Assessment Task 2: Forum Nine Violence and Abuse
Violence and abuse have been intricately linked with sport for many decades. As such,
sporting mega-events have been closely related with the increase in domestic violence in
households and the abuse of women. For instance, the AFL grand final saw a 20% spike in
family violence according to Victoria state police commissioner Graham Ashton (Pescud, 2018).
In New South Wales, a study by La Trobe University found a 40.7% increase in domestic
violence across State of Origin game days between 2012-17 (Henriques-Gomez, 2018). So why
is it that the rate of violence and abuse spike during these sporting mega-events, such as the
AFL, the Olympics and the World Cup and what theory can best explain this ongoing issue?
The feminist theory centralizes around how there is a disparity between the two gender
groups (men and women), of which men have a privilege over women in the social construction.
It has been intricately linked with the critical theory, the notion that certain groups in society are
marginalized as a result of the policies and actions of another group, with some scholars claiming
that feminist theory is critical theory (Moi, 1991). This is because men have been the perpetrator
in the majority of domestic abuse cases, victimizing women physically and/or sexually. Hence,
the feminist theory illustrates that the actions of certain men abusing women on the domestic
landscape has led to the marginalization and control of men over women for a long time, with the
context of sporting mega-events as just one of a myriad of examples.
The issue of violence and abuse will continue to exist as long as the norm and culture of
drinking during sporting events continue. One of the elements of the feminist theory touches on
hegemonic masculinity, a form of masculinity that involves domination over women (Bird,
1996). Men’s culture of drinking during sporting events has been intricately linked to the notion
that the presentation of one’s masculinity can be seen by one’s ability to “hold his liquor”
(Palmer, 2013). As such, women, quite often, become victims of this toxic hegemonic
masculinity, and are succumbed to the violence and anger of men due to an excessive
consumption of alcohol during and after sports games. This has also to do with gender-specific
role orientation, where men are more likely to express violence-supportive attitudes compared to
women (Flood and Pease, 2006).
It has also been found that sporting sub-cultures involving team-based contact have a
sexist influence on male athletes involved in those games (typically football, rugby, basketball).
This is because those type of sport sub-cultures typically involve more sexist and conservation
norms for gender and sexuality, which increases the likelihood that the athletes involved in those
sub-cultures develop a violence-supportive attitude (Flood and Dyson, 2007). To be violent has
been seen to be a stereotypical masculine trait, and the sporting sub-culture of certain sports such
as rugby and football may have reinforced that stereotype.
Conclusively, the feminist theory explains that specific norms pressure men into
accommodating toxic masculine traits that have inevitably led to the consequences of dominating
women through domestic violence in the context of sporting mega-events.
References
Bird, Sharon R. 1996, ‘Welcome to the Men's Club: Homosociality and the Maintenance of
Hegemonic Masculinity’, Gender & Society, 10(2), pp. 120–132.
Flood, M., & Dyson, S. 2007, ‘Sport, athletes, and violence against women’, NTV Journal,
Summer, pp. 37-46.
Flood, M., and Pease, B. 2006, ‘The Factors Influencing Community Attitudes in Relation to
Violence Against Women: A Critical Review of the Literature’, Melbourne: Victorian Health
Promotion Foundation.
Henriques-Gomez, L. 2018, ‘AFL grand final coincides with 20% rise in family violence, police
warn’, The Guardian, 28 September, 2018, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2018/sep/28/afl-grand-final-coincides-with-20-rise-in-family-violence-police-warn
Moi, T. 1991, ‘Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture’, New Literary
History, Vol. 22, No. 4, Papers from the Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural
Change, pp. 1017-1049.
Palmer, C. 2013, ‘Sport and alcohol - Who's missing? New directions for a sociology of sport
related drinking’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 49(3–4), pp. 263–277.
Pescud, M. ‘Whether teams win or lose, sporting events lead to spikes in violence against women
and children’, The Conversation, 13 July, 2018, available at:
https://theconversation.com/whether-teams-win-or-lose-sporting-events-lead-to-spikes-in-
violence-against-women-and-children-99686
