The locker room reflex
by digby
Frank Bruni on the locker room “problem”:
When NFL Network’s Andrea Kremer recently brought up the possibility of an openly gay player with Jonathan Vilma, a New Orleans Saints linebacker, he said: “Imagine if he’s the guy next to me and, you know, I get dressed, naked, taking a shower, the whole nine, and it just so happens he looks at me.”
“How am I supposed to respond?” Vilma added.
Well, a squeal would be unmanly, Mace might not be enough and N.F.L. players tend to use their firearms away from the stadium, so I’d advise him to do what countless females of our species have done with leering males through history. Step away. Move on. Dare I say woman up?
For some reason a lot of these macho heterosexual men just can’t stop thinking about being in the shower with some big, buff, naked, football player staring at them. (Hey, who can blame them? I certainly enjoy that image…) I think this fellow is probably more worried about what he might think of as an inappropriate response, if you know what I mean. You just never know how that that thing’s going to react to an admiring look. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
.