Male Club Sports

In which direction the emancipation of sports competitions is moving

• 100-120 years ago, sport was the occupation of white, wealthy, heterosexual men in the northern part of the planet. Then it becomes a competition of white, heterosexual men, then - just heterosexual men.
• Sports emancipation occurs. She just deals with the emancipation that we see declared in society, since they cannot keep up with the times.
• There is a request for a tradition as such, because problems arose with Russian identity, including young people.
• Until now, at meetings of any sports federation, even in women's sports, more men, not to mention football associations. This is a men's club that reproduces this particular type of entertainment.
• There is a need to reconsider the rules, but these are additional problems for modern professional sports, since both money and contracts are related. In addition, we are faced with various cultures, the perception of sports and changes in different societies.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Today we will talk about how male and female roles are changing in modern sports. Why, for example, girls play football, and young men compete in synchronous swimming. Whether this is a sign of gender equality or personal physical superiority will help us understand the philosopher Vladimir Nishukov , the religious scholar, the observer of the “independent newspaper” Pavel Skrylnikov and the President of the Russian LGBT sport of Alexander Agapov .

Tamara Lyalenkova: We will begin, perhaps, with the Atman fists, which, according to the organizers, have been held in the village of Atmansky corner of the Tambov region since the middle of the 17th century. These are purely male competitions in the traditional spirit, but it seems to me that it is rather not fun, but sport. Such a kind of alternative to official competitions. And she is a pronounced masculine character, like four centuries ago. Vladimir, is your impression of these games?

We see men fighting, and singing women

Vladimir Nishukov : Basically, the so -called disciplines of ethnosport are presented there, that is, those that are rooted in traditional games and fun. Yes, this is really a masculine holiday in the sense that the main event - the wall of the wall on the wall - takes place exclusively for men. But if you walk through all the venues of the festival, you can find quite a lot of other games in which both women and children can participate. If we say, why this is a masculine holiday - it records the tradition of the late 19th century - the decomposition of the patriarchal peasant community, when they still lived a patriarchal family. And, accordingly, those types of masculinity and femininity, which are reconstructed at the festival, go back to them. Accordingly, we see men fighting, and women singing.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Pavel, how did you get to these games? What is the interest?

Pavel Skrylnikov : Partly the interest of the ethnographic properties. My wonderful supervisor Igor Alekseevich Morozov told me about the Atmanov corner, and I hoped to find pagans there I explore. They are also interested in everything that is associated with masculinity, with tradition, with sports, and on the Atman fists all this is remarkably woven into one knot.

Tamara Lyalenkova : You came there as an expert and you understood that the same fight “wall to wall” was arranged differently. The boy was sent, who brought the call, then the fighters were already leaving, stood against each other. And at first there was such a verbal battle, they started. You can somehow compare inside yourself and catch what happened then, and what you get now?

Pavel Skrylnikov : In addition to the dose of adrenaline, I think it is difficult for a modern person to get something else from this if he does not specifically reflect his participation before coming there. But I received some ethnographic experience of a different nature. The fact is that ethnography is often understood as the study of some long-dead traditions that have obsolete practices. This is not entirely true. Ethnography is quite alive. And the Atman's fists, from the point of view of the ethnography of modern people, quite urban, the same pagans, modern youth, represent the wonderful material of how they imagine the tradition that they reconstruct how they reflect it.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Can this be called a return to tradition? There is probably a need for society for such traditional sports, when the male and female shares? Or is it such a separate story that is cultivated, including the state?

Pavel Skrylnikov : It seems to me that there is a request for tradition as such. Because some problems arose with Russian identity, including young people. But the tradition of which there is a request is not very related to gender roles.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Alexander, would anyone take a chance from the LGBT sport federation to come for this holiday and perform?

Alexander Agapov : I think that many guys are already performing there. Another thing is that they do not associate themselves with the Russian LGBT sport federation.

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The wall on the wall

"Wall to the wall", Atman fists

Tamara Lyalenkova : Why did your federation need? LGBT community does some special system require? Maybe gender roles have been changed there, and in connection with this, the sport is already being built differently?

Alexander Agapov : This is one of the requests of modern society. The professional sport that creates the bar, the standard, was created at the end of the 19th century. And since then, society has changed a lot in the West and in Russia. By the way, here we must understand the whole difference between such concepts as “sport” as “physical activity” and “health”.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Does something change in sports by and large? Or is sport still a male region?

Vladimir Nishukov : Sports institutions are formed quite sooner or rather later, depending on which optics to look at, in the late XIX - early twentieth century. Whereas the ATman fists record the type of relationship between male and female, characteristic of the end of the XIX - early twentieth centuries of the Russian village, sports institutions recorded the differences between male and female, characteristic of the end of the XIX - early twentieth centuries in Western Europe. Here is a nuclear family, a man presented in the most characteristic type as a bourgeois. And the woman is the keeper of the hearth of this nuclear family.

Accordingly, sports institutions function as a closed men's club. Because the club is a purely male institution in itself. Until now, at meetings of any sports federation, even in women's sports, more men, not to mention football associations and so on. This is a men's club that reproduces this particular type of entertainment.

Tamara Lyalenkova : Perhaps the problem is that it is difficult to make up even mixed teams. Maybe there is something in the LGBT sport federation that will demonstrate, how will sports equality be arranged?

Alexander Agapov : When we arrange, for example, an amateur football match with mixed teams, we simply simplify the rules. I agree that this raises a huge number of issues, and there is a need to reconsider the rules, and these are additional problems for modern professional sports. This is due to both money and contracts. Because, say, the Olympic Games or the World Cup is a matter of attracting spectators. And here we are faced with various cultures, with the perception of sports and changes in different societies. And we see what fears arise in the IOC or the International Football Federation with how to solve this problem. This is a difficult question.

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A survey of young people on the streets of Moscow about sports

What sport do you prefer and why?

Tamara Lyalenkova : Pavel, on the example of the same Atman fists, can be a female competition to be like a male, for example, the same Rusmyach. Or is it too hard?

Pavel Skrylnikov : Women's competitions are partly similar to male and quite adversarial. For example, this is a competition of dance.

Vladimir Nishukov : Mixed bast shoes.

Tamara Lyalenkova : It seems to me that this is from a series of traditional marriage games. Maybe you understand what sports can develop in the feminine side? We know that Maltsev went into synchronous swimming. Maybe he has any competitive advantages, is there such a danger?

Alexander Agapov : Firstly, I try to refuse to divide sports into female, male.

Tamara Lyalenkova : But somehow you have to solve it.

Alexander Agapov : There is a certain given - here is football, and on the field of a man or woman. I say that football is among women and football among men. Football is like a sport, as a game - this is one species. He himself is neither male nor female. And then, just depending on who is on the field, we can say that football among women, mixed teams, among men.

Pavel Skrylnikov : As for fist fights and, in general, traditions. Despite the fact that it was a team fun, in which quite a few men participated, records of the so-called Baby Bogatyi, who participated with great success, were preserved, they even made money on them.

Vladimir Nishukov : If we are talking about participating in men and women's sports, then, in my opinion, the vast majority of sports include both women and men. Men, oddly enough, are even in a more infringed position. Because there are sports where men are not traditionally welcomed - it is synchronous swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. It just traditionally happened that the type of physicality that should be presented there corresponds to a conservative idea of a woman as a more flexible one.

There are sports where men are not traditionally welcome

At the same time, I repeat that modern sport is a men's club. It is not necessary to perceive it as something natural, as something given. If we agree that this is such a convention, we all will live much easier for us. People gathered, invented the rules and live on them. The fact that billions of people for some reason look at this does not give the right to these billions of people to influence these rules.

Tamara Lyalenkova : The older people among their loved ones call the same sports as young. Does this mean that everything remains about the same level?

Vladimir Nishukov : In fact, the emancipation of sports gradually occurs. 100-120 years ago, sport was the occupation of white, wealthy, heterosexual men in the northern part of the planet. Then he becomes the competition of white, heterosexual men, then just heterosexual men. Then heterosexual men and heterosexual women, conditionally. Accordingly, emancipation occurs. She just deals with the emancipation, which we see declared in society, since they cannot finally keep up with the times.