What Is the Best Way of Explaining Football Hooliganism?
What is the best way of explaining football hooliganism?
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting." (Oswell, 1945)
The best way to explain football hooliganism is to perceive it in the same context as war. Like war, football hooliganism has different factors that all contribute to the overall goal. Although the goal of each is initially considered as overtly different – war, to some, is demonstrated as a positive thing, especially within the social movement of futurism, while football hooliganism is, as a whole, a negative as portrayed mostly by the media – there are however, similarities among the two that have yet to be further explored. To demonstrate this I will gain further insight into, what I believe are, the similarities of war and football hooliganism. I will do this by studying and explaining the three main attributes of each, which are; Territory, masculinity, and the moral codes each social group follows. With territory I will compare how the two groups defend and protect their 'homelands ' and how they achieve a sense of pride by claiming someone else 's land. Although they conduct this in different ways, I will hopefully be able to present how similar their process of achieving this are. Through the study of masculinity, I will explore the symbolic meaning that each present, in order to achieve a high status of being a 'real man '. How they vilify their rivals is also studied, in order to make them feel less worthy or 'manly ', including how fashion and uniform play an important role. Before concluding my findings, I will explore how moral codes set internal 'laws ' within each social group, to which each must abide in their realms of fighting, focusing specifically on the rule that non-combatants or 'civilians ' are not to be harmed during combat, and how
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting." (Oswell, 1945)
The best way to explain football hooliganism is to perceive it in the same context as war. Like war, football hooliganism has different factors that all contribute to the overall goal. Although the goal of each is initially considered as overtly different – war, to some, is demonstrated as a positive thing, especially within the social movement of futurism, while football hooliganism is, as a whole, a negative as portrayed mostly by the media – there are however, similarities among the two that have yet to be further explored. To demonstrate this I will gain further insight into, what I believe are, the similarities of war and football hooliganism. I will do this by studying and explaining the three main attributes of each, which are; Territory, masculinity, and the moral codes each social group follows. With territory I will compare how the two groups defend and protect their 'homelands ' and how they achieve a sense of pride by claiming someone else 's land. Although they conduct this in different ways, I will hopefully be able to present how similar their process of achieving this are. Through the study of masculinity, I will explore the symbolic meaning that each present, in order to achieve a high status of being a 'real man '. How they vilify their rivals is also studied, in order to make them feel less worthy or 'manly ', including how fashion and uniform play an important role. Before concluding my findings, I will explore how moral codes set internal 'laws ' within each social group, to which each must abide in their realms of fighting, focusing specifically on the rule that non-combatants or 'civilians ' are not to be harmed during combat, and how
Bibliography: Byers, M (2005). War Law: Understanding international law and armed conflict. London: Atlantic books. p.9. King, A. (Dec 1997). The Postmodernity of Football Hooliganism. The British Journal of Sociology. 48 (4), p.576-593. Orwell, G (1945). The Sporting Spirit. London: Tribune. Reeser, T.W (2010).Masculinities in theory: An introduction. London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1.