Robert,
Having grown up on Canada's West Coast, I would like to reinforce what
you have said about lacrosse. I was absolutely gobsmacked to see what
_we_ thought of as _our_ game being appropriated by a bunch of upper
middle class English snobs/professional American jocks/whatever.
It is too funny to think of lacrosse as being played by varsity or
other teams. What's next? Designer face masks? High tech jock
protectors? Non=-contact lacrosse? I grew up in a very poor community
and box lacrosse (played indoors in a dry hockey arena or community
hall) was a community sport. If i remember right the teams were named
things like New Westminster Salmonbellies (or was that the hockey team
only?). Our team was the Bridgeview Bulldogs (usually changed to
Bridgeview Bastards). Looking back, the game occupied a similar place
in our society that `hurling'(Sp?) does in Eire -- it was an extremely
rough game, with lots of contact --watch out for that stick! -- which
prepared boys for working-class lives in jobs which constantly hurt
their bodies -- sawmill work, truckdrivers, labourers, etc. The game
was resolutely amateur, even when semi-pro. And the teams definately
functioned as nodes of community spirit/identity.
Wondering what purpose such a game might have amongst academics and
middle-class professional sports people makes me think that one aspect
of what we have here is an appropriation of working-class authenticity
-- the use of formerly working-class signifiers like denim jeans, blues
music or Doc Maartins boots by the hegemonic class fractions.
Distinction indeed! As one who has very little time for commercialised
sports, i frankly find this locker-room -- sorry, coffee-room talk --
rather off-putting. It is almost as if the speakers are desperately
brandishing symbols to show that they are not elite, not privileged,
and using it to hide the cultural capital (=power) which they mobilise
every day in the course of their work.
But of course, that is rather extreme of me. Certainly there is an
attraction to losing oneself in physicality, teamwork and being
successful at it. And of course, the above analysis operates on the
level of the collective, not the individual -- let's not get caught in
the ecological fallacy here.
Still, i always found lacrosse to be brutish, punishing and extremely
violent. How strange to find it appearing in the context of academic
geography....
regards
rhys evans
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note new address:
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R Evans, School for Policy Studies
8 Priory Rd., Bristol BS8 1TZ
(0117 9546984)
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