The ESPY Awards are usually not only a celebration of the most effective efficiency in sports activities, but additionally a platform for among the world’s high athletes to specific themselves away from their common arenas. This 12 months’s ceremony, which occurred on Thursday evening in Los Angeles, was no exception.
Hosted by tennis legend Serena Williams, the occasion noticed the same old acknowledgment of greatness — superstars of their area like Patrick Mahomes, Simone Biles and Max Verstappen all obtained awards — however at one level additionally addressed a significant societal situation: misogyny, and the downplaying of girls’s accomplishments in sports activities and past.
One athlete has turn out to be the poster boy for this: Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who held a divisive speech at Benedictine College earlier this 12 months.
Butker’s remarks — which we’re not going to repeat right here — had been rightfully met with wide-ranging criticism on the time. Two months later, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Quinta Brunson used the chance to share their very own opinion on the matter.
“So, go forward and revel in girls’s sports activities such as you would another sports activities, as a result of they’re sports activities.” – Venus Williams
“Except you, Harrison Butker. We do not want you.” – Serena Williams
“At all. Like, ever.” – Quinta Brunson #ESPYS pic.twitter.com/RhvxfiHUWN
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2024
“Go forward and revel in girls’s sports activities such as you would another sports activities, as a result of they’re sports activities,“ Venus Williams stated, to which her sister replied: “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t want you.”
“At all. Like, ever,“ added Brunson.
Harrison Butker in all probability doesn’t care, and it appears neither might his team. Nonetheless, the Williams Sisters and Brunson utilizing their time on stage to name out misoginy once they see and are not directly focused by it’s a transfer value applauding and additional amplifying.
Because, as Venus stated, girls’s sports activities are as official as males’s sports activities. It and its athletes need to be handled with equal respect and appreciation.
