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Meredith Pearce

Cultural Media and Literacy

Mr. Phillips

20 May 2018

Masculinity Reinforces Violence in the National Hockey League

Grown adult men fly down the ice at 20 miles per hour only to crash into one another and

then they must decide, in an instant, whether or not to throw punches. These collisions, heavy

with testosterone and danger, display distinct results of hegemonic masculinity in the National

Hockey League. The National Hockey League carries a reputation for fostering toxic masculinity

through its expectation of violence from its players. Professional ice hockey players face harsh

expectations of masculinity that further forces them into playing the role as forceful and

dangerous violence-filled professional athletes. However, current NHL players and officials have

challenged these expectation through rule changes and new hopes.

The focus of gender display has often been on women and women in sports. Women

often break typical gender codes when they take to the ice or play the more acceptable field

hockey. Now, focus must be switched to how masculinity factors into the way men play

professional sports. Tjondall states that “sport is often considered a masculine area of social life,

and few sports are more commonly associated with traditional norms of masculinity than ice

hockey”. Both women’s ice hockey and men’s ice hockey have contact and violence as a central

feature of the modern hockey experience. However, the “contrasts between men's and women's

hockey arise out of … the gendered ideologies that underlie the practice of sport”(Theberge).

Fights in women’s hockey or in the National Women’s Hockey League rarely occur, likely due
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to the expectation of empathetic women who would never resort to violence to show dominance.

Additionally, the rules of fighting in women’s hockey and men’s hockey are different, “in

women's hockey … fighting is punished with an automatic game misconduct and possible

suspension”(Fitzpatrick). American audiences typically encourage violent collisions in men’s

hockey as a representation of masculine codes lost in our modern era. American society suffers

from culture lag as we seek to continue yet further evolve the past codes of the masculine gender.

The continuity of violence and physical fights in hockey clearly follow the codes of

hegemonic and orthodox masculinity. Professional ice hockey players in the National Hockey

League feel that they must prove their masculine dominance through violence. The evidence,

fighting and violence, shown by these professional athletes display “learned responses that are

modeled and reinforced differently for each athlete” (Gee). The athletes learned that in order to

play in a professional league their masculinity and prowess must be shown through dominating

violence. Even with the push for more open and fluid masculinity, ice hockey “appears to have

maintained a more traditional masculinity based on a strongly heteronormative culture” (Parent).

Contact sports maintain the typical gender codes in men as they must force their bodies to fight

other men. Murray Knutilla, a researcher at the University of Regina explained that "men who

practice hegemonic masculinity exhibit their masculinity through fighting and violence. And

some of that fighting and violence is visited upon their loved ones ... but a lot of it is visited upon

each other," (Ruddy). Even though violence against women often receives more attention,

violence among men proves orthodox value of masculine dominance more clearly. Men’s

leagues typically contain contact while women’s do not due to the expectation of dominant men.
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Additionally, fights occur more often in men’s ice hockey than in football or other contact sports

because of the codes of violence that have existed within the sport for decades.

The codes of violence, the expectation for ever present fair fights, have started changing

in the past decade as the definition as masculinity has shifted in Western culture. NHL players

“are challenging the predominance of hyper-masculine behaviours and are challenging fears of

being perceived as homosexual and/or effeminate in their sport” as stated by a researched at

Brandon University. The proportion of NHL games that feature player on player fights has

steadily decreased since the 1980s, when fighting peaked in the NHL due to the presence of

enforcers. In 2016, “the NHL [was] on pace for about 300 fewer fights from the 2010-11 season,

a 47 per cent drop” as reported by Jason Siegel of CBC Sports. The development of gender

equality in Western culture contributes to the drop in violence in the NHL. As the world has

become more sensitive to gender issues regarding both men and women, the villainization of

violent men has caused a new vigilance on violence issues in professional sports.

Masculinity, a concept that evolves daily, influences and informs violence and fighting

within the National Hockey League. As the identity of man evolves from orthodox masculinity

to a more inclusive masculinity the rate of violence in professional hockey decreases. As men

feel they must prove their masculinity through violence, player-on-player violence displays

hegemonic masculinity directly. Men must prove their dominance in society through violence on

other men. With the added adrenaline of high-speed ice hockey and the stereotypical tempers of

hockey players, fighting has been ubiquitous in the National Hockey League for decades.

Professional ice hockey, a contact heavy sport, relies on player-on-player contact for a functional

game. The sport will not rid itself of violence and sports naturally, prompting will be needed
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from outside sources: the media, the audience, the owners. Masculinity influences many aspects

of life and thus influence professional sports such as ice hockey. The evolution of masculinity

and gender identity in America directly influence the evolution of violence in the National

Hockey League.
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Works Cited

Fitzpatrick, Jamie. “History of Hockey Fights.” ThoughtCo. , 18 Mar. 2017,

www.thoughtco.com/history-of-hockey-fights-2779322​.

Gee, Chris J., and Larry M. Leith. “Aggressive Behavior in Professional Ice Hockey: A

Cross-Cultural Comparison of North American and European Born NHL Players.” Psychology

of Sport and Exercise, vol. 8, no. 4, 2007, pp. 567–583., doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2006.06.006.

“NHL Heavyweights: Narratives of Violence and Masculinity in Ice Hockey : Physical

Culture and Sport. Studies and Research.” Physical Culture and Sport Studies and Research, by

Anne Tjønndal, vol. 70, pp. 55–68,

content.sciendo.com/view/journals/pcssr/70/1/article-p55.xml.

Parent, Sylvie, and Kristine Fortier. “Comprehensive Overview of the Problem of

Violence Against Athletes in Sport.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 5 Mar. 2018, p.

019372351875944., doi:10.1177/0193723518759448.

Ruddy, Jenn. "Men, masculinity, and feminism." Briarpatch, Mar.-Apr. 2006, p. 5+.

General OneFile,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A143337362/GPS?u=rale84535&sid=GPS&xid=50950c01.

Accessed 18 May 2018.

Siegel, Jonas. “Fighting in NHL Continues to Decline.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 6

Apr. 2016, ​www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-fighting-1.3523172​.

Skuce, Tim. “Re-Framing and Re-Enacting Masculinities in Elite-Level Ice Hockey

Players.” Research Connection, Brandon University, Apr. 2018,

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www.brandonu.ca/research-connection/rc-article/re-framing-and-re-enacting-masculinities-in-eli

te-level-ice-hockey-players/.

Theberge, Nancy. “No Fear Comes: Adolescent Girls, Ice Hockey, and the Embodiment

of Gender.” Youth & Society, vol. 34, no. 4, 1 June 2003, pp. 497–516. Sage Journals,

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0044118X03034004005.