Monday, April 12, 2010

Who Plays the Sport Determines How It Is Played

Observations from the sidelines

This image is courtesy of Debbie Schlussel's webpage.
I mischievously googled "butch female basketball players"
and this is the first image that came up. Schlussel
titles her piece "Man or Woman?: Weird Basketball’s
Tenth Anniversary (WNBA)." Read all about it at her site,
it's pretty funny.


I was pretty good at an English sport called netball. It is like basketball, except there is no bouncing - just passing the ball. I was a good shooter, and a good dodger – and sprinter too. So, when I left England and crossed the "pond" as they say, to go to college, I thought I would try out for the basketball team. I got the idea because I became friends with a girl on the team, so I asked her what I had to do to join. She very nicely told me that the sport is rough, and that I was too short and too small. (I'm about 5.2, and at seventeen I looked maybe fifteen, with small bones and frame). I was a little insulted. But, I went to a game, and I understood exactly what she meant.

I kept my friendship with the girl for a while, then I started to see her deteriorate. I don't think she ever finished college. As I became more accustomed to things, I realized that the female basketball team was notorious for being filled with lesbians. And these lesbians were pressuring the girl to be "one of them." She was just a naive freshman.

I mentioned to someone recently how female basketball is played by a bunch of butch lesbians, and they direct the way the game is played – which is rough and ugly. And no, female sports doesn't have to be rough and ugly to be on par with male sports. Well, here are a couple of posts, one at VFR and another at AltRight (yes, at AltRight) on how sports take on different characteristics with the kinds of players involved.

I think female basketball's butch lesbians and the hubristic black golf (and everything else) players have been given too much of a free ride. People have been very patient with them. I’m glad that Americans are reclaiming their sports.