SOCY2280-Group Media Project

1. SOCY2280-Group Media Project • Ben Bershad – 42441005 • Michael Johnson- 41776689 • Rick George – 40956309 • Ben Allen-Ankins – 42066323 • Michael Sullivan - 42410047

2. Sexual Deviancy • Deviance is an action, trait or idea that falls outside a range of acceptance as determined by people with the power to enforce norms in a social world. • What does it mean to be sexually deviant?

3. Social Construct • Deviance, including sexual deviance, is a social construct. • As a social construct, the media is directly responsible for influencing and redefining the meaning of sexual deviance.

4. Male Sports Stars and “Legitimate Deviance” • Media treats male athletes as “victims” of female groupies • Women are blamed for causing men’s problems Boys will be Boys

5. Sports Stars on Deviance • “Just as with marital rape, there has been a traditionally high tolerance of sexually exploitative practices, such as locker room sex talk (Curry, 1991 and 1998) and demeaning treatment of women sports journalists (Kane and Disch, 1993), women fans and ‘groupies’ (Robinson, 1998).” • “When one man fucks many women he is a playboy and gains status; when a woman is fucked by many men she degrades herself and loses stature. (Baker, 1981, p. 179)” • “We don't even have to try. We come into town, and the women come out in force. They know who we are, how much money we make. They throw themselves at us. They call the hotel, they follow the bus, they meet us at the airports. The women hover and wait to try to get you.” -Kevin Johnson, Phoenix Suns guard

6. Media and Semantic Discourse • Valorize heterosexual men • Denigrate women • Male athletes are too big of celebrities to be overlooked for the promiscuity • Ex. Magic Johnson announces HIV+ status – media casts him as “Poor old Magic”, “Tragic Magic” despite claiming to have sex with over 2,500 women in his career even while getting married in 1991

7. Media and Semantic Discourse, contd. • Reinforces the belief that is okay for athletes to be promiscuous • First time media criticized athlete promiscuity during the outbreak of AIDS, but even then they choose to focus on the women who “prey” on the rich, successful athlete • Women causing men’s problems

8. Changing Media Values • Past history of male journalists in sport • Lack of criticisms for male athletes regarding their sexual deviance (Wilt Chamberlain ex.) • Today, media is more open then ever to criticize athletes over their sexual deviance • Why?

9. Matthew Johns • Involved in gang rape of female with a group of teammates in New Zealand

10. Culture in Rugby League • There is clearly a culture within league that provides cover for this type of conduct, and possibly encourages it.

11. Why do sports stars like group sex? • Professional footballers inhabit a world saturated with sex, booze, opportunity and risk. And old-timers of sport say there's a long-standing link between elite sport and group sex.The ``gang bang'', they say, has long been a quiet part of sport culture, as routine as liniment and communal showers, tacitly endorsed by coaches and managers, stoically ignored by wives, journalists and fans.

12. Masculinity and Rugby League • As outrage about continuing rugby league sex scandals grows, it is not just the behaviour of a few predatory players being condemned, but the hyper-masculinity such contact sports represent. • ``The gang-bang experience has little to do with sex,'' Arndt says. ``Men don't do it seeking a peak sexual experience, they do it to be one of the boys. They do it for each other. It's a tribal dance which has far more to do with showing off to each other about being a real man, an aggressive he-man, than enjoying sexual pleasure with a woman.''

13. Tiger Woods • Larger than life, how he got there: • Family Surroundings • As a child told he was, “the chosen one” • Media Attention • He can do no wrong • Public reverence • Record Endorsement deals • First athlete ever to reach the 1 billion dollar mark in earnings

14. Creation of A Demigod "Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity,” Earl Woods

15. Destruction of a Global Icon “After Woods played the worst tournament of his career last weekend, I began to wonder: has any great athlete, at the top of any sport, ever had his or her game blown to smithereens so fast — not just from age, not just from injury, but pretty obviously from some deeper miasma of psyche and soma.”

16. Tiger In the News • Speculation about Tiger supposedly checking in to rehab for his sex addiction - “…hmmm seems to me he was just a spoiled “little boy” who did not respect his marriage vows and just wanted to have a lot of fun and now that he got caught he is trying to find a way to fix his image.” Source: http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2010/01/20/media-sets-up-shop-outside-tiger-woods-treatment-center/ • The media has played a part in Tiger’s life since he was a child - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLL541C9wBs

17. “Top 10 Ways Tiger Can Improve His Image • David Letterman Show on Dec. 7, 2009 • Talk show host, who is himself a swinger, jokes about Tiger Woods infidelity • #9 – Change name from Tiger to more adorable “puppy”

18. “Tiger Woods, the real-life protagonist, may be the star, but he neither owns nor controls the story. By virtue of the dynamics of news production and popular appetites for news consumption, his personal biography is now intertwined with the public spectacle of his rise to fame”