I would have totally attempted to write a post about football and sports culture today, in honor of the Super Bowl, and then I realized that I know approximately nothing about football. Apparently there’s tackling involved and something called a “down”? I dunno, it just seems way less interesting than The Lies of Locke Lamora.
Nevertheless, for a lot of men, sports culture in general and football culture in specific is a huge part of their masculinity and gender-role-enforcement and all that stuff! So I figure the people who have opinions about football and sports can discuss it here, and the people who don’t can go eat day-old Chinese, listen to indie music, and read fantasy novels.
Possible topics of conversation:
- Why do you, personally, love football, assuming you do? What is really fucking awesome about it?
- Does football involve the commodification of bodies (often of men of color, young men, men who grew up poor, and similar marginalized men) for the greater enjoyment of mostly-more-privileged men? Does this tie into the concept of the disposable male?
- Does football serve to reinforce negative parts of masculinity? The association between masculinity and violence? Ideas of “toughing it out” that keep men from getting the help they need? Rape culture? Substance abuse?
- Conversely, does football provide an outlet or channel for some things which masculinity generally doesn’t allow, such as emotional expression and male bonding?
- Which team is better/deserves to win/whatever? Which players made the most crappy mistakes or best plays? Which coach is a fuckhead who deserves to be fired? Who has the best recipes for their Super Bowl parties?
- Seriously, what the FUCK is a down? I’ve read calculus papers that make more sense than the Wikipedia page on the subject.
Thanks Barry. I was actually trying to find a way to search for Creative Commons images but couldn’t think of how or where to do so.
Monkey – short answer. It is not okay
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Okay, I missed the game, but I caught this ad on the recaps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQPM6y3ZnAo&feature=player_embedded
How is it that this is considered okay?
Oh dear. Prop 8 overturned. After I say “yay” let me just give you all the rundown of what exactly happened: 1948, California Supreme Court: “Marriage is protected under the 14th amendment since it is a social contract that two people enter. The california state government may, then, regulate it as they do any other contract.” 2008, California Supreme Court: “We don’t know whether or not marriage is, isn’t, should, or shouldn’t be a protected right. What we do know is that if you are going to have same sex marriage you have to have gay marriage.” 2012, 9th Circuit… Read more »
Daisy – I apologize, I misread the line. In the context of your post, I read it as an attempt to redefine male rape. I will take you at your word that this is not what you meant.
@barry warkentin: If you used the “advanced search” in Flickr, you can tell it to only show you creative commons images, so whatever you find it’ll be okay for you to use for your own purposes. That’s not entirely true. You have to be mindful of which Creative Commons license the image is under. If it’s “no derivatives” then you wouldn’t be able to use it in a banner (unless you used it verbatim, i.e. no title over top). And if you intend to make money off of your blog (donations?) you will probably want to shy away from “non… Read more »
Danny, here’s a suggestion, sorry if you’ve already tried it: Search on Flickr for whatever random search terms you think might turn up stuff you find interesting or thematically appropo. If you used the “advanced search” in Flickr, you can tell it to only show you creative commons images, so whatever you find it’ll be okay for you to use for your own purposes.
Alright because this is an Open Thread I hope I can get away with this single question that has been burning in my mind for the last year or 2.
How in the world can one come up with a decent looking banner image to go along with their blog?
When it came to artistic skills I somehow managed to roll a straight zero (I’m still thinking the d-20 was rigged but what can yo do?) on that stat.
I wish you guys would post this stuff over there.
Fnord: I don’t want to start a conversation about physical discipline of children in general, but if you do, shaking is not a safe method of discipline.
Fnord, oh I realize, but I think that’s where the shaking started, with children. Lots of people didn’t know shaking was dangerous until relatively recently
Jesus: Euphemisms always make things easier to ignore don’t they?
Euphemism? I really do think its a dilemma, no euphemism at all, I meant its the tag I use for my blog posts.
@Daisy – “I am highly skeptical when they tell us men are raped and harmed by women, just as often as women are raped and harmed by men (some even claim MORE often).” If you only count physical harm such as cuts and bruises then maybe you’d be right but the funny thing about rape is that the harm that one encounters is more than merely physical. I wish it was only physical. the psychological harm that rape inflicts is just as bad for men as it is for women if not worse seeing as men do not have the… Read more »
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/sexual-assault-prevention-tips
see this? This is what we need. It is both true in an “Oh my God, that is awesome” kind of way, and it doesn’t single out men or women but focuses on the behaviour instead of the person committing it.
Also, “The fact that men “shake” women, as you would discipline a naughty child,”
I don’t want to start a conversation about physical discipline of children in general, but if you do, shaking is not a safe method of discipline.
@Daisy: “And how exactly would one prove that a male was raped by a female, unless some object was used? Vaginal bruising and tearing are one form of evidence for rape of women, but is there an equivalent for males?” Note that vaginal trauma is not anywhere near as universal in cases of rape as TV might have you believe. From former prosecutor Alison Leotta: “Every victim on SVU has vaginal scarring. In real life, it’s very rare; this is anatomy that can stretch to fit a baby. I know I’ve said this before, but it continues to drive me… Read more »
So glad Danny answered your American football questions!!! Our church has a big Family LIfe Superbowl party every year in the fellowship hall. We join together for probably the longest time we all stay together all year–half an hour before the game and then the whole game, eating our heads off, laughing, razzing each other, cheering for whomever we please. A lot of American sports are a “non-wussy” way for folks to get together, both sexes, all ages. Americans are SUCH wanna be frontiersmen/women, you see! We just never got over ourselves! You guys have had centuries longer to get… Read more »
@Daisy: Forgive me if I’m wrong, but the link you provided seems to say, “A few edge cases aside, rape is a one-way thing: women get raped, men do the raping.” Or am I misinterpreting? Either way, this might qualify as a thread derail. MAYBE. Though your question, “Where are the dead male volleyball players,” sounds a bit like Oppression Olympics, I nevertheless have two answers for you: 1). If you are asking about where to find the dead male victims of our CULTURE, which I don’t think you’ll argue includes rape culture, then you’ll find them in Iraq and… Read more »
Gaius, this is basically the Heritage Foundation’s line on gender too. Really.
My skepticism of certain claims from the men’s movement continues, but I was well-mannered about it.
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2012/02/take-me-back-to-place-where-i-first-saw.html
Comments welcome, but no attacks please.
@Machiavelli: Millions of years have taught males to be violent, aggressive fighters for the sake of survival and instincts like that can not be turned off like a switch. Men need sports as an outlet for this primal need. Not only playing, but watching has somewhat the same effect. … I believe it is important to have an outlet for male aggression. We have been fighting, killing, and raping for a very long time. At least a quarter of the world is related to Genghis Khan, the greatest fighter, killer, rapist of all. I kinda hope you’re not trolling, because… Read more »
Well I had a great day yesterday let’s see Wales beat Island 23-21 in their first game of the 6 Nations tournament (Leigh Halfpenny you are amazing) Man United drew against Chelsea 3-3 (nothing better than watching ManU fans and Chelsea fans going home disappointed) That was all rounded off with a the Giants Superbowl win (can we finally start calling Eli Manning a world class Quarterback now?) much respect to the Patriots though they played a hell of a game, also Madonna’s half time set was amazing. All I need now is for Liverpool to beat Spurs today and… Read more »
My friends and I spent Superbowl Sunday rewatching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and drinking hot buttered rum. Belatedly, some of them remembered that George R.R. Martin had promised something (I think it was to finish his next book faster, or something?) if the Giants won, and they actually therefore did care just a little about who won. We are super geeks. Hope everyone had an excellent day, regardless of pasttime. Personally, I don’t care about football because I think it is absurd to pay people so damn much to do something that would have just as much… Read more »
“Football at its core is stimulated war. Created after the Civil War to show their fathers how brave they were, football players try to take and hold ground (yardage) and defeat the opponent. It is gladiatorial. It is a test of strength, planning, and will power. A player prepares for months working not only perfecting his body buy molding his mind around the playbook. All of this preparation for only sixty minutes.” The fuck? American Football traces its routes to the 1700s, and varieties were being played as early as 1820. It was designed to be a less brutal version… Read more »
Why do you, personally, love football, assuming you do? What is really fucking awesome about it? Football is my favorite sport for a multitude of reasons. First, I grew up with it. It was the sport my mom loved (she used to be a super fanatic of the Oakland Raiders) and my dad loved it too (he was a fan of the Broncos, and those of you who know anything about football suddenly understand why they’re divorced). Second, it’s the consumate team game. There are 11 players on each side and each of them have a different job to do.… Read more »
try reading EyeSheild 21 it’s a manga about football for a Japanese audience funded by the NFL, so it explains everything as if it’s audience is a bunch of moon-people who have never heard of American football. it’s also a pretty great read and the reason why I can vaguely understand football despite being from a family that takes SuperBowl Sunday as an opportunity to get things done on a weekend while avoiding an otherwise present crowd and make jokes about a Suberb Owl competition.
With no disrespect intended at all to the non-football people here:
Go go Zachy Weiner
“I was at a friend’s birthday party that was mostly gay men. You could tell because more men were there to watch Madonna’s halftime show than the game.”
Yeah, because gay men hate sports and love Madonna LOL LOL