Boxing and Urban Cultures
‘Boxers and their Bodies’
SOC280: Lecture IV

 2016 Czech Fulbright Mid-year Conference
Olomouc, Czech Republic
27-30 January 2016
Title_slide.jpg

Boxers and their Bodies
¤Boxing as reflexively embodied sport
¤ Use of the body in boxing congruent with reflexive use of the body in other working-class
(proletarian) crafts
¤The boxer’s body is an explicitly ‘working-class body’ (as opposed to a ‘body-builder’s body’)
¤‘In shape’ versus ‘in boxing shape’
¤
¤

Boxers and their Bodies
¤ The four bodies of the boxer:
¤Machine/Engine
¤Weapon/Armory
¤Tool/Instrument of use
¤Work of art
¤

Boxers and their Bodies: Machine
¤ Inorganic machine—well-tuned, engine-like—forged in the civilizing machine of the gym
¤Automobile-like, always in need of tuning and tinkering
¤‘I say it like a engine…’ (p. 330-331)
¤Reflexive objectivation of the body by fighter and trainer
¤A complex but paradoxical ‘machine’ of flesh and blood
¤A ‘generative matrix endowed with its own agency’ (p. 331)
¤

Boxers and their Bodies: Weapon
¤Weaponization of the body
¤Weapon of attack but also weapon of defense
¤Boxers as ‘warriors’ or ‘gladiators’ engaged in ‘war’
¤ ‘It’s my tool, my weapon…’ (p. 332)
¤ John ‘the Terminator’ Turlington; Jesse ‘the Mexican Assassin’ Aquino

Boxers and their Bodies: Tool
¤ Body as means to a specific end rather than a means unto itself—reflexive objectivation of bodily
self by boxers
¤ Body as both instrument and instrumentalizing entity in need of continuous fashioning
¤ Boxers’s bodies an extension of the instrumental bodily comportment of the urban milieu in which
they are characteristically embedded (examples of ‘slap-fighting’ and the familiar past times of
everyday urban life)
¤ ‘I try to look…’ (p. 333)

Boxers and their Bodies: Art
¤ Boxers’ bodies versus body-building bodies
¤ Body of the boxer is an expression of unique self and working-class ethic
¤ ‘To me [my body] is like a work of art…’ (p. 335)
¤ Bodily adornment also key, as we see in the carefully chosen costumes and outfits/adornments of
professional fighers as they enter the ring

Boxers and their Bodies: Art
¤ http://mydisguises.com/2010/12/27/professional-boxers-in-costumes
¤