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laliandraToday I went to a football match with my boyfriend. I've done this quite a few times and always have a great time. I love football, I love live sport, I love people being FANS and PASSIONATE. I even love the stupid songs.
It is in no way a perfect experience. Although things are much improved in English football there is stuff you have to be prepared for, lots of swearing and people calling the referee a wanker and so on. Some violent language in the songs. That kind of thing. I've never seen a fight.
But, today. Oh, today.
The horribleness starts with a player called Marlon King. He was tried and convicted for rape. Recently he tried to get his conviction overturned. The judge said that the evidence against him was "damning". Coventry City still signed him. Which. I don't even know where to start with that. My boyfriend has supported Coventry all his life, pretty much, and was telling me about how the new chairman was talking about making it a family club and so on. Which. God. It's so fucking hypocritical I can't even comprehend it.
Anyway, so today, every time King got the ball all of the opposition supporters booed. Which frankly I support. But then they started singing (to the tune of Kumbyyah) "She said no, Marlon, she said no" etcetc. Which. Ugh. That's trivialising a horrific crime, right there.
And then, because all that wasn't bad enough, and I'm sure there are people who can see where this is going but I did not, a group of Coventry supporters started singing "she said yes" back.
Really.
That really happened.
And I was sitting there shaking and, I didn't know what to do, I still don't. I don't know who to start with. WHo to yell at. Because maybe some of those people were doing ironically but that's terrible. That's disgusting. That's taking something that should never be trivialised and turning it into a joke. That's perpetuating the kind of thought process that makes juries not convict rapists because maybe the girl was drunk, maybe she went home with him, maybe she was wearing a short skirt. Maybe she wanted it.
Because I would money on some people not being so ironic. That they believe that consciously, not just in a subconscious conditioned way. That it doesn't matter that he raped some girl. Because he's a footballer, their best player, and so some girl is immaterial. Because women say no, but really they mean yes.
I would put money on it.
Or maybe I want to yell at whatever person thought that Marlon King was a good deal because he's a talented player going cheap because no club with any kind of morals would hire him. That the possibility of winning a GAME was more important than a horrific and violent and most likely life destroying crime.
That's genuinely disgusting. And I hope someone breaks both of his fucking legs, frankly, because he should never get a single clap or cheer. No kid should ever have a poster of him on their bedroom wall. He's not sorry, guys, he's still trying to get away with it. And I don't know what to do with all this rage I have. This is the atmosphere in football that means that footballers think it's okay to cheat on their pregnant wives. To beat people up. This is the climate in the sport that means that there are currently no openly gay footballers. Not a single one. And it make me SO ANGRY and UPSET. And I'm really sorry for unloading this on you guys, because I don't think there's much you can do about it either, and now you will be angry and upset too. So I'm sorry.
It's just not good enough, and I don't know what to do to make it better. And I hope everyone involved learns to be ashamed of what they've done, because they should be. They really should be.
I am going to go read some soothing fic now.
It is in no way a perfect experience. Although things are much improved in English football there is stuff you have to be prepared for, lots of swearing and people calling the referee a wanker and so on. Some violent language in the songs. That kind of thing. I've never seen a fight.
But, today. Oh, today.
The horribleness starts with a player called Marlon King. He was tried and convicted for rape. Recently he tried to get his conviction overturned. The judge said that the evidence against him was "damning". Coventry City still signed him. Which. I don't even know where to start with that. My boyfriend has supported Coventry all his life, pretty much, and was telling me about how the new chairman was talking about making it a family club and so on. Which. God. It's so fucking hypocritical I can't even comprehend it.
Anyway, so today, every time King got the ball all of the opposition supporters booed. Which frankly I support. But then they started singing (to the tune of Kumbyyah) "She said no, Marlon, she said no" etcetc. Which. Ugh. That's trivialising a horrific crime, right there.
And then, because all that wasn't bad enough, and I'm sure there are people who can see where this is going but I did not, a group of Coventry supporters started singing "she said yes" back.
Really.
That really happened.
And I was sitting there shaking and, I didn't know what to do, I still don't. I don't know who to start with. WHo to yell at. Because maybe some of those people were doing ironically but that's terrible. That's disgusting. That's taking something that should never be trivialised and turning it into a joke. That's perpetuating the kind of thought process that makes juries not convict rapists because maybe the girl was drunk, maybe she went home with him, maybe she was wearing a short skirt. Maybe she wanted it.
Because I would money on some people not being so ironic. That they believe that consciously, not just in a subconscious conditioned way. That it doesn't matter that he raped some girl. Because he's a footballer, their best player, and so some girl is immaterial. Because women say no, but really they mean yes.
I would put money on it.
Or maybe I want to yell at whatever person thought that Marlon King was a good deal because he's a talented player going cheap because no club with any kind of morals would hire him. That the possibility of winning a GAME was more important than a horrific and violent and most likely life destroying crime.
That's genuinely disgusting. And I hope someone breaks both of his fucking legs, frankly, because he should never get a single clap or cheer. No kid should ever have a poster of him on their bedroom wall. He's not sorry, guys, he's still trying to get away with it. And I don't know what to do with all this rage I have. This is the atmosphere in football that means that footballers think it's okay to cheat on their pregnant wives. To beat people up. This is the climate in the sport that means that there are currently no openly gay footballers. Not a single one. And it make me SO ANGRY and UPSET. And I'm really sorry for unloading this on you guys, because I don't think there's much you can do about it either, and now you will be angry and upset too. So I'm sorry.
It's just not good enough, and I don't know what to do to make it better. And I hope everyone involved learns to be ashamed of what they've done, because they should be. They really should be.
I am going to go read some soothing fic now.
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Date: 2011-01-24 04:08 am (UTC)And yet.
Many of these boys masquerading as grown ups are delinquents, misogynists, idiots...and the footballer culture DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK. So then you have people scraping to get by blowing all their money on an overpriced jersey with the name of some total dickwad on it because he can score. Entitled, irresponsible, etc. etc. people. And it's a business, this situation.
I mean, what you are describing could happen here, too, with our own American football. Hell, it does. It does...although there is perhaps less cultural forgiving of crimes? IDK. I mean, pro basketball is just. FULL OF THIS SAME SHIT. And it makes you crazy enraged? ME TOO.
And yet.
Sports was my first fandom. I grew up taking the MUNI bus out to Hunter's Point to Candlestick Park to watch the 49ers play every other week. We had season tickets to the Giants (baseball) one summer, and I literally sat in the sunny stands, or foggy stands, and learned to keep score on a score sheet and memorized batting averages of my heroes. When I grew up, I found a Giants.com chat room where we discussed everything from the day's line-up to the pitching rotation to what colors are good luck for fans to wear to why LA can suck it. I'm an athlete, too. So it's in my blood to love this stuff.
And I don't know what to do about Rave's fics. I really don't. The jovial, hilarious, clueless, calculating, etc. ways she paints these players is..compelling and funny and romantic, alternately. But...are these men worthy of that kind and fun portrayal?? I know the Beckham's aren't. Steven Gerrard probably is. Rave inserts killer awesome women into the lives of these men, women that hold them accountable: ex wives, current wives, bosses, lobbyists, sisters, etc. (Recall the way she wrote Lily to Sirius and James in SBP.)
But irl? who is holding them accountable? No one.
Look. I even have an icon. Ugh.