What is up with the ass smacking? I cannot think of any other context where a person will touch the ass of another person to whom he is not sexually attracted. Do you do this? Why?
It’s a quick and easy way of expressing approval of something someone’s done. It’s not a sexual thing any more than gang showers after a game. There’s an odd sort of camaraderie that builds with playing team sports, which breaks down a lot of cultural barriers about dealing with the bodies of people.
It is less offensive than smacking them on the dick. :dubious:
Truly, it’s functionally the same as smacking someone on the back of the shoulder.
It always seemed most prominent in football to me. In that sport, a shoulder smack may go completely unnoticed because of the pads. The butt makes a reasonable place to smack that’s unpadded, I suppose. Another thing I’ve seen in football, probably more often than an ass-smack, is a smack on the helmet. I suspect that ass-smacking is less prominent in sports where other gestures, like a smack on the back and/or shoulder are less hindered by the equipment. That is, I don’t ever recall seeing a guy smack another guy on the butt in Basketball.
Also, I think Diomedes hit on a pertinent point. The sexual nature of that gesture is completely non-existent in the context of sports. I can’t imagine that a guy who just made an outstanding play or one of his teammates who is excited enough to congratulate him for it could possibly have anything but the immediate events on his mind. Further, the “personal space” concept pretty much goes right out the window in most competitive sports because of the contact involved.
To the other questions, I don’t recall every personally smack the ass of one of my teammates. I do recall having others do it to me. It was not the least bit uncomfortable at the time.
I’ve sometimes wondered if there was, in addition to the explanations alread offered, a small, subconscious element of “I’m so macho I can smack another guy on the ass, or can take it if he does it to me.” That it comes out in this way probably has something to do with the high energy, adrenaline and spontaneity of the moment.
I can also see these elements present when I observe atheletes who are celebrating hug each other groin-to-groin (you don’t ever see this in everyday life) or even go so far as to kiss each on the mouths.
None of these behaviors have anything to do with sexuality or attraction; in fact, these acts are quite the opposite of what I would expect to see in an instance where everything would be done to suppress behavior suggestive of any type of attraction at all.
I really don’t think there’s any of that element. I think it’s much more indicative of how men’s discomfort with touching other men is a social construct, and not a natural aversion.
I do with other men. To women… not so much. I wish the gals would get in the spirit too though. Not sure why that’s never caught on.
Nice drive, Nancy!
Slaps butt
Thanks Sue and great putt!
Slaps butt
Yeah, I could get behind that.
True, but these same men live in that same society and something allowed them to overcome that constraint – and not in place where breaking away from that otherwise constrained behavior is hidden away from the society at large.
An even better question would be, why do people NOT smack each others’ buttocks outside of athletic competitions?
Wasn’t there an episode of Friends where Chandler’s boss did the butt-smack thing in the office? Everyone was into it but Chandler.
Anyway, as an athlete I have found myself butt-smacking during sports. I don’t do it in random pick-up games but when I played on organized teams with people I knew well it was the norm. I think in general it would happen when someone did something good and was running past me to get back in position or get on defense, what have you, and with one hand you high-five as they pass and spin with the other and give em a butt-smack. I guess it was just logistically more sensible then slapping at their back or shoulder once they have passed. Now days it’s more about chest-bumping or doing the run-jump-spin and hit shoulders. Only the old school do the butt-smack.
We do it in the Army all the time, but that’s because there’s a low, low percentage of gays in it. It’s never congradulatory, though. It’s more of a joking-around kinda thing. We usually say “Good game” anyhow, intentionally being ironic. It’s meant to catch the other person off guard, surprising them, thus the humor.
Are you saying you do this just after some kind of sport, or after ANY kind of group activity?
Wait, if there were lots of gays in the Army you wouldn’t do it? Why, if it’s not sexual?
You’re entitled to your opinion and personal experience I guess, but in all my years in the Army I’ve never slapped a guy’s ass, nor had my ass slapped, nor seen any guy (or female for that matter) slap someone else’s ass.
It Seems To Me that ass-slapping was a lot more common in the past. In the seventies it seemed like everybody would get an ass slap after every play. It seems a lot less common now.
Because it’s one of the few socially-sanctioned ways for homophobic and/or overcompensating macho dudes to touch other dudes’ asses.
Dudes touch each other all the time in Korea (and other Asian countries I’ve been to like China and Japan). Things like touching other guys on the arm while gesticulating or butt smacking just as a greeting, sans sports. And alot of draping arms over shoulders. When I got here from the States I was really uncomfortable for a while but now it feels pretty much natural for me–anything can become the norm if everyone else does it.
Because athletes have sweet asses.
Did you ask everybody their orientation or did they just tell you it?