Nowadays, there are so many sports in this world that people are interested in and for each sport; there are so many things that make people become so interested. Allen Guttmann wrote the persuasive article called “The Appeal of Violent Sports” to explain why their have so many people like in the violent sport. He also gives good reason and example to support his idea According to my real experience and also the research from the sport event which is everybody accept it , his persuade article is successful because his opinion are reasonable and believable. Firstly, Allen Guttmann said, “The psychological term identification has been criticized because spectators are quite aware of the difference between themselves and their athletic heroes, but empathy seems too weak a term to characterize what I have called representational sports” (p.22). He explains that the spectators are crazy in the violent sports because whenever they watch the players play, they think that people are the heroes who represent themselves or their country. According to Guttmann’s example of when Jack Johnson knocked out the Great White Hope, black Americans were jubilant. Whenever Glasgow’s Celtics outscore Glasgow’s Rangers in a soccer match, Roman Catholics rejoice” (p.22). Moreover, the spectators know that the people who represent them block, tackle, kick, punch, pummel, or pin them, whoever they are. It’s just a game. They can guarantee that they will be harmless and they will be safe (p.22).
Based on my real experience, when I watched the Olympic games in the summer of 2012, I was watching a Thai boxing fighter versus a Chinese boxing fighter in the final round. I really felt that the Thai boxing fighter was representing all of the people in Thailand, so when Thai the boxing fighter lost, I felt that my country had lost and I felt aggression towards China. During the FIFA World Cup, which is held every four years, a huge TV audience of an accumulated 30 million people watched the 2006 Cup in Germany. We can see that a lot of spectators watch soccer and that they watch the team that they like because they think it represents their country. Moreover, they think the players on “their” soccer team are heroes so they want to see their heroes win. Therefore, I think Guttmann give an good point that the spectators are appeal of the violent sport because the player represented themselves and they will not get hurt anything. Secondly, Guttmann said about how the routines of societies don’t allow for free expression of some emotion which are acceptable at these type of sporting events, making them appealing to those who want act with those emotions. According to Haris’s quote “ At the games you are under the influence of some maniacal drug; it is as if you could not watch the proceedings in a civilized fashion … When you enter the stadium who could describe the yells and uproar, the frenzy, the switches of color and expression in your faces, and all the curses you give vent to? “(p.89). Guttmann explained that when the spectators enter to the stadium, everybody can not stop the emotion of themselves. They express the emotion that they feel inside the stadium without care anyone. because the violent of the sport make them do that without controlling themselves and also if they come out from the stadium, they will not allow to do that. According to my real experience, when I went to watch boxing match, I saw the spectators yell to the player very loud because they want to encourage the player and also they had fun to express the feeling out very loud. Whenever the player have chance to punch the opponent, the spectator will yell it louder and louder because they felt aggressive to the opponent player, they want them player won. Specially, some of the spectators don’t really know the player before, they just express the emotion by yell to the player very loud in the stadium. A lot of people love to see someone fight to each other, punch each other, or anything that have violent because it is not easy to see in the public or anywhere else and in our societies, it can not be happen by not against the rule so, that is another reason that is why the spectator like to see the violent sport.
Thus, I agree that Guttman give a good reason about our societies today, we can not just yell to people or just express every emotion in the public, or anywhere but we can do it in the stadium which has the violent sport game. In conclusion, Guttmann wrote very good persuade article to explained why the spectators like violent of sport by give good reasons that the spectators are crazy in the violent of sport because they think that the players are the hero and represented themselves and according to the today’s our societies that we don’t allow free to expression our emotion which are acceptable at these type of sporting events. I agree with Guttmann’s idea because based on my real experience and also according to Olympic games in 2006, FIFA World soccer cup which was the sport event that everybody accept it.