Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hair-Pulling Hooliganism


If you watched the above clip, you won't be surprised to hear that Elizabeth Lambert has been in the news a little bit lately. This happened two weeks ago now, and so has just about blown over. It was big enough to make it beyond the sports world, though, showing up on The Today Show, among other "news" outlets. The most interesting aspect of the event, to me, is Ms. Lambert's apology. After taking full responsibility for letting her "emotions get the best of" her, Lambert went on to claim that "this is in no way indicative of [her] character or the soccer player that [she is]."

She has, in consecutive sentences it seems, attempted to take responsibility AND to shirk it! Tony Kornheiser, a sportswriter from my childhood in Washington, DC, and a co-host of Pardon the Interruption, a sports-talk show on ESPN, wasn't buying Lambert's claim for even a minute. "Not who she is!?" he exclaimed. "It's EXACTLY who she is. It's just not who she wants to be!" Hallelujah! This is an insight that we've discussed before as it relates to David Hasselhoff, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and others. Are the racist/violent/abusive acts they commit when they're "out of control" indicative of who they are, or not? As others have quoted before me, the Biblical argument seems to be that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9), and that, therefore, the "out of control" us is the REAL us, and the sanitized, ready-for-public-consumption us is the cover-up.

2 comments:

  1. {If this were a man, would it even be news?}
    i am def sick in heart. aren't most of us constantly fighting back the urge to punch people and unleash a fury of expletives? no - just me? and thanks jesus, for pointing out that just because i don't actually punch everyone i'm still guilty cause it's in my head & heart.
    isn't it a blessing we don't get what we deserve.

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  2. Dana - Lambert actually brought this up. She claimed that it wouldn't have been such a story if she had been a man. I think she's probably right. But if it's sexism, it's that we wrongly assume a calm and patience in women that's no more present than it is in men. We expect men to be brutish.

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