Harrison Butker dreamt of becoming a one-man hot-button culture war and he made it happen. Follow your dreams, kids. Especially if you’re a white man with fragile masculinity and your dream is telling young women to not get jobs outside the home, and women should only be homemakers and mothers. Harrison Butker’s dumbass commencement address has become a major story over the past week, with widespread condemnation for his antiquated and misogynistic statements. On the other side, his Kansas City Chiefs jerseys are selling out… in men’s AND women’s sizes.
There’s also a petition – started by the Christians at Faithful America – condemning Butker and calling on him to apologize. It has thousands of signatures. That petition won’t change anything, sorry peeps. There’s also a change.com petition demanding that the Chiefs fire Butker, and the petition has gotten 216,000 signatures. Again, nothing will happen. Butker is famous now. He’s already getting a lot of air time on Fox News and he’ll probably be invited to every lunatic conservative conference for the next year.
One of my favorite reactions to Butker came from Eddie Vedder, who was performing with Pearl Jam in Las Vegas over the weekend:
Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam has joined those condemning Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s comments at the Benedictine College commencement address.
“While I have your attention,” Vedder said at a show in Las Vegas, “Can we please raise our voices, clap our hands, and show our appreciation for the first group to be on the stage tonight, Deep Sea Diver? That’s some good men and good women making up a great band. The singer, Jessica, and the keyboard player, Patti, they must not have believed that ‘diabolical lie’ that women should take pride in taking a back seat to their man.”
Vedder continued: “You see the kicker and he doesn’t have the pads because he doesn’t tackle anybody or get tackled. But he started telling men to puff up your chest and be more masculine and you don’t lose your masculinity. The irony was that when he was saying that, he looked like such an f—king p–sy. There’s nothing more masculine than a strong man supporting a strong woman.”
God I love a Gen X feminist. Eddie Vedder is a god!! Thank you for your service, sir.
Eddie Vedder had some words for that loser from the Kansas City Chiefs:
"There’s nothing more masculine than a strong man supporting a strong woman" pic.twitter.com/xv5hyMD9YK
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) May 19, 2024
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- Lead singer Eddie Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament of American alternative band Pearl Jam performs at BST Hyde Park 2022 – Hyde Park, London, England, UK on Friday 8 July 2022.,Image: 706035888, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit agency and photographer as Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon when publishing., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
- Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam Performing at BST Hyde Park, London, UK,Image: 706043519, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw / Avalon
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- Harrison Butker Kansas City Chiefs, 7, GER, Kansas City Chiefs, Pressekonferenz, National Football League, Week 9, Frankfurt am Main, 03.11.2023 GER, Kansas City Chiefs, Pressekonferenz, National Football League, Week 9, Frankfurt am Main, 03.11.2023 Frankfurt *** Harrison Butker Kansas City Chiefs, 7 , GER, Kansas City Chiefs, Press Conference, National Football League, Week 9, Frankfurt am Main, 03 11 2023 GER, Kansas City Chiefs, Press Conference, National Football League, Week 9, Frankfurt am Main, 03 11 2023 Frankfurt Copyright: xEibner-Pressefoto/FlorianxWieganx EP_FWD,Image: 819435599, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Eibner-Pressefoto/Florian Wiegan / Avalon
I’ve loved Eddie for almost 30 years and he’s never failed us. He’s the real deal.
Same, he’s a king
I’m right there with you. Thank goodness we get a few guys who are decent human beings and just keep showing up.
3 chords and the truth
I know his words are getting somewhat discounted in these comments. But I do seem to remember Vedder being a huge supporter of women-led groups in the 90s (especially I think Sleater Kinney). I also remember him saying how much he liked that women in the grunge scene had loud opinions and wore flannel.
Now, is his view somewhat rose-tinted and was grunge provably rife with violence against women and misogyny? Certainly. However I do have to give him some credit. That said, I’m an extremely loudmouth woman who had an insane crush on Vedder from about age 9-13 so I’m biased lol.
Eddie Vedder undercut his own message by calling Butker the p-word. A word which should not be used. Same for the c-word.
We reclaimed the c word and the p word AND the d word. I proudly refer to misogynistic men as douche bags
💯
I missed that meeting. Slurs are slurs.
You need to research the history of the douche bag slur, it wasn’t aimed at women.
Agreed. P-ssies are the strongest things in the world. I wish he had used a different word but I know he meant well.
Came here to say all of this. Female genitalia should never be a metaphor for weakness. The sad thing is it’s so culturally ingrained that Vedder used the word while trying to make the opposite point.
Exactly, BettyRose! He completely contradicted himself.
Yeah. I mean, if we’re talking about “Gen X feminism,” I guess this is it. I’ll take it, but it sure ain’t perfect.
At least we know the phrasing probably really irked Butker.
Totally agree, @Brassy Rebel.
Agreed @BrassyRebel
It’s still misogynistic to use words associated with female genitalia in a derogatory way. Hopefully someone lets Eddie know. His intentions are good and if he’s sincere about his feminism, he will be willing to learn.
Pussy used in this way came from the word pusillanimous, meaning timid, lacking courage, coward or afraid. First appeared/ used in the 15th century. It was only in the 19th century that the word pussy (as in the kitten) acquired a sexual connotation and eventually became synonymous with vagina. But originally using the word “pussy” to refer to someone as weak or a coward derives from the word pusillanimous.
It would be nice when this family guy type men give some responsibility to the men too. There are many guys who put their jobs in front of their families. If he really cared about that and not making women second-class citizens, he wouldn’t get all these attention from the conservatives. Love Eddie, it is nice to see these respected men speaking out against dumbasses.
Maybe we should call weak men ballsacs instead? P*ssies are strong f*ck.
@Marigold
lol Yes to all of that.
Also, in England a “bellend” is a put-down of a man without resorting to misogyny – doesn’t necessarily mean cowardice/weakness but is a great put-down all the same.
Hahaha! I had this same convo with my mister years ago and he agreed- so sensitive! Lol!
I saw a comedian on Reddit who called Butker the ‘wife of the football team’ because he stands on the sidelines while Patrick Mahomes does all the work. Butker’s whole ridiculous message is pretty rich considering his mom’s career is what made it possible for him to achieve his NFL dreams.
And why is being a wife an insult? Maybe kickers don’t work, but wives sure as hell do.
Thank you, @bumblebee
Apologies for being unclear — I suppose repeating a joke out of context doesn’t read well. I don’t mean to insult wives or how hard they work — I know, I am one!
Thank you, Mrs. Smith, I appreciate that. I just find it frustrating when men defend women using female insults.
I appreciate Eddie’s support, but his comment shows how far we still have to go. ‘Strong men support strong women’. So, only strong women get support?
And Butker is a p*ssy? Insult a man’s masculinity by calling him a v*gina, so you can support women. Huh?
I think he chose that term on purpose, since the clown kicker is so triggered by strong, educated women.
The KC Chiefs are going to be distracted during football season, thanks to Taylor Swift and Butker, and I love that for them.
Our Gen X King!!!!
I don’t hold the p–ssy term against him, nor do I hold the b-tches term against the men criticizing Diddy in the previous post. The intent and sentiment is correct, we can do the language later.
Right. I think Eddie more or less has a decent track record as a feminist guy. If an elder’s heart is in the right place, I don’t totally fault them for using vernacular that was normalized in their era (though that doesn’t go for actual slurs and p-ssy is borderline). Bottom line is I do appreciate men risking their status to stick their neck out on this issue and I do think Eddie could lose fans over this now that every American man seems to have been redpilled in the last decade.
I daresay his use of the term to call Butker a name is even perversely and precisely ironic since men like Butker and Diddy hold all things feminine in such disregard.
Eddie…. And this is why I have and still do…. Love you 🫵🏼👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Of course this guy is a Catholic convert! Not literally, because he grew up in a casually Catholic house, but reconnected with the faith as an adult. Went full Tradcath, Latin Mass and all.
Folks, going to Latin Mass is an entire Spanish Inquisition’s worth of red flags.
Yeeeeeeeppppp.
I’ve loved Eddie for over 30 years now and he’s always been a feminist.
Saw Pearl Jan’s first show in Vancouver 2 weeks ago and they were amazing!
Even on this tour, he’s mentioned how there should be stricter laws on guns and less laws on women’s bodies. Gotta love a Gen X King!
Luv you Eddie! Rock on…
I’d love a gen x feminist more if y’all didn’t take your eye off the ball and party in the 80s, leaving us with no rights. Cheers.
Many Gen Xers were still minors in the 80s and into the mid 90s. I’m a baby Gen X and turned 18 in 1998.
But I kinda get your point. Still, you’re not going to celebrate a Gen X feminist because Boomers elected Reagan?
People of quality, don’t fear inequality. Amen Eddie!!
Long Live EDDIE VEDDER!!!
Right on, Eddie.
This ‘argument’ isn’t even abou wives, witches, workers, wet nurses…
It’s about a man whosing respect for another human beings autonomy and dignity.
And unfortunately, that is something that a vast number of men never do.
And ironically they do it because they think they have the right to because they are men, and live under the impression that men make the norms for the society and culture.
(Thats also why they are freaking out at anything that is not a man having a voice — heaven forbid we make up rules that are as bad for them, as the ones they made for us)