Capitalizing on Orthodox Masculinity: the Nfl, Capitalism, And
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CAPITALIZING ON ORTHODOX MASCULINITY: THE NFL, CAPITALISM, AND THE PEDAGOGY OF BECOMING ‘CONTROLLED FURY’ A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SPEECH, AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BY TAWNY LEBOUEF TULLIA B.F.A., M.A. DENTON, TEXAS AUGUST 2017 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my son, whose humor transforms; to my Mom, who provides an invaluable ear in times of stress, and there have been many; to Uncle Bubbles, whose light-hearted nature and capacity for love inspires me; and to Aunt Carmer, whose wise council and support offers a lighted beacon. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project and process has been greatly enhanced by many friends, family, peers, and faculty mentors. I want to thank “The Squad.” May your wine/margarita/beer glasses be ever plentiful. My two co-chairs, Dr. Genevieve West and Dr. Dundee Lackey, have been supportive and incredibly giving of their time, intellect, wise council, and friendship. Thank you. Thank you to Dr. Kimberly Miloch for the hours and hours of football film watching. And thank you to Dr. Gretchen Busl. Your friendship sustains. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 A pedagogy ........................................................................................................ 10 The methodology ............................................................................................ 16 Constellating ..................................................................................................... 23 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 26 II. NFL CULTURE: SCRIPTING MASCULINITY AND RACE ................... 29 “SportsMediaComplex” and the NFL .......................................................... 36 Capitalism and brand control ......................................................................... 40 Hegemonic, inclusive, and orthodox masculinity ........................................ 42 Intersections of the NFL’s orthodox masculinity and race ....................... 56 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 59 III. BECOMING THE FACEMASK: ACTUALISING THE IDENTITY .... 63 Ambient rhetorics ............................................................................................. 65 The chōra of football training ........................................................................ 74 Philosophies of becoming ................................................................................... 80 Phusiopoesis .......................................................................................................... 84 Agency ............................................................................................................... 89 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 93 IV. THE PEDAGOGY: REPRESENTATION AND REPETITION OR THE FACEMASK AND PULLING IT DOWN ........................................... 95 Repetition ........................................................................................................... 96 Representation .................................................................................................. 98 vi Chōratic attunements of the “facemask” .................................................... 100 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 109 V. THE PEDAGOGY: DIFFERENCE AND TRANSGRESSION OR STANDING UP FOR MYSELF AND OTHERS ....................................... 112 Differentiating ................................................................................................. 114 Transgressing ................................................................................................... 117 Chōratic attunements of the “facemask” .................................................... 118 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 123 VI. THE PEDAGOGY: HABIT AND OBLIGATION OR DON’T WANT TO BE A CANCER IN THE LOCKER ROOM .......................... 124 Habit ................................................................................................................ 125 Obligation ....................................................................................................... 126 Chōratic attunements of the “facemask” ................................................... 128 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 131 VII. WRAPPING IT UP ............................................................................................ 133 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................... 142 APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................... 153 vii ABSTRACT TAWNY LEBOUEF TULLIA CAPITALIZING ON ORTHODOX MASCULINITY: THE NFL, CAPITALISM, AND THE PEDAGOGY OF BECOMING ‘CONTROLLED FURY’ AUGUST 2017 We often hear critics of American football blame the homosocializing space of the locker room as the site of lessons, player-to-player, on toxic masculinity. This dissertation problematizes that assertion by outlining a pedagogy largely scripted by the institutional powers of the NFL. There are more and more professional players questioning these lessons on how to be a football player, questioning the expectations of speech and gender performance. Using Deleuzian constructs of becoming, gender performance theories, and rhetorics of affect and ambience, this dissertation interrogates the notion of boys-will-be- boys and the NFL as a capitalistically motivated institution writing a script on orthodox masculinity. In the dissertation, I describe and explicate a pedagogy of the NFL as a league and as a visible agent in our larger American cultural consciousness. The dissertation employs theories of ambient rhetoric and affect theory, along side Deleuzian constructs of becoming, to define the chōratic environment designed largely by this pedagogy. The league creates a product using the bodies, minds, and the ‘controlled fury’ of human beings. These human beings are required to tote a specific construction of masculinity for the media; they are required to conform to a specific mask for the cameras. v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION On September 19, 2014, Rich Cohen penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “How the NFL Reflects American Culture.” In it Cohen writes about an unsettling concept. “Be honest,” Cohen writes, “Do you hate the NFL because you’re decent or because nothing else so clearly represents America – the good, bad, loud, violent, ugly and beautiful?” American football is the sport millions of fans watch and follow. We drive this juggernaut by buying in each week, each season, each year. Although it is not considered America’s pastime (baseball gets to keep that moniker), American football is the show millions watch. Super Bowl XLV, played in February 2011 between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, held in Arlington, Texas, holds the record for the largest television audience in U.S. history. That game was televised for a record 111 million viewers (Crepeau 3). On the surface, it can seem paradoxical that the game that Michael Messner labels a “combat sport,”1 the game that Cohen defines as “nothing but violence, controlled fury,” isn’t just played, but thrives by all capitalistic definitions. This clash of warring bodies harkens back to the day of gladiators and the pageantry of bread and circuses. When confronted with the barbarity of those Roman practices, we can identify the paradox. But, nonetheless American football overwhelmingly operates as the most popular professional sport in the United States. To this point, writing on the unsurpassed capitalist success of the marriage of professional American football and media, communications scholar Michael Real suggests the draw of American football for its viewing consumer surpasses a passive viewing 1 experience allowing “the ‘psyched-up’ viewer” to feel like “everything except what he is, a passive consumer” (95). Real suggests that the spectacle of the Super Bowl, an “otherwise mundane event of no real consequence,” through the unparalleled relationship with media, is lifted “to the status of spectacles of powerful, quasi-sacred myth and ritual” (96). American football has long held this role as the paramount vehicle of sport and myth in our country’s cultural consciousness. Cohen continues to define what he sees as an America represented in football, “We live in a violent country, have violent impulses, love a violent game.” Many writers, cultural critics, and sports writers