The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex

Franзois Boudreau is a sociology professor at Laurentian University in
Sudbury.

This interpretation of gay and athletic experience in exploring
homosexuality is well written, seriously documented, and extensive in
scope, and hits right at the heart of the male myth. In this day and age
of identity crisis about what it is to be male, Pronger’s welcome
contribution is significant, and reads easily. It definitely advances
the debate on machismo, sexuality, and liberation from the
oppressiveness of gender conventions. There are brilliant theoretical
passages in the early chapters on the social construct of gender, the
orthodox heterosexual myth, the homoerotic paradox of masculinity, and
the social making of homosexuality. The strengths of the book reside in
the way Pronger combines the different theoretical elements. He then
articulates them with 47 illustrations from historical and contemporary
sources to support his analysis, interspersed with numerous quotes from
the athletic world.

Pronger’s interpretation of homosexuality shows how and why the
traditional concept of masculinity is fragile, camouflaged by violence;
and how homosexuality plays on a thin line between masculine orthodoxy
(male strength) and the masculine paradox (its attractiveness for other
men), particularly in a sporting-event setting. Homophobia can then be
seen as a fear of the homoeroticism of the male body—a fear of the
contradiction contained in the male myth. Today many gay men look more
masculine (muscular and healthy, therefore attractive) than many
heterosexuals, which, in turn, is a major part of the masculine paradox.

The author also depicts how the gay world is not immune from the most
blatant sexist stereotypes. Gay sex is as often commercialized as
heterosexual sex, relying heavily on “perfectly proportioned”
men’s bodies (the Apollo myth) and excluding those that fail to
correspond to the mythical image, just as society does with women’s
bodies. In that sense, gayness can be oppressive and not intrinsically a
source of liberation. Pronger continues to demonstrate clearly that male
sporting events are just like “male fucking”—both rely on the same
general parameters of the male paradox. If this were consciously known,
the patriarchal power of athletes, of men in general, and society would
be radically undermined.