Pringle, Richard2009-11-242009-11-242009Pringle, R. (2009). Defamiliarizing heavy-contact sports: A critical examination of rugby, discipline, and pleasure. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26(2), 211-234.https://hdl.handle.net/10289/3410Pleasure can be regarded as a productive force in the constitution of the social sig-nificance of sport and desiring sport subjects. The organization and use of sport plea-sure has been a relatively marginalized topic of examination. To promote and examine sport pleasure, I conducted semistructured interviews with seven passionate rugby players. Transcripts were analyzed via Foucauldian theorizing and revealed the inter-twined workings of technologies of dominance and self in the constitution of rugby pleasures. As a strategy to defamiliarize and disrupt habitual and uncritical accep-tance of rugby aggression, I argued that rugby pleasures were akin to sadomasochism. Rugby can be understood as a taboo-breaking game associated with transparent rela-tions of power connected with the pleasure induced from physical domination and the fear of pain.application/pdfenThis article has been published in the journal: Sociology of Sport Journal. Used with permission.sportsrugbypleasuresportJournal Article10.1123/ssj.26.2.211