NFL kicker Harrison Butker is a devout Catholic. But judging from his recent commencement speech at Benedictine College, it appears he never learned the 11th commandment: “Man shalt not promote marriage and family to educated women.”
This is my takeaway based on the reaction to the Kansas City Chief’s remarks last weekend at Benedictine College in Kansas. According to his critics, the most “misogynistic” part of the three-time Super Bowl winner’s address was this:
I’m on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.
A professional athlete describing his wife’s vocation is considered controversial in today’s culture. This goes to show how corrupt our culture has become.
If you want to read stories about women destroying their families in the name of self-love, the Atlantic has got you. If you want glowing profiles of women in polyamorous relationships, New York magazine will supply them. If you want to learn that sex work is no different from social work, Teen Vogue will be glad to inform you. If you want to hear how abortion empowers women, you can listen to any Democrat running for office.
But the moment a professional athlete expresses his love for his wife and lauds her devotion to her husband and children, pundits and influencers come out to scold him and conservatives about our “hatred” of women. Even the NFL condemned his remarks.
Society is doomed once it sees a woman who is married with children by 24 as ‘oppressed’ but an OnlyFans content creator of the same age as ’empowered.’
The truth is that feminists hate women. That’s why nearly every goal of the sisterhood pushes women to think, speak, and act like men. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique” is widely credited with sparking this second wave. The author believed that women who were primarily focused on being a wives and mothers were wasting their best years. Her goal was to get women out of the home.
She was a more effective teacher than most people know. Our culture praises any woman who manages a large, complex organization — unless it’s her home. And we love women who dedicate themselves to teaching the next generation — unless they’re her own children. Feminists have been selling women on the notion that their true value is found in what they bring to the workplace. Even the radicals who offer intense critiques of capitalism devalue any work a woman does that doesn’t come with a paycheck.
A society is doomed once it sees a woman who is married with children by 24 as “oppressed” but an OnlyFans content creator of the same age as “empowered.”
Some of Butker’s most intense critics were other men, including some who called him a Neanderthal, “gross,” sexist, misogynistic, and homophobic. This is the language of male feminists, who function as obedient allies of the matriarchy.
Butker didn’t say every woman should be a homemaker. Some women need to work to support their families — even if they have a working husband. All Butker did was bring some balance to a realm of society that has been completely out of whack for more than 60 years.
A man who says that he’s training his sons to be husbands and fathers would be celebrated for trying to raise responsible young men. But if the same man says he’s raising his daughters to be wives and mothers, I suspect most people would have a very different visceral reaction. That is the tension that Harrison Butker’s comments are meant to resolve.
As a society, we are very comfortable putting boundaries and limits on men. We say that a real man must protect and provide for his family. And we ridicule any man who doesn’t meet that minimum standard. What gives everyone — from liberals to conservatives — a case of cultural heartburn is saying that there is anything that a woman must do for her family to be considered a good woman. Any limits or boundaries on women are treated as inherently oppressive and regressive.
But before anyone gets to telling women what they should do, it’s important to let young women today know what they can do. And I believe it is healthy for them to know that focusing on their families and their homes is not a waste of their time and talents. The anti-family ideas that prevail in our culture must be countered by brave men and women willing to stand on God’s design for men, women, marriage, and the home.
There is a reason employment contracts are not meant for life and don’t include the words “in sickness and in health” or “to love and to cherish” in the list of employer obligations. A good husband will sacrifice for his family and lay down his life to protect his wife. I doubt any woman’s boss would say the same.