Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder has criticised Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s recent commencement speech.
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Earlier this month, Butker delivered a controversial commencement speech during Benedictine College’s graduation ceremony, criticising working women and Pride in the process. In the degrading speech, Butker suggested that women should take on roles as housewives and homemakers rather than chase careers.
Now, Vedder has slammed Butker’s speech while onstage in Las Vegas this past weekend (May 18). While onstage, Vedder began by giving a shout out to the show’s opener, Deep Sea Diver, led by singer Jessica Dobson and featuring Patti King on keyboards.
“There’s some good men and good women making up a great band. 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.”
“There should be pride in homemaking, whether you’re a man or woman. It’s maybe one of the hardest jobs and you should definitely take pride in it. But you shouldn’t not follow a dream because you think… you’re going to benefit by giving up your dreams? I couldn’t understand the logic.”
Vedder continued: “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. People of quality do not fear equality,” Vedder added.
In the controversial and distasteful commencement speech, Butker deprecated the “diabolical lies told to women” about topics including abortion, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy, President Joe Biden and “bad policies and poor leadership”.
“It is safe to say that over the years, I have gained quite the reputation for speaking my mind,” Butker began in his address, adding later on: “Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerative cultural values in media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”
“For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment,” he began. “I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you.”
Butker continued: “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
Later in his speech, the Chiefs kicker went on to address the male graduates by advising them to “be unapologetic in your masculinity” and to “fight against the cultural emasculation of men”. He also hit out at the LGBTQ+ community, calling their pride “deadly sins”.