There’s been some talk of Steve Harvey on The Tyra Banks Show, fully loaded with moments of bigotry, ignorance, and idiocy. We all criticize Harvey, but not nearly as many people have mentioned Tyra. Alonzo Fyfe has a great post at The Atheist Ethicist concerning Tyra’s silence.
And Tyra Blanks is, at best, afraid to challenge expressed bigotry against atheists.
It is also relevant to note that host Tyra Banks did not see fit to call Harvey out on his prejudice. Her guest was saying that all atheists are unfit to be married – that any woman who marries an atheist is making a mistake. She let it slide either without noticing, or noticing and not caring about, the bigotry being exhibited in front of her.
We can well imagine what her reaction would have been – what it should have been – if Harvey had declared that a woman looking for a mate should make sure that her perspective husband is not a “Christ killer” who would certainly only see her as a financial asset. What we would expect to hear is shock that somebody would come on her show to say such a thing and a quick declaration that, “I think those claims are wrong and bigoted and I certainly cannot agree with them.”
Tyra Banks gave us silence.
Since Tyra Banks is definitely not a timid person and she often speaks her mind, I can only assume she condones this behavior. For the love of Aphrodite, I cannot understand a women who is religious. I get women who are “spiritual, but not religious”, as much of a cop out that may be.
I’ve always been a critic of how religions attempt to put women in their place, as if to say they are just things that can be owned. That notion bothers me more than I can ever express. But why oh why do so many women who otherwise seem strong and independent fall for it?
What Harvey is saying here sounds very misogynous. As if to say, you need a man who believes in a god to keep you in your place. It is clearly written in several religious texts from varying religions that women are worth less than a man. Now I don’t need to quote the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran to convince one that rape is never mentioned …as a bad thing. It’s seen as a property crime, if a crime at all.
Is this what women should want? A man to keep them in their place? Or, perhaps, is it that men shouldn’t be that way, but someone needs to be? For instance, a hypothetical male partner wants to treat women as equal, but doesn’t think deep down they ultimately deserve that same very treatment. So by her believing in a higher power male figure, it can fill in the gaps. So he’s free to feel like he’s a caring and understanding partner because she still has to look to the supposed real man upstairs for guidance.
If he had said this about another group such as Jews or Asians, well, I don’t really need to describe the sound of his career plummeting to the hot pavement.
By the way, Steve Harvey is the last person who should be giving out relationship advice.
