(Source: The New Yorker) (Source: LA Times)
Ray Rice, former Ravens running back, currently faces criminal charges after the release of the most recent video of him punching his wife, Janay Palmer, in an elevator, causing her to hit her head on a rail and rendering her unconscious. Rice was already in hot water last February when an abridged version of the above video was released by TMZ, showing him dragging his wife out of the elevator. TMZ released the latest video on September 8th, which shows the full knockout.
When the first video was released, it received a significant amount of media coverage, especially when Rice was arrested and then indicted on one count of aggravated assault in March. Despite all this, Rice was kept on the Ravens. After the most recent video was released, however, Rice was immediately cut from the Ravens and has been indefinitely suspended from the NFL (he will be appealing this suspension). All of these events have been widely publicized and public outrage has exploded over Rice’s violence.
On the other hand, another sport and another league - not the NFL this time, who knew? - has just proved once again the notoriety of national sports teams in turning a blind eye to domestic violence. A high-profile athlete has been outed for punching her half-sister and nephew, and is facing charges of domestic violence: Hope Solo, the best US goalkeeper the world has ever seen. The most notable difference between this incident and Rice’s situation is how each league has responded. The NFL has suspended Rice, true, yet US Soccer has essentially ignored these events and is even applauding her and allowing her to continue to play. The response to Rice’s case was huge, but where was the outrage during Solo’s arrest? All we heard were crickets. There are some significant differences between these two cases, but we can all agree that they definitely both qualify as domestic violence. So why the discrepancy?
There are two factors here that could’ve easily led to the prominence of one case versus the blindness of the other. First of all, Ray Rice is African-American. As we’ve all learned in the past eight-plus years of studying US history, this particular race has just about never had it good in this country, and I don’t think I need to remind everyone why. I’m sure that we can all point out many, many instances where racism is still prevalent in today’s society, and this looks like another to add to the list. And hey, if you’ve all been doing the reading (which I am sure you have), then you’re aware that ethnicity and current events can have a significant impact on the political views of a certain demographic, as seen in the graph below, which is on page 385 of our textbook.
(Source: American Government textbook)
Secondly, there’s another very important difference between these two cases: gender. Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and many other male players faced almost immediate consequences from their actions, yet Solo has been awarded a spot on the national team AND has been made team captain. I’m seeing a serious issue of sexism here, and not the kind that feminists rant and rave about. Where’s the equality?
- What factors "inherent in the system" could be prompting these different attitudes to the same actions from high-profile athletes, and why?
- What kinds of motivations would the owners of each team and/or officials of each league have to prompt them to either take action or turn a blind eye?
- Why has the public and the media glossed over Solo's incident?
I appreciate any and all thoughts on these incidents.
Bonus 'Murica Points if you can tell everyone why Ray Rice can’t be convicted again, this month.
Happy commenting!
3 comments:
Sports owners will always try to turn a blind eye to any sort of criminal behavior, because it simply is not profitable to run a team that cannot win(missing key players). In fact, essentially every sports punishment has been designed to reflect the amount of public outrage. The NFL would have been content to leave Ray Rice with the 2 game suspension if the public did not react so strongly to the released video. It wasn't that the video changed the minds of the NFL, since they knew the details about the attack soon after it happened from Ray Rice himself,but rather, as i mentioned before, the massive media backlash. Now, Hope Solo is largely overlooked for 2 reasons. 1) Soccer is not the most popular sport in America, let alone women's soccer (that's a different issue though) meaning there is less public coverage about it in general, and 2) (what Oma was poking at) She's a girl. The outrage that stemmed from the Ray Rice ordeal not so much founded on attacking another human, and more so hitting a girl. The legacy of "chivalry" shines through in the idea that a man should never lay his hands on a girl, a principle derived from the idea that women are inherently weaker that men, and it is a mans job to protect, not harm those weaker than him. Hope Solo can get away with harming others because through this archaic lens, it's almost the victims fault for being beaten up by a girl. Despite the numerous domestic violence cases of women abusing men, it is still viewed largely as an evil man's crime.
Rice's case seems to be part of a much larger trend in the NFL. Jonathan Dwyer, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and probably many others have been accused of some degree of domestic violence. Adrian Peterson is involved in probably the most disturbing violence case where his ex-wife filed for child abuse charges. The NFL is all about the money, so losing merchandise and revenue from the high-profile superstars is not ideal.
But the question still exists: why are these cases still getting all of the attention? The answer is probably where it always is. The publicity and hype follows the money and fame, which is the NFL's middle name. Solo's and most likely many other cases have gone unnoticed because there is much less money and fame in womens sports. Also, as Antony said, chivalry still exists in today's society. Gender equality means EQUAL, not just when it is convenient for women. Men and women should have the same rights in society, which also means that the penalty for a man hitting a woman should be the same as the penalty for a woman hitting a man.
In addition to the excellent points made by Antony and Matt, another reason why the Solo case is not getting as much coverage as the Ray Rice case is that violence, domestic violence especially, has been shown to be endemic in the NFL. I'm not saying that every player in the NFL is an abuser. However, the various cases of dog fighting, domestic abuse and child abuse demonstrate how when men are encouraged to be incredibly violent on field, they can sometimes be violent off field.
I think that people are connecting that incident with the New Orleans Saints where players were paid bounties for critically injuring players with these very public incidences of violence. They think that the NFL is fostering violence, not just on the field but in society, and they want the NFL to take responsibility for that.
In contrast, women's soccer is not (usually) as violent as a men's football game, so people see the Solo incident as one bad apple rather than the immorality of an entire sport.
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