Glorifying athletes fosters patriarchy

The past few years have seen numerous cases in which football players and other male athletes at the high school, college and professional levels have been charged in cases of rape and domestic violence. There are clear indications that organized sports need to reconfigure their approach to sexual assault, but the media has not really altered its methods of addressing this issue — until now.

Amy Schumer attacked the inherently problematic aspects of football culture and their relation to rape culture with a sketch for her show, Inside Amy Schumer,  called “Football Town Lights,” which aired April 20. The parody uses the familiar format of a Friday Night Lights episode to present a scathing — and hilarious — commentary on rape culture in organized sports, but something is different. The new coach, played by actor Josh Charles, brings a fresh perspective to the team’s approach, but the team members quickly protest his one big rule: “No raping.” Upon the coach’s announcement, one school administrator angrily leaves the locker room while the confused players pose a string of absurd yet incisive questions such as, “Can we rape at away games?” and “What if she’s drunk and has a slight reputation and no one’s gonna believe her?” and “What if the girl said yes, but then she changes her mind out of nowhere — like a crazy person?” As the sketch progresses, viewers realize that it’s not just the athletic department that’s hung up on rape — it’s the entire town. The skit culminates in the enraged coach giving his team an impassioned half-time pep talk.

Schumer’s sketch sheds light on the sexual aggression and sense of male entitlement present in organized sports. The largely positive reception of “Football Town Nights” represents an important milestone for the media attention to football rape culture — especially as it pertains to a school that emphasizes athletics like USC.

According to a 2013 article for RH Reality Check, Jessica Luther reported sexual assault cases at the University of Texas, the U.S. Naval Academy and Appalachian State University, which all made headlines in 2012. As if this weren’t awful enough, 2013 saw the infamous rape trial for two football players at Steubenville High School in Ohio and the beginning of the Jameis Winston investigation in Tallahassee, Florida, as well as cases at Ohio State University, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, McGill University and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2014, Luther reported two instances of mishandled sexual assault cases at the University of Missouri, and Salon said that the ongoing civil suit against Jameis Winston “hasn’t hurt his prospects as a top pick in the draft.” The list goes on, but the reactions remain largely the same.

This is why Schumer’s parody is so important. In the skit, not only do the players’ surroundings condone sexual assault, but masculinity in football promotes further perpetuates rape culture. During this climactic moment, Charles proclaims, “How do I get through to you boys that football isn’t about rape — it’s about violently dominating anyone who stands between you and what you want. You’ve got to get yourself in the mindset that you are gods, and you are entitled to this!” Salon’s Katie McDonough discusses this ironic twist, referencing this moment as the perfect example of what rape culture does. According to McDonough, “[rape culture] is insidious double messaging. It normalizes and reproduces sexual entitlement and male aggression even as it insists that rape is very, very bad.” Of course, the message, “No raping,” doesn’t mean anything unless the men in question actually understand rape because society tends to “search for monsters lurking in the night and ignore what’s in front of us” — a generation of young men who do not fully understand consent and rape prevention.

On a college campus, football rape culture is rampant. From the moment potential recruits visit a campus and female “hostesses” greet them, college football players are taught that sex is part of the exchange for their talent. The Nation writer David Zirin addresses the overlap between jock culture and rape culture, asserting that “too many young male athletes are taught to see women as the spoils of being a jock. These young men are treated like gods by the adults who are supposed to be mentoring them — like cash cows by administrators.”

This is a serious institutional problem, but it isn’t irreversible. Luther describes an alternate football culture which “would involve including a lot more women in all kinds of roles within teams, university athletic departments and league administrations,” “mandatory annual rape prevention training” and banning the use of college women as sexualized hostesses.

Efforts to prevent campus sexual assault overall are an important part of the feminist movement, but we must also raise awareness of the dangerous masculinity that organized sports tend to encourage. Football is an important part of college life, and a better understanding of how university athletics contribute to rape culture on an institutional level will allow us to hold perpetrators accountable while still preserving the fun of the sport.

Jennifer Frazin is a sophomore majoring in English and theatre. Her column, “Not That Kind of Girl,” ran Wednesdays.