Mother May I? OH! YES YOU MAY!
Nerve.com recently featured an article about kabaddi, a traditional Indian version of team wrestling.
“Seven players, oiled up and usually wearing only boxers or briefs, gather on each side of a field. Each team takes its turn sending a 'raider' into enemy territory to tag one of his opponents. The raider must then get back to his side of the field before the tagged opponent can stop him. It is after the tag that kabaddi gets rough… scissor holds, tripping, headlocks — it's all fair. In the sports' traditional version, the raider isn't allowed to draw a breath while on the opposition's turf, and must continuously shout 'kabaddi-kabaddi-kabaddi' to prove he isn't cheating. In today's version, he has thirty seconds, and spends most of it locking limbs with his defender, the pair grinding groins together in a painful looking manner.”
The article goes on to question whether kabaddi is, in fact, any more or less homoerotic than other contact sports in which men participate. It’s an interesting question. Why is it that men, particularly straight-identifying men, engage so enthusiastically in outlets such as these? What is it about the sanctioned touching of other men, the sweat and grit of man-on-man contact, the grunting and ultimate release that comes from intense physical efforts to dominate one another that is so appealing?
Who are we kidding? Just about every playground game, boy club or professional sport you can think of is packed with eroticism (and not just because so many involve balls and sticks…)
And what about the ladies? Why is it that more women don’t find similar types of activities just as satisfying? I mean, I loved Red Rover but… well, actually…
Think about some of the playground games that were more often associated with girls.
Jumprope – Lots of boob movement. Ropes. Group voyeurism.
Mother May I, Simon Says, Red Light Green Light – All exercises in dominance and submission.
Crack the Whip – Need I say more?
Four Square – Balls and boxes.
And to say nothing of the countless opportunities we found to hold hands, caress each other’s hair, try on each other’s clothes and tongue kiss each other (I’m not alone here, right?)
Kabaddi is just one more excuse for us to hump our peers. (As if we need an excuse to hump our peers.) I say, more of it!
And if anyone's interested in starting a Crack the Whip league... I call Captain!
Posted by Jenn on April 10, 2007 1:46 PM
Permalink | Email to a Friend | Add post to del.icio.us
More Recent Stories:
• Online dating for the socially inept
• The consistency paradox continued - New rules of engagement
• Now you see me, now you don't - Why consistency matters
• Are you a good cyberflirt?
• Mother May I? OH! YES YOU MAY!
• Flirting online – Can you feel me undressing you with my keystrokes?
• Board game makers continue in pursuit to end your relationship, destroy your life
• Why sex-pigs have got everybody's panties in a bunch
• White guy on black love site tells women, "stop dating guys that aren't me."
• You viewed my MySpace profile... why haven't you called?
there is only one ... um... contact sport i am in any way good at and it's not really a sport, and you don't usually find it done in teams.
i never got into any kind of aggressive sports... or really ANY sports, because, mostly, i'd be crushed, torn apart, flattened, beaten, mutilated and called "fag" by not only the opposing team but by my own teammates as well.
Actually, this isn't even hypothetical.
Wait, no, i'm a MAN!
GRRRR,
grunt,
groooowllllerrrrYAWN.
no.
no, not really.
-- Posted by: Jace at January 7, 2008 2:24 AM