I am shocked. Shocked.

“You Fold Like a Little Girl:” (Hetero)Gender Framing and Competitive Strategies of Men and Women in No Limit Texas Hold Em Poker Games

from Qualitative Sociology

Abstract  

The formal rules, structure and practice of most sports in contemporary society prohibit men and women from competing on a “level playing field” and diminish women’s ability to launch a legitimate challenge to the masculine superiority embedded in sports competition. This study examines a relatively unique case—No Limit Texas Hold Em poker games in which men and women compete directly against one another under the same rules—to explore how the conditions under which men and women compete enable or impede the development of more gender egalitarian interactions and ideological frameworks. Drawing on ethnographic data, this examination reveals that, even in a more gender-neutral context, men and women learn to use heterogender frames to conceptualize poker. In doing so, they develop competitive strategies and interactions that predominately fit into, rather than subvert, gender hierarchy.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 1-20
• DOI 10.1007/s11133-012-9235-3
• Authors
  • Michelle Wolkomir, Centenary College, Shreveport, LA, USA

• Journal Qualitative Sociology
• Online ISSN 1573-7837
• Print ISSN 0162-0436

Perception != reality

Faced with the appearance of two very partisan candidates, it is understandable that voters are registering their preferences earlier this year. The choices are clear—even if neither candidate is perceived as particularly close to the more centrist views of most American voters.

Aside from the problem that journalistic "centrism" in fact has little to do with the "views of most American voters," the fact is that the presidential contest (like most elections in the U.S.) is actually between a full-throated proponent of elite centrism and a slightly more resolutely right-wing practitioner of the same. The choice is not clear, in the sense that anything more than marginal differences in tax rates and regulatory enthusiasm and foreign policy would be the consequences of one side winning versus the other.