tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/ray-rice-12484/articlesRay Rice – The Conversation2014-10-24T09:41:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320632014-10-24T09:41:11Z2014-10-24T09:41:11ZThere is no debate about hitting children – it’s just wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59816/original/2dz79j5z-1411497019.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Adrian Peterson has been indicted for injury to a child.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adrian_Peterson_Vikings.jpg">Arvee5.0</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>US sports continue to struggle with the controversies surrounding <a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11551518/how-ray-rice-scandal-unfolded-baltimore-ravens-roger-goodell-nfl">Ray Rice’s domestic violence case</a>, and the arrest of Slava Voynov on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/sports/hockey/kings-defenseman-voynov-suspended-after-domestic-violence-arrest.html">suspicion of domestic violence</a>. But what has not been a matter of debate is where the line is for men hitting women.</p>
<p>The media and the public have been nearly uniform in rallying around the idea that no man should ever hit a woman, including <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/09/12/leonard-pitts-jr-rice-abuse-video-revealed-nothing-we-didnt-know-already/15461987/">Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr</a>, who wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So this is not just about Palmer, but about all our mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers and friends and the violence against them that is still too common and too commonly ignored.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, after it was revealed that Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson had been indicted for injuring his four-year-old son, in the wake of the NFL fumbling domestic violence, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/09/13/3567186/peterson-child-abuse-allegations/">debate</a> is exactly what we have witnessed. </p>
<p>Barely a week after posting the words above based on his own experiences with domestic violence, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2171907.html">Pitts offered</a> a much different view of spanking, in substance and tone: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No, I don’t believe all spanking is abuse … A parent must be loving, accessible, involved, but also an authority figure, the one who sets limits and imposes real and painful consequences for kids who flout them.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘I was spanked as a child …’</h2>
<p>Pitts offered what has become the distinctly different view of adults hitting children, when compared to men hitting women: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/17/adrian-peterson-fathers-effect-belt">my parents spanked me and I turned out fine</a>, which is exactly the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/9/15/6153477/adrian-peterson-statement-child-abuse-arrest">explanation Peterson has offered</a> for his actions leaving a four-year-old battered and bruised.</p>
<p>I grew up in the rural South in the 1960s, and my parents smoked heavily with my sister and me in the house and car (windows up). We also were not secured with seat belts. We rode bicycles without wearing helmets. Like many white children of our time and region, we were raised in an environment of racist language and beliefs.</p>
<p>That I turned out fine does not justify those practices, just as my parents spanking me does not justify corporal punishment of any kind or degree.</p>
<h2>Unsupported by science</h2>
<p>Beyond the failure of logic in these defenses of spanking, as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/adrian-peterson-corporal-punishment-science_n_5831962.html">Jessica Samakow of the Huffington Post highlights</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The word ‘debate’ should be left out of the spanking conversation, because the science against it is so clearly one-sided. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When drawing a line between spanking and abuse, Pitts noted research on corporal punishment: “A <a href="http://prdupl02.ynet.co.il/ForumFiles/12221272.pdf">2001 study by Dr. Diana Baumrind</a> — a psychologist who opposes spanking — found that mild to moderate corporal punishment causes no lasting harm,” he wrote. But his point is incomplete because even so-called “mild corporal punishment,” while possibly not harmful, is recognized as ineffective when compared to alternative practices.</p>
<p>Referring to more than 60 years of research on corporal punishment, Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University <a href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2002/06/spanking.aspx">concluded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Until researchers, clinicians, and parents can definitively demonstrate the presence of positive effects of corporal punishment, including effectiveness in halting future misbehavior, not just the absence of negative effects, we as psychologists can not responsibly recommend its use.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Corporal punishment in schools</h2>
<p>Corporal punishment remains a part of homes and parenting in the US, but it also continues to be allowed in public schools by law in 19 states. As <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/18/19-states-still-allow-corporal-punishment-in-school/">The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss reports</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>According to an analysis of federal data from 2009-2010, the Children’s Defense Fund reported in 2014 that 838 children were hit on average each day in public school, based on a 180-day school year, which would be 150,840 instances of corporal punishment a year.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many adults consider themselves to have reached a safe and happy adulthood, but in many cases we are “fine” not because of how we were treated as children by our parents and our schools but <a href="http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/how-we-raise-our-children-on-because-and-in-spite-of/">in spite of those practices</a>.</p>
<h2>A culture of violence</h2>
<p>Over the past two seasons the NFL has raised public awareness about bullying, domestic violence, and child abuse. But we have mostly failed to acknowledge the <a href="http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/adjectives-and-video-the-willful-ignorance-of-a-violent-nation/">cultural embracing of violence in the US</a>, often for entertainment, or our willingness to tolerate harsh and punitive attitudes toward children we will not accept among adults.</p>
<p>“Our social programs for children are the hands-down worst in the industrialized world, but apparently that is just what we want,” lamented author <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-hers.html">Barbara Kingsolver in an essay</a> on child-rearing.</p>
<p>The personal and professional consequences facing Rice and Peterson remain in question and worthy of debate. But corporal punishment itself does not. It’s very simple: we must reject adults hitting children both at home and in school.</p>
<p><em>This piece is part of a global series, Domestic violence and sports, which examines how different sports across the world are dealing with the issues of family violence and respect for women.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>US sports continue to struggle with the controversies surrounding Ray Rice’s domestic violence case, and the arrest of Slava Voynov on suspicion of domestic violence. But what has not been a matter of…Paul Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Furman UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/330472014-10-23T09:21:32Z2014-10-23T09:21:32ZTime to stop playing nice about misogyny in sports<p>The persistence of violence against women across the globe is <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/">well documented</a>, but what part do sports play in gendered aggression? It seems shocking to claim that sports and violence against women are inextricably linked, but it seems that every day we see examples of how the two are connected.</p>
<p>In the UK, talks of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29647263">re-signing convicted rapist</a> Ched Evans to Sheffield United Football Club, and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/08/lse-disband-mens-rugby-club-after-sexist-and-homophobic-leaflets_n_5954160.html">misogynist leaflets</a> being distributed by a rugby team at one of the country’s most prestigious universities are only the most recent examples. The UK has otherwise prided itself on being in the <a href="http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/legal-and-policy/legislation/equality-act-2010">vanguard of social equality</a>
and anti-racism in sports through organizations such as <a href="http://www.kickitout.org/">Kick it Out</a>, and yet problems with gender persist.</p>
<p>Recent publicity given to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/28/nfl-scandal-american-football-annual-trip-wembley-miami-dolphins-oakland-raiders">NFL scandals in the US</a>
and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/22/oscar-pistorius-south-africa-war-women">Oscar Pistorius trial in South Africa</a>
show the endurance of patriarchal power structures and, sometimes, deeply embedded misogyny within sports internationally.</p>
<p>Periodically violence erupts among male spectators as in recent case of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/15/serbia-albania-violence-uefa-inquiry-drone">Albania vs Serbia</a>, which UEFA, not surprisingly, deemed “unacceptable”. Such activities involve the intersection of ethnic, and class-based forces with those of a traditional masculinity. Another element of this masculinity leads some men to assume the right to vent their anger on the bodies of women and to discriminate against women in a number of different ways, including sexualizing and marginalizing them. </p>
<p>Violence against women often involves domestic violence, which implies individual abuse within the home. If so, why do incidents of domestic violence <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/08/police-fear-rise-domestic-violence-world-cup">increase during the World Cup</a>? The fact that the police have to be on high alert during and after major football events shows that violence against women is not only a personal matter. It is a large-scale social problem in which gender inequalities play a key part. </p>
<p>Thankfully, there is now increasing recognition that the connection between violence against women and sports has to be addressed, <a href="http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-press-information.asp?itemid=3279&itemTitle=Women%92s+Aid+teams+up+with+football+to+give+domestic+violence+the+red+card%C2%A7ion=0001000100150001&preview=1">especially by women’s groups</a>.</p>
<p>The gender politics of sports goes much further than encouraging <a href="https://theconversation.com/professional-era-means-womens-cricket-is-no-longer-about-charity-23329">more women to play sports</a>, even those traditionally associated with male competitors (although this is a start). Patriarchal power and the deep hostility of misogyny have to be addressed before sports can really be equal.</p>
<p>It is crucial to understand that sports do not simply reflect social inequalities; they also generate social divisions and inequalities, as well as providing opportunities for change. This has been acknowledged for some time and has been translated into legislation such as the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/equality-act-2010-guidance">Equality Act</a> and the promotion of a set of <a href="http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/policies-and-strategies/">diversity policies</a> in the UK.</p>
<p>But rehearsing the rhetoric of social inclusion and diversity is not enough. It is not enough to wear a t-shirt bearing an anti-sexist slogan. Things are changing. </p>
<p>Critics of violence against women in sports have highlighted the oppressive culture of misogyny which has elite men’s sport, such as football, where players are seen as role models for young fans. When a player is imprisoned for rape, as Ched Evans of Sheffield United was, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/11167114/Ched-Evans-should-never-be-allowed-to-play-a-professional-football-match-again.html">we must protest</a>. When a rugby club hands out misogynist leaflets, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/09/lse-rugby-club-racism-misogyny">we must protest</a>. </p>
<p>Progress has been made first by recognizing what is happening and second by naming it. This has led to engagement with the activism of resistance, which, in the UK has come from campaigns such as <a href="http://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/resources/22/violence-against-women-and-sport-a-literature-review-by-dr-catherine-palmer">End Violence Against Women</a>.</p>
<p>People who criticize the culture of misogyny on and off the playing field are not “spoil sports”. They are reclaiming sport as a democratic enterprise, one that has to be reconfigured to eliminate the misogyny that damages women. </p>
<p><em>This piece is part of a global series, Domestic violence and sports, which examines how different sports across the world are dealing with the issues of family violence and respect for women.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kath Woodward has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>The persistence of violence against women across the globe is well documented, but what part do sports play in gendered aggression? It seems shocking to claim that sports and violence against women are…Kath Woodward, Professor of Sociology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320132014-10-22T09:33:56Z2014-10-22T09:33:56ZAttitudes to violence against women in sports haven’t improved in 30 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60455/original/stmypvkn-1412108673.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ray Rice has been suspended indefinitely from the NFL for domestic violence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ray_Rice.JPG">Wallstreethotrod</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another day, another headline about a sports player and domestic violence. LA Kings player <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/sports/hockey/kings-defenseman-voynov-suspended-after-domestic-violence-arrest.html">Slava Voynov</a> was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence on October 19, and has been suspended by the NHL. This comes only a two months after NFL player Ray Rice was suspended after a video of him knocking out his then fiancee surfaced online.</p>
<p>Violence against women in sports – ranging from domestic abuse to gang rape – is a long-standing problem that remained invisible until the 1980s. Before then, when the connection between violence and sports was addressed, it was rule-breaking clashes on the playing field and hooliganism in the stands that attracted attention. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/sites/all/files/evaw_violence_against_women_and_sport_dr_c_palmer_july_2011.pdf">fact that members of male sports teams</a> were more likely to be perpetrators of violence eventually led to increased awareness and the introduction of codes of conduct, mentoring programs and education interventions. Yet the problem persists. </p>
<p>However, as Robin Warshaw pointed out in her 1988 book, <a href="http://www.robinwarshaw.com/i_never_called_it_rape__the_ms__report_on_recognizing__fighting_and_surviving_da_92309.htm">I Never Called it Rape</a>, statistics need to be treated with caution. The media paid more attention to sex-related offenses committed by black athletes than by “average” white students, and female victims were less likely to report attacks by popular varsity athletes than by non-athletes. </p>
<p>Having first examined these trends in the early 1990s, I find it disheartening to see the limited progress of the past two decades, as celebrity athletes continue to develop an inflated sense of personal entitlement, fostered by a system that rewards sporting success at all costs. </p>
<h2>How it happens</h2>
<p>The process begins at an early age: athletic ability represents a sure route to popularity among peers, and male athletes’ sexual prowess becomes the currency of the locker room. Socialization into the world of competitive team sports in high school often involves <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/nyregion/7-new-jersey-high-school-students-charged-in-sex-assaults.html">hazing rituals</a> with components that <a href="http://www.insidehazing.com/quoted.php?idno=26&articlesPage=1">symbolize</a> sexual humiliation and violence against women, including so-called “sodomy hazing”, thus setting the stage for actual violence against women.</p>
<p>In 1989, three players from Glen Ridge High School’s football team <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/reviews/970803.03bankst.html">sexually assaulted</a> a developmentally delayed 17-year-old girl. The same New Jersey high school had been investigated back in 1941, when a sociological study that concluded there was an overemphasis on producing winning teams at the expense of instilling important social values. </p>
<p>These boys join the ranks of prominent male athletes whose careers led to tragic consequences for girls and women in their lives: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/how-the-oj-simpson-murder-trial-20-years-ago-changed-the-media-landscape/2014/06/09/a6e21df8-eccf-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e_story.html">OJ Simpson</a>, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/09/12/robin_givens_this_is_what_happened_to_me/">Mike Tyson</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/12/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-verdict/">Oscar Pistorius</a>, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/sports/football/players-union-to-investigate-nfl-and-ravens-behavior-in-ray-rice-case.html">Ray Rice</a>. </p>
<p>With black players now accounting for <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/diversity-in-the-nba-the-nfl-and-mlb/">76% of NBA teams and 66% of the NFL</a>, it is not surprising that most of the high-profile incidents involve black men. In contrast to the US situation, increasing numbers of Canada’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/isabelle-cote/ottawa-hockey-assault_b_5846766.html">white professional and university ice hockey players</a> have been charged with violence against women in the past two decades, but with limited media exposure of their crimes. </p>
<p>Jeffrey Benedict’s book, <a href="http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book7380">Athletes and Acquaintance Rape</a>, examined how the subculture of professional and college sports promoted violence against women, while the system protected the men who committed this violence from punishment and conviction. Preferential treatment of male athletes encompassed both material and intangible benefits, including limitless sex with female “groupies”. The view of these women and, by extension, all women, as disposable, even sub-human, contributed further to their sense of entitlement. </p>
<h2>The hero myth</h2>
<p>Public adoration of professional athletes appears universal, despite the frequency with which they manage to shatter the illusion that they are heroes. </p>
<p>The mass media and the viewing public are fickle in their allegiances, apparently gaining almost as much satisfaction from these men’s fall from grace as from their initial rise to fame. Yet promoters continue to use these athletes as <a href="http://www.arsenal.com/doubleclub/the-club/community/about-arsenal-double-club">role models</a> for <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/brochure/meread/meread.pdf">educational programs</a>.</p>
<p>When NBA player Charles Barkley <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMzdAZ3TjCA">famously rejected</a> the role of role model, critics condemned him for a position that other athletes would have done well to emulate. </p>
<p>Violence is an intrinsic part of men’s team sports, and most celebrity athletes are not famous for marital fidelity or clean living. Yet they continue to be treated as positive examples for children and youth, with their athletic performances eclipsing their frequent moral failings.</p>
<p>From Glen Ridge in 1989 to the NFL in 2014, all these contexts demand new attitudes, policies and practices, starting with the consistent application of criminal charges and penalties, regardless of the star status of the player. </p>
<p>Teachers, coaches and parents need to promote critical thinking and media literacy on the part of children and adolescents, so that they recognise how values, particularly non-violence and respect for others, should shape behaviour on and off the field. If we leave moral education in the hands of multinational sporting goods companies, we cannot expect the next generation of male athletes to respect women.</p>
<p><em>This piece is part of a global series, Domestic violence and sports, which examines how different sports across the world are dealing with the issues of family violence and respect for women.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Jefferson Lenskyj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Another day, another headline about a sports player and domestic violence. LA Kings player Slava Voynov was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence on October 19, and has been suspended by the NHL…Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.