ABSTRACT
There is often an exhilarating energy in school sport for many boys. Even, at times, a repressed sensuality and sense of drama. But alongside that energy and
fierce movement boys also learn what it is to be a ‘real boy’ in our culture. As we can see from the extract above, boys learn about the necessity of hardening their bodies, accepting violent confrontations as a ‘normal’ way of life and splitting themselves off from their feelings. To play sport in an appropriately manly way, boys have to prepare their bodies for physical clashes and jarring crunches. Through this, they often develop a clenched determination to win at all costs by gritting their teeth and ignoring their hurt and often confused feelings about what they’re doing to themselves and others.
