When watching Troy Polamalu on the field just a few of the words that come to mind are strong, fast, and beastly. All of those words are masculine. When talking about him off the field, more feminine words like soft, beautiful, and gentle are usually what people think of. Troy Polamalu’s image on the field is a completely different one from off the field.
On the field, Troy Polamalu is a threat to other teams. He’s hard-hitting and a quick player. Definitely an asset to the Steelers defense since, they drafted him out of college. On the field he is not someone to mess with. He isn’t limited to one position either, after his injury in 2009 he came back and played all over the defense. He’s a threat no matter where he is playing on the field. When you watch him play you do not think of anything but, how masculine and strong he is. Troy Polamalu on and off the field, is like day and night.
Everyone who owns a TV has seen at least one, Troy Polamalu Head and Shoulders commercial. You don’t even have to watch the commercial to think differently of him. All you have to do is listen to his voice. After watching him on the field, that is not the voice you imagine would come from a hard-hitter like Polamalu. Something you do not associate with the male gender is a soft voice. Especially a professional athlete. Now if you actually watch the commercial he exhibits even more feminine qualities. One that everyone notices, is his beautiful, long and curly hair. This is another thing that our society uses to differentiate between genders, hair length. Troy Polamalu has longer and better kept hair than some girls that I know. With those two huge factors, it makes it easy to forget that fast, strong man is the same man with the soft voice, and beautiful hair. Especially since when he talks he’s so calm. Also another thing you do not associate with being masculine. It’s usually women who are calm.
Beautiful hair and soft voice or not, Troy Polamalu is one tough guy. He just so happens to have a lot of feminine features, along with the many masculine features he has.
This is something that I have noticed many times in the past... Troy Polamalu has a very soft voice. It is very unexpected the first time you hear it. But in this case, I think that his performance on the field outweighs his physical characteristics (including voice). I think that if he wasn't a great athlete, then he would probably be more likely to be put down or ridiculed. But the fact that he is such a strong player makes people not even notice these other factors until after the game is over.
ReplyDeleteTroy Polamulu showcases that a man can have a great amount of skill on the field, and yet hold some feminine qualities. It is clear that he isn't scared of what people thing and that he is very comfortable with his sexuality and masculinity. Polamalu is also known for doing feminine workouts. He credits his speed and agility to workouts such as Pilates and yoga.
ReplyDeleteLauren, yoga and pilates are no easy workout, I don't understand why people say they're so femenine. Maybe it's the yoga pants. Anyway, I remember the first time I heard Troy speak off the field. If he didn't play the way he did, I would not expect him to be athletic at all, or at least not a football player.
ReplyDeleteTroy can come off as feminine. He is very soft spoken and his hair kind of does him in. You could of said how he is also very close to his faith and how that could be a feminine thing. Or just not manly. Good Job.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I was going to talk about was how faithful he is. He's very close to God which, like Kaylee said, would more often than not, be considered more feminine. A couple other keys as to how he performs gender would be how athletic he is. I believe Brandon said in his comment that people would question his sexuality if he wasn't so dominant on the field. Also, I like that you mentioned his soft voice, it's very misleading coming from him. You would think that the leader of the most feared defense in the league would have a deep, scary voice, and maybe he does. I'm sure that's another thing he modifies when he's on or off the field.
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