Zirin: "Oscar Pistorius and the Global System of Deadly Misogyny."

The Nation's Dave Zirin rapidly is becoming the only writer about sports (I refrain from the more conventional moniker) who I can can stand reading. That's because he insists on refusing to view sports apart from a broader societal context. In Zirin's coverage, the dog is considered, not merely the tail. The hypocrisies are considered absent the worshipful delusions. Twitterers, you can follow Zirin at @EdgeofSports.

Oscar Pistorius and the Global System of Deadly Misogyny

... Just as with Belcher and Perkins, we will learn more than we ever wanted or needed to know in the weeks to come about the nature of Pistorius and Steenkamp’s relationship. We will learn about the “allegations of a domestic nature” that had brought police to his home in the past. We will learn about Pistorius’s previous allegedly violent relationships with women. We will learn about the variety of guns he kept at close hand. We will surely discuss male athletes and violence against women: the sort of all-too-common story that can create commonality between a football player from Long Island and a sprinter from Johannesburg. We might even ponder the way these gated communities, one of which was also the site of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin’s murder a year ago, become throbbing pods of paranoia and parabellums. We will learn about everything except what actually matters: there is a global epidemic of violence against women, and South Africa is at its epicenter.