The Queering of Jason Collins at the Expense of Brittney Griner
by Arthur Banton | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
In the past few weeks, two players in the high-profile sport of basketball publicly revealed their sexualities but the responses have been diametric opposites. Jason Collins, an NBA journeyman, who played on six different teams during his twelve-years in the league and perhaps in the twilight of his career, receives phone calls from President Obama and former President Bill Clinton. Conversely Brittney Griner, the number-one overall pick in 2013 WNBA draft, considered one of the best players to ever play the game, gets little of nothing.
This speaks to the perceptions in our society about gender, sport, and queerness. The undercurrent narrative also communicates to the impact these revelations may have on our acceptance of other gay athletes, which in my estimation teeters somewhere between little or nothing.
Brittney Griner, who at 6’8” concluded her stellar college career as a three-time Big 12 conference player of the year scoring 3,383 points, an NCAA record 748 block shots, a barrage of slam dunks, all while leading her team to a 135-15 win-loss record. This includes an undefeated season (40-0) during her junior year culminating in an NCAA championship. A testament to her popularity lies in the decision of ESPN for the first time to televise the WNBA draft in prime-time. The next day during an interview Griner revealed that she was a Lesbian.
Unfortunately for Griner and other female athletes participating in sports like basketball—historically deemed as not gender appropriate for women—the lack of response reinforces the double standard. A few media outlets reported her disclosure but little response on sports blogs and certainly no phone calls from former or sitting heads of state.
The perception that basketball is an uncontested terrain of masculinity isn’t the only issue. The truth lies in aesthetics and society’s beauty ideal. Griner offered words of encouragement like “just be who you are.” Unfortunately, Griner’s platform is undermined by a division of press coverage between her and the third pick in the WNBA draft, Skylar Diggins, a mainstay in the media and blogs throughout her college career at Notre Dame. In the case Diggins, she is lauded because of her ‘beauty’ and embracement of behavior perceived as feminine appropriate outside of basketball.
If Diggins were to disclose her sexuality (and assuming it’s in opposition to perceptions as her ‘beauty’ warrants) there might be more considerable press coverage and responses similar to the reactions of Collins, for the fact that our expectations of compartmentalization, as it relates to identity, went unfulfilled. Diggins, who signed with Jay-Z’s roc-nation sports agency, used her platform as the ‘beauty ideal’ to support Griner and others who have been ostracized for “being different.” Ironically, it is Diggins’ platform that may resonate louder than Griner’s.
In 2005, when Sheryl Swoopes, revealed she was gay and was “miserable” for hiding her feelings, the general response was of astonishment then betrayal. Swoopes embodied this heterosexual ideal of gender expectations balancing motherhood, wife, and professional athlete. In 1997, she missed the first six weeks of her WNBA career because she was expecting the birth of her son, Jordan. Upon her return, images circulated of her then husband, Eric Jackson tending to their baby, on the sideline while Swoopes resumed her professional career.
In 2001, Lisa Harrison a player for the Phoenix Mercury considered posing for playboy. Team management and league personnel nixed the idea stating it would be a poor example for the league. In truth, what might have been unfavorable for the league would have been deemed a positive for women in professional basketball. This would send a message that beauty standards are extended and can be challenged by professional athletes who compete in athletic endeavors that have historically faced resistance.
Last November, Chamique Holdsclaw, one of 25 greatest female players ever, revealed her sexuality by allegedly shooting at her ex-girlfriend who just happens to be a basketball player. The response to this unofficial testimony was tragic but relatively muted because the gatekeepers perhaps felt homosexuality in women’s basketball is normative.
Basketball is a staple of African American urban culture and where women fit into that space have always been marginalized. Women are supposed to cheer for the men but don’t dare compete. Sadly, historically Black colleges and universities were some of the last institutions to sponsor team sports for women. Contrary to that ideology, there are women on both sides of the aisle challenging those perceptions as a team. Jason Collins, who will become a free agent on July 1, needs a platform in the vein of an NBA contract if his revelation will alter the culture and its heterosexual expectations.
Brittney Griner, in the infancy of her professional career wants to use her enormous platform to sift through the arduous task of bringing awareness and taking an active role in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community. Playing basketball in many respects does have its benefits. The question is whether the hyper-masculine culture of professional basketball will allow Collins to do the same.
***
Arthur Banton is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Purdue University and graduate lecturer in the African American Studies and Research Center. His dissertation Running for Integration: CCNY, and the promise of interracial cooperation through Basketball, tells the story of the first racially integrated intercollegiate basketball team to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championships in the same season.
Title: The Queering of Jason Collins at the Expense of Brittney Griner by Arthur Banton
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
2:57 PM
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
2:57 PM
