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AROUND THE WEB:
-- University of Rhode Island kinesiology professor Kyle Kusz has a problem with Tom Brady.
Kusz authored a chapter in a recently published book titled, The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport, in which he takes aim at Brady's white masculinity.
And buckle up because this work is a doozy.
In the chapter titled, "Making American White Men Great Again: Tom Brady, Donald Trump, and the Allure of White Male Omnipotence in Post-Obama America," Kusz tries to use evidence to prove that, like Donald Trump, Brady has gained popularity because of "latest wave of white rage and white supremacy" that he says developed since the Obama presidency along with a "disturbing racial reaction among white conservatives in response to the idea that a black man would be [president>."
Kusz' chapter description is as follows:
In this chapter, I critically examine cultural representations—advertisements, journalistic accounts, social media, documentaries, and even film and television cameos—of New England Patriots' quarterback, Tom Brady to show how they articulate with many similar racial, gender, and class ideas and affects that organize the Trump campaign and presidency. More specifically, I illuminate how Brady's white masculinity is often coded as unapologetic about his socio-economic privileges, omnipotent in his manliness, and as a master of his body and athletic craft. In short, Brady embodies a living fantasy of white male omnipotence that serves symbolically as an imagined solution to white male anxiety for those who feel that the United States is in the midst of a culture war against white men and traditional American culture and values. In each of these ways, cultural (and self-) representations of Brady's white masculinity showcase the new preferred representational logics used to render white masculinity visible within this latest wave of backlash politics that extends from the Trump White House through popular culture to the online spaces that brought the alt-right life. At stake in this politics is the renewal of white male prerogative as the taken-for-granted governing logic of American civic life.
The chapter analyzes Brady in terms of both his representation in the media and his "relationship with Trump," to determine what these factors can "tell us about the specific ways that white masculinity is being re-coded and re-centered in post-Obama American culture."
Kusz also looks at "the complex racial, gender, and class meanings that have been articulated with Brady's body and his performances of white masculinity in the context of a backlash against the Obama presidency" and of "Trumpism," which he says is also rooted in both race and gender.
He also says the style of Brady's 2015 Under Armour commercial "would not seem out of place in Leni Reifenstahl's infamous Nazi propaganda film, 'Triumph des willens'" because of its military references and red and black colors.
On the URI website, Kusz says his research "critically examines the patterns and particularities of the stories told about white men in popular culture, reading them as politicized allegories of particular moments in history. Thus far, my work has focused on stories produced in American sport media—especially the realms of spectacle, film, and celebrity. I conceptualize these stories as under-theorized political terrains that play a key pedagogical role in forming how various publics make sense of the changing ideas of race, gender, class, and nationalism that circulate in culture."
-- In other Tom Brady news, the recipe for the Patriots quarterback's favorite smoothie was published this week on the TB12 website, along with more insight into his morning routine.
Brady's day starts at 6 a.m., the post says, and he then drinks 20 ounces of water with electrolytes followed by the smoothie.
The smoothie includes walnuts, almond milk, hemp milk, blueberries and bananas. And, of course, TB12 Whey Protein Isolate.
Start your mornings off like the GOAT. https://t.co/X75GTRxw0M
— beantownbeatdown (@beantwnbeatdown) September 25, 2019Tom's favorite smoothie is loaded with healthy ingredients that help lower inflammation and fuel his training — and now you can make it at home! #BetterBreakfastDayGet The Recipe: https://t.co/f6lBIWzoMG
— TB12 (@TB12sports) September 25, 2019QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Guys were dropping like flies out there and he just kept getting back up. There were a lot of big hits that he took on a very hot day, and just proud of him, what he's accomplished." -- Tom Brady, on Josh Gordon
