The Televised Sports Manhood Formula

Abstract

Recent research indicates that the televised sports that U.S. boys watch most include pro basketball, pro football, pro baseball, Extreme sports, sports highlights shows, and the dramatic pseudosport of pro wrestling. Based on a textual analysis of these televised sports shows and their accompanying commercial advertisements, the authors identify 10 recurrent themes concerning gender, race, aggression, violence, militarism, and commercialism that, together, they call the Televised Sports Manhood Formula. This formula is a master ideological narrative that is well suited to discipline boys’ bodies, minds, and consumption choices in ways that construct a masculinity that is consistent with the entrenched interests of the sports/media/commercial complex. However, the authors note some discontinuities and contradictory moments within and between sports media texts and call for audience studies to explore the various ways that boys interpret, use, or negotiate the Televised Sports Manhood Formula.