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‘Tis Pity You’re an Inarticulate Moron

I am on Facebook. I used to be on Myspace. I am a passionate Red Sox fan which means I am also a passionate Yankees foe (it’s part of the package. Kinda fun, actually).  During last night’s game (a loss for the Sox), Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster deliberately threw the ball behind batter Alex Rodriguez three times, then deliberately pitched one that hit him in the thigh.

(The following may not be news to readers, but I do not make assumptions of who knows what when they read something) A-Rod (A-Rat, A-Hole, A-Roid, A-Fraud) has been served with a 215 game suspension for using PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs). Unlike the other guys who were also suspended, he appealed it and is still playing. He is quite close to certain batting records/benchmarks that, should he get to the, mean millions of dollars more for him. I am of the opinion that he should not still be playing, but then he has a history of this kind of “weasel out of it” behavior. Case in point: July 24, 2004. Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo hit him with a pitch (that seems to happen a lot, huh?) and rather than just take his base as the rules dictate, A Rod started mouthing off at Arroyo. Jason Varitek, Red Sox catcher, got involved and well, this is the indelible image:

tek arod

Both men were hit with 4 game suspensions. Tek just served his, A-Rod ended up serving his after appealing it and continued to play until the decision was rendered. He had to serve.  As a sidebar, in an October post-season game facing the same picture, A-Rod pulled a punk move to avoid being tagged by Mr. Arroyo by slapping the ball out of Arroyo’s glove. Given the “Hamburger Helper” style (or Mickey Mouse, perhaps more in keeping with his level of play) batting gloves, it would have been hard for the ump to miss:

slappy

Just call him “Slappy.”

photoshop slappy

I like this version better.

centaur

This is what he prefers. I don’t know if this is the original (certainly the Mickey Mouse gloves are photoshopped in), but he does have a portrait of himself as a centaur.

But I digress. Let’s return to August 18,2013.

The WEEI (Boston sports radio) Facebook page had a post regarding last night’s incident and asked for comments about Dempster drilling A-Rod. Since I don’t think the sumbitch should be playing baseball PERIOD if he’s suspended, I commented that “Dempster should have drilled him in the head.” Perhaps excessive and rash, but if that’s what it takes to get him out of the game…

There was a reply to my comment from someone named Derek Moretti:

“You should have been aborted whore”

From this statement, we can deduce that punctuation is not Mr. Moretti’s strong suit.

In 2007, on a Myspace Red Sox community page, I posted a  comment about the previous night’s game (which the Red Sox won. Post season on their way to a second World Series title in 4 years. The previous being 2004. Again, I make no assumptions). I got a response from some who kept changing his name to variations on “Hack.”

“Shut up, you fat fucking whore. I hate you.”

“Whore.” There it is again.

Come to think of it, THAT “whore”  was provoked by a negative comment about A-Rod. Perhaps his fans are as doped up as he is? Or just dopes?

These two guys (I’m presuming they’re two completely different people. I don’t give enough of a damn to find out) figured that the most damage they could inflict was by calling me a whore.

When I saw today’s comment, I started thinking about the intended use of “whore” as a weapon. (And it doesn’t apply. Both of these guys could have called me a US Senator and it would have been equally as applicable. And perhaps the same thing) By their choice of word to use as an insult, these two have given me the impression that they consider women who trade sex for money to be the lowest form of female, something shameful. If I had been a man and they’d wanted to insult me, would I have been called the male equivalent of a whore: gigolo? I don’t think so.

The thought that occurred to me was “Well, if there were no johns, there would be no whores.” I tried googling “If there were no johns” and got back this image:

madonna

The Madonna/Whore complex in a picture (rebus).

Coincidentally, she dated A-Rod for a while.

If there were no johns, there would be no whores; good ol’ supply and demand economics. So, these two guys flinging the term “whore” around; would they be as judgmental and harsh towards her customers? After all, if there were no johns willing to pay for sex, there wouldn’t be any whores to sell it. (male or female). what I’ve observed is a lot of back-slapping and “You dog!” with respect to guys who have gone to prostitutes. I remember sitting in Starbucks and overhearing a detailed conversation between two guys who had just come back from a trip to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. There was no shaming, no “how could you do this to your wife?” Nope.

A man who sleeps around doesn’t get shamed as a slut or a whore by his fellow men (Women he doesn’t call back or gives an STD to, that’s a different matter). In fact, there’s some approval of the “player.” And if a sports discussion got heated, no one would use his sexual activity (presumed or otherwise) as a weapon. Women, though? We’re sluts, bitches and whores if you get angry. (By the way, if we’re not supposed to be as sexually active, who are the players supposed to sleep with? Somewhere, the Westboro Baptist Church’s heads just collectively exploded)

Just a wee bit of a double standard.

I believe that anger is actually an aggressive form of fear and that by lashing out as these guys, they were actually displaying fear. Of what? A woman? Certainly, but what’s so fearful about a woman who likes baseball? Are they afraid I’ll try to talk about the game with them? Is sports and being a fan supposed to be exclusively a male province? In the Myspace incident, I was also called a “Pink Hat” which is a Boston term for the women who buy pink Red Sox caps to wear to the games with their boyfriends and and recently jumped on the BoSox Bandwagon when they started winning; couldn’t care less before then. (I’ve been a Red Sox fan since I knew what a baseball was. We’re talking 47-48 years here). Again, it’s an insult specifically aimed at WOMEN, although, in 2007, when Troy Aikman showed up for a World Series game decked out in Red Sox gear, someone told me he was a pink hat. Okay, it applied that time.

So what is so intimidating about a woman who follows sports and expresses an opinion (rather strongly)? And if such a woman is a terrifying thing, do you really think the word “whore” is going to stop her?