Thursday, February 08, 2007

Switch Hitting

Casual social euphemisms for sexual orientation often involve sports metaphors. More than once I can recall a straight woman asking me about a cute guy we've just spotted, "Is he on my team or yours?"

So here's an interesting poll from CNN this morning: "If a player with your favorite team came out as gay, how would you react?"

The options to respond are:

a) Support the player; or,

b) Change teams.

Presently, with more than 48,000 votes, 22% would change teams.

10 comments:

Law Fairy said...

See, a much better question is whom you would change teams for.

Random examples (using actresses because I don't follow sports much):

Angelina Jolie? You betcha.

Kirsten Dunst? Eh. Cute, but not my type.

I love how the poll won't possibly tell them anything useful.

Anonymous said...

You gotta love the pollster who snuck that one in under the corporate noses ;).

Gino said...

it all depends on wether he was a tight end or wide reciever.

Huomiseksi said...

I hate it when straight people's sports metaphors shape the dialectic. Like many gay people, I don't care for sports and I don't like to describe the world with sports terms.

It would be more fun if, for instance, opera fans framed the discussion with our patois. Instead of asking, "What team is he on," we might all be asking something like, "Is he seria or buffo?

Law Fairy said...

huom, it's not just the gay metaphors, it's the straight ones too. I certainly don't consider my breasts to be a "base." :P

Andy said...

All your base are belong to us!

I'm actually rather partial to sports metaphors.

Anonymous said...

All your base are belong to us!

OMG, how old is that now??

Law Fairy said...

For great justice.

Gino said...

i tend toward hunting metaphors, and also appreciate tagging one with a nice rack.

Neel Mehta said...

Occasional lurker, first time poster, mutual friend of Quinn:

Presently, with more than 48,000 votes, 22% would change teams.

Wow! 22%? Who knew some wily CNN insider would so thoroughly obliterate Kinsey's research?

My tangential take on that subject here.