MIDTERM REVIEW

Question 1

3 Ways we learn about sport

Answer 1

Culture, context, and communication

Question 2

SIGN = _____ + _______

Answer 2

signifier (object that represents, ex. red light) + signified (ex. stop)

Question 3

2 reasons we should take sport seriously

Answer 3

reflects society, and is economic/political

Question 4

5 Aspects of modern sport

Answer 4

-rules & spatial constraints (fields, separate sport & play)
-goal oriented (winning, profit, points)
-competitive (rivalries)
-ludic (playful & exciting)
-culturally situated (sport reflects society)

Question 5

Define Ideology

Answer 5

worldview conveyed by subjective statements but claim objectivity (ALL are biased in some way)
*think of “common sense”

Question 6

Describe the social dichotomy

Answer 6

structured power relations and elements of cultural agency (both constraining and enabling)

Question 7

5 sociological perspectives of sport

Answer 7

1. sport as political/economic enterprise
2. sport as site of ideology/myth (race, sexuality, ability, class)
3. Sport and politics of space (gentrification)
4. Sport embedded in globalization & neoliberalism (trans national corporations and media control)
5. Sport as part of new social movements (social justice, sustainability)

Question 8

What class are most professional athletes & why?

Answer 8

Earn/spend like upper class but rely on body as profitable resource like working class

Question 9

Define mode of production

Answer 9

how society is organized to secure necessities (food, clothing etc.) Examples are feudalism, capitalism, communism.

Question 10

Define commodity fetishism

Answer 10

personification of products and economic categories by abstraction of labor processes that come from creating products (ex. perfume marketed by celebrity rather than how it smells/lasts) -capitalism specialty

Question 11

Define alienation

Answer 11

worker is made to feel foreign to products of their own labor (craftsman doesn’t own his product after selling it to corporation)

Question 12

Define dialect and give 2 examples

Answer 12

tension between labor vs capital
(capitalism = owners vs workers, feudalism = serfs vs lords, slavery = slaves vs slave owners)

Question 13

Describe Marx’s view on how sport is related to production

Answer 13

mechanization of body (play through pain), resistance to pain (deny libido), division of labor (different positions are different parts of the assembly line), competition vs cooperation work to create max productivity

Question 14

Summary of Curt Flood

Answer 14

Got traded but didn’t want to move across country, but the reserve clause prevents players from changing teams unless traded/sold (like a slave) so protested for free agency but lost his career because of it. Why can’t athletes choose where they get to work just like any other employable person?

Question 15

Describe the two key narratives in popular press

Answer 15

1. “millionaires vs billionaires”- rich athletes shouldn’t complain about their situations, and lower paid athletes are always forgotten
2. self-responsibility in dangerous sports- leagues “didn’t know” that sports could cause serious harm, retirement seen as a “privilege” after putting body at risk

Question 16

what were the 2 effects of the concussion discourse?

Answer 16

1. misrecognized athletes as unrelated to the working world (illness/injury can’t be separated from SES- think black lung in coal miners)
2. deflected responsibility from league admins to players

Question 17

Traits of Rhoden’s Conveyor Belt analogy

Answer 17

standardization, uniformity, optimal production, removal of defects

Question 18

Problems of sport and discipline

Answer 18

Rigorous training routines, diet, sleep, school, rookie initiation, exclusivity agreements

Question 19

Problems of sport and young athletes

Answer 19

-young athletes need law protection (forced labor- 30hrs/week for 10yr old hockey players)
-inappropriate/ abusive coach-player relations are natural
-entertainment industry has child labor laws but non apply to sport, but same issues there???

Question 20

Problems with March Madness

Answer 20

-athletes draw the audience and revenue but see none of it
-“scholarships” must be renewed yearly incase injury, graduation rates below 50%

Question 21

Key takeaways from Bale Article

Answer 21

-industrialization lead to segregation of sport spaces
-colonizing land into sportscapes became common
-segregation among spectators
-spectators became docile & surveillance needed due to rowdy behaviors

Question 22

Describe Space Invaders

Answer 22

people who expose racist/sexist discrimination in sporting spaces (tiger woods on golf courses- unheard of for black man unless he was working there)

Question 23

Describe Molotch’s Growth Machine Thesis

Answer 23

economic elites influence politics to gain capital, rentiers (exchange value & money making) vs residents (use value & social organization). Use the pro-growth ideology that these capital projects (stadiums) will create “civic pride”

Question 24

Describe the process of Mcdonaldization of baseball stadiums

Answer 24

-Early ballpark: small, good views, quirky features (Yankee Stadium and Fenway) but didn’t max. spectatorship
-Late modern ballparks (60’s-80’s): multi use, seating was quantity over quality, playing conditions controlled, workers replaced with tech (Skydome, Astrodome)
-Post modern ballpark (90’s-now): reliant on nostalgia to gain support, now have malls, food courts, arcades, to make more of an experience

Question 25

Describe Camdenization

Answer 25

Redirecting public money from infrastructure towards private stadium construction in an effort to create more culture… but obviously use was not equal for citizens

Question 26

Summarize the Chavez Ravine

Answer 26

-Mexican immigrants settles in LA (1900’s)
-crime & low economy (“blighted community”) scheduled for leveling but residents resisted
-1949 Federal Housing Act claimed the land would be used for sustainable housing, but elite wanted profit
-families forcefully evicted from homes in 1959 to make way for the production of Dodger’s stadium

Question 27

Describe the NY Islanders stadium

Answer 27

-after failed attempts for new stadium team moves to Brooklyn in 2015
-neoliberalism (cut gov. spending on social services and use funds for stadium) but not beneficial for to taxpayers
-2019/20 taxpayers pay for renos to old arena while new arena is built ($1B privately funded)

Question 28

Describe Rogers Place/Downtown Edmonton

Answer 28

-rogers place thought to “revitalize” downtown, but oilers threat to move unless they get new arena
-public/private funding caused more homeless displacement due to high rents

Question 29

Old, middle, and new definitions of gender

Answer 29

old- sex/gender are biological & immutable
middle-sex is biological, gender is fluid (deviant identities like feminine males)
new- sex/gender are both continuums

Question 30

Describe the heteronormative matrix

Answer 30

females = feminine and desire masculine males
males = masculine and desire feminine females

Question 31

describe myth

Answer 31

attempt to turn history into nature by making binary oppositions (male-female, black-white) but FALSE, they are a continuum

Question 32

describe eastern vs western views on femininity in sport

Answer 32

Eastern (USSR)- communism saw all people are equal as workers, more development of female sports
Western- saw women as feminine so development of sport was frowned upon, could change physique

Question 33

late 1960’s sex tests and problems

Answer 33

gynecological exams- thought sex was only based on visual genetalia
chromosome testing- only 80% effective as people can have XXY chromosomes

Question 34

Eva Klobukowska

Answer 34

passed visual exam but failed chromosome swab, banned from competitions

Question 35

Mario Jose Martinez Patino

Answer 35

XY chromosomes (androgen insensitivity syndrome), testosterone present but body doesn’t process it

Question 36

Caster Semenya

Answer 36

suspicions of her not being 100% female, cleared tests in 2010 but prohibited from competitions until hormone therapy

Question 37

Describe Transgender subjectivity

Answer 37

surgery not needed to be trans EXCEPT in sport (surgery or hormone therapy) which reinforces gender binaries, doesn’t address gender fluidity

Question 38

describe the queer art of athletic failure

Answer 38

trans women have to prove “femaleness” by demonstrating athletic weakness… if loses nobody cares but if she wins she gets accused of unfair physical advantages

Question 39

Describe Fallon Fox’s case

Answer 39

-mix race black lesbian trans women who does martial arts
-sport policies (surgery, hormone therapy) reinforce women are weaker sex
-emphasis on testosterone determining sport success even though not scientifically proven
- example of black women “failing” at proper white femininity