Twenty years after its original publication, Indecent Acts in a Public Place is still well ahead of the curve of cultural analysis regarding sport. Importantly, it was perhaps the first book to bring an approach that both understood the cultural significance of games as well as the incredible distortions of the modern spectacle. The author of these essays (as British filmmaker Doug Aubrey wrote at the time) was obviously an intellectual premier leaguer and one of popular culture’s ‘new wave’ of First Division ‘Mediaristocrats’ and this is still apparent despite the fact that over these twenty years there have been several books published which deal in a similar manner with sport (i.e., by not presuming it is merely the province of meatheads but a subject worthy of the same sort of cultural analysis as high art). It is apparent because none of these other books has dealt with sport with the kind of succinct honesty of Indecent Acts, nor with such style, constant flashes of insight, irreverence or humour.
From the introduction by Donal McGraith In this, the 20th anniversary edition of Indecent Acts in a Public Place, it is readily apparent why, since its original publication, it has come to be recognized as a seminal title in the fields of cultural studies, popular culture and gender studies. In its four striking essays Rod Dubey challenges the idea that sport indoctrinates men into being good corporate citizens. Sports teams are seen as a form of men’s society that excludes and subjugates women while challenging day-to-day morality. Like the gang, teams defend a territory and resist corporate control with their own nebulous power structure. Sports are a reflection of shifting definitions of masculinity and also, for the viewer, provide the opportunity for an active gaze where male fantasies are played out.