Sport, Promotional Culture and the Crisis of Masculinity

This book captures the contested terrain of contemporary masculinity and explores a range of conceptualisations, with a specific focus on the role of the media and promotional culture within the context of sport. Asking whether sport is the final frontier of masculinity in society, the book focuses on how the production and representation of sport-related advertising and marketing contribute to the shifting and contested nature of masculinity and its alleged crisis. Drawing upon conceptual and empirical examples spanning across sport celebrity, professional sport leagues, beer advertising and indigenous cultures, the authors explore the links between sport, masculinity, promotional and consumer culture. Collectively, the chapters illustrate how advertising and promotional campaigns continue to circulate representations of particular forms of hegemonic masculinity while also accommodating new forms.


Sport, Promotional Culture and the Crisis of Masculinity will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of sociology of sport, media studies, marketing, gender and masculinity studies.

“This book is interesting for students who are interested in going into sports journalism or broadcasting especially females, who are covering a male dominated sports world.” (Morgan Jenkins, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (3-4), 2020) “This is the first book of its kind – focusing on the masculinity crisis, promotional culture, sport, and globalization. It draws together a rich collection of texts, tackling a number of broader media-related and cultural issues along the way.” (Kimberley S. Schimmel, Kent State University, USA)

“Sport, Promotional Culture and the Crisis of Masculinity offers an intellectually challenging and theoretically nuanced trip through the complexities of masculinity in a world in which identity is increasingly turned into a commodity.  Via five empirical case studies of the representation and circulation of masculinities in advertising and consumer culture, the authors challenge us to take seriously the value of nuanced investigations of what it means to be a man in the 21st century.” (Toni Bruce, University of Auckland, New Zealand)

“While there has been much scholarly attention focused on the dynamics and inequalities of gender in sport, almost all has focused on the challenges and experiences of women. Recognizing that sport plays a role for all men, athletes or not, in defining their identities, and does so increasingly influenced by narrative logic of promotional culture, Gee and Jackson reset an important part of the scholarly agenda about sport and culture.  In a far ranging tour de force, their work sets understanding sport's role in today's masculinity crisis in the political-economy of consumer culture, and offers convincing evidence in a series of case studies examining "flexy" David Beckham as celebrity, Molson and Speight's beer as manuals for masculinity, and promotional constructions of hockey and the Haka as reinventions of masculine warrior myths.” (Lawrence Wenner, Loyola Marymount University, USA)

“Sport, Promotional Culture and the Crisis of Masculinity represents a telling, and indeed timely, contribution to the literature on sport as a form of promotional culture, foregrounding the masculinized and masculinizing discourses with which sport is inextricably linked.  Through a series of theoretically and empirically-grounded analyses, Gee and Jackson vividly capture the local inflections of corporate sport’s default masculinity.  The book cleverly elucidates the persistence of crisis narratives mobilized within, and through, promotional sporting discourse, and highlights their role in reproducing, oftentimes within the moment of purported crisis patriarchal relations.  Not limited to a gender focus, this book importantly articulates the intersectionality of sporting masculinities, by underscoring their contingent interrelationship with, amongst other social categories, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and national identity. An important and insightful book.” (David L. Andrews, University of Maryland, USA)

“Sarah Gee and Steven Jackson capture the contradictions in the relationships between sport and masculinity. Skilfully weaving theory through detailed empirical case studies, from sport celebrity to indigenous cultures and masculinities in sport, the book unpacks these complex sites of identity politics. In an era where much of the alleged crisis of masculinity is played out through global promotional culture, the book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understanding the interplay between sport, media and contemporary masculinities.” (Catherine Palmer, University of Tasmania, Australia)

“Debates and social issues arising from the current “crisis of masculinity” are of paramount importance in research on gender and sport in late modern, post-industrial societies. Gee and Jackson’s Sport, Promotional Culture and the Crisis of Masculinity is an innovative, engaging and thorough investigation of the intersection between promotional culture, sport and masculinity. The book critically analyzes the mythologies generated globally by corporate industries with a vested interest in reproducing the emotional affinity between masculine identities, nationalism and professional sport. The case studies exploring indigenous knowledge and representations of sport and masculinity make a unique and valuable contribution to the field. This text sets a new standard in studies of masculinity, sport and the media. It is essential reading for anyone interested in critically understanding the contribution of promotional culture to the pervasiveness and popularity of sport among men and current crisis of masculinity globally.” (James Gillett, McMaster University, Canada)

Sarah Gee is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University, New Zealand. Her current research interests include the role of alcohol as part of the entertainment experience of major sports events and the complex and sophisticated links existing between alcohol promotion, sports sponsorship, gendered identities, and drinking cultures.

Steven Jackson is a Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a former President of the International Sociology of Sport Association and specialises in the socio-cultural analysis of sport with a research focus on globalisation, national identity and the media.