Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
5-2010
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Sport Studies
Major Professor
Joy T. DeSensi
Committee Members
Leslee Fisher, Allison Anders, Terrell Strayhorn, Doris Corbett
Abstract
Fantasy sports are the latest addition to the sports industry. Fantasy sports (FS) participants compete against one another by using players from the “real” world to create a virtual team. FS simulates the structures of the real sporting world. The most popular FS is football, due to the success of the National Football League (NFL) (World Fantasy Games, 2009). Black males represent a vast majority of the athletes in the NFL and are often bought and sold by white participants who represent a critical mass of FS players. The purpose of this dissertation is to read fantasy football participation and consider the un/conscious commodification, fetishization of black masculinity, which is used for cultural transmission. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze interdisciplinary literature enhances the discourse surrounding the intersectionalties of race, gender, sexuality, and sport. Critically reading FS, employing bricolage has made it possible to pragmatically analyze FS. I argue race is central to the acquisition, maintenance, and exposition of power that is paramount in sport, and evidenced within FS. The paradox of allowing the masses of white sport consumers to exercise virtual control over black bodies via FS is that it reveals cultural dogma of racialized masculinity with psychosocial links to fetish.
Recommended Citation
Hill, Stephanie Rene, "Using Critical Race Theory to Read Fantasy Football. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/701
Title, Ded, Ackn, and Abstract
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