Who Would You Pick?

Re: Who Would You Pick? : Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:55 pm

Tyke's/Rhinos No. 1 Fan wrote:

Sorry Andy, you seem to be the most active mod, given I've seen no others.

The point is this

Leeds Rhinos' prop forward Ryan Bailey is not a gay icon. That's a fact. So the claim that he is, is not a claim about the real world, describing a situation this exists.

It is a normative claim, in the sense that 'that Ryan Bailey, he's a gay icon' has a silent 'nudge nudge wink wink' after it, from which the reader is meant to draw their own conclusion.

As such, it's an attempt to imply that, were Ryan Bailey a gay icon, that would be bad, or that he is, in some way, associated with homosexuality, and that that'd bad, or contradictory to him being a tough as nails SoB on the pitch.

As such, that's something I find personally offensive.

And I hope that when I say 'personally offensive', people are as able to read the subtext, as they were for the Bailey remark.

Understand your concern. Fortunately there are few unpleasant or unnecessary references on these boards to homosexuality and this board in particular has a good record I think on these issues.

I did once however have a real issue with many posters on a certain team's board after the coach of its team made a very ill-advised comparison between the treatment by fans of one of his players who had committed an offence of a sexual nature and the treatment by supporters of Gareth Thomas. The coach called on the RFL to punish fans who made offensive chants about his player in the same way as those abusing Gareth Thomas had been punished. This attempt to equate or at least compare the two was very disturbing - the abuse aimed at the former was just offensive and the abuse aimed at Thomas was much more than this, it was a hate crime.

I'm not going to name the board because the people involved are tedious to say the least, but it was a deeply unpleasant incident, with homophobic remarks being made by posters and ignored by moderators who were clearly unable to see the distinction between offensive remarks about someone who has done something wrong and offensive remarks about someone who has nothing to be ashamed of.

By the way, I myself would read "gay icon" in the context of someone like Bailey as a compliment in that it is presumably his physique and uncompromising playing style that makes him an icon. He's clearly no Kylie Minogue!