The Open University
Yorkshire Region

Cultural Studies Research Forum
Reports and Abstracts 1995 -2000

introduction | contents

Boxing and Gym Cultures

K. Woodward

A discussion of work in progress on the construction of masculine identities in the context of gym culture, using the particular example of boxing. Boxing is addressed as a cultural practice, which can be interrogated through the circuit of culture, which is marked by the interrelated stages of representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation. It is possible to start at any point in this circuit but in this talk I started with the representation of boxing in the media, where it is constructed as both dangerous and glamorous. The identities produced through these representations are both reinforced and contradicted in the experience of gym culture where boxing is mainly male, working class and often-black activity. The sport is produced through global networks and corporations as well at the local level through small clubs and consumed at different levels, by a mixed audience who nonetheless have to have access to resources to finance their interest. The regulation of boxing is represented in polarised ways through the tension between those who seek to ban the sport and those who support the continuance. The different moments in the cultural circuit articulate and interrelate to produce contradictory meanings about a sport which may appear at first glance to be comprehensible as an essentially masculine, mainly working class endeavour.