Nolan Ryan had a 27 year old baseball career. I feat many cannot say they even came close to. During his career he was an 8 times All-Star, had 5,714 strikeouts, and racked up 7 no-hitters. No wonder he was the face of masculinity in sports for decades! Times have changed though. Masculinity consists of a lot more now a days than “toughness and competitiveness”, “subordination of women”, and “the marginalization of gay men.” I mean what the heck! In 2013, athletes are held more highly when they are toughness and competitiveness only relates on the field, when they have an equal relationship with their significant other, and finally when these athletes are understanding and accepting of gay men in and out of their locker room.
The word “faggot” is becoming more and more unacceptable in the athletic community, as the number of homosexual athletes coming out is rising. In the hockey community, this word has been unacceptable for a long time, and is worthy of fine or penalty. A notable case of this word being used or being excused of being used was in the 2011-’12 season when Sean Avery apparently called Wayne Simmonds a “monkey” and Simmonds came back with calling Avery a “faggot”. All outlets covered the comments pretty closely and it made national attention. Neither party was right and it’s neither here nor there. But, the understandingness of someone who is different than you is apart of the 2013’s definition of “masculinity”. Furthermore, being a player of women is now considered “beastly”. Consider Tiger Woods, he was in so-it-seemed committed relationship with his wife and two children, but when that hit the fan, boy did it hit the fan.
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