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Anti-Jock Movement

Anti-Jock, Cyber 'Movement'?

Brian Wilson, in his article The Anti-Jock Movement: Reconsidering Youth Resistance, Masculinity, and Sport Culture in the Age of the Internet, uses new social movement theory to examine the nature of a cyber-community that has emerged in opposition to the so-called 'jock culture' endemic in American high schools. Wilson divides his analysis of the 'anti-jock' youth resistance into two parts. The first part examines published research on youth resistance and then attempts to weave a cohesive argument by relying on new social movement theory to address the role internet-based social media might be playing. In the second part, Wilson briefly reviews what is known about jock culture and applies his theory to the emergent anti-jock websites and webzines to see if new social movement theory is adequate to the task of describing this cyber-community. Wilson's approach is therefore qualitative in nature and represents a case study.

Wilson begins by claiming that youth resistance research, with respect to social movements, is almost non-existent, except for studies that encompass both youth and older adults. Against this backdrop of an almost nonexistent academic knowledge base, the internet is then introduced as a valuable social movement resource capable of effectively and cheaply disseminating resistance speech.

To make his case, Wilson first begins by examining the evidence for the existence of a 'jock culture'. He cites studies that have suggested a link between sanctioned sports violence and the tendency towards violence by athletes outside the sporting arena. The press reports surrounding the Columbine shooting in Colorado, is presented as an example of an extreme reaction to the bullying experienced at the hands of athletes. Wilson also notes that parents and coaches often encourage violence both on and off the field, as part of a masculine rite of passage. The overall effect, he argues, is that a class system is created in high schools and the surrounding community. At the top, are the male athletes willing to resort to violence, and at the bottom are both males and females excluded from this small elite group. As a nod to Marxist social movement theory, Wilson points out that the economic incentive for participating in jock culture is considerable.