ABSTRACT
In the past 25 years, there has been a rapid expansion of literature examining the development of sport and its role in society. While much of this literature has focused on men, we still do not understand the historical relationship between masculinity and sports well enough. North American sport sociologists such as Michael Messner and Donald Sabo, following work. by feminist scholars, have begun to place constructions of masculinity at the centre of discussions of sport and power in society.) We hope to follow their excellent work through applying concepts from gender studies to the study of sports history. We are all well aware that men have predominated in sports as well as in dominant power structures in society. In the case of sport, and especially in sports history, however, we have not focused enough attention on the effect that gendered identities, created and perpetuated over time, have had on sports, the men and women who play them, the women supporting male partners who play them and, more broadly, on the place and values of sport in society generally. Following David Whitson, we are concerned with 'how masculinity is constructed in a society and how the particular way of being male that we know as manliness has achieved and maintained its privileged position in Western societies'.2
