Sick of Vick
The Michael Vick story has so much local and national attention right now. The coverage is inescapable. I have to say, I don't have a feel for sports culture at all, although I do vaguely feel it's important because so many other Americans are involved in it.
His supporters get on my nerves. "Dogfighting isn't as bad as killing humans" is their refrain. It's a point that is true, but stupid. Celebrities lose (and make) their careers for all kinds of reasons that aren't as bad as killing humans.
Let's say a video surfaced on Youtube of Michael Vick pooping on the American flag while swearing allegiance to Osama Bin Laden. I don't think that's illegal. Nevertheless, it would instantly destroy his career. Even if his PR team vigorously argued that it wasn't really him, it was his twin brother that looked just like him, he would still be judged guilty in the court of public opinion.
Some of his detractors are irritating, too. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but they seem to have unrealistic standards for sports stars. Agents and owners and fans have been throwing money at these stars for their whole adult lives. When they go to college they have teams of people doing their schoolwork for them. Their ethics are naturally going to be screwed-up. And the commenters saying "well race is not a factor in this"... another half-true-but-half-stupid statement. If he was white he would be in trouble too, perhaps not as much trouble, although I can't really analyze sports racism as I would miss all the subtleties. The stupid part of the statement is that if you're not white, race is always a factor in how you're perceived.
As far as I can tell, where you are on the Vick scale -- "skin him alive" at 0 to "he deserves a second chance" at 100 -- seems to align pretty closely with these factors:
Love dogs: -80
African-American: +20
Love the Falcons: +60
And to me that last factor is the weirdest. I can't remember where I read this, but I heard about a study that asked a pool of ardent sports fans whether they would do something to sabotage a player on the opposing team if they could get away with it. There was a detailed scenario involved. What they would do would mess up the opposing player just enough so that their home team was guaranteed to win, but they would never be caught for it or face any kind of risk. A scary percentage of them said they would do it.
Full disclosure: I'm not a vegetarian, I love my little dog very much, I hate dogfighting and I'm obviously not very respectful of sports. Oddly enough, all the men in my family are the same way. If we have a sports-loving kid I'm just going to have to grin and bear it!
Foster Care System Perspectives
3 comments:
What bothers me the most about this case is that if he had been accused of beating his wife or kids, it never would have received the same media attention.
In fact, I would even hazard a guess that it would be a rare occurence for an NFL player to see any time in prison if convicted of spousal abuse.
DD - I grew up across the street from an NBA player who used to beat the daylights out of his wife on a regular basis. When I was sixteen, she ran to our front door, fresh black eye blooming, with him chasing her. We called the police, they came and arrested him. I have no idea if charges stuck, and I think he only made the local news when he ALSO burned down his mistress's house. I think he eventually was sentenced to house arrest -- great place for a batterer, eh?
I think dogfighting is atrocious, and I think it's terrible in that dogs have a no way of defending themselves. It also continues to malign the breed. Pits are great dogs, but with any powerful dog, they fall into the most abusive homes through no fault of their own.
It's too bad that wifebeating and domestic violence in sport stars don't get the same treatment as Vick did with his fighting. I have no problems with the shithole that Vick is in- he deserves to lose his career, IMHO. OTOH, the fact that DV doesn't get attention is just another proof about how misognist our culture is. That needs to change as well.
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