http://loveallbeings.org/blog/ending-rape-culture-is-a-vegan-issue

So, I’m selective in what sport I watch, and increasingly, with a couple more options for watching sport on TV, I watch professional sport played by women (football, surfing, cricket, etc). That way my passions are more about supporting a team rather than getting angry over another “sex scandal”.

Exactly. Plus, esp. in football, it’s a culture of being the biggest toughest mofo possible. Steroids are common use in professional and even school sport teams, and rage is considered being “pumped up to win” (aka kill) more than it is considered to be inappropriate.

As for that dudebro’s argument you mention, you can always snap back with “I’d like to know how an athlete getting gobs of money, tons of fans, fame and a clean slate after every controversy as long as they win one for the team, affects their likelihood to think they’re owed everything they want and can get away with murder.”

That’s right, gambling is bad, but not death and torture.

I think rape culture goes hand in hand with child abuse and animal abuse in our society. All involve a lack of empathy and a justification of unwarranted violence.

The fact that Vick and other dogfighters use a “rape rack” to allow their female dogs to be held in place while having unwanted mounting by male dogs…which is a version of what the dairy industry does, btw, they also call them rape racks and they keep the traumatized female cow in place while raped aka artificially inseminated against her will (I know a dairy cow who was saved from slaughter and to this day she is so traumatized by the rape racks she can’t be kept still to vaccinate or approached from behind)…well let’s just say I think there’s more in common to various kinds of abuses than our society is ever willing to cop to let alone change. Because when you have a lack of empathy across the board, the ends always justify the means. So we shouldn’t do the Oppression Olympics, even accidentally, on one group to show that another is oppressed. Females are oppressed, nonhuman animals (female and male) are oppressed, there’s racism and classism and homophobia and transphobia and so on and so forth. If we use a language of “this cause is more important than that” cause it’s divide and conquer, and we all lose.

Here’s more on dairy cows and rape racks:
http://www.peacefulprairie.org/outreach/DairyCow.pdf
http://www.humanemyth.org/happycows.htm

Here’s more on rape racks in dogfighting:
http://yesbiscuit.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-is-rape-rack.html
The Best Friends Sanctuary “DogTown” Season 2 special, “Saving the Michael Vick Dogs”, shows one and believe me, it’s called a rape rack for a very straightforward reason.