Publications Fall 2015 Disciplinary Mythologies: A Rhetorical-Cultural Analysis of Performance Enhancement Technologies in Sports John Lamothe Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/publication Part of the Rhetoric Commons Scholarly Commons Citation Lamothe, J. (2015). Disciplinary Mythologies: A Rhetorical-Cultural Analysis of Performance Enhancement Technologies in Sports. , (). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/publication/1334 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DISCIPLINARY MYTHOLOGIES: A RHETORICAL-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGIES IN SPORTS by JOHN LAMOTHE M.A. The Pennsylvania State University, 2005 B.A. The University of Florida, 2002 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2015 Major Professor: J. Blake Scott © 2015 John Lamothe ii ABSTRACT In sports discourse, the relationship between athletics and technology is often paradoxical. On the one hand, modern sports rely on technology at every level, from training and tracking of players to the equipment and apparel used by athletes to the game strategies and playing fields themselves. Nearly all of these technologies are intended to increase athletic performance on some level. And yet, certain performance enhancement technologies can be criticized for being antithetical to the spirit of sports, which is framed as being a strictly natural and pure human endeavor. Using a rhetorical-cultural methodological approach, popular sports discourse is analyzed to investigate how arguments in contested spaces between sports and technologies get (re)negotiated and (re)articulated to fit within a sports social language that emphasizes “pure” and “natural” ideals of sport. This often results in a dichotomy where the sport/technology relationship is either black boxed, thus being subsumed in the sport social language and becoming transparent and the relationships unarticulated, or the technology is regulated out of the sport through rules and bans. The reason for this articulation is attributed in large part to the deep humanism embedded in the sport social language. How a shift to a posthuman perspective would effect sports discourse is explored. These conclusions about underlying values in sports discourse lead to the formation of a new theoretical framework called disciplinary mythologies. Building off of Foucault’s disciplinary power, Scott’s disciplinary rhetorics, and Barthe’s mythologies, disciplinary mythologies are discrete units of persuasion that both construct and iii constitute claims by drawing upon layered narratives and shifting associations that lose their context when entering the realm of myth. Two specific disciplinary mythologies are discussed—the level-playing-field topos and the nostalgia enthymeme—and it is shown how sports discourse often draws upon them to shape arguments and actions. iv To Mandy, my partner and sidekick through this journey. You have been my support and my motivation. I could not have done this without you; I did this for you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................... 1 Current Research & Methodology .......................................................................................... 4 What Are the Effects of Using PETs (Steroids)?..................................................................... 6 How Do PETs Impact Society & Sports? ................................................................................ 8 What Should Be Done About PETs in Sports? ......................................................................10 Multiple Gaps & Methodology ................................................................................................11 Core Research Questions: ................................................................................................14 Theoretical Framework & Chapter Breakdown ......................................................................14 Chapter 2: .........................................................................................................................18 Chapter 3: .........................................................................................................................19 Chapter 4: .........................................................................................................................20 Chapter 5: .........................................................................................................................20 Project Goals: ....................................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................. 23 Sport Social Language ..........................................................................................................30 Humanism & Sports ..............................................................................................................38 Fetishes & Black Boxes .........................................................................................................43 Posthumanism ......................................................................................................................63 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................. 68 The Various Uses of Discipline ..............................................................................................68 Of Piety and Terministic Screens ..........................................................................................78 From Disciplinary Rhetorics to Disciplinary Mythologies: The Case of Spira Shoes ..............83 CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................. 97 What Does the Posthuman Wear to the Pool?: A Case Study for Disciplinary Mythologies ...97 ‘Technological Doping’ and Other Myths .............................................................................108 The Level-Playing-Field Topos ............................................................................................ 114 The Nostalgia Enthymeme ..................................................................................................122 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................ 128 Methodological Contributions ..............................................................................................128 Cultural Theory of Sports Contributions ...............................................................................132 Transitioning to the Posthuman ...........................................................................................135 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 142 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Diagram of the various forces at work on an athlete before and after a competition. ............................................................................................................ 52 Figure 2: Diagram of forces acting on the competitors during the athletic competition ............................................................................................................. 53 Figure 3: Diagram of an athletic competition being black boxed. ........................... 54 Figure 4: Diagram of how the black box simplifies the complex forces at work. ..... 56 Figure 5: Diagram of technologies being rejected from entering the black box. ..... 58 Figure 6: The sport social language is the substrate in which the PETs black box exists. ..................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 7: If the competition results are so extraordinary that audiences question the event’s “purity,” there is a feedback loop that reopens the black box and allows the technology to be re-examined . ............................................................................ 103 Figure 8: Recreation of Barthes’s first myth diagram. .......................................... 108 Figure 9: Recreation of Barthes’s second myth diagram. ..................................... 109 Figure 10: Diagram of the nostalgia enthymeme when applied to sporting discourse ............................................................................................................................. 123 vii LIST OF ACRONYMS EPO Erythropoietin FINA Fédération Internationale de Natation (International Swimming Federation) HGH Human Growth Hormone PEDs Performance Enhancement Drugs in Sports PETs Performance Enhancement Technologies in Sports MLB Major League Baseball viii CHAPTER 1 Where does the body end and the technology begin? Where is the line between natural and artificial? In the world of high-performance