On May 11th Kansas City Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker, took to the stage to share his commencement speech to the 2024 class of Benedictine College. This was not your routine pseudo celebrity, “you can do anything, follow your dreams, work hard, etc…” graduation speech, rather it was 20 minutes of Butkers personal, religious, political, and social views. Just a few minutes into his speech, he began speaking about his “Catholic faith.” Setting an appropriate tone to bring up topics such as abortion, his clear presence of homophobia, the Christian views on IVF, and of course, women.
At this point if you haven’t read it on Instagram, you’ve read it on TikTok. Women from all over the country and globe took to social media in response to the portion of Butkers speech dedicated to his 1950’s attitude towards the female graduates.
“I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you.” “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” His numerous statements such as this one have not been received lightly. Leaving current female students, such as myself, and graduates in a displeasing state of annoyance and rage. While disrupting society and our regular media feeds, Butkers speech also brings up a long-debated topic between mothers and daughters everywhere, “when are we going to settle down and have children?”
Since a young age I have had my periodic phases of fantasy longing for my future theoretical child and spouse, daydreaming of my special day, pinning inspiration to my wedding Pinterest board, all while planning out my college dorm at a school of my choosing where I’ll work to get my major in a job that in my adolescence I would’ve demanded “had to make me famous.” I have been fortunate enough to grow up in a household where my future was never debated as two options, family or career, rather I watched as multiple of my female relatives have graduated with degrees, started their own businesses, and most recently I got to watch my sister, who grew up playing school in our childhood playroom, start her first job as an elementary school teacher. My privilege has led me to believe that this conservative notion towards a female’s future was left in the past and put that thought in my mind to bed, but with recent events such as Harrison’s degrading college commencement speech, it has been brought to my attention that this isn’t the only place where women have been told “diabolical lies” such as his.
While most choose to believe Americans are safe from these persuasive movements, that is in fact not the truth at all. In multiple states women and girls are still being told what they can and can’t do by their governments and overtaking religions. They’re being dictated into decisions that they would otherwise not make. This all circles back to public figures like Harrison. By sharing to these young women and men that he indorses these restraining ideas, he is encouraging a new generation of ignorant behavior and a new generation of women who believe there is nothing they can do about it. As of now, the player and his team have chosen not to speak much about the speech’s backlash. But the media is waiting on the edge of their seats to see.
