Class and Status in Global and IUB Perceptions of Rubgy
Joseph Kenneth Toes
Hypothesis
The publication of rugby in the media creates a certain representation of masculinity amongst the lower classes that ultimately suggests it is built upon its violent nature and brutality. This investigation will use text mining to determine the negative perceptions of rugby within the media and additional primary sources. Using Indiana University’s 1973 Year Book as the forefront of the investigation, it comparably reflects the growth of rugby and its success in intercollegiate leagues. However, it similarly has detrimental comments on its’ violent nature and negative stereotypes. In many modern sources it has been suggested that the representation of rugby at college level has a much more brutal nature amongst peers compared to the national and international perspective. Global representations of rugby, despite negative in small aspects, are ultimately positive and reported successfully in the media as it progresses. Nonetheless, the question remains as to why rugby is continuously neglected and suggested to confront class divide amongst college peers.
The IU 1976 Year Book is an important object as it provides a discussion on the negative aspects of rugby at collegiate level. Obviously much of Indiana University’s 1973 Year Book is created to celebrate the successes of Indiana University and how it has progressed throughout 1973-4. Nonetheless, the article comments on the negative stereotypes of women’s rugby and suggests that its ‘violent nature’ is due to unnecessary aggression amongst peers. This therefore brings us to question as to why should rugby remain the only sport degraded whilst others are celebrated for their overall success, in spite of potentially having similar flaws also? While it is true to state that Indiana’s Year Book finished by highlighting the successes of Indiana University rugby during the 1973 year, it proves a point that rugby is often stereotyped negatively within the media. Using a combination of secondary sources reflecting the twentieth century, it is clear that this stereotype of rugby is common in many of the author’s accounts. Thus, the Indiana University 1973 Year Book is essential to this investigation as it provides a clear foundation of the negative stereotypes of rugby from IU itself.
It is clear throughout the twentieth century that numerous media sources have created a negative depiction of rugby on a national and international scale. South Africa’s Rugby World Cup in 1995 is a prime example of the usage of rugby as a representation of white upper class dominance in a time of racist movements. To summarise, 1995 was a pivotal time for black oppression within South Africa. White supremacy very much dominated South African politics and therefore much of people’s lives. However, the 1995 Rugby World Cup held in South Africa ultimately assisted in ending the reign of white supremacy, giving South African’s the opportunity to compete in the competition, and thus showing their dominance as athletes. While this does suggest that rugby’s physicality is its’ priority, it is clear that the end result of this competition has a much bigger and meaningful message. South Africa’s World cup in 1995 is one of many examples where rugby has been manipulated to represent dominance and power within the media. However, it is clear that the importance of rugby in this scenario has a much more moral obligation to present.
Through thorough analysis of secondary source materials we will aim to understand how rugby is truly represented in the media following the mid- twentieth century. It is clear that the media encourages the most derogatory interpretations of rugby compared to its reality in some scenarios. While Indiana University’s 1973 Year Book provides a good foundation for historical questioning, the overall reasoning as to why rugby has been ‘stereotyped’ as ‘violent’ and a reflection of ‘dominance’ is and will continuously be due to the media’s interpretations. A prime example of this can be witnessed with Welsh Rugby Star Gareth Davies, who was ridiculed in the tabloid’s for brawling outside a bar in Aberystwyth, Wales. (https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/2837883/six-nations-gareth-davies-fight-video-bouncers-wales/). Nonetheless, this project will evaluate how rugby is represented in many scales. An ultimate difference is how rugby is represented at a local/collegiate level compared to the national media. Rugby in the media is often shadowed by the success of the countries competing in national tournaments. Therefore, is it true to suggest that international and national representations of rugby are much more ‘maintained’ in some respects due to the opinion of the public eye globally? As quite clearly stated, rugby is an ever-growing sport in its popularity and the amount of people taking part. Therefore, in thorough investigation I am hoping that we can find reasoning as to why rugby earns certain stereotypes within the media compared to other sports.
In order to gain a thorough understanding of how rugby is represented and how it is interpreted internationally I have chosen to use text mining as my digital method to evaluate the use of derogatory and negative reflections of rugby in a widespread amount of secondary source materials. Using Indiana University’s 1973 Year Book as the centre of the investigation, I will expand my research globally in order to collect enough data to prove that rugby is reflected negatively in many cases. As a consequence, this therefore evidences that readers are manipulated to believe that rugby encourages diversion between the upper and lower classes, forcing those to seek brutality and violence in order to gain dominance in society.
I am aiming to have at least ten different secondary accounts per country in order to gain a realistic global perspective. Targeting America in particular, I hope to also gain sources from numerous colleges across the US similarly in order to find common trends across the nation. On a global scale, the countries I am targeting are the: UK, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Due to these countries placing rugby as one of the most popular sports, I have been able to find at least 10 articles with suitable data. With this data, I will look for certain reflections on rugby. Detailing specifically all of the negative comments on rugby as a sport, and how it is reflects negatively on those that are in the lower class.
To conclude, this investigation will aim to prove that the media publicises rugby in such a way that portrays its intentions as violent and brutal for those that are ‘degraded’ in the lower classes. Indiana University has provided a foundation for argument, whereby the university’s 1976 Year Book details a prime example of how rugby is given derogatory remarks and suggested to promote violence amongst peers. By using text mining as my primary digital method, I will analysis a wide collection of secondary materials detailing all of their perceptions of rugby and interpretations of it as a sport, whereby I will be able to find trends amongst many of the words used to describe it. These results, as I have seen amongst many sources already, will prove that the publication of rugby in the media creates a certain representation of masculinity amongst the lower classes that ultimately suggests it is built upon its violent nature and brutality.
Data Conclusions:
When completing this investigation, I decided to adjust the usage of my objective. Originally as stated above, Indiana University’s 1976 Year Book and other primary source materials from collegiate sources were going to be the forefront of my investigation. Whereby I would later introduce secondary material to compare to these, and thus, conclude my investigation. Nonetheless, it remained difficult to find numerous sources from collegiate Year Books within the US that discussed rugby’s brutality and violent nature. From examining various sources in the USA I concluded that the reason for this was due to the lacking status, which rugby remains to have in US consequently hindering the number of useful primary sources for this investigation and thus decided to focus my entirety on secondary material globally. Still using Indiana University’s 1976-77 Year Book as a forefront for the investigation, I text mined secondary sources from across the USA, UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in order to grasp a global perspective and representation of rugby in the media to compare to the descriptions shown in the Year Book above.
To conclude the results of this investigation a discussion of the data collected must be conferred in order to establish why changes were made to the investigation. Using text mining tools such as Voyant, it was easily used to isolate the key words that proved that rugby is represented in the media as a violent and brutish. Nonetheless, as we will discuss, problems were encountered when retrieving certain information from secondary sources. Much of the secondary source literatures used to gain results for the investigation were provided on the basis that they discussed violence and brutal aspects of rugby within the media. Nonetheless, some of these sources did not focus their entirety on the brutal and violent nature of rugby within the media. This in turn, did provide alternate results when collecting data to place into Voyant. Nonetheless, the results did provide many positive results as we can see below:
Data:
Australia Visual Representation
Australian Results:
Despite finding numerous articles online and on J STOR detailing the negative representations that place rugby in a bad light within the media, few words occurred at a gross amount to suggest that Australia promotes rugby in a derogatory way. For example, as displayed in Sally Rawsthorne, the most common words used were ‘assault’ and ‘assault’ whereby both words appear 6 times according to Voyant.
New Zealand Visual Representation
New Zealand Results:
The results shown in New Zealand proved much more effective. When admiring certain word patterns shown in the articles from New Zealand discussing rugby’s stereotypes and violence, the most reoccurring words were ‘brutality’ and ‘strength’. However, many of these articles commented on tradition and religious practice. Whereby, the Maori, being the most common topic associated with the history of violence in New Zealand rugby, aligned its past times with rugby and thus suggested that it was not as violent as many assume, and or represent.
United Kingdom Visual Representation
United Kingdom Results:
The UK’s representation of rugby from current research has proved to be the most light hearted of all of the countries listed. From the data collected in spite of some representations leading to derogative comments on rugby for children and young peoples, all in all the representations are relatively positive. When looking at the Voyant results, quite obviously the most popular word reoccurring was ‘Rugby’ with 477 appearances. With regards to negative stereotypes in this topic model, it remained much lower than expected.
South Africa Visual Representation
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South Africa Results:
The results shown from the South African representation of rugby within the media revolve around the 1995 World Cup. With the conflict among white supremacy and Nelson Mandela’s revolution for black rights in South Africa, they played a huge role in how rugby is represented within the media during this time. The results show significant appearances of ‘violence’ and ‘brutality’ when displaying rugby and social class divide within the media. In comparison to other countries, South Africa has been more effective for this investigation. With ‘apartheid’ being one of the most common words occurring in the topic model and appearing 131 times as shown in the image above, it is clear that rugby’s representation within the media revolves around this.
United States Visual Representation
United States Results:
The US is the most crucial to this investigation. As we have seen from the Indiana University 1976 Year Book, the stereotype of rugby being brutal and violent originates mostly from American secondary sources. From what the results have shown, it is clear that rugby conflicts largely with American Football, and thus within collegiate and national levels news, produces stereotypes which suggest that it is more brutal within its nature.
Final Comments:
In order to progress the digital methods within this project MALLET was another text mining tool that was used to gain greater results within this investigation. However, when collecting results for the investigation I did have a few issues with the results. After having put some of the secondary sources into TextWrangler, I was unable to compare countries individually and was only able to compare them all as a collective. This in turn did not provide this investigation with the best results when determining each individual country researched. Thus, Voyant proved much more effect for this investigation as shown above in the results section.
If I had the opportunity to further my research, I would like to have access to more secondary sources. An issue which this project has encountered when using text mining to analyse the use of certain words that portrayed rugby in a negative light, the sources did not all focus their entirety on portraying rugby within the media. Thus, in some scenarios the secondary sources spent minimal focus on rugby’s interpretation within the media and at collegiate level. This in turn provided results that were not as accurate as originally expected. Similarly, while the Indiana University 1976 Year Book is effective when establishing a basis for this project, I would have liked the opportunity to examine greater primary source materials also. Perhaps having the opportunity to study a broader variety of schools within the USA would have been able to provide suitable reasoning as to why the US represents rugby in the most part as violent and brutality.
Bibliography
Object
Artibus Indiana University 1976 Year Book: http://static.getsnworks.com/ids/arbutus/1977/
Australia
Tomlinson, Matt, and Ty P. Kāwika Tengan. New Mana. 1st ed. New South Wales: N.p., 2016 107-130 Moore, Andrew, ‘Opera of the Proletariat: Rugby League, the Labour Movement and Working-Class Culture in New South Wales and Queensland’, Labour History. No. 79, 2000 57-70 Noakes, T., and I. Jakoet. “Spinal Cord Injuries In Rugby Union Players”. BMJ 310.6991 (1995): 1345-1346 Lewis, Glen. “Violence And Militarism In The Australian Media”. The Australian Quarterly 53.3 (1981): 325-333.
New Zealand
Hokowhitu, Brendan. “Tackling Maori Masculinity: A Colonial Genealogy Of Savagery And Sport”. The Contemporary Pacific 16.2 (2004): 259-284. Schultz, Marianne. “‘Sons Of The Empire’: Dance And The New Zealand Male”. Dance Research 29.1 (2011): 19-42. Park. ““The Worst Hassle Is You Can’t Play Rugby”: Haemophilia And Masculinity In New Zealand”. Current Anthropology 41.3 (2000) 444-453 Calabrò, Domenica Gisella. “Beyond The All Blacks Representations: The Dialectic Between The Indigenization Of Rugby And Postcolonial Strategies To Control Māori”. The Contemporary Pacific 26.2 (2014): 389-408. Moore, Andrew. “Opera Of The Proletariat: Rugby League, The Labour Movement And Working-Class Culture In New South Wales And Queensland”. Labour History 79 (2000): 57-70 Grainger, D. Andrew, Falcous, Mark, Newman I. Joshua, ‘Postcolonial Anxieties and the Browning of New Zealand Rugby’, The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 24, 2, (2012), 267-295 Fitzpatrick, Katie. “Stop Playing Up!: Physical Education, Racialization And Resistance”. Ethnography 12.2 (2011): 174-197.
South Africa
Adler, Glenn. “Shop Floors And Rugby Fields: The Social Basis Of Auto Worker Solidarity In South Africa”. International Labor and Working-Class History 51 (1997): 96-128 Maingard, Jacqueline. “Imag(In)Ing The South African Nation: Representations Of Identity In The Rugby World Cup 1995”. Theatre Journal 49.1 (1997): 15-28. Dolby, Nadine. “Making White: Constructing Race In A South African High School”. Curriculum Inquiry 32.1 (2002): 7-29. Epstein, Debbie. “Marked Men: Whiteness And Masculinity”. Agenda 37 (1998): 49-59 Tatz, Colin. “Sport In South Africa: The Myth Of Integration”. The Australian Quarterly 55.4 (1983): 405-420 Riet, Jane Van Der. “Triumph Of The Rainbow Warriors: Gender, Nationalism And The Rugby World Cup”. Agenda 27 (1995): 98-110 Vincent, Louise; Stevenson, Sasha Rethinking rugby and the rainbow nation Journal of African Media Studies, Volume 2, Number 3, 1 November 2010
UK
Ezzell, B. Matthew, ‘Barbie Dolls on the Pitch: Identity Work, Defensive Othering, and Inequality in Women’s Rugby’, Social Problems, Vol. 56, 1 (2009) 111-131 Johnes, Martins, ‘A Prince, a King, and a Referendum: Rugby, Politics, and nationhood in Wales, 1969-79’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 47, 1 (2008) 129-148 Sanders, Sasha. “All Men Are Pigs”. Agenda 28 (1996): 113-117 Free, Marcus. “Diaspora And Rootedness, Amateurism And Professionalism In Media Discourses Of Irish Soccer And Rugby In The 1990S And 2000S”. Éire-Ireland 48.1-2 (2013): 211-229. Greenfield, Steve, and Guy Osborn. “Enough Is Enough: Race, Cricket And Protest In The UK”. Sociological Focus 30.4 (1997): 373-383. Edley, Nigel, and Margaret Wetherell. “Jockeying For Position: The Construction Of Masculine Identities”. Discourse & Society 8.2 (1997): 203-217. SCHACHT, STEVEN P. “MISOGYNY ON AND OFF THE “PITCH””. Gender & Society 10.5 (1996): 550-565. Fleming, S. “‘Role Models’ Among Elite Young Male Rugby League Players In Britain”. European Physical Education Review 11.1 (2005): 51-70. Silver, J R. “The Need To Make Rugby Safer”. BMJ 296.6619 (1988): 429 Yeates, Helen, The League of Men: Masculinity, the Media & Rugby League Football, 75, (1995). 35-45 Dale Carruthers, William Flemngand John Willis, 160 years of Rugby Football (1823-1983)
USA
Andrews, L. Vernon, ‘Baseball, Cricket, Gridion and Rugby: Opposites attract in teaching American Sports Culture Abroad’, Journal of American Studies, Vol 27, 1 (2008), 104-114 Pezza, Paul E., and Ann Bellotti. “College Campus Violence: Origins, Impacts, And Responses”. Educational Psychology Review 7.1 (1995): 105-123. Shockley, Taylor Megan, ‘Debuntantes, Brats and Mayhem: Women;s Rugby and the Creation of an Oppositional Culture in the South’, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol 33, (2005), 150-169 Kocher, James Benjamin, ‘Rugby’s Rise in the United States: The Impact of Social Media On an Emerging Sport’, Brighham Young University, (2014) 1-77