ABSTRACT

Sport today is one of the few areas where men can meet without women. In the workplace, and from the church to the pub, the sexes mix. Therefore contemporary sport has become extremely overloaded, as the field designated to bear a large part of the male project, to identify what is masculine n relation to other men. However, today a chasm has appeared between a group of highly-trained body-conscious men and the broad majority suffering under welfare society’s lack of physical demands. Many male politicians today use sport and physical charisma to boost their career. The cult of the body typically belongs to a view of the world in which the strong leader’s own body or ability to control the bodies of others forms a platform for propaganda. Populist politicians from Berlusconi to Sarkozy and Putin use sport as a political backdrop to give their control a festive glory. Conversely, sports stars from Pelé to Schwarzenegger tend to first develop their own sporting abilities and popularity and, taking that as their starting point, then seek to win political terrain.