Editor's Note: This lengthy passage, excerpted with permission of the author, is linked to the previous blog post, "Unchecked Aggression: Women Servicemembers, Contractors and Military Sexual Trauma," linked here. Read that first to get a sense of why this passage is being introduced.
The author introduces the problem that a few athletes (like a few servicembers) are sexually predatory, in a subculture that rewards aggression. He writes, in the chapter called "When Women Are the Opponent":
Despite the ever-increasing number of sexual assaults and domestic beatings reported to police annually the mainstream press affords little attention to such crimes. One exception occurs when a prominent individual, particularly an athlete, an unique blend of role model and celebrity, is linked to such an incident. The increasing frequency of accusations of abuse against sports figures has stirred unprecedented interest in a pervasive social problem that for decades has stirred little. Although the widespread mistreatment of women clearly transcends the playing field, the attention and popularity enjoyed by sports figures has brought the sports culture under intense scrutiny by researchers looking for links between competitive team sports and the violence that occurs away from the field. As a result, a perception is growing that the aggressive nature and competitive atmosphere of male athletics can lead to criminal aggression against women.
Although the attitudes associated with male sports can reinforce sexist attitudes towards women, the suggestion that sexism is the dominant influence behind the rash of violence by athletes against women both overstates and oversimplifies the relationship. Participation in athletics does not cause men to abuse women, but it can help to incite transgression in those athletes who are predisposed to such acts. And certainly the culture of male athletics (using sexist locker room dialogue; rewarding aggressiveness, legitimizing violence) helps to sustain negative attitudes towards women.
….
“A stronger link between male athletes [sexual predator servicemembers] and the criminal abuse of women is the socialization process that takes place away from the playing field…”
“Operating under an increased sense of power [armed combat] and the mantle of public trust [patriotism, and the unwillingness to question what goes on when we’re fighting a war], athletes [servicemembers] inclined to sexual and physical violence have ample opportunity to exploit women who often misperceive them as respectable citizens [fellow servicemembers; sometimes their superiors].
“Among men who harbor violent tendencies toward women, athletic success may accelerate the exhibition of abusive attitudes, increasing the frequency of violent incidents. Nonetheless, that is less a function of athletics per se than a reflection of the modern athlete’s [warrior’s] status as an icon of pop culture.”
…
But an occupation that thrives on a unique capacity for aggression among participants runs the risk of being a home for troubled men who cannot contain their rage against the opposite sex. Because of the physical nature of athletics [combat]; the aggressive, confrontational, super-macho attitudes surrounding them; and the social approval afforded to celebrity-athletes, the sports industry has in effect embraced those men who demonstrate a disdain for women through repeated acts of criminal violence.”
The author then introduces the example of Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers cornerback Lewis Billup:
“Although he took advantage of his exceptional access to women, Billup’s desire to control them had little to do with his athleticism. Rather, a much more complex set of factors was contributing to his routine violence. “It has to do with power and control and hate…a disdain for women,” said Victoria Vreeland, co-counsel for Victoria Alexander, who sued Billup for rape.
As the former president of King County Rape Relief in Seattle, and an assistant to Washington’s Attorney General in drafting the state’s Victim’s Rights Bill, Vreeland was quite familiar with the mentality of men who acted like Billup. “The person [the victim of abuse] isn’t a person anymore, they’re an object. To that extent, if you have some societal sense or your grew up with a lack of power or control, or that you weren’t as good, this offers power and control. “I wanna be in charge.”
It is similar to children who lack a sense of power. Their feeling of powerlessness somehow gets twisted around in their minds and so the way to be powerful is to pick on somebody else. If you grow up with crime and objectification, making people objects, then killing them or harming them doesn’t matter. They are not human.”
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Then he discusses Mike Tyson's problems with women in depth, writing:
“Greg Garrison, the special prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Mike Tyson for raping [18 year old Desiree] Washington, concluded that Tyson’s violent tendencies toward women, like those of many other abusive athletes, were exacerbated by his sports career.
“Professional athletics has become such a megagod that it is sometimes unresponsive to the morals of a community,” said Garrison. “Sometimes it just doesn’t matter what a superstar does, it’s OK.” This is a particularly dangerous scenario when men who are prone to violently abuse women get involved and are thrust into an environment where their contact with women increases.”
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“Professional sports leagues and individual teams are in a more influential position to discipline and deter players from this type of behavior, yet they often decline to do so. Off-the-field criminal violence is repeatedly tolerated as long as players perform on the field. Clearly … countless male athletes live and work in a similar environment without ever engaging in criminal mistreatment of women. Nonetheless, the fact that predators … are playing professional sports demonstrates the degree of indifference exhibited by owners, managers and coaches.”
“As in most case of abuse against women, the majority of women who are assaulted by athletes are their acquaintances. Those few players who are inclined to violate women enjoy almost limitless opportunity to meet, and ultimately victimize, women.”
“Athletes use their celebrity as their billyclub to gain the superior position [with women],” Garrison said. “Tyson knows he forced Desiree, but he doesn’t care, because that’s what he does.”
“One NFL player who has seen the way Tyson interacts with women supported Garrison’s position. “You can’t imagine,” said the player, on condition of anonymity. “I’ve been to social functions with him. He walks in there and goes, “I’ve got to get some pussy, got to get some pussy.”
“Now I’ve been around a lot of people, but nobody comes in there with the proudness that they’re that macho that they can just … It’s like a drink, an item, there’s no feeling behind it. It’s just something that he’s got to physically conquer. He’s a product of his environment.”
Tyson developed a proclivity toward the abuse of women at a young age – a habit that mushroomed with his rise as a boxer. As a child he witnessed numerous incidents of violent abuse inflicted on his mother by boyfriends. As a young teen, demonstrated a disdain for young girls who repeatedly made fun of his high voice and chubby fame. After the renowned boxing trainer Cus D’Amato rescued Tyson from a life of violent street crime, handlers honed Tyson’s exceptional strength and fury into a relentless fighting machine. They used his distrust and anger toward others to motivate him and elicit his aggression in the ring.
D’Amato once presented Tyson with a baseball bat, prompting Tyson to ask, “What’s this for?”
“For the women,” the trainer explained, “When you’re the champion, you’re going to need something to beat them off you.” Although tactics such as this were designed to strengthen Tyson’s damaged ego, the message they conveyed bolstered an already dangerous attitude toward women.
A champion before his twentieth birthday, Tyson indulged in countless sexual liaisons with women. Yet, his contempt for them only increased. He confessed to fellow fighter, Jose Torres. “You know something, I like to hurt women when I make love. I like to hear them scream with pain, to see them bleed. It gives me pleasure.”
“Well, did it ever occur to you that men who behave that way probably hate women, that deep down they simply don’t like them?” responded Torres.
“You may be right,” said Tyson. “You’re the first person to tell me that. You know, you may be [expletive] right.”
Bitterly aware that women’s interest in him was based solely on his high profile, Tyson nevertheless used that profile to his advantage in his quest to obtain sexual gratification and domination over women. Through repeated encounters with multiple women, often prostitutes or so-called groupies, Tyson developed an insatiable appetite for sex. …
Garrison saw Tyson’s training as a boxer as a lethal trigger mechanism that unleashed his disdain for women. When his sexual advances met with resistance, Tyson approached the unwilling woman much as he would an opponent in the ring. “The wife of every lawyer says, ‘Don’t get into an argument with them [their husbands], because they do it for a living. You may be right, but you’ll never win,” Garrison said.
“What about a boxer? Boxers are masters of physical deception; at moving in one direction, but actually moving in another; at feigning left and going right; at appearing to be at a disadvantage when in fact they are poised to strike when somebody sees and is sucked into the apparent deception. Boxing is lying for a living. You don’t not be a boxer when you leave the ring. What I wanted to do was to show the jury that this guy will deceive because he’s good at it.”
More on the Tyson assault and ability to accompolish same:
“The cordial small talk he had made at the Expo and in the limousine soon turned to sexually suggestive dialogue. The abrupt change in Tyson’s manner left Washington totally unprepared for what was to follow. “Desire struggled real hard with, “How could he be like that? He’s Mike Tyson. My dad idolizes him,” said Garrison.
When Washington showed no interest in his sexual advances and tried to flee, Tyson quickly moved to snatch off her clothes and overpowered her with brute force. Despite her pleas that he stop, Washington became the object of Tyson’s unchecked sexual desires. “[Tyson’s training as an athlete] certainly plays a role when you realize that any [professional] athlete is possessed of such incredible physical gifts,” said Garrison. “Guys that get cut from [pro teams] are physical geniuses by comparison to the man on the street. And the players at the top of their profession? Could O.J. Simpson kill two people with the same knife? Of course he could, and neither one ever even know what hit them. You watched him run. How many guys did you see tackling air? Laundry was all over the field. And these men are as good as him. He was quick as smoke. Tyson’s the same way. He looks like he’s going someplace else and bam! You’re gone.”
Then the author concludes:
A subtle but important distinction is that athletics did not train Tyson to be a rapist; rather, his athletic training became a dangerous weapon in his misguided conception of what qualified as appropriate treatment of women.
“If I want it, I get it,” is the mentality that they’ve trained him to believe,” said Garrison. “If I want to knock you out, then you’re going to be knocked out.” Unfortunately, it’s persuasive in many of the wrong directions. The reason that Mike Tyson won’t admit rape is not because he didn’t do it or because he didn’t think he did it, but because he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.”
The disparaging attitudes toward women held by Billups and Tyson are consistent with those of the small number of athletes who are repeatedly associated with allegations of rape and battery. While there is no shortage of men who commit crimes of violence against women, few rapists and batterers combine exceptional physical superiority and with an aura of public trust, as deviant athletes do. Within the confines of the revenue-producing sports, men who are inclined to abuse women are left to inflict their abuse without punishment or the stigma usually attached to sex crimes and domestic battery.”
-- Excerpted with permission of the author, from Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and crimes against women,” by Jeff Benedict. Boston: Northeastern University Press (1997).
