Kiss cams at sporting events. They're all fun and games until the stranger sitting next to you tries to push his tongue down your throat. Some idiot reportedly did just that to a woman at a Syracuse University football game earlier this month, leading the school to suspend the live on-scoreboard kissing for now and triggering discussions about whether this is yet more sexual assault on college campuses and beyond.
Smooching on camera for our entertainment isn't the problem. Just don't kiss strangers or anyone else who is unwilling, and we should be fine. No continues to mean no. Another controversy erupted in New York this month when the Mets were shamed into refraining from aiming their kiss cam at two male players from the opposing team. The team said it finally realized the intended joke was offending some fans. In Milwaukee, the Bucks, Admirals and Marquette Golden Eagles use the kiss cam during their games, but the Brewers say they don't anymore.
But let's just admit we wait for the awkward moments when the camera finds a couple who are just friends or perhaps brother and sister, and they squirm for what must feel like an eternity in that heart-shaped frame. Sometimes we're mistaken," said Tim Van Wagoner, senior director of marketing for the Admirals. Justin Doherty, UW's senior associate athletic director, said they're keeping an eye on what's happening in Syracuse and assessing how kiss cam is done in Madison.
Syracuse took action based on a letter to the local newspaper from a guy named Steve Port. He describes a male student forcing a kiss on a female student on the kiss cam at a game Sept. Right after that, another non-couple was captured on camera, and Port said people around them tried to shove the woman's face into the man while the crowd cheered.
(mh=bMSI6aUib2O0D3pH)6.jpg "Woman in Syracuse")
Again, not cool, and probably a good argument for the cam to avoid the student section. And they are an actual instance of assault, at worst," he wrote. Some of the kiss cam highlights you see online appear to be staged for the crowd's entertainment. One guy holds up a sign reading "My sister," with an arrow pointing to the woman next to him. Others show women denied a kiss by their dates, and then they instead kiss the men next to them on the other side.
