Green 1

Matthew Green
Dr Thongthiraj
English 1A
4 February 2015
Bloodlust
On March 17, 1991 hockey fans cheered on as a brawl broke out between two players of
rival teams, the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks. The two players showed no sign of
restraint as they both threw fast and heavy punches to the face. The fight continued to grow as
ten other players joined the battle, five from each team. This event was dubbed the St. Patricks
Day Massacre for the large amount of senseless violence among the players involved. As the
fight became more intense, so did the audiences reaction to the fight. The spectators cried out
for blood and they got what they wanted. Theres something inside of us, a need or desire that is
drawn to violent moments in sports. It stimulates our primal instincts and fantasies that are
fulfilled by those who participate in vicious sporting moments.
The thirst for blood among the crowd goes beyond rational thought, and into a
passionately violent display of amusement as they cheer for more blood to be shed. The
gratification that comes from viewing violent behavior is unusual in our ordinary lives, and that
makes it exciting to watch. These savage exhibitions are an outlet for our bottled up emotions
caused by the monotony of work, family dysfunction, dissatisfaction of government or society,
etc. In her book On Boxing Joyce Carol Oates suggests, Emotionally effete men and women
may require ever more extreme experiences to arouse them, it is perhaps the case too that the
desire is not merely to mimic, but, magically to be brute, primitive, instinctive, and therefore

Green 2
innocent (550). Men and women who are emotionally effete do not possess the strength or
courage to act as their brutal opposites. Because these individuals are incapable of acting as
harshly, they require more extreme experiences to arouse them. They are in constant need of
violent, exciting moments to keep the dullness of ordinary life away from them. The athlete in
the fight experiences a greater sense of arousal from his actions than the passive individual who
is merely a spectator who requires much more stimulation to gorge on, as where the athletes
actions are enough to gratify him. The athlete acts as a proxy that allows the public to enjoy
savage entertainment without the guilt of direct participation, therefore insuring the innocence
of the crowd.
Violent behavior in sports is not only tolerated, but encouraged because athletes and
event organizers are aware of the audiences bloodthirsty reception to brutal savagery. The
athlete engaged in this brutal savagery unleashes their own desire to fulfill the primal instinct
within. These violent feelings are heightened by the crowd as they cheer for blood. In the case of
boxing, there is an electrifying effect upon a typical fight crowd when fighting suddenly
emerges out of boxingwhen, for instance, a boxers face begins to bleed and the fight seems to
enter a new and more dangerous phase (Oates 552). This electrifying effect is the fulfillment
of the boxers primal instincts. The boxer enters a dangerous phase as the result of his
heightened senses where he is no longer thinking rationally, and his only desire is to satisfy his
own violent hunger which in turn fulfills the need of the crowd. The crowd cheers for blood, and
the boxer delivers.
Violence in sports is not limited only to humans but also to animals. Animal based sports
such as dogfighting, bullfighting, and cockfighting display untamed aggression against their
opponents. Animals are trained just the same as any other athlete would train, that is to say that

Green 3
they are conditioned to be violent for the sake of spectacle. Violence in animal sports satisfies the
same sense of arousal that man gets from watching other humans engage in savage sport. The
experience of watching violent sport, whether human or animal, is of animalistic quality: the
instinctive nature or character of animal behavior. Most of the world views controlled, animal
fighting or sport as cruel and inhumane. However for the Balinese, cockfighting is about male
ego and id, masculinity, as well as their power and superiority over animals. Cockfighting is a
contradictory blend of violence and rejection of animalistic qualities. As Clifford Geertz observes
in The Balinese Cockfight that In the cockfight, man and beast, good and evil, ego and id, the
creative power of aroused Masculinity and the destructive power of loosened animality fuse in a
bloody drama of hatred, cruelty, violence, and death (557). The creative power of aroused
masculinity is the deliberation of animal cruelty in order to fuel a primal instinct that man
possesses, the same violent instinct that lives in animals. Man and beast asserts mans
superiority over animals in the battle between good and evil. Humans are good because they
think rationally while animals are by nature violent and repulsive, therefore evil. The Balinese
reject any similarities or qualities with animals as repulsive and unnatural. They go at great
lengths to avoid these similarities including filing down baby teeth so they dont resemble animal
fangs, and preventing their children from crawling as it is seen as animal-like behavior. For the
Balinese, identification with cockfighting as a way to display their dominance over animals is
counterproductive to their supposed superiority over animals as they are involved in acts of
cruelty (against animals) similar to the wild behavior of beasts to satisfy their own desire.
Violent sports are enjoyed around the world from hockey to cockfighting. The difference
among the sports is cultural, but the feeling that comes from being in the crowd during a moment
of conflict is the same thrilling experience that mollifies our strange, dark and innermost feelings

Green 4
of pent up aggression. It is a conscious effort of exhibition to arouse spectators with the promise
of blood. The guarantee of gore invokes a ravenous response from the crowd that is insatiable,
requiring constant stimulation to stay entertained. This never-ending cycle of malevolence
presents a problem to society as it promotes violence for the sake of sport. The fans in the St.
Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks hockey match lost their sense of rationality as they
cheered for cruel behavior amongst rival teams. Penalizing brutal behavior may reduce its
frequency, increase sportsmanship, and diminish the crowds bloodlust.