"At the time, the explanation [for an off-color joke Paterno made about beating his wife] easily satisfied JoePa supporters—who’d become used to this kind of banter. But in the wake of 40 counts of sexual assault against Paterno’s longtime defensive mastermind, Jerry Sandusky, the toxicity of that testosterone-steeped sports culture, and the role it might have played in this scandal, isn’t very funny. The comparisons between Penn State and the Catholic Church may have become too many to count, but perhaps the biggest one is so obvious we don’t see it: Football, like the priesthood, is one of the few places in our culture where being a woman is actually more sacrilegious than saying you’re going to go home and beat one."
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Could Women Have Saved Penn State? - The Daily Beast
(via notadinnerparty)
(via notadinnerparty)
Three news stories of interest today—and stay tuned for highlights from last night’s “Young Women and Feminism” panel at the 92nd Street Y.
* Timothy Egan rips Nike a new asshole for standing by alleged serial-rapist Ben Roethlisberger in today’s New York Times. “Is there anything creepier than a big, beer-breathed celebrity athlete exposing himself in a night club and hitting on underage girls, all the while protected by an entourage of off-duty cops?” Egan writes. “Well, yes. It’s the big, corporate sponsor — Nike, in this case — that continues trying to sell product with the creep as their role model.”
* According to new Census data, women—already graduating from college in higher numbers than men—are now just as likely to have earned advanced degrees. “It won’t be long before women dominate higher education and every degree level up to Ph.D.,” said economist Mark Perry. (Of course, the data shows women lag behind significantly in fields like engineering and science.)
* In a meeting this week with top Senate members, Obama said his pick for justice of the Supreme Court must honor ‘women’s rights.’
