In toxic hating masculinity: MMA hard men and media representation
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In this article, the authors argue that media representation itself plays an active role in the invention, maintenance or modification of gendered representation in mixed martial arts, and that if a kind of "MMA toxic masculinity" is regarded as being a problem, then the solution may not simply be to change MMA.Abstract:
This article begins by focusing on the presumed relation between the toughness fostered by mixed martial arts (MMA) and the maintenance of traditional ‘hard man’ forms of toxic masculinity. However, it adds an extra dimension to this discussion. It argues that (first) the UFC and (thereafter) MMA as a whole were in very tangible ways invented within and thanks to reality TV. As such, it contends that MMA’s often debated relation to ‘real’ fighting needs to be approached in full awareness to the implications of its indebtedness to media representation. Because of this debt, it argues that media representation itself ought to be understood as playing an active role in the invention, maintenance or modification of gendered representation. Finally, it proposes that if a kind of ‘MMA toxic masculinity’ is regarded as being a problem, then the solution may not simply be to ‘change MMA’. Rather, both the problem and the solution may more precisely be located in the kinds of media representations that circulate about MMA subjects and subjectivities.read more
Citations
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Parental Perceptions of Youths’ Desirable Characteristics in Relation to Type of Leisure: A Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis of Martial-Art-Practicing Youths
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References
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Toxic Masculinity as a Barrier to Mental Health Treatment in Prison
TL;DR: Gender issues that become magnified in prison settings and contribute to heightened resistance in psychotherapy and other forms of mental health treatment are addressed.
Book
Ultimate Fighting and Embodiment: Violence, Gender and Mixed Martial Arts
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the difference between difference and body parts in the context of being a professional MMA fighter, and their relationship to homosociality, (Homo)eroticism and dueling practice.
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The Shooting in Orlando, Terrorism or Toxic Masculinity (or Both?):
TL;DR: This paper argued that because terrorism is closely equated with radicalized Muslims, the tension was sublimated into an existing orientalist frame where homophobia became a marker of fundamentalist Islamic culture and that these two frames should not be taken as cause and effect but as problems that share a common ailment: the presence of toxic masculinities.
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“Toxic Masculinity” in the age of #MeToo: ritual, morality and gender archetypes across cultures
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take the "toxic masculinity" (TM) trope as a starting point to examine recent cultural shifts in common assumptions about gender, morality and relations between the sexes, and make a case for the importance of strong gender roles and the rites and rituals through which they are cultivated as an antidote to current moral panics about oppression and victimhood.