Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Rites of passage...

I've never been one for tradition, but some rites of passage are important.

For example, some Indian groups have their boys go live in the forest alone with no food or supplies. They are banished from the village for a temporary period, and when they are allowed to return they are officially a man.

Fair enough. That makes sense to me. Being able to survive on one's own is something that makes sense and is relevant to their culture I suppose.

Hockey players also have to go through a hazing. For example, nine "freshmen from the Vermont Catamounts spent a dazed and hellish evening in the team captain's basement, where they were made to strip naked, grab each other's genitals and drink until they vomited."

Sometimes there are "initiation parties that include group masturbation, the shaving of pubic hair, and forced drinking."

Remember, this all makes sense right? If you wanna be respected by the team, you gotta earn it right.

Some "Tilbury Hawks players, Hawks, a junior C team in the Ontario Hockey Association, were told to do pushups and positioned on the floor so that their genitals would dip into cups of beer; whoever did the fewest pushups had to drink both beers."

"In another contest, the team captain placed marshmallows into the rectum of two rookies, with the last one able to push it back out being forced to eat both. Players also were blindfolded and told to lie face-up on the floor with their tongues out, as another person sat on their faces."

Other "rites of passage" include "rookies stuffed naked into the bathroom at the back of team buses, and games of tug of war in which skate laces were tied around rookies' penises. Players had strings tied around their penises, which were then connected to a hanging bucket that other players threw pucks into."

I realize I'm just copying and pasting an article here but it's too good and I can't help myself.

According to "Laura Robinson, the author of Crossing the Line, a groundbreaking 1998 book on violence and sexual assault in Canada's national sport.'The (hazing) you see in hockey is highly sexual.'"

"Robinson, noting that many young players are new to sexual experiences, argues that some of the initiation acts serve as a hidden way for players to explore homosexual urges. 'I think the boys are curious about bodies, but because of their homophobia they had to turn it into something else' -- sexual forms of hazing, she said."

Once again, just a rite of passage.

My intention here was to talk about my experience at the horse track this weekend and how that is also a rite of passage. I was gonna talk about how I feel like more of a man since I blew some cash betting one horses.

But I went over board on my lead in to my little joke and now I'm sitting here kind of disturbed. The next time I watch a game of NHL hockey, all that will cross my mind will be "Shit, I wonder what that poor dude had to do to get to where he is today."

Then I'll wonder "During his time exploring his homosexual urges, I wonder if he enjoyed eating that marshmellow?"

The song I am listening to just said "I remember the fear, I remember the taste." (Shadow by Neurosis).

Damn, how fitting.

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