Is he really the catch or did he just get lucky? Simone Biles’ husband has landed himself in the spotlight due to his misogynistic and rather diminishing comments towards his wife.
Yet again, we have another example of men diminishing women.
In our society it’s completely normalized for men to diminish women’s accomplishments and oftentimes no one bats an eye.
Even the husband of the world’s best gymnast can’t acknowledge his wife’s accomplishments.
Biles, the most decorated Olympic gymnast in world history and her husband, Green Bay Packer Safety Jonathan Owens were recently featured on the Pivot Podcast.
The podcast was heavily focused on Owens and his journey to the NFL, where he now plays as a safety for the Green Bay Packers.
Previously, he was signed with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2018.
During the podcast Owens was asked questions about how it was like to work as an undrafted free agent trying to pursue a career in the NFL.
Among various other questions, Owens was also asked how he was able to “pull” Simone Biles. This resulted in a rather demeaning response from Owens: “It’s really how she pulled me,” he said.
Ironically, many are not aware of who exactly Owens is and what his profession is, instead simply knowing him as being Biles’ husband.
But due to this recent controversial comment, he has been drawing more attention from the public.
“Unfortunately, yes I have heard of him, but his name is forgettable,” said Junior Eliana Vasquez
On the podcast, Owens continued to share how they met on a dating app made for celebrities called Raya.
According to Owens, Biles showed interest first, swiped on his profile, and checked out his Instagram to learn more about him.
Meanwhile, Owens explained that he saw the notification from Simone, but decided to wait a while to reply.
Owens then went on to make the truly mind-boggling claim that, at the time, he did not know who Biles was.
Owens’ statement is obviously ridiculous because Biles is a wildly popular and internationally famous athlete. With accomplishments such as, having 4 Olympic gold medals and 6 World all-around titles, Biles has made a name for herself throughout the sports scene.
She’s been on Wheaties boxes, the covers of Elle Magazine, Essence Magazine, Vogue, Time and even Sports Illustrated — she even was a finalist on Dancing with the Stars, so to say he didn’t know her is to say he may be both blind, deaf, and perhaps not all that interested in sports.
But even more pathetic than this claim was that Owens attempted to justify it.
He tried to explain that during that time, he was in college and did not have access to NBC or the Olympic channels.
In addition, he stated that he was in training camp during that time so he was not well versed in the gymnastics scene.
However, a quick glance to Owens’ X (formerly Twitter) account utterly contradicts those claims.
During the 2012 Olympics, Owens had been live tweeting about the Olympics, and specifically about the Women’s Gymnastics team.
For example, he posted statements about Gabby Douglas, who had been a part of the USA Gymnastics team at the time.
He tweeted statements such as, “Gabby with the gold” and “Dam, Gabby is good.”
As an addition to those tweets, he posted a couple of more tweets that were disrespectful towards Gabby, as he was commenting on her appearance.
On top of that, he made a racially insensitive comment about the Coach of the USA Women’s Gymnastics team.
Owens’ comments towards Biles and Douglas have sparked discussions from those online, mainly surrounding the fact that it is common for successful women to constantly get their hard work diminished by those who are not even up to their status.
Given that it is quite obvious that Owens did in fact know about his wife’s fame, a compelling question arises: What urges men to showcase such weak egos that they resort to get on a podcast and gaslight the public?
Was he under the impression that beliltting his wife would magically somehow make him a better athlete?
Or maybe he believed it would grant him brownie points to diminish and disrespect the world’s most famous athlete?
What Owens did is just a reflection of societal expectations and lengths many go through to boost their self -worth.
Indeed, Douglas and Simone are not the only female celebrities that have experienced the minimizing of accomplishments.
Female celebrities are constantly in the public’s eye and face far more criticism rather than praise, both from the public and from their partners.
For instance, Keke Palmer, an widely known American actor had to face a similar situation. Palmer’s boyfriend at the time, Darius Jackson, had the audacity to comment on what clothing she is allowed to wear to a concert.
He went on to post an outrageous comment saying, “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom.”
Jackson did not just stop there, he continued to post another comment stating, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is.
This is my family & my representation.”
Keep in mind, Palmer and him were not married, so he has no right to speak as the “man as the family”.
Unfortunately, it is common for female celebrities to have their careers overshadowed by their partners.
But in this case it seems as if Jackson was intimidated by Palmer’s fame and that urged him to make these outrageous statements.
It is a shame that there is so much hidden, as well as prominent, misogyny within the entertainment industry.
Meanwhile, these influential women are trying to grow within their respective fields but are constantly unrecognized because of these circumstances.