Men's Group

As another DU member once told me in a PM, the problem with exchanges in forums such as this one is that many people don't always express themselves well. Sometimes when I've submitted a lengthy post, I may look at it in a day or two and spot a single sentence or two; and I'll say to myself, "That's not exactly what I meant." When I said "the human side," I meant the dark side. I misspoke on the money angle. Making money wouldn't necessarily be the only motivation behind a media outlet. Another motivation I didn't mention would be to turn as many people as possible into sports fans. Such a motivation would preclude dealing with the dark side of school sports.

I will admit I don't seek out every sports program to watch. I've never heard of the shows you've just mentioned; so, you may have something there. I've based my impressions of the sports media on selected sports columnists in newspapers. For example, I've noticed that none of the sports columnists in The Houston Chronicle, which serves this country's fourth largest city and outlying communities, have said a word about the Steubenvile scandal, not even after the guilty verdict. The sort of bias I just alluded to certainly is not restricted to these sports columnists I just mentioned. For example, in the news media Poppy Harlow and Candy Crowley expressed sympathy for the convicted rapists.

I've had certain misgivings about the Internet. It has been a boon to pedophiles and other predators, has made porn accessible to young children, and has given birth to a new form of bullying (cyber bullying). One of my own obsessions has been mandatory boys' P.E. As I indicated in my first long post (unless I'm mistaken), when I first started working with a personal trainer at my health club, I inadvertently was made aware of how deficient the mandatory P.E. of my schooling days had been. In addition to asking other middle-aged nonathletic guys about their own P.E. experiences, I made many Google searches for the same purpose. Yes, I know people can lie on the Internet; but surely not every statement made online is a lie. To put it briefly, the picture that emerges of mandatory boys' P.E. is that historically it was centered around sports to the complete exclusion of any exercise programs, which is what the sedentary boys needed most of all. The professed claim that the purpose of mandatory P.E. was to promote physical fitness was a complete lie. I certainly never got any exercise, and I never even heard the words "exercise program." In fact, I didn't even learn what an exercise program was until after I had finished with P.E. in junior high school.

The real purpose of mandatory P.E. was to promote sports, as if that were even necessary! Sports are so immensely popular that they don't need to be forced upon anyone. I mean, there are plenty of volunteers. Sports can be promoted without making the lives of nonathletic kids miserable, as has been the case with mandatory P.E. for generations.

By means of reading online posts and messages and actually personally contacting guys by e-mail or phone, I've learned that some nonathletic guys had an even worse time than I did. Some of the bullying has been horrendous. Some of it has been physical bullying that amounts to assault. I seriously doubt anyone in the sports media has dealt with the issue of the bullying of nonathletic boys in sports-centered mandatory P.E. To be fair, I guess I should say that neither would the rest of the media.

I have felt bitter about this because some kids were hurt very badly, and for no good reason. I repeat, no exercise programs were provided for the nonathletes. They were forced to take a class that was completely useless to them. I know what works and what doesn't work for nonathletic boys because I have experienced both in my life. I never cease to be amazed at the radical difference between the mandatory P.E. experience of my youth and my current health club experience. Completely different social dynamics. I could have used the self-confidence I've gained from bodybuilding as man in his early 60s when I was a teenager, a time in my life when I had no self-confidence. But the physical education establishment, which was solely a creation of the sports crowd, cared absolutely nothing about the very real needs of nonathletic boys, whom they regarded as nonpersons or worse. I do appreciate the handful of reformers of recent years who recognized that nonathletic students were being kicked in the teeth and came up with decent programs that actually promoted physical fitness instead of bullying. I greatly admire the late Coach Phil Lawler (who created the wonderful PE4Life program and Coach Tim McCord (who just retired about two years ago). As for P.E. coaches who subscribe to the traditional approach and demand that all boys be forced to participate in team sports in mandatory P.E. (an arrangement that is always prone to bullying, including physical stuff), I have absolutely no respect for them because of their lack of compassion. Talk about imposing your personal preference upon others!

For generations horrendous bullying in P.E. classes was largely ignored, and all in the name of sports. But thanks to the Internet, the nonathletic guys have been given forums in which they can speak out instead of being ignored, as they always were before. Just do a Google search of this website on "phys ed bullying," "p.e. bullying," and "jock bullies" and see what you come up with. Some of your fellow DU members are painfully aware of what I'm talking about. No, this issue doesn't rank up with the latest issues in the news, such as whether the U.S. should intervene in Syria. But this issue was never discussed anywhere. I find it extremely difficult to believe that it was ever discussed in the sports media. In fact, Rick Reilly, for example, has been a strident defender of dodgeball, a game that clearly was designed for bullies. Another one I hadn't heard of was "smear the queer." Sounds quite progressive, doesn't it? I wonder what Scott Fujita would think of it.

If I sound bitter, so be it. But my bitterness is justified. If you don't like it, I'm sorry about that.

I could go on, but why bother? If I devoted more time to composing my posts, I'd come up with better prose. Some of it could be cleaned up so it would read better; but I don't have the time. I devote the bulk of my revising efforts to a novella I've been writing for a hobby.

In the scheme of things my opinion doesn't matter. Critics of the negative aspect of the culture of school sports (Notice I don't say "all sports.&quot are so way outnumbered that they are comparatively smaller than a flea on the back of a whale.

You and I would get along quite well in real life, I'm sure. Forums emphasize differences and don't reveal the complete person.