Touchdown! DAVID GRANT FEMALE CHARACTERS in Dallas and Dynasty have discovered that shoulder pads give a screen persona that extra 'hard', 'aggressive', dare I say 'malé'
Yet long before this, American edge. Football was girding up its gladiators of the gridiron to partake of a sport that is every bit as hard-hitting, calculating, brutal and a full of not-so-subtle ideology as J.R. and Sue Ellen's best efforts.
American Football is a multi-million dollar sport/industry in the States. Since Mrs Thatcher's return to office in 1983 it has, (co-incidentally?), made a big and growing impact in Britain, courtesy of the radical, innovative, creative initiative of Channel 4. Sport on TV - challenging stuff en! Does Norman lebbit know of this?
American Football, American television and the American Way-of-Life; the first without the other two would be impossible. Who says sport isn't political? But then who needs history, politics, philosophy and social sciences when you can get all of the fundamentals in one easy-to-understand package?
There are two opposing sides -check-; only one team can win -set-; there is lots of planning and preparation -hut one-; but in the end its all a matter of brute strength -hut two-; we got to beat those bastards -play action-; and (best of all) all the competitors are male - TOUCHDOWN! All a cold-war warrior needs to know to secure a post like National Security Adviser. As Reagan says and Thatcher mimicks, it's not so much a question of truth but a matter of communication. Lying is OK so long as you do it with conviction. After all, sometimes its necessary to be economical with the truth.
American Football, like many other sports, is however not merely a reflection
of the neanderthal political mentality of the Reaganite right. It helps fuel and sustain the competitive macho values to which aggressive capitalist politics appeal. This also explains why it is, in common with soaps like Dallas, compelling, exciting and popular. In Britain up to twenty-six per cent of the adult population will watch some or all of Superbowl XXI final. While more men than women watch it, in Britain thirty-
Scent of the Channel Four audience are women. It is noticeable for anyone used to soccer crowds in Britain how many women are in the crowds for the big games in the States. A male preserve on the playing field it may be, büt of interest only to men it is not.
These days American Football does not merely help promote the ideology of the new right in America. It is now supplying the politicians to articulate such views. For all of us hoping that Irangate. spells the beginning of the end for the Reagan era, a certain Jack Kemp should be borne in mind. American Football hero and darling of the Republican Party activists, he is waiting on the side-bench to be called into the game. A rival for the Republican nomination, Kemp's politics have their origins in offense game-plans (hit'em hard and hit'em low) and that's before you allow for all those crunching tackles to the head!
'Hang on a minute!', I hear you all cry, this is a rather snooty European view of American Football — reminiscent of all those whingeing Social Democrats and Eurocommunists. 'Oh, if only the Americans wouldn't bully everyone around so
'What happened to good old post-war concensus?'. 'Why find someone like that nice Mr Kennedy?' (Maybe, like Bobby Ewing, he wasn't:
intornational REVIEWS dead after all and Nixon and Reagan have all been a dream!). 'Why do the Americans have to be so intent on winning?' 'Why are they so aggressive?'
Of course, the truth is that the values encapsulated in American Football are no different to those common to most sports. That includes the competitive and aggressive values associated with cricket, rugby, football, tennis... aggression, competition and macho behaviour are no more American than they are British than they are inherent to sport. They are part of a cultural system that defends the capitalist order.
The arrival of American Football in Britain is part of a process of the Americanisation of European culture that has been particularly successful in Britain, especially since the 'special' relationship was established after the war. This of course has a lot to do with the pathetic weakness of British culture, especially working class culture, but that's another story. Indeed, unmistakably American styles of clothes, haircuts and music are very popular among young people in Britain (again). And why not?
Yet anti-American sentiment is quite popular with some on the left these days. Some even go so far as to complain of American imperialist domination of Britain's economy and culture. This is just so much cheap, ignorant reformist nonsense. It is not so much the American form as the capitalist content that socialists should oppose, whether it be American missiles or American Football.
Accepting that means arguing for the primary struggle to be waged against the economic, social and ideological power of our own capitalist (and also imperialist) ruling class. Which is where we part company with our Social Democratic and Eurocommunist comrades. Now I'm not arguing that many are not right to complain about the amount of competitive macho sport we get on TV. But it does seem to me disturbing that people feel happy to single out American Football for special criticism, apparently on the basis that it is, wait for it... American!
This, of course, raises questions about what socialists think about sport under capitalism, and not just in an abstract way. There is much confusion about these issues. Some comrades express the view that soccer is some sort of historic gain for the workers movement. Others express horror at the thought of socialists enjoy. ing anything as competitive and aggressive as American Football. Perhaps debate will follow. It seems odd to me that socialists should deny themselves (and others if they had power) enjoyment.
Aggressive, competitive, American yes; but American Football is also exciting and compelling. Anyone for a
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