America’s Trivialization of Domestic Violence,” in “The NFL’s Domestic Violence Problem

I have been asked to comment on a recent piece in the NY Times about the aftermath of allegations against NFL players concerning intimate partner violence and child abuse, and its possible impact on female fandom. If the central concern here is whether women might stop supporting their teams and revenue will be lost, then I have no comment. I am not concerned about a $9 billion industry possibly losing money because female fans are disenfranchised by NFL ambivalence toward violence against women. What I am very concerned about is what is clearly, to me, not an NFL-specific issue, but a societal-level issue. We both normalize and trivialize male violence, including domestic abuse.