when you love men whom men love

[lobelia321]

Another thing about lusting after football men: you're loving the men whom men love. This is an interesting situation. The men of my current fandom (Stargate Atlantis) are not the kind of men generally beloved of men: t'h just laughs at McKay and Sheppard (although he identified them immediately as slash objects). And I don't even mention my Draco/Dudley lust to anyone male; I'd risk getting laughed off a cliff!

Now Lotrips was an interesting one because Lord of the Rings was for years (decades?) a kind of preserve of men (nerdy men). Men feel this is 'theirs', and they lust quite unashamedly after Aragorn and Legolas especially. They also Mary-Sue them (t'h wanted to be Aragorn when little, and he's not the only one). In fact, it was t'h who first drew my attention to the prettiness of movie!Legolas (this was before I stumbled onto rps! and was innocent of all matters Bloom).

But with football the whole man-lusting thing ratchets up onto a whole 'nuther level. When the first Brazil game aired last week, BBC commentators (grown men!) were reduced to helpless giggles whenever Ronaldinho appeared on screen or touched the ball. Gary and Alan swooned in speechless adoration at Ronaldinho slo-mo replays: "Ah, it's always nice to watch a bit of Ronaldinho..." And UK men's love for Rooney seems (mysterious as it is to me) a bottomless bucket of lust.

The thing is: football men are men whom men lust after. And it is interesting to share this space with them. In slash, I'm used to being in a sort of men-free zone of lusting but with football: not so. And when you get Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham pouting shirtless at cameras, I really have to ask myself: is this directed at women, or at their fellow men?

Brazil/Australia.
Me: "I like that Kaká."
T'h: "Yes, he is very good-looking, isn't he? Also that Kewell, he looks really good."

Hah! Gerrard just scored England's second goal against Sweden! How about that, eh? Live LJ-posting!!!

ETA: Whoa, Sweden equalises! And how messy is that! So'n Gerangel ums Tor 'rum!



Kewell and Cahill (Harry Kewell's the one with the tattoo.)

Comments

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Kewell looks SO MUCH better now that he's cut his hair.

Cahill's a gorgeous little lad and all. *G*

BTW, I am enjoying your football-loving, and I go squee every time you mention the Aussie team. *G* But I have no soccer icons, so I'm using a generic cricket one.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This comment made me happy because I've kind of been spamming into the ether and wondering whether I was driving my entire Flist to Defriend. *gg*

The stupid BBC will, I bet, show the Brazil instead of the Australia game tomorrow night. Grr.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Pfft. It's all about the love. Squee is always grand, and if fandom was in the habit of defriending when interests diverged, we'd all be sitting alone in bubbles by now. *G*

The game's going to be shown at something like 5am here. I'm pretty sure the Male is intending to get up and watch it. He's rather crazy like that. (He got up at 2am to watch the Aust/Brazil match and all.) I will arise later and learn our fate.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Australia!!!!! You fuckin' beauties!!!!!

My heart nearly stopped with the excitement of it all.

This, btw, is a football icon. It is very slashy. *g* *is too arcane for her boots*

[tansu.livejournal.com]

Hi. I found you via the footballslash community - I particularly enjoyed your atmospheric Kaká/Cristiano Ronaldo fics.

Re male desire for beautiful and accomplished males, it is particularly interesting to see how BBC presenters and pundits relate to and interact with Leonardo. Leonardo is of course breathtakingly beautiful - and also a great player, a World Cup winner, a Brazilian, and a clearly intelligent man who speaks several languages. Several of the other pundits and presenters make frequent mention of Leonardo's looks; this is done in an awestruck fashion, rather than the jealous or dismissive fashion in which men sometimes remark in public on another man's looks. Adrian Chiles in particular demonstrates a substantial crush on Leonardo. Of course, Leonardo is all the easier for men to admire because he is Brazilian, and Brazil=magic to all UK pundits. He has won the World Cup with Brazil, so he has proof of greatness. Yet it is not only his Brazilianness and football skill that is remarked on with awe, but his beauty.*

I am also reminded of listening to discussion of the Open gold championship on Five Live a couple of years ago. Two (or three, I forget) male presenters and sports correspondents had a few minutes semi-serious discussion about who they fancied more out of Jean van der Velde and Thomas Levet. Light-hearted, but not entirely joking.

My "man of the house" comments sometimes on the beauty of footballers, but he is more likely to find them cute or endearing. He'll go "awww" at Thierry or Freddie (or pretty much anyone from Arsenal, for he is a Gooner) or at Crespo (we both love the Crespo). There will be laughter if anything "too" gay happens, e.g. Caneira giving Ricardo a long and rather passionate embrace in the goalmouth after a save from Ricardo in yesterday's Portugal/Mexico game.

*Ambivalence between sexualised and desexualised fan-experience - I call this the "Do I want to be him or do him?" question. I have an essay about this bubbling up to the surface, which I might be brave enough to post in my own journal.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This is so interesting. Your examples are fantastic! I would love you to be brave in your own journal but you hardly ever post!! Or is it all flocked??

I've been thinking quite a bit about your 'do I want to be him or do him' sentence. Here are my provisional thoughts on it. (Sorry! I had forgotten your name!!!)