I was heading westbound on Irving Parkto the El (the public train system in Chicago) from my girlfriend’s house this afternoon when I heard a chorus of yelling and horn-honking. As I got to Irving Park and Broadway, I saw two elderly cab drivers yelling at each other in the middle of the street. One of their cabs was partially blocking the intersection, and a bus was trying to get through. As soon as I started watching the two men started grabbing each other by the shoulders and trying to punch each other. I started to run over to the street, wanting to break up the fight but not quite sure how, when I noticed the crowd of men near the cab drivers and on all four corners cheering them on. There were at least ten, maybe fifteen men, made up of random passers-by and construction workers, yelling at the men. All of them had these humongous smiles on their faces, and were yelling things like “Knock him down!” or “Hit him in the face!” Literally all of the men that passed by except a bus driver and I were yelling for one of the men (it didn’t seem to matter which one) to do this or that to the other man. When one fell on top of the other, people went even crazier. Eventually, the two decided that their fight wasn’t worth it, and one helped the other up.
Much could be said about the fight itself, although I have no idea what it was about. But what was most disturbing to me was the reactions of the men surrounding them. The looks on their faces were sickening. It was like they were at a sporting event, only they didn’t have a specific team they were rooting for. These two men were at least in their sixties, if not older, and both appeared somewhat frail. They were almost fighting in slow motion—after they would make some kind of move on each other, they would wait for a period of a few seconds, like they had to catch their breaths before moving again. These men could’ve done serious damage to each other, especially when the one fell on top of the other. Yet the men surrounding them were acting like the two were prizefighters in a boxing ring.
The whole encounter made me think a bit about sports and masculinity. The surrounding men’s reactions showed no regard for either of the men fighting, but rather simply for the desire to see violence transpire in front of them. It wasn’t about the people and their conflict, but how their conflict was carried out and could gratify and excite the men watching. They treated it like an entertaining sports event. I wonder how the viewing of sports affected this spectacle of violence was treated. I know there have been studies done on participation in sport and propensity towards violence (like this, for example), but I wonder about watching sports and attitudes towards violence. The first thing that comes to my mind is the excellent documentary by the Media Education Foundation “Wrestling with Manhood,” but it’s easy to say that grossly exaggerated violence like pro wrestling has an effect on perceptions of violence. But what about sports like basketball and football? Admittedly, I am somewhat of a basketball fan NBA’s channel on YouTube and watch the highlight reels on a regular basis), but the hypermasculinity on display during those games is so disturbing to me. I mean, the ultimate play in basketball is to dunk in someone’s face, as they’re trying to block you. It makes commentators, fans, and players go nuts, oftentimes with the player doing some kind of in-your-face taunt to the defender afterwards. And we all know of the hypermasculine behaviors constantly taking place in football.
Regardless of these questions about larger social trends, what I saw today was deeply disturbing and really showed me the tangible effects of the valorization of these hypermasculine behaviors. I saw two old men engage in a fistfight in the middle of a busy intersection and an entire crowd of men gratified by the sight of it. And it deeply disturbed me.
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