SAST Says Sportsphobia A Myth
 

To the Editor:

I’m writing on behalf of the Sexual Assault Support Team in response to two articles appearing in last week’s issue of the Review; Mike Muska’s “Sportsphobia At Oberlin: Myth or Reality?” and Blake Rehberg’s “Oberlin Battles Stereotypes of Male Athletes in Sports.”
First, while SAST does provide dorm raps and workshops to many groups on campus, including Zeke and other dorms, student organizations, Residence Coordinators and Safety and Security, we have never done a workshop specifically for football players, nor have we done any workshops that specifically address the needs or concerns of gay athletes.
SAST, as an organization, feels that homophobia is an enormous problem on this campus, not only within the arena of sports, but among professors, students, Student Health and Security. We also recognize that traditional ideas of being ‘strong’ and ‘tough’ have particular force within athletics and that these ideas affect both female athletes, who may be lesbian-baited for playing sports at all, and male athletes, whose real or perceived sexual orientation may be mocked as part of ‘normal’ interactions with teammates and opponents. 
In light of this, SAST was disturbed that the powerful harassment and oppression faced by queer communities was compared to the phenomenon of “sportsphobia” as described by Muska. Muska compared this “sportsphobia” to racism and homophobia, stating that if people of color and queer people were treated the way football players are treated, “the entire campus would be outraged.” 
SAST believes that a simple, yet effective, way of looking at and defining terms such as racism and homophobia is to combine the idea of power and the idea of prejudice. Racism is not simply racial prejudice –– it is racial prejudice combined with the power to enforce that prejudice through and within all available institutional forces: schools, courts, media, health care and government, just to name a few. Although some athletes may encounter prejudice or bias toward their personality or intelligence, the experience of “sportsphobia” is not the same, or even remotely comparable to, racism or homophobia. And unlike queer communities or communities of color, ‘attacks’ against athletes are responded to quickly on this campus; by the president of the College, the athletic director, friends of athletes and athletes themselves. Similar attacks against marginalized groups on this campus are routinely ignored, justified or defended. 
Actually, people of color and queer people on this campus continue to face numerous affronts to their identity and humanity, from the swastika drawn in the men’s bathroom on A-Level to campus-wide attacks on safe spaces such as Third World House and co-op; from having Larry Dolan as one of our trustees to the minimal representation of queer and p.o.c. voices within most departments here. To compare these experiences with the experience of an otherwise fairly privileged football player being told “football is for losers,” is at best inaccurate, and at worst a reflection of the type of power and privilege that goes unchallenged on this campus and in this world every day. 
SAST would like to offer its support to Muska in his own struggles against homophobia, in his profession especially. Even within this alliance, however, we must remain critical of ourselves and of one another.

–Jessica Carr
College first-year
Oberlin Sexual Assault 
Support Team

 

 

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