Saturday, February 17, 2007
What do We Want? Gays in Sports!
Why is the idea of a Gay jock such a big deal? Gay ballerina, not so big a deal. Gay basketball player? Huge deal! Stop the presses! Front page news! Pull Wolf Blitzer off the Anna Nicole Smith autopsy watch!
One reason is that people in the ballet industry have probably been dealing with gay colleagues for a long period of time because their society is one where homosexuality is not stigmatized. In the world of professional sports, one of the solitary figures to come out, John Ameachi has to deal with Tim Hardaway making a comment like “I hate gay people…I think there is no place in the world or the
The problem here is twofold. First of all, athletes from any sport are not necessarily the smartest subsection of humanity. Yet when an issue such as a homosexual co-worker arises, they are asked to comment because they are public figures. These are questions that sometimes require an ability to understand a complex issue and digest multiple viewpoints. You are going to get some ignorance and stupidity that reflects that of the general population.
Second, and more importantly, it’s ok for ballerina’s to be gay because ballet is seen as a feminine persuasion. The two major institutions of manliness, are the military and athletics. And over the last decade, they have been the two institutions where discrimination against homosexuals has been tolerated, rationalized, and excused. In the military, it’s in the rules; you can’t be openly gay and serve your country. Evidently a homosexual in the forces kills morale, camaraderie, trust, discipline, and spreads Communism. (Look up the military’s official statement on the matter from 1981, which is still in force.) Similar arguments are made by athletes when they talk about a “lack of trust in the locker room,” or similar garbage, which substitutes for people’s true discomfort, being in a situation where they are around gay people and how it effects their own views of their sexuality.
What do people mean by comments such as “I wouldn’t want to shower with that
Of course, if you asked a gay person about that, they would laugh in your face. The truth is that most people, whether they are gay or straight, probably have some level of discomfort about showering next to other dudes. That doesn’t make them ignorant or weird, it just makes them normal.
Society reinforces standard sexual roles that many people do not fit into, starting of course with the standard husband-wife model. The fact is a majority of people do make it through life fulfilling this supposed “proper,” model. Yet anyone who does not is stigmatized as a failure. In fact, they are also normal.
The athlete and the soldier, enshrouded in the myth of manliness, are supposed to live up to their status as alpha males by sexually dominating multiple females. Males in this position are so obsessed by maintaining this image that they can’t even accept associating with homosexuals. Fear of the different and the unaccepted, combined with uncertainty about the self leads to a group reaction of discrimination and abuse. It’s the same old story.
American society is going through a conflict with regards to sex and sexual roles. The animosity towards gay marriage is the key political representation, and a different argument for a different blog. But can’t we all agree that a man or woman should at least be able to go to work and express him or herself as gay or lesbian while feeling safe and comfortable? It’s clear that in pro sports, this is not the case. This is a problem, and frankly people like Tim Hardaway need to grow the fuck up.
