Posted on August 19, 2013
Give Allies Like Lundqvist the Benefit of the Doubt
I saw a bit of a flurry of activity around Henrik Lundqvist and his support for gay rights this weekend, but it wasn’t until this Puck Daddy post that I had the full story in hand. It seems that, essentially, someone asked Lundqvist point-blank for his opinion on the Russian anti-gay laws and how they will affect gay athletes and their allies at Sochi next February, and Lundqvist declined to make a specific statement. People got annoyed, and he came back to remind everyone where he stands by linking to his You Can Play video, as well as stating that he thinks that part of equality is the right to speak or not speak.
The PD article finds Lundqvist in the wrong for pointing to his past words and not adding anything now. I don’t entirely agree. Certainly, I’d love to hear my favorite active goalie, the backbone of my team, say that Russia’s laws are awful and he’ll support the gay athletes and fans who attend Sochi. But Lundqvist is right: He doesn’t owe anyone any statement. And his involvement with YCP should be enough to allow everyone to know where he stands.
The PD article says that he should speak out because Henrik Zetterberg and Victor Hedberg spoke out. Well, perhaps that’s one reason why Lundqvist didn’t–two Tre Kronor teammates have already said something, and a reasonable person can assume that Lundqvist would agree with them. Why add to the noise? It’s possible their statements were their first public words on supporting gay rights (let me know if I’m wrong!), and maybe Lundqvist felt that was important to leave alone.
And, gosh, maybe he doesn’t want to make himself a target in case the Russian law enforcement decides to arrest anyone making even the slightest inkling of support to the gay community. After the Olympics, Lundqvist has to come back and finish the NHL season. He and the Rangers have to start talks about his contract extension, too. I don’t blame him for not wanting to rock the boat too much.
There’s a lot of talk in the social justice scene about what makes an ally a “real” ally, and when someone is just posing to look good. I don’t think Lundqvist is just posing, and I think gay rights probably mean quite a lot to him. But he doesn’t have to speak up every time, especially when doing so sort of goes against the very law he’s being asked to comment on.
Let’s be glad there are more athletes speaking up to add to the voices that already have. Let’s not scare away people who are thinking of saying something by making it look like they’re going to be obligated to speak publically every time gay issues come up from now to eternity.
UPDATE: Today Lundqvist spoke to Larry Brooks at the Post, and gave his personal opinion. Most importantly:
“Representing Sweden, I feel it’s best to keep the focus on the competition because that’s what makes the Olympics so special for the athletes.
“But of course as a private person, I will express my support for equal rights and my opposition to laws that go against that. I think I can use my position to do some good, but the time and the place have to be right.”
Sounds totally reasonable to me.
Posted on August 8, 2013
Sportsballs: The Nerds’ Revenge?
I feel like social media, over the last few years, has brought forth this weird fusion of nerds and non-nerds into the same spaces. The internet used to keep them somewhat separate, which had its benefits. Now, we’re all on Twitter and Facebook together, and we’re starting to interact again.
There are many, though, who fit in both worlds; I’m one such person, and I very much enjoy having all manner of interests easily available to me on my Twitter feed. I can keep up with political issues and talk about Harry Potter and then flip out about whatever ridiculousness my hockey team is up to, all in one place. It’s glorious!
But there’s this one trend I’ve noticed, based around one particular word, and it honestly makes me feel sick to my stomach:
Sportsballs.
Generally, it’s a word used by non-sports fans to talk in general terms about sports in a way that indicates that they a) don’t know what they’re talking about really, and b) don’t particularly care to. Why not just say “sports”? From my vantage point, “sportsballs” is a term first used by YA author Maureen Johnson, who is extremely popular amongst a certain subset of nerds on Twitter called Nerdfighters (a moniker itself popularized by YouTube stars Hank and John Green, the latter of whom is a YA author himself and very good friends with Johnson). Johnson tends to break out this word whenever she feels like Twitter is talking a lot about sports for whatever reason.
Her use of the word has always suggested a certain attitude to me: I’m too good for sports, and so I shall talk of them dismissively. Like when she was a kid, the jocks teased or bullied her, and this is her way of getting revenge in her successful adulthood. And I know I’m not the only one who hears that word that way, because I see her fans use it in the exact same way. Some of those fans are my friends, and they know that I love my sports, but I don’t know if they realize how it’s a hurtful word to me.
I have always had a hard time feeling like I fit in anywhere. In high school I was friendly with the nerds, with the honors kids, with the music kids, with the sports kids. I floated between all those groups, but I never really fit in with any of them. I’ve always felt like Clark Kent, trying to be like one of the humans he adores—except I never get to rip off my shirt and save the world and have people adore me back. (Hi, my feelings on Superman. You weren’t meant to be here.) The internet helps me fit in better, lets me be more of my Super-self, but then people in one group that I should fit in with talk condescendingly about the other group I should fit in with, and…and suddenly I’m an outsider again. Once more, I don’t fit.
Jocks and sports fans need to realize that they are basically just as nerdy about sports as the nerds are about Harry Potter and Star Wars and whatever else the stereotype lists. And nerds need to realize that the sports fans are, really, the same as they are. I mean, honestly, fantasy sports leagues? How much nerdier can you get?! And I mean that in a great way, even though I do not have the interest or time to participate in a fantasy hockey league or whatever. But I love that other people do. I understand feeling that joy. Going to a Rangers or Yankees game is every bit as affirming to me as going to a Harry Potter convention. I am with My People, and we all understand each other.
So, ye nerds, if you wouldn’t talk down about someone who likes Lord of the Rings when you like Star Wars, then don’t talk down about someone who likes football just because you don’t. They’re the same as you, and you hated it when the football players in high school laughed at you for wearing your Ravenclaw scarf all winter. No one’s saying you have to like or understand sports, but don’t put down your fellow nerds who happen to be part of a sports fandom.
(Side note: Yes, my sports tag here is “Puckballs”. This is based on a term one of my friends use not to disparage the sport of hockey, but to try and connect with her two friends who are really into hockey while she isn’t, but she wants to support them. It was her use of the “sportsballs” term in the more negative sense I’ve described here that spurred on this post, but “puckballs” always feels far kinder to me from her. Just to clarify.)
Posted on July 30, 2013
My Crappy Hockey Fan Creation Timing
Alli is my best friend. She has been my best friend for over 5 years now, and if we haven’t given up on each other yet we probably never will. We have a lot of things in common–general nerdiness; specific Harry Potter nerdiness; the obnoxious need to write–and we also have things not in common–I’m gay, she’s straight; I’m north, she’s south; I’m hugely into sports, she’s not.
Well, she wasn’t.
In the greatest coup of my life, in the spring of 2012 I got my best friend to not only get interested in hockey, but to become a Rangers fan to boot. And considering she lives in Orlando and could have easily become a primarily Lightning fan, I think this says a lot for the both of us. I mean, I’m clearly persuasive and I make good arguments*, and she’s intelligent enough to want to get her heart crushed by the best!
*My arguments may have mostly been sharing pictures of Henrik Lundqvist. I dare you to tell me that’s not persuasive, though.
So kudos to me, right? I get to talk to my best friend about something that brings me great joy that I’ve never really gotten to talk about with my closest friends before. (A once-best friend was a Yankees fan with me and loved baseball, but we never really made it a thing between us.) We both found things in hockey that we needed in our lives. What could possibly go wrong?!
Well. Obviously it started with a lockout. (No, actually, it really started with one of our favorite players signing with Montreal as a UFA. But I digress.) So right off the bat our joy got messed with, because we had made plans for her to come up in December to go see a game (the game where said favorite would return to MSG, so maybe that wasn’t such a tangent after all!)–and while the trip was still lots of fun, there was no hockey. Thankfully we still had a season, but we saw games separately, not together. And she missed out on an All-Star Game and the shenanigans of that weekend! I love ASG weekends, I love the skills competition, and shut up if you think it’s hokey and lame.
Which brings me to the next big of joy-sucking: Even though we get a full season this year (and a second chance on a game together), we still won’t get an All-Star Game! Because of the Olympics in February, and because the NHL players can participate for their countries, that 3-week break means no weekend break in late January. And sure, getting an Olympics so soon into her hockey-loving life is pretty nice. It’s gonna be a great time, and go USA, Cally for Captain, all that.
But it’s no All-Star Game. It’s no time to chill out and truly appreciate the skilled players from around the league (unless they’re playing for your country). So I’m bummed for her, that she’ll have to wait for January 2015 before she gets to experience one. (I believe it’ll still be in #LUMBUS, though, as they were supposed to host it last year? That’ll be fun now that they’re in the East.)
I guess I’m a little sad for myself, too, because while I did watch the 2012 ASG festivities, I wasn’t really following my team very closely at that point, and I knew almost nothing about the rest of the league. It wasn’t until You Can Play started, with King Henrik’s beautiful face standing up for gay athletes (along with Brian Boyle and then-Ranger Brandon Prust), that I really started to pay attention, and as our team hit the playoffs and I started dragging Alli down with me…well, since then, it’s been all hockey, all the time.
But I wish I could go back to at least the start of the 2011-2012 season and be a huge fan from that day. Bring Alli in about six months earlier so she could have watched the Winter Classic with me, watched the ASG and laugh as Gaborik scored 3 goals on Hank in one period. I wish we had more time to appreciate Prusty as a Ranger! I’ve got the NHL Vault so I can watch all these old games, but it’s not quite the same.
Oh well. I may have crappy timing in bringing a friend into the fold, or getting into the fold myself, but all that matters is that we’re here. We made it. And we’re making the most of our time as hockey fans, learning ridiculous, adorable things about our team, enjoying a team we actually give some damn about winning the Stanley Cup over a team we quite dislike, making friends on Twitter and planning more trips to see our boys. We get a full season this year, a new coach, the Olympics, and even if we’re missing out on the All-Star Game, we’ve got plenty to excite us with six weeks to training camp.
Let’s go Rangers!