I agree with your post. Many of the female athletes show off on purpose. Either for lucrative endorsements or to show all the work, sacrifices, and dedication it took. Many women use their beauty to get what they want, and many men are happy to oblige. I am much more attracted to Lolo Jones than some chick that would let me do her on some lawn. There are still many decent people and athletes. It just isn’t as good of a story.
The female “jocks” at my kids’ high school went to a party and got plastered during basketball season this last year. Almost the whole girls’ basketball team. Before they were totally plastered, though, they went around ordering the guys to pull off the girls’ shirts. They assumed that any guy would be willing to risk sexual assault charges for the chance to see their T&A. None of the guys would do it though, and the girls were mad, as if everybody should be eating out of their hands just for a chance at sexual favors from them.
That’s what it means to be a female athlete at the high school level, at least in this school. The guy jocks take turns doing it with the girl jocks, and the whole bunch of them assume (rightly, unfortunately) that they can do whatever they like and the community will wink because we all want to have a good sports program. By having attractive, skilled bodies they have EARNED the right to do whatever they want - and their families, community, and school play right along with that.
The whole thing reeks of entitlement, arrogance, and a total lack of discipline and respect.
I would have liked for my kids to be in athletics. They need to strengthen both their minds and bodies. But there was no place for them within this climate. They didn’t have the ATTITUDE it takes to belong to this kind of setting. And they pretty much decided that if that’s what it means to be an athlete they don’t want any part of it. So they play computer games...
The gangsta attitude is ugly. Maybe it’s different at different levels of athletics, but I suspect maybe not. Which is why somebody like Tebow or Lin stand out so much. I think those people DO make a good story, to the “normal” people out there like you or me or our kids. Just not to the people who ridicule the ideals of those players, and there are a lot of people in this society who would rather that we all live as if we were horseflesh.
One of my friends in high school was the high school jock. He could have had athletic scholarships in basketball and football to go to lots of colleges, but had always dreamed of being a Husker. He was torn about what to do but ultimately followed his dream and walked on at UNL in football. He did well in the training camp but in the end he gave it up because he was so disillusioned by what he saw. It wasn’t the same game as it had been in our small school. It was an attitude that disgusted him.
My boss’ son has a full football scholarship at UNL. He’s a good kid and I think he will do well; very skilled, strong, and smart. Like his dad and grandpa, who are also really good guys. He won’t have the culture shock that my friend had, because he’s been surrounded by that “Olympic” attitude his whole high school career. He doesn’t expect anything else.
That’s probably helpful to him but in a way that makes me sad. The same way the stories about the Olympic orgies make me sad. Most of these athletes don’t expect it to be otherwise - don’t expect to feel anything particular about cheating on their husband or wife for the sake of a 15-minute roll in the grass. It doesn’t mean anything anyway. And that makes me sad, because it could mean so much. Faithfulness could mean so much.