Is it not common for men to razz each other a bit now and then? Though it would be hard to convince Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of this, a little good-natured ribbing never harmed anybody. Abdul-Jabbar took offense to Captain Lee Rosbach, of the Bravo reality show Below Deck, for razzing his crew members in a recent program. Abdul-Jabbar extrapolated that Rosbach's remarks represent Hollywood's "myth of manliness" and the gender-bias equivalent of white people appearing in blackface.
A recent episode of Below Deck shows Captain Lee telling two crew members, “If you girls would like to get off your asses, I’d like to pull the anchor and get out of here."
No harm, no foul? Wrong. Abdul-Jabbar, the retired former Los Angeles Lakers' center, had a conniption fit. He criticized the Bravo show's producers for not editing out those harmful words.
Abdul-Jabbar conceded that Captain Lee intended no malice and crew members Ashton Pienaar and Tyler Rowland laughed and then went back to work. However, he still saw Lee's words dripping with toxic masculinity, sexist and racist overtones:
"Nevertheless, unwitting malice was broadcast and embedded into the infrastructure of our culture with another message that 'girls' is an acceptable synonym for laziness or lack of ambition. It is the same insult sports coaches have been shouting at boys since I was a kid ('You girls put your purses down and try harder'). The question in this case is less why Captain Lee said it than why Bravo did not edit it out. It was the gender-bias equivalent of wearing blackface without realizing that it's offensive. That relentless undercurrent of male toxicity within our hugely influential showbiz culture is like an anchor dragging gender equality beneath the waves."
Abdul-Jabbar threw Captain Lee into a bucket with actor Liam Neeson, comedian Kevin Hart and British chef Gordon Ramsey and dunked on them all for having disturbing pasts. Hart made homophobic jokes years ago, Neeson wanted to kill someone because his friend had been raped and Ramsay appeared on the Tonight Show spewing smarmy frat-boy sexual innuendo and touching actress/model Sofia Vergara without an invitation.
The real villain isn't Neeson, the back-tracking Abdul-Jabbar says, "It's the people who condemn him for telling the story. That backlash perpetuates the traditional Manly Man Code of not admitting your past faults but shoving them deep inside. Such Stone Age stoicism is a contributing factor to why in the U.S. more than four times as many men as women commit suicide. Of course Neeson's violent revenge fantasy was racist — that was his point in telling the story. He had reacted to a tragedy inappropriately but has evolved. Condemning him for sharing feelings is another form of toxic masculinity that discourages men from expressing themselves."
Abdul-Jabbar says most men have "ignorant past behavior that we need to apologize for in a way that both acknowledges pain caused and promotes a more enlightened perspective." He called it a "brave step" for Gillette's advertising campaign asking men to end bullying, sexual harassment and violence.
The Hall of Fame former basketball player dislikes the phrase "male toxicity" and prefers "male myopia." Abdul-Jabbar says toxic masculinity is too accusatory, "as if just by being male we are all guilty of some past or future crime. He prefers to use the term "male myopia," defining it as "society's narrow focus on the myth of manliness," which "prevents us from seeing the bigger picture of its destructive effects."
Abdul-Jabbar has first-hand experience with so-called "male toxicity." In a pickup game, he broke the jaw of pro center Dennis Grey. In NBA games he sucker punched Milwaukee's Kent Benson and also attacked Denver's Danny Schayes. He offers no apology in this Hollywood Reporter rant.
Captain Lee said he's a "woke" person and a fan Abdul-Jabbar's, but he disputes the Hall of Famer's criticisms. The Sun-Sentinel reporter Johnny Diaz writes that Below Deck viewers recognize Rosbach as a tough, no-nonsense captain since he joined the Bravo series in 2013.
