BSJ

The Butler Scholarly Journal

Category: Sport

  1. Identity Violence and Discrimination in Football: A Social Media Problem?

    During the time that it has taken you to reach this stage of the article, you might otherwise have used those valuable seconds to send a ‘tweet’, post a picture on Instagram, or ‘react’ to a video showing two well-known footballers enjoying a rather questionable handshake celebration on Facebook. However, while you may have spent your time doing that, the chances are that others were abusing theirs, instead directing a snide and offensive comment towards another individual, purely because of their beliefs, the colour of their skin, or the place they call home. A social media revolution For the younger…

  2. This Girl Can: The Cost of Empowerment

    I was recently sent a link by a male colleague to a website where one could apply to be the next face of Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign. This was actually a joke on his part as, in the eyes of my friend, the movement has many problematic and even damaging aspects. For a while it was difficult to comprehend why someone, who is by no means sexist or unpleasant, would chose to deprecate a campaign that most women would be proud to be associated with. Yet, upon further evaluation of This Girl Can one will encounter a flaw…

  3. Olympic Legacies: Culture vs. Sport

    The notion of an ‘Olympic Legacy’ is often invoked to reiterate the longevity and importance of the global sporting event. The prestige of the games and celebrity of the athletes lodge in the imagination of the audience, promising a summer of sporting celebration that will aim to inspire a new generation of athletes and encourage even the laziest of us to take up a new sport. However, whilst sport seems the most obvious of Olympic legacies, it would seem that in the long term, cultural projects running alongside the Olympic Games provide another layer of continuity. In fact cultural legacies…

  4. Exploring the Risks of an Inactive Lifestyle for Children

    Physical Activity – ‘Any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that results in an increase in metabolic rate over resting energy expenditure’. (1) Clearly a controversial term to define, yet a consensus appears to have been reached between many academics and clinicians as to what the term ‘physical activity’ should represent. That said, we must continue to express the importance of the dose-response concept, which advises that ‘people with lower baseline fitness can achieve greater health benefits with a given increase in physical activity’ (2) when providing guidelines and advice on physical activity participation, especially with those who are…

  5. The St Cuthbert’s Rugby Social

    I have read much over the previous months regarding the actions of Cuth’s rugby club, and aside from the harm the original actions have caused, what worries me most is the response of others. I have read often that their ban from playing was unfair, that their free speech has been impeded, and that those who called them out on it are just boring. This worries me so much because it points to a level of acceptance where this sort of behaviour seems almost expected of those playing in male-dominated sports. What I really hope is that by the end…

  6. Interview with Andy Hunt, CEO of the BOA and Team GB Chef De Mission

    Andy Hunt is CEO of the British Olympic Association (BOA) and  the Team GB Chef De Mission for the London 2012 Olympic Games. He has kindly taken the time to talk to the Butler Scholarly Journal about his experiences of the 2012 Olympics and his vision of the future for Team GB.  Best sporting moment of the Olympics for Team GB in your opinion? With some of the greatest moments in British Olympic sporting history taking place at London 2012 it’s impossible to single out one achievement by a British Olympic athlete. But of course Helen Glover & Heather Stanning…

  7. ‘Olympic Brand Insanity’: Striking the Balance

    The successful London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games heralded tremendous business opportunities both locally and globally, but it was not without its criticisms. Whilst the London Olympic brand ‘set about to be highly inclusive, encouraging “access and participation”, to excite small businesses and bring about a greater sense of community within London,’ many local business’s claim the reality was a different story. As a result of the highly restrictive measures taken by the Olympic Brand Protection Committee (LOCOG) to prevent copyright infringement and ‘Ambush Marketing,’ ensuring total exclusivity to official sponsors of the event, local businesses were denied the…

  8. Sporting figures as role models: who decides?

    Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest”, the first heavyweight boxer to win the belt three separate times, was widely renowned as the most talented, and beautiful, boxer in sporting history. In 1966, he refused to be enlisted into the U.S. Armed Forces, stating: “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Consequently, Ali was stripped of his titles and boxing licence, putting his career on hold for a…

  9. Football’s awkward secret

    Alongside horrific news stories of Algerian terrorists keeping British nationals hostage and French armed forces battling with Islamists in Mali, the protracted debate over Theo Walcott’s contract extension at Arsenal took many headlines in the British press last week. A trivial issue, you might say. And you’d be right. How does a man, admittedly with a remarkable talent for kicking a bit of leather about, merit similar coverage to that of these monstrosities? But this is our obsession with football, so much so that Walcott’s perceived value is sufficient to earn him, reportedly, in excess of a reported £100,000-a-week. I’m…

  10. Lack of column inches

    ‘Playing like a girl’, ‘Stop being a pussy’, ‘My gran could have scored that!’ – just a few of the comments thrown around the Sunday League football pitch back in my school days. These comments, whilst said in ‘the moment’, may represent a deeply ingrained social norm of women’s sport.  How does society view female participation in sport and are the attitudes changing in certain ways? Female participation in sport is low; in fact, only 12.8% of the female population in England take part in regular sport every week, according to the Active People Survey in 2010. In comparison with…