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SOCIAL DIFFERENCE IN SPORT 159

to the requirements of the mass media of labour (Rigauer, 1969). Such researchers
(Gruneau, 1983), and the logic of the capital- underscored the alienating dimensions of the
ist system (Brohm, 1976, 1993). Underwritten processes of both the commercialization of
as they were by the State, businesses and the sport (Vinnai, 1970) and the consumption of
media were seen as being excessively power- sports events (Hoch, 1972). Capitalist ideol-
ful, involved both in the control that the capi- ogy was accused of alienating popular cul-
talist system exerted over day-to-day existence ture and leading the working class into
and in the production of nationalisms and vio- passivity, if not degradation. Competitive
lence in sport. sport, with its obsession with records and
We understand, then, that during the 1970s violence, acts as ‘an opiate for the people’
and 1980s, it was conflict – viewed as class that masks class conflict (Brohm, 1976).
conflict – that dominated the sociology of In addition to its references to class conflict,
sport. References to conflict allowed many Marxism also inspired some feminist work
important questions about the use of sport in on sport (Laberge, 2004). The contributions
society to be raised. The main objective was of Theberge (1984) and Hall (1985), for
to examine how sport was used to maintain, example, showed how class – and gender –
or even reinforce, power and privilege. based differences together have contributed
Questions mainly related to the body of the to sustaining structures of social domination.
athlete, alienation and dispossession of the
body, the role of sport in sustaining social
inequalities, the effects of the commercial-
ization of sport on social bonds, and of the COMPETITION AS IDEOLOGY AND
profits made from sport by those who con- OBSTACLE
trolled economic power (Coakley, 2003).
Competition, as a system associated with Marxist critiques of sport corresponded with
capitalism, was the most common target of objections by social actors themselves to the
these analyses. Radical critiques of sport influence exerted by traditional competitive
were more prevalent in Germany, France, sports at a time when the sports culture was
Canada and elsewhere than they were in the diversifying. Forms of competition were
United States (Ohl, 2006). The frequency, multiplying, and participatory leisure activi-
during this period, of references to the notion ties were overtaking formal competition in
of conflict is an indication of the will to terms of numbers of participants. This diver-
understand the political role of sport. sification of practice coincided with greater
Widespread representations of the apolitical accessibility to sports for women. As a result
nature of sports organizations (Holt, 1992: of this, the question of competition has often
146) tended to leave the monopoly of sports been approached from the angle of gender
discourses and investments in the hands of inequality. Indeed, sport had plainly con-
the bourgeoisie. Marxist approaches allowed structed itself as ‘a fiefdom of virility’ (Elias
scope for opposition to these beliefs. Indeed, and Dunning, 1986) and its history was
the progressive commercialization of sport marked by considerable segregation.
and the greater access enjoyed by the working This highly masculine articulation of sport
class to participation in sports, including in is not based on its intrinsic characteristics,
competitive forms, could not be considered especially not on the bodily constraints that it
an acceptable form of working class culture. imposes. It is not, therefore, a ‘naturally’
Often inspired by the Frankfurt School, determined attribute of sporting praxis.
researchers considered sport to be an element Rather the initial resistance to the feminiza-
of the cultural and ideological superstructure, tion of sports was cultural. One need only
particularly because of the perceived proximity observe the inroads women have made,
between sport and the capitalist organization during the latter part of the twentieth century,