Book Review: Victoria E Collins, Fighting Sports, Gender, and the Commodification of Violence: Heavy Bag Heroines

What is it about the pugilistic endeavor that so captures the academic’s imagination? Despite significant decline in popularity, boxing remains a compelling topic across social science disciplines. Indeed, both academic and popular studies of the “sweet science” have produced considerable insights into race, social class, gender, and commercialization. The most insightful works are successful in large part because the authors convey and reflect upon the deeply embodied experience at the core of pugilism, which is quite simply the experience of hitting and being hit, a form of ritualized, sanctioned assault unique in “civil” society. Of course, one needn’t box to study boxing, although it’s unlikely coincidental that many of the best works involve some measure of participant ethnography. The embodied athletic experience is central in Victoria E. Collins new book, Fighting Sports, Gender and the Commodification of Violence: Heavy Bag Heroines (Lexington Books), wherein Collins draws from her experiences as a boxer to explore larger issues of violence against women, self-defense, commodification, and health and fitness. Collins rightly observes that often absent from pugilist ethnographies is an in-depth analysis of the sport from the point of view of women, particularly novice women. Given that boxing remains perhaps the most stereotypically masculine of masculine sports—a journalist once referred to the heavyweight champion as the “emperor of masculinity”—it’s unsurprising that Collins and other feminist ethnographers find a rich topic to unpackage issues of gender and physicality. Specifically, Collins is interested in the ways in which increased female participation across multiple forms of combat and cardio activities is changing mainstream ideas around femininity and challenging the “natural” link between boxing and masculinity. Collins trains her gaze broadly on three key concepts; issues of gender, commercialism, and commodification, and how these concepts play out in her life and those of her participants. Throughout the book, Collins wrestles with the tension between boxing as empowering women while also upholding gender stereotypes and stoking consumerism, all while observing the disparate ways these tensions are manifest on different types of women. Collins articulates her motivations for entering the gym as the desire and challenge of getting in shape. Her forthright and candid discussion of the social pressures and messages that women in our culture absorb ingratiates herself to the reader and we are inspired by her. Collins describes her entrée into the gym environment and the gradual intensification of her participation and immersion into the local fight community. She interacts with boxers of all levels, from cardio-only to experienced MMA fighters, as well as trainers and coaches. She is keenly reflexive throughout 1086377 CMC0010.1177/17416590221086377Crime Media CultureBook Review book-review2022