“Kissing Fever: Male affection in sports..where does it cross the line?”

“Kissing Fever: Male affection in sports..where does it cross the line?”
Posted by Lauren Jacobi

In class we talked a lot about and saw a film on the subject of the behaviors of men on sports teams whether it be professional, collegiate or even high school and little league, and how they interact with each other on and off the field. We also discussed how a lot of these behaviors are overtly sexual, or involve nudity and touching in ways that outside of the locker room or the playing field, would be considered incredibly inappropriate. Why are such behaviors as jumping all over each other naked, as Adam divulged to us that his teammates did to him his freshman year, or kissing each other, captains holding hands, slapping each other on the behind etc., looked at as part of the norm when it comes to male sports? And how far is too far? One great example of this was the Ozzie Guillen kiss last summer after the White Sox won the series. I remember being a quite taken back when I first saw this picture, journalist Keith Boykin calls it “The Kiss seen around the world” in his article below. Both of the included website links discuss this incident. The first one is a blog similar to ours in which people give their opinion on whether this kiss took it too far, or it is simply a normal sign of affection in a great celebratory moment. The second link is the “Kiss Seen around the World” article which also discusses other instances of affection in sports. Even the NFL, supposedly the epitome of macho manly men, has hopped on the kissing bandwagon. In the Steelers season opener Joey Porter and coach Bill Cowher shared a smooch (apparently it did not bring the same luck to their season as it did for the White Sox) and just last week we saw Bill Parcels go on a kissing spree, being called “The kissing bandit” by Jim Reinekein of Fox Sports. “He kissed Keith Davis on the sidelines. He kissed Keyshawn Johnson after the game. He appeared to have even given Terrell Owens a kiss. Suddenly, the man who was about tough love is all about expressing his emotions on the field.” What does everybody think of the apparent kissing phenomenon in sports and overall male affection in the world of sports?

http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2005/10/sox_manager_gui.html
http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2005/10/28/the_kiss_seen_a