Re: "Out of Control" by Bruce Feldman
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:44 am
Most of those who comment about our website are Americans. Since you live in the UK, there is a considerable time difference. This may account for the bad timing.i_like_1981 wrote:Why is it I am never able to uncover any of these most interesting nuggets of information over there? Whenever I decide to go for a snoop, I usually find the most recent thread on this site has gone from their boards. They don't last long on there. Must learn to improve my timing!
Aw, don't let it get you down. They don't know how decent and fair-minded you are. They don't seem to be aware that despite having been subjected to outright physical abuse in your P.E. classes, you overcame your prejudice against "jocks" and have learned to view them as individuals (not as members of a group), which is commendable.i_like_1981 wrote:In comparison, here are some things they've said about me:
4channers wrote:i_like_1981 is by far the biggest faggot there.
Why does that 1981 fag post a fucking essay every time he responds?
This guy's getting a newsletter from every team in the NFL.
I_LIKE_1981 = so fucking mad
i_like_1981 confirmed for huge faggot
As a middle-aged man, I address the following comments to guys of the younger generation who sincerely may not understand why we have ended up with negative feelings about sports: Please take note of i_like_1981's last paragraph. He's absolutely right. Despite his rhetorical excesses (which I do not defend), Fat Man does have a legitimate point of view, just as i_like_1981 does. (i_like_1981 is only 29 years old, but his past experiences are still similar to Fat Man's and greencom's.) Mandatory P.E. in the United States seems to be going through a period of transition now. But when I, Fat Man, and greencom were teenagers, mandatory boys' P.E. was -- in the words of Don Sabo, a sociology professor friend of mine (who, incidentally, played football in college) -- "in the dinosaur age." Both Fat Man and greencom were physically disabled, but they were required to take P.E. anyway. Disabled people had few rights when we were teenagers. Fat Man and greencom were subjected to bullying, frequently of the physical sort. We get upset about it -- not because we live in the past, but because we know that it still goes on today.i_like_1981 wrote:Same here. Well, not the sports themselves, but the sports bullies who regarded everyone with no interest in them as inferior and deserving of bullying. They went at me quite a bit - as you know. I hated sports played with bats and sticks like cricket as when the teacher was engaged in another matter I would tend to get struck by one of these implements. Oh, we had some real bastards in our high school. The PE teachers didn't help either; they refused to believe there were some young boys who were more in need of having their fitness built up in a less pressurising environment like a gym room. They threw us all out on the field like we were all the same; we all loved our games. But we didn't. Oh no, some of us did indeed have differing opinions, and for these differing opinions we were classed as the outcasts of the year. To be different is a sin, as far as they cared.Fat Man wrote:Well, I think the people over at 4chan need to be made aware that there was once a time when I did not actually HATE sports, but was merely not interested in sports.
But, it was the years of bullying in school from some of the jocks and from a couple of teachers that taught me to hate sports.
The recent gym visits of mine have been most pleasing. I like going there. It builds my confidence and I feel I gain so much more from that than from being forced to play team sports that I quite clearly have no use for. If PE teachers and components thought more along the lines of building individual fitness than competition, I would never really have found much to say against sports.
The mandatory P.E. classes were centered only around sports. There were no exercise programs for the physically unfit. Nonathletic boys had no choice, but were forced to participate in competitive team sports (even if they didn't even know how the game was played). In one of his P.E. classes in the UK, i_like_1981 (because he was scrawny and unathletic) through no fault of his own caused his team to lose a game. Afterwards, one of the players on his team walked up to him and smashed him in the face with a cricket bat, breaking his nose. The only discipline the punk received was to be suspended from school for a few days. When he returned to school, he showed absolutely no remorse, shoving i_like_1981 into a locker. This was a crime. If someone walked up to you on a public street and smashed your face with a baseball bat, I'm sure that you would see him in court. i_like_1981 was also subjected to other humiliating acts of physical violence. No wonder he became prejudiced against "jocks." Who wouldn't under those circumstances? But as I said before, he learned to judge athletic guys as individuals and deserves to be commended for that.
The problem with the sports-centered P.E. classes is that they encouraged the bullying of nonathletic boys. First of all, neither Fat Man nor greencom should have been required to take P.E. They should have been exempted because of their physical handicaps. i_like_1981 would have been receptive to an exercise program, just as I would have when I took mandatory P.E. But such programs were never offered to nonathletic kids. I never even heard of exercise programs when I was required to take P.E. Thankfully, that has begun to change (at least in the United States). i_like_1981 has just recently found a local gym and has discovered that he enjoys working out. He will gain more self-confidence as he progresses in his bodybuilding program. He is not averse to physical exercise; but the sports-centered P.E. he was forced to take not only was useless to him, but actually discouraged him from becoming physically active. Over the years I've heard many horror stories from men of my generation who had to suffer through traditional mandatory P.E., which benefited only athletic kids. (Incidentally, I favor the traditional sports-centered P.E. classes for the athletic kids as an elective.) Quite likely, if all the nonathletic boys of my generation had been able to opt out of mandatory sports-centered P.E., this website would not exist today. Hint: If you want to see a reduction of "anti-sports" sentiment, support the reform of P.E. There are great innovative programs, such as PE4Life.
Bruce Feldman didn't molest or rape anyone! He's the journalist who wrote the article on the UAB scandal! The man should be commended!
