by snicks

A-Rod in "Details": Why do attractive athletes have to battle gay rumors?

New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez has had an eventful few months (what with a banned substance admission and incessant speculation about his friendship with Madonna) and now his new photoshoot in Details has exploded on the net accompanied by speculation that he must be gay.

According to the comments on sports websites, the fact that he's pictured kissing himself in a mirror must mean "A-Rod would very much enjoy a copy of Details magazine up the wazoo" and "they followed him to the abandoned shack that he goes to to have sex with strange and diseased men."

Out ESPN writer LZ Granderson has a great dissection of this attitude, and how jealousy and homophobia among sports fans lead to gay "accusations".

Admittedly, the photos are hot ... and over-the-top. But sometimes a man kissing himself in a mirror is just a man kissing himself in a mirror. Does it seem like only the attractive athletes are the ones targeted with gay rumors by the Joe six-packs? We thought of Jeff Gordon, David Beckham, and a few more ... any other examples?

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Submitted by

snicks

on Thu, 2009-03-19 07:58.

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Is it Americans?

Submitted by

Ed Kennedy (6324 points) (1177 posts)

on Thu, 2009-03-19 08:53.

Just something I've always wondered about, whether this is some weird thing we Americans do because our athletes, at least to me, all that pretty in general?

Whenever I look at some of the big overseas sports, soccer, rugby, I'm always truck by just how hot a nearly all the guys seam to be - and not just the ones in sexy calendar shoots. The, while at work, I'd be forced to watch endless football and baseball. And most footbal players are bulky all around, muscle and in the gut, which makes sense for their sport. We get hot quarterback, and maybe a couple of those receiver thingies, because their positions depend on speed, but bulk helps most of them, and they're not really six-pack abs material.

Then you get the argument I always used to have look at at baseball players. They almost all seem to be more barrel-chest than built, and quite a few of them have outright beer guts. I used to argue with people that standing around waiting to see if a ball was hit in your direction didn't build the most fit athletes. So more often than not, not classically sexy built (conclusion reached using Beckham, Gordan, etc as model).

We get a few pretty built guys from baseball and football (Brady, A-Rod), and the gay stuff starts. Do they not fit the mold of other players, and so the "other" starts there?

Enter soccer players and rugby players, with sports, by and large built on cardio exercise. And it's ripped abs and lean builds for everyone! So nobody stands out for their gym-style fitness on these teams. Sure, some get singled out for their style or party-life, like say Becks or Renaldo or Xisco, but that's as much about their famewhoring as anything.

So is my American perception right or wrong? Do the European sports stars largely get a pass because, quite frankly, they all look like what the media tells us gay men want their bodies to look like, and so nobody notices? And do the stars snicks and Granderson mention get the gay rumors because they look like, well, athletes, instead of the bulkier look I see on a lot of baseball diamonds and football fields?

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I tned to agree with this

Submitted by

sue (95 points) (21 posts)

on Thu, 2009-03-19 15:35.

I tned to agree with this analysis, different sports are high profile in the rest of the world. I am used to seeing my favourite rugby union team running around with in general great bodies, and the AFL (Australian football) players (some of whom featured in the Gods of Football calendar) by the nature of the game, are very nicely sculpture.

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