SEXUAL SPORTS RHETORIC: GLOBAL AND UNIVERSAL CONTEXTS (Editor). New York: Peter Lang, 2009.

            At many levels, we find that local entertainments provide opportunities to examine the role of sport as symbolic of issues surrounding notions of globalization.  Combining those interests with the equation of gender and language provides for some fascinating stories.  Chapters range from women’s volleyball uniforms, ballroom dancing, female athletes as victims, Swedish soccer fans, homophobia, misogyny, Title lX, NASCAR, extreme sports, and trekking, to Japanese sports reports, Canadian hockey, sailors in the French press, British portrayals of Wimbledon champs, Australian heroes, German sports editorials, film s/heroes, and masculinity relative to Mount Everest. Aimed at both academic and lay audiences, this book consists of 21 original chapters from contributors representing a number of different disciplines and athletic interests, divided into these sections:  Part I. Global Sports Per Se: Michael Cantelon, Sex-a-side: Volleyball uniforms and the reproduction of female objectivity; Linda K. Fuller, Victims in search of victories: Women athletes around the world; Todd Joseph Miles Holden, Hail Japan’s conquering heroes: Sports reports and the rhetorics of national efficacy; Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart, Beyond Dancing with the Stars: Sexual sports rhetoric in competitive ballroom dance; David Rowe, Attention La Femme! Intimate relationships and male sports performance.  Part II.  Audiences: Stefan Mertens, Fans from Mediterranean cultures and the rhetoric of “othering”; Kelly Nelson, Watching women: How spectators talk about female athletes; Anders Svensson, Online conversation threads on ice hockey: A comparison of Swedish male and female participants; Daniel L. Wann and Paula J. Waddill, The influence of anatomical sex and gender role orientation in the language of sport fans. Part III.  Commercial Representations: Tara M. Kachgal, “Look good. Kick ass”: An analysis of Nike’s online marketing to U. S. women; Lisa M. Weidman, Homophobia, heterosexism, and ambivalence in the premier issue of Sports Illustrated Women/Sport. Part IV.  Media Representations: Monique Trancart, Female and male sailors competing in the French press; John Vincent, Sporting Lolitas, amazons, and freaks: British newspaper portrayal of female tennis players at Wimbledon; Leanne White, Gender, race, and nation at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games: Mediated images of Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman; Martha Wörsching , Gender and sport in the German quality press: The global and the domestic in editorial and advertising.  Part V. Filmic Representations: Dayna B. Daniels, Gender slurs: Motivation through misogyny in sports films; Demetrius W. Pearson, Absence of power: Sheroes in sports films post-Title lX; Wanda Ellen Wakefield, NASCAR: Sex, death, and the movies. Part VI. Classic Case Studies: Timothy Dewhirst, Gender, extreme sports, and smoking: A case study of Export ‘A’ cigarette brand marketing; Elenie Opffer, The rhetoric of Rocky Mountain women: Talking, trekking, and transforming a male preserve; Jolie Alexandra Sheffer, Standing on top of the world: Masculinity and imperialism on Everest.