Posts by Tom Beard
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I think of a "sport" as any competitive recreational activity, as opposed to a "game" which is primarily for fun, or just doing something for exercise. So jogging isn't a sport, but a marathon is.
The official definition presumably requires a physical component, but I wouldn't place any premium on that. Boys at my high school could get a "Chess" badge on their blazer for representing the school in tournaments, which pissed off the jocks no end, but after seeing "Bobby Fischer Against The World", I don't doubt that it should count as a sport.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Hadyn Green,
This. So much this. I now sit on my hands and keep my mouth shut around certain company who want to tell me how bad rugby is and how stupid I am for liking it.
The thing is: I'd got over that. After 1985, when the old-guard Cavaliers were shunned and the Baby Blacks came through, I found myself able to enjoy rugby without the cultural baggage that anyone who grew up after 1981 might not be able to fully appreciate on a visceral level. I think the game also changed: it seemed to become a faster, more skilful game, rather than a dour mud-soaked struggle that ended up "King Country 3, Wairarapa Bush nil". And the greater diversity of media (more than two TV channels!) and entertainment choices meant that enjoying rugby became a choice, rather than the default setting.
But in the last few years, the continued prolapse of the Super-n competition from something tight and exciting to a shapeless, painfully-distended bore has diluted my interest, and made it more and more difficult to get excited. The RWC hype has added to the oversaturation, and it hasn't helped that it's become a magnet for all the PR buffoons who think that the fact that everyone groans at their ideas means they're misunderstood geniuses rather than deluded, unfunny wankers. And now the hype is ramping up to the point where it's no longer about the people who enjoy rugby enjoying rugby: it's become a national duty again. And yes, I resent that, if nothing else then because it's made me want to dislike rugby again.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Andre Alessi,
And chess is a sport.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
By urban liberal "creatives" who work for fashionable ad shops? Sorry, not trolling for a fight but it needed to be said.
There are egotistical blowhards on both sides.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Russell Brown,
As I noted over at my place a couple of weeks ago, I can’t help but think if this tournament were for anything other than rugby, public sentiment would be very different.
Then again, I can't think of any other sport that has so starkly divided the country into urban liberals and rural racists, that has enabled people to beat the crap out of (or at least sneer "whaddarya?!" to) anyone who would rather play another sport, that has perpetuated a tiresome parochial rivalry among the otherwise vanished concept of "provinces", and that has erased the existence of non-fans by telling us that we're all part of a "stadium of four million".
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Megan Wegan,
I get that there is some inconvenience to people, but, hey, I’m inconvenienced every day by people who drive cars. I suck it up.
I'm also inconvenienced by people who drive cars, and I don't suck it up: I spend a lot of time advocating for public transport and better pedestrian/cycling infrastructure. I haven't been materially inconvenienced by the RWC preparations thus far, as Wellington hasn't undergone the major new building works that Auckland has, but the righteous arrogance of those who try to ram through every ill-conceived public space alteration, cringeworthy "festival" or shitty statue still gets my goat.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Megan Wegan,
No one is asking you to watch it, to go to games.
No, but people are asking, if not actively demanding, that we get involved and get excited. At our workplace, we're expected to wear RWC pins, and there's a "Cup up your desk" competition that, while not entirely compulsory, sets one up for withering "not a team player" glares if one doesn't plaster one's cubicle with rugby balls, flags and associated naffery.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Hadyn Green,
I’m with you right up to the end.
That would be frustrating for you.
Ahem.
I agree that attitudes are mixed and confused, but the whole abstinence thing is based on the idea that sex is a precious, limited commodity that has to be rationed. Abstaining from "indulging" in it is seen as a virtue in itself, as well as shoring up "manly energies" for the battle. All very 19th Century.
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That logo is a bit disturbing: it seems to imply that abstinence involves tucking one's bits away. Our fucking ourselves from the outside in.
On the assumption that this is not all a massive wind-up (and I'm expecting Jeremy Wells to pop into frame at any moment), there are actually some serious issues underlying all the laughably bad ideas here. I know it's all supposed to be jokey, but it's still an expression of a deep strain of sex-negativity in our culture. Sex is frivolous, a temptation, a distraction from the serious business of ... well, of watching men stick their heads between other men's thighs, but that's for another thread.
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Oh sweet mother of Beelzebub!
And is it just me, or does Fitzy look disturbingly like John Key in some of those frames?