http://urmilladeshpande.com/2009/11/first-and-goal/ Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:39:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://urmilladeshpande.com/2009/11/first-and-goal/comment-page-1/#comment-84 umi Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:09:33 +0000 http://urmilladeshpande.com/?p=149#comment-84 This essay is offensive to me on many many levels. Forget the remarks about the other audience members’ awareness of melting polar caps and the existence of Virginia Woolf, as if those are some sort of markers of intelligence or academic achievement. Forget the comment about playing chess with 300 pound guys called Bubba (where do Wes Welker or Randy Moss fit in this? And who is the queen?) Forget the really silly comparison of a quarterback to a Greek statue, or even the side order of metaphors – that is no metaphor, those men are literally, physically fighting for inches or turf. What bothered me was that all these seemed apologies for being a football fan – most of all the fact that she was a fan before she was a feminist, as if those two things have to be mutually exclusive, and required the apology of becoming a fan at a tender age when she had not yet encountered feminist ideology. I was a feminist before – long before I was a fan. I became a fan in my late – very late thirties. And if that makes my feminism, or my literacy or green-ness questionable , so be it. I love American football for its intricacy, strategy and physicality, for its sheer American-ness, and for the intelligence and the enormous emotional investment it demands of me. Unrelated to chess, Greek statues, or Virginia Woolfe. Many of the other people watching and cheering, I would like to remind this writer, understand this complex game, and are quite as likely to be college professors and free range farmers and biotechnologists and graduate students as not (who cares!), and, who probably won’t be as apologetic about their love for the game as this writer is. This piece says more about her prejudices than about the game or other lovers of the game, really. Go Patriots!! This essay is offensive to me on many many levels.
Forget the remarks about the other audience members’ awareness of melting polar caps and the existence of Virginia Woolf, as if those are some sort of markers of intelligence or academic achievement. Forget the comment about playing chess with 300 pound guys called Bubba (where do Wes Welker or Randy Moss fit in this? And who is the queen?) Forget the really silly comparison of a quarterback to a Greek statue, or even the side order of metaphors – that is no metaphor, those men are literally, physically fighting for inches or turf. What bothered me was that all these seemed apologies for being a football fan – most of all the fact that she was a fan before she was a feminist, as if those two things have to be mutually exclusive, and required the apology of becoming a fan at a tender age when she had not yet encountered feminist ideology. I was a feminist before – long before I was a fan. I became a fan in my late – very late thirties. And if that makes my feminism, or my literacy or green-ness questionable , so be it. I love American football for its intricacy, strategy and physicality, for its sheer American-ness, and for the intelligence and the enormous emotional investment it demands of me. Unrelated to chess, Greek statues, or Virginia Woolfe. Many of the other people watching and cheering, I would like to remind this writer, understand this complex game, and are quite as likely to be college professors and free range farmers and biotechnologists and graduate students as not (who cares!), and, who probably won’t be as apologetic about their love for the game as this writer is. This piece says more about her prejudices than about the game or other lovers of the game, really.
Go Patriots!!

]]> http://urmilladeshpande.com/2009/11/first-and-goal/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Will Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:35:56 +0000 http://urmilladeshpande.com/?p=149#comment-58 A Feminist Love For Football, Diane Roberts,NPR, 11 Oct 2009: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113712681 A Feminist Love For Football, Diane Roberts,NPR, 11 Oct 2009: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113712681

]]> http://urmilladeshpande.com/2009/11/first-and-goal/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Joseph Hellweg Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:35:17 +0000 http://urmilladeshpande.com/?p=149#comment-56 "A reason to live in the present with a sense of the future." You've been reading Eliot again, haven't you. Or quoting him. Or throwing him back into the silent seas with the other pairs of ragged claws scuttling the depths. Oh, Umi. This i what life is about, isn't it? Not the genes in our jeans but the rules in our minds, the possibilities in our memories, and our feet's potential to turn on a dime. We know that's the really important stuff, so we applaud it when other people treat it as important, too. And we burn when they foul it up. No one watches a pickpocket like a thief. “A reason to live in the present with a sense of the future.” You’ve been reading Eliot again, haven’t you. Or quoting him. Or throwing him back into the silent seas with the other pairs of ragged claws scuttling the depths. Oh, Umi. This i what life is about, isn’t it? Not the genes in our jeans but the rules in our minds, the possibilities in our memories, and our feet’s potential to turn on a dime. We know that’s the really important stuff, so we applaud it when other people treat it as important, too. And we burn when they foul it up. No one watches a pickpocket like a thief.

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