Impact Of The Victorian Middle Class

In Joyce Carol Oates’, The Cruelest Sport, she argues that boxing is a cruel and savage sport and that it should not be practiced or even considered a sport. The title of this work The Cruelest sport leads to the questions: Why is it the cruelest sport? Is it because of the physical injuries? Or is it because of the corruption? Oates argues that because the ultimate goal of boxing is to injury someone, it is a barbaric sport. Boxing is the only sport where two men climb into a ring and fight each other like animals. Boxing is harmful because of the injuries, wounds, and deaths that occur during every fight. Victory is usually when one of the fighters is knocked out. Victory is usually achieved when one fighter is unconscious. Boxers fight

Millions of people worldwide take part as spectators to the sport of prize fighting: better known as boxing. In a 1962 essay entitled “Who Killed Benny Paret?” the author, Norman Cousins, writes about the dangers that come with the sport of boxing. He especially talks about a match that resulted in the death of a boxer named Benny Paret. Cousins argues that boxing is just a show of violence and that boxers put themselves in the ring just for the simple purpose of entertaining a crowd. Even though investigations reflect the role of the referee, Paret’s manager, and the doctor’s examinations as the main cause of Paret’s death, Cousins blames Paret’s death on the people that attends boxing matches to see a man get hurt or knockout because he

Elliott J. Gorn’s The Manly Art is a unique book that tells readers the origins of boxing in American culture. The book was published in 1986 by Cornell University Press, the book discussed the development of boxing and American society. Gorn takes sport history, a commonly misunderstood and misinterpreted topic and wrote a book that not only was easy to read but allowed readers to gain knowledge on the sport. Gorn says “To understand prize fighting, I have discovered, is necessarily to understand something about nineteenth-century America. Ideology, ethnicity, social class formation, violence, urbanization, gender roles, religious world views, productive relationships, all are a part of sports history in general and boxing in particular.” (Gorn, pg. 12)

In the 19th century, sports were a common use of how men proved their manliness, masculinity and physical prowess as they displayed how they excelled in certain sports. In this paper, I will discuss how prize fighting and football in the 19th century were similar and different and how they showed their “manliness” during these sports. Although friends, families and fans were a big part of making these sports as popular as they are today, the sport itself played the biggest part in making these two sports as popular as they are are in today’s present society. The power, aggression, and passion for these sports are what makes fans love of the game.

Contests in skill, strength and speed have occupied an important place in every culture throughout the ages. The meaning of the term sport and the effect that sport has on society is always changing. Sports have especially changed in the last two decades and can certainly be evidence by the growing number of labor disputes and court cases involving all sports.

Boxing in the 1960’s was one of the biggest sources of entertainment to most American’s. Back in the 60’s one could compare a heavyweight championship fight to our modern day super bowl. If American’s didn’t have a television, they would be standing by their radios listening. Unfortunately during the same time period race relations were at an all-time low. Boxing was integrated, although black boxers were still under pressure to conform to white America’s social limitations. One man stayed true to himself, so that others would find courage to do the same.

The Manly Art provides a new and refreshing perspective on life for a man in Early America, especially one of the working class. When discussing the sport of bare-knuckle prize fighting, it is essential to include the violent tendencies, just as Gorn does. He takes the time to explain his appreciation towards prize fighting and its cultural impact; he also explains the barbarous tendencies of the sport. He writes that “as men tripped off their clothes for a prize fight, symbolically, they also stripped of layers of civilization” (p. 90). The monograph likely is not a recreational read for anyone other than researchers, however, Gorn keeps readers captivated with his in-depth recaps of matches. Gorn does a fantastic job of emphasizing

Cousins provides that the nature of prize boxing itself is the main factor. He first bring up the style of the fighting that prizefighting consist of. Cousin makes the point that the proponents of the boxing “searched for killers and sluggers and maulers” as opposed to boxers skilled with the technical aspects of pugilism. He links this with fatalities by stating that although a man can take a punch repeated impacts will cause damage and has a risk of killing the man being stuck. Next he also loops the fans into the nature of boxing.

Boxers were offered much lower wages for fighting than they were given in the 1920s, causing many of them to either drop out of the arena or to fight with far less drive and passion. At the beginning of the 1930s, the position of the world Heavyweight title had been unoccupied for 3 years. Despite the drop in wages, boxing continued to be one of the most popular sports in America, next to baseball. The majority of its received attention came from the gambling amongst the observers. Even though many families were unemployed, a great amount of effort was placed on trying to see major fights when they would come up. If the fight was promised to be a good one, younger people would do their best to go see it live. The sport became a great past time and hobby to attend across the nation (Zammit). As scholar Rosca states, “The people chose the immediate joy and the sense of belonging that a boxing fight induced to them, rather than the long-term saving of money” (Rosca,

Bullfighting originates back to 700 A.D. in Spain. It started as an activity for the King’s crowning. It was later turned to a ceremonial event for the upper class. The status of bullfighting changed when King Felipe V thought it brought a negative attention to his family. Because the people of Spain had grown accustomed to the event, the commoners took it on as a sport. This event or sport has special equipment, participants, structure, and purpose.

One popular sport trending at the time was jousting. Many of the high class society folk were very interested and involved in jousting. Jousting was a horse involved sports that only the upper class men participated in. The goal of the game was to charge at each other

Unfortunately, today’s martial arts lack the traditional meanings of martial arts. There is no philosophy or meaning in the UFC/MMA circuits. Many critics condemn the brutal sport because of the lack of rules and protective gear. In the cage (fighting arena), the goal is to win. The fighters are always training and always comparing themselves to other fighters. Even when an opponent is on the ground or knocked out, their opponent attacks until the referee steps in. UFC and MMA fights are unrealistic in their round durations. Life-and-death fights or conflicts on the street

The period of 1865 to 1950 was critical to the formation of “Modern” sport that is recognized today. In an article by Allen Guttmann titled From Ritual to Record: the nature of modern sport, Guttmann outlines seven characteristics that played a central role in the development of sports. These concepts were created as a sociological history of sports and took into place both American and European competitions. Guttmann’s notions of secularism, rationalization, bureaucracy and quantification, among others, all advanced the culture of sports; yet the most important of the stated characteristics is equality.

great prosperity in Great Britain's literature. The Victorian Age produced a variety of changes. Political and social reform produced a variety of reading among all classes. The lower-class became more self-conscious, the middle class more powerful and the rich became more vulnerable. The novels of Charles Dickens, the poems of Alfred,

The Victorian period started in 1837 through 1901 under Queen Victoria’s reign. The period got divided into three stages: Early, middle and late Victorians periods. During, the early Victorian era took the throne. Under the middle years, the industrialization of the country began and everything stay steady. On the last few years, a lot of problems rise up with Ireland and the English colonies. In her 63 years of ruling lots of cultural, political and economic changes arise. The country became highly industrialized and expanded its land to some parts of the middle west of the World. However, under the period, many diseases were developed such as typhus and cholera because of the food distribution and hunger. Social changes such as women’s vote and rights were proclaimed. New science and technological theories were promoted such as Darwin’s Evolution Theory and Charles Lyell’s Theory of Uniformitarianism. Other social and economic changes