Varsity Syndrome: The Unkindest Cut

• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944500104
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Author: Robert Lipsyte
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

Varsity Syndrome: The Unkindest Cut
By: ROBERT LIPSYTE
ABSTRACT: The Varsity Syndrome refers to a selection
process operating within sports which systematically denies
opportunities for participation to the larger portion of the
population. Only those with exceptional talent, who also tend
to be male, can reap the rewards of sport participation that
should belong to all. This process of selection begins in youth
sports and culminates in professional sport events, or high
level amateur competition, which are limited to a very few
individuals. Those who do make it in sports are given
deference that far exceeds their worth or importance to
society. This further isolates them from the mainstream of the
population and, in fact, creates an elite group. Once in this
group, athletes are often exploited by the sports organizations
and media who view athletes as entertainment and com-
mercial resources to be packaged and sold for economic or
political purposes.
Robert Lipsyte is a graduate of Columbia College and The Columbia Graduate
School of Journalism. He worked as a sports journalist for The New York Times
from 1957-1971, at which time he resigned to pursue the writing of books. He is the
author of nine books including Sports World: An American Dreamland and Free to
be Muhammad Ali. He is currently an adjunct associate professor of journalism at
New York University.
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AMERICANS must win back the more than eighty million Americans
natural birthright of their
watch perhaps eighty men act out
bodies, a birthright which has been
our fantasies-The Super Bowl, a
distorted and manipulated by polit-
celebration, we are conditioned to
ical and commercial forces that have
believe, of manliness, courage, fruit-
used sports and physical education
ful labor, pain, endurance, strength
for purposes that often negate the
and achievement, all characteristics
incredible potential for individual
to which every man would aspire to
and community progress that is in-
hold to some degree.
herent in sports-the one human
activity that offers health, fun, and
Var.sity syndrome -sexism
cooperation with the chance to com-
bine physical, mental, and emo-
Confrontation with the varsity
tional energy.
syndrome starts early for boys in any
Sports is the single most in-
neighborhood, the killer word is
fluential currency of mass com-
&dquo;fag.&dquo; Call a boy a fag and he will
munication in the world. Unlike so
have to fight or slink away. The
many other activities-music, art,
homosexual connotation of the word
literature-sports easily hurdles the
is implicit, though not primary.
barriers of age, education, language,
Since we were taught that homo-
gender, social and economic status
sexuals were unmanly, somehow
that tend to divide a population.
&dquo;feminine,&dquo; the word really meant to
Sports has the potential to bring
us that a boy was &dquo;girlish,&dquo; unfit for
us together but the evidence sug-
the company of men. We all &dquo;knew&dquo;
gests it rarely does. In fact, it often
that girls were smaller, weaker, less
further divides communities by pro-
physically skilled. They had no
moting overzealous competition,
place or future in the big leagues of
violence, specialization, profes-
life. Sports taught us that.
sionalization and an attitude of &dquo;win
A boy tried very hard to avoid
at all costs&dquo; that spills over into
being labeled a fag. He might play
other aspects of daily life.
games in which he found no pleasure;
Over the years there have been
he might root for teams that bored
changes, hopeful changes, in sport.
him; he paid constant lip service to
The emergence of the black athlete,
sports. In my day it was, &dquo;Who you
the emergence of the woman athlete,
like better, fella, Mantle or Mays?&dquo;
the proliferation of serious academic
You could answer anyway you wanted
studies of athletes and of, their
to, you could even say &dquo;Duke Snider,&dquo;
impact on our culture are examples.
just so long as you didn’t say, &dquo;who
Yet, there has been no real break-
cares?&dquo; The schoolyard-that no-
through in the attempt to reduce the
womans
land-was a male sanctuary,
effects of a pervasive pattern of
and the first of many arenas in which
emphasis and expectations which
a man
would be tested for his ability
keeps us from realizing the intensive
to perform under stress, with skill
pleasures of sport. I call that pattern
and with the ruthlessness that passes
s
the &dquo;varsity syndrome.&dquo;
for pragmatism.
We experience the effects of the
Sports was the first great separator
varsity syndrome in childhood and
of the sexes. Sometime after kinder-
its influence is lifelong. It begins in
garten, a girl was handed (sym-
kindergarten with &dquo;organized games&dquo;
bolically or literally) the majorette’s
and culminates each year when
baton and told to go in the corner and

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17
twirl. Her athletic moment was over.
traditional: A woman can’t beat a
She now existed only as an en-
man unless he’s a fag or she’s not
courager of males. There were, of
really a woman.
course, girls who dropped the baton
The usual justification for restrict-
and picked up the bat and beat males
ing women from sports competition
at their own games. However, the
-the very first manifestation of the
culture had prepared a way to
varsity syndrome-was that their
combat this seeming inconsistency.
delicate bodies needed protection
Athletically superior boys might be
from physical harm. More realisti-
considered supermen, but athletically
cally, I believe, women were re-
superior women were something
jected to protect the delicate egos
less than real women. They were
of men who have been taught that
locker-room jokes. Boys would tell
their manhood depends on the
each other, she’s playing because
presence of an...