|
Post by robeiae on May 31, 2021 13:42:47 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/sports/tennis/naomi-osaka-quits-the-french-open.htmlShe has countless performing douchebags defending her on social media with the magic bullet of "mental health." Professional athletes--who get paid millions because of their ability to play a game of one sort or another--have to do what teams and/or tournament officials ask them to do, as long as it's reasonable. Giving press interviews is a reasonable request. I watched the Coca-Cola 600 last night. Kyle Larson smoked the field. And they interviewed him on the track after he won; he did it because it's part of his fucking job. Not only that, they also interviewed drivers who got smoked by Larson. And they did it too because it's a part of their fucking jobs. I have zero sympathy for Osaka. Zero. If she really has "mental health" issues, she should step away and deal with them, not use them as a cudgel to silence criticism of her dipshittery.
|
|
|
Post by Optimus on May 31, 2021 14:59:34 GMT -5
Agreed. I used to have some respect for her due to her talent but she's quickly becoming a spoiled, whiny brat. She expects people to believe that the thousands of hours of grueling practice, losses, injuries, and tremendous pressure of performing at the level of the world's elite athletes is fine, especially with the millions of riches and fame that follow, but one reasonable question from a reporter after a loss can cause some sort of clinically depressed psychotic break.
GTFO of here. This is about as stupid and clear-cut bullshit as when Serean Williams tried to claim she was the victim of sexism because she was punished for obvious cheating, which her coach admitted to doing, and throwing tantrums on court that several men have been punished worse for.
To me, crap like this just comes across as famous people who are desperately thirsty for as much attention as possible discover that they can get even more attention for trying to portray themselves as some sort of victim so they can rise up and become the next general in the culture wars.
Lebron with his brain dead "black people are hunted every time they walk out their front door" and public fellating of China, Serena with her "I threw tantrums, broke the rules, was busted cheating, and have gotten away with shit for years but I'm only being punished now because tennis is suddenly sexist/racist," and Osaka's "I can handle high pressure for millions of dollars but questions from reporters are mental abuse." All of it so transparently performative. All of it incredibly pathetic.
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on May 31, 2021 20:00:36 GMT -5
Is there really much of a political angle here?
I read through the NYT piece and thought: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud supposedly said.
But I dunno, maybe I'm missing something here.
|
|
|
Post by Optimus on May 31, 2021 22:31:11 GMT -5
I don't see where anyone suggested there was a political angle to this.
|
|
|
Post by mikey on May 31, 2021 22:55:50 GMT -5
I don't see where anyone suggested there was a political angle to this. Perhaps the thread title threw some people off?
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on Jun 1, 2021 0:16:54 GMT -5
I don't see where anyone suggested there was a political angle to this. Did you read the thread title?
|
|
|
Post by Optimus on Jun 1, 2021 0:58:28 GMT -5
I don't see where anyone suggested there was a political angle to this. Did you read the thread title? Oh, haha! No, I actually didn't. Sometimes when I'm bored I just click on the links that have the "new" tag beside them and start reading the post without paying any attention to the thread title. Oh well. Serves me right. Stepped right into that one. I think perhaps a victimhood mindset is what explains this, unless she's made some more politically overt statements (ideologically speaking, I mean) that I just haven't seen.
|
|
|
Post by robeiae on Jun 1, 2021 7:53:56 GMT -5
Well, I think the angle--which is not political in a strict ideological sense, true enough--comes from the pack of rabid cultural warriors who are defending her with tooth and nail. Many are using the "mental health" angle like Osaka is using it and anyone who dares criticize her is obviously a privileged cis-gendered white male...or simply a racist pig. Then there's the performative shit like this (coming from the usual suspects): And businesses who are largely responsible for how this all works are predictably trying to flip the script: And of course garbage people on the Right (Piers Morgan) are willing to provide more than enough ammo: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9636993/PIERS-MORGAN-Narcissistic-Naomis-cynical-exploitation-mental-health-silence-media.htmlIt sucks, but the the lines are there, with regard to the twitterati and loud little handfuls, imo.
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on Jun 1, 2021 18:02:42 GMT -5
Well, I think the angle--which is not political in a strict ideological sense, true enough--comes from the pack of rabid cultural warriors who are defending her with tooth and nail. I dunno, I think I get what you're saying here, but that seems like another way in which the thread title doesn't really add up for me. A bunch of people are commenting on social media about something that happened in the tennis world, but that's hardly much of an invasion. (Or, if it is an invasion, the tennis honchos are essentially just shrugging it off, it would seem.) Sorry, you lost me here. Osaka and others on social media are calling people racist? Or just the social media users? And I'm not sure I grok your problem with mental health here. You keep putting it in quotation marks. Is depression not a real mental health issue? Or is it more that she's faking it and doesn't actually have depression? (Full disclosure: I don't follow women's tennis, so there may be some elements in this story that are just going over my head here.)
|
|
|
Post by robeiae on Jun 1, 2021 19:11:43 GMT -5
When I say they're using it like Osaka is using it--the "mental health" angle--I mean that they're just saying "mental health" as a justification for her decision to not do the media interviews she is required to do, as if the words alone represented rock-solid evidence that Osaka is struggling with real mental health problems and should be entitled to special treatment (and again, if she really has some problems, she should have just stepped away from the get-go, imo). Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Social media is hardly the place to either announce it or argue about it. And yeah, people who question their logic in this regard are getting called racists and privileged and so on.
Moreover, Osako has been quite outspoken on BLM and other political causes, and has been more than happy to use the media when it suites her. And not for nothing, she's quite wealthy now. She's not owed anything by the French Open people, the WTA, or anyone else.
Beyond that, I think you're really being way too literal on the thread title. Clearly--I think, at any rate--the "invasion" should be read as hyperbole. That was my intention and after all, it's one incident/one person.
But the main issue in my mind is the idea that someone can say "mental health," essentially rewrite the rules/requirements for their job, and have that be respected as a matter of course. Fuck, it's turned into a "national conversation." You really don't see a relationship to the woke/progressive pov here?
Consider for a moment how much shit--fully deserved shit--people got for trying to claim that a special medical exemption existed that would allow them to go maskless last year. They even were printing up stupid little cards to show people. That's not political per se, but he people doing it were pretty much all MAGA assholes. It was an issue of "freedom" at the end of the day. And I think it far to see a political angle there, just as I think there's a political angle here. And again, the lines that have formed are pretty clear.
|
|
|
Post by prozyan on Jun 1, 2021 19:41:58 GMT -5
She expects people to believe that the thousands of hours of grueling practice, losses, injuries, and tremendous pressure of performing at the level of the world's elite athletes is fine, especially with the millions of riches and fame that follow, but one reasonable question from a reporter after a loss can cause some sort of clinically depressed psychotic break. I think Opty summed it up very well.
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on Jun 1, 2021 20:05:53 GMT -5
When I say they're using it like Osaka is using it--the "mental health" angle--I mean that they're just saying "mental health" as a justification for her decision to not do the media interviews she is required to do, as if the words alone represented rock-solid evidence that Osaka is struggling with real mental health problems and should be entitled to special treatment (and again, if she really has some problems, she should have just stepped away from the get-go, imo). Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Social media is hardly the place to either announce it or argue about it. And yeah, people who question their logic in this regard are getting called racists and privileged and so on. Understood. I was just wondering if Osaka had been playing the race card herself, as I thought maybe that was potentially something I'd missed.
Understood. (Although to be fair, she doesn't come across to me as especially hostile toward the media or anything. Didn't she point out that a lot of people in the tennis media had been really nice to her?)
Nah, I understood it as a metaphor and all that, so I don't think I'm quite taking it literally. But I dunno, I guess I would see more of an issue in a case where decision-makers were actually bending to social media blowback. (To be fair, I guess that can still happen later down the road, of course.) I guess I don't quite see that as what's happening here. I got the sense that she was willing to accept the fines, but that things escalated when the higher-ups indicated that they might go farther than that. (Which seems kind of weird to me. I think the norm in these types of situations--Marshawn Lynch, Kyrie Irving, etc-- is that athletes just pay the fines and move on.) But OK, I get that this isn't football or basketball, and the tennis peeps can ultimately do what they want I guess. Still, if they put her in a position where she had to choose between doing the interviews or simply not playing, then I guess she's accepting that and choosing the latter. To me, that seems fine. It doesn't strike me as anything to get upset over, really. (Beyond that, I understand you also think she's trying to silence her critics, which I can understand as something to be upset about, but I am not sure I really see her as guilty of that.)
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on Jun 1, 2021 20:13:50 GMT -5
She expects people to believe that the thousands of hours of grueling practice, losses, injuries, and tremendous pressure of performing at the level of the world's elite athletes is fine, especially with the millions of riches and fame that follow, but one reasonable question from a reporter after a loss can cause some sort of clinically depressed psychotic break. I think Opty summed it up very well. I took her to be saying almost the opposite, though. From the NYT article: According to her, the depression was initially tennis-related, not media-related. But I think perhaps she sees a connection, insofar as the media stuff might exacerbate the issues she's been dealing with.
|
|
|
Post by prozyan on Jun 1, 2021 20:33:35 GMT -5
I think Opty summed it up very well. I took her to be saying almost the opposite, though. From the NYT article: According to her, the depression was initially tennis-related, not media-related. But I think perhaps she sees a connection, insofar as the media stuff might exacerbate the issues she's been dealing with. I wasn't aware a person picked up depression, like a common cold, from random events.
|
|
|
Post by michaelw on Jun 1, 2021 20:55:13 GMT -5
I took her to be saying almost the opposite, though. From the NYT article: According to her, the depression was initially tennis-related, not media-related. But I think perhaps she sees a connection, insofar as the media stuff might exacerbate the issues she's been dealing with. I wasn't aware a person picked up depression, like a common cold, from random events. I dunno, I'm not an expert on depression. But if someone says they suffer from it, I tend to be fine w/ accepting it, unless there's some clear reason not to. (In any case, while a tennis tournament is certainly a random event for me personally, I can see how it might be a lot more than that for a pro tennis player.)
|
|