k-punk said:
Hmmm?!? . . . . I didn't know I was arguing with you. I thought I was merely pointing out some observations from my experience.
I would point out that I did say I found it an enigma that an aesthetic that ties itself overtly to male centered big money sports is also very fastidious . . . . but men are like peacocks . . . even though most never seem to want to admit it . . .
As far as white students and sports fashion: I never meant to say that the phenomena I was talking about was exclusive. I will say though, from having lived in five major American urban environments, that there is a very different attitude, generally (not absolutely) towards the care taken in appearing well kempt . . . I've also taught at number of Unis and seen this as well . . . and in each case the White males that adopt the sports-hip-hop aesthetic tend to be slobs.
In the Urban enviroments that I lived in, among the fashionably sportif, it wasn't merely about wearing sports clothing identifiers . . . never just wearing caps and the like . . it was about having absolutely immaculate clothes that were also at the cutting edge of whatever miniscule adjustment to garment cut or pin-stipping was yet to show itself in the mainstream . . . . and these are not wealthy kids, these were not wealthy neighborhoods. Having the ability to look sharp in the latest, cleanest, least used items is a form of showing aptitude, survival skills, power, and, if their eye is keen, a certain je ne sais quoi . . .
Fashion generally is about self-presentation and identification with one group or another, at the basic level of consuming and casual wear . . . succesful use of the right clothes indicates that one is adept, knowing . . . to have mastery of a style and/or to be the originator of style is a kind of power, a kind of power over the other realm of casual consumption of fashion, or just the power to be able to feel at home among groups of supposedly like minded.
This is not real political power . . . but the appearance of power . . . and power is alluring.
Not all forms of power are domination, some are also forms of freedom-from as well . . . or also merely ways to organize the chaos of a life in difficult straights into a manageable fiction . . . and if done very well, a note-worthy looking fiction, one that will get others to try and say the same thing about themselves as well . . .
I'm not putting forth anything earth shattering . . . just kind of thinking outloud based on experience.
As far as seeing nothing positive in 'masculinity in this utterly conventional sense' . . . oh well . . . . I find it a bit sad that many men here in teh States have nothing to say to each other except what they can share about sports . . . and I find it oppressive and stifling . . . and I know that much of the aura of the fascination with sports is based around a collective oppression of femininity in symbolic and real terms: completely idiotic genderization . . .
but, i recently became, to the horror of my friends and colleagues, a sports fan (a particular team even) . . . I am fascinated by it: it is an intricate world full of byzantine trivia and absurd passions and lots of really stupid men caring about the most innane and obscure statistics . . . at the same time there is something, quite simply, great about the games . . . games with very talented athletes struggling their utmost face to face . . . its a beautiful thing . . . men or women (WMBA is very exciting to watch too) . . . . Games have all the makings of the best drama, circumscribed by time limit and a set of rules, grace under pressure, tragedy, conflict, resolution etc . . .
I lived in Pittsburgh for a number of years, when I first got there I was certain that all professional sports were mere opiats, where 'false conciousness' was the norm . . . . what a bunch of pitiful rubes . . . idiot hypermasculine men, or pathetic lonely scrawny guys vicariously feeling their manhood . .. the lot of them are completely The Problem!
What I found, when I got involved and explored the terrain, was that I was right mostly, but I also fell in love with the game . . I also saw that in depressed regions like Pittsburgh it is a real social bond . . . . sure it would be better if they were organizing and self teaching themselves the rhetoric of Deleuzian lines of escape, contemplating the panoptic hegemony of Hienz Field, or recognizing 'le petit object a' as its symbolically passed through the stretched legs of the Center as he snaps to the QB . . . I mean the Phallus . . . 'What pethetic fools sports fans are, complete idiots and all of them who care about any of this stuff are so obviously in complete ignorance of such important stuff,' i thought . . . anyway, I found that there are not only a few radically politicized left-leaning women who also find the games interesting, but also a number of thoughtful men . . . . I also found it fascinating just to watch the rites and rules unfold . . . I occasion a 'fan bar' for the particular team I like even though the team is in another state . . . its amazing to watch such pageantry and absurd solemnity . . . these people really get involved . . .
I guess in England you have extreme fans: the famed 'hooligans' . . . I could see how that would make want to smirk at their idiocy too . . . . but I bet their rituals and their ins-and outs are also interestting if you could find your way in . . . . problem is (and its true here) they can sense an egghead a mile off . . . That is if you don't know have the right look
Personally, I like crushed velvet victorian jackets, with loose linen shirts, and here and there a few paisleys . . . or, I should say, when I'm not simply wearing jeans and black t-shirt . . .
oh . . . and before I am deconstructed with clenched teeth and anger, I'm just saying stuff not writing a dissertation . . . long past that and I am not that invested in it either. . . . just thought I'd participate . . .
