Aristocratic sports and pasttime activities

[ConcernedParent]

Originally Posted by BoilerRoom

And the winner for most pretentious thread of the year goes to...

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=160810

 

[BoilerRoom]

How about cousin-*******? It was all the rage with royal artistocratic families.

I'm really glad you're willing to take up a sport/activity just because you like the "idea" that it is aristocratic. Why not you just do something you actually enjoy and stop being a pretentious douchebag.

 

[Cashmoney]

There are only two "aristocratic" sports in America -- sailing and tennis.

But only when combined with membership in a private club that's hard to join.

Everything else posted on this thread is just activities done by people willing to spend the money.

And fencing? Every fencer I ever met is from Russia/Eastern Europe.

Rugby? About as aristocratic as the guys who's idea of bear hunting is hanging out at the garbage dump and drinking beer while sitting in a lawn chair and waiting for bears to show up.

 

[Jerome]

I did a bit of sailing and some tennis in my teens, actually, so I might take one of them up again.

Generally speaking I don't like any team sports- for me it ought to be either one man against the other or man against nature. That's what I prefer...parforce-race/riding is another one that just came to mind...

Thanks for the suggestions, I take them all to heart btw, I have considered cousine ******* and am not antagonistic to the practice itself but unfortunately the few cousines that I have and who are of the right age and sex aren't too attractive to me either- one is just ugly (the suicidal one) though she is living close by and the other is too strange even for me, looks good though, she actually is living in Paris and is a professional pianist...but hasn't perfomred recently due to some psychological malady-...but still, I'll consider it, as I said...

 

[ConcernedParent]

Originally Posted by Cashmoney

There are only two "aristocratic" sports in America -- sailing and tennis.


Tennis is most decidedly a middle class thing- like golf.

 

[svelten]

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

Tennis is most decidedly a middle class thing- like golf.

Nothing "aristocratic" about tennis. Any flub can pick up a racket, go to the nearby courts and play for a couple of hours with friends and family. Golf has some elitism with its exclusive country clubs (with 10 year waiting lists) and prohibitive cost of playing consistently for the majority of the population.

Either way, they don't fit the bill of the OP's question. First thing I think of is horse racing...

 

[yachtie]

Ocean sailboat racing. $$$ Think Newport-Burmuda $$$ The only thing bluer than the briny is the blood of the contestants.

 

[Crosstalker]

Fencing is an exhilirating sport, though I think it's insane to call fencing an aristocratic activity. Unfortunately I had to give it up several years ago because the tendonitis overcame me.

 

[Bradford]

Polo -

A friend from college plays at the Detroit Polo and Hunt Club and attends matches when he is in Palm Beach. The pictures he has on FB look pretty damn aristocratic.

 

[moolala]

Originally Posted by Bradford

Polo -

A friend from college plays at the Detroit Polo and Hunt Club and attends matches when he is in Palm Beach. The pictures he has on FB look pretty damn aristocratic.

I'm in college and there are regularly kids on the green playing polo cross in spring/fall time. lots of ******** in the grass.

 

[Mountains]

Originally Posted by Cashmoney

Rugby? About as aristocratic as the guys who's idea of bear hunting is hanging out at the garbage dump and drinking beer while sitting in a lawn chair and waiting for bears to show up.

While I find the concept of "aristocratic" sports rather silly and pretentious (those who could honestly participate in such sports wouldn't need to ask), rugby has a history of being a favorite sport of the upper class, particularly in the UK.

 

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by Mountains

While I find the concept of "aristocratic" sports rather silly and pretentious (those who could honestly participate in such sports wouldn't need to ask), rugby has a history of being a favorite sport of the upper class, particularly in the UK.
You seem to have misread my post. I didn’t ask for direction but rather for inspiration and suggestions. I said 'I like the idea of such sports'. I am not living in the U.K. but in a society that has no aristocracy in that old sense, anymore, and as Dávila- a reactionary philosopher of the 20th century- wrote: 'The only cause that one can support unquestioningly is the irretrievably lost one.' I am often inspired for my life by things as various as literature, art, others suggestions (also in form of biographies), history and nature. I stated above that I dislike team-sports, so your suggestion is useless to me.

 

[Bricology]

I realize that I'm late to the party (I happened upon it by accident), but I thought I'd weigh in.

"Aristocratic sports", for the most part, ain't what they used to be. At one time hawking was legally reserved for the aristocracy, fencing was limited to men who could bear arms, horse sports like fox hunting and polo were so expensive that only an aristocrat or member of the "squirearchy" could afford them, and so on. So, the "aristocrats only" parameter was externally imposed, rather than a "lifestyle choice". Then, as the middle class grew richer, most sports underwent "prole drift", and are now no longer limited to -- or even participated in by -- aristocrats.

But aristocrats do still participate in some sports, albeit with subtle distinctions from their fellow sportsmen. This is mostly differentiated by place and detail. For example, skiing isn't particularly aristocratic, but the aristocrats who ski tend to do so in places that are exclusive like St. Moritz, Klosters, etc., protected from the masses by belonging to clubs like the Corviglia. And sailing isn't particularly aristocratic, but the aristocrats who sail tend to do so on either very expensive, high-tech boats or on classic boats like Dragon-class keelboats.

Here are some examples of aristocrats who "sport": the Duke of Edinburgh races carriages, Prince Michael of Kent used to race bobsleighs and now races antique motorcycles, King Juan Carlos of Spain rides vintage racing motorcycles (although he cannot race them, per the Spanish Constitution), many British royals play (or have played) polo, many aristocrats sail, most seem to ski, and so on. Some horse sports besides polo (dressage, carriage racing, etc.) are still participated in by aristocrats.

I can't consider cricket or most other team sports to be "aristocratic" because teams must be egalitarian, and thus non-aristocratic. Croquet and similar sports may be genteel, but "aristocratic"? I don't think so. Fencing has lost its aristocratic flavor, especially since fencing style became much more athletic and less refined in the 1970s and '80s. Hawking? Anachronistic and eccentric.

So, I'd say that there are few aristocratic sports left, and that most of the aristocrats who participate in them differentiate themselves from the masses by the kind of equipment/vehicles they use or by the exclusive locations/clubs where they take part.

OTOH, the one titled aristocrat whom I can count as a friend despises all sports and isn't too keen on nature either.

 

[MrMarketingDirector]

Riding. English, to be precise, saddleseat or hunter unless you want to put years into it and go dressage.

 

[Spats]

Originally Posted by JLibourel

Nothing very special about either if you live near the water, as I do. My stepson, who is a dab hand with a sailboat, would be very surprised to be considered "aristocratic." I'd be even more surprised if anyone else considered him "aristocratic" because of this!
Correct on US west coast, I think, not so on east coast.

Originally Posted by dhaller

Naturally, this is very regional.

Here in the American Southeast

Lacrosse

Since the Duke **** incident, has become THE sport of white kids at suburban private schools. Aristocratic only if you think they are. I might run over the next blonde kid I see aimlessly fiddling with a lacrosse stick in the parking lot of one of those horrid places with my Suburban, if I had one. Luckily for all, I don't.