I know I’ve been MIA for a couple months now, but I’ve gained a bunch of new followers since I “finished” this project, so I thought I’d stop by and say hello and thank you guys for following.
I’m thinking about starting this up again with a couple posts a week, but I need some inspiration! So if you have anything soccer/football related that you’d like to see looked at through sociology, please please please let me know! I’ll see what I can do.
Haha Thanks! :) I’m thinking about starting it up again with maybe a post or two a week, so stay tuned!
Wow that’s awesome! I’m considering trying to bring soccer into my thesis in some manner when I finally get around to that.
Yeah you know I am. I’m technically a sociology/anthropology major, although my focus has really been on the anthro side. But I’ve been thinking about starting to build this blog back up again after a little but of a hiatus, so if you have anything you’d like me to take a look at, let me know!
This blog started out as a hopefully dynamic, exciting platform for my intro to sociology final project. For the first few weeks it didn’t look like my grand plans were going to work out. No one read my posts, let alone commented or reblogged them. But what could I do? I’d already devoted myself to this project, so in the very least it could be a creative way to display my ideas.
But looking at it now, I couldn’t be happier. Over 40 people are now following me. People have asked me questions. Other people have totally challenged my analyses and ripped them apart. But that’s great! That’s awesome! It means that I was at least a little bit successful. I wanted to get people thinking about these ideas, talking about these ideas, reacting to these ideas, applying these ideas to something that we love. 40 is a modest number of followers and most of my posts never got more than 4-5 likes, so is this the most popular blog on Tumblr? No. But was this project a success? Yes.
I just want to thank all of you who followed, read, commented, liked, reblogged, and asked. You’re a part of this project just as much as I am. I wrote the posts, but you made it interesting. No sociological analysis of all of you (although I could do it). Just a big thank you for helping me to get this project off the ground and for making it worthwhile.
That’s it for now, but if you liked my posts, keep following. Who knows? The sociologist in me might pop in every now and then to talk a a little soccer with you guys.
(photo from mirrorfootball.co.uk)
As I start wrapping up this project, I though it’d be nice to come full-circle. My very first analysis was of the FA’s accusation that Liverpool striker Luis Suarez had made racist remarks to Manchester United player Patrice Evra. Although that issue has yet to be completely resolved, Suarez is once more on the FA hot seat, this time for giving the middle finger to Fulham fans who had been shouting disparaging remarks at him and his team during Monday’s match. He is now being charged with inappropriate misconduct.
Although his gesture was perhaps uncalled for, you have to begin to question the FA when you consider the fact that countless other players have tossed a one-fingered salute at the stands and never been reprimanded, despite their actions being captured on camera and streamed to thousands over viewers all over the world. Suarez is being targeted, watched closely by the FA to see if he will step out of line once again. And why is this? Because the FA has placed Suarez very squarely in the category of pathological. What started out as a way to create a precedent for their crackdown on racism has turned into a crackdown on Suarez personally as a representation of the pathological in soccer. It is easier for the FA to focus on one individual rather than to try to deal with every player who has ever set a toe out of line. Especially now that Suarez has “proven” himself to be a serial offender to the FA’s sensibilities they believe that he is and always will be the pathological.
Society takes this same approach with other groups defined as the pathological, such as addicts. Although an alcoholic may sober up, the expectation is always that they will slip back into their former habits. We watch them so that if they ever slip up we are there to use it as evidence that we were right, that our ideas of the normal and the pathological have won out, because the overriding attitude is once the pathological, always the pathological. Suarez might as well be considered an addict to misdemeanor seeing how the FA treats him. They hold the “moral high ground” and the power to define what is normal in the world of soccer. And due to his building resume as a repeat offender (a resume which the FA is helping him to write), Suarez is a convenient example that the FA can point to in order to not only warn others of what happens when you slip into the pathological, but also to reinforce the normal through their determination to catch Suarez red-handed. Or with his finger up.
No, this is not the punchline to a weird, nerdy joke. This is my final project for my intro to sociology course. Essentially, this is a blog dedicated to examining the beautiful game through the eyes of a sociologist: what motivates the players, why we feel so passionate about our teams, how this sports culture is developed... This sport is so varied and encompasses so many different regions of the world and types of people, which makes it ideal to look at in this manner. Feel free to comment. The more dynamic the conversation, the more interesting this project is!
