Sporting Bodies: Dynamics of Shame and Pride

Abstract

Drawing on examples of mainstream sport and the philosophy of the Gay Games, this article uses sporting bodies to rethink the links between sexuality, pride and shame. The contrast between the two highlights the ways in which the Gay Games downplays the dynamics of shame and competition in favour of its project of pride. Against the domestication of the body in some theories of embodiment, it is argued that shame may provide a productive ground for revitalizing the study of the body in terms of affect, politics and ethics.

Association Football and the Representation of Homosexuality by the Print Media: A Case Study of Anton Hysén

“…Despite the presence of research on how sport reporters address gay men who come out in sport (Kian and Anderson 2009), limited research (Probyn 2000) has been conducted on openly gay men still playing their respective sport (Kian and Anderson's 2009 paper focused on former National Basketball Association (NBA) player John Amaechi who came out four years after retiring). Although British sport has seen rugby player Gareth Thomas (2009) and cricketer Steven Davies (2011) come out whilst still playing their respective sports, the purpose of this article is to focus on the reporting of Hysén by the print media as he is still actively playing some form of professional football (he is a semi-professional footballer playing in the fourth division in Sweden for Utsiktens BK).…”

‘Handshakes, BBQs, and bullets’: self-interest, shame and regret in football coaching

“…Ultimately though, I am thankful for the way in which this process has contributed to a revision of my conceptual possibilities, and the way in which I engage with my work as a coach educator today (Probyn, 2000). It has led me to think that if I am to succeed in achieving my pedagogical goals of helping people to recognize and critique their own coaching politics, it is important that I do not present myself as a 'faultless' practitioner or engage in the one-way critique of others' practices and views.…”

‘Stand out, not up’: bodyboarders, gendered hierarchies and negotiating the dynamics of pride/shame

“…Shame exists as the consequence of pride, in what Probyn (2000b, p. 25) calls pride's 'mirror image'. For Probyn (2000aProbyn ( , 2000b, shame is at the centre of subjectivity. Probyn (2000aProbyn ( , 2000bProbyn ( , 2004Probyn ( , 2005 examined the productive affects of shame in order to raise questions about the subject, identity and subjectivity.…”