Homophobia in sports has been in the news quite a bit lately. Several sports players have been fined in recent months for making homophobic comments or posting homophobic tweets on Twitter, leading some players and others involved in sports to wonder why there are so few openly gay athletes and what can be done about this.
There have also been a number of news stories about how homophobia can be tackled, with claims that if sports become more LGBTQ-friendly, this can have a trickle-down effect, so that society in general becomes more open to queers. Sports, it is argued, are so important to so many people that the various teams and players can potentially have a huge impact on a wide strata of society.
To start to combat the problems, the Football Association has recently released a short film about homophobia in football and not long ago there was the BBC documentary about homophobia and football, presented by Amal Fashanu, niece of Justin Fashanu, thus far the only out gay footballer in British history.
Of course, there are a few brave, out stars in sports other than football, such as tennis player Martina Navratilova (who has been called a bad role model for young tennis players because she is an out lesbian) and rugby player Gareth Thomas. But there are certainly not as many as one would hope.
So far, none of these attempts at change have really extended to literature. In general, when there are LGBTQ characters in novels, they do not play sports. In terms of female characters, the only athlete I have found is Mike, in Julie Ann Peters' novel Far from Xanadu.
Mike is a rather stereotyped butch dyke; besides the typically male name, she also runs a plumbing company and she is a star softball player. Softball is considered a lesbian sport in the U.S., where the book takes place. Another novel with lesbians playing softball is Karin Kallmaker's Paperback Romance, but there the characters are not athletes as such; they simply enjoy spending time with their primarily lesbian team doing a stereotypically lesbian activity.
Gay male athletes are also notably absent. This may be due to the stereotype that gay men are too "effeminate" to be athletic.
When there are gay male sports players, there generally is what I term a "shower scene." What happens in a shower scene is that a gay athlete comes out, or is outed, and then his teammates express fear about showering with him. They worry that the gay athlete will stare at them in the shower or even go so far as to molest them, taking advantage of their nakedness.
For example, in Rainbow High by Alex Sanchez, two of the characters are sports stars who have to deal with constant homophobia from their teammates. The teammates do not want to shower with them or share a hotel room with them on trips to matches, and they call them "fag." Nothing much is done about any of this.
In that novel, Jason even worries that he might lose his sports scholarship to a university because he is gay. He seems unaware that such discrimination actually might be illegal.
And in Robin Reardon's A Secret Edge, Jason is a runner. When he finally comes out to his coach, Jason asks if he is off the team because of his homosexuality. The coach responds, "Not unless you're accosting the other boys in the showers, no." The coach might be teasing, but this a fear that the teammates of gay athletes regularly express.
Actually, though, it turns out that it isn't Jason or his boyfriend and fellow-athlete Raj who do the accosting; rather, it is Raj who gets beaten up by homophobic bullies.
The fact that there are so few LGBTQ athletes in literature and that those who do exist face homophobic bullying and discrimination reflects the greater society. As already mentioned, some people are working hard to change this situation or at least to draw attention to it. Whether through documentaries, newspaper articles, or simply by being proudly out, these people are to be respected and thanked for their efforts.
Athletes such as Gareth Thomas, Martina Navratilova, and Swedish footballer Anton Hysen serve as strong role models for future generations, despite the claims to the contrary from those who are prejudiced.
But as long as gay athletes are scared to come out, because they worry about what their teammates and fans might think or even because they fear for their safety and their future, society will not recognize that it is possible to be both gay and sporty. This may mean that athletic young people who are LGBTQ will choose other careers, because they believe sports are not open to them.
And that will be the sports world's loss.
Follow B.J. Epstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bjepstein
Should a straight man be afraid of a female nurse? Should a woman be afraid of a male nurse? How about a doctor? Should a woman undergoing breast cancer surgery feel that a male doctor will be too distracted by her breasts to perform the operation correctly?
See Cacey's remark below. Sometimes a shower is just about dirt.
This reminds me of something I saw on tumblr last month. Someone took a screenshop of someone's tweet that said "homophobia: the fear that gay men will treat you the way you treat women."
The "shower scene" is a perfect example of this.
Best wishes,
BJ
That is simply because the number of gays in sports will never be proportionate to society. Never. Its true just like makeup artists will continue to be over-populated by gays. Gay men, for whatever reason, are not as athletically adept as heterosexual men. Yes, of course there are some gay men that are but not at the same rate as hetero men. And straight men aren't as drawn to the arts as the proportion of gay men are.
People can pull all sorts of sole examples to disagree but what I write is true and the seeking of gays in sports is simply more of the attempt of the gayification of everything.
It all boils down to money...in the closet the Stockholm Syndrome works well. You can ask the Sheriff in Arizona...he certainly alligned with the aggressor. So..the people choose not to come out...and fight a winning battle on the playfield.
So much for the gladiators of ancient Rome....they had something...even when they had their special friends...we are not there.
About as bad as the headline yesterday with the picture of Dakota Fanning that read: "LEGAL!"
~ I guess 'shock and awe' isn't just for wars any more.
Shame... and I thought that this was Gay Voices... Not COOL
Be loud, be proud, and make them get over it
Most equate sexuality with a specific gender role. A male who is not heterosexual is not viewed as being as "manly" (and not just by normals; the "gay" "community" has rather readily adopted this stereotype, though some are not exactly as cool with it (search casual encounters on craigslist and you will find those who are homosexual but only seeking those who identify as the proper gender role).
This really leads to problems were hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity are viewed as being homophobic. Young people generally do not care.
This is not a new criticism either. The strong gender identity of various aspects of culture has been examined by academics for as long as society has had "gender" (though modern social science has dismissed gender as being valid, there are still examinations of the tendency of people to identify with a very specific gender role in different situations). You can look into masculinity and rap music, for instance, and find the same thing.
Best wishes,
BJ