Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves

Margaret Carlisle Duncan’s (1998) article “Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves” does an exceptional job of illustrating how storytelling can create empathy and allow the reader to “re-envision [themselves] as the marginalized Other (p. 95).” Duncan (1998) uses several narratives to prove this point, which proves to be quite poignant in allowing the reader to identify with the narrator and gain a new perspective on a given topic. For example, an article that simply describes “Kempo-Goju,” a predominantly African-American form of martial art may give the reader a factual description of the art, but it is unlikely that the reader will feel any connection to it, thus making it more likely that the reader may disregard the information, or not understand its significance. However, in “Tavita’s Story” the reader is given a narrative about the importance of Kempo-Goju, and, through the eyes of Tavita, the reader may feel a greater connection to the information, and have a greater understanding of Kempo-Goju’s significance both to the narrator and to the greater African-American population as a whole.

Personally, I was more deeply affected by “Steven’s Story,” as well as the story regarding the Atkins Diet. Throughout my life, I have always struggled with body image issues, specifically my weight. Much like “Steven,” I have been the target of harassment by other kids on the playground because of my body (luckily without the crotch poking, which I still don’t quite understand), and much like the narrator, I have stood idly by as other kids were harassed for their own appearances. Because I can identify so easily with the characters, I am more sensitive to the moral lesson to be learned from the story.

Likewise, the Atkins story rang true to me as well. I have always struggled with my own weight, with constant fluctuations throughout my teens, until I finally maxed out around 250 pounds during my freshman year of college. The narrator’s story of going to unhealthy means to lose weight is something that I certainly have done. I can identify with her decision to stick with that diet despite the damage that she was doing to her own body. Although the femininity level may not necessarily apply to me, I can still relate to the perspective of the story, putting myself in the narrator’s shoes, I can easily pull out the significance of the story. It is because of this that narratives can be such an effective tool in writing sociologically.

Are Pro Sports Growing More Altruistic?

Neil Howe’s (2010) “Are Pro Sports Growing More Altruistic?” is an interesting piece about the change in the Millennial Generation’s preferences in sport. The author charges that the current generation of young sport fans are more disinterested in the economic elements or the violent tendencies of professional sports, but rather, they are more interested in the seeing athletes that help their communities and are there for their families. Reading this article, I certainly see merit to this argument. Programs such as RBI in Major League Baseball and Play 60 in the NFL are hugely successful and widely publicized, as they highlight the altruistic nature of those leagues. Additionally, it seems as though every athlete has their own community program- if you look along the walls of any NFL stadium, you will see advertisements for the various programs that each athlete sponsors. Certainly, there is a demand to see athletes give back to their respective communities.

However, while Millennials do love to see “feel-good” stories, the notion that they do not want to see greed or violence in professional sports does not ring true. While it is true that athletes such as Cliff Lee are lauded for taking less money for a better chance at a championship (as well as to be closer to a top-tier hospital for his child), the largest contracts still dominate the national spotlight. Athletes such as Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia make the largest headlines due to their massive contracts and the bidding wars that surround them. Likewise, while Millennials may cringe at James Harrison’s helmet-to-helmet hits, hockey fights, or NASCAR wrecks, there is still a demand for violence among this generation. As another classmate pointed out, the UFC is one of the fastest-growing sports leagues in America, fighting still draws attention to the NHL, and the NFL remains far and away the highest rated sport in the US. Our generation may love “feel-good” stories, however, our tastes are not that much different than those of the Boomer Generation or Generation X.

While this article does point out some differences among the generations, they are not universal, and often misguided. It is impossible to simply turn a generation into a caricature. The Millennials, like all other generations, are a complex group of individuals with wide-varying tastes, and it is inappropriate to try to squeeze them into a box.

"The Promise of Sociology"

“The Promise of Sociology” by C. Wright Mills (1959) illustrates that our lives are in many ways products of our society. The context in which we live helps to shape and define who we are. As a former history major, this is something that I have always been intrigued by and held to be very true. I have often wondered how my own life may have been different had I been born in a different era or in a different place. In a time before the industrial revolution, would I be a farmer with 6 kids by the age of 23? In a time before the internet, would I have ever been able to get through college? In a time before our current economic issues, would I have decided to come back to BG for grad school? All of these examples show how the world around me has influenced both my lifestyle and my decision-making process.

Mills (1959) describes societal issues as “matters that transcend [local] environments of the individual and the range of his inner life (p. 5),” and instead affect all members of the society. In today’s world, some of those issues included terrorism, economic collapse, the internet, increasing mobility, and environmental change. These are all issues that affect us all, and how we deal with them individually will collectively shape the way that our society moves, thus, as Mills (1959) says, “[by] the fact of his living [the individual] contributes, however minutely, to the shaping of this society and to the course of its history (p. 3).” As our society moves forward, I can only wonder how the actions that we take as individuals now will shape the world that we live in tomorrow.

My Introduction

Hello, my name is Steve McClave, and this is my Sport in Society blog. I am originally from Mayfield, Ohio (about 20 minutes east of Cleveland), and I am in my first year as a Sport Admin grad student at Bowling Green State University. In this blog, I will be discussing the various readings and topics covered in my Sport and Society class; however, before we get into those topics, I will give a more complete introduction of myself.

As a child, I always loved sports, and participated in several- including soccer, tae kwon do, baseball, and finally hockey, which I played all the way through high school, and maintain a strong interest in. Coming from Cleveland, I have seen both highs and lows of what sports can do to a community- from the heyday of the 90s Indians and the dominance of the Cavs over the last few years, to the depression brought on by Art Modell’s relocation of the Browns and LeBron James’ relocation of his talents to South Beach. Still, in all of these situations, I have been fascinated at how events in the sporting world have brought my community together, be it through shared pride or universal outrage. In a community as diverse as Cleveland, sports have been a nearly universal interest, and that has never been lost on me.

Still, despite my interest in sports, I never really considered a career in the sporting industry to be a real possibility. Instead, I chose to do my undergrad work at Bowling Green as a history education major. However, during much of my time as an undergrad I had doubts about the teaching profession, and, after spending a year working as a teacher, I knew that the lifestyle simply was not for me. It was because of this that I became interested in working towards becoming a high school AD, which led me back to Bowling Green and its Sport Administration program.

During my work here, I have become very interested in sport marketing, which is now the kind of career that I intend to approach. This is reflected in my proposed project idea, which will analyze fan motivation in the NHL after the 2004-05 Lockout. Essentially, this project will attempt to find out just what motivates fans to attend hockey games. Additionally, it will examine the changes to the league since 2005 (e.g., the elimination of the “two line offside pass” rule, television coverage, the implementation of the shootout, etc.), and see just what is and is not working in regards to generating fan interest in the NHL through a series of questionnaires and interviews. I have always been interested in just why the NHL is considered such a niche league, and the goal of this project is see just how the fan base has been affected since the Lockout.

It is my hope that this course will help me understand the connection between people and the sports that they love better, and how the two interact. This will certainly help me with my project, as understanding that relationship will give me a better idea of what draws individuals to a sport, which will give me a clear notion of what to look for and ask about when conducting interviews of hockey fans. Because of this, as well as my own interest in how sports affect communities (and vice versa), I very much look forward to this course, and look forward to looking deeper into the issues of sport and society.