Billions of dollars at stake, sophisticated marketing videos, savvy social media tools, a heavy emphasis on the machismo, an expanding presence, the ability to compartmentalize and justify brutality… does this sound like Boko Haram, Isis or … the NFL?
Recently the accounts of terror groups using sexual violence as a weapon of war struck me as proof that rape and violence against women are incredibly effective ways to demoralize a population. Looking at Isis or Boko Haram, it’s easy to see the destruction caused by this war strategy. We find it harder to turn the mirror around and face how women are treated here in the United States.
Boko Haram knows that if you rape or repeatedly beat a girl, she will not be able to concentrate in school, she will be less likely to carry out her dreams, she will feel shameful and turn inwards. She will likely be easier to control. If you rape and beat an entire community of women, they will likely crumble from the trauma, and so will the men in their lives who love them. This is taught as an effective way to seize territory.
Here we have a sports league where men are routinely charged with crimes against women, and there’s an acceptance of it in the form of multimillion dollar contracts and sponsorships.
It’s worth comparing these seemingly different cultures that both abuse women and consider the outcomes. With the terrorist groups, we see it as a deliberate measure to gain control and silence generations of women. With the NFL we get the message that abusing women is acceptable, it’s an annoyance that distracts from the game, but par for the course. We know sexually assaulting women has the same impact in Nigeria as it does in Florida. So why are we so passive about this message here?
Consider this:
In May of this year, fraught with domestic violence scandals and more attention than ever on how the NFL treats women, we watched as Jameis Winston was awarded a $25.35 million four-year contract by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team’s GM, Jason Licht, said this:
“We wanted Jameis to start off on the right foot. There’s no reason to punish Jameis.”
But there might actually be a good reason to deter him from behaving as he has in the past… Winston’s contract stipulates he can’t play baseball — something he was considering — but the contract makes no mention of holding the player accountable for his activities off the field. Jameis has a history of criminal activity. He’s been busted for shoplifting twice and yelling: “Fuck her in the fucking pussy!” while standing on a table in the middle of campus, he’s also been accused of rape… twice.
After the contracts were signed, the GM added:
“Jameis is his own man and Jameis is going to heed the advice of a lot of veterans. I’m sure of it. I’ve had discussions with him about that,” Licht said.
Pardon?!?! We’re supposed to find solace in the idea that this criminal is going to be mentored by NFL veterans? Is that tongue-and-cheek?
The NFL is making more money than ever, and doing less than it should to create a positive cultural change. Don’t just have PSAs on domestic violence, work on punishing your players for being horrible role models. Build deterrents into the contracts if they’re arrested.
USA Today (I was once an intern at USA Today, working on Computer Assisted Reporting Projects, so I really appreciate this) has a database you can check out of players and arrests. In any other industry this would be considered a criminal ring!
When I worked for ABC News, it was made very clear that Disney, the parent company, did not tolerate bad behavior. In your contract it clearly stated that if you were arrested, you could be terminated. Not your fault, well maybe not, but the adage was well known: If you hang around shit, you’re going to smell like manure. And we all knew there were people lined up around Columbus Circle to take our jobs; it was always better to air on the side of keeping yourself above reproach.
The NFL and other professional sports leagues don’t fire athletes for charges, or even convictions.
“Mike Tyson was convicted of rape. When he was released from prison, he was welcomed back to the world of boxing with open arms and proceeded to earn a series of record-setting paydays. Today, he has his own cartoon show. ESPN even tweeted him birthday wishes. (How many other convicted felons get birthday wishes from the Worldwide Leader?) Kobe Bryant was accused of rape and settled out of court with his accuser. He didn’t miss any time on the court and while he temporarily lost a few sponsors, most eventually took him back. He earned $31 million in endorsements last year, despite being a non-factor on the court. Ben Roethlisberger was suspended a few games after repeated allegations of sexual assault. He’s just fine. None of these extremely high profile cases meaningfully impacted the athlete’s career earning potential, even though the allegations were either proven, or at least not proven to be false. Time and time again, athletic talent has trumped even highly credible accusations of rape.”
Rape victims don’t have such an easy time re-emerging:
“A third of rape victims contemplate suicide, and 13% will actually attempt it. The suicide rate for the public at large? About 0.1%.”
Since many of the victims of these NFL perpetrators are young women, we should consider the impact it has on their studies and their futures. There has been a lot of criticism of the statistics gathered on rape on college campuses for offering too broad a categorization of rape. Some of the more conservative stats according to Mary Koss, “who has written extensively on this topic, said the best data comes from a Centers for Disease Control survey, which found that across all age groups, nearly 1 in 5 women are raped in their lifetime and 44.6 percent experience non-rape sexual violence.”
What message are we sending to young girls and boys when someone like Jameis Winston, who is accused of rape, has a history of shoplifting and thinks yelling misogynistic slogans is funny, is valued as a hero because he’s a good quarterback. By giving him a NFL contract we, as a society, are saying, it’s ok if you hate women and think you’re above the law, because your ability to throw a football is more important than any societal or legal standard.
Schools from Florida State University to Harvard are facing public exposure for their mishandling of rape allegations. Critics also argue that the revised policy don’t give fair treatment to both parties, so we can agree we haven’t figured out exactly how to handle these issues on campus:
I’d bet most parents of girls going off to college in this country are scared for them. Especially when emails surface like those out of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity at Georgia Tech lawsuit instructing fellow frat boys how to rape classmates. The emails are so explicit and violent that mainstream publications cannot reprint them. The shock of those emails is partially due to the idea that these boys thought there was some humor in the violent insinuations they were making. Outsiders looking in tried to dismiss this behavior as boys being boys.
I see this as a much more profound problem. We are living in a culture where everyone knows someone who has been a victim of sexual violence, but few people are willing to acknowledge that they also probably know a perpetrator. When we laugh with these boys-being-boys, we’re accepting this behavior and this culture in a dangerous way. We are saying to our young women you’re not as valued as the men are, violence is funny when it involves you, look men can disrespect you and you need to get over it, even your university — charged with your education and safety — is willing to turn a blind eye to bad boy behavior. Where does this leave our girls?
We hear the headlines and express shock. Yet, we hear these headlines everyday, right here at home. We accept this behavior by not staying on the issue, demanding change and continuing to act as if these are isolated incidents rather than a failed protection of equal rights to both sexes. Rape is not a property issue, it’s a human rights violation.
Terror organization knows that by creating a culture that oppresses women, they can prevent growth and independence, education, critical thinking, a future of prosperity and democracy.
Why are we, here in the United States, a democracy, tolerant of this oppressive and pervasive treatment of women? Don’t underestimate the power of oppressing women, disregarding women’s importance and their place in a free country, Isis and Boko Haram know it’s a key strategy to destroying democracy, why don’t we?
