Pearl Jam played the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 18, and frontman Eddie Vedder couldn’t resist eviscerating Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker for his controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College (via BroBible). Butker has received enormous backlash for the speech, in which he attacked Pride Month and shared his belief that women belong in the kitchen. He said “one of the most important titles” a woman could have ishomemaker.
Vedder took a quick pause in between songs at Pearl Jam’s Vegas show to encourage the audience to cheer for the band’s opening act, the indie rock band Deep See Diver. Vedder noted that two of the band members, including its lead singer, are women.
“The singer, Jessica, and the keyboard player, Patti, they must not have believed that ‘diabolical lie’ that women should take pride in taking a back seat to their man,” Vedder said in a dig at Butker’s ideology.
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“There should be pride in homemaking if you’re a man or a woman … it’s one of the hardest jobs and you should definitely take pride in it, but you’re going to benefit by giving up your dreams?” the frontman asked. “I couldn’t understand the logic, so I’m questioning it in public right now … It’s not a graduation speech.”
Vedder then took direct aim at Butker, telling the crowd: “The irony was that the football player — well, kicker … You see the kicker doesn’t have the pads because he doesn’t tackle anybody or get tackled — but he started telling men, ‘Don’t forget to puff up your chest and be more masculine. Don’t lose your masculinity.’ The irony was that when he was saying that, he looked like such a fucking pussy.”
“There’s nothing more masculine than a strong man supporting a strong woman,” Vedder said as the audience roared with applause and cheers.
Vedder is far from the only one publicly condemning Butker’s commencement speech. The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica recently denouncedhis comments, saying they “reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic.”
“Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division,” the sisterhood’s statement read. “One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.”
Even the NFL got involved when Jonathan Beane, the organization’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said Butker’s “views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
