I have to admit, when I saw the photographs of the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team celebrating their gold medal victory, I felt a twinge of disapproval. I wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something that seemed, well, off.
After a bit of reflection, I’ve decided it was the presence of cigars.
In our culture, smoking is seen as a type of evil. It’s the visual antithesis of purity, and obviously, whatever image the Olympics are hoping to project out into the world, we know that’s not it. I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw an Olympic athlete light up after winning gold, so really, it should come as no surprise that there’s been some censorious chatter about the on-ice celebration that included beer guzzling and cigar smoking.
I have no doubt that the fact that it’s women and not men being criticized for this is an essential subtext to the story, but I don’t think it’s the story. Clearly, cigars are obnoxiously masculine, but more than that they’re plutocratic. Cigars are potent symbols of professional entitlement and a visual declaration of Alpha status.
Think of a man, leaning back and confidently lighting his cigar. Think of how much you instinctively hate him.
He’s an asshole, that guy. Emitting a cloud of toxic smoke, he’s only too delighted to seize control of an environment and subjugate those around him to the fallout of his privileges. In fact, that’s probably the point. The cigar says, “ I DON’T CARE IF YOU THINK I’M A DICK. SUCK IT.”
In the context of the warrior culture of sports, a cigar is just as much—if not more—a celebration of your opponent’s loss, as it is your own victory. It’s money and power and sex, the sort of thing a star jock lights with a $100 bill, and it suggests a celebration of the individual rather than the accomplishment.
It’s obnoxious, in short.
What I expect upset some people when they saw the photographs was not so much that the women were “behaving like men,” but that in their celebration they were emulating the spirit of professional athletes rather than amateur ones.
JC:
There's been altogether too much coverage of the Olympics, the spectacle of the Olympics, I think. Our role in it has been endlessly parsed, with virtue and failing being found in every solitary act. Those that criticize the women because there was an underage drinker, or because they put their sport further in jeopardy ( Women's Hockey might be eliminated because of a competitive imbalance, as Canada and the USA are at least a generation ahead of the other nations) by their celebration, are rationalizing after the fact. They just didn't like the way that it looked, and I think you're right, this is the single greatest athletic moment the women's team will likely achieve, and we should give them so leeway.
ceci n'est pas un cigare!
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Hey MM,
As always I love your piece and your perspective (and also the fact that I can access your blog). I'm horribly disappointed to read the media and hear the individual criticism of the team's celebration. As JD would say forchrissake they just won a gold medal - and given that they are women (no subtext just fact) this is probably the highest public accolade they will receive as they don;t get a shot at NHL glory. The IOC, the press (only ppl that witnessed and whipped up this paper-selling "scandal") and plain old folk need to give their head's a check - it's a remarkable achievement and simply an insane over reaction to some low-key & well deserved celebrating.
OK that's me climbing down off my soap box. Jx