What is Sport?

Do you watch a lot of ESPN? Do you read the newspaper sports pages or sports magazines? Do you monitor sports-related blogs?

If so, what activities do you expect to learn about? Basketball? Football? Soccer? What about bowling? Billiards? Poker?

After all, the behemoth sports network ESPN has certainly aired poker competitions. It’s also aired cheerleading competitions.

What are you willing to accept and understand as a sport? And why does it matter? How do we collectively understand and define sports?

That might be a topic that you’ve never thought critically about. You might have taken it for granted that certain activities are billed as sports—and others are not.

We need to consider the factors that go into the way we define sports. Some are easy to see (they’re physical activities). Others might not be so easily visible (the role of gender in some activities, for instance).

We also need to consider why it matters. What public space, resources, and social status do we give to individuals associated with activities called “sports”? What about the use of public tax dollars for sports-related activities?

We also need to consider the function we might expect from our sports. How do we expect them to fit into and reinforce our cultural, political, and economic values?

The readings and activities for this lesson are designed to help you think about these issues.