The Game

The Game

The Game is a show about men who play for a fictional San Diego football team called the Saber’s and the wives and mothers that support these athletes. The Wives of the players, and in the case of Saber’s star quarter back Malik Wright, his mother are all a part of a wives organization called the Sunbeam’s. In Episode 12 the Saber’s Center, Clay, came out mistakenly to quarter back Malik, thinking that he was gay as well. In episode 13 it gets out to the rest of the team that Clay is gay (ha that rhymes) and the Saber’s franchise tries to out Clay by publically recognizing him as the first openly gay player in the league to bring publicity to the franchise. In Season 3, Episode 13 of The Game there are representations of minoritizing and universalizing discourses of sexuality.

This episode shows minoritizing discourses in several ways. When Clay comes out to Malik, certain teammates were at Malik’s house for dinner and strippers. All the players but Clay left before dinner was done. When Malik was cooking, Clay and Malik were having a very ambiguous conversation. Malik was thinking that they were conversing about women while Clay was referring to him and Malik. Clay then grabs Malik from behind and professes that he wants to put Malik “to bed”. Malik having his male friends over to watch female strippers is a minoritizing discourse in the case that Malik assumes all of his male friends are straight because they are his teammates. The fact that they are all men on a football team watching strippers sits well with the viewing audience because of the hetero-normative thinking that the audience posses that norm is the center. (Transgeneration ppt) The way that Malik singles Clay out because of his sexuality shows that Malik’s hetero-normative ways of thinking makes Clay not normal in his mind because of Clay’s sexuality which also shows a minoritizing discourse. In an attempt to make Clay feel accepted in his “gayness” the Sunbeam’s invite Clay’s partner to a meeting. When his partner arrives he is being talked about this is minoritizing homosexuals even though there was an attempt to universalizing them with inviting him to the Sunbeam’s meetings.

Even though, Malik acts as the minoritizing factor in the situation. The Saber’s as a franchise try very hard to universalize the fact that they have a gay football player on their team. The coach does not discriminate against Clay for his sexuality. He just encourages Clay and Malik to get along. The Saber’s as a franchise try to shine light on the situation of Clay being gay to bring money and publicity to the franchise. After the Sunbeam’s were caught making fun of Clay’s partner they apologize and proceed to take Clay’s partner in as a Sunbeam ignoring the fact that he is the only male and that he is gay. This shows universalism.

James Lull defines hegemony as the power or dominance that one social group holds over others (Lull, Hegemony).  This episode of The Game shows the hegemony between the homosexuals and the heterosexuals. The heterosexual football players on the team try to dominate Clay as a homosexual. There are several jokes made by the team even though there was an effort to universalize homosexuality by outing Clay.            

Even though there were both universalizing and minoritizing factors in this episode of The Game. I am not sure if I can appreciate the way that homosexuals were represented in the episodes. Clay is a big burley man who you wouldn’t expect to be gay however his partner was a very feminine man who even declared that he wore Seven Jeans. This shows how the media presents a homosexual couple through heterosexual tendencies.

Lull, J. (1995). Hegemony. Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach.
Links: Stay Fierce Malik 1/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVMU2i_854M
          Stay FierceMalik2/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GE29yDJtwE&feature=related