Making the Team -
Inside the World of Sport Initiations and Hazing

Edited by: Jay Johnson, Margery Holman
Making the Team - Inside the World of Sport Initiations and Hazing. 179 pages. 2004
ISBN: 1-55130-247-0
Canadian Scholar's Press, Inc.

Table of Contents

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Making the Team discusses the impact of violence, abuse, and humiliation in the world of sport and in hazing cultures. It also looks at how these practices affect the lives of male and female athletes as they develop their athletic identities and learn their adult roles. This collection thus makes a useful contribution to gender and anti-opression studies, in terms of the insights it provides into how heterosexual masculinity and femininity are structured, produced, and reproduced in one of society's important institutions. Through these insights we might begin to address, and more importantly prevent, this violence and abuse from occurring in the first place.
-Carl E. James, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Education, York University

This book provides a theoretical analysis of hazing from a socialogical perspective, both in the United States and in Canada. It is designed to provide an understanding of hazing for use in sociology and sport management classes, and is also highly suitable for courses that examine gender roles and socialization.
The collection chronicles the hazing practices that exist in sport, and offers a historical overview of hazing and its emergence in today's sport culture. It also provides a theoritcal and legal guide for understanding and managing hazing in sport.
The discussion focuses on the role of tradition, power, and violence in hazing, and on how the rituals serve as a confirmation of masculinity and dominance. These issues engage the reader in critical thought about a contentious aspect of sport that has until recently remained unchallenged.