Jock Culture

            In Jenny Slate’s comedy special Stage Freight, she comments on jock culture, making jokes about how it often involves forms of toxic masculinity. She is hilarious in the way she explains football as a bunch of best friends who decided to all wear the same outfit and go chase after “the toy.” Also, while the jock strap provides almost full-proof protection, the NFL has yet to develop a helmet which effectively prevents their heads from injuries. Both areas of the body are important, but losing one limits the baby-making process. Losing the other can potentially put you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. Priorities. In reference to Alison’s post “Toxic Masculinity Isn’t a Meme,” I just want to explain how bad it can be.

            My freshman year of high school, I went to Bishop McNamara in Forestville, MD. I had played baseball since I was about four years old, so I tried out for the baseball team. A “tryout” implies that I walked onto the field for two or three designated dates, showed them what I had to offer, and then was told whether I was on the team or not. It was not like that at all. I worked out with the team for a large part of the summer, and all the way into the school year. In the fall we did heavy amounts of lifting and cardio, to the point where it hurt for me to sit in my chair during class. When we started to play on the field, practices lasted at least three hours depending on how the coach felt that day. This all continued without any progress report from the coaches as far as where I stood with the team.

            I began to understand that the starting lineup and the players they planned on using later, had been predetermined. It didn’t matter how much work I put in, how much more respectful I was, or how much better of a person I was than my teammates or coaches alike. The coaches would never realize my full potential as they continued to develop the players they thought were the best. These players knew this and, since they were given the special treatment, took it upon themselves to make the rest of us feel like absolute shit.

            After every game and practice, there was a lot of work to be done to the field in order to maintain it. These jobs were always left to those of us who were not starters (this was some heavy-duty work). In the meantime, the starters feigned work, waiting for us to finish. I did it anyway, though. I thought if the coaches saw how much harder a worker I was, they might notice my potential. But the coaches didn’t care, they even encouraged this. The coaches allowed the starters ruin our self-esteems, making us think we weren’t good enough to deserve to be treated fairly. I understand seniority, but this was hazing in its truest form. The reason the starters did this was to boost their own egos, keeping the rest of us down. If we were too busy worried about what was going on around us, we would not have the chance to steal one of their spots. This is just one of the examples of how that baseball team was the most poorly run program I’ve ever seen. I left the school after my freshman year and the head coach was fired for sleeping with one of the player’s mom (classy). I still consider transferring the best decision of my life. Toxic masculinity is demoralizing and can make you feel like less of a person for not being as strong or athletic as someone else. I wish sports could go back to being about having fun and wearing the same outfit as my best friends.