "unintended consequences" of liberal state policies--stories that rest on an essentialist assumption that men are naturally more interested in sports than are women. The critics' language of bureaucratic victimization of individual men--especially as symbolized by the threatened "walk-on"--may find especially fertile ground among young white males, who face a world destabilized by feminism, gay and lesbian liberation, the civil rights movement, and shifts in the economy.

Language: en