A Violent Femme’s View – Unnecessary Roughness

I thought long and hard (no pun intended) about whether to write about our good ol’ buddy Brent and his apparent penchant for sexting. Max Ginsberg wrote a wonderful post on the subject. When I read it and other’s thoughts on the subject I thought maybe all that could be said had been.

But, as usual, I can’t keep my opinion to myself. (I promise, I’ll write about the Packers next week. They’re certainly providing lots of material.)

I’ll make it clear. I think that Brent’s guilty. No obligatory shot of Mrs. Favre on MNF this week sealed the deal for me. That said, I do not care if consenting adults send naked pictures of themselves to each other. I agree it’s none of my business or yours, with few exceptions. (That said, guys – we women really don’t want to look at pictures of your junk. At least not the vast majority of us. Even if we love you.)

While I will admit that part of me is not-so-secretly delighted to see Gramps twist in the wind, finally getting shown to all as the wonderful person I believe he is, there are a few things that really bother me about this whole “scandal.”

First, as has been noted, the insinuation that Jenn Sterger brought this on herself by being an attractive woman who makes no secret that she looks good is insane. To me, it’s important to note that so far as I’ve seen, no one reporting on this mess thinks that Ms. Sterger gave Voldemort any encouragement to approach her, and in fact paid no attention to his overtures other than having a few giggles over it with her friends. We all knew that Gramps has a big ego (though apparently not much else) but even I had no idea that he would be arrogant enough to think if he called or sent pictures of his private parts to any woman she’d automatically fall into his arms. Maybe it worked for him in the past. I’m sure we’ll find out, whether we want to or not.

I’ve also been disturbed by comments like “Men do this all the time, why is it anyone’s business?” from both men and women. Think about it. The New York Jets paid both of these people’s wages, whether Sterger was a “contractor” or not. THAT makes it the NFL’s business at the very least.

Last but certainly not least, I can’t see how being the father of two daughters wouldn’t give this man some much-needed perspective. How would Brent feel if some stranger paid unwelcome attentions like these to Brittany or Breleigh? Would he be offended? Would he feel that they were being objectified and disrespected? Would he want to hop on his lawn mower and go kick some ass? One would hope so. And yet…it’s apparent he doesn’t get it. I shouldn’t be surprised. Very little about him surprises me anymore. But I am.

It’s increasingly clear to me he’s not the only one who doesn’t get it.