The Super Bowl and domestic violence theory

[whitehall]

The best estimate for the source of the conspiracy theory is a news conference called by a coalition of womens groups in Pasedena, Ca on Jan 28, 1993. The womans groups cited an astonishing 40% increase in emergency room visits by women as a result of assault. Good Morning America picked up the story the next day with a quack "expert" who was plugging a book nobody ever read and who cited the same statistics. The Boston Globe expanded the story with statistics allegedly gleaned from womans shelters. At the height of the hysterics pamphlets were mailed out advising women not to stay at home with their husbands on Super Bowl day. Nobody bothered to check the facts except the Washington Post. The 40% was an outright lie but the mainstream media was quick to offer reasons for it. The whole thing was a scam designed to place focus on woman's issues at the time and yet the myth persists to this day having been implanted into public consciousness by the mainstream media.

 

[uscitizen]

Yeah when the make me a sammich bitch bunch get drunk....

One thing to remember, Fan is just a shortened version of fanatic.

 

[Sheldon]

The best estimate for the source of the conspiracy theory is a news conference called by a coalition of womens groups in Pasedena, Ca on Jan 28, 1993. The womans groups cited an astonishing 40% increase in emergency room visits by women as a result of assault. Good Morning America picked up the story the next day with a quack "expert" who was plugging a book nobody ever read and who cited the same statistics. The Boston Globe expanded the story with statistics allegedly gleaned from womans shelters. At the height of the hysterics pamphlets were mailed out advising women not to stay at home with their husbands on Super Bowl day. Nobody bothered to check the facts except the Washington Post. The 40% was an outright lie but the mainstream media was quick to offer reasons for it. The whole thing was a scam designed to place focus on woman's issues at the time and yet the myth persists to this day having been implanted into public consciousness by the mainstream media.

Yes, it was completely unsubstantiated and debunked a long time ago. Everyone I know who knows about this, knows that it was a crock, so... yeah.

Is there any recent polling to support the claim that it still persists in the 'public consciousness'?

 

[whitehall]

Yeah when the make me a sammich bitch bunch get drunk....

One thing to remember, Fan is just a shortened version of fanatic.

Funny how the myth resonates with the left. Any excuse to engage in racist rhetoric.

 

[maatsmom843]

The study in and of itself may have been wrong, but there is definitely some truth to the idea that sporting events are one of the major ways that the PTB uses mass media to excite/allow a channel for our barbaric, more violent sides.

ever read huxley's brave new world? remember the violent passion surrogate?

Football games are our version of the gladiatior events of the past. the difference is that we only figuratively put our "cowboys" and "raiders" and "buccaneers" up against the "lions" and "broncos" and "bears," etc. the excitement, brutal contact and glorification of the physical form at its nearest to perfection are echoes from a distant, former time.

bread and circus, people