Date of Award

5-5-1995

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

Department

Liberal Studies

First Advisor

Jeffrey Segrave

Second Advisor

Sheldon Solomon

Abstract

Feminist scholars have argued that through the exclusion of women and the association of men with physical competence, power and even violence, the institution of sport has traditionally provided men with a homosocial sphere of life that bolsters the ideology of male superiority (Messner, Duncan, & Jensen, 121). Feminists have also argued that as the experiential and moral expression of our culture, common English vocabulary - and the language of sport in particular - powerfully reinforces, protects, and perpetuates patriarchal and sexist social order (Miller 55-56). In essence, feminists hold that if everyday language is a critical constituent of social reality and of the social scaffolding upon which the patriarchal and sexist social order is erected, then the everyday language of sport, which embodies the “• • • virulent, anti-woman and anti- feminine ideology that pervades the structure and dynamics of sport . . . “ (Boutilier & San Giovanni 18 ) is no less a critical constituent of this repressive order .

Download

Share

COinS