In today’s society, and all
previous societies for that matter, the abuse of women is a major issue that
gets thrown under the rug to protect the perpetrators. It is barbaric to think
that this issue is still prevalent and actually a serious issue in the modern
world. It seems that nearly every week a new sports star, or famous actor is committing
this heinous act and it is being pushed aside and hushed up by the world. These
are the cases that should be used as examples to show that this type of behavior
is not tolerable. Women have really been treated poorly for as long as “man”-kind
has existed, and it seems unfair that the world has all this knowledge and
these standards, but beating your wife is still acceptable. Last year the
famous football player Ray Rice, the running back for the Baltimore Ravens, was
caught on footage beating his wife senseless and to the point of
unconsciousness, and there was footage of it. The NFL then launched a huge
multi-month investigation, all while they had the footage. That is easily the
most messed up thing I have heard in a while. The world looked at this issue
and recognized it for what it was, for a few days. Then came in the insensitivity
and ridiculousness that the internet is capable of.
The
crazy part about this whole story is that the NFL didn’t even have to answer to
the questions being raised about the whole situation. On top of that people
started empathizing with Ray Rice and not his wife, and then to make matters
even worse his wife publicly came out and defended her husband. That literally
just set this whole movement to earn rights for women back years. Not only does
it disrespect herself, but it disrespects all women. Ray Rice literally threw
her head off of a pole in an elevator and she defended him. I do not blame her,
she literally has had it drilled into her head probably from birth by society
that is her job to protect him, even if that means letting him ruthlessly beat
her and drag her out of an elevator. I believe that society is on the upswing
though, because Ray Rice would be a solid pickup for most NFL teams and he is
off of his official suspension, but no team will sign him because of this
incident. Honestly, he never deserves to play football again, he does not
deserve million dollar paychecks and the lifestyle that being an NFL player
gives to an individual.
As an avid sports fan followed the Ray Rice story very closely. When he was first cut by the Ravens I remember watching Sportscenter and hearing the broadcasters talk about if other teams should sign Ray Rice and forgive him for this incident. When I heard this I was amazed. How could we forgive someone for beating their wife so bad she gets knocked out? They explained their reasoning for things such as it was a one time offense and she hit him first but that is still no excuse. How are we supposed to expect our kids to grow up and respect women if the people they look up to are allowed to disrespect them and still be given a second chance? The answer is we can not. If as a society we want to change the culture of abuse against women then we can not allow things like the Ray Rice incident to happen. The NFL gets a lot of flack for their punishments at times but I think with the suspension of Ray Rice and the fact that he currently is considered untouchable by every team the NFL deserves a lot of credit. I do not think that every sport would deal with an issue like this in the correct way the NFL has.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting read that i agree with. We have seen domestic violence in sports countless number of times with little to zero consequences. One that quickly comes to mind is Jamis Winston case. He was not found guilty for the rape charge. Then later down the road when Florida Sates judiciaries were questioned one top individual said that he believed Winston was guilty but it would have never worked in the girls favor. Sports stars are praised and when one gets away with domestic violence many individuals believe that can do the same thing and get away with it. If public figures are invincible people believe since they are less noticeable they should get away with it too. Its pretty typical for women defend their abusers that are their husbands like Rays wife did because as seen in the article Why Aren't We Shocked by Bob Herbert women are raised in a society where domestic violence is seen as normal so if even if wives know its wrong they feel the need to defend and protect their husbands because it happens to more than just themselves. If something is not done to prevent star athletes from domestic violence the people who idolize these athletes will continue to fallow in their path
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