[public] i want a tim lincecum
dear flist/world,
is it possible that fandom's obsession with sports slash means that no one's actually taking the idea of gay athletes seriously? does the act of interpreting every intense friendship (or just ones with a physical basis) as sex-based, even when it's not supposed to be "serious," only add to the stigma of being a gay athlete? in other words, one reason why gay athletes are afraid to come out is because of a fear of how the fans will react. if we're going to assign sexuality to athletes based on whatever we choose, is there any reason to believe that we would be serious about an actual gay athlete? would we, god forbid, utter "i knew it," as our first response to a major athlete coming out, and then return to writing them into the bedroom of their most supportive teammate? does a majority of the fandom really care about the state of out gays in sports or is it just into the porn? (and while we're at it, is the heavy bias of male slash pairings over female slash pairings sexist?)
disclaimer: i'm not attacking anyone. i've just been thinking about this for a long time and i'd like to discuss it with other people or at least read the responses from others. and i may be taking this far more seriously than anyone else wants to but i care about it. so tell people and hopefully when i get online again in approx. 24 hours there will be responses to think about.
is it possible that fandom's obsession with sports slash means that no one's actually taking the idea of gay athletes seriously? does the act of interpreting every intense friendship (or just ones with a physical basis) as sex-based, even when it's not supposed to be "serious," only add to the stigma of being a gay athlete? in other words, one reason why gay athletes are afraid to come out is because of a fear of how the fans will react. if we're going to assign sexuality to athletes based on whatever we choose, is there any reason to believe that we would be serious about an actual gay athlete? would we, god forbid, utter "i knew it," as our first response to a major athlete coming out, and then return to writing them into the bedroom of their most supportive teammate? does a majority of the fandom really care about the state of out gays in sports or is it just into the porn? (and while we're at it, is the heavy bias of male slash pairings over female slash pairings sexist?)
disclaimer: i'm not attacking anyone. i've just been thinking about this for a long time and i'd like to discuss it with other people or at least read the responses from others. and i may be taking this far more seriously than anyone else wants to but i care about it. so tell people and hopefully when i get online again in approx. 24 hours there will be responses to think about.