Eddie Vedder Ripped Into Harrison Butker’s Misogyny on Stage

Trust that Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is not a fan of Harrison Butker. After Butker delivered a commencement speech at Benedictine College, the internet was ablaze over the Kansas City Chiefs’ kickers’ misogynist words.

Essentially, Butker thinks that women should be in the kitchen and that Pride Month is a sin. Vedder, who is never afraid of sharing his opinions, took to the stage to get his own jabs in. At Pearl Jam’s Vegas show, Vedder decided to praise their opening act, Deep Sea Diver, whic has a female lead singer (Jessica Dobson) and a female keyboardist/singer/percussionist (Patti King). “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,” Vedder said.

He went on, questioning the logic of Butker’s speech. “There should be pride in homemaking if you’re a man or a woman … it’s one of the hardest jobs and you should definitely take pride in it, but you’re going to benefit by giving up your dreams?” Vedder asked. “I couldn’t understand the logic, so I’m questioning it in public right now … It’s not a graduation speech.”

But then Vedder took aim directly at Butker, making fun of him for being the kicker of the Chiefs. “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 f—ing p—-.”

Honestly, Vedder could have stopped his speech there and it’d be great, but he went on, saying, “There’s nothing more masculine than a strong man supporting a strong woman.”

It’s always nice to have men like Eddie Vedder

I am, personally, exhausted by the Butker conversation. If a man thinks that I should be in the kitchen with a brood of children to tend to instead of having my own job and interests, great! Now I know he’s not someone I want to focus my energy on. But what we’ve seen as a response to Butker’s commencement speech is a rise in the worst kind of people. We have men claiming he’s right, women who want to be submissive (fine! Just don’t force me to do it) buying out Butker’s jerseys, and it has become the only thing people want to talk about.

As exhausting as the situation is, hearing Vedder just tear him down was the sweet revenge that I needed. And, to be honest, if I had to choose a man to stand behind, I would pick Eddie Vedder every day of the week over someone like Butker. I’m not making my own sandwiches, let alone someone else’s, so I am happily Team Pearl Jam.