Fact Check: Did Harrison Butker Really Say We Should Go Back to When 'Women Had More Babies Than Thoughts'?
After Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker committed the unspeakable crime of praising women who choose to be homemakers and receiving severe backlash, he is now getting pilloried online for new alleged statements.
The initial controversy began when Butker, a devout Catholic, delivered a commencement address at the Catholic Benedictine College on May 11.
In that speech, he praised his wife and referred to her “vocation” as homemaker as “one of the most important titles of all,” for her and for women in general.
Granted, Butker expressed many other controversial, counter-cultural, and truthful statements in that speech, but that brief section is what earned most of the ire online.
Ire which has only increased after Butker allegedly released a statement in response to this controversy.
The Facebook page The Sports Memery shared what it claimed were Butker’s words in response to the backlash: “Everyone is taking what I said out of context. All I said is that we should go back to a better time, like the 50s and 60s. When men were men, and women had more babies than thoughts. When the only ‘Me too’ movement was one woman saying she was ready for her 4th child, and another woman agreeing.”
And the chronically online liberals lost their minds.
A woman on the social media platform X shared the post, with the caption, “This is what they mean when they say ‘stupid jock.'”
This is what they mean when they say “stupid jock.” pic.twitter.com/iGpYKtuHIk
— Melissa 2024 Edition 🟦🟩🟨🟧🟪 (@Meltart) May 16, 2024
One woman, who goes by @lifecoachshawn, was so affronted, she spent one minute ranting about it on TikTok, saying sarcastically, “Ladies, we have him all wrong! He’s not a misogynistic man that thinks women are just baby factories, whose only purpose in life is to serve men and their children and to wait on them hand and foot.”
@lifecoachshawn The controversial kicker Harrison Butker says we’ve got him all wrong and he makes things clear aa mud with this new statement. #harrisonbutker #datingadvice #relationship #dating #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Shawnda
Never mind that he never said or implied any such thing, but, undaunted by facts, she continued, “No! He wants us to go back to a better time — but better time for who?”
She then cited all manner of feminist talking points regarding the evil times before women could kill their children legally (such as not having the right to vote or have bank accounts, etc.), before saying, “This man really curled his lips to say, ‘When women had more babies than thoughts.’ Your physicist mother must be so proud — and your wife, to think that all she is to you is a quiet baby factory.”
Of course, the keyboard warriors took this alleged statement and ran with it because it seemed to align with their misguided, incomplete, bad faith understanding of what Butker meant in one short part of a 20 minute speech.
But, the real kicker (no pun intended) here was, Butker never said that.
And not as in, his words were misinterpretedn– as in, he literally never said that.
Fact-checking website Snopes, of all places, defended Butker, pointing out that the website from which this statement originated, The Sports Memery, is a satire and parody page, like the Onion or the Babylon Bee.
“Butker did not release a statement with these words, nor did he appear to publicly release any statements following his speech. A closer look at the quote meme reveals a watermark for “@TheSportsMemery” — a reference to the Facebook page named The Sports Memery. The Facebook page’s description describes its output as containing satire and parody,” Snopes said, rating their fact check as “originated as satire.”
Butker has not publicly commented on the ridiculous controversy, and several online warriors have instead taken a meme as gospel truth.
What is truly disturbing, however, is not just how people are still piling on Butker over a week later, but also how easily people believe this quotation is genuine.
Which, was probably because many have already ascribed this sentiment to Butker’s commencement address, although he said nothing of the sort.
He never said women shouldn’t have jobs or shouldn’t speak in public. All he said was that the girls graduating were probably most excited about getting married and having children, which, despite what the left would say, most women are.
This whole debacle showed, yet again, how easily people are swayed by biased media coverage.
The full speech has been easily available for people to watch, but you can tell that very few people have based on the ideas and quotations they ascribe to Butker.
But, of course, why take the time to listen to a thoughtful, heartfelt, and intelligent speech, when you can listen to soundbites on social media and twist them to fit your leftist narrative?
After all, it’s much easier to cast Butker as a cartoonish misogynist than honestly address his actual words and beliefs.
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