Football and Manliness
An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL
Published on 30. March 2017
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-0-252-04094-8 (ISBN)
Description
Women, African Americans, and gays have recently upended US culture with demands for inclusion and respect, while economic changes have transformed work and daily life for millions of Americans. The national obsession with the National Football League provides a window on this dynamic period of change, reshaping ideas about manliness to respond to new urgencies on and beyond the gridiron. Thomas P. Oates uses feminist theory to break down the dynamic cultural politics shaping, and shaped by, today's NFL. As he shows, the league's wildly popular product provides an arena for media producers to work out and recalibrate the anxieties, contradictions, and challenges that characterize contemporary masculinity. Oates draws from a range of pop culture narratives to map the complex set of theories about gender and race and to reveal a league and fan base in flux. Though longing for a past dominated by white masculinity, the mediated NFL also subtly aligns with a new economic reality that demands it cope with the shifting relations of gender, race, sexuality, and class. Indeed, pro football crafts new meanings of each by its canny mobilization of historic ideological processes.
Reviews / Votes
"What does the NFL have to do with the rise of Donald Trump? Thomas Oates' expansive and readable book provides a riveting and often surprising answer to this question. This vital account of the racist and masculinist populism that is enabled--and occasionally constrained--through the culture of professional football is a must read for scholars and fans alike."--Samantha King, author of Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy"Oates offers clear arguments regarding ideologies of masculinity, race, gender, and sexuality; all chapters work with and build on each other leading to a coherent, all-encompassing argument. . . . Recommended."--Choice
"Engaging, thoughtful, and timely, Football and Manliness moves the conversation beyond the gridiron to spotlight the ways that football shapes our collective understanding of masculinity and its implications within the broader social and economic arenas."--David J. Leonard, author of After Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness
"Oates compellingly demonstrates the worthiness of the NFL as an urgent and productive site of scholarly inquiry within cultural studies."--Lateral
"Readers interested in feminist scholarship, sociology of sport, twenty-first-century masculinity, the black athlete, and popular culture will find this theoretical framework and authoritative analysis valuable."--Journal of Sport History
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 black & white photographs
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04094-8 (9780252040948)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2017
1st Edition
University of Illinois Press
€33.70
Available for download
Person
Thomas P. Oates is an assistant professor in the Department of American Studies and School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. He is a coeditor of The NFL: Critical and Cultural Perspectives.
Content
Half-titleSeriesTitleCopyrightDedicationContentsAcknowledgmentsPrologue: Football, Manliness, and PopulismPregame: Man in Motion: The Shifting Meanings of Masculinity, Race, and Football1. "This Game Has Got to be About More than Winning" : Football Melodramas and the Defense of the Hom2. "We Ought to See What We're Buying" : The NFL Draft and Regimes of Visibility3. Male Order: Masculine Authority, Professional Football, and Enterprising Culture4. Man Management: Football Gaming and the "Financialization of Daily Life"Postgame: The End of Football?NotesIndex