University invites dialogue about negative masculinity in sports

It’s a trope that has existed as long as sports themselves: It’s a macho world where only the cream of the crop, the alpha elite, survive.

It ’s a world where the biggest, strongest and baddest bodies in the room will advance to the highest levels and achieve, perhaps, a life of wealth and fame that many dream about but few achieve.

But that level of masculinity, which is more of a reference to the culture than gender, can lead to many negative consequences in youth and adolescence.

Those consequences are going to be under the spotlight at the University of Calgary on Thursday, where an international panel led by Dr. Michael Kehler, the schools Research Professor in Masculinity Studies will invite a public discussion into the Werklund School of Education (6-8 p.m.) on the subject.

“First and foremost, what we’re doing and gaining out of this is the opportunity to see the intersection between research done down here in Canada, the work being done in Sweden and then Australia,” explained Kehler, who will be joined by Dr. Goran Gerdin (Linnaeus University, Sweden), and Dr. Richard Pringle (Monash University, Australia).

“For me, as a researcher, that’s incredibly important to be able to look beyond our national boundaries.”

The debates will centre on locker-room experiences, masculinized school spaces, and the tensions of navigating those locker-rooms in regards to issues such as homophobia and body shaming. It’s not just for males, either, as the dominance asserted in these situations can happen in a female locker-room as well.

“We operate from the premise and masculinity and the ways that boys represent and perform gender identities is just that: a performance,” said Kehler.

“It’s an intentional action and act that reflect on cultural understanding of being a man. In North American culture, for example, the stoicism and strength of the body is what it means to be a real man. For many boys, they see the body as emblem- atic of a particular kind of masculinity.”

The seminar, called Open Doors, Open Dialogues: Lads, Locker-rooms and Literacies, is being held as a way to examine the international reach of that sort of machismo within sports and to compare and contrast the research that has been done to understand and, hopefully, change the way this culture exists within the athletes’ world.

“In this case, I was compelled by their (athletes’) stories and decided that a panel conversation that also sheds light on the sexual assaults at St. Michael’s school and culture of masculinity that is prevalent, not only in elite schools like St. Michaels, but in all schools,” Kehler said.

“The kind of culture of masculinity that we perpetuate or encourage and nurture, we need to be really cognizant of what kind of masculinity we’re promoting and validating and how we can better support the di- versity of masculinity.”

The public dialogue will create a space in which youth, adolescents and otherwise will be able to listen to and speak to other individuals that have experienced some of the same things, negative or otherwise, and perhaps come away with a better idea of the opposing viewpoints on the role of gender and masculinity in their lives and activities.

“The other and perhaps most important element is to invite public dialogue. To, in some ways, to acknowledge and to validate these voices of students who often times are marginalized, for example, in locker-room spaces,” Kehler said of the seminar.

“T he y ’re silenced by other, more powerful, more privileged-bodied boys who we hear a lot about at our schools. This is a real chance to see and hear what are the recurring themes, what are the big ideas coming out of the research.”

There will, of course, be many that will be quick to sweep this kind of conversation under the rug. Sports has long been a world where the boys club has asserted its dominant hold over the group, and there might be many within those groups that don’t want to see that power slip away.

What shouldn’t be looked over, however, is the positive outcome creating an open dialogue like this can have, and how it can combat some of the negative stereotypes often associated with organized sports.

In the end, perhaps talking about a toxic lockerroom culture and working to change it will create waves of kids far more willing to try their hand at athletics.

That’s just the beginning of it, really. Initiatives are being taken across the sporting world to make every activity more inclusive.

Initiatives like this very seminar.