Misogyny in Sports--Domestic Violence

One of the Baltimore Ravens' star players, Ray Rice, was caught on camera dragging his seemingly unconscious then-fiance out of an elevator after he assaulted her.  He was indicted on aggravated assault charges earlier this year.  The National Football League decided to suspend Ray Rice for 2 games.  There has been outcry over this lack of punishment.  See the above rant from Keith Olbermann.  
Yes.  Outcry.  From a man, Keith Olbermann, who admits he has made comments that were inappropriate. Many feminist organizations say that men need to get involved in the fight to end violence against women.  Yes, men do need to get involved and this is exactly what we are talking about!  Would this type of rant have gotten the same attention if it was from a host on The View?  Or Rachel Maddow?  Probably not.  So, even though I am wholeheartedly grateful to Mr. Olbermann, I also have to question why his rant has garnered attention when so many other rants in light of continued violence against women perpetrated by athletes have not?

After this rant, many other commentators have been adding their voices to this issue.  



I appreciate that many of the network news shows are trying to understand and cover Rice's suspension and the objections to it, and that perhaps domestic violence is not in their lexicon.  However, shouldn't it be understood in 2014 that telling women not to provoke their partners is not going to solve the problem of domestic violence?  It obviously isn't.  By telling women "let's make sure we don't do anything to provoke wrong actions," it tells them that they did something wrong.  That they could have done something differently to not get hit.  This is not okay.  This behavior takes us back to the dark ages when people stayed in abusive relationships trying to change their own behavior to make their relationships work, thinking, if I cleaned more, stayed quieter, was more loving, etc. etc., driving themselves crazy thinking that by changing their behavior, their abuser would change theirs.

Again, I want to say how grateful I am that there has been outcry over the lack of punishment by the NFL, and that I am glad it is coming from men with the type of clout that Keith Olbermann has, but we still have a long way to go before misogyny and domestic violence is taken as seriously as traumatic brain injuries.

Update 7/30/2014:  ESPN has suspended Stephen A. Smith for one week for the above comments.  It seems ESPN is taking violence against women and victim-blaming much more seriously than the NFL.  Although, it should be noted that known abuser Chris Brown was featured in a skit at the Espy Awards only a week ago.