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Sports
Sports have been intertwined with American ideals of (and fears about) masculinity since achieving cultural prominence in the late nineteenth century. For much of the twentieth century, a “rough” model of sports masculinity prevailed, largely defined by forceful physical contact or mano a mano (hand-to-hand) competition. Although this model remained powerful in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries, it was challenged by critics because of its perceived hypermasculine excess. Such challenges both illustrated and influenced broadening concepts of American sports masculinity.
Masculinity and Organized Sports
Before the mid–nineteenth century, most white Americans defined manhood through work and spirituality, rather than through leisure activity and physical prowess, and mainstream American society generally considered game-playing incompatible with true manhood. Sports existed in recognizable forms, but they were ...
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