It’s a part of attending a ballgame that’s as familiar as coordinated chants or overpriced stadium food: During a break in the action, Jumbotron cameras focus on couples in the crowd, imploring them to kiss before thousands of eager spectators. To ban the “Kiss Cam” entirely would be too reactionary by the university, but SU Athletics should use this time to have a necessary conversation about the “Kiss Cam” and how it can be maintained as a staple of home games in a responsible way.
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Syracuse University has decided to pull the Kiss Cam from the lineup of gimmicks at the Carrier Dome after a fan penned a strongly-worded letter to the editor suggesting it holds a connection to college campus sexual assaults. “We discussed this with POMCO, the sponsor, and they supported that approach”, said Sue Edson, executive senior associate athletics director for communications.
A writer – a man – complained in a letter to the Post-Standard, Syracuse’s daily newspaper, that during the September 12, game between the Orange and Wake Forest – both of which are ACC rivals for U of L – that he saw two incidents on the kiss cam in which women indicated they didn’t want to be kissed, yet men nearby kissed them anyway to cheers.
The New York Mets stopped showing opposing players together for comedic effect on the Citi Field kiss cam after a fan’s efforts to stop the practice.
The instances I witnessed at the game encourage and condone sexual assault and a sense of male entitlement, at best.
He wrote: “Clearly not a couple, the male student pleaded his case for a kiss on the big screen while the female adamantly shook her head no”. The Obamas once smooched on a basketball game “kiss cam”, as the segments are commonly known.
Port’s letter received abundant attention from the Syracuse community.
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No one has the right to forcefully touch someone be it a hug, a kiss or a violent rape. It makes me sick that in a day and age where sexual assault (particularly on college campuses) is so rampant that school officials would allow such a display to happen. “Just because I’m sitting somewhere doesn’t mean that I’m entitled to kiss this stranger”, she says.
