Let's Not Pretend You Don't Support the Gunners
You know you do. Everyone knows. Everyone!
Here’s a video I made for Amigo No. 1 last week. I shot ir in l’Albir, on Spain’s Costa Blanca, and then edited and did the motion graphics back here in London, where Dazzai and I used to play together in the Freudian Sluts.
I’m actually not an Arsenal supporter. I generally find European football about as much fun to watch as chess. The two sides thwart and stymie each other for 38 minutes, and then somebody scores a goal. Thirty-eight minutes of tedium and nine seconds of excitement! The two sides repair to their locker rooms after 45 minutes, and then return. In many cases, there isn’t another goal the whole second half. Thwart. Stymie. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I’ve asked Dazza many times, “How can you prefer this to NBA basketball, in which you’re likely to witness an extraordinary feat of athleticism every 45 seconds?” But it’s no use.
Watching paint dry, watching grass grow, watching water boil, watching a game of golf, and watching soccer (Football) are all in the same category.
I do not get the excitement of watching soccer, Except this. Identity politics on the pitch.
the EU, decades ago, commissioned a study to delve into the reasons for the destructive soccer riots and hooligans that Europe endures (Note there is no such thing in America)
The finding was that men (insanely) identify with a team (like Manchester), and if that team loses, there is a plummet in testosterone, and the losing team recovers that loss by rioting and violence.
I saw some of that in play back in 1956. I hung around with some bad ass Cajuns then, I was 17, we drove to Shreveport, LA, a 100 mile trip, to watch the football team between our High School and Theirs. Our school lost, and the cajuns immediately went behind the stands of the opposing high school and started a fight. Jean Dupree, broke his hand, but was accorded hero status.
Why there is no such thing as football riots in America is probably because America is heterogeneity, and not as homogeneous in culture as Europe. and thus sports does not play as big a part in the American identity as in Europe.
Sports identification is only one part, and a small one, of American identity, there is race, politics, religion, ideology, and gender.. Yes gender, probably the paramount.
This is super cool!