Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Zirin Gets After Big Ben

David Zirin tells it like it is:


Now [Commissioner Roger Goodell] will show the world whether violence against women matters less to the NFL than violence against dogs. In a league where an accepted culture of sexism exists from the cheerleaders to the commercials, to the locker room, Goodell better choose wisely. Women make up the fastest-growing sector of NFL fans. For far too long, they have been treated as if they were invisible or worse. It's not too much to ask that the NFL send a message that misogyny and violence against women is not acceptable under any circumstance and a 28-year-old quarterback getting underage women drunk for bar sex will not be seen as "boys will be boys."


Go read the whole thing.

5 comments:

Andrew Wice said...

"Women make up the fastest-growing sector of NFL fans."

Is that a fat joke?

Big Blue Monkey 2: The Quickening said...

It wasn't until you asked. Now it is. Way to go, lady-hater.

Andrew Wice said...

First let me say that I read Dave's columns regularly, and I strongly agree with this column.

That being said, claiming that women are the "fastest-growing sector" alarms my bullshit sensor.

Fastest-growing versus whom? Males? Perhaps because 90% of men already are fans? Or versus Latinos? Or Asians?

Disingenuous, I proclaim.

Big Blue Monkey 2: The Quickening said...

I think that Nielsen ratings show more women are watching football than ever before, and Zirin's using that as a shorthand here.

I don't find it disingenuous. It certainly seems women of our generation care a lot more about football than my mother's generation.

Andrew Wice said...

Disingenuous because it makes it sound as if women fans were eclipsing a bunch of other sectors. When in fact, they're simply increasing from zero interest to more interest.

And in the interest of fairness, we shouldn't call Rapistberger's actions "rape."

We should use a football phrase, such as "illegal use of penis" or "illegal penis downfield" or "penis to the face" or "illegal motion with penis" or ... well you get the idea.