Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has received a ton of backlash following his controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas last weekend. And Kelly Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, has piled onto the backlash towards Butker.
Butker’s speech referenced several controversial topics, including LGBTQ Pride Month, Joe Biden, and the COVID-19 pandemic. But perhaps the comment that garnered the most backlash came when he referenced that women’s “lives don’t start” until they get married and have children.
To be more specific, Butker told the graduating class at Benedictine College, which obviously featured countless women that just worked four years to get their degree, that their future careers will largely not fulfill them and that they have been “told lies” about what should matter to them in terms of their future career.
Naturally, many women have openly voiced their frustrations with Butker’s comments. And Kelly Stafford is certainly no exception.
Stafford took to social media on Friday to offer her thoughts on the matter, saying that men need to “lift women up”, which Butker didn’t do in her eyes.
“Building men up and not tearing them down is important,” wrote Stafford on Instagram. “Building women up and not tearing them down is important. Everyone has a choice of what they want his/her life to look like. It’s not up to anyone else or society. The more society tells women where they belong, the more imposter syndrome starts to creep in, that they don’t belong because that’s what society is telling them.
“I’m happy and I thrive at home with being a homemaker, but that’s not every woman’s story nor should it have to be. Some women choose not to stay home and some women don’t have the luxury to choose. We all might not agree on everything, but I think we all want the same end goal, a better world for our kids. I think supporting and encouraging women and men in whatever roles they choose is a great first step towards that goal.”
Stafford is spot on here. The issue isn’t that Butker believes that homemakers are important, because they absolutely are. But for Butker to basically tell all women that their main goal should be becoming a wife and a mother is obviously a problem considering there are many women who have no desire to do so.
Simply put, Butker should have no say in what the majority of women do with their lives. And Kelly Stafford summed that up perfectly in her response to the situation.
