A little story.
I’ve never been a rules guy when it comes to conventional wisdom. I matured far later than the average human, I’ve had exactly one office job in my life and it lasted three months (wait till you hear why I lost that one), and in a world of engineers of contractors, I chose to go into acting.
Why am I this way? Chalk it up to the biggest piece of advice I ever got from my father, and it had to do with dating.
“Let them come to you”
Mind you, he meant dating only, but I took it a couple steps farther and made it my mantra for life. It all must feel right for me to take any plunge. That includes marriage, that includes big purchases…
That includes career.
Now what does this have to do with Stephen A Smith and Malika Andrews? One thing. I’d have done the same thing as Stephen A, only immediately, and probably not as nice.
And I’d be fired…with no regrets.
Stephen A. absolutely played the game for years to get where he is right now…the most powerful voice in sports. Did every affiliate show, overnight show, early morning show, ad copy, the works. He earned that power at ESPN, the penthouse, and his own plane through years of grinding it out.
And it took every bit of that to be able to shut Malika Andrews down with no fear of losing his job.
There is no blasting her skills. Malika is a highly prepared and hardworking broadcaster and personality. If you are going off a well-run show, she pulls it off. She’s also fearless, career driven, and whip smart (grandma was a civil rights lawyer).
Which makes it more frustrating to watch her, and other female personalities, play the victim card in Wokeville, population likes and clickbait. Not just Malika…every one of them know better. Maria Taylor has an MBA from UGA, Sarah Spain went to Cornell. They are ALL smarter than this. They just choose to appease the stupid, as does corporate media. It started with white men, but some graduated to every man. Men are evil, men are scum, men get their way, etc.
Let’s look at the last one.
Men aren’t graduating from college anymore…35% last year. More women have graduated than men in the last seven years.
More and more women are in boardrooms. 12% now, which was under 2% a decade ago. 33% of men ages 18-24 have no sex.
Men are in crisis, but they also put it on themselves. They get this garbage rhetoric banged into their heads. Media tries making no difference between men and women, and pure testosterone toxic.
Too many listen.
I put my story at the beginning because I know I’m not a big name…yet. I will be though, and I will have known that I made it without compromising my confidence. Too many men don’t have the guts. Stephen A and Richard Jefferson FINALLY put Malika in her place. Thing is that they are set for the rest of their lives. For this rhetoric to stop, there have to be so many other men willing to take that step.
A strong man plus a strong woman equals badass kids. Real women want a real man.
The rhetoric has to stop…NOW!