Harrison Butker is a misogynist jackass

Because as Jessica Valenti says, when you’re a commencement speaker (Benedictine College) telling the women graduates they should stay home and make babies. “Think about how degrading that must have felt: On a day meant to celebrate their successes, these young women had to sit through a man telling them that their college careers weren’t just pointless, but “diabolical” and not “God’s will.””

LGM points out Butker (placekicker for the Chiefs) is a Catholic who objects to natural birth control such as the rhythm method. Whatever the pros and cons of the method, it clearly isn’t abortifacent yet they still object. Because the real issue is that women shouldn’t have sex without consequences — if they don’t want to get pregnant, the only moral option is not having sex. Small wonder right-wingers who normally freak out when athletes get political are suddenly gushing and swooning. The Benedictine Nuns, by contrast, got pissed off.

And even that’s not an option if you belong to a church that supports marital rape. Which is unsurprising given the church leader, Douglas Wilson (who’s also a slavery apologist, as noted at the link) believes sex cannot be “an egalitarian pleasure party.” Men enjoy, women just endure. Men who sleep around are studs, women who sleep around are sluts. Yeah, he’s kind of creepy.

And his view that men and women should play by different rules is nothing unusual. As Valenti says “Every abortion ban, every new restriction on our ability to access basic care—they’re more than limitations on our rights and freedom. They’re the embodiment of the smallest men’s biggest wishes. …They may be laws, but they’re also rules. Rules to keep us in line, rules we’re told are for our own good, rules that would never, ever apply to men like Butker. That’s what abortion bans really are—rules crafted by men who see American women as a nation of wives to be dominated, rather than people or citizens.” Read the whole thing. Valenti’s terrific. So is Foz Meadows dissecting a similar pre-Butker misogynist rant from James Delingpole.

No surprise they want to end no-fault divorce. As long as a woman has the option to leave, their control of their wives is conditional. A woman may choose to submit (as many in Wilson’s church do), may believe it’s God’s will she does so, but changing her mind is always an option. That means men’s power is built on sand. To get the power they want, they have to unliberate women.

And girls. If you’re a ten-year-old and get raped, Louisiana lawmakers will force you to bear the child.

Some Republicans shriek about how this is fearmongering, but as Valenti says, we’re right to be scared. If Republicans don’t like that voters hate their forced-birth views, they can either change or expect to keep losing (I hope). Of course they don’t want to do either — that would let those rotten sluts continue to have sex without consequences — which is why this election is going to be both ugly and crucial. Vote! Unless you’re voting Republican, then stay home and get drunk. Please.

For more about toxic misogyny and why it’s bullshit, feel free to check out my Undead Sexist Cliches, available as a Amazon paperback, an ebook and from several other retailers. Cover by Kemp Ward.