Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport (Suny Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations)

A revealing look at gender issues in contemporary sport.

From beer ads in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to four-year-old boys and girls playing soccer; from male athletes€ sexual violence against women to homophobia and racism in sport, Out of Play analyzes connections between gender and sport from the 1980s to the present. The book illuminates a wide range of contemporary issues in popular culture, children€s sports, and women€s and men€s college and professional sports. Each chapter is preceded by a short introduction that lays out the context in which the piece was written. Drawing on his own memories as a former athlete, informal observations of his children€s sports activities, and more formal research such as life-history interviews with athletes and content analyses of sports media, Michael A. Messner presents a multifaceted picture of gender constructed through an array of personalities, institutions, cultural symbols, and everyday interactions.

€œThis 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

€œIn 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

€œMessner 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

€œThere 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