You’ve probably heard about NFL kicker Harrison Butker’s recent commencement speech at Benedictine College. In it, he shared some extremist views about how women’s lives “truly begin” when they become wives and mothers, how pursuing a career is a “diabolical lie,” and how IVF and surrogacy stem from “degenerate cultural values.” Just… wow.
Of course we were upset about the misogyny. Of course we pointed out that his own mother is a successful physicist and that even Benedictine nuns disagreed with his remarks. But there are a few more things we wanted to point out - things we haven’t been seeing amidst all of the backlash against his speech.
First, we reject his attempt to pit women against each other. It’s a common tactic, but the truth is that we support ALL women: those who want both motherhood and a career, those who want to stay at home, and those who decide not to get married or have kids at all. Women don’t want to fight with each other about the “best” way to live our lives. We want every woman to be free to make that choice for herself.
And speaking of making our own choices, Mr. Butker’s speech was more than empty rhetoric from some out-of-touch athlete. He’s echoing the opinions of Republican politicians across the country who are actively passing legislation to take our choices away. Just last week, for example, Governor Glenn Youngkin in Virginia vetoed a bill that defends the right to contraception. Harrison Butker is even friends with Trump loyalist Senator Josh Hawley. His commencement speech was just putting into words what extremist politicians have been putting into action.
And finally, it’s a distraction. Of course it’s worth discussing, for all the reasons above, but it’s telling that Harrison Butker’s speech was all over the news and social media while Governor Youngkin’s vote against birth control was nowhere to be seen. Where are all the stories about women losing their fertility or even their lives over abortion bans? These tragedies have been happening more and more since the fall of Roe, but for some reason, we rarely hear about them.
The true “diabolical lie” is that their stories don’t matter. So it’s up to all of us to keep talking about them.
Harrison Butker and the “Diabolical Lie”