Does The Kiss Cam At Sporting Events Offend You?

Apparently some people are offended by the kiss cam at sporting events.

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For more than three decades, kiss cams have been seen as a lighthearted, silly part of the sports fan experience. But in our current cultural environment, the gimmick raises questions about inclusiveness, pressure, and consent.

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Kiss cams have been a mainstay of the sports fan experience for more than three decades. If you’ve been to a game recently, you’ve surely seen the stunt—during a game break, two unsuspecting members of the crowd are broadcast on the Jumbotron and prompted, by graphics or the in-arena announcer, to smooch. It’s usually good for a laugh or two, but in an evolving world, one in which we’re having complicated and nuanced discussions about sexism, agency, and consent, it’s worth asking what role—if any—the kiss cam has in our current sports culture. What can seem like a routine in-game gimmick can come with a deeper significance.

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. Take, for instance, Adam Shprintzen’s experience. Ten years ago, Shprintzen moved from New York to Chicago for grad school. When his beloved Yankees came to town, he went to his first White Sox home game, by himself. He was sitting in the upper deck behind home plate when he realized he was on the kiss cam—and so was the woman sitting next to him. He describes the experience of appearing before a stadium full of people with the expectation to kiss a total stranger as “horrifying.”

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“Getting past the initial amazement and shock of seeing yourself projected on the giant screen, there was an almost immediate feeling of discomfort of knowing that tens of thousands of people were staring at us expecting a kiss,” he says of the incident via Twitter direct message. “There was the inherent pressure to have some sort of reaction. … I can’t even imagine what was running through this total stranger’s mind at the moment, to be asked to kiss some random dude for everyone’s entertainment.”

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You can read the rest of it here.

LINK

I would think if two adults of the opposite sex is sitting by each other who don't know each other and the kiss cam is put on them, they could laugh it off and make a gesture that they are not a couple or something. Is it really that big of a deal?