Do sports build character?
Sport obviously builds character but not always the one non-sporty types, women, children would like. In America, there is obviously only one sport (their version of "football") and Mark Edmundson's essay suffers from that myopia, despite the fascinating tour of Plato, Homer and Achilles' hangups. But it does pose an interesting challenge:
"I believe that virtually all heterosexual men are made anxious by homosexuality. Show them—show us—a gay porn flick, and some significant part of the audience will get to the verge of physical illness. Why this is so is a great mystery, and whoever solves it will have taken a significant step toward understanding human nature."
1 comment:
Fascinating. I have written about sports journalism recently:
http://graunwatch.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/marina-hyde-lets-down-the-sporno-side/
http://graunwatch.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/579/
As Simpson would say, and as you know, part of this aversion to homosexuality felt by sportsmen is actually expressed through acts which seem decidedly homosexual. Hazing, violence on and off the pitch etc mimick homosexual sex.
Mark's chapter in Male Impersonators about (mainly British) football The Anus and Its Goalposts is brilliant on this.
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