There’s something nearly fascinating in regards to the confidence of a mediocre double customary. We see it in politics, in faith, shoot, day-to-day dwelling. And sadly, we see it in plenty of Black males.
Enter Cam Newton.
The previous NFL quarterback, and father of 9 kids by a number of girls, lately declared on a podcast {that a} lady’s “worth will get decrease the extra kids that they’ve.”
Let that marinate.
A person with 9 kids. A person whose personal romantic résumé reads like a household reunion program. A person who has benefited from girls carrying, birthing, and elevating his legacy. And but, he has positioned himself because the appraiser of ladies’s value.
That, my buddies, is the audacity of chauvinism.
Let’s be clear about one thing. This isn’t about Cam Newton, the athlete (who I occurred to love). This isn’t in regards to the Carolina Panthers or his stats on the sphere. That is in regards to the drained, recycled notion {that a} lady’s worth is tied to her “purity,” her womb, or her proximity to male approval.
It’s 2026, and we’re nonetheless having conversations about girls being lowered to stock.
What makes Newton’s feedback much more exceptional is that in the identical breath, he says males ought to settle for a lady’s kids in the event that they select to be together with her. He even suggested one of many moms of his kids that if a person gained’t love her 5 kids, “that ain’t the man for you.”
Sir.
So girls’s worth decreases with every little one, however males are noble for loving the kids they helped create? That’s not logic. That’s ego.
That is the sort of pondering that Black girls, specifically, have been battling for generations. The Jezebel stereotype. The “child mama” caricature. The quiet shaming wrapped in church whispers and Twitter threads. The concept that motherhood someway makes us much less fascinating – until, in fact, we’re elevating the subsequent NFL draft decide.
The hypocrisy is exhausting. Males are sometimes applauded for virility. Girls are penalized for fertility. A person with a number of kids is seen as highly effective, prolific, even fascinating. A girl with a number of kids is seen as irresponsible, “used,” or someway diminished. I imply, gospel singer KeKe Wyatt is crucified for having eleven children WITH HER HUSBAND, however males like Cam get an “Atta Boy.”
Who created that math? And why are we nonetheless pretending it is smart?
What’s harmful about statements like Newton’s isn’t simply that they’re offensive. It’s that they normalize the grading of ladies’s humanity. They subtly reinforce the concept that a lady’s value is transactional, that she depreciates like a automotive with each milestone of lived expertise.
That ideology doesn’t simply stay on podcasts. It reveals up in hiring bias. In relationship tradition. In how society treats single moms. In how typically Black girls are advised to be glad about being “chosen.”
And right here’s the half that must be stated plainly: Motherhood just isn’t a legal responsibility.
It’s management. It’s administration. It’s sacrifice. It’s power.
Black girls have constructed households, communities, and actions whereas being advised they had been an excessive amount of, too loud, too impartial, and now apparently, too maternal.
The audacity isn’t simply that Cam Newton stated it. The audacity is that some folks nodded alongside.
We’ve to cease entertaining the notion that ladies’s worth is negotiable. It fluctuates primarily based on what number of occasions we’ve liked, carried life, survived heartbreak, or rebuilt.
A girl’s value just isn’t decided by what number of kids she has. It’s not decided by whether or not a person finds her handy. It’s not decided by whether or not she matches into somebody’s slender blueprint of desirability.
And if a person with 9 kids thinks he’s certified to set the dimensions? That tells you the whole lot it’s essential to know in regards to the scale.
The actual dialog we needs to be having is about accountability and the way casually misogyny nonetheless flows in public areas, and the way typically Black girls are anticipated to soak up it quietly.
Not as we speak. If a lady chooses to have one little one or 5, with one accomplice or none, her worth stays intact. Interval. As a result of the audacity of chauvinism solely survives after we let it.
And we’re achieved doing that.
