Comments | hermionesviolin: Well, this is cheerful.

hermionesviolin

Well, this is cheerful.

Jul 12, 2007 11:16

OMG! New York Magazine is writing RPS! (via starfishchick on friendsfriends) I'm a Boston area native, so obviously I hate the Yankees on principle, but this is made of awesome.
Also: the linked ESPN article? SLEEPOVERS!

everyone's gay, sports: baseball

Comments 6

The Yankee Fan sounds off offbalance July 12 2007, 15:48:56 UTC

I read this, and I am just without words. Obviously, they were going for some sort of satire, but I'm not sure if it's of the players or of the media focus on their relationship (and it might be both, which is kind of great). I have a problem with gay relationships being portrayed as a punchline, but I understand this is a satire, so I'm going to leave that alone for now ( ... )

Fair points, all. hermionesviolin July 12 2007, 17:57:08 UTC

I spend so much time in fandom that I didn't read it as gay-as-punchline, though now that you mention it it does read that way a lot. I've never really been into the cult of celebrity, and the fact that the friendships of professional athletes is considered actual sports news (as opposed to celebrity gossip being news in specific entertainment "news" outlets) seems extra bizarre to me, so partly I'm just amused by it as a logical next step -- combined with the "worlds-collide" aspect of fandom + mainstream media (made extra-amusing by the fact that sports fanaticism is the obvious parallel to media fannsihness, with the former being socially acceptable and the latter less so).

I read the A-Rod interview basically as you're saying in your closing paragraph (though "sleepovers"? clearly he is not an entirely polished interviewee).

forgot to mention, your icon is crafted exclusively of win. offbalance July 12 2007, 19:17:33 UTC

I've read some baseball-verse RPS and while it wasn't my particular cup of vodka (although the CW-verse baseball-related AU slash that one of antheia's friends NEEDS to finish writing was wickedly hot), I know plenty of people who follow it religiously. In all slash, RPS and otherwise, there's a sense of love of the subjects that was absent here, and a sense of nasty mocking (the "you don't sing to me anymore" bit. What in blue hell is that?) So that set my radar off to begin with.

I've never really been into the cult of celebrity, and the fact that the friendships of professional athletes is considered actual sports news (as opposed to celebrity gossip being news in specific entertainment "news" outlets) seems extra bizarre to meYou're not the only one, and I read celebrity gossip with far more regularity that I like. It IS bizarre, and lately it's gotten even more pointless and nasty. It's like the mean-spirited brats everyone knew in school were given publications and/or microphones ( ... )

This one? It's from fox1013 out of the Isaiah Washington debacle. :) hermionesviolin July 13 2007, 20:21:59 UTC

Yeah, you're definitely right about the love of the subjects.

The whole thing felt like a Tennessee Williams play or something (the Internet tells me that the title "Joe Torre's Come and Gone" riffs on "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," which I've never heard of but which in reading about seems a problematic allusion to be making -- but likely I am overthinking this aspect). It was so ridiculous that I didn't even think about the implications of *why* it might be being portrayed in such a way. I'm inclined to read it as a satire on the media fascination with the relationship (cf. its opener of "has thrown New Yorkers into a collective inner turmoil" blah blah blah -- though in rereading that, said fascination is presented as this emotional investment which seems somewhat effeminate), but I think you're absolutely right that there's a discomfort for m/m relationships there as well.

Good LJ comment discussions are great. It makes me sad that I/my flist don't have the time/energy for them much anymore.

elucidate_this July 12 2007, 16:05:18 UTC

oh man. this is pretty awesome.

thelastgoodname July 12 2007, 23:55:40 UTC

The funniest part about that entire episode was how normal it was treated by the sports media at large. It was exactly like a breakup where all your friends vigorously try not to take sides, and the best part was that no one was surprised, either that they were sleeping together -- I mean having sleepovers -- or that they broke up.