| dc.description.abstract | Violence, specifically gendered violence, has seemingly become commonplace in professional sports. In recent years, sports and news media have navigated a storm of violence allegations. For example, Larry Nassar, former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients and convicted of seven of counts of criminal sexual misconduct. The extent of the abuse Nassar was accused of reignited conversations about gender, power, and violence in sports. This dissertation addresses one aspect of gendered violence in sports: domestic violence. The following is a sampling of news stories from the last year alone that document professional athletes accused of domestic violence: catcher Derek Norris of the Detroit Tigers, linebacker Reuben Foster of the San Francisco 49er’s, center Willie Reed of the Detroit Pistons, WWE wrestler Rich Swann, and boxer Jermell Charlo. There are countless other cases that could be mentioned in addition to a number of cases of officials, coaches, CEO’s, and teams owners allegedly committing domestic violence. This project seeks to understand how sports media – journalists, commentators, and fans – contribute to broader cultural understandings of domestic violence. I investigate what this discourse tells us about sex, gender, race, and class as they relate to domestic violence as well as the challenges this rhetoric might pose to a progressive political agenda to end gendered violence. Using Ray Rice and Hope Solo as case studies, I perform a critical replay – a feminist critical cultural investigation of domestic violence in sports that follows linkages in conversations about sports and violence – to uncover the ways sports fans, journalists, and casual consumers of news construct a narrative of domestic violence in professional sports. | |
