Click name to view affiliation
Sport/war metaphors during the Persian Gulf War were crucial rhetorical resources for mobilizing the patriarchal values that construct, mediate, and maintain hegemonic forms of masculinity. Theory is grounded in an analysis of the language used during coverage of the war in electronic and print news media, as well as discourse in the sport industry and sport media. Various usages of the sport/war metaphor are discussed. It is argued that sport/war metaphors reflected and reinforced the multiple systems of domination that rationalized the war and strengthened the ideological hegemony of white Western male elites.
Sue Curry Jansen is with the Department of Communication, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA 18104. Don Sabo is with the Division of Social Science, D’Youville College, 320 Porter Ave., Buffalo, NY 14201.