Post Classifieds
Rutgers coach's actions hardly go against the grain
By Angelica Rodriguez
On April 10, 2013
When video surfaced of Rutgers head men's basketball coach Mike Rice berating his players,
calling them homophobic slurs, throwing basketballs at and even kicking them, it set off a
firestorm through the sports world.
When he was subsequently suspended, then fired, a few people wondered if it was the right
thing to do.
One Fox News commentator - surprise, surprise - called the firing a contribution to "the
wussification of American men." In his world, if you can't handle being shoved, kicked, or called
derogatory names for a woman's vagina, you aren't a man.
Some of you reading this won't find anything wrong with that. So what? It's part of becoming a
man, right? Thick skin, stiff upper lip, all that business.
Well, should it be?
The truth of the matter is this: behavior like this isn't really all that uncommon in the sports
world, or elsewhere. While other areas of society have progressed somewhat, sports remains
a place in which hyper-masculinity and male dominance is the norm, and anything else is
questioned or belittled. Rice made his insults personal, questioning players' manhood and
assuming that because they weren't doing things his way, they were gay or women - two of the
worst things to be, presumably, in such a setting.
And yet, instead of firing him outright, Rutgers suspended him for three games, only firing him
once the media onslaught became too much to handle. Even though they've had to deal with
Don Imus's racist and sexist slurs against the women's basketball team in 2007 and the suicide
of a gay student, Tyler Clementi, in 2010. How little we learn in six years.
Even with great organizations like You Can Play working to eliminate homophobia in sports, it
seems like we've got a ways to go before the message really sinks in. And that's unfortunate.
Expecting young men to just shrug off hateful words like the "f" word for gay men is basically
expecting them to ignore hatred of LGBT people. Saying that those words aren't meant to be
directly offensive to the LGBT community ignores the fact that it does offend.
As for the misogynistic part of the equation, while it's tempting for some to blame sports, it's
really society that is to blame for the idea that being sensitive to others' feelings is somehow a
"wussy" move. After all, society has imposed the gender roles that have turned men into strong,
dominant, and aggressive to the point of recklessness. Meanwhile, women are supposed to be
dainty, submissive, and easily dominated - and also, the punchline of almost every joke uttered
by a sports fan. I'm not kidding - in writing this, I came across a picture created by a Boston
Bruins fan that advised Montreal Canadiens players to "protect their vaginas" when they skate.
Ha, ha. Meanwhile, there are more girls and women participating in organized sports every
year, with as much focus, discipline and fervor as the men.
Even female fans sometimes buy into this, calling men "bitches" and by women's names
whenever they do anything other than rip someone's head off during a confrontation. Talk
about internalized sexism. How much do you believe in your own sex's inferiority that calling a
talented athlete like Sidney Crosby "Cindy Crysby" is okay? Realize what you're saying - that
you deserve to be made into a joke, not treated like a human being.
So what about guys who refuse to buy into that role? What about women and members of
the LGBT community who feel alienated by the atmosphere surrounding sports that they
understand and love?
We need to recognize that while Rice deserved to be fired, his actions aren't isolated. They're
part of a bigger problem, that being the inability of society to realize that hyper-aggressive
behavior isn't manly - it's just stupid - and that berating your players is not a constructive way
to lead a team.
Moreover, sexist and homophobic slurs are unacceptable in any setting, including a basketball
court or other playing surface. Finally, women and LGBT people have just as much of a place in
the sports world - and greater society - as men do.
We're on our way to making that a reality, but there still is a lot of work to do.
Angelica Rodriguez can be reached by email at rodriguez.record@live.com.
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