I'm incredibly moved by this video Planned Parenthood put together featuring former professional football player Sean James and Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner. It's a beautiful model of male allyship: men are speaking but center the perspectives and decisions of women in their lives. They talk about what they've learned from women and about trusting women with their own choices. This is the message I wish Super Bowl viewers would hear.
Transcript after the jump.
Sean James: I'm Sean James. I'm a former college and professional football player.
Al Joyner: I'm Al Joyner. I won Olympic gold medal in the triple jump.
SJ: I love my family and I love sports.
AJ: And Super Bowl weekend is a perfect time to honor both: sports and family.
SJ: There's a lot of talk leading up to the Super Bowl about an ad focused on sports and family. The ad features a great football player, Tim Tebow, and his loving mother discussing a difficult medical decision she made for her family. I respect and honor Mrs. Tebow's decision.
AJ: I want my daughter to live in a world where everyone's decisions are respected.
SJ: My mom showed me that women are strong and wise. She taught me that only women can make the best decisions about their health and their future.
AJ: My daughter will always be my little girl, but I'm proud every day as I watch her grow up to be her own person, a smart, confident young woman. I trust her to take care of herself.
SJ: We're working toward the day where every woman will be valued. Where every woman's decision about her health and her family will be respected.
AJ: We celebrate families by supporting our mothers, by supporting our daughters, by trusting women.
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AWESOME! Its great to see these male athletes addressing the topic!
I know that after the Superbowl that anti-choice ad is going to be everywhere! So what a great comeback to be able to post! Thanks, Al and Sean!!
Brevity is the soul of wit. This ad boils the case down succinctly and is just terrific.
When is this airing? Post Superbowl only?
The only critique I have for it is that in the choice "debate" (I use quotes because debate here is a farce) anti-choice advocates sling around words like "murder" and "baby killing" while we severely limit our vocabulary. Here in this ad, as well as in most (not all) of the public discourse we put forth, choice is framed as a simple matter of health, rather than in terms of what's really at stake: women's lives, women's sanity, women's independence, and women's ability to participate fully as free beings in what is at least nominally a free society (and we all know that). Yes, I agree, this ad is amazing for its allyship. Yay! I would argue, though, that because of the limited vocabulary, it lacks rhetorical force.
I've encountered two types of anti-abortion folks in my life. The first type are genuinely morally serious people who oppose abortion but respect my position because they recognize that our differences stem from a philosophical disagreement about what constitutes a human being and not because I just love to murder babies. I count some of these people as friends (particularly since we often agree on a lot of other things that concern politics and social policy.) The second kind are a bunch of misogynist blowhards who shriek about murder and baby-killing and are completely incapable of having a moral disagreement with somebody without demonizing them as total monsters. I have nothing but disdain for these people and I don't have any desire to get into rhetoric wars with them. So, personally, I prefer the more subtle tone of this video. It gets its point across in a simple and powerful way. I think "trust women" really says it all. It makes supporting choice seem like simple common sense.
That was such a great video! If only 100 million people could see it, instead of that pro-patriarchy FOTF ad. Also, Sean James and Al Joyner are officially Badass in my book. Thank you for posting this Jos. :)
That was so great. :)
This is amazing. Thank you for posting this.
This is such a great video because it's respectful AND gets to the heart of the matter- TRUSTING WOMEN TO MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICE!
I've never heard much about Sean James or Al Joyner before, but I have so much respect for them now. This really just makes me smile :)
Brilliant
Thank you for posting this. I almost choked up watching this. I surely needed to feel warm and fuzzy inside on this cold, cold day. :-)
im posting this EVERYWHERE i frequent on the internet, and will be posting more than once! If the superbowl is gonna run an ad voicing one opinion, it should also voice another, like this one
I have watched this a few times I think it is very inspiring! They did a really great job.
Al Joyner knows from strong women: he's the older brother of the incomparable Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and was married to the late, great Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner. Great ad.
So when's CBS gonna take this ad? :/ Oh, that's right. Planned Parenthood's busy using their money to actually HELP WOMEN rather than dumping it into propaganda advertising campaigns.
So what about the women who have abortions because they feel they have no choice NOT to? This is all sweet and neat and clean but what I see are women who want to have their babies but see no way of doing so, but neither side of the debate ever addresses that. I can never understand why pro life people don't focus their efforts on a living wage for mothers and extending child care. And isn't it ironic they get two black guys when black babies are aborted 3 times the national average. I am pro life but I think abortion has to be legal but it's a lot more messy than us v them arguments we get.