The current paper examines how men are socialized to the ideal of fighter masculinity in the context of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a combat sport mixing ground fighting and striking. Such work is timely because the fighter masculinity ideal underlies consumer cultural fascination with MMA, evident in advertising and branding of numerous fight promotions, lifestyle clothing and accessory brands, news and media channels, and fitness gyms. The theoretical focus on fighter masculinity addresses the paucity of research on how consumer identities are socialized. Utilizing long interviews with male amateur practitioners of MMA, the current research elucidates identity socialization as a multi-influence process that unfolds over an extended period in men’s lives. The findings uncover four novel consumer identity socialization processes: awakening, sanctioning, glamorizing, and incorporating, each associated with distinct socialization contexts and influences that enhance the resonance of fighter masculinity. This research also highlights the need to broaden consumer socialization frameworks in line with the post-cognitive notion of cultural enculturation.

目前的论文研究了在混合武术 (MMA) 的背景下，男性如何被社会化为理想的斗士男子气概，这是一种混合了地面格斗和打击的格斗运动。这样的工作是及时的，因为斗士男子气概的理想是消费者对 MMA 的文化迷恋的基础，这在众多格斗促销、生活方式服装和配饰品牌、新闻和媒体频道以及健身房的广告和品牌推广中很明显。对斗士男子气概的理论关注解决了关于消费者身份如何社会化的研究不足的问题。通过对 MMA 的男性业余从业者的长期采访，当前的研究将身份社会化阐明为一个在男性生活中长期展开的多重影响过程。研究结果揭示了四种新的消费者身份社会化过程：觉醒、制裁、美化和融合，每一个都与不同的社会化背景和影响相关联，从而增强了斗士男子气概的共鸣。这项研究还强调需要根据文化文化文化的后认知概念来扩大消费者社会化框架。