Violence, Silence, and Rhetorical Cultures of Champion-Building in Sports

Download or read book Violence, Silence, and Rhetorical Cultures of Champion-Building in Sports written by Kathleen Sandell Hardesty and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-23 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a close look at systems and rhetorics of silencing in sports training. Using the case study of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal at Michigan State University and within USA Gymnastics, the book explores multifaceted problems of speaking, silencing, and listening in youth and college athletic organizations, investigating the cultures of abuse and discursive practices that silence victims while protecting abusers. The author foregrounds the victims’ voices through an analysis of victim impact statements and victim interviews, while examining other textual artifacts to understand the institutional behaviors and actions both before and after the case caught public attention. Exploring the issue far beyond the single organization, the author discusses the norms, values, ideologies, and expected behaviors of youth and college sports programs as institutions to help describe “rhetorical cultures of champion-building.” This innovative study offers new perspectives that will interest students and scholars of sport communication, rhetoric, organizational communication, criminology, and feminist theory.