HIDE THE WOMEN & CHILDREN! IT’S SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!
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Even today, one of the most ludicrous and methodically debunked hunk of bulldung trotted out into the mainstream media, the myth that Superbowl Sunday is day that “more women suffer spousal abuse than any other day of the year” is discussed as if it is fact. It’s not.
Lord knows, given my experiences, there were about 10 Superbowls during which I could have “snapped” and supported this assertion. But alas, I always managed to show restraint and spare us all becoming another statistic - false or otherwise.
Before the 1993 Superbowl, a number of representatives from various women’s groups held a news conference announcing this bit of unfounded hysteria. A big publicizer of anti-man myths is Lenore Walker, who further fanned the flames of burning piles of fiction by claiming she had undertaken a 10-year study supporting these claims.
Not unlike so many other falsehoods, embellishments, and hysteria - the media took the proverbial football and ran for the endzone with this one, never taking a look back. Of course, they ran the wrong way with the ball. It received so much attention that NBC created and broadcast a public service announcement before the game to remind “men” that domestic abuse is a crime. As if men and fathers in this country didn’t already know by this time that not only is domestic abuse a crime, false allegations against you for the same is also a crime against women (at least that’s how they’re treated).
The reality is, Superbowl Sunday is statistically no different than any other day in terms of domestic abuse. Further, I eagerly await the study that demonstrates how pissed-off female partners assault their male counterparts for spending so much time watching football.
The ensuing weeks and months saw a fair amount of backpedaling by those who had propagated the Superbowl violence myth, but - as usual - the retractions and corrections received far less attention than the sensational, but false, stories that everyone wanted to believe.
Today, I still encounter the occasional believer of this completely false statistic and they will swear up and down that it’s the truth. My how the radical crusaders of women’s rights (and hysteria) have managed to entrench this and so many other untruths about domestic violence to further their agenda (so successfully).
February 6th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I have to admit I was completely unaware of any theory of Super Bowl related violence against anyone…being a hockey fan, the only parallel I can draw is a hockey game, and there’s not much that will pull me away from a game. Good luck picking a fight with me after the first face-off.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Aren’t they busy watching the television? Always such the victims! Ya ya ya. Cry me a river. What next? St. Patrick’s Day?
February 7th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Where’s your proof that the research is wrong? Your column is seeming to poke fun at domestic violence, basically calling it a myth. Now I have no idea about the research either. But I do know that both female and male domestic violence exists. And it makes complete sense that the biggest sports event of the year would provoke battery from the male side, due to alcohol or temper or a combination of both. Domestic violence is a horrible thing-and again from both the male and female side. A friend of mine would come to school beaten unconscious by his crazy mother the nights before. (Something was done yes.) Domestic violence exists and is very sad. Who are you to make light of it and call a statistic pertaining to it mythical? Just bc they’re pointing a finger at men today bc they might overindulge and with their temper do something awful? Good god. Yeah okay be pissed that it’s “sexist” today-but with good reason–men get into the gam today more than women–for god’s sake be thankful that maybe it will speak to someone and prevent something. Maybe. Yes I understand that Most of those who do it will do it anyway but there’s always the chance that those public service announcements can help in some small way. I would like to see more public service announcements abt abuse coming frm both moms and dads more often and throughout the year. I wish you would’ve taken your column in THAT direction.
April 29th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
@ whattodo
Just because you can be painfully verbose doesn’t mean you can’t also be ignorant and completely wrong. The poster isn’t implying that spousal abuse is a myth, he’s saying that (though it might make sense to, say, a gullible moron) the Super Bowl and things of that nature don’t directly cause spousal abuse, and that the kind of degenerate piece of shit who would beat his wife over a sporting event is the kind of degenerate piece of shit who’d beat her anyway, and for you to think that something as flaccid and impotent as an NBC public service announcement is going to make a positive impact on a person like that simply reveals how fucking stupid you are.
Good day!