Glorifying Groupie Culture

[Anonymous]

What is it with sports groupies getting a kind of weird glamor these days? I've discovered a site called Baller Alert where women basically plot how to get a night with an NBA/NFL star athlete, how to get pregnant by him, how get your money's worth out of being a "jump-off" - and that if you want marriage you should apparently date the most stupid athletes of all, with a criminal past and slow, drug-addled brains, because they won't figure out you're a groupie apparently. Like, these women have been on Anderson Cooper and they get reality TV shows like Basketball Wives and it's practically a legitimate career for a certain kind of women.

Doesn't only happen in the pro basketball/football world either. There's this blog called Chasing the Jersey written by a young woman who was a "laxtitute", or lacrosse groupie, when she was at the University of Maryland. She proudly distinguishes herself from the groupies at Baller Alert by saying she never wanted any money despite sleeping with the entire men's lacrosse team at University of Maryland a lot of visiting college lacrosse teams, but it's clear that she desperately seeks validation in other forms from the men that she thinks have the highest social value: WASPy, preppy, wealthy lax players. This girl has a book deal out of it.

When did being a groupie become something you can make money off of? When I was in college, back in the Stone Age, this was something that people looked down on. My DH played lacrosse and I have never known him to have hung out with such trashy, desperate women (then again, I doubt he tells me everything that went on during his bachelor lacrosse days).

[Anonymous]

Sports have become sick.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't it seem just as likely that there have always been super groupies, but it's being discussed online now?

I don't believe this is a brand new phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I mean there are web sites that glorify Anorexia.

[Anonymous]

Maybe we should stop glorifying idiots that can play sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't it seem just as likely that there have always been super groupies, but it's being discussed online now?

I don't believe this is a brand new phenomenon.

+1

[Anonymous]

I went to college nearly ten years ago, and the way I saw lax groupies deliberately degrade themselves was absolutely painful. Throwing themselves at lax guys, offering pre-game fellatio, proudly telling people that so-and-so (from the lax team) complimented her looks/bedroom skills, going back to bed with the same guys who swear at them, kick them out of the apartment, treat them like trash, etc.

Groupies are a sad, sad, sad group. They are amazingly pathetic.

[Anonymous]

And we, as parents of sons, teach our boys to watch sports, play sports, be sports fans, wear sports team logos, go to games, follow ESPN, watch "the big game" with dad, read SI and other sports oriented publications, go to sports camps, etc. etc because....

[Anonymous]

ewwww. But there have always been groupies. In my high school in the late 80's, there were girls who were rumored to have slept with multiple people on the baseball team. (no idea if this was true.) When I used to hang out with guys who rode broncos and bulls in the rodeo (as friends), there were well-known "buckle bunnies" who hung out at the rodeo, hoping to score. I've dated a few pro athletes over the years (mostly minor leaguers) and they definitely had stories about groupies. I think it's just more visible now because of social media and reality TV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I mean there are web sites that glorify Anorexia.

My thought exactly.

[Anonymous]

There have always been groupies. In the sixties and seventies, there were plenty of rock star groupies, and there have been baseball groupies at least since the sixties. They didn't call them groupies back then, they called them Annies. The press didn't talk much about the screwing around that the players did back then, but by the 70's they opened up, an by the 80's you had movies like Bull Durham practically glorifying it.

The situation repeated itself in every sport as the salaries and fame went up.

[Anonymous]

Dated a minor leaguer in the 90s (he was my college boyfriend) and groupies abound! They follow the team bus, frequent the apartment complexes, stadiums, the cheesy motels where the team members stay...

Many hang out outside the guys' locker room after each game and hope to be taken home...

[Anonymous]

Blame the men as well who degrade these women. Can't be groupies without them.

[Anonymous]

before i got pregnant and found this site mainly for expectant moms, i frequented baller alert. its blocked at work so i fine myself here in off topics/general parenting and exercise.

alot of the focus on that site is not just snagging a baller but celebrity gossip, being a baller (go-getter/independent woman) yourself, everything just like here from recipes, to politics and race relations.

hell my husband cited "my little baller alert messageboard" as a reference from what's going on w/pro baller Roy Hibbert during the Wizards/Pacers series.

groupies have been around for a loooong time. and they're not going anywhere. see also: lipstick alley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have always been groupies. In the sixties and seventies, there were plenty of rock star groupies, and there have been baseball groupies at least since the sixties. They didn't call them groupies back then, they called them Annies. The press didn't talk much about the screwing around that the players did back then, but by the 70's they opened up, an by the 80's you had movies like Bull Durham practically glorifying it.

The situation repeated itself in every sport as the salaries and fame went up.

+1 plus Almost Famous, The Banger Sisters