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Biological Fandom: Our Changing Relationship to Sport and the Bodies We Watch
Ist Teil von
Communication and sport, 2017-02, Vol.5 (1), p.49-68
Ort / Verlag
Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications
Erscheinungsjahr
2017
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
In the last few decades, our exposure to sport has increased dramatically through advancements in television, Internet, and mobile technologies. This rise in exposure and accessibility has increased biological knowledge among sport “fans,” a concept I use broadly, and complicated our relationship with sport. Using Rose’s notion of biological citizenship, which draws on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and biopower, I introduce “biological fandom” as a way to think about the intensification of bioknowledge in and around sport. As a problem space where various relationships of power intersect, biofandom creates new forms of knowledge, surveillance, and ethical problems. In this article, I sketch the relations of power that create biological fandom. First, I focus on aspects of the media that are concerned with quantifying the bodies of athletes and new biomedical treatments in sports medicine. Second, within this larger media context, I proceed to explore what I see as a particularly concentrated manifestation of biofandom, fantasy sports. Using examples from fantasy sports media, I argue that biological fandom perpetuates neoliberal norms that encourage self-work and individualism among “biofans,” while also fetishizing the individual athlete and creating undifferentiated athletic masses.