Learning Who's Boss: Sports Television and the Cultivation of Male Aggression Against Women

• NCJ Number: 151047
• Author(s): D B Sullivan
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 20 pages
• Corporate Author: University of San Diego
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the International Conference on Violence in the Media, New York, NY, October 3 and 4, 1994

Annotation

This paper explores the possibility that the viewing of sports on television cultivates male dominance of women and actual aggression against them.

Abstract

Men are socialized to be in control of their behavior and emotions, especially in personal relationships with women. Televised heavy contact sports encourage male viewers to associate aggression with being in control, because athletes and teams signal their control most emphatically through dominance and aggression. In addition, player aggression reveals a kind of moral reason that justifies the objectification of opponents as things to be conquered. This study argues that the symbolic aggression in television sports encourages male viewers to adopt a macho masculine identification that is partly characterized by the objectification of women, which, in turn, may translate into actual aggression against them. 64 references (Author abstract modified)