Masculinities and Athletic Careers - Assignment Example

Masculinities and Athletic Careers Masculinities and Athletic Careers According to Davalos, Chevez and Guardiola, (1999), the men’s studies scholars have been concentration on the critically examining the masculinity though ignoring the implications of racial and social class and inequalities between men. The research has been done on the white middle class men. On the other hand, the sports sociologists have also examined the causes as well as the consequences of class and social differences in sports industry but they do not integrate gender in to their analysis unless they are discussing women and sports.

The choice of whether pursuing and athletic career depends with an individual choice. According to Messner, (1989), sports have nothing to do with future career but just a way of achieving masculine identities and status in the society. Social status was on the other hand found to have influence of sport as most of the middle class status drop from sports in their late adolescence and focus on different career goals that are determined by academic achievements. Athletic achievements gained by the upper class are used later in life to define their masculine identity to their peers while their professional achievement gives them economic and social status.

On the other hand, lower class men maintain their focus on athletics not only as their masculine identity status, but also as a mean of providing them with social economic status. The lower class focuses on sports without any attention or with little attention, if any, given to the education. Messner suggests that, though men’s involvement in sport may be a way of constructing masculinity as an expression of dominance over women, race and class are other factors that affect the role of sports in developing identity of male gender.

ReferencesDavalos, D., Chavez, L. and Guardiola, J. (1999). “The Effects of Extracurricular Activity, Ethnic Identification, and Perception of School on Student Dropout Rates.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21: 61-77. Messner, M. (1989). “Masculinities and Athletic Careers.” Gender & Society 3: 71–88.