Domestic Violence, Rape Culture and the Misogyny of Sports

Football is the most popular sport in the country, and one of our most popular forms of entertainment, period. Like it or not, football culture has an enormous influence on our ideas about what it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman. In this world, real men are strong and fast and exert their power through dominance. Women are their trophies, cheerleaders, or cute girls in the stands, as long as they don't get out of line.

We're being sold a deeply toxic version of masculinity, one that defines itself not only in opposition to female-ness, but as inherently superior, drawing its strength from dominance over women's "weakness," and creating men who are happy to deliberately undermine women's power.

None of this is inevitable. The media (and the NFL is included in that category, as producers of entertainment) can only sell us the status quo as long as we keep buying it. If you value women as fully equal human beings at least as much as you value your home team, the next play is yours.

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, performer, and activist, and the editor of the hit book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape (one of Ms. Magazine's Top 100 Feminist Non-fiction books of All Time). Her latest book is What You Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety.

Named one of UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World", Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for The Nation magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Winner of Sport in Society and Northeastern University School of Journalism's 'Excellence in Sports Journalism' Award, Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio's weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He co-hosts the radio program The Collision: Sports and Politics with Etan Thomas & Dave Zirin.