January 11, 2008
Sapp quits after 'too much gay porn'?
Posted by: Chris
There's a story brewing on the internet that Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who has just retired after 13 seasons in the NFL, described a fight with officials in his next to last game as "too much gay porn" -- a metaphor for something you don't want to watch or discuss.
The colorful story spread through the straight and gay blogosphere, supposedly pegged to a Sports Illustrated interview. I searched the S.I. site to no avail, but it turns out that's because the exact same quote -- down to the word -- was something Sapp said an entire year earlier.
In December 2006, he was asked during a locker room interview why he had been so upset on the Raiders sideline, jumping up and down and screaming while the offense was on the field. At first Sapp wouldn't say, but then explained the action on the field that day this way:
It was something that was really, really on the edge of like gay porn," he said. "That's what we call it. When it's real bad football, that's what we call it: gay porn. Something you don't want to watch. Something you just don't want to see on the TV. Something you don't even want to talk about. That's gay porn."
Pretty clever for a straight guy.
November 01, 2007
AP pulls a reverse-Onion
Posted by: Chris
The AP has put out a story on that study about former high school football players who dabble in man-on-man action. Funny how the wire service manages to report the results while leaving out a huge salient fact:
A new study, which will be published in the Journal of Sex Roles, suggests that one third of former American high school football players have had sexual relations with other men.
Sociologist Dr. Eric Anderson, who is credited with being the first openly gay high school coach during his tenure at Huntington Breach High in the early nineties, conducted research questionnaires with a small sample of ex-high school football players who said that they have had some sexual contact with other men.
As I noted in a blog post this week, that "small sample," which is never described in greater detail by AP, was a rather select one:
The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university’s team and were now cheerleaders instead.
No mention of "the male cheerleader factor" in the AP story. I guess that would read more like "dog bites man" than "man bites dog."
October 30, 2007
Talk about your biased sample…
Posted by: Chris
The headline from Science Daily was a real eye-grabber: "Over One-third Of Former American Football Players Had Sexual Relations With Men, Study Claims." The magazine reports:
In his study of homosexuality among sportsmen in the US, sociologist Dr Eric Anderson found that 19 in a sample of 47 had taken part in acts intended to sexually arouse other men, ranging from kissing to mutual masturbation and oral sex.
But then, the fine print reads straight out of The Onion:
The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university’s team and were now cheerleaders instead.
Either the good Dr. Anderson, who hails from the University of Bath, is completely unaware of male cheerleader culture in the U.S. — George W. Bush excepted — or he was aiming to bias things from the get-go. Nonetheless, the study's conclusions are intriguing:
“The evidence supports my assertion that homophobia is on the rapid decline among male teamsport athletes in North America at all levels of play,” he writes in his study, entitled ‘Being masculine is not about whom you sleep with…Heterosexual athletes contesting masculinity and the one-time rule of homosexuality’ …
“I find informants actually engage in sexual activity with other men. But this does not mean that they are gay. My informants do not feel that their same-sex sex jeopardizes their socially perceived heterosexual identities, at least within the cheerleading culture. In other words, having gay sex does not automatically make them gay in masculine peer culture.”
Dr. Anderson may be right about declining homophobia in American sports, mirroring general cultural trends. But it's hardly justified to conclude these guys who have had sex with other men aren't gay because they are comfortably heterosexual "within the cheerleading culture." Talk about a workplace that embraces gender non-conformity, at least among men…
More likely, these cheerleaders in their 20s are figuring out who they are and whether they can accept being gay. Having acted on it before graduating college, they're already ahead of me at that age.
Next up for Dr. Anderson? I'd suggest an in-depth study on the extent of homosex among college fraternity presidents, or student body presidents, or those recent-grad fraternity employees for that matter. Three more completely unbiased peer groups. Right up there with drama majors.
February 06, 2007
No snickers for Snickers
Posted by: Chris
Gay rights groups are up in arms about an ad for Snickers that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, and even more so about three alternative endings for the spot made available on the Mars web site.
All four versions of the ad feature two middle-aged mechanics working closely under the hood of a car. One unwraps a Snickers bar and begins eating it while the other gazes longingly — at the Snickers.
The second mechanic begins eating the other end of the candy bar, leading to the inevitable, "Lady & The Tramp" kiss in the middle. The two men jump back, shocked that they've just kissed, then come the four different endings:
- Chest Hair: In this ending, which actually aired in the Super Bowl, one of the mechanics says, "Uh, I think we just kissed." The other says, "Quick, do something manly," to which the other response by ripping open his shirt and ripping out (with a shriek) a big wad of chest hair. The first responds in kind amid screams.
- Monkey Wrench: In response to "Quick, do something manly," the first mechanic grabs a monkey wrench and clobbers the other over the head. The second mechanic throws the first one under the hood and slams it down. The violence is clearly intended to be comic. In the trailing seconds, the mechanic now slammed under the hood says, "OK, that's good."
Motor Oil: In response to "Quick, do something manly," one mechanic grabs some motor oil and begins gulping it; the other does the same with windshield washer fluid. Both men scream (in manly fashion) as they do it.- Love Boat: In this version, both men jump back from the kiss but before either can say anything, a third, long-haired and older mechanic walks up, tosses his hair and says, "Is there room for three in this love boat?"
In addition to encouraging visitors to the web site to vote on the four different endings, Mars posted video reactions from players from the two Super Bowl teams as they watched the commercials. The response from the two Indianpolis Colts — linebacker Cato June and wide receiver Marvin Harrison — were low key and non-descript.
But the three Chicago Bears showed a good deal more enthusiasm. Mushin Muhammad, a wide receiver for Chicago, had an exaggerated facial reaction to the kiss, while tight end Desmond Clark laughed in a "no they didn't" style. Quarterback Rex Grossman covered his face with his hands. Clark, in particular, seemed shocked the two male actors actually had to kiss to make the commercial. When told it took 15 takes, he laughed, "I hope they got paid a lot of money!"
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation "strongly condemned" the ads in a press release issued yesterday, calling on Mars to pull the "Wrench" ad and what the gay groups calls the "offensive" player reactions from its web site.
Judy Shepard goes so far as to claim in the GLAAD statement that the Snickers campaign "encourages the same type of hate that lead [sic] to the death of my son Matthew. It essentially gives 'permission' to our society to verbally and physically harass individuals who are gay, lesbian or bisexual." Shepard reserves particular "dismay" for the players, who she said are "perpetuating such discrimination and prejudice."
The Human Rights Campaign also condemned the ads, calling on Mars to pull the "Chest Hair" version that aired during the big game. HRC's Joe Solmonese says in the release that Mars "should know better. If they have any questions about why the ad isn't funny, we can help put them in touch with any number of GLBT Americans who have suffered hate crimes."
Well I, for one, am a gay American — how, exactly, can one person be G, L, B and T anyway? — who has suffered a hate crime, and I am more disturbed by the gross overreaction of these overly earnest gay rights groups.
The version of the Snickers ad that aired during the game was funny, if not exactly guffaw-inducing. Funny, as in funny ha-ha. Remember that, activists? This isn't Isaiah Washington cursing a gay colleage or Michael Richards unleashing a torrent of angry "N-words."
This was a silly ad for a candy bar in which two unattractive, middle-aged mechanics accidentally kiss and then have a comic overreaction. Do we really believe impressionable youngsters will learn life lessons from these two? They are the butt of the joke, after all, not gay people.
Let's not forget, too, that this same-sex kiss didn't just run in prime time, but on Sunday afternoon in the most-watched television event of the year. Long after the short ad spot is forgotten, a taboo has been broken, the "shock value" of a gay kiss has been lessened, and that's ultimately of more cultural influence than the mechanics' macho morality.
The only version of the ad that troubled me was "Monkey Wrench," since it did show the two men whacking each other in the head to prove they were still "manly." But the "violence" was of the slapstick, comic-book variety, about as real as that inflicted on Wile E. Coyote in his pursuit of the Roadrunner. And let's not forget, each clobbering was invited by its recipient, as we're reminded at the end, when one mutters humorously, "OK, that's good."
Viewers are about as likely to respond the same in real-life situations as they are to use a real rock to bash in their opponent's head the next time they play "rock-paper-scisscors," as portrayed in a hilarious Bud Light ad.
An even bigger head-scratcher was the GLAAD/HRC condemnation of the NFL players' reactions. These poor sobs were videotaped as they saw the commercial for the first time and, truth be told, I had the same facial reaction as Mushin Muhammad when I saw these two unattractive guys lock lips. Does that make me a look-ist? Should I sign up for counseling along with Isaiah Washington?
GLAAD accuses two of the players of "overt expressions of prejudice" — Clark presumably for believing the two actors ought to be paid handsomely, and June for explaining how the two guys reacted to kissing, "Nah this ain't right." (Hello, he was explaining what was in the minds of the two men; not his own personal morality.)
C'mon, GLAAD. Are we this hard up for "overt expressions of prejudice"? I understood, in the Isaiah Washington incident, how his celebrity contributed to pushing "the F-word" off the cultural lexicon. But all this type of hypersensitive overreaction does is push gay lives back into taboo territory, too controversial to touch.
Like it or not, one price of coming out of the closet is that we are fair game for cultural jibes as much as anyone else. We gain nothing by proving we are too sensitive to take a joke.
Unfortunately, lost in the dust of outraged press releases is the "Love Boat" version of the Snickers ad that, by any interpretation, was funny and not homophobic. The Mars web site promised that the version that got the most votes would air during the Daytona 500, and the "Love Boat" version was running second, behind "Motor Oil," after I voted.
But in response to the gay groups' press releases, Mars has how pulled all four versions and the players' reactions from its web site. No doubt the controversy has scared the company away from using any version, including "Love Boat," during the Daytona 500 or anywhere else. Is that really a victory?
Decide for yourself. You can view all four versions of the ad and the player reactions by following the jump:
November 01, 2006
'Kinda gay' remark was 'kinda sexual'
Posted by: Chris
ESPN has "kinda fired" former NFL receiver Brian Kinchen from doing college football commentary after he called one of his own comments "kinda gay" during the broadcast of last Saturday's Northern Illinois-Iowa game. Actually, he's suspended for this weekend's action, and his future with ESPN is under review, AP reported:
Kinchen was explaining the need for receivers to make catches with their hands because they are "tender" and can "caress" the ball. He then paused and said, "That's kind of gay, but hey... "
"The comments were inappropriate, and we apologize for them," said Josh Krulewitz, ESPN's vice president of public relations.
Kinchen, a former player at LSU and for three NFL franchises, was similarly contrite:
"[My remarks] were completely inappropriate and not at all a reflection of who I am or the way I perform my work," Kinchen said in a statement issued by ESPN. "I have learned from my mistake and look forward to continuing my broadcasting career."
The suspension has struck almost everyone as an overreaction. No gay voices, including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), had spoken out against Kinchen, much less called for his removal. Some gay sports enthusiasts, including Cyd Zeigler over at Outsports, have nonetheless suggested that gay groups have contributed to a politically correct climate that pressured gay-friendly ESPN to act.
I, for one, think ESPN's reaction isn't an example of pro-gay "political correctness" as much as it is the dysfunctional way we treat sex and sport, where the action on the telly can bear no relation whatsoever to the typical reaction of those watching. Kinchen wasn't suspended for being "anti-gay"; he was punished for making a sexual remark. He suggested it was "kinda gay" for a receiver to be "tender" with his hands and "caress" the ball.
His remarks aren't like the anti-gay slurs uttered (usually with impunity) by pro athletes and coaches, but more along the lines of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime a few years back. Those of us watching in real-time noticed something unusual happen, but it took a lot of prudish conservatives freeze-framing their VCRs to see her naughty bits, and then came the predictably apoplectic reaction.
ESPN's response, like the FCC's historic fine in response to Janet's boob, wasn't leftist politically correct. If anything, it was rightist politically correct, which demands censorship "in the name of the children" of any and all discussion of the human body that could be considered sexual. But as any episode of "The Simpsons" demonstrates, the subtlety is for adult consumption and goes right over their children's heads.
If the adults didn't keep replaying Janet Jackson's "boob tube" moment with her nipple blurred, or keep rehashing Kinchen's comments for further interpretation, both would have passed without notice by 99.99 percent of the impressionable minors watching. Instead, our supposed adult reaction is the equivalent to Beavis telling Butthead, "Heh heh — he said 'balls.'"
But, hey, if we're going to exaggerate the sexual in everything Kinchen says and does, let's not stop with his testicular commentary. How about this photo of the former New England Patriot tight end, hugging teammate Tom Ashworth during the Super Bowl. Where were the ESPN/FCC censors for that one?
Follow the jump for more 'kinda gay' info on Kinchen:
