Wait, all men who play sports are idiots? Cameron Conaway thought we were past that.
I’m calling out Defense Attorney Francis Lawrence based on his recent comments regarding the murder trial going on in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A quick recap: University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V is facing first-degree murder and five other charges for the May 2010 death of his ex-girlfriend, University of Virginia women’s lacrosse player, Yeardley Love.
I lived in Charlottesville when this alleged murder happened and I’ve been following the case for about 21 months now. While I fully understand that Lawrence’s job is to prove George Huguely’s innocence, I believe he’s doing so in a way that stereotypes all players of lacrosse, all players of sport, and by insinuation all men who participate in and/or define themselves through said activities.
Lawrence is smart to pair the case that Huguely didn’t commit the murder with a backup plan that would reduce the sentence if Huguely were indeed found to have killed Yeardly. But his argument seems to be that Huguely is too much of an idiot to have committed an act of violence that took even the slightest bit of rational thought, that dismisses the mental side entirely while answering yes to Could he have repeatedly smashed her head into a wall until she died?
… and this means he’s carrying his bucket of arguments across the crumbling bridge of a male stereotype that continues to permeate our culture and make it difficult to have a conversation about men and manhood.
According to this article by the Associated Press that was picked up by ESPN, Lawrence told the jury that a videotape of Huguely’s interview with police would show he’s incapable of being a calculating criminal. Interesting, considering that George Huguely is a student at UVA—Thomas Jefferson’s pride and joy and a place so frequently ranked the #1 public university that many people view it as Ivy League. But Lawrence wasn’t finished:
He’s not complex. He’s a lacrosse player.
The statement has been sitting raw within me for days. What does it even mean? That George is a stereotypical jock and that if he did kill Yeardly it was certainly with blind alcohol-infused rage void of rational thought? If so (and I’ve yet to discover a better reason), the strength of the statement is based on a culturally accepted assumption that grows from the roots of a chiefly male stereotype: Men who embrace physicality and sport are all dumb jocks incapable of complexity.
Love to the families of George Huguely, Yeardley Love, and anyone else struggling as a result of what’s going on.
—Photo AP
There are a bunch of problems with the jocks-are-dumb stereotype. The one that seems directly relevant here is the idea that jocks, being dumb, get a pass for violent behavior because they aren’t really responsible for their actions.
I haven’t followed the coverage of this at all, but if Mr. Conaway is correct that the defense here used an argument of “athleticism = no capacity for premeditation”, it’s disturbing that a jury would buy that.
Isaac Asimov wrote an essay just like this several decades ago. The standard sex symbols are either bubble-headed blondes or dumb jocks. Anybody intelligent or scientific is always portrayed as undesirable.
I myself have stereotyped athletes as dumb. Mainly because my run in with athletes have proved the stereotype to be true. Then I encountered a football player who also studied computer science and could keep up with my intellectual debates. I could not have been more wrong or more aroused. I got the best of both worlds. However, I also made another discovery, we only had intellectual conversations in private. Just as women feel they are more accepted if they are pretty rather than pretty smart, athletes may be smarter than we think but feel they need to cover this… Read more »
JR, I’m convinced there’s been an anti-intellectual strain in American culture going all the way back to Colonial times (for example, Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”). Not too many years ago, a sociology professor in New York City named Patricia Cayo Sexton once said, “Beware of scientists. They’re pencil-necked geeks.” To avoid being hypocritical, she should divest herself of all the modern comforts and conveniences (not to mention advances in medicine that may have extended her life) that “geeks” have given to the world, and go live in a hut somewhere, say, in Africa. (Incidentally, in a hate-filled… Read more »
It really seems as if the media portrays men as brute beasts who have no emotional intelligence at all and can’t relate to anyone. I’ve noticed this and its once reason I avoid TV as much as possible. But then again it would seem that some guys do bring this on themselves. I see this at the University near where I live. Young men in packs roaming about talking about nothing more intelligent than video games and drinking. But there is a movement (this website) toward men who are real men, emotionally intelligent, thinking, but still masculine. Good article.
I hesitate to discuss an issue of stereotyping in the context of a murder trial, which concerns a heartbreaking tragedy in the lives of a number of people. But Cameron has raised an objection to a particular instance of stereotyping, which is certainly within his right. I agree with his objection to the “dumb jock” stereotype. We live in a society in which stereotypes of men abound. But there is another corresponding stereotype I’d like to point out as well. What about the stereotyping of nonathletic guys, particularly nonathletic boys, in a society whose culture is saturated with sports? Does… Read more »
I’d say theres plenty speaking up for non-physical guys. If anything the dumb jock vs. triumphant nerd dichtomy is a reaction against the primacy of sports players.
As for the case, who knows. I don’t think murder trials are the right places to fight stereotypes.
Bill, I personally think we are all natural athletes. Our bodies are made for kinesis. We have just veered so far away from our natural state of being. Its not that certain people aren’t made for sports but not all people are made for the sports offered in our schools. I don’t like certain male dynamics in sports such as us vs them, male competitiveness, aggression, etc. I am not saying men shouldn’t participate in these sports but not all males should be pushed into trying these sports. I really enjoy the male relationship dynamics in rock climbing. The climber… Read more »
Hi, JR. I agree with what you’re saying. Ideally, students should be exposed to different sports in P.E. I have no problem with the old sports-centered P.E. being retained as an elective for the athletic students. But I’ve suspected for many years that historically most boys’ P.E. coaches have had a strong bias (prejudice, really) against nonathletic boys (for example, my former judo instructor). A childhood friend of mine who played football in high school decades ago recently told me that most of his teammates had looked down on all the nonathletic guys at their school as being inferior. Two… Read more »