Ellen DeGeneres, the 21st Century Muhammad Ali
ESPN's increasingly irrelevant Bill Simmons this week stupidly compared Tiger Woods return to the PGA Tour to Ali's return from exile in 1970 after five years away from the ring due to the boxer's principled decision to not serve in Vietnam. I won't go into the many ways these cases are different entirely, but it got me to thinking that it's truly Ellen DeGeneres who deserves the Ali comparison, not some golfer who banged a bunch of babes to prove how cool he was.
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Ellen nearly lost everything in the late 1990's because of her open homosexuality. And now, today, she is one of the biggest stars on the planet. Take that, haters.
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Ellen's self titled sitcom was cancelled in 1998 by ABC shortly after she came out ON THE SHOW to her therapist, played by Oprah. Was the show nixed due to low ratings, or because twelve years ago a lesbian was not allowed to have their own primetime show? I think it was the latter. The ratings for "Ellen" may have been mediocre at the time of cancellation, but the episode that involved the outing was apparently a ratings hit. The network, in my opinion, simply ran scared from the controversy caused by Ellen proclaiming loudly and openly her homosexuality.
Much as with Ali during his exile, when the greatest boxer on the planet was denied the right to earn a living and practice his craft by the powers that be in their many shapes, Ellen had to wait out the storm of hatred and mistrust and rebuild her life and career. In 2003 she was given the opportunity to host her own daytime talk show. Many, many celebs have tried their hand at this; it was Ellen who succeeded and, in fact, knocked it out of the park.
Today she continues the talk show and is one of the judges on the most popular television show going, "American Idol." She is a global icon, and a figure of hope to young gays and lesbians nationwide in that her life lets them know that they can be whoever it is that they truly are.
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Tiger Woods is just a fucking golfer. He doesn't have a brave bone in his body, he hits little round balls around a big yard with a club, all without seeming to do any good for the world with his massive wealth. He is what I call a "Bottom Line God" in that he and guys like him (Peyton, Kobe, Shaq, MJ) are out solely for financial gain. In the 1960s in the Civil Rights Era, black athletes such as Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Ali took principled stands on important issues of the day. Those stands may have arisen partially out of naivete to the economic consequences of their actions, but no one can claim that these proud black men lacked courage.
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Me? I'd rather shoot a round with Ellen.
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Ellen nearly lost everything in the late 1990's because of her open homosexuality. And now, today, she is one of the biggest stars on the planet. Take that, haters.
-------------
Ellen's self titled sitcom was cancelled in 1998 by ABC shortly after she came out ON THE SHOW to her therapist, played by Oprah. Was the show nixed due to low ratings, or because twelve years ago a lesbian was not allowed to have their own primetime show? I think it was the latter. The ratings for "Ellen" may have been mediocre at the time of cancellation, but the episode that involved the outing was apparently a ratings hit. The network, in my opinion, simply ran scared from the controversy caused by Ellen proclaiming loudly and openly her homosexuality.
Much as with Ali during his exile, when the greatest boxer on the planet was denied the right to earn a living and practice his craft by the powers that be in their many shapes, Ellen had to wait out the storm of hatred and mistrust and rebuild her life and career. In 2003 she was given the opportunity to host her own daytime talk show. Many, many celebs have tried their hand at this; it was Ellen who succeeded and, in fact, knocked it out of the park.
Today she continues the talk show and is one of the judges on the most popular television show going, "American Idol." She is a global icon, and a figure of hope to young gays and lesbians nationwide in that her life lets them know that they can be whoever it is that they truly are.
------------
Tiger Woods is just a fucking golfer. He doesn't have a brave bone in his body, he hits little round balls around a big yard with a club, all without seeming to do any good for the world with his massive wealth. He is what I call a "Bottom Line God" in that he and guys like him (Peyton, Kobe, Shaq, MJ) are out solely for financial gain. In the 1960s in the Civil Rights Era, black athletes such as Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Ali took principled stands on important issues of the day. Those stands may have arisen partially out of naivete to the economic consequences of their actions, but no one can claim that these proud black men lacked courage.
------------
Me? I'd rather shoot a round with Ellen.
posted by joe sweeney at 1:04 AM
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