"Football High" : A Documentary or Horror Film

In class we watched the Documentary entitled "Football High." While watching it, I could not help but to feel horrified at what I was seeing and hearing about modern day football. As the contents of the film itself were terrifying to me, I found it more terrifying that I am guilty of being just as oblivious to the real dangers of football and in fact have encouraged my 11 and 12 year old nephews to join in the barbarism by becoming members of our home town high-school's feeder program.

One of the big issues "Football High" presents is the safety of the football players as they are subjected to very hard hits every day in practice, and even harder hits in games that can cause major head trauma. One of these the film discusses is a disease called CET in which a player could have such severe brain damage that the likelihood for someone to develop depression, dementia, and even attempt suicide are increased. Concussions are a big concern and are a gateway to long-term brain damage as well. It was said in the video that  according to the sensors placed in football helmets, high school players receive more contact to the head than even college athletes. It is also stated that these helmets are designed for the protection of fracture to the skull, but do not necessarily protect against concussions. The athletic director of one of the high schools in the film even stated that there are certain safety requirements that are required at the high-school level of football, but there are no penalties if these requirements are not met by the coaching staff.  In one incident, a player named Garrett that was a member of the Shiloh Christian High-School Saints' football team received a concussion during a game and was actually released by an athletic trainer to play in the second half. Some high-school's don't even have an athletic trainer on staff due to the lack of money to provide for another staff member, and the coaches are expected to provide the medical attention and determine the health standings of their players.

Another big issue, that seems to be the overall, underlying theme of this documentary, is that football (especially at the high-school level) is becoming way too serious. So serious, in fact, that this same Shiloh High-School has 6 members of the coaching staff to attend to only 40 players of the team, not including private trainers outside of practice for agility purposes. Also, these coaches are having their players practice in 112 degree heat indexes, just to not miss one day of getting better than the opponent. Two high-schools in Arkansas, one of which again was Shiloh, each had a player pass out and have a heat stroke in the same season due to practicing in this kind of weather. Both boys were hospitalized in critical condition and the one from the neighboring high school was not lucky enough to make it out alive. Even after this incident, Will, the surviving boy from Shiloh, continued to play football. Kids should not be expected of putting their lives at risk for the sake of a sport, and this particular sport has proven to be extremely dangerous in may aspects.

These big issues are presented in the film as, just as I took them to be after watching: horrifying.  As they are presented as such and the coaches\staff and players appear to know all these details, they still act as though it is part of the game and these types of things are inevitable. I think the big question the makers of the video want people to think about is what is being done about the horrifying aspects of this sport? Also, what can we do to get people to stop ignoring and playing through the pain when it is, in fact, something you should not be playing with. It is one thing to play through a couple bumps and bruises (not very complicated injuries), but when it comes to life and death situations...is winning really that important?

 

Chuck Klosterman, in his reading "This is Emo" talks about an idea he has called "Fake Love." According to this idea, Klosterman thinks that the love we see in relationships between romantic partners on television and in movies is "fake" in the sense that it is too perfect and unrealistic compared to what love is like in reality.  Real love relationships often contain arguments, are not always helplessly romantic, and sometimes contain struggle to even maintain the same feelings for each other; whereas in the media, it is often portrayed that real love should leave you 100% happy 100% of the time. An example of this would be with in the movie 50 first dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. In this movie, although the relationship is quite quirky to begin with considering Drew Barrymore's character's disability, Adam Sandler's character goes out of his way, every single day to keep Drew Barrymore's character happy and in love with him. He even makes her a video so that she won't forget how much he loves her and how happy they are. Although this is sort of a different example, it shows how hard Adam Sandler's character is willing to fight for love and for the happiness of his lady under any circumstance. Most people would be disappointed in reality to find that even though a future boyfriend or spouse may try hard at keeping the happiness, they may not do so in such a personal, deep, touching and romantic way that is portrayed through this movie.

Sexy Violence

In Jean Kilbourne's video, "Killing us Softly," one of the points she makes is that in a lot of ads containing both women and male models now days, violence seems to be eroticized. This ad for Dolce and Gabbana's perfume "light blue" appears to embody this characteristic. Since the male model is coming from behind the female model, it can almost be looked at as sort of an attack of seduction. Based on the body language and facial expression of the female model, she looks almost as if she is resistant of his touch (as she appears to be tensely leaning away), and unsure of what he is doing. All the while the man looks very firm, with his stiff arm and serious countenance, that this woman is his, and he is going to take her with or without consent. With this, the oceanic background scene and half naked bodies is what brings sort of a sexiness and eroticism to this violent looking gesture, thus, proving Kilbourne's point.

We're Bringing Sexy Back

 I think sexiness is very important in our culture today. I believe this is so because people always want to achieve greatness and become better versions of themselves, especially when it comes to visual appeal to others. I believe this comes into play in what people buy depending on how things are advertised in the media. For example: I'm sure many women would be perfectly content wearing "granny panties" every day of the week, but the media, especially television shows and underwear ads, is emphasizing the fact that granny panties are embarrassing and it's the see through, lace thong that's sexy and has all the men on edge. In Marie D. Smith's article "Decoding Victoria's Secret" she argues that the business is only such a success with women because, "[Victoria is] the best at giving men what they want visually." You don't generally see the Victoria's Secret models wearing belly button-high, nude, unflattering, undergarments; They are generally seen in some type of lacy, matching pair of undergarments that flatter their pushed up busts and perky bottoms. Thus, if these are the types of women men think are sexy and the types of underwear they consider men to think are sexy, then naturally, women are going to purchase from these businesses in order to make themselves qualify as sexy to men as well.