Harrison Butker, the kicker for NFL team Kansas City Chiefs, was invited to give the commencement speech at the Catholic Benedictine College in Kansas this week.
But rather than share inspiring words with the Class of 2024, he instead went on a bizarre tirade about the role of women, the LGBTQ community and President Biden for making it seem like ‘you can be both Catholic and Pro-Choice.’
While the crowd was made up of both men and women – who had, incidentally, graduated moments before and spent at least the past four years in higher education – for quite a large portion of it, the NFL star addressed ‘the women’ gathered in the auditorium.
‘I want to speak directly to you briefly, because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,’ he said.
What are these ‘diabolical lies’, you ask? Oh, just how we’ve been told to think ‘about all the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your career.’
Although he graciously admitted that some would actually go on to have successful careers, he ‘ventured to guess’ that the majority of them would be more enthused about having kids and getting married – as we are wont to do.
How does Butker have such great insight into the female psyche? He explained: ‘I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.’
Well, if it works for Isabelle…
What’s even more laughable is that Butker’s own mother, Elizabeth, is an accomplished physicist with a master’s degree and various other accolades – and clearly didn’t just give up on life once she had her son.
Now, given that he went on to rebuke the ‘deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it’ and also claimed that ‘things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy [and] euthanasia’ were part of our ‘degenerate cultural values’, it’s not like there’s a shortage of offensive content to draw upon from his speech.
But, speaking personally as a single cis, straight, white, childless 32-year-old woman, I have to say the notion that life only begins once you partner up and pop one out is utter crap and beyond insulting.
Of course wanting and having those things as a woman is absolutely legitimate and okay, but it should be a choice – and one made by the woman. It also doesn’t mean that those things are the sum of her worth.
Those who choose not to or cannot have children and those who are satisfied being alone are no less important than those who do have and want those things.
We are not invalid or unfulfilled just because we don’t have an army of sprogs and/or a bloke at home.
For me, my career has always been a focus and a great source of pride – as it is for so many others. It has been especially pertinent for me as I came from a working class background; I always wanted to strive for more and not just do what was expected of me.
And even beyond my job, I have lived a very full and colourful life. I am well-travelled, I socialise with friends and have truly experienced things I never thought were possible.
Having also gone to university (albeit for just three years), the idea that someone would tell me that it was a wasted effort and that after such a mammoth achievement I should put a pin in my ambition, is farcical.
Of course, in 2024, it’s beyond sad that women like me still have to justify our very existence.
It feels self-indulgent to list my achievements as I have done so above; but when you’re told constantly that without marriage and babies you are nothing, it’s hard not to get defensive.
I literally have to do this in most social situations, as people desperately clutch at straws when I tell them that, no, I don’t have those things. The focus is on the negative, rather than the positive.
But ultimately, it’s men like Harrison Butker that you really have to pity. I am quite alright living the life I lead. And anyone who feels that insecure about female ambition and accomplishment is clearly very troubled indeed.
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