A Community of Athletic Pariahs?: Guilt, Shame, and Social Control in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Subtle narratives of stigma, shame, and guilt attached to the gay community through HIV/AIDS circulated throughout the 2020-2021 Covid-19 “pandemic year” of professional sports. While Covid-19 does not carry the same stigma as sexually transmitted diseases, connections can be made between the ways in which HIV-positive and Covid-19 positive athletes were treated. As leagues rushed back to in-person competition, sport became a site of increasing medicalization and protocol through the creation of “bubbles” and “wubbles,” daily testing, and new technologies to enforce social distancing. Athletes who tested positive for Covid-19 were subsequently treated as pariahs, blamed for their status, if they were doing something they “weren’t supposed to” like violating the self-imposed bubble or quarantine protocols. However, not all responses are created equal. While certain athletes/teams were treated as if they “deserved” a Covid-19 diagnosis for not taking the pandemic seriously others were regarded as undeserving victims during an outbreak.