Navigating allyship: straight and queer male athlete’s accounts of building alliances

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors explore the ways that allyship and queer-straight alliance-building are constructed by a group of men who have participated in a men’s health promotion and human rights project to promote inclusion in and through sport. Examining ten participants’ accounts, collected through online semi-structured interviews, we explore the benefits and challenges of alliance-building between privileged and marginalised group members by foregrounding both straight and queer voices and experiences. We conclude with reflections on the challenges encountered in the health and human rights project as indicative of both the limitations and the productive possibilities for (un)learning allyship and developing more ‘horizontal’ forms of alliance-building through highlighting pluralistic voices and experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinity
• allyship
• sexuality
• sport
• homosociality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriel Knott-Fayle

Gabriel Knott-Fayle is a Postdoctoral Scholar of Masculinities Studies in Education. His research primarily addresses gender, body image, allyship, masculinities, sport, and communication with a particular interest in challenging prejudice and discrimination. He has previously published work in journals Feminist Media Studies and Feminism & Psychology as well as chapters appearing in edited volumes such as in Gender Diversity and Sport: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Witcomb & Peel 2022).

Michael Kehler

Michael Kehler is a Research Professor of Masculinities Studies in Education at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. His research addresses: masculinities, men/boys as allies, #MeToo, body image, Health and Physical Education, homophobia and disrupting heteronormative masculinity in education. His research is found in journals and books including Boys’ Bodies; Speaking the Unspoken (Peter Lang); The Problem with Boys’ Education: Beyond the backlash and among journals including: Boyhood Studies: An interdisciplinary journal; International Journal of Men’s Health; Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies as well as chapters appearing in Men’s Lives 10th Edition (Oxford Press); The Sociology of Education in Canada: Contemporary Debates and Perspectives (Open University); Child’s Play: Sport in Kids’ Worlds (Rutgers University Press).

Brendan Gough

Professor Brendan Gough is a critical social psychologist and qualitative researcher interested in men and masculinities. Now based at Leeds Beckett University, he has published many papers on gender identities and relations, mostly in the context of health, lifestyles and wellbeing. Prof. Gough is co-founder and co-editor of the journal Qualitative Research in Psychology; he is Editor-in-chief of the journal Social & Personality Psychology Compass, and was associate editor for the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities (2014–2021). In 2016 he was awarded a fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences.