Previous research has identified sports-related risk factors that can cause acts of violence outside the sporting milieu. The purpose of this case study is to examine the ideals, language and social status of male ice hockey players and determine whether and how they affect their views of sexuality, aggressiveness and actions outside the ice hockey milieu. The method and material are based on a qualitative content analysis of interviews with six senior ice hockey players in Sweden. Research on masculinity and violence theoretically inspires the study. The findings show that expectations and norms can create increased status in a team and at the same time can also make it difficult for players to fully follow their own values and inner guides. In other words, players can be themselves, yet sometimes have to toe the line and follow the group (even if they do not always want to). Another finding is the dilemma of silence and the difficulties that players face in setting limits for team-mates who, for example, joke in a diminishing and inappropriate way. The article ends with a discussion about the challenges that these results entail regarding progressive (violence-preventative) work within ice hockey at the individual and structural levels.

The purpose of this article is to investigate women’s participation in mixed martial arts in the Nordic countries. The study is based on a qualitative and quantitative methodological approach consisting of individual interviews and focus group interviews with Swedish female mixed martial arts fighters and data from a Norwegian survey of participants in Norwegian mixed martial arts clubs. A total of 12 female fighters were interviewed, while 484 respondents participated in the survey. The results show that women exercising mixed martial arts contain a potential to act as feminist role models through their counter-hegemonic renegotiation of norms and views on femininity and, more specifically, the perception of femininity as something fragile and passive. Despite this progressive potential, the informants unanimously affirm that combat sports in general and in different ways are dominated by males. The data indicates that women still represent a small and marginalised group among mixed martial arts participants in the Nordic countries. Furthermore, women participating in mixed martial arts compete less and are less motivated by performance enhancement (developing as fighters, winning fights/tournaments/titles) compared to the male participants. However, both male and female participants value health and fun as the most important reasons for their participation in mixed martial arts training groups.

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From both a quantitative and qualitative perspective, research shows that men and masculinities have dominated the Swedish sports movement for a long time and that sport as a so-called 'democratic people's movement' has been criticised for being a male movement. Given the self-made claims of the Swedish Sports Confederation's fostering of inclusivity and democratisation, this study encompasses a critical and historical perspective on the inclusive and exclusive dimensions of sport. The study object is a Swedish sports club and the specific aim is to analyse the prevailing norms and ideals and how they eventually helped to reproduce men's domination in a local sports club. Chronologically, the paper uses a historical comparative approach studying the club's 1910s-1920s and 1970s-1980s. The research questions put are: What characterised the norms of the ideal member and collective membership in terms of gender and did these change over time? Is it possible to find specific examples of inclusion and exclusion techniques by studying the club's photographs and stories? The main result shows subtle and explicit power techniques that reproduced (some) men's superior position at the club level.