A US footballer has hit the headlines for a frank and frankly astonishing speech at a graduate event.
Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker – funny name, but that’s not the point – got up and told a room full of recent graduates that women should not be in the workplace, it was a ‘diabolical lie’ that they should have careers and should just stick to marrying and having babies.
Not surprisingly, this has not gone well for Mr Butker. Brave of him to address a bunch of women who have just spent four years or so getting an expensive degree, only to tell them it’s not worth it and they are better off pregnant and in the kitchen.
I’m always fascinated by this line of thinking. Saying all women should be good at being a mother and housework is like saying all men should be pilots. It’s unrealistic and infantalising.
To be fair, he was at a conservative Catholic college, so he was probably vetted before he launched into the most famous thing he has ever done, but even so Mr Butker, read the room.
But perhaps the most odd thing about this is Mr Butker’s mother is a medical physicist working in the oncology department of a university hospital.
I wonder how Mr Butker’s speech is going over at home. Something like this: “I know you have helped save a tonne of lives mom, but you really should have been doing laundry and punching out a few more babies. So there.”
Mr Butker and his wife can live how they want to, but the audacity to judge others and expect women to shape themselves to your narrow expectations is breathtaking.
What do you think, was the speech appropriate?
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