Slowly but surely some of my repressed memories of being a soccer fan in the States are coming back to me.
Almost a year ago, I wrote about the common “soccer is for fags” insults I remembered hearing in the 1980s. Then, all of a sudden last week, I remembered another insult that American jocks used to hurl my way, one that had long been stuck in the back of my brain.
We’ve seen the scene countless times. A footballer scores an amazing goal and runs to the side of the pitch in celebration, diving head first across the pitch and being jumped on by his teammates. The elation that players and fans feel is immense especially in a sport where it’s so difficult to score and goals are few and far between.
It’s not uncommon to see a footballer kiss a teammate in celebration.
To macho American men, though, this is a massive no-no. Most American men have accepted a woman kissing another woman, either as a greeting or sexually speaking, but for two guys to kiss each other as a way of celebrating a goal is severely looked down upon.
To be fair, it’s not part of American or British culture, although it is more commonly accepted in the UK especially during the highs of sporting events. In South America and continental Europe, it’s quite common for men to greet each other this way.
So when I was going through high school in the 80s and I had to defend soccer and explain why it was a real sport, the common response was that I was a fag for liking the game.
The hypocrisy about American sports though is that it’s okay for a man to smack a teammates butt but a kiss is out of the question.
It’s no longer the 1980s but some of the stereotypes about soccer still unfortunately exist.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I hear ya Gaff, you made a funny point that such a macho and borderline-homophobic culture like we have here allows for smacking a guy's ass, but the euro-kiss is out of the question…you can give baseball the credit for that I guess.
I do have to admit though – that picture atop the article is very funny to me.
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Did anyone else catch the Sony commercial during the Cowboys/Green Bay game last night?
A guy walks into an electronics store to buy an HD TV, when he is confronted by a panel of “experts”, including Peyton Manning and curiously, someone dressed as a chicken. Manning goes on to explain that most football games are filmed using Sony HD cameras, so wouldn't it make sense to watch the game on a Sony HDTV?
The guy responds with something along the lines of “When you say football, do you mean soccer as well?”. At which the panel of experts look at each other and burst out laughing.
Now I'm not exactly sure what message Sony was trying give, but it didn't make me feel like I wanted to buy anything Sony anytime soon..
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This pic spoilt my weekend.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/sep/2...
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Be real now. A smack on the ass is way different than an emotional open mouthed kiss.
And I saw the Sony commerical, not that bad really. Just a jibe at soccer, so what. Justin Timerberlake made a joke about soccer and David Beckham at the ESPYs and nobody jumped down his throat or ESPN's about it.
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If you guys keep referring to football by that gay name, I'll complain even further.
But seriously, you can't blame Peyton and JB for laughing. Who can like football when it's called that? Come on guys, defend the name of our sport.
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If you have a problem with it being called soccer and want to call it football then spell it by it’s proper spelling Futbol. with a slash on top of the u which I don’t know how to do… Soccer is a great sport. I love reading, talking, watching, and playing it. As though I’m guessing most if not all of you are guys, I am not. I’m female and soccer is my passion. Where I live soccer is a guy sport and usually the shun girls for wanting to play; Girls are a joke if they play soccer here. It’s stupid that in one place it’s a “fag” sport and in another girls are a joke, shunned, or called a dike if they play soccer.
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why does everyone have such a negative attitude twords soccer/futbol i mean at school everyone is always calling the guys that play soccer pussies and stuff like that. but i dont understand why. i mean you dont see the guys soccer team running around smacking each others asses cause thats not how they roll. Im a female playing soccer/fulbol and it makes me so mad when crap like that. and at my school girls get a ton of crap for playing a “guys” sport. its like can you ppl make up ur mind. you say that guys shouldnt play cause its a pussy sport and girls should play cause its a “guy sport. and then all the ppl thats make fun of the sport get all pissed when we talk down bout there sport. so its like you can dish it out but cant take it in. whats with that?? we all have the right to play the sport we wanna play. also when guys from the football team say well our sport has way more running then urs. its like yeah right all u guys do is stand around. most of the game is watching a bunch of guys standing aroun. in soccer/futbol we dont stand around we do so much running. so to all of u ppl who keep putting down on the soccer/fulbol ppl shut it cause we hve taken ur crap for to long. pluse ur all just pissed cause our sport is number one in the world. =]
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That’s why i hate americans..they think every thing europians do is gay. Well i think all americans do is eat and get obese and only go out of the house to eat. You retards are lucky for europe even giving you that land for your gay country.
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And peaches you are 100% right. All other sports you only take 5 – 10 steps shoot the ball and it’s in. Base ball, you only run 4 bases and swing a bat or throw a ball. Hockey you don’t even need to run. You slide. Football, is just a gay american sport. Futbol is ranked the best sport in the world because all the sports i mentioned besides Futbol are american sports. Futbol and Rugbe are the hardest sports to play.
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You all are so funny! Usually the men who are homophobic or try to hide their true sexual orientation are the worst ones. They are the biggest gay lovers behind close doors. Next thing you’re going to say is that there are no gays in America like the Iranian President! haha!
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Most British men don’t consider the ritual kissing/hugging celebration very macho either; its just the accepted trend, and many copy it without thinking. Americas ‘macho’ culture is more to do with the fact that sports like football are seen as global, whereas American football is seen as uniquely American. It’s more a question of patriotism expressed through national identity.
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Simple basics 1. There is football the British game ( and favourite of the rest of the world too) and there is American football– there is no such word as futbol( with or without strange slashes) in the English language.
2. one game is played by men in shorts shirts socks with shin pads and boots , the other is played by boys covered in so much padding and plastic that they might as well have a fence built round them when they go out to play. Now which of those sounds like a “Fag” game—- that is asked of the knuckle heads that think that Gay equates with feminine>
Many str8 men are camp many gay men are macho—- often over the top macho to compensate for the sterotype they are compared with.
Kissing has always been a part of football, because men who are confident in their masculinity can do that without caring that some half wit will think they are gay. It is guys who are not self confident that pass comment coz they feel that if they did it they would look gay they are telling more about themselves than the guys on the field .Have the balls to be a real man, show appreciation of team mates performance— the complainers are the couch potatoes that could never get a game anyway
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Americans play football too. Just because its called by a different name here doesn’t mean we all hate it. Kissing isn’t apart of our culture. It is seen as an intimate gesture that you share with people you love. Women kissing isn’t seen as normal! .
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