How about putting personality on a pedestal?
OK, so it's been over a week since that Conor McGregor interview landed in GQ magazine but I can't get it out of my head. Well, I suppose I can, but every now and again it pops back into my head, like a sharp migraine. & it irritates me so much that I'm writing this to hopefully gain some closure.
Conor McGregor's rise to fame and fortune has been remarkable. From life in Dublin's Crumlin which apparently included a plumbing apprenticeship, he is now UFC's most banakable star, with an estimated net worth of over €20 million. Having only started his fighting career in 2008 he now commands the biggest pay-per-view draw in MMA and the huge rise in popularity of martial arts can arguably be attributed to him. His athleticism and commitment to his game are certainly admirable. In short, he is kind of a big deal. He's quick witted, outrageously confident and his trash talking is often times quite enthralling. I've openly admitted to liking McGregor in the past and have taken interest in his UFC bouts. I've had a he's-one-of-our-own-and-isn't-it-great-to-see-him-do-well attitude towards him. Which is why some of his comments over the past year have annoyed me so much.
In the opening paragraphs of the GQ article with Zach Baron (incidentally I think Baron did a fantastic job of not glossing over McGregor's attitude throughout this interview) he appears to be somewhat exasperated at a salesperson in Dolce & Gabana, and he explains to Baron that he's "not looking for anything for free, just a measure of respect." Interesting choice of words Conor. Respect is something that must be earned, not demanded.
Respect is certainly not the following remarks that were made during that interview when talking about relaxing at his house in Malibu:
“Maybe I'll search for Khloé's big fat ass—she's been floating around Malibu. I don't give a fuck about them. I just like to see them in the flesh.”
You mean…the Kardashians?
“Yeah, just see what the big fat asses on them look like.”
Just to…admire them from a distance?
“Not about admiring. Admire? Never. What's the saying? Never put the pussy on a pedestal, my friend. I just want to see it. I want to see them.”
Conor demands respect yet seems to think it's ok to view women as nothing more than worthy of ogling. Is that what he spends his spare time doing? Driving around Malibu looking for girls with 'fat asses' to stare at? Rather creepy.
Of course, casual misogyny from McGregor is unfortunately nothing new. He has previous form when it comes to blatant sexism.
In 2016 there was talk of his retirement only for him to release a lengthy, rambling statement on his social media accounts. In it he bemoaned having to talk to "some lady" on "the nobody gives a fuck morning show" so that she could "get her little tight ass a nice raise." This is nothing more than a straight-up insult to any woman who works in the male dominated area of sports journalism (or any woman who works in journalism in general). It attempts to completely undermine the credibility of female journalists and presenters. It presumes that women have no interest in what he's talking about. Like women can't possibly have any real interest in sport because we don't have a penis? Please. Where's the respect here eh Conor?
Over the past year (as my opinion has changed) I've had discussions about McGregor with people where I ask them if they're ok with his cocky and often quite gross attitude, and a lot of the time the response I get back is something like, 'Look what he's done for the sport,' or 'I'm not interested in that I just want to see him fight,' or 'Yeah he's a bellend but he's entertaining.' But being an entertaining bellend is simply not good enough when you've got the platform McGregor has.
He's got 3.4 million followers on Twitter, 10.8 million on Instagram. With such a huge following has to come a certain level of social responsibility. He's not just spouting his misogynistic vitriol to the lads in the pub in Crumlin, his words are read by people all over the world. This makes his immature and ill-informed comments both sleazy and embarrassing at best and dangerous at worst.
Like it or not Conor McGregor has a sizeable influence on society. The rise in man-buns and smart male tailoring over the past few years is not just coincidence. There are swathes of young men up and down the country trying to immitate McGregor. Even some of his catch phrases like 'We're not here to take part, we're here to take over!' have entered the lexicon. Conor himself acknowledges this in the GQ article. "They all want to be me a little. That's a Drake line. All them boys want to be me a little. And it's true as fuck."
The irony that this man was given the RTE Sports Personality Of The Year Award for 2016 is not lost on me. Is that really what we want from our sporting heroes and icons? That they can say whatever sexist remarks they like but as long as they're changing the face of a minority sport in another country, while waving a tricolour around it's ok? He may be making millions, perhaps billions for the UFC but whatever patriarchal bullshit Conor's currently selling, I'm not buying anymore.
Come on lads, we can do better than this. Let's hold our sports stars a little more accountable. Let's raise the personality barrier a little higher.
Let's put personality on a pedestal.
Read the GQ article and see photos here http://www.gq.com/story/conor-mcgregor-gq-style-cover-story