Week 13 -- Trujillo

“Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound: Media Representations of Nolan Ryan and American Sports Culture”

            In Nick Trujillo’s article, he discusses the media representations of Nolan Ryan, a baseball pitcher, focusing specifically on the mediums of print and television. Trujillo first explains the idea of hegemonic masculinity within the American sports culture. Hegemonic masculinity is stated as the “the culturally idealized form of masculine character, which emphasizes the connecting of masculinity to toughness and competitiveness as well as the subordination of women and the marginalization of gay men.” This idea has become widely accepted among today’s society and American culture as many people are reinforcing the “dominant gender ideology.” Trujillo explains key features that have been representative of hegemonic masculinity within American society including physical force and control, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, frontiersmanship, and heterosexuality. Sport has been characterized as an institution that has influenced and perpetuated the idea of hegemonic masculinity the most. Trujillo discusses that American football has, especially, perpetuated this masculinity as it “emphasizes sanctioned aggression, (para) militarism, the technology of violence, and other patriarchal values.” As the author points out in the article, mass media has played a significant role in presenting sports in this way as well. It is presented to represent and uphold dominant values and ideas among other things. Trujillo is clear when he states that by the media presenting sports as “symbolic representations of a particular kind of social order,” they also “reproduce and reaffirm the features of hegemonic masculinity.” Within the article, the author focuses on the media’s presentation of Nolan Ryan related to the representation of hegemonic masculinity.  According to Trujillo’s research, the media “reaffirmed the power of the male body” through their coverage and representations of pitcher, Nolan Ryan. In his article, Trujillo quotes another athlete in baseball, Reggie Jackson—“He’s faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive.” This quote as well as the portrayal of Ryan’s athleticism was a focal point in the news media, which continued to perpetuate the idea of masculinity being associated with sports. Some articles focused on his pitching arm as a “weapon,” which represented the association of violence with masculinity. During Ryan’s later years, media continued to emphasize masculinity, such as The Dallas Morning News article, “Pitching with pain not new to Ryan.” This article focused on the idea that masculinity was associated with dealing with pain easily and overcoming it. Trujillo also pointed out the media representing Ryan as the capitalist worker, “a successful male worker in an industrial capitalist society.” The media also presented Ryan as family patriarch or breadwinner.  Lastly, Ryan was seen as “baseball cowboy,” symbolizing the “frontiersmen of American history” as well as a heterosexual human being. Some articles throughout his career touched on Ryan’s attractiveness, emphasizing the heterosexual male stereotypes of muscles, hardness, action, body pose, clothes, etc.