Sports Highlights Reimagined

Sociology professor Beau Weston had a great post yesterday on his blog called Boys Play Sports to Win, Girls Play for Fun: Boys Date for Fun, Girls Date to Win.

This is an insight that comes from teaching the sociobiology of mate selection (through David Buss) and gender differences in communication (through Deborah Tannen) at the same time. Of course there are many individual exceptions. What is interesting to me is the symmetry of the broad trend. ….

When it comes to dating, boys tend to see each date as an end in itself, a fun thing to do with a girl you enjoy. They can play an endless series of dates without asking themselves "where is this relationship going?" They date for fun. Girls, and especially women, often ask themselves "could I marry this guy?" on the first date. They reassess, endlessly, with their girlfriends, at each subsequent step in the relationship. If they can't see the relationship ever leading to marriage, they are likely to end it and move on. They date to win.

Well, today, I was at Brad Wright’s site, another sociology professor, who had a link to some YouTube videos of failed marriage proposals. Man, oh man! Some of these are brutal. It kind of reminds of a moment like…like…like when this happened to Bill Buckner …

So then it occurred to me that if women are inclined to see dating as something you do to win, then wouldn’t a video of the marriage proposal be like the home run in the bottom of the ninth, the half-court shot with clock running out, or the hail Mary pass into the end zone? Staying with the football theme here…

Ohhh! Incomplete pass.

Fumble.

TOUCHDOWN!!! (Complete with a victory lap.)

I don’t know. ESPN could take on a whole different look.