Here's a cynic's take on what World Cup means for various people.
For the players, it is a pageantry, an auction for potential buyers (ie, rich and prestigious European football clubs) who are scouting for new blood for the next 4 seasons. Players are motivated to present their maximum skills and crowd charisma and to convince buyers to snap themselves up with a handsome salary and a chance to get out of the professional football dump in Africa, Asia, and possibly Latin American countries. Fight on, young and ambitious ones! Older players want to show their bosses that they still got it and "please don't cut my salary and dump me on some secondary or lower club in the armpit of the football world."
For the football clubs, it is a trading ground, not unlike the Toronto or Sundance film festivals, where deals are struck and contracts exchange hands. It's time to pick up hopeful, appealing new players, 3rd world players who are a bargain, and stars who may bring more audience to the club; meanwhile it is also a time to unload a few overpriced, overpaid, overexposed old faces onto someone else. It is a time for clubs to shuffle their cards and maximize potential profit for the next 4 years.
For FIFA, it is a time of publicity and maximum exposure for the organization, a time to renegotiate power among leading forces and re-evaluate the direction of the sport so that it continues to draw more audience and not lose them. It is also time to reap unimaginable amount of profit for televised broadcast all over the world. It is a time to lead and enjoy the glory.
For coaches, it is time to shop around for the next job, and the performance of their own teams is the job application they submit to potential employers.
For media groups, it is time for explosive ratings (television networks), huge profits from advertisements (ie, huge expense and bidding war for Addidas, Nike, etc.), huge number of reporters and pundits. No need to worry about other news coverage for a while...
For fans, it's a time to ditch work, stay up at night, bond with buddies and strangers, laugh, cry, sing, dance, drink, get pissed, piss in the streets, get into brawls, abandon all the mundane routines in life and PARTY! To release all inhibitions and worries, to feel a part of something big -- be it the sport, the David Beckham fan club, the country, whatever.
What is World Cup all about?
What does World Cup mean to women fans?
I don't know. But I do find it fascinating that male fans seem to find outlet for their pent-up aggression, hositility, or projected patriotism or heroic fantasy, while female fans tend to find narratives in the games and more often in star players. They construct their own stories for the key characters in the story (be it Beckham or other hotties whose names I do not know
) and project their own emotions and sentiments onto these young men or boys. Perhaps its an outlet for maternal instinct. 
I also wonder whether women's participation in the World Cup fever, which itself is an exclusively male activity, is an attempt to connect with the men around them. For myself, I know I started watching World Cup primarily to understand and connect with my brother and father, who I thought were soooo cool. To imitate them was a kind of attempt to seek validation and acceptance from them. Even now there is a sense of nostalgia as I watch the games, although I have drifted from their interest in football to my own choice of favorite spectator sport.
Indeed World Cup is the most exclusive ol' boy's club in the world. I suppose a woman's chance of breaking into this club is less than her chance of becoming the President of United States (no, I don't think Hillary has a snowball's chance in hell -- this is America after all). But, considering that World Cup is also a representation of simulated war of nations, perhaps it should stay a men's game after all.
I don't know. But I do find it fascinating that male fans seem to find outlet for their pent-up aggression, hositility, or projected patriotism or heroic fantasy, while female fans tend to find narratives in the games and more often in star players. They construct their own stories for the key characters in the story (be it Beckham or other hotties whose names I do not know
) and project their own emotions and sentiments onto these young men or boys. Perhaps its an outlet for maternal instinct. I also wonder whether women's participation in the World Cup fever, which itself is an exclusively male activity, is an attempt to connect with the men around them. For myself, I know I started watching World Cup primarily to understand and connect with my brother and father, who I thought were soooo cool. To imitate them was a kind of attempt to seek validation and acceptance from them. Even now there is a sense of nostalgia as I watch the games, although I have drifted from their interest in football to my own choice of favorite spectator sport.
Indeed World Cup is the most exclusive ol' boy's club in the world. I suppose a woman's chance of breaking into this club is less than her chance of becoming the President of United States (no, I don't think Hillary has a snowball's chance in hell -- this is America after all). But, considering that World Cup is also a representation of simulated war of nations, perhaps it should stay a men's game after all.
Hmm... But most of the time you can barely see what they look like from the camera so far away, unless you're sitting in the stand and zooming your telescope on Beckham all the time.
Talk about 花痴, I saw the trailer for "Lady in the Water." I'm so torn about whether I should go see the movie. I'm no fan of Shymalan, but hey god knows when Paul Giamatti will get the leading role again!
Talk about 花痴, I saw the trailer for "Lady in the Water." I'm so torn about whether I should go see the movie. I'm no fan of Shymalan, but hey god knows when Paul Giamatti will get the leading role again!
I still can't believe you are attracted to him....... what do see in him anyway, while even Aderson Cooper, Viggo Mortensen are not attractive enough for you.....Jun wrote: Talk about 花痴, I saw the trailer for "Lady in the Water." I'm so torn about whether I should go see the movie. I'm no fan of Shymalan, but hey god knows when Paul Giamatti will get the leading role again!
Primarily, I like his looks, but I also enjoy this quote from him:
"You are absolutely free to describe me as a turtle or something. Seriously. When you profile someone, there has to be a narrative, and my narrative just happens to be 'Who is he?', 'Oh, he's that guy' and 'He looks like a squid!' Sideways (2004) doesn't change that. Honestly, I never wanted to be more than a good supporting actor. Really, I enjoy it."
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