[lbo-talk] the decline of men

Dennis Claxton ddclaxton at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 14 13:41:00 PDT 2011


At 01:27 PM 4/14/2011, Doug Henwood wrote:


>The second is only partly a joke. Men are afraid of the disruptive
>power of female sexuality.

Hard to tell which is stronger, this fear, or the related fear of queer sexuality.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-plaschke-kobe-bryant-20110414,0,7666495.column

By Bill Plaschke

April 13, 2011, 11:23 p.m.

Not cool, Kobe.

You casually toss around an anti-gay slur as if it were a 19-foot jumper, something you do every day, part of your vocabulary, part of you.

You issue an initial apology with no admission that you were wrong or the word was wrong, an apology that puts the onus on everyone else for taking it wrong.

This isn't flying, Kobe.

You called someone a "faggot," and you say you didn't mean to offend anyone? That may work in the insulated sports world, but not in a diverse and tolerant Los Angeles that has mostly supported you for your entire adult life.

You need to fix this, Kobe.

[...]

Here's Bryant's non-apology apology. Not meant to offend anyone? Except the referee he was yelling at? Of course he intended to offend and he chose a word accordingly:

"My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period. The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings toward the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone."



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