I n d ep en d en t
Issue no.
S t u de nt
V o ic e
o f
B o is e
S tat e
Sin ce
1933
61
May
2
2013
Volume 25
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Boise, Idaho
First issue free
Top Stories
Chalk it
Voting is open for the Recreation Center’s chalk art competition.
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Higher Ed.
What are you getting out of your education? mct campus
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MW champs
Taking a stand
Jason Collins, who previously played center for the Hawks, became the first openly gay active NBA player.
Collins is the most recent athlete to challenge traditional gender roles Staff Writer
Men’s tennis wins back-to-back Mountain West titles.
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The Arbiter
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I don’t imagine that just one person coming out is just going to erase all the homophobia that is out there.
sumed Collins to be the perfect example of a virile, heterosexual man. People often worry that looking up to athletes affects the way we look at alcohol, safe sex and drug use. However, less attention is paid to how sports reinforce strict gender roles. Matthew Genuchi, a professor of psychology at Boise State, with research focusing on men and masculinity, calls American sports “a traditional environment of hyper-masculinity.” According to Genuchi, male sports value such norms as dominance, assertiveness, non-intimacy, power and competition. Athletics became a way for men to showcase these characteristics. “Sports historically was
—Shelley Lucas
seen as a male preserve,” said Shelley Lucas, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at Boise State. “This is something that boys and men do to learn about, prove and demonstrate their masculinity,” Collins’ coming out is one of the most recent and significant challenges to some of these traditional notions. “People who care about these kind of things are hopeful that this is going to open the door to more active athletes coming out and being more comfortable,” Lucas said.
Challenges to gender norms The current state of gender norms in sports may
be in flux. After February’s NFL Scouting Combine, both Manti Te’o of Notre Dame and Nick Kasa of the University of Colorado reported teams asked them questions pertaining to their sexuality. These questions would be illegal in nearly any other job interview. MLB, the NBA and the NHL have started fining for homophobic slurs used during games. However, slurs are still being used. The NFL has never reprimanded a player for using slurs. “They’re very invested in presenting a certain style of hyper-masculinity: violence on the playing field, but we also see it off, big, powerful musculature, it’s about brute force, it’s about domination,” Lucas said. “The
sports culture of hockey, baseball, basketball, the NFL, seem to have a lot riding on that particular view of masculinity.” But there are signs of change as well. NFL players Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo have filed a lawsuit against the NFL. Their brief states, “For far too long, professional sports have been a bastion of bigotry, intolerance and smallminded prejudice toward sexual orientation.” Recently, several retired players, athletes in foreign leagues and female athletes have come out. There has also been an increase in activism among players who are straight allies. “I think in the United States there has been a shift in that there is more openness and acceptance of nontraditional masculine norms,” Genuchi said. “But … I think these predominant norms still exist and still have an impact on men.”
See Stand I page 4
Student art goes down in Boise 150’s history
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“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” The news from Jason Collins shook the world Monday morning. Shook it so hard that the Twitter birds were stumbling over themselves to get out of their nests. Within 10 minutes of being posted on the Sports Illustrated website, the article had over 800 comments and Jason Collins was a trending topic. Collins, who just finished his twelfth season in the NBA, became the first active male player to be openly gay in any of the four major American sports. Yet two weeks ago on April 18, when the number one WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner came out as lesbian, there was hardly a ripple. Are expectations different for men and women in sports? Whereas Griner had practically been labeled a lesbian already, many as-
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Emily Pehrson
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Assistant Arts and Entertainment Editor
In February 2013, Erika Sather-Smith, senior print making major, created an opportunity for student artists to incorporate their art into the festivities of Boise’s 150th anniversary as a city. After pitching her idea of a photo booth as a canvas for student art to the Department of Art and History, Sather-Smith and Rachel Reichert, Boise 150 SesquiShop curator, have made this photo booth a staple in every First Thursday. “Every time I get the new work in here it’s a new surprise for me,” Reichert said. This First Thursday, May 2, senior psychology and art major Sibylle Gorla’s work will serve as the backdrop for the photo booth. Students and community members will have a digital print of a parking garage view of downtown Boise (from 8th street and Idaho)
for their background. Gorla, said this idea came to her from her fascination with historical transportation. Gorla also said this print will have her digital interpretations of Boise. Gorla is now the fourth student to include their art as part of Boise 150. Sather-Smith has had a Boise State student engage their art with each recurrence of the photo booth. Sather-Smith said one coincidence which has “worked out” each time has been the student’s art complimenting the theme of the Sesqui-Shop’s First Thursday activities or artist displays. “I have had somebody every month, and sort of by coincidence, whatever their work is has happened to go along with the theme of the SesquiShop during that month, so it’s worked out pretty good,” Sather-Smith said. According to Reichert, people can expect just as much liveliness this evening and the rest of May. This month’s theme is “pop up shops,” each
day brining new community groups and organizations “setting up shop” in the SesquiShop, including Idaho Ballet performances, wine tasting, and a humane society adoption event. “It’s never going to be a dull moment next month,” Reichert said.
Previous photo booth artists February: Erika Sather-Smith Theme: Boise creates March: Alexanna Wonder Theme: Vibes: a celebration of music in Boise April: Sara Smart Theme: Remnants of Boise Present artist: Sibylle Gorla Theme: Pop up shop
Photo Courtesy sibylle Gorla
Gorla’s rough sketch of the photo booth backdrop.
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