everybody loves sport

[darren_stranger]

It's true, i hate sport (or at least dislike it strongly).

It's something i've often said, but have usually taken it to be an exaggerated way of saying that i just have no interest in it.  But, when i think about it, it's more than that.  i have no special interest in ballet, roleplaying or stamp collecting either, but i don't actually hate those things.  It doesn't piss me off if people are talking about ballet, i never find myself thinking unkind and unfair things about roleplaying enthusiasts and, while i might not understand the attraction of stamp collecting, it's still a case of 'each to their own'.  So why does sport shit me so much?  Last night i put a finger on (what i guess i partly knew) was probably behind it.

Before bed, i was watching the last half hour or so of The Panel.  In amongst their usual musings on tv, current affairs etc, they were going on and on about the Olympics.  Fair enough, it is big news at the moment.  During the show, they had some inane look at people caught on tv making pigs of themselves, and one of them pointed out: "The greatest sporting event in the world is about to start and here we are talking about a guy shoving pies in his face".  Something struck me as odd, and i worked out that it was not that a great sporting event made everything else pale into insignificance, but that it didn't seem to matter what sport it was.  i can understand someone playing a sport and enjoying it, i can even understand someone following a sport and getting passionate about their team and the intricacies of the game etc, but i just don't get this excited enthusiasm about *any* sport.  Someone being mad about football, for instance, i can understand, but it just seemed odd that people can be so passionately, sit-up-all-night obsessed with sport, any sport, and it does't matter whether it's swimming, soccer, wieght lifting or showjumping.  Still, each to their own, and nobody's asking or expecting me to appreciate what someone else sees in their own personal interests.

Except, that's the problem - they are.  It was the end of the show and, as they were wrapping up, they discussed the fact that they could do whatever they liked in next week's show because nobody will be watching anyway.  That remark, as throwaway as it may have been, summed up exactly what bugs me about sport and sport fandom in particular - not because it's everywhere, but because it's expected and assumed that everybody is into it.  Nobody will be watching The Panel next week, because the whole country will be glued to the set watching the Olympics.  Because everybody loves sport.  It's not even a question. And this extends to individual sports as well, people looking at you like an alien if you don't follow a footy team, or at least some other sport or code. ("Well, then you must be going to play cricket this year, Johnny").

Really, i guess i should have known this was what was behind it, why my feelings on sport tend toward active hostility rather than just a disinterested indifference.  It also would explain, in a narrower (subcultural) sense, why i find feelings of resentment and hostility rising at things like discussions of IT geekery, PVC clothing and industrial music, which should otherwise just have no interest for me either way.  Just one of my buttons i guess - i've always hated it when it's automatically assumed i must be into something, just because 'everybody else' is

.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/raven_/]

I'm with you.

Sport sucks.

And I WON'T be watching the Olympics.






except maybe the gymnastics, cuz I think it looks cool. But that's *it*.

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

I so totally agree with you. It is very much a bone of contention in our household. Mr Pxx, while perhaps not fanatical, is certainly entrenched in the sporting mould. I, on the other hand, do not want sport as part of my life. It seems however I do not have the ability to make that choice. It is shoved down my throat each & every day.

It is in the work place. I could not give a shit who won what game on the week-end & who is leading in the football tipping. I do not want monitors installed all over my building for the next four weeks because some members of staff have threatened to pull sickies if they cannot watch the Olympics in the work place.

It is constantly on the box. Sunday afternoon, hung over, wanting to veg on the couch in front of the box. All 5 channels are showing sport. Yes I have the option of another activity, yes I could watch a video but what happened to choice?

I lose my partner every Sat night as he _has_ to listen to the World Service which starts at 2, 3, or 4am depending on the time of year.

He has tried to explain it to me but I don't get it. I too hate it. I hate that I feel like an outcast if I don't participate in some form.

Until I was 10 years old I thought it was against the law to not barrack for a football team.

My God.

Hmmm, hit a raw nerve it seems.

Pffft

[p-cat.livejournal.com]

The reason I hate sport, at least in its current highly capitalist incarnation - is that it encourages so-called 'elite athletes' to be so entirely self-absorbed.

Sportspeople are not heroes for dedicating all their time, efforts and resources (and those of other people) to themselves. They are purely selfish.

The 'professionalisation' of sport, and the ensuing corporate motivational language, offends me profoundly.

If people are talented and enjoy their sport, that's a wonderful thing, but they need to live outside of this. It's no wonder we've spent this year hearing horrendous stories about the behaviour of sportspeople, whether that be sexual assault, drug-taking or whatever. What a warped existence, to be at the centre of your entire life. Every moment, all food consumed, all time spent, revolving around the body and its performance.

I can't believe we have a government-funded sports institute, yet the government continues to cut welfare payments, or quibbles about health funding - this list could go on forever. It's immoral.

(I have to stop ranting now, or I'll go on all day and never get any work done ... )

[missmalice.livejournal.com]

Until I was 10 years old I thought it was against the law to not barrack for a football team.

My childhood was a football-free one, until my parents got divorced and my mother got together with a very blokey Victorian Football supporter.

Usually- I was encouraged to be outside playing, except for on Grand Final day- where I was FORCED to sit in the loungeroom, eat a pie, drink ginger beer and watch the grand final on tv for the entire day. I would cry and scream and try to leave but they were very adamant that the Grand Final was important, a 'family' activity and something I HAD to enjoy taking part in.

I believe this is something I will be discussing with a shrink, should I ever choose to see one. *shudder*

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, those are things i've thought about too, and the main reason i dislike and try to avoid the Olympics in particular is that it epitomises all the capitalistic, elitist, overfunded, egotism-dressed-up-as-heroism aspects you've listed (plus patriotism, my old pet hate). But i'd perhaps rate all that as things i hate *in* sport, rather than *about* it.

People competing in their chosen game and trying to be as good at it as they can, and especially the kids in their little league games and the parents putting in time to help them (waves at mr_e_cat) i have no problem with. In fact i'm refereeing at a sporting event on Sunday myself, even though i try to pretend it's not a sport.

i guess it's the 'Cult of Sport' rather than sport itself that i don't like, and the assumption that everybody is sports-mad (or abnormal if they're not).

[mr-e-cat.livejournal.com]

So it's not sport you hate just societies expectations that you should be interested in it?

[baralier.livejournal.com]

A little quote from Vlad Taltos that seems rather appropriate to the spirit of your post.

"I have no problem with God, it's his fanclubs I hate"

Damn the olympics and the airwaves it rides in on.

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

I dread the coming olympic barrage. It's like I can hear the planes already and I'm just waiting for the bombs to land. I'm certain I won't be able to dodge it despite my best efforts - and I think that is what I hate most.
It intrudes into my life despite my efforts to the contrary. I suppose I could lock myself in the house alone for however long.

It's totally clear to me that the sports are irrelevant now. Hell, Thorpe was disqualified for a false start but enough of a stink saw him back in.
WTF happened to rules? I guess they take a back seat to the money machines masquerading as a cult of personality.

Hell, now we have corporate advertising claiming that sporting teams support THEM.

I am so very sick of seeing 10 minutes of precious news time sucked up by which violent sports player got what penalty for being wantonly violent on the field (attacks that would normally make for a very serious court case).
Sports personalities are held above our laws in societies esteem and it seems they now think they are above the law in actuality.

Hell, Steve Waugh won Australian of the year over (IIRC) a woman who invented an important burns treatment. So we hold sport "heroes" above people who work to save lives. Nuts.

I hate it because it is a cult, because it's getting worse not better, and because I refuse to join the cult.
How long before they bring (metaphorical) rope and torches to my door?

Re: Damn the olympics and the airwaves it rides in on.

[missmalice.livejournal.com]

I recall that that the young swimmer guy or some other well-known sport 'hero' won the Young Australian Of The Year award a couple of years back over people who dedicated all their time to helping the environment, organsing volunteer support groups for disabled kiddies and people making huge advances in science.

I threw the remote at the TV that day.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

We likes it.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could say that people's *assumption* that i *am* interested in it pisses me off so much i project that onto sport itself as feelings of hatred or hostility.

Plus what a lot of others have said.

And perhaps i should say 'Sport' rather than 'sport', if that makes any sense.

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

Its not just an assumption tho'. Its the attitude that if you are not interested you are some kind of freak. Its the judgement. Its the constant in-your-face aspect of sports coverage. Its the lack of sportsmanship surrounding Sport.

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

I thought the Olympics was supposed to be amateur athletes anyway. Am I nuts or did this used to be a regulation? As is mentioned later on in this thread in regards to Ian Thorpe, the inclusion in the team seems to have little to do with the sport but more about the money.

Argh...

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

i seem to recall them dropping the amateur requirement some time in the last 10-15 years, probably because the endorsements and sponsorships made that nonsensical anyway.

i hadn't really followed that Thorpe business, but as far as i gathered from the saturation news coverage, it seems to make a mockery of having trials and rules in the first place. Sort of fits with the spirit of the times though, i guess.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

All that, too.