The sociologist Linda Kalof has written that sex, masculinity, and the display of animal aggression are the basic ingredients of all blood sport rituals. In this lesson, we'll delve into those connections of sex, masculinity, and aggression in animal sport. First though, I'll point out that although this quote focuses on blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, sport hunting, or fishing, those basic ingredients of sex, masculinity, and the display of aggression are intrinsic to all sports. Historically, sport was male-created homosocial cultural sphere. It was created by men, for men. This is true even though women participate in and appreciate sports, although never in equal numbers to men. This is not to say that all men enjoy sports so that men are genetically or hormonally inclined to be athletic. Athleticism and the enjoyment of sports comes through socialization beginning in childhood, but that's another lesson altogether. Overall, sport represents an arena in which to cultivate and demonstrate masculinity. This leads us to an important sociological point, that masculinity is never fully accomplished once and for all, instead, it requires continual validation. Assuming we're talking about the dominant form of masculinity, it includes traits such as aggression, toughness, risk-taking, physical strength, sexual virility, and competition. To be seen as appropriately masculine, men must continually demonstrate these traits. Animal sport involves rituals that validate masculinity and heterosexuality. This gives animal sports from dog fighting and sport hunting to equestrian events, an important role in gender relations within society. Let's consider some examples. Bullfighting and cockfighting are sports in which male animal stand-in for human beings. In a famous essay on cockfighting in Bali, anthropologist Clifford Geertz was the first to point out that although the cocks are the ones fighting, the fights are actually symbolic competitions among men. The birds are male, the bird owners are male, the spectators are male, and the traits valued in the birds are masculine. The fights are ways of representing hypermasculine aggression and hostility, and reaffirming masculine identity through male bonding, usually involving a lot of drinking. Since Geertz is classic writing, other scholars have found similar links between cockfighting and masculine identity around the world. In cockfighting and dog fighting, because the animals, the actual combatants, serve as symbols of their owners, any character traits attributed to the dogs or the birds are also attributed to the men they represent. The animals are extensions of the men's identity and social status. Tough men must have tough dogs or birds. If the animals won't fight, they're killed because they're seen as having a weak character. In both sports, there's a clear relationship between owning fighting animals and aggressive masculinity. In bullfighting, the matador proves his ability to dominate and control others through a ritual that ends in slaughter. The spectacle is less about seeing an exhausted animal being killed, than about the matador's ability to control his fear and impose his will over a dangerous other. Unlike many other animal sports where the dog or the cock stands in for the man, in bullfighting, the matador does face serious risk. The blood sports provide powerful examples of animal sports as arenas for expressing and validating masculinity. But what about sports that don't involve killing? What about equestrian events that you show jumping or dressage? These are sports that involve men and women equally and competing against each other. Although these sports differ from animal fighting for the obvious reason that no animals are killed, the masculine culture of sports still governs equestrian events. They're defined by norms of masculinity such as control and domination. They emerged from military riding, a hypermasculine social setting. In this sense, even a sport numerically dominated by women still exists within a masculine culture. Sport in itself is a masculine arena. In equestrian sports, horses become means in the construction of symbolic power. Horses don't consent or decide to become show jumpers or dressage horses they gain that status through coercive training methods. Of course, many trainers avoid methods that involve outright cruelty, but the point is that horses are non-consenting partners in the endeavor. Their very presence represents human domination over animals. One could argue that some equestrian events such as show jumping, require the horse and rider to work as a team. This teamwork still exists within masculine ideology involving domination and control. As we've discussed the meaning of animal sport, we first outlined how sport can be seen as an institutionalized form of violence and acceptable way to work out the tensions and frustrations experienced in modern life. We saw how in animal sport, animal stand in for us, becoming victims of the violence while we feel the excitement and danger vicariously. We also saw that violence, aggression, and dominance, among other traits are associated with masculinity. Involving animals in sport makes them our stand-ins in battles over gender identities and hierarchies. Sports don't exist outside of ideology they help maintain and reproduce it. Animal sports show how animals are central to how we humans spend our leisure time, symbolize and pass on important beliefs, and demonstrate our dominance over nature.
