Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston addressed a group of fifth graders at a school in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. While the action was impressive, the message was not.
Here’s what he said to the kids, according to the Tampa Bay Times:
“All my young boys, stand up. The ladies, sit down,” Winston said. “But all my boys, stand up. We strong, right? We strong! We strong, right? All my boys, tell me one time: I can do anything I put my mind to. Now a lot of boys aren’t supposed to be soft-spoken. You know what I’m saying? One day y’all are going to have a very deep voice like this (in deep voice). One day, you’ll have a very, very deep voice.“But the ladies, they’re supposed to be silent, polite, gentle. My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong. I want y’all to tell me what the third rule of life is: I can do anything I put my mind to.
Ladies, sit down.
Ladies, stay silent.
Ladies, only men are strong.
Winston took a chance to talk to fifth graders and used it to reinforce ugly stereotypes. He said later he used a poor word choice in trying to empower the young men.
“I was making an effort to interact with a young male in the audience who didn’t seem to be paying attention, and I didn’t want to single him out so I asked all the boys to stand up,” Winston said. “During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some.”
It’s hard to get past what those girls heard. Women are constantly being told to sit down and be quiet. It happened to a senator just a few weeks ago.
Instead of empowering all of the students, he chose to tell a group of boys and girls that girls need to be silent. Boys need to be strong.
If Winston wants to affect the lives of boys in the Tampa area, he can. He should! Talk to the Boy Scouts. Talk to the boys sports teams at a school. Talk to teachers and principals to get ideas about how to help the boys who need it. Trust me. They will have good ideas.
But treating the girls in the room as if they don’t deserve to have a voice is wrong and hurtful. It’s teaching girls they don’t have the right to speak up. It’s teaching girls there is only one way they should act, and if they’re strong, they’re acting like men.
Kudos to the one girl who turned to an adult in the room and said, “But I’m strong!” Yes, you are. Be sure to tell the same thing to your classmates.
And it’s not just hurtful to the girls. Telling boys they always must be strong puts them into a box they don’t deserve to be in. If they boys can be anything they want to be, what if they want to be soft-spoken? What if being strong isn’t as important to them as being open and loving?
Talking to students in the off-season, when Winston could have been doing anything else in the world, is a good thing. But next time, change the message to tell all children that they’re strong.
