Should The Kiss Cam Be Outlawed?

One of the problems of being a hardcore sports fan is how hard they try to make sporting events fun for the casual fan. I go for the game; that's enough for me. But not enough for others. Sometimes the non-sports fun goes too far.

One of the staples they use to keep the casual fan interested in the festivities? Something called the "Kiss Cam". It basically spends an entire commercial break -- about 2 to 3 minutes where the game is in a "TV timeout" so the network can show ads -- showing two people on the Jumbotron, and they are supposed to kiss.

I'm not a fan of it -- I'll tell you why in a moment -- and apparently neither is Syracuse University. They have decided to pull its "Kiss Cam" from athletic events after a football fan wrote a letter to Syracuse.com complaining that it promotes sexual violence against women.

Steve Port wrote that he was “sick to his stomach“ after he watched two women forced to kiss men they weren’t romantically interested in at the September 12 game. “The instances I witnessed at the game encourage and condone sexual assault and a sense of male entitlement, at best. And they are an actual instance of assault, at worst,” he added. “It is...unacceptable to allow a student to be forcefully touched on a Jumbotron accompanied by cheers from the crowd.“

Syracuse didn’t operate a "Kiss Cam" at this past Saturday’s game, and says it will assess Port’s concerns before it considers reinstating it.

I had honestly never thought of the sexual assault angle, but yeah, if someone feels pressure to have physical contact with someone they don't want to........that isn't good, and I'm not always the most politically correct person you'll ever meet. The "Kiss Cam" does shame people who do not kiss, usually not kissing for a valid reason that the crowd does not know about -- examples being a brother and sister sitting together, two strangers who happen to be sitting next to each other, or a couple who are on their first date and haven't had their first kiss yet -- by holding the camera on them until they kiss, or cutting back to them, basically encouraging the crowd to boo them until they do what they are supposed to.

There's also the homophobia angle. Every time I have been to a sporting event that has done the "Kiss Cam" it has always featured at some point two guys sitting next to each other. This is done simply for comedic effect; at a basketball game it would involve players or fans of the road team in an effort to embarrass them. Comedy that isn't funny is garbage, and "let's put two dudes on the Kiss Cam and laugh at them" is garbage. Just get back to the game, yo.

The "Kiss Cam" is dumb. We should kiss it goodbye.