Someone tweeted this image because they found it funny. Yeah, I guess on the face of it, it is funny. But there’s a huge problem with this. What’s the problem? The way this prose diminishes women.
Problem
PLAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT
a real highlight win for us. Do I really hate Tom Brady? I really don’t know Tom Brady, but who wouldn’t hate him? Look at his life. Actually, look at his wife. Every man in America hates Tom Brady, and he should be proud of that.
The text is from Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World’s Most Beautiful Game, written by Rex Ryan, with Don Yeager listed as a contributor. It’s about American football.
I’ll step through the problems.
1. Premise: We should all hate football player Tom Brady. Note that the language is “Who wouldn’t hate him? Look at his life.”
Now up to here, yes, this is amusing enough. Tom Brady is a talented football player. A genuine sports star. And, the language is inclusive. Every sports fan, male or female, can agree that Tom Brady has an enviable life playing a sport he loves for a lot of money.
2. Why should we really hate Tom Brady? Because of his wife.
But, but, wait! Aren’t there a lot of female sports fans who would hate not Tom, but Tom’s wife? Because allow me to point out that Tom Brady is kind of hot. And he went and married a model. Instead of me.
3. “Every man in America hates Tom Brady.” Because of his wife.
And so, in the blink of an eye, we go from a true everyone to everyone = men.
Boom. 51% of the population just disappeared. All the football fans who happen to be women just got erased.
“Everyone” hates Tom Brady because he married a beautiful woman.
Well. No. Actually.
Language like this needs to be challenged. This passage could have been written to retain the amusing suggestion that straight men envy Tom Brady living out the NFL quarterback dream and marrying a model without removing women from “everyone.”
Everyone isn’t just straight men.
Everyone means all the people who aren’t Tom Brady and, presumably, his wife.
When you write a passage in which women exist only as objects to be married by a man, you silently perpetuate a great harm.
This needs to stop.
Tags: Everyone is not Men