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NFL player condemned over 'repulsive' comments about women

Pictured left, NFL quarterback Cam Newton making comments about women on a podcast.
Cam Newton's degrading comments about women have sparked massive backlash. Pic: Twitter

NFL quarterback Cam Newton has sparked outrage after appearing on a podcast to complain about women that "can't cook" or "don't know when to be quiet".

While appearing on the "Million Dollaz Worth of Game" podcast, Newton discussed how he believes women should act, based on his mother and other female figures from his upbringing.

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In what Newton may have hoped to be an articulate discussion about what women mean to him, the free agent quarterback proceeded to shove his entire foot directly into his mouth.

“I had a perfect, a perfect example of what a man was in my life by my father. My parents have been together for 36, 37 years now and it’s a beautiful thing,” Newton said.

“I grew up in a three parent household. My mom, my father, and my grandmother. And I knew what a woman was. Not a bad bi**h!” Newton proclaimed.

The host then asked what the difference was between a woman and what Newton called a "bad b**ch."

“A bad b**ch is a person who’s just, you know, ‘Girl I’m a bad b**ch, I’m doing this, I’m doing that.’ I look the part but I don’t act the part,” Newton clarified.

“There’s a lot of women who are bad b**ches. And I say bi**hes in a way, not to degrade a woman but just to go off the aesthetic of what they deem is a boss chick,” he continued.

“Now a woman for me is, handling your own but knowing how to cater to a man’s needs. Right? And I think a lot of times when you get that aesthetic of ‘I’m a boss bitch, Imma this, Imma that.’ No baby! But you can’t cook. You don’t know when to be quiet! You don’t know how to allow a man to lead,” Newton said.

Unsurprisingly, Newton's comments sparked backlash on social media, with many users labelling him a "misogynist".

"Yeah, this is just purely misogynistic. Thinking a woman has to act or do certain things just because they are a woman. Get out of here with this nonsense," one user commented.

Cam Newton's shocking take on women

So to recap, Newton believes women should cook, be quiet, cater to their husband's every need, and not be a "boss chick," which Newton appears to think is something bad.

Newton didn't say that's the type of woman he wants for a wife or partner, he said that's what he believes a woman should be, and women who don't act like that aren't acting as a woman should.

Newton is obviously allowed to believe and think whatever he chooses, but he said some things that have been used to denigrate, minimise, and silence women for decades, if not centuries.

The women who fought for equal rights and access to birth control in the 1960s and 1970s were fighting against the expectation that they had to get married, bear children, cook all the meals, stay quiet, and cater to their husband's every need.

In the decades since, women have largely rejected that view of what they should be, replacing it with the idea that women can be anything they want to be — including a traditional housewife. And the practice of letting "the man" lead a heterosexual relationship has also fallen by the wayside in favour of both parties leading and making decisions together as equal partners.

There's nothing wrong with Newton wanting the same kind of relationship his parents have, as long as his partner is fully on board with cooking, being quiet, and letting him lead.

But if that's what he truly believes all women should be, someone needs to get the man a calendar and point out to him that the year is 2022 and not 1952.

Seen here, Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton warming up before their game against the Atlanta Falcons in 2021.
Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton warms up prior to their game against the Atlanta Falcons in December, 2021. Pic: Getty (Lance King via Getty Images)

Cam Newton has degraded women previously

It's blatantly obvious that Newton has not expanded his very narrow idea of what a woman should be in the five years since he told a room full of reporters that the concept of a female football writer made him laugh.

Yes, that did actually happen. During a 2017 press conference, when Newton was still with the Carolina Panthers, then-Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue asked Newton a question about routes. Newton's response was the exact opposite of what he should have said.

"It's funny to hear a female talk about routes like — it's funny," Newton said via ESPN.

While the Panthers said that Newton apologised to Rodrigue later, Rodrigue said in a statement that Newton didn't apologise at all, and what he said to her after the press conference was actually "worse."

You'd think that after being lambasted for that, Newton would have learned to keep his opinions about a woman's place to himself. That seems like it's harder to do than simply understanding that there are as many different types of womanhood as there are women on this planet, but he hasn't seemed to absorb that lesson either.

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