Althouse: "Using masculinities theory, the article examines last year’s hullabaloo about openly gay football player Michael Sam and his prospects for playing in the National Football League."

May 29, 2015

"Using masculinities theory, the article examines last year’s hullabaloo about openly gay football player Michael Sam and his prospects for playing in the National Football League."

"I first explain masculinities theory, focusing on how masculinity is constructed and maintained. I then explore how masculinities theory applies in sport generally and in football in particular. The article visits the football locker room — a distinct enclave of masculinity — and shows how masculinities theory explains the locker room 'bonding.' Once we lay bare the implications of cultural assumptions about masculinity and about physically aggressive sports like football, we can more easily explain why an openly gay football player is a rarity. Knowing that even one openly gay player exists threatens to decimate the cultural icons we use our athletes to create."

An abstract for a law review article.

30 comments:

Rick said...: "Law" is sounding more and more like social activism. Whoever could have predicted that?; 5/29/15, 10:11 AM
Anonymous said...: I'll get to it once I've finished this Sports Illustrated article about jurisdictional and standing issues in PPACA caselaw.; 5/29/15, 10:16 AM
William said...: Why of all the possible variants of sexual behavior do we only condemn closeted gays? Economy of effort. Being closeted allows more free time to work on your game or, for that matter, greater ease in hooking up with other closeted gays.....,,Well, I would draw the line at being a closeted gay Republican. Such perverts should be outed, humiliated, and publicly stoned. There is no better way to demonstrate tolerance and an open mind than by making fun of Lindsay Graham's lisp.; 5/29/15, 10:21 AM
rhhardin said...: I'd guess that masculinities theory was invented by a gay guy.

A regular guy is out doing something.; 5/29/15, 10:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Why does it irritate me that the term is "masculinities" — the plural. Is that some girl thing of mine?; 5/29/15, 10:28 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I remember when people used to says "feminisms." Whatever happened to that... or is it still percolating in law review articles I don't read?; 5/29/15, 10:29 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But I don't think I've ever seen "femininities" or certainly not "femininities theory." I am out of the loop but back in the day I used to attend FemCrits meetings. Now, I avoid any meetings I can.; 5/29/15, 10:30 AM
Anonymous said...: How about, "There were questions about wether he had the ability and drive to be an NFL "impact Player".

apparently he doesn't.

maybe being gay doesn't enter into the decision to cut him...; 5/29/15, 10:31 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Calling it "masculinities" makes it sound like maybe it came from Classical Greece is the word, is the word that you heard.; 5/29/15, 10:40 AM
hombre said...: I think the author meant "media, gaydom and political class hullabaloo." Nobody else cared.

It is however, fine fodder for a law review article.; 5/29/15, 10:41 AM
MacMacConnell said...: Anyone playing football 5th grade through college has played with at least one gay player. At every level of sports only the cream move on to the next level. Sams is a nice guy, I've met him, but he like many high school studs that couldn't cut it in college couldn't cut it in the NFL.; 5/29/15, 10:46 AM
David said...: Hoo boy. I wonder what Father Raynor would make of this?; 5/29/15, 10:57 AM
Scott M said...: At every level of sports only the cream move on to the next level.

In my experience, this only becomes true when you go from high school to college and after. In some very rare cases, it can be true when private jr high schools or "middle" school offer scholarships, but that doesn't prevent other 12-13 year olds from playing.; 5/29/15, 11:01 AM
Mountain Maven said...: Has the egghead writer ever been in a football locker room?; 5/29/15, 11:16 AM
Skyler said...: Masculinity pretty much requires heterosexuality.

A drum is a percussion instrument. An oboe is not. No matter how much the oboist wants to be one of the cool drummers, he's still an oboist. Not that there's anything wrong with being an oboist.; 5/29/15, 11:18 AM
chickelit said...: Ann Althouse said...
Why does it irritate me that the term is "masculinities" — the plural. Is that some girl thing of mine?

Relax Althouse--it's a Marquette hypothesis. Of all the schools Scott Walker could have dropped out of, he picked the one it made most sense to leave.; 5/29/15, 11:31 AM
khesanh0802 said...: "Masculinities Theory"? Jesus Christ!!!

No wonder law schools are closing.; 5/29/15, 11:45 AM
n.n said...: Men form close, even intimate bonds, but do not engage in sexual relations with each other. That's a transsexual or transgender behavior not practiced by normal males. So, it should be implicitly understood that trans behaviors would not be a welcome topic, and its introduction would be accurately perceived as coercion.; 5/29/15, 11:48 AM
Lucien said...: Masculinetes (835 - 760 BCE)was a Corinthian who founded the first aestheticians' school, but is more widely known as the father of Western interior decorating. His work initially reflected traditional Corinthian themes, until his icons were decimated. Thereafter his later work fell into disrepute, but modern scholars now view it as an anticipation of influence of Feng Shui on modern design.; 5/29/15, 1:03 PM
Francisco D said...: Who cares if your right defensive end is "masculine"?

Can he get to the quarterback and sniff out screen plays? Does he hold his position when the opponents star left tackle is trying to auger him into the dirt? Does he have quick twitch fibers in his legs? Does he have a swim move to get by a 325 pound tackle who is far stronger than him?

I don't care is he takes it up the wazoo and paints his toenails red. If he can play the position, he's got a spot on my team.; 5/29/15, 1:37 PM
Fabi said...: Funny how the sportswriter activists howled about him being cut, reminding readers that he was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Yeah. Tell that to a player with even greater accolades: Tim Tebow. Past performance is not indicative of future earnings, as the disclaimer says.; 5/29/15, 2:56 PM
Chuck said...: Well after the national "hullabaloo" (when has THAT word been used in a law review article?) over Michael Sam -- all of the gushing praise and adulation -- nobody needs to worry too much about his putting on a uniform in any NFL locker rooms now.

I still suspect that his being named a co-defensive player of the year in the SEC was a setup by the sportswriters who pick the winners. I am not sure if there have ever been any co-POY's in SEC history. Maybe, but I can't think of any. I think the sportswriters knew that Sam was gay and they wanted to set him up for hero-worship and pre-draft attention. The other co-POY (Alabama's C.J. Mosley) was a true blue-chip defensive monster, and ought to have been the SEC's lone defensive POY. Mosley won the national Butkus Award.

The comparison between the national media treatment of the NFL-entries of Tim Tebow (out Christian) and Michael Sam (out homosexual) spawned perhaps a hundred great columns by conservative writers.; 5/29/15, 2:58 PM
Doug said...: Have you EVER in your life remembered a 7th round draft choice who got cut by two teams without ever setting foot on the field in a regular game get this much panting attention from the media two years after he was drafted? Am I cuckoo to think that the media WANT to love a player for his gayness, so that they can demand we all love and celebrate gayness too?; 5/29/15, 3:06 PM
Dan Hossley said...: The football locker room is visited by female reporters after every game. If you get something like that wrong, how can anyone take you seriously.; 5/29/15, 3:23 PM
chickelit said...: @Dan Hossley: It's an example of (Erwin) "Knoll's Law Of Media Accuracy:"

Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge link; 5/29/15, 4:22 PM
chickelit said...: To be fair, the original story reported here wasn't journalism in the media. It was a law review article. That's even worse.; 5/29/15, 4:24 PM
Zach said...: Why does it irritate me that the term is "masculinities" — the plural. Is that some girl thing of mine?

I am very sensitive to ugly phrases myself. It is frequently the case that an ugly phrase exists to hide an ugly idea.; 5/29/15, 7:16 PM
Rich Rostrom said...: WTF does "masculinities theory" have to do with the law?

Also I note the semiliterate misuse of "decimae".; 5/30/15, 1:48 AM
Anthony said...: I might be interested in reading the article if it were by someone like Camille Paglia, but even then, what the heck is it doing in a law review? Is there a legal issue to which this is related? If so, why doesn't the abstract say so?; 5/30/15, 11:44 AM
FullMoon said...: Mac McConnell said... [hush][hide comment]

Anyone playing football 5th grade through college has played with at least one gay player. At every level of sports only the cream move on to the next level. Sams is a nice guy, I've met him, but he like many high school studs that couldn't cut it in college couldn't cut it in the NFL.

Local star was drafted NFL.Interviewed following being cut, he said "College football was a whole different game from high school. NFL is a whole different world from college"; 5/30/15, 11:49 AM