Learning the use of violence and training boys in team sports "combat"

The world of sports appears as a privileged place of production/reproduction of gender order. This process was mainly studied from the analysis of women’s sports experiences. The sports socialization of men remains globally less analyzed and concerns rarely the formation of young boys. This object presents nevertheless an obvious interest to seize the concrete modalities of the socialization of men in sports. This paper studies the socialization of the boys in two typical sports of the hegemonic masculinity, the rugby and the ice hockey. It analyzes the necessity of distinguishing themselves from the woman’s categorie, and to learn to resist the pain and to use a certain physical violence. However, all the boys do not appropriate these structuring elements in the same way. The article studies also the social conditions which favor, or on the contrary, complicate, the participation of young people involved in these activities. Key Word: sport - hegemonic masculinity - socialization - violence