In class this week, we began our third case study, Public and Private Canada; as our first topic, we explored Recreation and Sport in Canadian Life, focusing primarily on the link between sport and masculinity. As discussed in class, there are many ways we can link recreation and sport to the development of Canada between 1900 and 1950, including community, culture, and gender; however, by selecting one of these lenses, in this case gender, we are able to gain a more explicit understanding of the topic. In our assigned readings, we explored how the masculine identity of many Canadian men was determined by their participation and success in competitive sports, including boxing and cycling. In addition to these readings, I chose an article that discussed hockey as a third sport that equated performance with masculinity.

Masculinity as a means to success, power, and respectability is a reoccurring theme in all of these readings. As demonstrated in both Kevin B. Wamsley and David Whitson’s article, “Celebrating Violent Masculinities: The Boxing Death of Luther McCarty,” and Stacy L. Lorenz and Geraint B. Osborne’s article, “‘Talk About Strenuous Hockey’: Violence, Manhood, and the 1907 Ottawa Silver Seven-Montreal Wanderer Rivalry,” physicality demonstrated in “confrontative sports” [1], is a primary means in which men were expected to prove their “manhood.” As Wamsley and Whitson write, “…champions in confrontative sports became popular exemplars of a rough version of masculinity that was still widely respected, even as they were criticized by moralists and social reformers” [2], indicating that despite becoming less acceptable in a general public setting, violent behaviour displayed within sport was praised. Although this level of violence was normalized in both boxing and hockey, fatal injuries occurred on many different occasions in either sport, resulting in charges of manslaughter were laid on boxer, Arthur Pelkey, [2] and hockey players, Allan Money and Charles Masson [3]. These tragic outcomes come as a result of society’s increasing value of “masculine honour, toughness, and physical prowess” [3] as men sought to prove themselves. The respectability men obtained through the participation in sport was not limited to sports rich in physical violence, as demonstrated in Kossuth and Walmsley’s article, “Cycles of Manhood: Pedaling Respectability in Ontario’s Forest City,” where they observe, “Part of the process of measuring up for men of the emerging middle classes entailed expressing physical masculinities in public places such as sporting fields, pitches, and, in the case of cycling, streets…” [4]. As cycling as more easily accessed by men of the middle-class, this was an opportunity for them to assert their manliness in a means that was less violent than the confrontative sports, while still physically demanding.

Whether it was violent confrontative sports such as boxing and hockey, which had consequences as severe as death and criminal charges, or less aggressive sports such as cycling, the importance of men having an outlet to express their masculinity and assert their dominance in order to gain respect during this time period is evident. Studying sport gives historians an opportunity to gain important insight on gender roles and expectations, as demonstrated in the course material this week.

[1] Walmsley and Whitson, “Celebrating Violent Masculinities: The Boxing Death of Luther McCarty,” Journal of Sport History, 25, 3 (Fall, 1998): 420.

[2] Ibid., 424.

[3] Lorenz and Osborne, “‘Talk About Strenuous Hockey’: Violence, Manhood, and the 1907 Ottawa Silver Seven-Montreal Wanderer Rivalry,” Journal of Canadian Studies, 40, 1 (Winter, 2006): 129-130.

[4] Kossuth and Walmsley, “Cycles of Manhood: Pedaling Respectability in Ontario’s Forest City,” Sport History Review, 34 (2003): 170.