We’re bringing over something we started over on our Jock Talk blog: Would you sleep with? Every day we’ll give you some pics of an Olympian, and a little about them, and you decide if you’d sleep with them. Up today is South African rower Shaun Rubenstein.He’s 5-foot-9, 176 lbs., 23 years old. He has a girlfriend, but it’s not about whether he’d sleep with you, but would you sleep with him?
He’s blogging from Beijing here. More pics after the jump.
My answer: 100% hell yes!
By Cyd Zeigler jr.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Maddog // Aug 11, 2008 at 12:09 am
What kind of movies does he like? Republican or Democrat? Does he subscribe to BBC America? Is he out of the closet? Call me old fashioned but I need to know a little more about a guy before I decide to sleep with him. Is he attractive? Sure.
2 Adam // Aug 11, 2008 at 12:18 am
Are you seriously kidding me? Stuff like this makes me embarrassed to be gay. How demeaning to this fine athlete who’s worked almost his entire life to get to this point and you treat him no better than a lot of straight guys looking at women.
Pitiful! Absolutely pitiful and this is the last time I’ll be coming to this site and I’ll be urging all of my friends to go to other sports sites.
I can’t believe how mad you’ve gotten me over this.
3 Braden // Aug 11, 2008 at 7:19 am
To the jerk above, this is just for fun. Having said that, I would definately sleep with him.
4 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Aug 11, 2008 at 8:58 am
Clearly this is meant to be fun. BTW, if you click on Adam’s name it brings you to his yahoo profile, and if you look at his interests … well … I don’t see “Scrabble” or “long walks on the beach” on there. Pot, this is kettle.
5 Wayne // Aug 11, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hmmm…Shaun Rubenstein? I guess that makes him an Irish Jew. Talk about best of both worlds!
Yeah, I’d probably do him in a heartbeat.
6 Hermes in DC // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:28 am
Adam, Cyd pretty much just made you his bitch. Wow!So here’s the thing about Adam’s comment though. I had a similar, though less outraged, reaction. Sort of, “gee, are we really sports fans or are we just ogling hot guys on this site, and what would that say to the world about the one-time oxymoron of ‘gay sports fan’?” And I think the difference between Adam’s pot and your kettle, Cyd, is this is a public site that attracts a lot of traffic. His yahoo profile is not. I do thikn there’s an image issue raised by what’s featured on this site.Having said that, part of ahtlete’s appeal are their physical attributes. And I think maybe the only thing different between us here and straight guys on ESPN boards is we’re open about the fact that we’d do the talent. They think it, they just don’t say it.So back to Shaun Rubenstein, I’d do him in a New York nanosecond.
7 Mike // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:53 am
Well said Hermes. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but your line, ““gee, are we really sports fans or are we just ogling hot guys on this site . . . ” sums it up perfectly. Also kudos to your take on the issue of being a public, high volume site with an image to consider.
For a while now, I’ve had the same reaction to the ogling type articles and blog entries on Outsports.
There can be a fine line, that’s often difficult to find, between admiring and ogling an athlete.
I understand the original intent of the blog entry was fun and harmless. But effect doesn’t always match intent.
8 Todd // Aug 11, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Cyd, I’m going to have to agree with Adam and Hermes here. Although Adam may have been a little over the top about it I do find this kind of piece offensive.
Do I think he’s cute? Yes.
Do I think he deserves attention because of that instead of his athletic abilities? Definitely NOT!
You say it’s meant to be fun but to me the underlying message is ‘I don’t care what this guy can do athletically, what matters most is his physical appearance.’
I know I’m probably going to get slammed like poor Adam, but ultimately, he’s right. This type of feature just morally lowers us a few pegs. Just my opinion.
9 matt // Aug 11, 2008 at 7:55 pm
this was meant to be a funny joke, and i don’t see anything wrong with it. our community is very open about sexuality, and we should embrace it, not hide it. i showed this site to my mom to see what she thought. she said, “well, outsports targets gay men, right? then i don’t see what’s wrong with it.”
i have to agree. outsports has a niche audience. deep down, are you offended or scared that other people might think the gays are too open about sex?
10 Andy // Aug 12, 2008 at 3:28 am
First of all, to answer the original query, “Yes! I would sleep w/this sports stud!”
Now, to the predominant discussion: Kudos to Matt for his insightful comments, especially “we should embrace {sexuality}” I may open a can of worms here, but I must put this out there. When we respond negatively to sexual things, we usually express some form of erotiphobia, a key component of homophobia - in our case, the internalized form. However, when we embrace all things sexual, be it within or outside of our community, we help to counter all manner of homophobia, though externally, the opposite may seem true. We are humans with a sexual facet to all of us; celebrating that component honors that part of us & God knows we need all of the honoring we can get!
Btw, I nominate Jonathan Horton & Joe Haggerty, both bronze medal winning US gymnasts, as well as 2 members of the Italian pugilistic teams - Roberto Meloni (Judo) & Andrea Minguzzi (Wrestling). & I’d answer “Yes! for all 4!!!”
11 Mike // Aug 12, 2008 at 11:31 am
Responding to Matt and Andy; I understand your point. But the objection I and others had was more about ogling versus admiring. I really don’t see it as ‘erotiphobia’ (btw - I learned a new work today - lol) For example, would you really support someone writing the following on Outsports, “He’s f-in hot. I’d like to bend him over and F the S out of him!!”. Now I know the original post was not in that extreme category. But it was too close to ogling for my taste.
12 Andy // Aug 12, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Mike, I think we’re talking about here is “lust”, which is defined as “intense sexual desire”. There’s that word again - sex. This time, in terms of desire, something totally HUMAN! We need to stop cutting off our noses to spite our faces; Gay, Straight or Bi, we all have sexual desires & THEY ARE OKAY!!! And, contrary to residual Puritanical values, it is also okay to express those desires to others!! Remember, Victorian principles support erotiphobia which in turn support homophobia which results in OUR OPPRESSION! It took me too long to find the freedom to be me to buy into such oppressive thinking again. Though internalized homophobia can rear its ugly head w/o warning, I guard against it with conscious choices of empowerment.
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