Bring it home.

December 7, 2025

I still think about deviance. It has been weeks, but I always go back to it. It’s such a simple concept, but it can be approached from multiple perspectives, that even at points might seem paradoxical, and that’s why I like it so much, it’s complicated in the same way that sociology is. But this concept in particular has added a new layer, not only to my understanding of sports, but to the way I see and react to any type of behavior. This is the single greatest piece of knowledge I got from the class, but is just one of many things I got to explore.

Deconstructing the subject of violence, caused me to delve deep into what we consider as violent and how we redefine it in sports (Post, n.d.; Why Do We Accept Violence in Sports?, n.d.). I also enjoyed all the intersections between race, ethnicity, gender, and being able to link this concepts to current issues in the sports that I follow (Townsend-Ostapenko Ends in Heated Net Exchange, 2025; Tredway, 2020).

When we talked about religion, I had one of my best moments of writing when answering to one of my classmates. To quote myself: “... a kind of meditative beauty, where silence is devoid of emptiness”. I was referring to the comparison between a stadium and a church, by the way. My favorite topic to talk about is class, and exploring it through sports was exhilarating, and I hope it showed in my last reflection. 

But now that we have reached the end of this journey we look at the future, and as Dr. Coakley put it best, as humans we don't have the ability to see the future, but to shape it. And by understanding social worlds and sports we can become agents of change, because the more options of sports we talk about, the more diversity we allow, we are fostering the ideal conditions to create new futures for sport (Coakley, 2021). So despite the current state of the world, I have chosen to remain positive as an act of radical change. 

On a more personal level, I feel more connected to people. To me when I practice sports, it is a moment of reflection, of just worrying about the next stroke, the next rep, you’re there with yourself and nothing else matters. It can sound kind of lonely, and perhaps it is. I believe that exploring sports social issues, going from the outside to the inside, it has broadened my perspective on the world of sports.  Now I enjoy going to sports events; they stopped being this heavily crowded space where I felt I didn’t belong, to a place of communion with others. And it's thanks to all this knowledge I have acquired in the past weeks, I have been able to empathize and sympathize with others better. As a foreigner seeking a foothold in a new country, this experience felt like my cultural initiation. It helped me feel less alone, less far away from home.

References

Coakley, J. J. (2021). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (Thirteenth edition). McGraw-Hill.

Post, B. K. B. and S. R. / T. W. (n.d.). A quietly escalating issue for NFL: Fan violence and how to contain it. The Courier. Retrieved September 12, 2025, from https://www.houmatoday.com/story/sports/2016/10/28/quietly-escalating-issue-for-nfl-fan-violence-and-how-to-contain-it/24656374007/

Townsend-Ostapenko ends in heated net exchange. (2025, August 27). ESPN.Com. https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/46090578/taylor-townsend-jelena-ostapenko-heated-confrontation-us-open-second-round-match

Tredway, K. (2020). Serena Williams and (the perception of) violence: Intersectionality, the performance of blackness, and women’s professional tennis. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(9), 1563–1580. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1648846

Why Do We Accept Violence in Sports? | Psychology Today. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2025, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/be-in-the-know/202310/why-do-we-accept-violence-in-sports