Race, Gender and Nationalism in Boxing
By Ryan Evans 15/09/07
The sport of boxing is one that has been around from ancient history, it was at one time a sport that had 30 rounds and little to no medical attention. At one time it was dominated by white working class men giving the society the notion that white is superior, from the 1960’s - 1980’s which are seen by many as the golden years of boxing ,boxers that achieved legendary status were in abundance, many of whom black.
Boxing is a sport of individuals at different weights; the weight that gets the most coverage is in the heavy weight division, as it is seen as being the best boxer in the world.
One of the most famous boxer and sportsmen of all time is Muhammad Ali aka the Greatest. Muhammad Ali was in his sporting prime between the 60s- mid 70s. His style and fair in side the ring and outspoken behaviour outside of it quickly got media attention and lime light, he was near enough an instead house hold name especially African Americans.
His prime fighting year were at the same time black people were fighting for equal rights, so for many black people he was seen as beating the white government not only when he would beat a white fighter but when he would argue with the TV presenter offered to many fans a sense of victory. He wasn’t just a black boxer but a boxer with some thing to say. As any true sporting legend Ali wasn’t without his countless scandals and set backs.
After changing his name from Cassius clay to Muhammad Ali when he was converted to Islam more important the nation of Islam which at the time was seen by many as an out let for black people that wanted something new of their own. In society it was seen as Ali being in touch with his community showing that he wouldn’t sell out him self to make more money.
One of Ali’s most famous fights wasn’t in the ring but in the court room against the U.S government when he refused to serve in the US army during the Vietnam War. A classic quote from Ali at this time was “no Vietnams never called me a nigger” the American government would have loved Ali to go into the army not only for his physical strength but also his political strength, For Ali to show that he agreed with the US government it represent a unity that was lacking with the black community. Ali did not fight again for 2 ½ years. He was stripped of his championship title, his passport taken; all his boxing licenses were cancelled. He lost an initial court battle and was facing a 5-year prison term. Ali made money during his exile by speaking at colleges. He was the first national figure to speak out against the war in Vietnam.
Like in the 1968 Mexico Olympic when Tommy smith and John carols put up their fist with a black glove while on the medal stand to show their black community they still are with them.
Like any hero story a decline in Ali career was going to come, unknown to many Ali lost his last five fights, and the fights didn’t have the normal level of promotion or media attention. To keep Ali’s perfect hero stature these losses aren’t too much public lime light. Sadly at the moment Ali is fighting a different type of fight against a form of Parkinson disease, physically he is a shell of his former world champion physic.
This period of his life has done something very rare, he has changed whom he is a hero to not removing people but adding people in a disable condition. He is an icon for living life to the fullest, with a life long disease.
Bringing it more up to date female boxers have had an increasing tough challenge getting women’s boxing into the mainstream.
Women in contact sports generally have never been fully social accepted as it contradicts the common view of women; society is still held by the perception of women as helpers of men to never be stronger then men. The media has never given big promotion to a women boxing match in England, I fell that the public thinks it breaks to many boundaries.
In media history the male has also been the dominate force for example Tarzan and Jane, pop eye and olive oil Boss and sectary. These examples may seem quite far winded but they have done a great deal in reinforcing the stereo types of women, to bring this into the sport context in the Olympics the men’s events are always given more publicity. The finals of the men’s events e.g. 100m sprint always has been the best prime time coverage, suggesting that the producers believe men are better physical athletes.
This could be because of the physical differences like men looking more muscular e.g. wide shoulder and large back which should mean more power, this view has however been tested over history as female body building have made they bodies to look the definition and masculine. With huge biceps and triceps removing the feminine blossom and replacing it with ripped chest muscles, the average male find these images off putting due to the complete opposite to the norm. ‘Despite our culture’s tendency to cast males as being large and muscular and females as being small and thin, the average man is only 10% to 15% larger than the average woman.
When looking in newspapers and magazines the most published female athletes are the one which fit the standard stereotype, i.e. some one that could be a swim wear model which are on the most part tennis players good or bad.
Anna Kournikova has made more then double the money she has made from tennis by modelling, she has been made famous not because of her tennis ability but because of her looks.
These views they put into a book called Social aspects of sport by Snyde and Spreitzer (1983). In this book they had three types of women in sport, the socialy acceptable went as follows
Generally acceptable for all women sports that involve the projection of the body through space in aesthetically pleasing patterns or the use of a light implement, no body contact is possible in sports such as swimming, gymnastics, figure skating, and tennis.
Although written over twenty years ago and women have achieved a great amount of progression since this piece but what still stands is the fact that these non contact sports still has the most promotion for women’s sport. In the same book they showed the most unacceptable
Includes combat sports, some field events, and sports that involve attempts to subdue physically opponents by body contact, direct application of force to a heavy object, and face-to-face opposition where body contact may occur.
Again women’s contact sport have progressed by miles since then field sports like ladies foot ball has become the fastest growing sport in the country, receiving television coverage on the BBC on prime time slots and with large sponsorship deals from the likes of McDonalds Nike. The major difference between these sports is the levels of contact and style of play, in boxing it is all about power and aggression face to face toe to toe contact and there is blood, broken noses, cut and bruises. Football can be seen as much more skilful team orientated sport, less injuries and much more mud and dirt but this is better then blood.
It took untill 1988 for Sweden to sanction women’s boxing match’s which is just under twenty years ago, Britain didn’t sanction a fight until 1997 this match was cancelled due to negative media and public attention. For this to happen in the 20th century seems an unbelievable ice aged response, in America at this time women boxing was at a high the most well known of these being Laila Ali the daughter of Muhammad Ali who stay holds the her WBC and WIBA super middleweight world titles. She as also part of the most famous women boxing match called Ali vs. Frazer IV in memory of their fathers epic fights, also it was the first women’s fight to be the main event on pay per view unfortunately this was in 2001 and a fight of that magnitude hasn’t happen since.
This shows the up hill struggle women face to make women boxing completely socially acceptable, even if women perform well, a certain phrase can’t be said which are commonly used to show men’s poor form such as “you kick like a girl”
From women that want more professional promotion to Cuban’s that don’t professional success.
Cuba has long had some of the world of talented boxers; the Cuban’s have been dominating the amateur ranks with champion after champion for close to 30 years, no country has had half the amateur success as Cuba.
In World Amateur Boxing competitions, Cubans have won 64 of the 152 gold medals issued between 1974 and 2005.
Cuba is an incredibly proud country nation respect and acknowledgement means more then anything; the President Fidel Castro has made sure to make it a very useful political tool. It isn’t a secret that Castro hasn’t been the biggest fan of America or company globalisation for him to be able to keep some of the world best boxers in the country shows the world how much unity and harmony he has created, how many American boxers could say anything near this comment made by Cuban three time Olympic heavy weight champion Teofilo Stevenson.
“What is $5m compared to five million Cubans who love me?”
This was response to a report when asked why he didn’t go professional, on the other side of boxing its all about is money, I doubt any professional boxer would go to Cuba for a world title fight for less then $1 million.
The Olympics is the perfect way to show the world what the Cuban can do, and to show how much dominates they would have in the professional ranks. Two Olympic gold medals Cuba didn’t get were in 1984 and 1988 when Cuba boycotted in support of Soviet Union boycott, this type of attention and media spotlight tells the whole world where you stand politically without the president saying a single word.
In conclusion sport and society has gone hand in hand over the centuries, race has always been a key word in sport same with gender during this piece of work I hope I have shown the way in which society and sport are contacted.
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