Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport (Suny Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations)
From beer ads in theSports Illustratedswimsuit issue to  four-year-old boys and girls playing soccer; from male athletes' sexual  violence against women to homophobia and racism in sport, Out of Play  analyzes connections between gender and sport from the 1980s to the  present. The book illuminates a wide range of contemporary issues in  popular culture, children's sports, and women's and men's college and  professional sports. Each chapter is preceded by a short introduction that  lays out the context in which the piece was written. Drawing on his own  memories as a former athlete, informal observations of his children's  sports activities, and more formal research such as life-history interviews  with athletes and content analyses of sports media, Michael A. Messner  presents a multifaceted picture of gender constructed through an array of  personalities, institutions, cultural symbols, and everyday  interactions."There is a tremendous range, depth, and quality to Messner's scholarship  that has had a profound impact on the field. Reading the selections is  somewhat akin to retracing the innovations and developments of the field  over the past two decades--and Messner has been at the cutting edge at  every turn." -- Douglas Hartmann, author ofRace, Culture, and the  Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their  Aftermath--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.