{"id":59313,"date":"2013-11-20T19:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=59313"},"modified":"2015-02-01T03:26:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T08:26:19","slug":"man-up-nfl-hazing-and-jonathan-martins-man-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/11\/20\/man-up-nfl-hazing-and-jonathan-martins-man-card\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Hazing and Jonathan Martin\u2019s \u201cMan Card\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"131105124405-04-richie-incognito-horizontal-gallery\"<\/a>
Source: Doug Benc\/Getty Images<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 28th, Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin left the National Football League citing emotional distress as a result of abuse at the hands of his teammate Richie Incognito. \u00a0Incognito\u00a0admits<\/a>\u00a0to having sent Martin racist, homophobic, and threatening text messages and voicemails but argues that rather than hazing or bullying, this was merely an instance of miscommunication between the two men.<\/p>\n

While a great deal of media attention has questioned the behavior of Richie Incognito, a disproportionate amount of attention has also been given to Martin\u2019s choice to report the abuse. \u00a0Why has Martin\u2019s choice to report the abuse received so much attention? \u00a0What has been the main theme of those critiquing Martin\u2019s choice? \u00a0And, what does this discussion mean for our national discourse on bullying and hazing? \u00a0The answers to these questions, I argue, are all linked to masculinity.<\/p>\n

The media talks about Martin\u2019s choice to report because his decision violated accepted cultural norms of masculinity. \u00a0Some may call these norms, more colloquially, the \u201cbro code<\/a>,” \u201cguy code<\/a>,” or \u201cman code<\/a>.”\u00a0 Whatever we choose to call it, there are accepted ways in which men and boys are expected to conduct ourselves and our relationships to other men. \u00a0Martin stands accused, especially within the athletic community, of having broken the code.<\/p>\n

In a very telling interview, Channing Crowder, a former teammate of Incognito, made it clear that this conversation is really about masculinity.\u00a0 According to Crowder, Incognito tests his teammates.\u00a0 He\u00a0\u201ctests you to see if you have enough manhood or enough testosterone<\/a>\u201d\u00a0(even though this type of bullying is\u00a0just as much about the perpetrator\u2019s masculinity<\/a>\u00a0as it is the victim\u2019s).<\/p>\n

In this case Martin\u2019s masculinity is under attack on two fronts.\u00a0 First, it is under attack because he failed Incognito\u2019s \u201ctest\u201d of his manhood.\u00a0 Second, he is under attack because his solution to Incognito\u2019s bullying violated guy code. \u00a0According to the code, real men solve their problems with one another through violence.<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated<\/i>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that many NFL personnel consider Martin to be a coward or a wimp for reporting the abuse.\u00a0 One NFL informant was even quoted saying \u201cI think Jonathan Martin is a weak person.\u00a0 If Incognito did offend him racially, that\u2019s something you have to handle as a man.\u201d \u00a0Others said it would have been preferable for Martin to \u201cgo down swinging\u201d or to \u201cfight.\u201d \u00a0Even NPR ran\u00a0a piece<\/a>\u00a0in which a regular guest argued:<\/p>\n

Martin should have taken that dude outside and put his lights out.\u00a0 I do not \u2013 I absolutely do not believe in a society where we run to the principal\u2019s office every time these petty tyrants make a threat\u2026 Only power dispatches bullies\u2026 Jonathan Martin is a grown man and you can\u2019t bully a grown man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be fair, in that same NPR piece, another interviewee stated that \u201cnot everybody resorts to violence in response to bullying and I applaud him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, by reporting the abuse rather than physically confronting Incognito, Jonathan Martin has been publicly stripped of his \u201cman<\/a>\u00a0card<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, so what?\u00a0 Why should we care about how grown men address bullying?\u00a0 We should care because just as Jonathan Martin is being told to\u00a0\u201cman up<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0so are young boys all over the country when they are bullied.\u00a0 Boys are told that when they cannot physically confront a bully they are inadequate and unworthy.\u00a0 They are taught to remain silent in the face of insurmountable violence because speaking out is a sign of weakness, or worse, femininity.\u00a0 Too many boys are left with nowhere to turn when bullying makes trauma a daily experience.\u00a0 In this sort of environment can we really be surprised that boys are\u00a0committing suicide<\/a>, developing\u00a0depression<\/a>, and lashing out\u00a0violently<\/a>\u00a0at incredibly high rates?<\/p>\n

Incognito on film:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Cliff Leek<\/a>\u00a0is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Stony Brook University. \u00a0He is a News Editor for\u00a0Sociology Lens<\/a>,\u00a0co-founder of\u00a0Masculinities 101<\/a>, a Program Director for the\u00a0Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities<\/a>\u00a0and a Research Assistant to\u00a0TrueChild<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Cross-posted at Sociology Lens<\/a>\u00a0and The Good Men Project<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 28th, Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin left the National Football League citing emotional distress as a result of abuse at the hands of his teammate Richie Incognito. \u00a0Incognito\u00a0admits\u00a0to having sent Martin racist, homophobic, and threatening text messages and voicemails but argues that rather than hazing or bullying, this was merely an instance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":59319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,23677,2087,2098,8092,2090,283,285,1760,20063,1757,108,133],"class_list":["post-59313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-doing-gender","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-gender-sports","tag-gender-violence","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-raceethnicity-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans","tag-sports","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2013\/11\/131105124405-04-richie-incognito-horizontal-gallery-Copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59313"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65777,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59313\/revisions\/65777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}