Out of Play

Michael A. Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California and is the author or editor of several books, including Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports and Paradoxes of Youth and Sport (coedited with Margaret Gatz and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach), also published by SUNY Press.

• Foreword by Raewyn ConnellAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Gender and SportsPart I. Sport as a Gender Construction Site 1. Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender2. Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological TerrainPart II. Masculinities: Class, Race, Sexualities 3. Masculinities and Athletic Careers4. White Men Misbehaving: Feminism, Afrocentrism, and the Promise of a Critical Standpoint5. Studying Up on SexPart III. Bodies and Violence 6. When Bodies Are Weapons: Masculinity and Violence in Sport7. Scoring without Consent: Confronting Male Athletes’ Sexual Violence against Women (with Mark Stevens)Part IV. Gendered Imagery 8. Outside the Frame: Newspaper Coverage of the Sugar Ray Leonard Wife Abuse Story (with William S. Solomon)9. The Televised Sports Manhood Formula (with Michele Dunbar and Darnell Hunt)10. This Revolution Is Not Being Televised (with Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Nicole Willms)11. The Male Consumer as Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events (with Jeffrey Montez de Oca)BibliographyIndex

"This book provides a valuable introduction to the issues concerning gender in sport while also maintaining a sophisticated level of analysis … Messner's innovative work certainly deserves reprinting, and this volume conveniently self-selects some of his most influential arguments." — Signs"In Out of Play, Michael Messner tells a fascinating story about the gender dynamics at play in late twentieth-century organized sports … The brilliance of Messner's volume lies in its ability to combine analysis of materially based institutional structures and media-based representations that together project the gender ideologies that at any given moment help constitute the world of sports." — American Journal of Play"Messner takes the topic of gender to new heights … will be an appealing, eye-opening, and frightening read for anyone interested in sports, women's studies, gender studies, or American culture in general." — CHOICE"There is a tremendous range, depth, and quality to Messner's scholarship that has had a profound impact on the field. Reading the selections is somewhat akin to retracing the innovations and developments of the field over the past two decades—and Messner has been at the cutting edge at every turn." — Douglas Hartmann, author of Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath