[ Introduction] [ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [Appendices] [Bibliography ]

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Chapter One

Sport as a Boundary Project

Before tackling the issue between gay/lesbian sports and the gay movement, I want to look at the dichotomies sport produces and naturalizes for it has always been the project of boundary maintenance. Without knowing the limitations and stereotypes sport has imposed on us, we won』t be able to see how unique and transgressing gay/lesbian sports are.

[M]odern sport [is] a project of socio-cultural boundary maintenance. Many boundaries are negotiated in sport…man and woman; heterosexual and homosexual; white and 「other」; healthy and sick; animal, human and machine; legitimate play and illicit sex; rationality and irrationality; order and chaos. (Pronger, 1998: 277-278)

According to the preceding comment Brian Pronger makes, modern sport is probably the most solid fortress of sexism, homophobia, racism and other defining norms. As a matter of fact, Pronger』s theory can actually be proved in our daily lives. Like a ritual, many of us grow up taking physical education classes, listening to sports on the radio, watching sports on TV, and discussing sports news with our friends. As we are situated in the society, we continue to embrace the gym culture and the fitness mentality. It』s hard to be reflective when we so naturally absorb the dominant discourse of modern sports. Before we know it, we think there is nothing wrong about the division between 「male sports」 and 「female sports」 and we question not why in certain sports, like golf and tennis, most of the athletes are white. Moreover, we have certain imagination and stereotypes about homosexuals in sports like sissy gay men and butch lesbians. Below I am going to elaborate on different boundary projects implemented and maintained in modern sport based on Pronger』s quote above.

The Boundary Project of Gender

First, previous theorists have analyzed how sports are strictly segregated on the basis of biological sex because of different expectations between men』s and women』s roles. Men are expected to be competitive and yet collaborative while women are supposed to be docile and dependent. Therefore in male sports we find men being tough, strong and aggressive but the same qualities are not encouraged for female athletes. The segregation of the sexes in sports, however, is mostly based on beliefs that men are larger and stronger than women. This is a biological reductionism. Carol L. Christensen points out in her essay 「Basic Exercise Physiology: Myths and Realities」:

It has been shown that women have some physiological disadvantages (when compared with men) for sports performance: smaller hearts, less muscle mass, less hemoglobin, and more body fat, to name a few. These contribute to their generally lower…speed, and power disadvantage in sports and physical competition. However, it would be wrong to conclude that all women are weaker and slower than men, because many highly trained women athletes exceed the abilities of most men.

(Christensen, 1993: 119, my emphasis)

In addition, the constructivist discourse also influences the division of male and female sports, such as the Victorian idea of macho manhood and frail womanhood. Together the essentialist and constructivist viewpoints on gender reinforce each other and lead to the exclusion of women from team sports. Essentialist viewpoint assumes team sport is too strenuous for women; constructivist viewpoint reaffirms the dominant status of men by eliminating women to have the opportunities to learn aggression, perseverance, and cooperation which are crucial in terms of dominance. This is why women are still not encouraged, not to mention rarely admitted, to various team sports, such as American football and baseball. Several scholars have attributed this division of sports to specific historical circumstances. For instance, Brian Pronger presumes in his book The Arena of Masculinity that 「contemporary conceptions of manliness and sportsmanship emerge[s] out of the larger economic and social picture of late-nineteenth-century Europe and Great Britain.」 (Pronger, 1990: 16) Paul Hoch』s essay 「School for Sexism」 also seconds Pronger』s view. Hoch believes that team sports in English public schools in the nineteenth century were to 「train and socialize an all-white, all-male imperial ruling class.」 (Hoch, 1972: 10) The value has changed over time when imperial regimes gradually were succeeded by more democratic political bodies. Nonetheless, men are still conscious of the importance of maintaining their control and domination over women. In the nineteenth-century United States, for example, as the farming culture was turning into industry, fathers had to work in the cities. The sons faced the crisis of losing their 「manly」 models. That』s the reason Brian Pronger concludes that 「sports were introduced to public-school boys and the adolescent members of organizations like the YMCA.」 (Pronger, 1990: 17) In this period, sports in schools continued to emphasize aggressiveness, competition, physical strength and phallocentrism. This prevailing model of masculinity has descended to our day.

Female sports, compared with male sports, staggered along in sport history. Women had to fight for their rights and resources in participating in sports. The various waves of feminist movement empowered women to challenge the male hegemony, including the exclusion of women in sports and unfair distribution of athletic funding. In the United States, Title IX is an epoch-making congressional passage of legislation ensuring sports equity for women. The preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 reads:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance. (qtd. in Carpenter, 1993: 82)

Thus after the enforcement of Title IX, girls and women in the United States eventually broke in to different kinds of sports preserved for men and they continued to challenge the male-dominated sports world. The All-American Girl』s Professional Baseball League is one of the legacies these women had left us.

However, when discussing the same boundary project in Taiwan of dividing sports into male and female ones, we need to pay attention to the specific historical and colonial background of Taiwan. From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was under Japanese colonization. According to Yu Chien-ming』s essay 「The Development of Female Physical Education in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period,」 there were three phases of the colonial education policies: gradualism from 1895 to 1918, assimilation from 1919 to 1936, and Kouminka movement from 1937 to 1945.[19] Physical education in colonial Taiwan reflected these three phases, but female students were given a milder physical training than men. In the first phase, due to the custom of foot-binding, only singing and games were included in the female physical education. In the second phase, gymnastics and sports gradually replaced singing and games. In this phase the female physical education was not too different from the male one except that boys』 sports were more strenuous. Besides, fencing and judo were only taught to boys not girls. In the third phase, the physical education was replaced by military training and martial arts due to the war Japan waged against China. Boys and men under the military training were expected to render army service to Japan; girls and women bore the responsibility of self-defense. Because of the division of labor during the war time, boys』 and men』s training tended to be much tougher, for instance they were poured cold water on during the military training in order to enhance their endurance. Girls and women only needed to learn martial arts for self-defense.[20]

Yu also observes that in the second phase when girls and young women practiced sports, the public started to worry about the masculinizing effects of sports on female students. One article 「Changes in Modern Female Figures」 from Taiwan Ririxin Newspaper (日日新) reads:

Compared with females several years ago, they [the sporting women today] do possess a powerful look. In general, female athletes are too masculine. The female beauty, with its curvaceous and charming qualities, is gradually disappearing. It』s an unfortunate phenomenon. (Yu, 2000: 47, my translation)

From the descriptions above, we can see the different discourse of sport between Taiwan and the western countries. The concept of modern sport in Taiwan was introduced by the colonial Japan to remold Taiwanese bodies, to reshape their mentalities and further to assimilate their identities. Since physical education was a means to control Taiwanese bodies and mind, there is no reason female students shouldn』t be included as well. By contrast, when modern sport was first developed in the nineteenth-century Britain and United States, it was a male reserve, a place to solidify men in order to maintain their manhood and patriarchy. At the same time, even though female students in Taiwan seemed to embrace greater opportunities to engage in sports, they were treated as physically inferior. The requirements for their male counterparts were much higher. This was illustrated in the exclusive teaching of offensive martial arts to boys. Even in the Kouminka movement, when Taiwanese girls also received military training, they were taught to defend but not attack. There was a big difference. This demonstrated that the colonial government had specific gender expectations which were also believed by the general public. That』s why even though the physical education programs included girls to a larger extent than in the west, they were still unable to change existing gender stereotypes and expectations.

Today the segregation of men and women in sport is not as distinct as it was before, but it still exists. Men still have greater resources and better opportunities to engage in sports than women. And many sports, like baseball and American football etc., are still considered male sports. Thus sports can be read as an ideological tool that naturalizes the gender expressions in order to maintain the gender relations in the real world. Following this logic, there is no wonder female athletics is often contested, especially the contact sports, and female masculinity is often associated with lesbianism. Similarly, male athletes who engage in 「feminine」 sports are easily labeled as a sissy or faggot because they do not conform to the traditional gender roles. This is the next boundary project of sport I want to analyze—defining heterosexuals and homosexuals.

The Boundary Project of Sexualities

In the preface of The Arena of Masculinity, Brian Pronger makes a profound statement, which is 「women athletes are often expected to be lesbians; men athletes are seldom expected to be gay.」 (Pronger, 1990: xi) Pronger doesn』t make clear whether his theory applies to every kind of athletics. In the same book, Pronger categorizes sports into three different kinds: violent ones, struggling ones and aesthetic ones. (19) Violent sports are the most masculine ones, like hockey and football, while struggling sports are competitive ones in which there are less body contacts, such as tennis and baseball. Aesthetic sports emphasize more on skills and of course, aesthetics, such as skating and gymnastics.

I want to argue that men still face possible accusations of being gay in sports and women sometimes are safe from the 「lesbian stigma」 if they choose to do aesthetic sports. The pigeonholing of homosexuality is contextual depending on what kind of sports men or women do. For men engaging in violent and struggling sports, they are unlikely to be associated with homosexuality because homosexuality often equals nonviolence and femininity. Yet in aesthetic sports, there are chances for men to be recognized as possessing gay sensibilities and demeanors, for instance male skaters. For women, they don』t have access to the violent sports. But in terms of the struggling sports, if they display too much aggression and female masculinity, they are immediately suspected of lesbianism. After all, aggressive behavior and macho values can only be applied to men. In terms of aesthetic sports, since female sensitivity is often praised as a quality women should possess, female athletes doing this type of sports don』t face the same scrutiny from the society as those participating in struggling sports.

Before going on I』d like to analyze two incidents that demonstrate how in the arena of sports homophobia is still prevalent. First, Japanese baseball player Kazuhito Tadano apologized in a press conference for acting in a gay porn in his college years and emphasized he is not gay. Second, the lesbian tennis player Mauresmo received name-calling from other tennis players as 「half a man」 after her brilliant performances in tennis.

Tadano was signed by Indian minor league as a pitcher. In a press conference he asked for forgiveness for his appearance and homosexual conduct in a gay porn video. Through an interpreter, Tadano said: 「I』m not gay. I』d like to clear up that fact right now.」 It』s interesting to observe that the press session was set up by the Indians and the emphasis of the press session focuses on Tadano』s sexuality as if homosexuality is not tolerable in the baseball diamond. According to AP Sports Writer Tom Withers』 report, 「there are no openly gay players in the big leagues today. The same is true in the NFL, NHL and NBA.」[21] If Pronger is too general when making the statement 「men athletes are seldom expected to be gay,」 I believe what he means is that any traces of homosexual behavior in sports are strongly discouraged and forbidden. Tadano』s case testifies to this boundary project of homophobia in the sports arena. The same homophobia had occurred earlier to the prominent tennis player Mauresmo.

In the 1999 Australian Open, Lindsay Davenport said she thought she was playing against a man in her loss to Mauresmo in the semifinal. On the same day, Martina Hingis made a homophobic comment in a German press conference 「[Mauresmo] travels with her girlfriend, she is half a man.」 After both remarks were learned by Mauresmo, the reactions of Davenport and Hingis were totally different. Davenport apologized to Mauresmo immediately because she didn』t mean to criticize Mauresmo』s sexual orientation. She asserted she was referring to Mauresmo』s muscular play, especially her powerful one-handed backhand. Davenport said she was mistaken by the media. In comparison, Hingis acted unapologetic for her brutal remarks. From this incident, we can draw some conclusions: (1) It』s not a compliment to say a female athlete plays like a man even though the aggressiveness is encouraged in competitive sports. (2) Lesbianism is still stereotyped as a bad copy of heterosexual relationship. Thus in a lesbian relationship, one has to play the role of man. However, a woman can not be a man. That』s why 「half a man」 is used derogatorily to refer to a butch-like lesbian for she can never be a full man. (3) Lesbianism is still treated as a scandal in most media and tabloid. This can be seen in the later sports reports on Mauresmo. The usage of 「half a man」 has even been practiced by Taiwanese media and has become her fixed title.[22]

The Boundary Project of National Identity

On a national scale, modern sport stabilizes the notion of nation-states while that national identity also reinforces the boundary project of modern sport. This can be testified in the frenzied outpour of national celebration displayed when winning medals at international events, for instance the reaction of the Taiwanese public upon learning of Taiwan Baseball Team』s victory over Korea in 2003 Asian Championship which qualified them to compete in the 2004 Olympic Games. In fact, baseball is the most recognized national ballgame in Taiwan. The sport was introduced by colonial Japan. It became wildly acknowledged and practiced after the legendary Hong Ye (紅葉) Baseball Team defeated two visiting teams from Japan in 1968 and Jin Long (金龍) Youth Baseball Team won the first gold medal for Taiwan at the Little League World Series in 1969.[23]

In order to analyze why sports could differentiate and consolidate national identities, I am going to draw on Homi K. Bhabha』s 「colonial mimicry」 theory and apply it to the baseball mania in Taiwan. As Bhabha put it:

Colonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of difference that is almost the same, but not quite. Which is to say, that the discourse of mimicry is constructed around an ambivalence; in order to be effective, mimicry must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference. […] Under cover of camouflage, mimicry, like the fetish, is a part-object that radically revalues the normative knowledges of the priority of race, writing, history. For the fetish mimes the forms of authority at the point at which it deauthorizes them. (Bhabha, 1994: 85-92)

Bhabha』s colonial mimicry refers specifically to the English colonies. The colonial rulers of Britain on one hand want to civilize their subjects but on the other hand keep reminding their subjects 「that no level of mastering the 『parent』 culture could wash out the racial stain」 (Schechner 2002: 233) Of course the racial stain is a wishful thinking. The colonized people can mimic the master』s education, knowledge, and even sports to challenge or outdo the colonial mother. That』s what Bhabha suggests, 「in order to be effective mimicry must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference.」 Since Japan』s ideology of colonialism derives from the West, its policies on the colonies are very similar to Britain. On the one hand, they think their subjects are inferior, but on the other hand, they want to transform their subjects into Japanese. It is exactly this partial treatment of Taiwanese as Other, shown in the earliest education policies, and partial assimilation in the Kouminka movement that construct a particularly form of colonial subjectivity of Taiwan.

Today this colonial mimicry of baseball sports in Taiwan has become the political strategy of politicians to enunciate their nationalistic propaganda. In fact, the phenomenon is not unique in post-colonial Taiwan. Mark Naison observes the same boundary project in the United States:

The support that organized sports has been given by government, business, and education is not coincidental. The sports industry has been self-consciously used as a safety valve for social discontent and a vehicle for the political and cultural unification of the American population. (Naison, 1980: 30)

Thus we know the saying 「sports is without boundary」 is not true at all. Different nations use different sports to strengthen citizens』 national identity. In Taiwan, the national sport of Taiwan would be baseball.

The Boundary Project of Race

In terms of the categorization of racial identities, the hypersexualization and discrimination of black athletes are the most intricate byproducts of the boundary project of sport. This can be seen in the name-calling of various black athletes including Dennis Rodman in basketball (portrayed as a sex menace), and Venus Williams and Serena Williams in tennis (being called black orangutans). Even though racism is not a big issue in Taiwan, sports fans sometimes blatantly display their prejudices of black masculinity, especially the female one. For instance, on the tennis forum on bbs, one sports fan was tired of seeing William sisters getting into the championship all the time and made a crude comment, 「please not another competition between the two orangutans at the finals, it』s unattractive.」 (my translation)[24] In fact, on the Videoland Sports website, the term 「orangutan」 is used in a news report. It read 「now the greatest hope is not to repeat the competition between the two orangutans in the women』s finals.」 (my translation)[25] This shows how the media and the general public are insensitive to the racism in sport.

The Boundary Project of Health

Modern sport also defines sickness and health, the famous basketball player Magic Johnson being the most pertinent case in point. After he announced his HIV status in 1991, he suddenly became taboo and retired from the NBA. In the press conference where he announced his HIV status, he said:

Because of the HIV virus that I have…attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers today. I just want to make clear first of all that I do not have the AIDS disease, cause I know a lot of you want to know that, but HIV virus.[26]

Even though Magic Johnson later was still included in the dream team and nabbed the Olympic gold medal for basketball in 1992, he never regained his respected status as a basketball player. This exhibits how the arena of sports is exclusive of sickness, especially the contagious or transmissible diseases.

Based on the different discussions of boundary projects in sport, we can infer that there must be a lot of collisions of ideologies in gay/lesbian sports because of its transgressing qualities, especially in gender, sexuality and race. It』s exactly under this premise that I find the emergence of gay/lesbian sports groups in Taiwan especially unique and worthy of further research. In the next chapter, I am going to analyze the history and structure of gay/lesbian sports groups in Taiwan.

[19] Kouminka literally means "becoming children of the Emperor.」

[20] Illustrations of the colonial physical education at this time can be found in the book Scanning Taiwan 1895-2000 Vol. 3 page 102. (Taipei: Yuan-Liou Publishing Co, 2002)

[21] See the complete report of Tom Withers on http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/01/27/indians.gay.porno.ap/?cnn=yes

[22] This is especially true in the Taiwanese Newspapers. When the sports column mentions about Mauresmo, she is often dubbed 「nanrenpo」 (男人婆), which means butch or tomboy in English. For instance, keying in 「nanrenpo」 and the name Mauresmo in udndata.com (聯合知識庫), a database of news reports, brings up 18 items of such usage dating from 1999 to now.

[23] Illustrations of the colonial baseball history can be found in the book Scanning Taiwan 1895-2000

[24] The original comment in Chinese is 千萬別又來一場大小猩猩的對決...很難看的. This post was written by a university student in NCTU. It was posted on July 2, 2003.

[25] The original wording in Chinese is 不過現在球迷們最希望的可能是女子的冠軍戰別再看到兩隻黑金鋼的交手. See http://sport.videoland.com.tw/event/aso/default.asp?rd=2002/2/4

[26] Magic Johnson made the announcement in LA Forum on November 7, 1991.

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[ Introduction] [ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [Appendices] [Bibliography ]