Badgerland is deflated.
Forlorn. How does one deal with this loss?
Seemingly by reasserting
their pride. Take a look at Twitter, through chats that you may have had with
Wisconsin alumni, or at the top of your Facebook news feed. There’s an
overwhelming outpouring of the word pride or proud. It has become the default
and required assertion. But why?
Pride defined states “a
feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements,
the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from
qualities or possessions that are widely admired”. Let’s give the benefit of
the doubt and say that most people aren’t prideful right now because of their
own achievements. I loathe the idea of “we did it!” The fan in almost all
circumstances has done nothing, outside of a new age belief that some sort of
spiritual energy exists, that it can be good or bad, and that these good vibes
can sway people and events consciously or unconsciously. I’m not opposed to
that idea; mindfulness of this sort has been shown to be beneficial. This is
personal however, and the notion that mindfulness of the self can sway events
in the world is due skepticism, more so considering the Badger loss (what, you
helped them get this far by supporting the players in thought and the
university through mass consumption of their trademarked goods and you’re proud
of it?).
For the second, it’s
possible that one might be content with second best, proud that the Badger
players made it to the national championship round at all. Here, the proud
Badger isn’t wrong in their pride. In a tournament where one must win six games
in a row against presumably increasingly challenging opponents, five isn’t bad
at all. It’s quite good actually! Part of me wants to say no one wants to be
second best, but that’s a very negative view of the whole affair which I will
put aside and let other backseat pundits (like myself) play with.
Continuing with the
definition however presents us a conundrum. How does one feel “a deep pleasure”
in this sort of circumstance? To my understanding pleasure is difficult to
merit in this circumstance. The Badger team with which Badger fans identify
have failed while at the cusp of greatness. How can one be pleased with that?
Often the phrasing of these
cries of pride are hedged with “but I’m still…” The language seems internally
combative, as if there is reason to not be prideful in this circumstance. It
suggests that the Badger fan isn’t always proud of achievement, but in this particular
circumstance they’re proud despite lack of achievement. This would negate our
definition or pride, and it’s possible that the definition above is inadequate,
but for the sake of my play here, I’ll remain with this definition despite this
possible contradiction in Badger pride.
Moreover, the “but I’m still…”
suggests there are people who will lose their fandom and identity attachment at
the moment of failure and hardship. Do these people actually exist? The much maligned
bandwagon fan that only ever associates with winners? I haven’t ever met such a
person. It would be incredibly awkward for one to explain themselves in way
that would allow them to get away with such a thing given the social stigma of
such a betrayal of the credo of fandom, the marriage contract among teams and
supporters that “thou shall support one team through thick and thin.” Whether
the merits of this sort of fandom have any value is up for debate, but not
hear. I’ll briefly say that this seems to fall in line with a lot of other
Western normative values, which we may not need and do at times hurt people who
find themselves drawn to other ways of non-normative fandom.
For the final part of the
definition, the prideful Badger fan may hold narrativization of the events and
actors on the basketball court includes that the play displays positive
qualities they wish to remain associated with. This possible reason for pride
merits further analysis if we’re to be quite literal about it. The Badger
basketball players are doing things on the court of semiotic merit. Repeated
success of passes, post moves, shooting stances, these all might be functional
for the purpose of success at the sport, but may connote ideas and emotional
reactions that go beyond “basketball, yeaaaaah!” My ability to informatively
speculate about whether Frank Kaminsky’s post game reads tenacious or gritty is
based solely on limited experiences viewing the sport with others or listening
to commentators who are paid to divine meaning out of spectacle (which is to
say, their bias is noticed). These connotations, social constructed, would
benefit from research and analysis of a more formal sort.
Suffice it for now that it’s
possible that Badger fans are proud to associate their identities with a
collective that displays positive characteristics publicly through sport.
Moreover, they display them well, openly, and often, all of which bears
admiration. Yet, the timing of this assertion of pride is once again
significant. The Badger players have been doing this all season and in seasons
past, so why state the pride so openly just now. Also, I’d wager that other
programs do very similar stuff, and thus is Badger pride not unique, yet
stating “proud Badger” instead of just “proud” delimits the pride to just those
qualities which might be understood by watching the Badgers. This is an act of
fooling oneself into believing that they’re part of a particular community that
upholds just values. “Badger pride” suggests that other teams and their fans
lack the values that are being attributed to the Badger teams, and if the
values that the Badgers convey are good and just, what does this leave fans of
other teams?
These rhetorical questions
are misleading, I know. There’s no reason that fandom, pride, and the
attributes associated with identity need to be so dichotomous. But when we live
in a world where people can struggle to find their way out of false dichotomies
(gender, sexuality, for example), I feel assuaged in my somewhat snide
condemnation.
Ultimately, pride in
specifically the Badgers and at this particular time leads to questions. The
statement of pride doesn’t easily match up with the dictionary definition upon
examination. So let me cut the word play and get to what we probably know is
going on here. Pride is the word that has been chosen by the community of fans
to show solidarity among themselves as they attempt to cope with defeat and
loss. Combined with the above analysis, pride suggests that their efforts as
fans have merit regardless of the outcome, because they supported a team that
displays values that the community believes are worthy of displaying. Socially
manufactured pride is all the value they can muster after they lost out on intrinsic
joy garnered from witnessing success by those within your imagined community. Pride
is as much an attempt to focus on the potential good as it is defiance of the
idea that their time could have been better spent elsewhere.
Pride is a misstatement of
the experience of being a fan. I believe that the statement of pride in the
Badgers could be reoriented towards the joy of times spent among friends and
family, communing among each other regardless of quality of play or achievement.
It would be a more accurate description of the true value that has been gained
from the play of the Badger teams. Their efforts and the success they achieved
gave cause for us to join together, share good food, drinks, and time all among
one another.
So for this, thank you
Badger players. You’ve given us something to talk about as we go about our
daily tasks. You’ve provided an impetus for friends to get together and laugh
and cheer. It’s arbitrary, in my eyes, that it’s the Badgers that have done
this. Since the verb “thank” looks for an object to part thanks onto, I’ll
thank you.
