ABSTRACT
Introduction Sport has historically been a cultural location where American manhood has been defined, promoted, and celebrated. For centuries, competing social, political, and economic meanings about the body in American history have defined what is valued, celebrated, and abhorred in the behaviors, attitudes, dress, and appearances of men and women. Religion, war, politics, nationalism, international relations, commercialization, education, racism, sexism, compulsory heterosexuality, entertainment, and business have all influenced the contested ideas about what it meant to be a man-whether a husband, a father, a brother, a leader, a worker, or athlete. Even presidents of the United States have occasionally weighed in on the value of sport in developing the consummate American man who could serve his country and lead in the development of his nation. In turn, those contested ideas have created and sustained institutional practices over long periods. Celebrations of iconic masculinity through sporting achievements have mobilized millions of Americans, while derogations of perceived inappropriate representations of manhood through sport have inspired citizens to violence and murder.
