Today in class we discussed how
sexuality relates to rules of behavior. At the end we talked about
compulsory heterosexuality: there's a social expectation to be
straight, straight is the default, just like how society controls
gender roles. From an early age kids are taught that being gay is
gross, wrong morally, or aberrant behavior. Stereotypes are enforced
to back this claim, one of the most prominent being that gay men are
“wusses,” in fact not even men: they're unmanly.
Robert Griffin III is the latest
professional male sports star to talk about gays in sports. His
recent comment for GQ magazine is that now is the time for pro sports
players to come out of the closet. There has been growing support of
gay players in the last couple of years, especially with Vikings
kicker Chris Kluwe vocally supporting gay colleagues, and then Jason
Collins, for the NBA, being the first major professional sports
player to come out of the closet.
This is a big step toward acceptance
in our society, since it directly deals with the stereotype that gay
men are weak. Other heavy hitters like Magic Johnson and Charles
Barkley have added their backing, which tells kids that being gay
isn't weak, and that you can grow up and be gay and be an athlete.
Sports is one of the institutions that can be used to enforce roles
of sexuality (as well as gender), and the more players that say it's
ok to be gay, the more we break down the rules of institutions that
are used to say being gay is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your conclusion and hopes and desires for the future 100%. However, I did find some things that were interesting to me in your articles. Some support your conclusion and some don't completely support your claim, which is slightly discouraging to your conclusion and hopes of achieving the break-down of social construction of sexuality and gender in institutions. I find it interesting that even in articles that the media writes now-a-days, that give light at the end of the tunnel of having to hide your true self, that it still has to be a little negative in order to make it into the public view. The media can’t just have one article that is completely supportive of an issue that is even slightly controversial.
Either way, I found it very interesting that in the first article, it spoke about how GQ’s cover athlete for that month spoke out about his religion and even though he is a Christian, he has no room to judge others’ sins and that now is the time for homosexual professional athletes to come out of the closet. In the paragraph directly after that, it talks about how former Baltimore Raven, Branden Ayanbadejo says that there are going to be several players in the NFL coming out of the closet soon. But later on when he was asked about the comment, he took them back. Why not be proud of what you said? Why not confront the issue and stand up for what you believe should be done. I could tell the he truly thought that those who he knew in the NFL should come out and he would be supportive of them even though, he is heterosexual. This only further proves the social construction of gender and sexuality.
Going forward to more recent articles that we have discussed in class, another key item here that I find interesting is that not once did it mention the possibility of bisexual professional athletes. The media and society in general lumps any kind of sexuality that is not dominant or deemed “normal” as homosexual. In fact, being bisexual, you are not completely homosexual and are not completely hetero sexual. They are not one or the other, or even both. They are have their own term to define themselves, and I think that it is rude and insensitive to just lump all people who are of an “abnormal” sexuality into one group. It’s not who they are, or what they are defined as. I just thought that it was an interesting point that relates to our short discussion on bisexuality that we also had in class on that day that we discussed Daniel’s topic.
To add to your point, I think that in order to look forward to a break-down of these institutional barriers, we must first recognize the simple differences in all types of sexuality.