Televised Sports, Masculinist Moral Capital, and Support for the U.S. Invasion of Iraq

Abstract

Data from a survey of 1,048 Americans conducted in summer 2003 are used to demonstrate the existence of a “televised masculinist sport–militaristic nationalism complex” that contributed support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Involvement in televised masculinist sports is robustly correlated with support for invading Iraq, the doctrine of preventive attacks, and strong patriotic feelings for the United States. Critical feminists and figurationalists posit a linkage between war and masculinist sports that is grounded in a macho or hypermasculinity found most in combat sports such as football. Using Lakoff's study of the conservative worldviewand Lamont'swork on moral boundaries, the author develops an alternative conception of “masculinist moral capital” that better explains the gender and racial patterns of correlation between different types of televised sports and support for invading Iraq.