This is what Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton recently said during a press conference. Perhaps you need to hear it from a diehard liberal, Hillary voter, staunch advocate for equal pay and rights for women and one who has been pro-choice his entire life: Cam Newton was simply telling the truth. When you have been surrounded by males on the football field your entire life and the people with whom you discuss your trade have always been male, when a woman asks you a detailed question on passing routes – strap yourself in, snowflakes – guess what? It’s kind of funny. At a bare minimum it’s “amusing” simply because it’s so atypical. He didn’t berate her or her question. He didn’t question her legitimacy in being there or her knowledge of the game. He simply commented that in the oddness that is rightfully becoming less odd as time goes by, i.e. women’s presence in major professional sports, he’s still working on getting there.
Furthermore, as Dennis Miller once said: “That’s why we call it a sense of humor.” You don’t think about it. You don’t weigh and consider it. You don’t inform the person who just told you a joke “Let me ponder this and get back to you as to what I deem the proper level of laughter to which it should be entitled.” You either laugh or you don’t. (No less an expert than Jackie Gleason said that last line, by the way.)
Finally, to blow a gasket over this tiny perceived infringement only hurts the cause of those fighting against the more blatant instances of sexual harassment that occur every day. I’ll dumb it down for some: equality for women is now further away than it was a few days back. Congratulations.
BILL
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