Feminist Looking Glass

There’s something strange about the way the University of Notre Dame is being silent about the latest controversy related to its football team.  The controversy is about University of Hawaii football coach, Greg McMackin, using the term “this little faggot dance” to describe a dance performed by Notre Dame players at a banquet prior to the teams’ game in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl.  (Most of the media has elected not to use the exact words in its reports, instead describing it as “derogatory” and/or “a homosexual slur.”  The Idaho Statesman, for one, has used the exact words, and has a link to the audio of the statements made by McMackin.  If you listen to the audio, note the amount of laughter in the audience each time McMackin uses the word “faggot.”)

McMackin is, correctly and thankfully, being castigated.  At first, he apologized to the Notre Dame athletic director and made at least four public apologies.  Now, he has been suspended for 30 days without pay by the Univeristy of Hawaii and has “volunteered” to take an additional 7 percent pay cut from his $1.1 million salary.  In addition, UH said it will use the money from McMackin’s suspension to “fund an intern for a gay/lesbian group as well for other awareness efforts.”

The Universtity of Hawaii’s Chancellor, Virginia Hinshaw, said “We all recognize that Coach McMackin made a serious mistake that has hurt many people and brought negative attention to our state and university.  He is clearly remorseful — as well as he should be.”

Well, at least the University of Hawaii has taken steps and has acknowledged that McMackin’s words have “hurt many people.”  But what about Notre Dame?  As far as I can tell, no Notre Dame official has made any comment.  However, it did allow its football coach, Charlie Weis, to issue a statement.  Weiss said:

Yesterday, Coach McMackin demonstrated poor judgment when, while making comments critical of our football program, he used a derogatory word. Speaking only for our football program, we were offended by the remarks.

Note that Weis said nothing about how McMackin’s statement was another in a long line of homophobic statements in the sports world and is offensive to many people.  No, all that Weis cared about was that he didn’t want that slur applied to his team.  In other words, it would apparently be okay with Weis if McMackin had used the slur against other teams, he just didn’t want it used against his own team.  After all, Notre Dame is a team of masculine men!  Moreover, by saying that McMackin used “poor judgment,” the implication by Weis is that it would have been okay for McMackin to use those words in other situations, just not in a public utterance, and certainly not in relation to the Notre Dame football team.

It would be appropriate for Notre Dame to make a comment.

Filed under: GLBT, Sports Tagged: | Charlie Weis, Gay rights, media, Notre Dame, Religion, Sports