I have tried to defend the Super Bowl with lines like, "It's not that masculine" or "It's just once a year," but no reason that I have found really excuses it. The only thing that I can say for it was that it made me feel good to be American, and to be a man.
Some masculinists out there think that means that it's harmless, but it clearly isn't. Domestic violence notoriously increases during football games, especially against women living in households routing for the losing team. Drunk driving deaths go up, especially in states where there are no blue laws. Drinking deaths also increase, as well as murder rates. Child Psychlogists have proven that children who watch football and other aggressive sports actually start to act more aggressive, especially boys. Overall, America during the Super Bowl seems like a hellscape.
But, of course, it isn't. The Super Bowl is a celebration of the traditional gender roles that have been running our society since the great shifts of the 19th Century with roots dating back to Abraham. One might conclude that if we enjoy the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl is a celebration of traditional gender roles, than traditional gender norms can't be all that bad. But notice the leap in logic from enjoying something to that thing being not all that bad. A 500lb man can enjoy the two pound, bacon covered, cheese slathered hamburger that is the difference between loosing a limb and keeping it. A pedophile enjoys lots of things that are bad.
The Super Bowl is not a good equivalent to statutory rape, but it is a good equivalent to the massive cardiac attack inducing foods that they serve in the stands. Sure, not all of us are 500lbs, but those of us who are will be the most damaged by continuing our path towards hyper genders. In an era when Disney princesses have made a powerful resurgence, and the GI Joe movie was more violent than Schindlers List (but then again, many so-called PG-13 action movies are), perhaps we look more like the 500lb men in the wheelchairs and less like the 400 lb men on the field; more like the pedophile than the 14-year-old with a crush.
We have to get on in a world that is full of the hyper-gendered, and so we have to give cultural significance to gender celebrations like the Super Bowl. There was a time when the entire country celebrated the Miss America Pageant in a similar way, but the partial liberation of women has dulled the popularity of beauty pageants except among the most gendered segments of society. The Super Bowl is our annual celebration of masculinity. Just as a marathoner is free to eat a bucket of fried chicken every once in a while, a liberated society won't need to get rid of such masculine celebrations, just put them into context.
Hopefully, occasionally, rightbedone can provide that context.
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