Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Still that big a deal?

The Guardian makes a big headline out of something that I thought was not meant to be such a big deal anymore:

A-League midfielder Josh Cavallo has come out as gay, making the Young Socceroo the only known current male top-flight professional footballer in the world to be out.

The 21-year-old announced the news in a lengthy and heartfelt social media post, which accompanied a personal video shared by his club Adelaide United, writing that he was “ready to speak about something personal that I’m finally comfortable to talk about in my life”.

I feel a little disappointed that it is no doubt inappropriate now to make the joke that I (as a person completely uninterested in the sport) assumed that they (soccer players) were all gay anyway.   [Sorry, but I still think that is a little bit funny when applied to the code full of the most overly dramatic acting seen on the sporting field.]  

But really, given that Ian Roberts came out as gay in [Googles the subject] 1995 (!) in the very blokey world of Rugby League, it seems a bit ridiculous that there is still that much attention being given to a guy not even born then who has grown up in the world of youth who are extremely accepting of gay relationships coming out as gay.

Or is it a case that I don't understand how unpleasantly macho the world of soccer really is?   

Don't know.

Update:  I just watched the social media video.  It's extremely slick and obviously professionally made, with dramatic looks thrown in despite it being clear he has had no problem with coming out.   It's hard to tell what younger people who are into "influencer" videos might think of it - maybe they won't mind that it's a media construct.  But I reckon some people (OK, like me) may think it's a bit too much, and would have thought more of it if it looked like something thrown together with the same message, but without the professional gloss.        

 

2 comments:

  1. Well I just snickered at your joke, and only a little bit because it was so lame.

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  2. It aint a big deal. Hasn't been for some time

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