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| There's only one way to teach guys like Jay Briscoe Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
I posed a question today whether after six years, someone could have affinity for the career of He Who Shall Not Be Named. It was rhetorical in the sense that I didn't know if there could be an answer. I still can't forgive him for taking the lives of his wife and son, no matter how good he was as an artist. It seems I'm not in a clear consensus about this, because there are others who can put aside Benoit, the murderer with the destroyed brain, and Benoit, the guy who was one of the best performers of the last two decades. Some can have that kind of schismatic relationship, and I guess that's fine. The problem comes when people excuse the murders or find reasons to pin the blame on anyone but Benoit for them because, whether they want to admit it or not, they don't want to have one of their favorite wrestlers besmirched by truth. Like me, they can't really separate the man from his career, but unlike me, that fringe chooses to ignore not the career, but the grisly end of his life.
We can all point and laugh at those wrestling-fan-Alex-Joneses all we want, but they're the very definition of a lunatic fringe of an even larger subset of fans who are seemingly willing to forgive the awful stuff that wrestlers say or do in the name of talent. The Rock comes out and makes fun of anyone who isn't a straight, cis male, and people eat it up because it's "electrifying" or amusing. That kind of shtick should be about as acceptable as blackface, and yet here we are, 2013, and people are still wondering why people don't enjoy The Rock.
So that brings us to the news of the day, Jay Briscoe and his homophobic tweet where he threatened to shoot anyone who told his kids it was alright for gay people getting married is a good thing. Granted, he backtracked on that later on, but only nominally. One might think that in this day and age, and especially on the kind of stage that Ring of Honor is placed upon that its talent would be smarter about the things they disseminate to the public about controversial things they believe in. But that's not it, is it? It's not stupidity that allows anyone to spout off at the mouth for any bigotry in which they hold as truth. It's empowerment.
It's not enough that there are people out there who actually agree with Briscoe and his homophobia. The fact that there's such a heated debate out there over same-sex marriage means that there are people out there who read Briscoe's tweet and nodded vigorously, as if he was speaking the truth. However, I'd like to think that most Americans today, whether they agree or disagree with the idea that gay men and women should be allowed to marry, would disapprove of violent imagery at the thought of saying something disagreeable to his children.
But I've seen no fewer than two responses saying "Why is anyone surprised at this?" That's nominally correct, because when I was first tipped off to the tweets in question, I really wasn't at all shocked that Jay Briscoe, a man who wears Confederate Flag-patterned ring gear, might not be the most tolerant person in the whole wide world. That being said, it's the tone of those rebuttals. "Why is anyone surprised at this?" It almost feels dismissive in a way. Just because it's not surprising means that it's not worth getting in a tizzy over. Basically, ignore the bigotry, because that's who he is, and just focus on the wrestling like we were before.
But just because I'm not shocked at a statement such as that doesn't mean I'm be disappointed in it. In fact, it doesn't matter if it's a typical redneck like Briscoe coming out with that slop or an out-of-left-field option like, I don't know, Christopher Nowinski (NOTE: I have no idea what Nowinski believes when it comes to gay marriage, this is wholly hypothetical). The point is we as decent people shouldn't tolerate any kind of homophobia or racism or transphobia or, yes, misogyny, from anyone. It doesn't matter if Briscoe is the best wrestler in the world or not. He's gotta be called to the carpet for what he said, and he needs to face the same kinds of remediation that less famous people might get.
There's a reason why celebrities often get off less severely than real people. It's the fact that they're given SO much power in their fame and money that they seem a bit less dispensable than you or I might. If I get a DUI, I can't work. Jack Swagger still gets to wrestle at Mania in a fairly high-profile match, and still doesn't feel the ill effects. If I call a coworker a "faggot" on Twitter in plain view of superiors who follow me or monitor my actions there, you bet that I may not have a job tomorrow. Michael Cole gets a slap on the wrist. It doesn't matter if I'm part of an important job within my company. I'm replaceable. So are Swagger and Cole. Why do those peons get to slide in situations where I wouldn't? It's because there's artificial demand for them.
And so there's also artificial demand for Briscoe as well. Look, I get it, I was on the bandwagon as hard as anyone when he won the ROH World Championship, but for as good a moment as that was, he's not the only one who can believably hold that title. Even if he was? Well, then what's more important, respect for humanity or a piece of leather and gold? In the long run, it's always the former. Prestige can come back. Credibility is elastic. Bigotry doesn't change unless there are dire consequences for stasis.
Right now, any consequences for being a total chode are nerfed because fans like you and I keep rationalizing to companies like ROH with our dollars. That has to stop. If someone says that gay marriage is so odious that people who attempt to endorse it to his children need to be murdered, then that person no longer deserves my support or my cash. The fact that people continue to rationalize Briscoe's behavior with lines like "It's not surprising" or "He might be a bad person, but he's a great wrestler" helps no one but Briscoe. It might even enable him in the future to say even more dumb crap.
Freedom of expression works both ways. You can be free to be a bigot, and I can be free to express myself by not giving my expendable currency to bigots. It's a shitty way to teach equality, but hey, sometimes, you gotta hit 'em where it hurts. And if losing out on booking dollars doesn't wise Jay Briscoe up not to be such a public homophobe, then nothing will. Of course, it would be nice if he could change his mind on the subject altogether. That should be the goal for everyone. But in the interim, if it means one fewer person hash tags "Dem Boys" when he comes out on ROH TV, then it'll have done its job.
And hey, if more people come out and spend more time decrying He Who Shall Not Be Named's death and how he went about taking down two innocent lives with him and less time fawning over his career, maybe we'll get to a point not only where maybe guys will think about committing gruesome acts at all, but maybe it'll get people talking about WHY Benoit's brain was cortex soup at the end, and how they can prevent CTE from taking a stranglehold of them, whether it triggers some kind of sociopathy in them or not.
We can all point and laugh at those wrestling-fan-Alex-Joneses all we want, but they're the very definition of a lunatic fringe of an even larger subset of fans who are seemingly willing to forgive the awful stuff that wrestlers say or do in the name of talent. The Rock comes out and makes fun of anyone who isn't a straight, cis male, and people eat it up because it's "electrifying" or amusing. That kind of shtick should be about as acceptable as blackface, and yet here we are, 2013, and people are still wondering why people don't enjoy The Rock.
So that brings us to the news of the day, Jay Briscoe and his homophobic tweet where he threatened to shoot anyone who told his kids it was alright for gay people getting married is a good thing. Granted, he backtracked on that later on, but only nominally. One might think that in this day and age, and especially on the kind of stage that Ring of Honor is placed upon that its talent would be smarter about the things they disseminate to the public about controversial things they believe in. But that's not it, is it? It's not stupidity that allows anyone to spout off at the mouth for any bigotry in which they hold as truth. It's empowerment.
It's not enough that there are people out there who actually agree with Briscoe and his homophobia. The fact that there's such a heated debate out there over same-sex marriage means that there are people out there who read Briscoe's tweet and nodded vigorously, as if he was speaking the truth. However, I'd like to think that most Americans today, whether they agree or disagree with the idea that gay men and women should be allowed to marry, would disapprove of violent imagery at the thought of saying something disagreeable to his children.
But I've seen no fewer than two responses saying "Why is anyone surprised at this?" That's nominally correct, because when I was first tipped off to the tweets in question, I really wasn't at all shocked that Jay Briscoe, a man who wears Confederate Flag-patterned ring gear, might not be the most tolerant person in the whole wide world. That being said, it's the tone of those rebuttals. "Why is anyone surprised at this?" It almost feels dismissive in a way. Just because it's not surprising means that it's not worth getting in a tizzy over. Basically, ignore the bigotry, because that's who he is, and just focus on the wrestling like we were before.
But just because I'm not shocked at a statement such as that doesn't mean I'm be disappointed in it. In fact, it doesn't matter if it's a typical redneck like Briscoe coming out with that slop or an out-of-left-field option like, I don't know, Christopher Nowinski (NOTE: I have no idea what Nowinski believes when it comes to gay marriage, this is wholly hypothetical). The point is we as decent people shouldn't tolerate any kind of homophobia or racism or transphobia or, yes, misogyny, from anyone. It doesn't matter if Briscoe is the best wrestler in the world or not. He's gotta be called to the carpet for what he said, and he needs to face the same kinds of remediation that less famous people might get.
There's a reason why celebrities often get off less severely than real people. It's the fact that they're given SO much power in their fame and money that they seem a bit less dispensable than you or I might. If I get a DUI, I can't work. Jack Swagger still gets to wrestle at Mania in a fairly high-profile match, and still doesn't feel the ill effects. If I call a coworker a "faggot" on Twitter in plain view of superiors who follow me or monitor my actions there, you bet that I may not have a job tomorrow. Michael Cole gets a slap on the wrist. It doesn't matter if I'm part of an important job within my company. I'm replaceable. So are Swagger and Cole. Why do those peons get to slide in situations where I wouldn't? It's because there's artificial demand for them.
And so there's also artificial demand for Briscoe as well. Look, I get it, I was on the bandwagon as hard as anyone when he won the ROH World Championship, but for as good a moment as that was, he's not the only one who can believably hold that title. Even if he was? Well, then what's more important, respect for humanity or a piece of leather and gold? In the long run, it's always the former. Prestige can come back. Credibility is elastic. Bigotry doesn't change unless there are dire consequences for stasis.
Right now, any consequences for being a total chode are nerfed because fans like you and I keep rationalizing to companies like ROH with our dollars. That has to stop. If someone says that gay marriage is so odious that people who attempt to endorse it to his children need to be murdered, then that person no longer deserves my support or my cash. The fact that people continue to rationalize Briscoe's behavior with lines like "It's not surprising" or "He might be a bad person, but he's a great wrestler" helps no one but Briscoe. It might even enable him in the future to say even more dumb crap.
Freedom of expression works both ways. You can be free to be a bigot, and I can be free to express myself by not giving my expendable currency to bigots. It's a shitty way to teach equality, but hey, sometimes, you gotta hit 'em where it hurts. And if losing out on booking dollars doesn't wise Jay Briscoe up not to be such a public homophobe, then nothing will. Of course, it would be nice if he could change his mind on the subject altogether. That should be the goal for everyone. But in the interim, if it means one fewer person hash tags "Dem Boys" when he comes out on ROH TV, then it'll have done its job.
And hey, if more people come out and spend more time decrying He Who Shall Not Be Named's death and how he went about taking down two innocent lives with him and less time fawning over his career, maybe we'll get to a point not only where maybe guys will think about committing gruesome acts at all, but maybe it'll get people talking about WHY Benoit's brain was cortex soup at the end, and how they can prevent CTE from taking a stranglehold of them, whether it triggers some kind of sociopathy in them or not.