Statement of NOW President Terry O’Neill Regarding NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s Press Conference
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s today did nothing to increase confidence in his ability to lead the NFL out of its morass.
Category: Stopping Violence Against Women
NOW is the time for change
O’Neill’s passion about public policy that works for the benefit of women is evident. She talks about every point with a conviction that seems born directly out of personal experience. While much of our conversation focused on economic justice, that’s just one of the six core issues NOW works to change. Constitutional equality, reproductive rights, racial justice, LGBT rights, and ending violence against women are also high on the NOW priority list. O’Neill says the equality for women can’t truly be achieved unless all of those issues are addressed.
Normalized Violence: Constructing Culture Through the NFL
Nor is football as a sport to blame for domestic violence and the broad cultural tolerance for violence against women. The institution is a product of a wider cultural problem, but that doesn’t mean it cannot play a huge part in changing the culture of violence.
National Organization for Women Calls on Roger Goodell to Resign, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Flips Out
“The NFL has lost its way. It doesn’t have a Ray Rice problem; it has a violence against women problem,” NOW said in the statement, pointing to other incidents like Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy’s recent conviction on domestic abuse charges and a FiveThirtyEight study into domestic violence arrest rates in the league. NOW’s statement goes farther than many of the other calls for Goodell’s resignation, saying whoever succeeds him should also begin an investigation into how the NFL can reform its policies for preventing domestic violence (presumably beyond the “new” policy Goodell instituted in August).
Does slut-shaming start with school dress codes?
“The schools’ response tells young women that they are completely responsible for men’s behavior, which is an extraordinarily dangerous message. Women and girls are regularly blamed for the crimes committed against them,” said Chitra Panjabi, spokesperson for the National Organization for Women.
