Comments on: Mock Nike ad is anti-ballet, not anti-gay

By: Seán McGouran

Seán McGouran — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:17:59 +0000

It’s struck me that Martha Graham was not the founder-manager of a ‘ballet’ company.
Her company was dedicated to ‘modern dance’.
Ballet being, apparently, ‘elitist’.
I assume these subtle differences are lost – not on the arty-farty ‘creatives’ who dream these things up – but on the Neanderthal numpties they are aimed at.

By: Seán McGouran

Seán McGouran — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:53:27 +0000

There seems to be something of a consensus that ballet is ‘effeminate’.
Is it?
Is that because the ballet world has lots (and lots) of women involved at every level?
Not just as (apparently) fragile dancers, but also as dance-makers.
And founders or managers of – often very large – companies, Agnes de Mille, and Martha Graham are examples.
Even in Ireland there were Joan Denise Moriarty and Patricia Mulholland,
There are many others.
I think that a lot of abuse about the ‘sissiness’ of ballet has to do with a fear of these cohorts of strong women.
Of course there are gay men in ballet.
There are gay men in biochemistry.
For a period ‘camp’ or surface effeminacy was the norm for honestly homosexual men in the ‘Anglosphere’.
Now it isn’t.
Let’s forget the past and look to a future where even homosexual women and men (including ballet-dancers) are judged on the content of their characters and not on surface behaviour.

By: sandviç panel

sandviç panel — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:56:54 +0000

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By: Glenna

Glenna — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:15:46 +0000

What, so making fun of femininity is OK as long as it’s not anti-gay? There is no excuse for either. This is a world where boys get beat up for wearing pink, so, no, it’s not okay.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:56:03 +0000

Aside from the stereotypes, I just need to point out that my nephew is a ballet dancer (a damn good one in my humble opinion) and my brother is frantically proud of his son’s achievements, and of his son as a person. So am I. Ads like this, whether real or satirical, just keep ringing the changes on stereotypes. What we should be working towards is not just higher consciousness of anti-gay stereotypes, but higher consciousness of all kinds of stereotypes — and attempting to eliminate the same. Cyd, you might want to start with your writing.

By: heya

heya — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:56:15 +0000

offensive, it’s sad that nike would go this route. Regardless if it clearly states the hatred towards the gay community, it does produce the idea that being “effeminate” is a bad thing and instills that into the average Nike consumer. It’s wrong. Nike has a responsibility, and many people look up to Nike and the image it creates. Things may appear to be just a “joke”, but it’s these kinda jokes that cause hate crimed and hatred in general toward the gay community.

By: Goro

Goro — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:30:16 +0000

Lynn Swann was the most famous football player who took ballet; his on-field coordination was amazing and at least some of that should be attributed to his ballet training.

University of Michigan football team takes ballet.

I met a guy at the gym who was the former starting QB at University of Arizona. He told me how they (the team) took ballet and how much it helped him. Primarily, as a QB, it helped him open up his hips so that he could get into his drops easier. He also said how brutally hard it was and that you’d never see an uglier bunch of dancers than the team. BUT, they went to a Bowl game that year.

By: queerunity

queerunity — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:12:29 +0000

a student made it, its not officially nike
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com

By: chris

chris — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:38:54 +0000

You’re such a schmuck Cyd. After your bizarre “liking” of Ms. Palin, I don’t know why I even come back here (other than the nice pictures).

I know you have an issue with anything that suggests that people think gay means sissy, since you want all your straight buds to think of you as a macho guy, completely different from the stereotype. The stereotype that makes you wish you weren’t gay and hate yourself a little bit.

But come on, this ad was implying that it sucks, or your child is less of a man, if they don’t do traditional masculine things. You know what isn’t a traditional masculine thing, sucking dick or taking it. So, despite your weird insistence that people not equate gay with non-traditional, they do.

This was made by a student who has a problem with non-traditional boys. How many of your readers suffered because they weren’t big macho football players?

Oh, and sidenote, a guy who can really do ballet can probably lift more than you. and don’t forget, many NFL players take ballet classes for coordination, etc.

By: canmark

canmark — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:12:36 +0000

OK, I saw the ad in question. Lots of Photoshop work in that. The tone reminds me of those Dennis Leary commercials* that are laden with attitude. Hostile, even. This is an ad about athletics, about competition. An aggessive attitude is part of that.

* http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw25FtOgNms

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