This guy is considered more manly then you...in no way is that depressing.
Buffalo wings and cheerleaders... two byproducts of the
National Football League usually associated with manliness and male bonding.
Every Sunday and Monday from August to early February is a time for the
"guys" to get together, yell, swear, eat, drink and watch the
"game." Men are in a constant
search for bragging rights, betting on the spread, trading fantasy players or just
enjoy talking smack and get into the occasional bar brawl (cause what fun would
wings and football be without some head wounds and spilled beer).While baseball
is considered America's pastime, football has become the American mans pastime.
It's the one time of year a straight man can wear a wig and makeup, and its
acceptable. Men will spend hundreds of
dollars on an official NFL jersey, then wonder why woman spend so much on
handbags. The NFL is considered so manly, that even if an NFL player enters
into a dance competition involving flamboyant
routines and costumes, no one thinks twice about a Super Bowl winning
pro-bowler wearing sequins and dancing a samba.
How Manly. Those boots really accentuate his calves.
Masculinity and the NFL are closely associated because the
NFL is considered a rough, brutish manly sport. Football is hard-hitting, and
the harder the hits, the rougher the games, the higher the ratings and the more
the audience expands. Recent rule changes to make the game safer have been met
with retorts of "watering down the game" and complaints of making football
into sissy sport. The thought being that football will lose its masculine edge
if players aren't continually hitting harder, because life threatening injuries
are just "part of the game." The argument being since football was
designed to be a rough and manly sport, if the player can't handle their
injuries they aren't thought of as "man" enough to be on the field. James
Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers is notorious for his hard helmet to helmet
hits, which now come with an automatic fine if called. He has openly complained
of the NFL becoming "softer", and he has vowed to continue to play in
the rough demeanor he always has, because he has issues with masculinity and
not being able to deliver a hard hit. I don't know if he is compensating for
something or just being a huge dick, but he is repeatedly fined for knowingly
delivering concussion inducing hits, just to make a point of his manliness.
There has been a recent increase in female viewership of
National Football League games, but football continues to be "a man's
game." Advertising furthers this notion, by using former/current players
to hawk products, or to promote certain products as "manly." Advertising
is such a big deal in the NFL that the commercials for the Super Bowl have
become almost as popular as the game itself. Football also promotes male
physical ideals of athleticism and fitness, as ads are specifically targeted at
male audiences trying to convince them to try new workout equipment, or the
latest diet drink, or gym membership. Many products advertised are sold to the
audience by former players, who are considered as living examples of the male
ideal. Men are also reminded that not following strict masculine guidelines
during game time can result in the
revocation of their "man-card" as Miller Lite so eloquently reminds
us (although arguably drinking Miller Lite in itself should mean you lose your
man-card).
The male preoccupation with winning and competition is also
fueled by NFL viewership and round-table shows, as winners are made out to seem
like Gods among men, while losers are vilified openly. These shows are usually
scripted in a way that includes 5-6 men (usually former players or coaches),
who sit in a round-table format discussing players and statistics, also making
fact memorization another expectation of NFL manliness (only football facts,
real academic facts aren't as manly). Men see this as their standard, and thus
engage in lively debates of statistics, rulings, scores, trades...whatever
knowledge will give them the edge in the debate. Back in the day it was
considered manly to be able to debate politics, today it is manly to debate
football.
Example of a realistic male standard.
Football has a huge impact on male ideals of masculinity
because FOX NFL Sunday, Monday Night Football, and the Super Bowl are all the
highest rated TV shows among their respective categories. NFL Sunday routinely
beats out shows such as American Idol for ratings, and the Super Bowl is the
holy grail of ratings, as other shows even run re-runs based on the assumption
that no one else will be watching anything other than the Super Bowl.
Mike Donaldson, writing on hegemonic masculinity makes the
point also about the dominant ideal
of femininity within the masculine community as a woman who will embrace compliance
and tolerance of violent behavior, not very different from the scantily clad
cheerleaders who jump and scream (technically "cheer") whenever a
player is tackled or hit. In the NFL these hits are coming from 300lb muscular
men, so they are no joke. In a Comcast sports science episode, a hit from Ray
Lewis was actually harder (measured in pressure per sq inch) then if a swat
team broke down your door with a battering ram. Yet the audience is still
demanding harder hits, longer throws, more intense tackles. Basically if you
can be taken out by a SWAT team, you aren't man enough for the NFL.
Donaldson
says it is these images that drive the image of masculinity, and even at the
same time promoting sexism and the degradation of women around the NFL whose
only job is to rile men up. More women
are becoming NFL fans, and I do not believe that the National Football League itself
is sexist, just the current culture of Football. The popularity of its shows
and its promotion of roughness, violence and machismo, makes football into a
man's sport to be watched only with the guys having wings and beer..."no
girls allowed." Football is the ultimate Boys Club, yet most of the boys
will never be able to physically or financially be able to come near the level
of masculinity the NFL suggests is needed to attain respect as a man.
Either way
football provides me with much entertainment personally in the form of bar
brawls and the occasional free beer from drunk men. Men are shocked I can talk
football with them, and I believe because football is so closely associated
with men, that they are surprised that someone with a vagina can quote stats,
players and play fantasy with the best of them. It also gives me great pleasure
to emasculate the overly brawny, overly compensating men who want to argue
stats; because I know that since NFL is a "mans" game, a woman
beating them in anything is the ultimate hit to their ego. Ultimately, without all the emphasis on
machismo within the NFL, perhaps this wouldn't be such an issue or a threat to their
manhood...or perhaps today's football fans are just not as manly as those in
years past and need to step up their man-game...like the ads for Viagra and AXE
suggest they should.
I agree with you on the point that football shouldn't be a man's thing, woman enjoy the sport just as much as men do, and have just as much knowledge about it as men do. The whole idea of football as a "boys only" thing was the same of politics before the women's right movement when women were told to leave the room so men could discuss politics. Also the portrayal of women in football, specifically in commercials, is indeed degrading, women are shown as either unrealistically hot cheerleaders, or as the homely mom looking out for the team. While i do agree slowly women are starting to enjoy the sport just as much as men, I don't think the NFL is really reaching out to grab a female audience. Whether this is because they want to keep up their manly macho image, or the sexist ideals of the past are still in play, I'm not sure. The idea of women enjoying the sport has become more and more common and less shocking, so with this being said maybe one day the NFL will learn to cater to their female viewers as well as the male viewers and it wont be so taboo for a woman to have a drink with the guys at a bar and watch the game with them. I know I slightly drifted off topic of violence found in football, but i figured with this being a Gender Studies course this was still pretty relevant.
ReplyDeleteI know a few women who are actually into football as a choice of their own. But, I would say about 70% of the time a woman is watching a sport because their significant other is into it. But if football really wants to catch the women, then they are going down the right track by advertising clothes to women. They will especially do a better job of it if they actually make them stylish, rather than doing random tones of pink. Anyway, I think the separation that men create when considering this a manly sport is just creating more boundaries for people to be equal. I know a lot of men who would scoff at me for saying this, as if it is an exclusive men's only club. But, fact of the matter is, it is anyone's right to like a sport. Opening the door will only open more money to be involved.
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