it is time to ban “role model” when it is applied to any sporting non-personality. young bryony shaw wins a bronze medal at the olympics and at the end of a very very very gushing thanks she said “fuck” live on tv.
of course the use of the world fuck has brought raging condemnation from at least 14 people, and most of them see themselves as being guardians of the moral fibre of the nation. rather than just chalk up this stray fuck to a heat of the moment enthusiasm it has become a question of what sort of role model is bryony shaw to the youth of the nation?
the simple answer is: no. not in bryony shaw’s wildest dreams is she a role model to the youth of britain.
quite why it is thought that because you are good at sports you somehow have the answers or that you should be held up to scrutiny. after all most successful sportsmen are selfish; they have to be in order to get to the top. they have to have supreme belief in their own abilities, they have to have a belief that winning is what it is all about.
these are not qualities that scream empathy.
add to the mix that top sportsmen are paid far beyond that of ordinary mortals and we have moved beyond the realms of shared experience.
the lessons that we can learn from sportsmen are that regardless of naturally ability success comes when it is mixed with blood sweat and tears.
we may want our sportsmen to be nice people, but really what we want them to do is to win. that is their job. as we have turned sportsmen into celebrities we have also given them the additional job of being role models. it is easier to point to the behaviour of these role models than it is to point out that parents may have let their children down, that more and more we abrogate responsibility to anyone.
it must be hard to be a sportsman (or for that matter a minor celebrity) so let us make their jobs a little easier by stop branding them role models.
3 comments:
Let's be honest, not just in sports but in a lot of areas of life many of the very top people, the very ones that idiots hold up as 'role models', will be selfish gits. Sports, even business - do we think most enormously successful businessmen become so because they are paragons of honour, virtue and charity or because they are ruthless, single minded bastards? Even in the arts while some rise on word of mouth and genuine talent others get there on mediocre talent but shameless PR and self promotion. Obviously not every successful person in every sphere of endeavour, but a fair amount I'd bet.
harmless comment from a lovely young person who had just seen 12 years hard work pay off!
I've met her twice and she was wonderfully polite both times.. my daughter looks up to her as a role model and I think she's a great one!
To achieve your dream must be incredible, I couldn't care less about a silly mistake she made at that moment.
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