Skating on Thin Ice: Professional Hockey, Rape Culture, and Violence against Women

Client: University of Toronto Press (2023)

Project: Skating on Thin Ice: Professional Hockey, Rape Culture, and Violence against Women by Walter S. DeKeseredy, Stu Cowan, and Martin D. Schwartz

Why is it that professional sports, and notably hockey, remain a bastion for rape culture and violence against women? What are the conditions that allow a culture of toxic masculinity to persist despite awakenings elsewhere in society? What is the path forward, and how do we make officials, coaches, and athletes accountable?

Drawing on decades of award-winning sociological research and sports journalism, Walter S. DeKeseredy and Martin D. Schwartz along with veteran sportswriter Stu Cowan find answers to these questions in Skating on Thin Ice.

The book examines the abusive, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic behaviours found in professional hockey and explains the larger societal forces that perpetuate and legitimate these harms. Confirming a recent federal government inquiry into Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations, the book reveals that young men enter the NHL and other revenue-generating hockey leagues already trained and primed to treat women as objects – and often to commit violent acts against them. Rooted in the authors’ work in the sports world as well as their work with activists and governments, Skating on Thin Ice doesn’t just highlight the problem of hockey and rape culture, it also provides collaborative solutions for fixing it.

Service: TEC copy edited the manuscript for U of Toronto Press style in usage, punctuation, and spelling; corrected grammar errors; and edited the notes. In addition, we read with an eye for any potential libel/defamation concerns and took care to treat the subject matter of the book with care and sensitivity. Following the authors’ review of the edited text, we finalized all changes in the manuscript in preparation for production.