Have Straight Athletes Using the "F" Word Diminished its Power?

After Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant called NBA referee Bennie Adams a "f*cking faggot" earlier this month, Bryant made the requisite half-apology by claiming the slur "wasn't meant the way it was perceived to be" and shouldn't be taken "as a message of hate."

Hmm, easy for the straight guy hurling the slur to say.

But now gay writer Kevin Arnold (who runs the NSFW Str8Bro,net) has considered Kobe's explanation and wonders if the frequent, indiscriminate, and arbitrary use of "the F word" by straight athletes hasn't actually diminished the word’s attachment to gays. It's an interesting notion, but in my opinion he's got it all wrong.

Arnold says that all men "know" Bryant's use of "faggot" has not so much to do with challenging the ref's sexual identity, so much as his masculinity. Arnold says the use of the word is still homophobic, but emphasizes the importance of context:

"For better or for worse, the F word is, more than anything else, a way that guys talk and relate to each other, a way that they organize and regulate masculinity between themselves… There’s a strange way that the preponderance of the F word in sports actually takes the bite out of it. Used as often as it is and in the way that it is actually diminishes, to some degree, the F word’s homophobic value and meaning. The more times you hear it, the less offensive and the less personal it starts to sound…

Understood in this way, the F word is less a homophobic slur than it is part of that endless game of one-upsmanship that guys play with each other, a type of relationship that is unique and even sacred to men. In this game all guys are invited to play, not as gay men or straight men, but just as guys and as equal participants.

That's a fine bit of puffery and intellectual contortion. First off, Arnold makes the over-reaching generalization that all "guys" and male athletes share a "hive mind" increasingly unfazed by the slur and then goes on to say that such jocks have even elevated this verbal pissing contest to the state of a "unique and even sacred" sports ritual.

Furthermore he says that "Most guys today have a genuine awareness and even sensitivity about the real issues of homophobia, and the vast majority of F word incidents today only take place between two ostensibly heterosexual men."

But he provides no concrete proof to substantiate his claims and call me naive, but I don't buy that your average high school athlete hurling the word at an opposing team has "a genuine awareness and even sensitivity about the real issues of homophobia" either.

How Arnold even knows about "most guys" and "the vast majority of F word incidents today" remains a complete mystery, but when one considers the gay Brazilian volleyball player recently taunted with "faggot" by an arena of fans, he comes off as horribly out of touch with both reality and his topic.

In sports where physical intimidation, injuries, and public domination all figure into on-field dynamics, using the slur adds an unnecessary layer of humiliation that shouldn't be fostered or condoned by anyone. Furthermore, the misogyny behind the word "faggot" also degrades women and any men falling outside of macho gender stereotypes: that the slur has been invoked during gay bashings against both straight and gay men is no coincidence.

Also, the lack of openly gay American pro athletes should demonstrate the chilling effect the word has had on closeted players, sports media, and fans. Is a gay athlete really likely to come out when "faggot" is so frequently used, no matter how much it's use isn't meant to insult his sexuality?

And accepting "faggot" as a standard sports slur also dehumanizes those who ignorantly repeat it as a put down. On the contrary, in my opinion casually overusing "faggot" contributes more to the word's hurtful power rather than lessening it. And why should we tolerate or even encourage ignorance, prejudice and a lower standard of speech and conduct as okay just because one participates in sports, demonstrates athletic ability, or has a high-achieving career?

If anything, we hold our athletes and public figures to a higher standard because of the positive and negative influence they wield over their admirers. In the past, many people used other racial, sexual and anti-Semitic slurs that no one would accept nowadays on-field anymore than off.

Even Bryant has acknowledged that though he uttered the slur in anger, "words matter" as he said in a recent Lakers-sponsored PSA. Words not only characterize the speaker, but transform the people and places within earshot. Consider the recent campaigns discouraging young people from saying "That's so gay" and "Retarded." In both video PSAs, teenagers say these things without malicious antipathy against homosexuals or the mentally handicapped, but the words hurt no less, no matter the speaker's intentions.

So no matter how many times straight guys call each other "faggot," this is one gay guy who isn't going to find anything positive about it.