Preview

Manhood Politics And The Culture Of Sports Summary

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2609 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Manhood Politics And The Culture Of Sports Summary
Varda Burstyn provides great insight on hypermasculinity and modern sport in her book, The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics and the Culture of Sports. In this book, Burstyn asserts that performance enhancing drugs have become institutionalized as part of the “hypermasculinization” in sports and society. Athletes use performance-enhancing drugs to receive an energy boost as a means of playing through the pain endured during a sporting event. Especially in modern sports, competition has increased dramatically and athletes are willing to do anything they can to gain a competitive advantage. Monetary and materialistic incentives that are attached to winning in modern sports have catalyzed a need to attain even the smallest advantage. The source of athletes’ mentality of gaining a smallest advantage over competitors can be traced back from the time they were young to the time they reach the professional stage. The pressure to perform at a high-level consistently throughout his life has influenced the athlete to rely on drugs and has normalized the use of drugs in modern sports. However, using performance enhancing drugs comes with its fair share of disadvantages as well. Athletes who use steroids tend to have mood swings, …show more content…
For example,
“ At a large public high school in Marin country, several football players recently asked the varsity coach whether it was OK if they took creatine, an over-the counter sports supplement. “It’s up to you” replied the coach,…He neither encouraged nor discouraged using the substance to build their muscles and increase their energy…Using stimulants or muscle-builders is becoming so normalized in youth athletics that Little League coaches give preteen players the caffeine-charged soft drink Red bull before games. Anything to gain an edge on the competition” (Ryan,
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analyzing Boyhood Organized Sports And The Construction Of Masculinities Summary
    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analyzing Boyhood Organized Sports And The Construction Of Masculinities Summary

    The article written by Michael Messner explores what are some true contributing factors that prepare a young boy in male-hood leading up to masculinity. He analyzes how creating the male masculine identity for a young boy can be a result of participating in organized sports. He conducted his research starting out with interviewing 30 male athletes who mostly played baseball, basketball, football, and track. Each interviewee was retired and had at least been an athlete for 5 years.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jose Canseco's Use Of Performance Enhancing Drugs
    • 90 Words
    • 1 Page

    Jose Canseco's Use Of Performance Enhancing Drugs

    Jose Canseco (baseball player) argues in his book, “We (the players) didn’t see performance enhancing drugs as a big deal. We didn’t see using steroids as being in the same category as cocaine, marijuana, crack, or ecstasy” (213). However, using performance enhancing drugs and taking unfair advantages over others is cheating. At the professional and Olympic level, each athlete is responsible for the drugs they consume and knowing if any of these substances are on the World Anti-Doping Code Prohibited list. Using performance enhancing drugs in professional sports is…

    • 90 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Kid On Steroids Willing To Risk It All For Success
    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary Of Kid On Steroids Willing To Risk It All For Success

    In the article “Kid on Steroids Willing to Risk It All for Success,” published on nbcnews.com, March 3, 2008, author Jacqueline Stenson, examines how professional athletes who are using steroids are having a strong influence on the younger generation to use steroids in order to help their performance and be able to fulfill their dreams of making the pros.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Masculinity In Sports Rhetorical Analysis
    • 1972 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Masculinity In Sports Rhetorical Analysis

    Success in sports is, arguably, the determining factor of overall success and public admiration of a man today. We find that many men look to the athletic world as a means of escape, liberation, or fulfillment of their lives. While all this may be true, there are many costs associated with the game, both health and relational, and just about everyone who aspires to this type of success falls victim to these costs. However, despite the fact that many are fully aware, they seem to have little weight in people’s decision to pursue a professional athletic career. On the other hand, this ignorance is justified as some see the costs as just part of the job, and as Michael A. Messner suggests in his essay, “Sport and Gender Relations: Continuity,…

    • 1972 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    annotated bibliography comp
    • 1536 Words
    • 5 Pages

    annotated bibliography comp

    In this article author Jackie Buell, is an assistant professor with a PhD in clinical, Sports Nutrition, at Ohio State University. She covers the use of pre workout and recovery supplements within athletes. She explains that buyers should beware of ingredients and products bought especially by athletes. Certain supplements are banned by the NCAA due to cheating by increased body function, but also because of illegal products taken by unaware athletes in their pre workout and recovery supplements. In my paper, I will mainly focus on the pre workout section rather than recovery supplements. I can also use this article as a reference in support to my case against pre workout showing that not even profession athletes cannot use these substances due to the harmful and potentially dangerous ingredients.…

    • 1536 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Fairness and Purity: Why American Baseball Players Should Know Better
    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Fairness and Purity: Why American Baseball Players Should Know Better

    Reading the recent articles “We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals” by William Moller, and “Cheating and CHEATING” by Joe Posnanski, I found occasion to consider the use of steroids in baseball for the first time. In these essays, Moller and Posnanski tapped into the running commentary about performance-enhancing substances and their relative acceptability in the baseball arena (no pun intended). “We, the Public, Place the Best Athletes on Pedestals” proclaimed that “the entire steroid outcry is pure hypocrisy” (Moller, 2009, p.548), while Posnanski dared “baseball in Willie Mays’s time, like baseball in every time, was rife with cheating and racism and alcoholism and small-mindedness” (Posnanski, 2010, p.556). Both pieces seemed in agreement that substance use in baseball is par for the course, and I find it hard to believe otherwise, except in blatant denial of the facts. But this line of thinking extends out into a more global conversation about when it is acceptable to use drugs, and when it isn’t. Rather than arguing the morality of drug use or the ethics of enhancement, I feel the greater issue at hand is that athletes – and specifically baseball players – should take responsibility for the impact their drug use has on the American public.…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Anabolic Steroids: The Declining Integrity Of Sports
    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Anabolic Steroids: The Declining Integrity Of Sports

    Athletics have shaped the American society for centuries. While whites previously dominated a majority of sports, now members of all races and ethnicities have equal opportunity to succeed in the sports world. With this increase in athletes, also arises a heightened level of competition. Numerous athletes are now relying on performance enhancing drugs to better themselves in their sports. Many athletes use these drugs to increase their running and strength abilities. Some athletes are starting to believe that the only way to become successful in their sport is to take advantage of these drugs, but that is simply not the case.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Should Athletes Be Allowed To Use Steroids
    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Should Athletes Be Allowed To Use Steroids

    Long before Cal scored the touchdown in the 1982 “Big Game” against Stanford, and before Stephen Curry made a record-breaking number of three pointers in one basketball game, sports was primarily based on natural abilities. Today, sports has evolved to elevate the level of play and performance. Major competitions such as the Olympics manifest the most dominant world athletes. The winners are deemed the best in their sport for their abilities to be biologically and physically gifted and to harness that potentiality. These athletes train strenuously, often ingesting synthetic or natural additives to increase performance. To remain competitive in increasingly higher levels of play, athletes should have the choice of using their natural gifts and/or using performance enhancing drugs. Neither an athlete who has a gene that prompts a superior physique nor an athlete who uses steroids should be deemed cheaters, for they are pushing sports to a new level and creating an equal level of play.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Research Paper On Performance Enhancing Drugs
    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Research Paper On Performance Enhancing Drugs

    Today when people hear the words Performance-Enhancing Drugs they automatically think of athletes and how it will make them a better player. However, using drugs to make an athlete better is extremely unhealthy. When players use these drugs they get a power they never had before. They feel like a completely new player that has the skill and strength to do anything they want to while playing their sport. When they are using these drugs they are not thinking about how they are risking their lives. Most athletes do not realize how dangerous these are, and the ones that do realize how dangerous the drugs are obviously do not mind risking their life to play a good game.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Do Athletes Use Steroids
    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Why Do Athletes Use Steroids

    Performance enhancing drugs in sports has become a controversial issue in the world today, especially when it comes to athletes and people involved in it. These drugs are commonly known as PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) and people who use these drugs to enhance their performance consider it legitimate as it helps in improving their concentration level. Today's athletes continue to push the boundaries of distinction in performance and physical fitness. PEDs have been a go to source for these athletes, with more refined training methods and technologies. However from a social and ethical perspective, PEDs possess harmful threats to the consumer and those who compete with them. Athletes do not take these drugs to level the playing field, they do it to gain an unfair advantage…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Steroid Persuasive Speech
    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Steroid Persuasive Speech

    It helps to understand how steroid use in professional sports affects both the sport and its audience in a positive and negative way.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Steroids Should Be Banned Essay
    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Steroids Should Be Banned Essay

    It is estimated that around forty-two percent of professional athletes use steroids. Any athlete who uses steroids goes against the “spirit of sport”, which is based on honesty, fair play, ethics, health, the respect for game rules and the respect for yourself and other participants. Steroid use shows bad sportsmanship and lack of respect, and is fundamentally a contrary to the “spirit of sport”. Steroid use then makes for tainted glory, and questions of whether the win or trophy was actually deserved are quick to…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Drug Testing in Athletes
    • 857 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Drug Testing in Athletes

    Many athletes fail to take their time when making the decision whether to use drugs to their advantage. Unfortunately, athletes may use drugs for therapeutic indications, recreational or social reasons, as muscular aids, or to mask the presence of other drugs during drug testing. However, the safety of an athlete's health is being neglected. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths, and suspensions of athletes. If failing to recognize drug use in professional athletics continues, all athletes will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance, but most of them have aspiring Olympians to train. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drug (Marie, 2014). Sports…

    • 857 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Should Steroids Be Legalized?
    • 2416 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Should Steroids Be Legalized?

    Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly anabolic-androgenic steroids, to either gain a competitive advantage, or to simply keep pace with other athletes using performance enhancers. The primary reason why PED’s are outlawed in professional sports is that they give users a perceived unfair advantage over the rest of the field, while potentially putting their long-term health at risk if the drugs are used irresponsibly and without proper medical supervision. Various professional sports leagues have attempted to level the playing field by testing for drug use and suspending, banning, or fining those found guilty. It’s a noble effort, but is it working? Stiff punishments have done little to reduce the number of sportsmen caught doping every year. Cycling hero Lance Armstrong was recently implicated in a doping scandal that vacated his record 7 straight Tour de France titles. But as it turns out, the would be inheritors of all seven of the vacated titles have all been implicated in doping scandals themselves. Major League Baseball also hands down more and more suspensions each season to players caught using banned substances, and it’s ridiculously naive to think those players are the only ones guilty of doping. If the various governing bodies of sport really want to level the playing…

    • 2416 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Masculinity In Sports
    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Masculinity In Sports

    There are many aspects why female and male athletes should not compete together. Although one reason may be because of physiological differences, societal barriers also prevent female athletes from competing with males. What it means to be male or female is one of the hardest things to decipher. This is one of the more bigger struggles between masculinity and femininity. One institution that specifically targets this idea of gender differences is professional sports. Women are challenged because of these gender differences to be accepted into a male dominated institution. Female athletes are encouraged and in many cases forced to under appreciate themselves by the media because of sports. Our society tends to under appreciate women who play…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics