Aaron Gouveia doesn’t see anything wrong with a father letting his adult daughter make her own choices.
Are you conservative? Fine. Not fond of something like the Lingerie Football League? That’s cool, I can see where you’re coming from. But insulting a father for attending his daughter’s sporting event? Sorry, that’s where I draw the line.
Megan Rosker recently took former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien to task for watching his daughter, 20-year-old Angela, play in the Lingerie Football League. Megan thinks women playing sports in their underwear is a form of prostitution and thinks Mark Rypien should intervene to “protect his daughter’s honor and propriety.” Whatever that means. And then Megan offers up the most damning evidence to date, when she quotes her husband as saying “What’s wrong with that guy?” in reference to Rypien.
Well then, now that we’ve heard from Mr. Rosker, I guess it’s case closed.
I actually don’t care if the Roskers find the Lingerie Football League abhorrent. And they clearly do, since this was Megan’s second LFL article in a 24-hour span. Personally, I think it’s stupid too. I’m only interested in watching football played at the highest level, and I think playing in their skivvies is exactly what it looks like: a shameless ploy to get men to come to the game with the hope of multiple wardrobe malfunctions occurring on every play.
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But Megan didn’t focus on the league itself. Instead, she inexplicably focused on Mark Rypien. She focused on a father of one of the players there to support his daughter. And then she ripped him for it, solely because it appears her delicate sensibilities were offended by scantily clad, athletic women.
First of all, Megan is factually wrong about one thing. She writes “The strange thing is, Mark’s hands off parenting style seems to be getting a lot of approval in the media.” Hands off?? Call me crazy, but Rypien was at the game rooting on his daughter. Wouldn’t that be HANDS-ON?! If he left her to her own devices and didn’t care what she was doing, that would be hands-off. And as has been chronicled on this website several times over, there is a clarion call for fathers to be more hands on, not less. To take more of an interest in the lives of their children, not less. Megan should have celebrated the fact a father was supporting his daughter.
But Megan wasn’t done. Not by a longshot. She writes:
Since when is it ‘bad’ parenting for a dad to want to protect his daughter’s honor and propriety? Even when our children grow into young adults, it is always the father’s job to protect and care for his children. How can a father allow his daughter to prostitute herself for a sport in front of millions of fans that calls itself ‘True Fantasy Football?’ Yeah, I think we can all guess what the fantasy is here.
For starters, I fail to see how this is prostitution. The players are there voluntarily and eager to play, they’re being compensated and there are no sexual encounters taking place in exchange for money. Megan’s hyperbole is not an adequate substitute for facts.
Second, I believe it is the job of both parents (not just the father) to protect their children. But I fail to see how Angela Rypien’s “honor and propriety” are at stake. She’s not in the middle of a gang-bang, she’s playing football in her bra and panties. And as a 20-year-old adult, I fail to see how Mark Rypien has any damn say in the matter at all. Sure he can give his opinion, but in the end it’s her call. He can either boycott the games and risk alienating his daughter, or he can suck it up, get past his own discomfort, and support his daughter even at his own expense. And as far as I can tell, that’s what Mark Rypien is doing. He’s being a good father, for which he should be commended. Not scorned by the likes of Megan.
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My question to you Megan, is what would you like Rypien to do?
Should he have marched down onto the field, carried her off a la “Officer and a Gentleman” and humiliated her? Should he make all of her decisions for her? Is it his job to make sure no guys find her attractive or have sex with her? Seeing as she has a 2-year-old I think that ship has sailed. But even if that wasn’t the case, overbearing fathers eagle-eying their daughter’s virginity is more than a tad bit creepy. And completely unrealistic.
It’s incredibly troubling for you to imply a grown woman shouldn’t play a sport she likes or dress the way she wants simply because her dad tells her not to. And it certainly goes against the recent tide of ultra-feminism that populates the Good Men Project as of late, so I’m surprised more women here haven’t taken notice.
Children do not always follow the path we imagined for them. Would I want my daughter playing in her underwear? No, I would not. And I would tell her that. But if she really wanted to do it and she was 20 years old, I can’t stop her. She’s not doing anything illegal, immoral or dangerous (unless you count burns from the astroturf), so all I’d be able to do is grit my teeth and cheer her on. Because that’s what good dads do. They love and support unconditionally and let their children make decisions for themselves.
And that’s what Mark Rypien is doing. For that, he deserves applause. Instead, Megan engaged in unnecessary roughness and committed a personal foul. In the future, I hope this website gets back to celebrating good dads—and good men—instead of cutting them down unnecessarily.
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image: crookedstraight
The post Rypien Shouldn’t Be Ripped for Being a Good Dad appeared first on The Good Men Project.
