Sports based on primal instinct

Tuesday, December 1, 1998

ATHLETICS: Joy experienced by players, fans has origin

in territorial, sexual desires

Not so long ago, the students of our school rallied together against the USC football team. Many of us were pretty excited. In fact, I'm sure you can imagine the voice of our Joe Bruin: "Alright. Yeah, woo-hoo! UCLA kicked some major Trojan ass. Dude, we have the coolest football team ever and USC sucks and, like, they are totally lame. UCLA rules!"

I have heard similar inane babble from people's lips all week. It is this kind of verbal vomit that makes me question the sanity of our student body. Lest you sports fans think I am going to denounce you as mental inferiors and call for the banishing of sports, I will take this one line to say I have no quarrels with your joy of drinking and watching sports. So, ease your grip on your flagon o' Budweiser and relax. Trust me. I'm on your side.

I enjoy playing and watching sports. Athletics is a human activity that has a breathtaking history. Sports and sports watching is a facet of our culture that transcends petty national and racial distinction. Everyone plays sports. It is a gift from the gods, a holy ritual that reveals humanity's unity. Therefore, I say, "Nay, sports is an important human endeavor," to anyone who would dare denounce or sully this fine cultural phenomenon.

This is why I cringe when my ears are accosted by the rantings of a dullard whose beer-pickled brain will never fully understand sports. For underneath the first-glimpsed surface of sports, beyond the scores and statistics, lies a bubbling cauldron of societal implications. A proper examination and appreciation of sports is integral to a full understanding of humanity. After many conversations with my brilliant lover, I have realized the profound implications of sports.

That being the case, let us take a close look at this thing called "sports."

Although there are many talented female athletes and avid female sports fans, sports is a predominately a masculine activity in our culture. This is because sports and athletes are an extension of war and warriors. Like war, sports is based on competition and dominance. (There are not many women who get excited about battle and competition in the way that men do.) Both activities originate from the primal, evolutionary strategy of aggressively attaining resources through strength.

Hence, dominant, cocksure males waged the first battles; the survival instinct, fueled by fear and need, raged strong. Untamed and brutal, these males grunted and shed blood while competing for food, territory and sexual mates.

The victorious male established a small patriarchy which he controlled through force. Other, lesser males followed his lead, and together they foraged for resources and mates. They all worked together as a team to defend their territory and women from invaders. From the beginning, territoriality, aggressive behavior and sexuality were entangled by the intractable force of evolution into one convoluted web.

Deep-seated within men, this brutal evolutionary heritage still lives on. Nowhere is it more visible than in sports, especially in football.

The fact that football still exists as a popular activity is a testament to the strength of the forces of which I speak.

Football is an undeniably violent and brutal game. Male athletes battle each other often to the point of bloodshed to overtake the opponents' territory; winning and being superior are of the utmost importance. Athletes struggle game after game in an obsessive attempt to reassert their masculinity. The connection here is obvious. Add the scantily clad, nubile cheerleaders that goad the males to perform while blatantly flaunting their sexuality, and a pattern begins to emerge.

Likewise, nationalism and patriotism has its roots in this brutal evolutionary heritage. The "us" and "them" duality has its origins in this ancient struggle for dominance and resources - sexual and otherwise.

This struggle for resources also dictates male fears, not only that the "other" will take our lands, but that they will take our women as well. The primal anxiety that the "other" is more potent, in bed or on the battle field, is what fuels the male need for constant validation of superiority and virility. What do you think all that hand-wringing, self-conscious fear concerning penis size is all about?

Sports also reveals why men in our culture are emotionally retarded, and why men go through and sometimes never transcend a period of adolescent posturing. Due to our savage origins, battle and competition have become the situations in which men learn to relate to each other and to define their social roles. As men, we have all been told that nothing makes a man like playing sports, except for going into military service and slaughtering invading marauders.

Society and biology cooperate to compel men to distrust each other and compete for status and sexual mates. As a result, relationships based on conflict, arrogance and emotional distance (and not sensitivity and compassion) are familiar and socially acceptable to men.

Heretofore, I have only discussed the athlete and I have failed to discuss the all-important rabid sports fan. These are the students that paint their faces and chests in preparation for battle. I refer to those that deliriously chant "Beat 'SC" to the point of erotic ecstasy.

The psycho-socio-sexual implications of the sports fan are as transparent as those of the athlete. Once again, for reasons already explained, I now refer to the male sports fan.

For the sports fan, watching sports is voyeurism and the fierce action of the game is akin to pornography. To understand this, one need only observe the utter joy and the guttural gasps that are evoked by a particularly brutal football play. Indeed, the reactions of the male fan to the brutality and violence of a football game are far more ecstatic and visceral than any reaction to an X-rated movie.

For the male, the titillation gained from watching people having sex is of the same origin as the pleasure gained from watching sports. They are both linked by the male ability to take pleasure in competition and sex.

The thousands of cheering, crazed fans in a football stadium are all involved in a psychological orgy. It is an orgy in which the participants vicariously experience the intense action on the field and wherein a fan's excitement is multiplied by the arousal of thousands of compatriots.

If it were not totally illegal behavior, I am sure that plenty of men would have shown up to the USC game nude. Envision, if you will, thousands of naked, drunk, screaming men whose bodies are painted in blue and gold. UCLA scores the game-winning touchdown and these naked men stand up to reveal their testicles; one is painted blue and the other gold. They beat their chest, grope their turgid genitals and scream.

Thousands of blue and gold testicles move about - the final testaments to the connection between sex, sports and aggression.Alex Dong Ko

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