Assessing the Sociology of Sport on Changing Masculinities and Homophobia

Sport sociology has been intricately tied with the \ud study of masculinities since the early 1990s \ud in the West. The field was first established in exa\ud mining white male athlete’s masculinity, \ud particularly noting its root in homophobia in the f\ud orging of a hegemonic form of masculinity. \ud However, contemporary masculinity scholarship shows\ud a changed relationship between \ud men’s masculinity and hegemonic dominance. Current \ud research examines men’s \ud masculinities in an era of decreased homohysteria, \ud finding teamsport athletes inclusive of \ud homosexuality. This simultaneously permits heterose\ud xual men to live within greatly \ud expanded gender terrains. The challenge for sport s\ud ociologist concerned with masculinities \ud today, is to expand the locus of investigation to t\ud he intersectional demographics of varying \ud races, geographical locations, religious beliefs, a\ud ge and other important demographics