Pat Forde's Gender Trouble

On February 19, regular espn.com columnist Pat Forde, who focuses on college football in the fall and men’s college basketball during the winter, voiced concern about the prospect of viewing the Memphis men's basketball team as "America's team." His concerns were based on a number of incidents involving members of the team and their coach, John Calipari. Among these incidents, Forde noted violence toward women on the part of Memphis player Robert Dozier. Yet, a week later, in his February 26 column, Forde himself said that “Siena [men's basketball coach] Fran McCaffery apparently needs to fit his wife, Margaret (37), with a muzzle." While it is important to address incidents of violence by men toward women like the incident involving Robert Dozier, it also important to look at the ways in which men, women, and their interactions are discussed and represented. Forde’s statement about Margaret McCaffery suggests that violence toward women is acceptable and, thus, helps to perpetuate the problem and reinforce a culture in which such violence is seen as acceptable.

This is further reinforced by the ways in which Forde routinely talks about women in his column. Every “Forde Yard Dash” column during college football season contains reference to a woman who meets many of society’s norms for attractiveness. Each woman is mentioned as that week’s “Dashette.” (For an example, see toward the end of the webpage here.) During men’s basketball season, each “Minutes” column also features a reference to and a picture of a woman who meets many of society’s norms for attractiveness, with Kentucky men’s basketball fan Ashley Judd making numerous appearances, including by picture and/or written reference in his February 19 and February 26 columns. In the February 19 column (the same column in which he mentions the incident involving Robert Dozier), Forde refers to Judd as “First Minutes girl,” repeating the cultural pattern of referring to women as “girls” and, thus, infantilizing women—a pattern in which Forde regularly engages. (A notable example occurs in the January 22 column, where Forde uses the term to refer to a woman who cried when the North Carolina men’s basketball team lost to Maryland. Here he refers to the woman as “Carolina Girl” and uses part of the column to remark derogatorily on expressions of sadness at a men’s basketball game in January, linking this, in part, to female identity.) In his February 19 column, Forde adds that Pamela Anderson was recently spotted attending a Pepperdine men’s basketball game and, as a student of mine astutely pointed out in my Gender and Communication course today, Forde reinforces stereotypes of women and women’s roles by framing his discussion of Judd and Anderson in this column with the statement “College basketball bleachers got a whole lot prettier last week, when a pair of hotties showed up to cheer for their favorite teams.”

Forde seems like a rather liberal or liberal-leaning guy, based on a number of issues that he has raised and some more explicit political statements that have appeared in his columns (for an example, see this column, which also contains yet another of those Ashley Judd references). This would seem to align him with issues of women’s rights (though, not necessarily, I suppose). Yet, Forde continually uses language that marginalizes women and, in the process, engages in practices that continue to feed a culture that teaches men that treating women as lesser human beings is acceptable. I believe that the proliferation of these kinds of cultural norms is a very significant factor in the continuing prominence of gender discrimination and gendered violence. Until we look much more fully at such cultural norms and the everyday practices that teach and reinforce them, it’s hard to expect greater degrees of improvement. While Forde’s February 19 column, in small part, comments on the mistreatment of women, he (and this goes for all of us in American culture in general) needs to be much fuller in examining the ways in which he contributes to that mistreatment himself.

My Wish for Greg Maddux (assuming he wants it)

One of the things that I would really like to see happen is Greg Maddux win 400 games. I started considering the possibility last year when I put together the fact that he's closing in on 350 and that he has won at least 13 games every year since 1988. Sitting at 347 wins at the end of the 2007 season means that 4 seasons of 13 wins apiece puts him right at 399. So, if he can keep up the 13-win-a-season streak for 4 more years and just get to 14 wins in one of those seasons, he's got 400. Maddux will turn 42 during the first month of the season in 2008, so that means he would be 46 in the final season of that. There certainly have been plenty of pitchers who have pitched on the major-league level into their mid-40s. So, it does seem like it would be possible. I'm not sure how likely it is and I'm sure the likes of Bill James and Rob Neyer could illustrate to us the high improbability of it, but it certainly does seem possible. In a time when numerous accounts have wondered about how many more 300 game winners there would be, it would be really cool to have someone get to 400. In doing so, Maddux would be third on the all-time wins list, trailing only Cy Young's 511 and Walter Johnson's 417. Given that those ballplayers, as well as the likes of Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Pud Galvin, whom Maddux would be passing to get to 400, pitched a lot more often than Maddux, that would really seem to suggest something extraordinary about Maddux's longevity and excellence. Even if he wins just 27 more games (say, 14 in 2008 and 13 in 2009), that would put him at 374 and, just like 400, into third place all-time. That seems even more possible and would be nearly as incredible. In looking around this past week, I noticed that others have pondered this topic as well. Among others, this account and this account give more extended discussion of the topic.

I think that one of the things that draws me (and I assume others) to sports is seeing people pursuing and sometimes achieving these kinds of extraordinary things. Assuming that Maddux continues to pitch well enough for teams to be interested in signing him, I hope he doesn't retire before giving this a shot. So, if you're with me, let's do whatever we can to encourage him to pursue it and let him know that people would like to see it. As this account reflects, Maddux is aware of the possibility.

YouTubing the Blue Nile

I love the band The Blue Nile. Paul Buchanan's voice is both hopeful and forlorn at the same time ... a sort of constant state of bittersweet. The music behind Buchanan conveys a near-perfect kind of mellow and comfort (though Peace at Last seems to underachieve in this regard). Some folks have done some wonderful things with the music of The Blue Nile on YouTube. Here are some highlights:

1. This video illustrates the similarity of emotion that is expressed in The Blue Nile's song "Saturday Night" and the art of Edward Hopper, who is best known for his painting Nighthawks.

2. This video, by the same person as No. 1, connects The Blue Nile's "The Downtown Lights" to the film Blade Runner.

3. This video is my favorite use of The Blue Nile. I watched some Doctor Who as a kid, though I wouldn't classify myself as a fan. When the new Doctor Who series, with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, came out a couple years ago, I became much more of a fan. This video sets clips of Eccleston's season as the Doctor to The Blue Nile's 2004 recording "High."

4. And, finally, this one is a recording of a performance rather than an independent creation, but I really love this rendition of "Here Comes the Rain Again" by Annie Lennox and Paul Buchanan.

Fragments of Theodore Sturgeon

I saw the film The Jane Austen Book Club the other day. One of the characters in the film is a science fiction fan and, when discussing significant sci-fi authors, he mentions Theodore Sturgeon. I'm not sure if this is also the case in the novel upon which the film is based (though I intend to check that out). I also noticed, while watching several seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine over the past couple of months, that Sturgeon is mentioned as one of the great sci-fi writers of all-time during a scene in the episode titled "Far Beyond the Stars," which was the 13th episode during Season 6 of the show. (Of course, it makes some sense that a Star Trek franchise might make such a reference to Sturgeon, given that he co-wrote two episodes of the oroiginal series: "Amok Time" and "Shore Leave.") I'm interested in finding other references to Sturgeon in films, television shows, novels, or other texts. I consider Sturgeon to be the best writer I've read and, given that, I'd like to see how he is referenced in passing in other works. Does anyone know of other examples of these kinds of references to Sturgeon?

As a side note, I was happy to see that when the sci-fi character in the Jane Austen Book Club gives one of the other club members two books by Ursula K. Le Guin, the two are The Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven. "Left" is probably Le Guin's most celebrated book, but I probably love "Lathe" the most among the many Le Guin things that I have read. Le Guin would be up there on my list of great writers as well.

Top 5 Albums ... er CDs

I remember about a decade ago seeing a question circulating around the Internet that asked "If you were stranded on an island with a CD player and only 3 CDs, which 3 CDs would you choose?" I could never answer this question with just 3 CDS, but I can narrow things down to 5:

U2, The Joshua Tree
U2, Rattle and Hum
The Blue Nile, Hats
Tears For Fears, The Seeds of Love
Dave Matthews Band, Crash

I list these, though, with the knowledge that neither my favorite song ("Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake) nor what I consider to be the best song ever written ("In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel) would be available to me. I suppose I hope in that case that my memory never goes.

A beginning is a delicate time ...

Know then that it is the year 2008 and I am beginning this blog. I'm not sure where it will go and where it will take me. I imagine I will use it for musings and opinions on popular culture, sports, and other things of interest, along with links to other things I find interesting. More to come ...