Measuring masculinity: Male competition in sports

For generations, sports have been a breeding ground for toxic masculinity (a perception of masculinity that emphasizes strength and aggression to an extent that harms men and the way that society views them) and hyper-masculine identities. Thus, competition in sports for men and masculine-identifying athletes has become more significant than simply winning or losing; for many athletes, the outcome of a match can signify whether or not their masculinity is verified or rejected by sports journalists, fans, agents, coaches, and all other spectators of masculinity and its relationship to sports.

Many scholars have attempted to understand how and why masculinity is measured in certain accomplishments, such as athletic achievement. According to one such scholar, Shaun R. Harper, a professor at the University of Southern California, masculine identities are most often characterized by autonomy, achievement concerns, competence, mastery, supremacy, and competitiveness. 

While athleticism is not explicitly mentioned in this list, it exists at the intersection of many of these themes—exercising the independence of the body, overcoming and attaining athletic achievements, improving skills, and proving mastery in competition and comparison are all elements necessary to the support and propagation of athletics in the United States. However, it is essential here to recognize that the pressure of each of these factors falls more heavily on men whose masculinity is already challenged, inside or outside of athletic competition—the masculinity of non-white men.

Each of the standards listed above are all factors associated with European masculinity; because of this, Black men have to make certain changes to overcompensate for a lack of influence on what masculinity looks like in America. As if the spaces allotted for BIPOC identities in the U.S. were not constricted enough, Harper claims in “The Measure of a Man: Conceptualizations of Masculinity among High-Achieving African American College Students” that Black men are constrained to one of two identities—the “tough guy” or “the player.” Regardless of the identity that Black men are boxed into, athleticism is a factor characteristically associated with, however Black masculinity is represented or diminished.

In a study Harper conducted to identify how cisgender male African American college students characterize their masculinity, Harper found that all of the students that he worked with “held certain beliefs and aspired to roles that are consistent with traditional, mainstream White definitions of masculinity.” The role that athleticism plays in white masculinity is thus translated onto the standards that Black masculinity is measured by, raising the stakes for the performance of Black masculinity through the compounded necessity for Black men to adhere to standards of European masculinity as well as to achieve or succeed the expectations set for white men in athletics.

Because of the competition and performance of tough, toxic masculinity that athletics require, men have been socialized to flock to sports as a space to express and prove their identity on a platform that can be verified and/or scrutinized by others, and for non-white men, the consequences of this verification are even higher stakes. So long as athletes are regarded as the most masculine members of our society, men will continue to be discouraged from expressions of vulnerability, gentility, and softness, and their achievements in non-athletic fields will continue to be questioned or discredited.