1
Sport is an integral part of Canadian society and they often help create and define
individual, group and national identity.1 Although this essay focuses on athletic participation in
sport to explore the importance of studying sport, something must first be said about its
popularity with spectators. In the mass media alone, there are numerous Canadian specialty
sports television channels, magazines and websites, as well as a special section in most
newspapers. The variety is astounding and is all directly indicative of general interest in sports.
This influence in the media is just one reason the power of sport in society should not be
underestimated. Every year, Canadians all across the country attend sporting events in droves.
From the few hundred cheering fans at small-town hockey games to the hundreds of thousands of
fans who watch professional events like the Grey Cup football final, sports fans can be found
across the country. Some of these fans are so committed that they will attend events under
extreme conditions. For example, this past November, 57167 people sat outdoors in -19 C
weather at Commonwealth stadium to watch the Heritage Classic hockey games.2 Examples of
devotion and sports fanaticism in general demonstrate the power that sport and sports imagery
wields in society. And although the mass media and fandom are not all that define the role of
sports in society, they imply the reality that sports are played, codified, debated and watched by
Canadians and other people around the world.
1
For this essay, “sport” will be used be used to describe organized
competitive sport. “Sport” will describe a type of game with a set form and
rules, an organized structure of competition, a mass extent of participation
and organizations to codify and regulate it. Because this is still rather
ambiguous, I further clarify that this definition will only include
activities that are considered sport by most Kinesiology Colleges and are
included in the largest international sporting competitions, like the
Olympics and the World University Games. This excludes sport fishing and
sport hunting as well as various other activities. These activities could
be included in future analysis, however, it would add unnecessary
complication to the issue of sport history at this time.
2
http://edmonton.cbc.ca/heritageclassic/index.html “Fast Facts”
1
2
However, not everyone is included in this experience. Academia generally seems
ignorant of the power of sport, leaving this aspect of society severely under-researched. There is
virtually no mainstream academic debate about the role of sport in society or academic
involvement in telling the history of sport. This is particularly true of Canadian historians.
Instead, this research originates predominately from Kinesiology or Physical Education
departments where the research focus on specific sports and rarely examines the social history of
sport in general.3 A growing body of sociological studies on the influence of sport in Canada is
working to fill in the unknown social element of sports history; however, this research still does
not recreate the historic context of sport. Historians can incorporate this context into the body of
scholarship on sport history, enabling us to comprehend the important role sport has played in
national and individual histories and the way sport has and continues to shape identity. As well,
while sociology explores the effect of sport images on current participants and society, historians
can take this study into the past.
It is notable that Canadian historians lag behind both American and British scholars
in the study of sport history. Although the United States does not yet have a large body of
literature on the history of sport, it is growing with contributions from researchers such as Melvin
Adelman and Steven A. Riess. The research area is, however, dominated by sociologists, as
various published collections on sport history demonstrate. As well, until fairly recently, the
study of American sport was often restricted by its very close ties to the history of education. In
the U.S., gender, economic, political, and cultural issues have only recently entered sport history.
Both British and European research has traditionally focused on cultural and class issues, heavily
studying the class element of sport. These historians often concentrate on issues surrounding
how sport is experienced by different social classes and how sport is used to create and
3
Alan Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play: The Emergence of Organized Sport, 18071914 (Toronto: Oxford University, 1987), 9.
3
encourage class-based cultural ideals. For example, the recently published collection Reformers,
Sport, Modernizers: Middle-Class Revolutionaries, demonstrates the perceived link between
sport and class issues.4
With all this research in other countries, why has sport history been left virtually
untouched in Canada? There is still a stigma attached to studying sports history, although the
origins of that stigma and why it is so pervasive is unclear. There is a possibility that academics
believe sport is too low-brow and mere “popular culture” and therefore not worthy of being
studied. This, however, is an outdated argument that ignores the current research interests of
social and cultural historians, which often focus on popular and working class culture. The idea
that historians do not enjoy sports and do not participate in sports, and therefore do not want to
study them is likely equally misleading; although some quantitative data must be collected before
this possibility can be completely eliminated. Ultimately, however, I suspect that a new study of
sport history is only now beginning to emerge because sports only define a part of people's
identity. Up until the 1990s, the broad topics of gender, ethnicity, and class were still being
established. Although these three topics are definitely not exhausted, historians can now attempt
to apply the theoretical studies to new areas of exploration, such as sport. This essay will
broadly outline some interactions between sports and gendered historical approaches, with a
particular focus on how images of sport are gendered as masculine or feminine and heterosexual
or homosexual and what challenged have been made to these images. Although it is not
exhaustive of all possible connections, this essay will hopefully inspire interest in and respect for
a nuanced study of sport history by a broad range of historians.
4
See J.A. Mangan, ed., Reformers, Sport, Modernizers : Middle-Class
Revolutionaries (London: Frank Cass , 2002).
3
4
Some historians, such as Bruce Kidd and Colin Howell, have already started
connecting sports and social history. These studies outline how sport was originally conceived
of in Canada, how images of sport were created based on gender, class, and racial ideologies, and
what challenges have been made to these images over the past 150 years. However, many more
historians need to assist them in this labor so the picture of sport in Canada is as nuanced as
possible. This essay will begin much like the early sport histories with a background of sport in
Canada. In keeping with the early historical style, this outline will focus on the “facts” of the
development of sports in Canada. Next, the relationship between men, masculinity and sport will
be explored. Various elements have challenged this image, particularly women and homosexual
athletes. Therefore, women's varied experiences with sport and questions surrounding sexual
orientation must be examined. With a focus on organized sport from 1850 to the present, this
essay will provide an overview of what has and has not been said about Canadian sport history
while discussing how, why and by whom various gender-specific images of sport have been
created.
A good understanding of the development of sport in Canada since 1850 can be
acquired by reading three key books: Alan Metcalfe's Canada Learns to Play: The Emergence of
Organized Sport, 1807-1914; Bruce Kidd's The Struggle for Canadian Sport; and Colin Howell's
Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern Canada. Collectively, these works
establish how sport was originally used to teach morals and good living, that images of sport
were created based on gender, class, and racial ideologies, and that these images have been
challenged over the past 150 years by professionalization, commercialization, and demands for
equal opportunities. For example, in his study of the development of four inter-war sports
organizations, Kidd concludes that by the Second World War, the NHL capitalists had won the
help of the government and the support of fans. The NHL’s victory lead to the division of sport
5
in Canada between a “well publicized commercial, continentalist, and exclusively male sector on
the one hand, and an increasingly marginalized, not-for-profit, nationally organized sector,”
which held the only opportunities for women, on the other.5
These three manuscripts are part of a small body of literature on sport history. This
literature often traces the development of sport in Canada by focusing on telling the story of who
played and what they played. This results in an emphasis on the experiences of middle-class
men, since they designed sport for themselves, and studies of male-dominated sports of hockey,
lacrosse, baseball and football. In both collections and manuscripts, there is often only a brief
mention of women in sport and they are only very rarely incorporated into the main body,
usually separated into a special woman’s chapter. This separation encourages men’s sport to be
seen as normative and defining, while women’s sport is less significant since it is tacked on after
male experiences. For example, one article in the 1989 collection A Concise History of Sport in
Canada, is about woman and sport, while the four other articles each focus on a specific sport's
history.6 This chapter itself is written in the same style of many women's sections; it is a
celebration of a few key accomplishments and a biography of a few prominent players and teams
that provides a minimal recognition of the number of women who played and what they played
and why.7 It should be noted that the addition of women to sport history is very recent. A
collection entitled History of Sport in Canada published in 1981 did not mention women's sport
anywhere in the book. However, even works that minimize or ignore women's roles in sport can
still be useful in providing a sense of how sport developed and the main events in sport history in
Canada.
5
Bru ce K idd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, (Toronto: UTP, 1996), 266.
See Don Morrow, et al., A Concise History of Sport in Canada, (Toronto:
Oxford University Press, 1989).
7
See Mary Keyes, “Women and Sport,” in A Concise History of Sport in Canada.
6
5
6
Sport in Canada as currently experienced began in the increased urbanization and
industrialization of the nineteenth century. Alan Metcalfe’s manuscript Canada Learns to Play:
The Emergence of Organized Sport, 1807-1914, originally published in 1987, traces the early
developments and ideas of sport in Canada. He starts in Montreal as it is widely considered the
birthplace of organized sport in Canada. By the 1850s, however, sport had already moved out of
this urban center to various other segments of Canadian society, including Toronto and
Vancouver. The growth of organized sport paralleled the growth and expansion of Canada,
particularly industrial Canada and its changing population distribution.8 During this time there
was also an increase in regulations and rules governing the playing of sport to make it more
uniform.9
Sport was not, however, open to all groups equally. From the 1820s until
Confederation, organized on-going sport was the purview of the social elite. Sport ostensibly
belonged to the upper- and middle-class men because they had the leisure time available to spend
on sports.10 Metcalfe goes on to outline how organized sport in Canada was founded by the
British to transmit British values and ideology. Ideological influences increasingly shifted to the
Americans as the Canadian men switched their focus for sports from Britain to North America.
This change was reflected in the switch from cricket and rugby to the Canadian sports lacrosse
and football.11 Unfortunately, Metcalfe did little analysis of how this British ideology was
gendered, preferring to discuss how sport taught middle-class Victorian values of hard work,
perseverance and, increasingly, physical hardiness. In the 1860s another sport was introduced to
Canada which challenged Britain’s hold on Canadian leisure time. The introduction of baseball
8
Metcalfe, 10.
Metcalfe, 51.
10
Metcalfe, 29.
11
Metcalfe, 30.
9
7
into Canadian society is particularly important as it was very popular with the working class, not
the middle class.12
From Confederation to the First World War, sport continued to develop and
organize itself. During this time there was a large growth in “sporting clubs” which included
yacht clubs, curling clubs and golf and country clubs. These changes, Metcalfe affirms
reinforced the class divisions established before Confederation. The major change that occurred
in this time, however, was in the creation of organized team sport. It was created by and for the
middle-class man as a response to increased urbanization and the desire for homosocial
relationships to escape the domesticity of the home.13 Overtime, these team sports began the
debate over whether sport should become professional or remain amateur. On the one hand,
professionalizing sport would enable men of any class background to participate at a high level
because working class men would not need another second job to pay their way.14 The counter
argument was that it would cheapen sport and make it increasingly immoral by corrupting the
sportsmanship of sport.
Bruce Kidd’s pivotal manuscript The Struggle for Canadian Sport picks up where
Metcalfe leaves off. Kid focuses on the inter-war years and integrates excellent gender- and
class-based analysis while tracing the development of four major sports organizations, each with
different goals for the future of sport. Specifically, Kidd devotes one chapter to each
organization, its ideologies, its successes and its failures. These four organizations are the
Amateur Athletics Union, the Women’s Amateur Athletic Federation, the Worker’s Sport
12
Metcalfe, 31.
Metcalfe, 47.
14
Numerous amateur athletes work at least one job in addition to training
today, which demonstrates that funding is still a major concern that has
not yet been resolved for all athletes.
13
7
8
Association, and the National Hockey League. The AAU believed sport should be used to make
strong men and therefore a strong nation and that that can only be done if sport remained
amateur; people needed to play for the love of the sport and not for greed. The WAAF was a
feminist group that fought to protect the health and safety of female athletes and encourage the
growth of women’s sport in Canada. The WSA worked closely with the Communist party and
the unions and with them, spread socialism to the workers. This sports group was only
concerned with working-class sport. The NHL linked the capitalist dream with the drive to
professional sport. All of these groups worked within their membership and the wider political
arena to expand opportunities for its members and to influence the direction of Canadian
athletics. Kidd then explained the political system that these groups were worked within,
including information on regulations, policies and funding. He concludes that by the Second
World War the NHL capitalists had won the help of the government and the support of fans. The
NHL’s victory redefined the division of sport by fundamentally altering the previous binaries of
male/female, worker/bourgeoisie, east/west, or amateur/pro. By 1939, sport in Canada was
divided between a “well publicized commercial, continentalist, and exclusively male sector on
the one hand, and an increasingly marginalized, not-for-profit, nationally organized sector,”
which held the only opportunities for women, on the other.15 Unfortunately, Kidd, himself a
former world-class athlete, focuses so much on the organizations as competing bureaucracies that
it is very difficult to understand how these decisions affected real athletes.
Colin Howell’s text Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern
Canada will bring the Canadian sport history up to today. First, he confirms many of the points
that Metcalfe and Kidd make about the origins of Canadian sport. He goes a bit farther by
recognizing that although sport may have been designed for the middle class, the working class
15
Bru ce K idd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, (Toronto: UTP, 1996), 266.
9
shaped sport to suit their needs, as well. Since they did not always just agree with the British
sporting ideals, it seemed logical that the working class would appropriate what they did want
and suit it to their needs.16 He agrees with Kidd’s claim that unity sport and capitalism united in
the interwar period. He also further elaborates on the animosity between amateurism and
professionalism. Professional athletes were clearly perceived, accurately or not, as motivated by
money and not love of the game.17 He then goes into a discussion about the role of spectators. It
is particularly interesting that as sports stadiums became increasingly popular with the working
class, their respectability decreased and women no longer wanted to attend.18 He then discusses
the relationship between sport and body images. His treatment of women here is especially well
done as he outlines the different body and gender images female athletes had to conform to.
Unfortunately, he gives almost no treatment in the book to men’s bodies and body-related
images. He also places these images in their historic context, demonstrating how immediately
after WWII women were restricted to doll-like feminine sports such as synchronized swimming
and gymnastics.19 These restrictions affected the development of women’s sport and therefore
sport in general until the women’s liberation movement rose in the 1960s and 1970s to fight such
restrictions. Most post-war developments have occurred with nationalism and national spirit in
mind. This leads to an emphasis on high-performance athletes, a drive for physical fitness to
help fight the Communists, issues with doping, and increasing multiculturalism in the athletes.
Although all of these histories do mention female athletes and women’s sports
organizations, they predominately tell the history of male sport. This may be because men
16
Colin Ho well, Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern Canada (Toronto: UTP, 2001), 52.
C. Ho well, Blood, 56.
18
C. H owell, Blood, 90.
19
C. H owell, Blood, 120.
17
9
10
designed sport for themselves and then created an identity around that. In particular, in the
nineteenth century, sport appealed to men because of its connections with their masculine
identity. Although the creation and maintenance of masculinity through sport is an important
issue, it is often missing from sport history books. Although this line of inquiry is occurring with
greater frequency since 1990, it is still a rather under researched area. However, in his article “A
Manly Sport: Baseball and the Social Construction of Masculinity,” Colin Howell connects
Victorian gender ideals to the development of sports. Through analyzing the influence of
baseball on masculinity, he outlines many of the Victorian male virtues and where they develop
from. For example, a late Victorian male was to be physically strong and broadly built; this was
an idea that developed from the American Civil War and could be achieved through sport.20 As
well, the Victorian middle-class was concerned that they were becoming effeminate and
domestic. Sport would enable male bonding and virility to counteract the effect of the man’s
mother, wife, or international defeat and enable him to be a man.21 Links were also drawn
between physical activity and mental, moral and physical health. It was believed that physical
activity helped prevent men from becoming “degenerate.” This term referred to several
medically defined conditions at this time, including homosexuality. 22 Unfortunately, in the
article, Howell pushes the unifying aspects of sports just a little too far as he implies that it could
transcend class divisions. This is very controversial because the middle class designed sport to
compensate for their inadequacies and the working class was often chastised by the middle
classes for acting too drunk, rowdy, and low-brow during sports meets.23
20
C. Howell, “A Manly Spo rt: Baseball and the Social Construction of Masculinity,” in Gender and History (Toronto:
Copp Clark, 1996), 189.
21
C. Howell, “Baseball,” 189, 192.
22
C. Howell, “Baseball,” 190, 198.
23
C. Howell, “Baseball,” 201.
11
There was a perceived connection between participation in sport and masculine
nation-building. Nation building occurred on both the individual and group identity levels. On
the group level, many sports were played across the country and clearly sharing something with
other Canadians can help build national identity. This was supported by the development of
National governing organizations, such as the National Lacrosse Association (NLA) formed in
1867. These organizations helped to codify rules and regulations.24 Lacrosse is a particularly
interesting example for the development of Canadian sport. Soon after it formed, the NLA
declared it believed that amateur athletics promoted better morals and less corruption than
professional athletics; it was much the same argument of the Amateur Athletics Union.25 Thus,
the league banned playing the game for pay, unless it was against a First Nations group. That
provision made it possible for the NLA to later label the better-skilled First Nations groups as
playing for pay and therefore professionals that could be removed from the league.26
The late Victorian masculine ideal has developed over the years but remains focused
on heterosexual, Anglo-Saxon, middle class virile Christian men in Canadian society. Class and
nationalism are also key features to forming this male identity. British games such as rugby were
most often exclusively played by the middle class in this time period.27 Canadian games, such as
hockey, however, spread quickly to the working class.28 Strangely though, soccer, the British
working class, was not popular in Canada. It was considered a foreign game, while American
baseball was not.29 The masculine ideal was also maintained through the amateur/professional
24
Don M orrow, “Lacrosse as the National Game,” in A Concise History of Sport in Canada (Toronto: Oxford
University, 19 89), 54.
25
Morrow, 57.
26
Morro w, 57.
27
Metcalfe, 74.
28
Metcalfe, 74.
29
Metcalfe, 93.
11
12
debates. Howell in Blood, Sweat and Tears claims that by making amateur sports exemplify
gentlemanliness and defining them as the only true sportsmen, the working class was excluded
from respectable sports by their lack of free time and women were excluded by the fact that they
were not “manly” enough.30
Of course, mainstream sports organizations are generally accepted as heterosexual
but surprisingly little research discusses the heterosexuality of the male sports ideal or sports in
general, particularly from historians. One of the few exceptions that specifically explores the
heterosexuality of athletes is the American study “Blood, Sweat and Jeers: the Impact of the
Media's Heterosexist Portrayals on Perceptions of Male and Female Athletes” by the sociologists
Jennifer Knight and Traci Guiliano. They explored how sport media uses a “feminine
apologetic” to try to downplay the popular association of women's sport with lesbianism.
Journalists often focus on how female athletes are good girlfriends, wives, or mothers. This
emphasizes their heterosexuality and deemphasizes their sporting achievements.31 They are
presented as women first and athletes second, much in the same way that female athletes in the
1930s were treated for medical problems.32 Knight and Guiliano also argue that this feminine
apologetic negates women's accomplishments in sport which may threaten the male
heterosexuality of sport. They tested their theory by studying if heterosexuality of athletes was
normally assumed and if athletes who are clearly heterosexual in the “fake” news articles were
more popular than those whose sexual status was ambiguous. The tests used the gender-neutral
sport of long distance running and determined that athletes were not assumed heterosexual but
when it was established that an athlete was heterosexual, then that athlete was more popular than
30
Metcalfe, 69.
Jennifer L. Knight and Traci A. Giuliano,“Blood, Sweat and Jeers: The Impact
of the Media's Heterosexist Portrayals on Perceptions of Male and Female
Athletes,” Journal of Sport Behavior 26, no. 3 (2003), 274.
32
Knight and Giuliano, 274.
31
13
an ambiguous athlete.33 Unfortunately, this study did not determine if there was a different
response if it was a male or a female athlete who was portrayed as heterosexual. However, it
does establish that the media's portrayal of athlete's sexuality is important to how those athlete's
accomplishments are perceived.
There have been many challenges to the sports-defined male identity. The increase
in professionalism, commercialism and a preoccupation with winning, challenged the popular
conception of the ideal male athlete as an amateur. As Kidd's exploration of the NHL
demonstrated, the training and playing schedule became so intense that players needed a salary
because they could not maintain another job.34 Hockey remained popular and prestigious after
becoming professional, however, because it was still believed to teach good manly qualities.
Homosexuality was also a challenge to the ideal male athlete image.
There was also a threat from ethnic and visible minority athletes. Since Victorian
times had particularly strong ideas about Social Darwinism, any time a lesser “race” wins, it hurt
male identity. To fully expound upon the ethnicity/race issue would add unmanageable
complexity to this essay but it should be noted that organized sport was - and for many sports
still is - designed, regulated, and controlled by Caucasians. Because of this, the success of many
ethnic athletes is sometimes seen as a threat to the popular image of masculine Canadian sport.
This leads to the poor treatment of ethnic players, such as the First Nations lacrosse players
described earlier.
Another major challenge to the masculine sporting ideal comes from the presence of
gay male athletes. The presence of homosexual athletes is often highly stereotyped, as
33
34
Knight and Giuliano, 280-281.
Kidd, 86.
13
14
demonstrated through the comment from one news reporter that “there are no gay male athletes,
all women athletes are dykes.”35 Although still predominately unacknowledged by athletes,
coaches, sports reporters, and spectators, homosexual athletes do exist. The presence of
homosexual athletes challenge male identity because they disprove the idea that men will not
become “degenerate” if they participate in sports. The presence of gay athletes is very well
demonstrated through Perry Deane Young's book Lesbians and Gays and Sports and Brian
Pronger's The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex. Both
books discuss how the success of homosexual athletes can challenge their competitors’
masculinity because homosexuality is associated with effeminacy.36 Pronger especially focuses
on gay males in his book, while distinguishing between male and female sports experiences. He
also puts a much greater emphasis on how heterosexual and homosexual experiences are
different than Young. Although his exploration of these experiences is very interesting, it is
sometimes less than convincing.
In Lesbians and Gays and Sports, Perry Deane Young discusses some key athletes
and outlines developments in lesbian and gay sports. For instance, he uses David Kopay's
experiences, a former National Football League player who in 1975 became the first openly gay
American professional athlete, to demonstrate how the male sports stereotype is challenged.
Although women are present throughout the book, Young predominately focuses on the gay male
athlete. He begins by outlining the popular perception that gay males do not play sports. He
then develops the idea that homosexual athletes create their own unique identity that is neither
part of mainstream heterosexual culture nor mainstream homosexual culture.37 Thus, this book
explores the role of gay and lesbian athletes in sport both to expose the diversity of homosexual
35
Abbey Haight as quoted in Perry Deane Young, Lesbians and Gays and Sports
(Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers) 39.
36
Perry Deane Y oung, Lesb ians and Gays and Spo rts (Philadelphia: Chealsea House, 1995), 13.
37
Young, 11.
15
identity and to enable an acknowledgment of their presence. Unfortunately, Kopey is one of the
few athletes discussed by name in the book. One issues in researching gay and lesbian athletes,
and gay and lesbian history in general, is the problem of “outing” people through history. Since
many athletes, particularly professionals, do not declare their homosexual identity, quantitative
proof of the presence is difficult. As well, by not knowing which athletes are homosexual, their
experiences cannot be made part of this study, thus some variety is lost. Young concludes by
describing the fairly recent development of homosexual sports organizations, focusing on how
the organizations provide a safe and encouraging environment for homosexuals in sport. Young
closes with a history of the development of the Gay Games, including issues of naming,
attracting the necessary sponsorship, and ensuring the games would not be seen as an inferior
version of the Olympics.38 Young's organization of the book helps emphasize the common
discrimination that both male and female homosexual people encounter, including being
removed from playing rosters, and the common issues they face, such as how their success
challenges the misconceptions of homosexuality. However, he still importantly acknowledges
the differences between male and female sport, particularly the prestige and the different roles of
sport in defining each gender.
The presence and success of female athletes also challenged the image of the ideal
male sportsman. Since male identity is based on sports, women’s incursions onto this territory
threatened men’s identity. Women’s sport originated in the same time period as men’s sport did.
For example, there are records of women’s teams playing hockey in the early 1900s. However,
women’s sport had its own gender ideals to live up to. Early women’s sport history, however,
tends to emphasize key success stories of women, focusing on specific great sportswomen’s
38
Young, 129, 139.
15
16
biographies, and does not explore these ideals. This trait is exemplified in Mary Keyes’ chapter
“Women and Sport” in A Concise History of Sport. The very celebratory article starts by
explaining that women often did not get involved in sport because it encouraged specifically
male traits. After describing the technological changes that took place such as the invention of
Bloomers and the bicycle, she lists the big names in Canadian women’s history. These include
the Edmonton Grads, Marilyn Bell, and Barbara Ann Scott. Unfortunately, her celebration
clouds her ability to examine their experiences in sport, including discrimination and media
control. Keyes then describes different organizations that worked to help advance women in
sport but does not mention the 1972 Royal Commission on the Status of Women, which exposed
the severe under-funding of women’s sport.39 Overall, Keyes believes that women have fought
long and hard and are now equal with men in sport and that they have been fully accepted “as
participants.”40 Almost all other studies of women and sports prove that this conclusion is just
not true.41 Instead, women experience greater difficulty getting funding, less media coverage,
powerful restrictions based on feminine ideals, and are sometimes unfulfilled by sport. For
instance, Keyes claims that “girls and women who participated in the so-called unfeminine sports
– team sports rather than individual sports – often were suspect with regard to sexual
orientation.”42
In Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality, Helen Lenskyj, a sociologist gives
a better overview of the developments of women’s sport in Canada, with a particular focus on
gender-based perceptions of women’s athletic potential. She argues that sport today has been coopted by men and that true women’s sport does not exist yet. Further, women's sport must be
39
C. H owell, Blood, 121.
Keyes, 230.
41
See Laura Robinson's chapter on funding for boys' and girls' programs in
Black Tights: Women, Sport, and Sexuality (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2002).
42
Keyes, 246.
40
17
designed outside the control of men. Lenskyj also explores class issues in relation to sport,
explaining why sport was considered a good option for certain classes of women. It was believed
that the leisure time of working-class women needed to be occupied or they would develop loose
morals.43 She also points out that even though women began to prove themselves capable of
doing traditional men’s work in the public workplace, they still were held back by gendered
restrictions in sport. They were allowed to work hard but could not play hard.44
This all came out of the popular medical debate in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. Both Keyes and Lenskyj describe how most doctors suspected that sport was
too dangerous for women as it threatened their primary job: childbirth.45 Although women could
keep entertained and productive through a brief stint of working, this is not their main purpose
and neither was sports.46 There were some who argued the converse, however, by claiming that
sport actually helped the women stay healthy because it prevented masturbation.47 Another
factor in the medical debate over women's sport was the theory of vitalism. This popular
Victorian theory proposed that the body has a finite amount of physical energy in it and once this
energy is gone, the person dies. Since childbirth took a lot of this energy out of women, they
should use the rest of it to serve God, family or country and not run around playing sports.48
Doctors also decided that competition was unhealthy for women because it was not in their
nature. Women are naturally above base manly emotions and should not be brought morally
43
44
45
46
47
48
Helen Lenskyj Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality (Toronto: Women’s
Press, 1986), 11.
Lenskyj, 30.
Mary Keyes, “Women and Sport,” in A Concise History of Sport (Toronto:
Oxford University, 1989), 230.
Lenskyj, 28, 30.
Lenskyj, 31.
Lenskyj, 19.
17
18
down to man’s level.49 Finally, doctors also controlled female athletes by treating their injuries
as women first, then as athletes; this meant that any injuries we assumed to be related to female
problems, not athletic ones.50
Lenskyj also makes a very convincing case in her book that men reward women
who satisfy their stereotypes. It is essential that women are less skilled, emphasize femininity
and figure, are attractive to men to keep marriage prospects up, and do not look masculine in
order to avoid threatening male identity.51 This final point in the list is particularly powerful
because muscular women are thought of as unnatural and a threat to the male’s superiority. This
stigma may keep some women from intensive training since they want to remain attractive.
Lenskyj also discusses developments in the position of women’s sports in Canadian
society. She starts by explaining that women’s sport was very popular with participants and
spectators from 1920 to 1935. This attention mostly focused on softball, basketball, the 1928
Olympic team and golf. The media right from this time, however, chose to focus on the athlete’s
femininity not their athleticism or performance.52 The Second World War brought women back
into the popular sports mix but once the war was over, the women were told to go home and be
good feminine and heterosexual wives and mothers.53 Those women who did stay or become
competitive faced new accusations against them. Aside from those who were Barbara Ann Scott
doll-type athletes, women were increasingly challenging their boundaries after the war. Some
women still insisted on a standard of femininity, even finding a loss acceptable if they had to lose
to women who did not look feminine.54
49
50
51
52
53
54
Lenskyj, 37.
Lenskyj, 35.
Lenskyj, 56, 62, 66, 78, 137.
Lenskyj, 69
Lenskyj, 80, 83.
Lenskyj, 86.
19
Out of Bounds closes by pushing the boundaries itself. Lenskyj discusses the issue
of lesbianism and how society did not trust women being around women in team sports because
they thought it will turn them into lesbians. This only seemed to be confirmed by certain rumors
in the LPGA and the Billy Jean King scandal. Although Lenskyj does not acknowledge the
power traditional women’s sports, such as diving and synchronized swimming, can have, it is an
excellent book overall. Other issues she challenges are the lack of equal opportunity for
women’s and men’s sport, the fitness business and the power of advertising to reaffirm gender
stereotypes.
Like male athletes, female athletes have very specific acceptable images, depending
on the time period. In Victorian times, these athletes must maintain their moral superiority,
submissiveness and modesty while participating in sport. In the post-war era that image must
now emphasize the role of family in her life and the physical traits that she should have a slight
build and should not look like an “Amazon.” These images are tied to the position of these
athletes in the public eye. Although athletes who conform to gender images, such as Anna
Kornikova, can be accepted by the public, they are often not accepted for their athletic
performance but for their physical attractiveness. As well, almost every female athlete that is
neither overly sexualized nor innocent and doll-like is derogatorily labeled lesbian.
The labeling of female athletes as lesbian is particularly common with team sports.
In fact, Pronger recounts the opening speech of a university-level women's basketball coach who
said that no one “could be lesbian during the season.”55 Freudian sexual logic believes that male
bonding is acceptable because men do not feel a close bond to other men. Close female
relationships, however can turn those women into lesbians, so women’s friendship was not
55
Unidentified coach as quoted by Pronger, xi.
19
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accepted as appropriately homosocial the way men’s relationships were.56 Chapter 7 of Susan
Cahn’s Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women's Sport discusses
the mannish athlete and lesbian threat. Although this is an American source, it outlines
“mannishness,” explains why it was considered a threat to society, and ties it into concerns about
lesbianism. In fact, doctors once advocated special instruction in how to be heterosexual for
female athletes. This is necessary because they are not always attractive to men and if they get
rejected then they may become lesbians.57 As well, there was a popular belief that since male
virility is tied to sport when women play sport they can pick this up and it must be eradicated.
From 1900 to 1930 society worried that sport would loosen women’s inhibitions around men and
that their sexual desire may overpower and threaten men.58 “Mannishness” was another common
fear and it essentially predicted that women would become masculine, adopt masculine traits and
clothes, lose their ability to reproduce, and be corrupted morally, physically and mentally.59
Women were pressured from the 1950s on to over emphasize their femininity and
heterosexuality (which are, of course, considered the same thing).60
Perhaps surprisingly, society's fear of lesbians in sport leaves little room for lesbian
athletes to maneuver in. The Cold War era’s attack on homosexuality and the poor reputation of
working-class lesbian bar patrons combined to make “lesbian” a greatly insulting and threatening
word to use against female athletes. Unfortunately, lesbian athletes' experiences are rarely
studied so the variety of reactions to gendered and sexualized restrictions is unclear. Instead,
researchers generally focus on how harmful the lesbian image is to women's sport and how
lesbian labeling is an insult directed at female athletes who do not fit their gender's norms. These
56
57
58
59
60
Lenskyj 58, 66.
Susan Cahn, Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century
Women's Sport (Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan, 1994), 164.
Cahn, 165.
Cahn, 165-166.
Cahn, 181.
21
researchers are often so intent on disputing the myth that all female athletes are lesbian and
discussing how extremely feminine images are used to counteract that myth, that they do not
explore the experiences of actual lesbians in sport. This denies the presence of lesbian athletes
and reinforces society's claim that lesbians do not belong in sport.
Of course, it is often difficult to find lesbian athletes, due to the previously
mentioned restrictions that may follow being “outed,” such as a loss of sponsorship. The issue of
“outing” is aptly expressed through Young's discussion of the LPGA's treatment of lesbianism in
the league. He focuses on this particular group because of the actions the group has taken to
counter its image as lesbian. Specifically, he quotes Out magazine which claimed in 1994 that
30-40% of the women on the LPGA Tour are lesbian.61 In reaction to this and other such
allegations, the LPGA hired a beautician and fashion consultant to increase the femininity of its
players. Young then very effectively puts this action in its historic context. He explains that the
LPGA fought its association with lesbianism because they knew that when Billy Jean King
announced that she was lesbian, sponsors threatened to leave. The LPGA had only recently
acquired a great deal of prestige and sponsorship and they did not want to threaten either the
funding or the publics acceptance of the sport.62 This information is part of a broader discussion
of how women's sport is kept in a secondary status through the label “lesbian.” One very
interesting addition to this discussion is how Young questions the role sport is given by society.
Specifically, women are discouraged from competition in sports and elsewhere as it is
unladylike. Boys, on the other hand, are taught through sport how to compete. Since sport is
widely considered training in “those virtues necessary to compete and excel in American
61
62
Young, 33.
Young, 33.
21
22
society,” Young questions what women being discouraged from fully participating in sport says
about their place in society. This is a very interesting and controversial question that definitely
deserves further exploration.
Sexual orientation is also tied to various broader athletic issues. In her study “The
Doping Ban: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbophobia,” Rebecca Ann Lock ties the
heterosexuality of sport to perceptions of athletic doping. She establishes that doping is less
acceptable for women than for men, possibly because women who dope are challenging their
heterosexuality through using steroids to appear more masculine.63 This in turn reflects the
image formed of these women's sexuality and sexual orientation because women are supposed to
both look acceptable, generally small and not too muscular, and to act in acceptable ways.64 This
of course does not allow for steroid use. Lock also notes that women who are even suspected of
using steroids are treated to similar discrimination that lesbians and “ugly” women face.65 All of
these women fail to live up to the heterosexual standards of femininity and all are ostracized for
it. This is a unique way to analyze how sport reinforced heterosexual images and a
corresponding study on the links between masculinity and steroid-use would be interesting.
Clearly, sport, gender and sexuality are interrelated. Through analyzing sport and
sport history, a more complete idea of the creation and enforcement of gender norms in society
can be developed. A gendered analysis of sport can and should also be applied to people who are
not athletes themselves. For example, S.M. Thompson's book Mother's Taxi: Sport and Women's
Labour explores how women enable sport in the family through extra domestic work and what
their family's involvement with sport means to them. Other studies could further examine how
63
Rebecca Ann Lock, “The Doping Ban: Compulsory Heterosexuality and
Lesbophobia,” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 38, no. 4
(2003), 398.
64
Lock, 403.
65
Lock, 402.
23
the ideal sporting image of the heterosexual male athlete is created and the effects of this image
on the development of sport in Canada. The images of sport need to be challenged and their
power acknowledged. By doing this, the discrimination against women's sport and the denial of
gay male involvement in sport can both be addressed. Although this essay has just been a quick
overview of what has been said by sociologists, journalists and historians so far, it is clear that
there are still many issues in sport history that inspire more questions and issues than have been
answered.
Attention to sports, sports culture and sporting history need not come solely from
social or cultural historians. For example, there are many political issues with sports such as the
use of sport by politicians to build nationalism, how national, provincial/territorial and local
funding is approved, and the development of sporting organizations and institutions at various
levels. Although done by a cultural historian, another potential approach to the relationship
between politics and sport is demonstrated in Varda Burstyn's controversial book The Rites of
Men: Manhood, Politics and the Culture of Sport. She deconstructs professional sport as
encouraging anti-social behavior and values and dangerous hyper-masculinity. She argues that
professional sport (and possibly all sport) should be removed from it's current place of
importance in society. She particularly attacks the use of public funding to supplement
professional sport. Ultimately, her work makes a strong case for further study of the connection
between sports and politics. Economic historians can also contribute to sport history, possibly
through charting the development of sponsorship and funding or the economic impact of sports
on Canada.
Whatever the approach and methodology, sports history is an available and exciting
field to work in and must be considered legitimate historical study. Further study will challenge
23
24
the common place of sport history as an “add-on” to mainstream survey classes. Instead, sports
can be incorporated into lectures on a wide variety of issues, such as race, gender, class,
economics, and politics. Sport history provides an excellent way for historians to reach beyond
academia and connect with students and the broader public. In turn, these groups can be exposed
to wider academic discourses about gender, race, class, and other topics.
Sports moments, as experienced individually or as a group, can define broader
identities and can even unify groups in the experience of the event. Double gold in hockey at the
Olympics, Sandra Schmirler's legacy here in Saskatchewan, playing a pick-up game of
basketball, or even watching the playoffs for any sport on TV. Sport history is an exciting and
viable field of exploration for 21st century historians and should be acknowledged and respected
as such.
25
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A Sporting Chance:
A Gendered Case for the Study of Sport by Historians
Jillian Staniec
27