The consensus among researchers is that ice hockey socializes young boys and men into specific masculine ideals. Hockey masculinity involves aggression, dominance, stoicism and bravado. As players progress in the game to elite levels, these behaviours are expected, reinforced and rewarded. Yet, as the participants in our study made clear, these expectations were harmful to their physical and mental health. When people suggest that researchers do not understand hockey culture and are villainizing hockey over other sports, they ignore the voices of athletes like those in our study.
While reading through the data, we were struck by the participants' expressions of precarity. These elite-level players felt as though they were walking on eggshells. They were fearful of the consequences of any little mistake. The participants expressed insecurities about their position on the team and stated that they were lucky to be on the team, had to work very hard to stay or felt they couldn't take time for injuries. They felt that they needed to sacrifice their bodies for the team, which they justified because, one, they were part of a national sport, something bigger than themselves, and, two, there was the hope of making it.
Everything about the game is about the next steps, and the hope of mobility is used to keep people in line. As one participant stated, “If you're not going to do exactly what we're asking, if you're not going to give up everything you have, if you're not going to stand up for your team, then you're going to show up one day and your equipment is going to be in a garbage bag in a shopping cart out back. That's how they cut people.”
Participants also spoke of being traded as teenagers, one referring to himself as a “suitcase”. Others stated outright that their coaches did not care about them as people and saw them only as “money”. They referred to hockey as a cutthroat industry and they knew that they were the product.
The sense of precarity that results from a process of commodification may help us understand, but does not excuse, how hockey players do not overtly or actively resist elements of the culture, even those that are damaging to their own mental health.
In the wake of the Hockey Canada allegations, we are witnessing a superficial response to a systemic issue. It sees that as long as the game promotes nationalism and maintains its national status, particular aspects of the culture will be promoted, ignored or excused. These cultural aspects will continue to harm the victims of the culture, who are assaulted, objectified, excluded and discarded in the name of winning at all costs.
Thank you for your time.