Rugby union men: body concerns

285 Pages·2017·11.66 MB·English

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Rugby Union Men: Body Concerns
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Darko, Natalie (2012). Rugby Union Men: Body Concerns. PhD thesis Loughborough University.
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Rugby Union Men: Body Concerns

by

Natalie Darko

Doctoral Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of

PhD Doctoral Thesis of Loughborough University

(July 2012)

Natalie Darko

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Abstract

Existing research shows that increasing numbers of young men are dissatisfied with
the appearance of their bodies. Drummond (2002a; 2005; 2010) has found that men will use
sport and health-related sports acts to conceal these concerns from others. Accordingly, men’s
body dissatisfactions are documented less frequently because the practices drawn upon to
conceal them are perceived as routine forms of masculine behaviour.

Rugby union is one of the most popular sports played by young men in England.
Historically, the male rugby player is culturally perceived as strong, tough and unemotionally
articulate. Existing research draws attention to health issues, such as performance stress and
injury that arise through participation in this sport. Research also shows that rugby union
players are likely to experience concerns about gaining weight, yet these are disguised within
the requirements of training for the sport. Although, there are studies that examine the
constitution of masculinities, the experience of pain and injury and career transitions among
rugby union players there are no studies, as yet, that examine how rugby union men
experience body concerns and manage these experiences through their sport.

The research discussed in this thesis examines how a group of rugby union men (25)
aged 18-25, of varied racial identity, ethnic and social backgrounds, participating in an elite
university rugby union 1st XV team, experience concerns about the appearance and
performance of their bodies and the ways in which such concerns develop. It also examines if
and how these men used the sport and health-related sports acts, to overcome their concerns
and conceal them from others. A theoretical framework, which draws on the concepts of the
three theorists: Connell (1995, 2008) Goffman (1959; 1961; 1979) and Bourdieu (1978; 1979;
1984), is developed. As part of this, a new concept has been created from Goffman’s
dramaturgical approach: that of the intimate dimension. In this dimension intimate relationships
occur. It is located away from the front region, (the public), and the back region (semi-public
spaces) where less formal relationships occur. It includes the research interview, with a woman
researcher, and some other women such as girlfriends, sisters or female friends and also one
or two other rugby men with whom the rugby men demonstrated a close bond. Within this
dimension the rugby men are more forthcoming about the personal elements of their rugby
lives. The theoretical framework is used to examine these men’s concerns, how they are
developed, experienced and managed.

Recognising that cultural assumptions of a tough and less expressive masculinity
assigned to this sport can potentially make it difficult for men to express these concerns, a
combination of visual research methods and ethnography are used to examine these men’s
body concerns and their management. This includes collaborative collection of photography
and photo-elicitation interviews.

The research shows that embodied experiences of discomfort, associated with pain,
injury, concerns about height, being overweight or out of shape, and social experiences of
exclusion led to the development of the rugby men’s body concerns. For these rugby men, their
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rugby masculinities are influential to the management and concealment of their body concerns.
They suppress and conceal their body concerns in the front and back regions of the sport and
reveal them in more intimate dimensions. The rugby men’s relationships with each other, in the
back regions of the sport, were the most influential to this identity, but more importantly, to the
management and reinforcement of these concerns.

This thesis contributes to filling the gap in existing academic research by examining
body concerns and its management amongst rugby union men. It also extends existing
research that has found men conceal their body concerns in sport, because it looks at how
these men manage these concerns differently in different regions of their sport. Furthermore, a
theoretical framework that combines interactionism and phenomenology is used to study
sociologically men’s body concerns in these different contexts.

The combination of visual methods and ethnography goes beyond some of the existing
methods used in clinical and sociological research that have examined men's body concerns.
They can be used to enhance understanding of clinical forms of body concern and other
emotional concerns rugby union men and other sportsmen, of all ages, have about
performance, pain and injury. The incorporation of visual methods is potentially widely
applicable because they have increasing precedence in sportsmen’s lives to analyse
performance and to represent them.

Keywords; hegemonic rugby masculinity, body concern, men, rugby union, intimate
dimensions, sport, visual research methods, significant others, ethnography, adeptness,
aggression, pain and injury and sports media.

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Contents Page

Part A
Chapter 1 Introduction 5
Chapter 2 A Framework for Analysing Rugby Men’s
Body Concerns 20

Chapter 3 Situating Rugby Masculinities Historically 44
Chapter 4 Methodology 54

Part B

Chapter 5 Sports Masculinities: examination of academic literature
and sports media 88
Chapter 6 The Rugby Men’s Profiles 121

Preface to Part C 134
Part C
Chapter 7 Adept Bodies 137
Chapter 8 Aggression 163
Chapter 9 Tough bodies: Management of Pain and Injury 189
Chapter 10 Conclusion 214

Bibliography 224
Appendices:
Appendix One: Interview guide 265
Appendix Two: Sample Observation Guide 270
Appendix Three: Informed Consent Form/letter (Coach) 272
Appendix Four: Group and Interview Informed Consent Form (Rugby Men)
273
Appendix Five: Sample photo-set for photo-elicitation interview
a. Interview Guide 275
b. Annual Fitness testing 280

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Chapter One; Introduction

1:1 Background to the Research

Since its beginnings in the late 19th Century, rugby union has been culturally
characterised by its organisers, spectators and participants as a ‘real man’s game’ (Pringle,
2001; 2008; Collins, 2009). This connection between manliness and rugby union originated in
the early development of the sport, as it was predominantly white upper-class men who
participated in this sport in Britain and it centred on a hegemonic form of masculinity. The game
was entrenched in the curriculum of boys’ public schools as a means of “instilling manliness”
(Pringle, 2001: 426) and was used to prepare young men for war as they were taught to be
athletic, robust, tough, determined, disciplined and less emotional (Collins, 2009). This is not to
suggest that since this period women have not participated in the game; their involvement in
the sport at a professional, semi-professional and amateur level has increased significantly
since the 19th Century. However, as the level of contact, aggression (Kerr, 2005) and injuries
(Brooks et al., 2005; Fuller et al., 2010) sustained in this sport is significantly higher than any
other English field sport (Nicholl et al., 1995) rugby union is predominantly played by men. It is
focused on a hegemonic form of masculinity and produces the character of hegemonic men
(Carle and Nauright, 1999). Connell developed the concept of hegemonic masculinities in the
1980s. This concept focused on the exploration of male dominance over women and
subordinate men (Demetriou, 2001). It was devised to reflect the continuance of power
struggles between men and women. It was referred to “as the pattern of practice (i.e. things
done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity) that allowed men’s dominance over
women to continue” (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005: 832). Carrigan et al., (1985:592) argue
that hegemonic masculinity “refers to those groups of men who inhabit positions of power and
wealth, and how they legitimatise and reproduce those social relationships that generate their
dominance”. Hegemonic masculinities place value on heterosexuality, authority, emotional
control, physical strength and endurance (Courtenay, 2000; Mathewson, 2009).

Academic research describes how boys and men perceive the game as a battlefield of
war in which they learn how to be tough, adept, strong, aggressive and unemotionally articulate
(Light and Kirk, 2000). Men’s expression of the emotional self, through discussion of less
serious injury and acute pain (Howe, 2004); inability to be adept and aggressive (Collins,
2009); and narcissistic concerns about one’s body, are defined by men as effeminate. As Bam,
one of the rugby men1 who participated in this research explained: you have to “stop moaning
about the pain, get up, shut up, and stop being a fanny”. Media representations of men’s rugby
union in sports coverage and fictional film also characterise and glorify the game as a
hegemonic masculine experience (Light, 1999a).

This thesis examines the masculinities that exist in this sport, and how they are
culturally promoted in media representations. It examines a group (25) of male rugby union

1 The male participants involved in the research, are referred to as ‘rugby men’ as oppose to male rugby union players
because they referred themselves in this way.
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players and reveals how these men feel about their bodies when their perceptions of this
identity cannot be sustained. It will be shown that this identity is important for understanding
how these men employ the sport, and health related sports acts, to conceal and work to
overcome these concerns.

Academic research has revealed that sportsmen will use sports training to deal with
difficult emotional feelings (Hasse et al., 2002; Lilleaas, 2007) such as body dissatisfaction.
Although clinical research reveals that concerns experienced by young men about the
appearance of their bodies have increased (Adams et al., 2005; Andersen and DiDomenico,
1992; Davis, 1998; 2002; Cafri et al., 2002; Filiault and Drummond, 2008; Gill, 2008; Grammas
and Schwartz, 2009; Ricciardelli and McCabe, 2003; Phillips and Castle, 2001; Peat et al.,
2011; Phillips, 2005; Phillips et al., 2006; Ricciardelli at al., 2006), many of the studies about
body dissatisfaction have examined more women than men in their research, or they have
focused primarily on women and how women experience their bodies (Gill, 2008; Phillips,
2005; Gillon and McPherson, 2007; Russell, 2004). White (2002) and Courtenay (2000) argue
fewer studies about men’s body concerns exist because “traditional, masculine attributes such
as risk-taking, perceived invulnerability, and endurance of pain, potentially exacerbate health
problems and deter men from seeking professional help” (cited in Gough and Conner, 2006:
387). Furthermore, men are deterred from participating because research participants are
recruited in medical and clinical contexts. My research differs as it asks men to discuss their
body concerns in their own sports environment.

Drummond’s research with young men experiencing eating disorders (Drummond,
2002a; 2010); homosexual men experiencing body image concerns (Drummond, 2005; Filiault
and Drummond, 2008); and body image perceptions of male fitness instructors (Phillips and
Drummond, 2001) have contributed significantly to developing our understanding of these
concerns. Importantly, Drummond’s research shows that young men experiencing body image
concerns and who experience narcissistic behaviours embed them “in exercise [and sport] as a
masculine model of weight control or loss” (Drummond, 2002a:3). Accordingly, Drummond
argues that men’s body image concerns often go unrecognised because the practices drawn
upon to mask these concerns are perceived as customary forms of public masculine behaviour.
Drummond conceptualises dissatisfactions about the physical attributes of the body:
body shape, size, and weight, as body image concerns (2002a; 2005). The males in this study
are also repulsed by the sight of their bodies. This can lead them to believe that they need to
lower their own body weight, their body fat percentage and avoid food containing high levels of
fat (Drummond, 2002a). He examines the body image concerns of men clinically diagnosed as
possessing an eating disorder, but he also examines non-clinical body image concerns of men
(2005) and sportsmen (1996, 2001) not possessing eating disorders.

Drummond’s (2002a) argument that men will use sport, and health-related acts, to
conceal their body image concerns, is significant to understanding why there have been no
studies, as yet, about the body concern of rugby union men. Medical and non-medical studies
have examined the body dissatisfactions (and comparable issues such as body image
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concerns and clinical disorders; Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder)
of sportsmen involved in football, athletics (Haase et al., 2002; Parks and Reed, 1997; Filiault
and Drummond, 2008) and bodybuilding (Monaghan, 1999; 2001; 2002). Studies examining
male rugby union players outline the type and incidence of injuries (Brooks et al., 2005;
Garraway et al., 2000; Fuller et al., 2010). Other research has moved beyond the epidemiology
of injuries and examined rugby union men’s experiences of pain and injury and associated
concerns (Howe, 2004; Smith and Sparkes, 2005). However these studies did not directly
intend to examine rugby men’s body concerns.

A study that examines the rugby union men’s experiences of body concerns and how
they work to overcome and conceal them in the sport is needed. As cultural connotations of a
strong, unemotional and tough masculinity have been associated with rugby union (Howe,
2004; Collins, 2009; Light, 1999a; Light and Kirk, 2000), men use this sport, as a way of hiding
their body concerns from others. Furthermore, because this is an overtly masculine sport
(Pringle, 2001; 2008; Collins, 2009), rugby union provides an ideal context in which to examine
how rugby men manage their body concerns in this environment.

A study that examines the rugby union men’s body concerns is also worthwhile
because rugby union is one of the most popular sports played by young men in Britain and
therefore can potentially affect a large number of men. The Active People Survey (APS 2)
revealed that 159,000 young men, between the ages of 16–29 years, participated in rugby
union for at least 30 minutes each week between October 2008 and October 2009. Whilst
popularity alone may not warrant this study, public media revelations about emotional instability
experienced by professional and semi-professional rugby union men does draw attention to the
health issues that arise through their involvement in this sport. Male rugby union players who
have articulated emotional fragility include John Kirwan, New Zealand former winger and
Martineau Bastareaud2, French centre. Academic research has also drawn attention to the
emotional stress male rugby players experience. In a study conducted by Nicholl et al., (2005)
professional rugby players reported numerous forms of performance stress most common
stressors referred to mental and physical error and injury. Furthermore, research by Chung
(2001) shows that rugby union players are likely to experience concerns about gaining weight,
which are incorporated in the criterion for Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder (MDD), yet these are
disguised in the requirements of training for the sport and the athletic culture. Whilst Chung’s
research draws awareness to the concerns rugby union men may experience, there have been
no studies, as yet, that examine how rugby union men experience body concerns and manage
them through the sport.

In order to widen this field and expand on Drummond’s (2002a) work, this thesis
examines how a group of rugby union men experience concerns about the appearance of their
bodies, the ways in which such concerns develop, and how the men use the sport and health-
related sports acts, to overcome and conceal them from others. It builds on Drummond’s

2 See: France rugby star Mathieu Bastareaud tried suicide (2009)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article6613350.ece, accessed August 2010
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