#and how all of this directly leads to misogyny homophobia transphobia etc. that's already so rampant in professional sports and our society

[austronauts]

Straight dudebro males in the hockey fanbase are incredibly and weirdly obsessed with mitch’s body and i beg them to STOP before they embarrass themselves further. PLEASE. 

Like, we know that men have been creepily fixated on Mitch’s body way before Mitch was even drafted to the NHL. It is genuinely impossible to look for old Mitch content without stumbling across at least 3 articles and disturbingly robust online discourse about how small and scrawny and “unfit for the NHL” he is but - 

Y’ALL. I! CANNOT! iMAGINE! the ENTITLEMENT of being some 38 yr old man, someone who listens to the Joe Rogan podcast and lives in a gaseous cloud of his own protein shake farts, thinking HE knows MORE about what Mitch’s body should or shouldn’t look like than MITCH HIMSELF (who’s been playing elite-level hockey since he was basically an ultrasound and is litchrally one of the best current players in the NHL) and MITCH’S TEAM OF TRAINERS (for whom maintaining hockey players’ bodies is their LITERAL ASS JOB) 

i am begging them to formulate a better understanding of the sheer range and variety of what athletic bodies can look like, and get it through their calcified gigachad brains that most elite athletes’ bodies are perfectly and painstakingly optimized to best succeed in their specific sport and roles! AND that having bulging biceps and a six-pack are not at all indicative of a person’s athleticism! How do EYE, a sentient potato with a wifi connection, KNOW THIS better than THEM. Like huh? You want Mitch to suddenly become Dwayne the Rock Johnson sized? But you’re still going to expect him to maintain his level of speed and ability to weave intricate plays? It doesn’t work that way, Brockinley.

i also bring this up because sooo much of the straight dudebro men’s obsession with mitch is SO mired in toxic/outdated notions of masculinity and plain old body shaming that have absolutely zero grounding in reality.

Like, “too soft and too weak”? He’s almost always one of the players who logs the most minutes on the ice, and is on both the penalty kill and the powerplay.

He “doesn’t care”? Do you think he would’ve lasted as long with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a franchise that has one of the meanest and rabid fanbases, if he did not care about hockey, his team, or winning.

It’s just so abundantly clear that these eejits’ definition of “strong” or “cares about his team” depend entirely on how many brawny teeth-shattering hits a player is willing to make or take. And I hate this because it’s this kind of idiotic perception that DIRECTLY perpetuates the exploitation of players’ bodies and culture of ignoring/minimizing short-term and long-term injuries in professional sports. 

And sure, Mitch is one of the most prominent young athletes in the NHL right now playing for one of the biggest NHL franchises. And you can’t be a famous professional athlete without making your body - the biggest and only asset you own as an athlete really - available for public scrutiny and discourse. BUT like, these MEN’S obsession with scrutinizing Mitch’s body specifically is just - I’ve rarely seen anything like it lmfao. 

They just hate to see pretty twinks succeed in HOCKeY, a SPORPS that they think is meant for strong brawny MANLY MEN who are all 6′3″ and 220lbs and aren’t afraid to lose all their teeth and retire at the age of 28 from permanent hip labrum damage and CTE. And I feel so sorry for them because :((((( Mitch still isn’t going to fuck you, lads!