Tie-dye shirts and compression leggings: an examination of cultural tensions within Ultimate Frisbee via dress

Abstract

In this article I offer insights into tensions within the lifestyle sport, Ultimate Frisbee (Ultimate) through an examination of differing forms of dress. Like many other sporting subcultures, sartorial choices, both on and off pitch, are important markers of insider status. Ultimate dress I argue is ‘a mélange of whimsical, ironic and athletic styles’ [Crocket, Hamish. 2015a. “Confessions of the Disc: A Foucauldian Analysis of Ethics within Ultimate Frisbee.” In The Psychology of Sub-Culture in Sport and Physical Activity: A Critical Approach, edited by Robert J. Schinke and Kerry R. McGannon, 184–195. Hove, UK: Routledge, 184], which contains significant potential for aesthetic exploration amongst participants. Subsequently, much of Ultimate's dress, particularly that worn at themed tournament parties, can be read as a carnivalesque celebration of a subculture that prioritizes fun at both social and competitive levels, via ‘a controlled decontrol of the emotions’ [Featherstone, Mike. 2007. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. 2nd ed. Theory, Culture & Society. London: Sage, 77; see also Crocket, Hamish. 2014. “An Ethic of Indulgence? Alcohol, Ultimate Frisbee and Calculated Hedonism.” International Review for Sociology of Sport, Advance online publication: 1–15. doi:10.1177/1012690214543960]. Yet, Ultimate is far from being a homogenous subculture and close attention to varying forms of dress offers insight into debates over the meaning and direction of the sport. Subsequently, I will examine the role of dress within a central debate amongst Ultimate players; namely, whether Ultimate should strive to maintain values and practices which currently differentiate it from mainstream sports, or work to become more recognizably mainstream. I argue that despite the tendency of advocates on both sides of this debate to construct the issue in oppositional terms, the fluidity of dress, identity and meaning within Ultimate is suggestive of an ongoing hybridity which intermingles elements of subversive, carnivalesque aesthetics with the more predictable and uniform aesthetics of mainstream sport.

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