Sociology Of Sports
... gay men, feel the need to prove their masculinity, and sports are a great avenue to do this. Sports can help gay men prove to themselves that they are every bit as good as straight men." Once the athlete has proven their masculinity to themselves and society, some decide to come out of the closet. Our society does not accept gay athletes to represent our sports. For instance, many parents will make it unacceptable for their children to have a gay athlete as a role model and that homosexual athletes would not get as many endorsements compared to a hetrosexual athlete. Think about it if Michael Jordan was gay, would he make 40 million dollars a year in endorsements? An example of how an act of homosexuality is not accepted in sports is in the case of basketball superstar Magic Johnson. During the 1988 finals, Magic's team "The Lakers" were playing his best friends Isiah's team "The Pistons." Before tip-off both players would greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. Many people considered this affection of brotherly love as an act of homosexuality. They felt that it's not right for two male athletes to greet each other with a kiss and that they should greet each other with a handshake. The media as well as society completely blew this kiss out of proportion by stating that its not right for two men to kiss each other before a sporting event and that since they are doing this, they must be gay. This was a homophobic reaction that these two men were not being masculine because of their ways of greeting each other. A couple of years later when Magic announced his retirement due to aquiring the HIV virus, many people felt that this proved their point that he is gay without looking at the fact that there are...