A Summary: The “Sweet Science” of Bruising: Boxing as a Paradigm of the Sociology of Domination

Jérôme Beauchez’s “The ‘Sweet Science’ of Bruising” looks at boxing as more than just a sport. He sees it as a way to understand how power and inequality work in society. Boxing reveals the struggles of people dealing with problems tied to class, race, and gender.

In the past, sociologists described boxers mainly as members of poor or disadvantaged groups. For example, Weinberg and Arond’s classic The Occupational Culture of the Boxer (1952) studied fighters in Chicago, showing how poverty, violence, and migration shaped the world of boxing and laid the groundwork for understanding why men fight in the ring. Beauchez agrees with this view but adds more depth. He explains that exploitation happens through a hierarchy of domination: boxers from disadvantaged backgrounds have their aspirations, desires, and dedication turned into commodities by managers and the boxing industry. These figures profit from the fighters’ labour and risk while staying detached from their harsh realities.

The writer Joyce Carol Oates even compared this to prostitution, because the boxer’s body is sold for profit. This applies to both male and female fighters, showing that commodification cuts across gender lines. Beauchez also draws on Loïc Wacquant’s idea that the gym in the “ghetto” serves three functions: protection, discipline, and honour. For many fighters, especially from struggling neighbourhoods, the gym is a safe place, a refuge from unemployment, racism, and the dangers of “the street.” Inside, training and competing give fighters a way to earn honour, dignity, and pride.

Coaches often use tough love, pushing fighters to their limits, demanding discipline, and refusing excuses. This builds determination and teaches them they may only ever be able to rely on their own strength, as neither the government nor any state institution will come to their aid. Trimbur links this to “the violence of neoliberal values,” where the poor are persuaded to see themselves as responsible for their own losses and pain, a mindset that shapes gym culture as much as political and economic forces outside it.

Beauchez also explores gender in boxing. Traditionally seen as a “manly art,” boxing excluded women, but their growing presence now challenges male dominance and slowly shifts the balance of power.

In the end, Beauchez shows that boxing is shaped by domination yet allows resistance: outsiders profit from fighters, but gyms give them the means to build self-respect, resilience, and the strength to face life’s challenges.

Suggested readings:
Trimbur, L. (2013). Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym. Princeton University Press.

Oates, J.C. ([1987] 2002). On Boxing. Harper Perennial.

Wacquant, L. (2002). “Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfalls of Urban Ethnography.” American Journal of Sociology, 107(6), 1468–1532.

Weinberg, S. & Arond, H. (1952). The Occupational Culture of the Boxer. American Journal of Sociology, 57(5), 460–469.