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sports and sexual assault
The Nassar case has finally had people digging into Michigan State and how they let him get away with it for so long. And now it's turned out, unsurprisingly, that the school's issues with handling sexual assault go way beyond Nassar.
https://deadspin.com/michigan-states-issues-with-reporting-sexual-assault-go-1822463064
Deadspin links to OTL's very thorough report on MSU's athletic department failures, implicating the Athletic Director who just resigned as well as the popular football and men's basketball coaches; there's also a report from local paper Lansing State Journal on MSU's failure on Nassar specifically.
I highly doubt MSU is the only high profile school getting away with this in the name of sports, but also just failing on Title IX generally (there's been plenty of reports and documentaries about how universities (mis)handle reports of rape and sexual assault). But I can't read any of this current news about Nassar and MSU without getting furious though, especially because there are so, so many people out there willing to defend their alma mater or favorite sports program. People have called the OTL report a "hit piece" or made excuses that their favorite coaches had nothing to do with any of this, or had handled the cases appropriately, I mean, what more could they do?
There is just so much defensiveness over amateur fucking sports. (True in pro sports as well.) I love the community feeling sports can inspire, but hate, hate, HATE the tribalism. I know money plays a huge part in the way these universities and pro teams handle this, but the sports fans who don't get any part of those millions, who are there defending a program/people they've wrongfully idolized over actual assault victims are killing me. They wonder how systemic abuse happens, how Nassar got away with what he did for 20 years? It's not just the few people in authority who should've stopped him but didn't; it's also us, our societal attitude toward wholesale delegitimizing and rationalizing away the assault that happens to protect the organization, the 'prestigious' history, the ideal we built up in our heads.
I'm a sports fan myself, I went to UNC, a D1 school with a hugely successful basketball program. I'd rather you burn it all down, coach and history included, if they've been trading keeping assault victims silent for success. No success is worth the safety and well-being of real people. This is especially true for me regarding sexual assault, but also regarding mental and physical health more broadly, including concussions. Stop idolizing the wrong damn thing.
https://deadspin.com/michigan-states-issues-with-reporting-sexual-assault-go-1822463064
Deadspin links to OTL's very thorough report on MSU's athletic department failures, implicating the Athletic Director who just resigned as well as the popular football and men's basketball coaches; there's also a report from local paper Lansing State Journal on MSU's failure on Nassar specifically.
I highly doubt MSU is the only high profile school getting away with this in the name of sports, but also just failing on Title IX generally (there's been plenty of reports and documentaries about how universities (mis)handle reports of rape and sexual assault). But I can't read any of this current news about Nassar and MSU without getting furious though, especially because there are so, so many people out there willing to defend their alma mater or favorite sports program. People have called the OTL report a "hit piece" or made excuses that their favorite coaches had nothing to do with any of this, or had handled the cases appropriately, I mean, what more could they do?
There is just so much defensiveness over amateur fucking sports. (True in pro sports as well.) I love the community feeling sports can inspire, but hate, hate, HATE the tribalism. I know money plays a huge part in the way these universities and pro teams handle this, but the sports fans who don't get any part of those millions, who are there defending a program/people they've wrongfully idolized over actual assault victims are killing me. They wonder how systemic abuse happens, how Nassar got away with what he did for 20 years? It's not just the few people in authority who should've stopped him but didn't; it's also us, our societal attitude toward wholesale delegitimizing and rationalizing away the assault that happens to protect the organization, the 'prestigious' history, the ideal we built up in our heads.
I'm a sports fan myself, I went to UNC, a D1 school with a hugely successful basketball program. I'd rather you burn it all down, coach and history included, if they've been trading keeping assault victims silent for success. No success is worth the safety and well-being of real people. This is especially true for me regarding sexual assault, but also regarding mental and physical health more broadly, including concussions. Stop idolizing the wrong damn thing.