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This week I took a closer look at how sports are connected to the social construction of masculinity. Specifically, I reviewed a study Rebecca Kissane who researched women’s agency in fantasy sports. Granted, fantasy sports are somewhat different from eSports as the leagues do not receive sponsorships, sell out arenas, or have the ability for other people to watch them play, yet I do feel it was worthwhile to investigate some of the gender disparities in online gaming as it is clear they all have something in common. Kissane claims that men gain vicarious masculinity through the athletic success of other men, specifically professional athletes. A concept Kissane raises, and I believe it directly applies to my log from last week, is the “institutional center”, which is where most participants in fantasy sports compete in leagues surrounding football, baseball, and basketball. Each of these sports are dominated by masculine ideals and are important for the perpetuation of hegemonic masculinity. In addition, because women do not have experience playing sports that are a part of the institutional center, Kissane concludes that they cannot achieve full status as a fan that a man can. Bringing this idea back to findings from last week, I thought of how society may not view eSport gamers as “athletes” because they are not a part of the institutional center, yet they still may achieve full masculinity as they often play violent games that involve guns and killing as well as traditional sports like the ones in the institutional center.
This article as well as others have confirmed the notion that sports and masculinity are deeply intertwined. So much so that it causes me to theorize why video games do not deviate from the norm by any means; eSports’s masculinity is a product of our history and I realized this connection should be no surprise at all.
For the direction of my project, something that has consistently come up in articles that I have reviewed is the history of eSports and its quick elevation into the spotlight. While I have briefly touched upon the eSports come up in my first log, I think I would be a good idea to perhaps research more about the history for one of my last logs. I feel better about the structure of my paper as I will begin discussing the history of eSports and explain how it came into being. I will then explain how the increase in general consumption has propelled a greater accessibility for millennials to consume video games. As a result, directly relating to Ocejo’s idea of how millennials are changing our economic structure and transforming things what use to be considered hobbies into jobs.
