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Patrick T Ridge
First theorized by Eve Sedgwick, homosociality refers to the male-to-male relationships that allow men to regulate and maintain masculinist power, most commonly through sexism and homophobia (25-26). According to Foster, the sports bar and stadium, in particular, allow male players and fans to not only confirm their own heteronormative masculine identities through team allegiance, but uphold the conditions of patriarchy through sexist and homophobic discourse (Queer xiv-xv; Gender 17-18). According to numerous sociological studies on the topic, men who exhibit aguante both on the field and in the stands are seen to successfully defend their masculinity and team honor, while losers and others are symbolically demasculinized as putos.4 These factors have not only helped to masculinize the sport, but also exclude women and others violating heteronormativity from its confines. In the cultural realm, figures like the pibe-ragtag youths that supposedly honed their dribbling skills by playing on the urban baldío (sandlot) or potrero (field) instead of British schoolyards-further popularized these ideas of national style. [...]while the gaucho stimulated feelings of nationalism in the provinces, soccer facilitated the creation of more popular heroes that helped to incorporate the urban working classes into the national imaginary (Archetti, "Estilo" 421-39; Alabarces, Fútbol 39-54; Nadel 51-59).5 Scholarship notes the fictional elements and tactical inconsistencies of these ideas, but the historical success of the Argentine national team-the men's squad has won two World Cups and fifteen South American Championships-and the individual skill and boyish stature of world-class talents like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi have further solidified the masculinist myths associated with Argentine style.6 Machos in the Mainstream Besides their overwhelming presence in soccer-themed literary production-popular texts written by Borocotó (Ricardo Lorenzo Rodríguez), Roberto Fontanarrosa, Eduardo Sacheri, and Osvaldo Soriano come to mind-these men and others have traditionally dominated mainstream media and film in a way that strengthens the sport's masculinist narrative.
