Sports based on primal instinct

Tuesday, December 1, 1998

Sports based on primal instinct

ATHLETICS: Joy experienced by players, fans has origin

in territorial, sexual desires

Not so long ago, the students of our school rallied together
against the USC football team. Many of us were pretty excited. In
fact, I’m sure you can imagine the voice of our Joe Bruin:
"Alright. Yeah, woo-hoo! UCLA kicked some major Trojan ass. Dude,
we have the coolest football team ever and USC sucks and, like,
they are totally lame. UCLA rules!"

I have heard similar inane babble from people’s lips all week.
It is this kind of verbal vomit that makes me question the sanity
of our student body. Lest you sports fans think I am going to
denounce you as mental inferiors and call for the banishing of
sports, I will take this one line to say I have no quarrels with
your joy of drinking and watching sports. So, ease your grip on
your flagon o’ Budweiser and relax. Trust me. I’m on your side.

I enjoy playing and watching sports. Athletics is a human
activity that has a breathtaking history. Sports and sports
watching is a facet of our culture that transcends petty national
and racial distinction. Everyone plays sports. It is a gift from
the gods, a holy ritual that reveals humanity’s unity. Therefore, I
say, "Nay, sports is an important human endeavor," to anyone who
would dare denounce or sully this fine cultural phenomenon.

This is why I cringe when my ears are accosted by the rantings
of a dullard whose beer-pickled brain will never fully understand
sports. For underneath the first-glimpsed surface of sports, beyond
the scores and statistics, lies a bubbling cauldron of societal
implications. A proper examination and appreciation of sports is
integral to a full understanding of humanity. After many
conversations with my brilliant lover, I have realized the profound
implications of sports.

That being the case, let us take a close look at this thing
called "sports."

Although there are many talented female athletes and avid female
sports fans, sports is a predominately a masculine activity in our
culture. This is because sports and athletes are an extension of
war and warriors. Like war, sports is based on competition and
dominance. (There are not many women who get excited about battle
and competition in the way that men do.) Both activities originate
from the primal, evolutionary strategy of aggressively attaining
resources through strength.

Hence, dominant, cocksure males waged the first battles; the
survival instinct, fueled by fear and need, raged strong. Untamed
and brutal, these males grunted and shed blood while competing for
food, territory and sexual mates.

The victorious male established a small patriarchy which he
controlled through force. Other, lesser males followed his lead,
and together they foraged for resources and mates. They all worked
together as a team to defend their territory and women from
invaders. From the beginning, territoriality, aggressive behavior
and sexuality were entangled by the intractable force of evolution
into one convoluted web.

Deep-seated within men, this brutal evolutionary heritage still
lives on. Nowhere is it more visible than in sports, especially in
football.

The fact that football still exists as a popular activity is a
testament to the strength of the forces of which I speak.

Football is an undeniably violent and brutal game. Male athletes
battle each other often to the point of bloodshed to overtake the
opponents’ territory; winning and being superior are of the utmost
importance. Athletes struggle game after game in an obsessive
attempt to reassert their masculinity. The connection here is
obvious. Add the scantily clad, nubile cheerleaders that goad the
males to perform while blatantly flaunting their sexuality, and a
pattern begins to emerge.

Likewise, nationalism and patriotism has its roots in this
brutal evolutionary heritage. The "us" and "them" duality has its
origins in this ancient struggle for dominance and resources –
sexual and otherwise.

This struggle for resources also dictates male fears, not only
that the "other" will take our lands, but that they will take our
women as well. The primal anxiety that the "other" is more potent,
in bed or on the battle field, is what fuels the male need for
constant validation of superiority and virility. What do you think
all that hand-wringing, self-conscious fear concerning penis size
is all about?

Sports also reveals why men in our culture are emotionally
retarded, and why men go through and sometimes never transcend a
period of adolescent posturing. Due to our savage origins, battle
and competition have become the situations in which men learn to
relate to each other and to define their social roles. As men, we
have all been told that nothing makes a man like playing sports,
except for going into military service and slaughtering invading
marauders.

Society and biology cooperate to compel men to distrust each
other and compete for status and sexual mates. As a result,
relationships based on conflict, arrogance and emotional distance
(and not sensitivity and compassion) are familiar and socially
acceptable to men.

Heretofore, I have only discussed the athlete and I have failed
to discuss the all-important rabid sports fan. These are the
students that paint their faces and chests in preparation for
battle. I refer to those that deliriously chant "Beat ‘SC" to the
point of erotic ecstasy.

The psycho-socio-sexual implications of the sports fan are as
transparent as those of the athlete. Once again, for reasons
already explained, I now refer to the male sports fan.

For the sports fan, watching sports is voyeurism and the fierce
action of the game is akin to pornography. To understand this, one
need only observe the utter joy and the guttural gasps that are
evoked by a particularly brutal football play. Indeed, the
reactions of the male fan to the brutality and violence of a
football game are far more ecstatic and visceral than any reaction
to an X-rated movie.

For the male, the titillation gained from watching people having
sex is of the same origin as the pleasure gained from watching
sports. They are both linked by the male ability to take pleasure
in competition and sex.

The thousands of cheering, crazed fans in a football stadium are
all involved in a psychological orgy. It is an orgy in which the
participants vicariously experience the intense action on the field
and wherein a fan’s excitement is multiplied by the arousal of
thousands of compatriots.

If it were not totally illegal behavior, I am sure that plenty
of men would have shown up to the USC game nude. Envision, if you
will, thousands of naked, drunk, screaming men whose bodies are
painted in blue and gold. UCLA scores the game-winning touchdown
and these naked men stand up to reveal their testicles; one is
painted blue and the other gold. They beat their chest, grope their
turgid genitals and scream.

Thousands of blue and gold testicles move about – the final
testaments to the connection between sex, sports and
aggression.Alex Dong Ko

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