These are a few of my photos from that day
Of course that is my lovely wife Paula
On a Saturday in 2012, Paula cajoled me into taking her to a Clemson home football game. Now I had not been to a live football game since my junior year in high school in 1979. So everything seemed so new and foreign.
As I was a doctoral student at the time, my wife and I sat with the students, almost all of whom are young enough to be our children. As I was not a big football fan, I watched everything else, and about halfway through the game, I realized, everything there was about sex. The young co-eds were not openly provocative in their clothes, but their attire was clearly designed to accentuate their youthful sexuality: very short and/or very tight shorts and low cut and/or very tight tops. Sitting right in front of us were two couples, clearly engaged in the age-old mating ritual of touching and fawning. Before half-time, they left and didn’t return till halfway through the third quarter. The dorms are less than 5 minutes walk from the stadium. My wife and I had no doubt watching them come back they’d been fucking through half-time and were just getting back. We both know what people look like after they’ve had a tryst.
Not that we know what they did, but this couple were really late coming back after half time.
Not that we were offended, jealous maybe, but not offended.
Beyond them, across the 81,500 seat stadium, were literally thousands of other couples doing the same mating ritual. More explicitly down on the field were three groups of cheerleaders. Their outfits ranged from one group in traditional super short mini-dresses to the third group in little more than sequined bikinis. That group interestingly wore no shoes that certainly emphasized their near nudity. For one quarter that last group performed directly in front of where we sat (or stood as often as not). Their dances were far more sexual than those I have seen at some strip clubs. How can anyone not see a nineteen year old girl, in front of a testosterone fuelled crowd, slowly sliding down into full splits as anything but overt sexual simulation and a clear message that this girl would be amazing in bed. It made me wonder how, in the Bible belt, this is acceptable, even normal behavior. Then of course are the players themselves, struggling mightily in their young testosterone filled bodies to show which of them was the most virile and powerful; the most basic of male mammal sexual displays.
To me it seemed clear that the ritual of football, originated in colleges more than a century ago, is clearly little more than a public display of sexual prowess and availability.
Having said that, I need to say; I don’t’ believe that is a bad thing. A college is a hotbed of rampant sexuality barely contained. I see the students and can remember (barely) what it was like to be a perpetually horny twenty year old. The ritual channels that sexual energy and creates traditions and bonds that will last a lifetime for many of these students. As humans our sexuality defines us as a species. Like the mayfly we have but one biological purpose and that is to fuck. And, like our nearest relatives the bonobo apes, we are made to fuck constantly and not just for procreation.
We humans fuck for comradeship, we fuck for entertainment, we fuck competitively to show off, we fuck to feel good about ourselves, we fuck to feel good about our mate, we fuck when we are board, we fuck when we are excited, we fuck when we are down, we fuck when we feel great. We are just made to fuck all the time. We fuck the opposite sex, we fuck the same sex, we fuck our mates, we fuck our friends, we fuck our friend’s mates. And when we can’t fuck we imagine fucking and masturbate. From the onset of puberty till age takes its toll, sex is the core of our existence.
Now some want to say this is not so. They look to art, music, philosophy and religion as man’s search for meaning outside just fucking and dying. I say their search is in vain. I say those things are man’s effort to find meaning while we are fucking.
There are two kinds of people, those who find meaning in power over people and those who find meaning in lifting people up. Those who want meaning through power over people want to be the top, to do the fucking, to penetrate everyone below with their both literal and/or figurative dick, impregnating the world with their seed to live forever through a multitude of offspring. To them the meaning of life is the male sex act. These people are embodies by the college football players.
Those who want to find meaning in lifting people up and make the world a better place; they want to receive the spiritual cock and make beauty out of the aggressive male penetration . They seek to make harmony and peace in their orgasm that draws the seed from the male and to nurture a better future it in their spiritual womb. These people (people like me) seek to live forever by the joy of birthing something better than themselves. To them the meaning of life is seen in the female sex act. These people are embodied by the cheerleaders on the side of the field.
There are men and women who find meaning as a top, the penetrator; and men and women who find meaning as a bottom, the incubator. Ancient fertility religions knew this. We have tried to pretend it is not so for 5,000 years, but in the end, we are what we are.
So, this year when we all watch Clemson defeat Alabama again... realize in it stylized sexual display here in the Deep South the game pretends to be about many things, but in the end football is about the life giving power of sex. And that may be a more honest statement of who we are than you will find in most churches.
Go Tigers!