Masculinity, sport, and race
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Thangaraj's study explores the dynamics of race, gender performance and queerness in the context of basketball. I found this paper incredibly insightful, and it seemed only natural to examine these social dynamics in sports, as this is such a racialized and gender-constructing space. African American men are associated with hypermasculinity and athleticism, which can be warped into harmful stereotypes of aggressiveness and violence. Arguably, these race and gender-based associations also allow African American men to embody a coveted American masculinity - like in the case of NBA players.
By appropriating particular aesthetics and language from the African American community and by playing basketball, South Asian men gain proximity to "American-ness." Despite the prevalence of anti-Black racism in other minority communities, Black "American-ness" is much more attainable for South Asian men than proximity to White "American-ness." Since African American men are rarely stereotyped as "effeminate" or passive, South Asian men can subvert these stereotypes by practicing "Cultural Blackness." These stereotypes also raise issues of homophobia and misogyny. To be feminine is to be passive and weak, and this connects to stereotypes about queer men who are constructed in this way. I would imagine the stereotype of the effeminate brown man derives from Orientalism to harken back to our early classes, and the way to avoid this classification is to Westernize oneself. -
Aa Safianna mentioned, it was a really insightful paper and I personally did enjoy reading it. I'd like to talk a bit about the instances the Desi ballers take in relation to blackness, I believe that they actually navigate complex relationships with Blackness, queerness, and the model minority stereotype through basketball. They appropriate elements of cultural Blackness, such as urban aesthetics and stylized expressions, to assert their masculinity and "American-ness" but distance themselves from stereotypes of hypermasculinity, often excluding African Americans from their leagues. These spaces reinforce heteronormative, patriarchal masculinity through homosocial bonding while marginalizing queer identities and relegating women to spectator roles. Although they resist the asexual "model minority" trope by constructing an assertive masculinity, their practices often depend on class privilege and selectively commodify Black aesthetics, reproducing other racial and gender hierarchies.