Terry Crews broke down the underlying problems surrounding masculinity during a panel discussion at the 9th Annual “Women In the World Summit.” He compared it to a “cult”.
The “Longest Yard” actor spoke at the women’s event in New York on Saturday afternoon to discuss the #MeToo movement and the negative effects of masculinity. He sat alongside panelists Joanna Coles, the chief operating officer at Hearst Magazines, and Lauren Duca, a journalist, to give them a glimpse of what men really think.
“Masculinity can be a cult,” Crews said. “And when I say ‘cult,’ it’s no different than David Koresh. It’s no different than Jim Jones.” He then compared masculinity to slavery and said: “it’s like a disconnect.”
The former football player admitted masculinity has often lead to sexual violence and the demeaning of women. He stated that men don’t look at women as “all the way human.”
“This is what you have to understand ― there is a humanity issue here,” the actor said.”[Women are] like, ‘Why don’t you hear me? Why don’t you see my feelings?’ And [men are] like, ‘But you’re not all the way human. You’re here for me, you’re here for my deal.’ It’s real.”
Crews relayed that he was also guilty of the same mindset and more often than not felt he was more superior than women. “I believed, simply because I was a man, that I was more valuable than my wife and the other women in my life,” Crews said.
The former “Philadelphia Eagles” player said he and his teammates would go to strip clubs and refused to hear the exotic dancer speak about her life outside of the establishment.
“Once she starts talking about that she has kids or she starts talking about anything in her life, it’s like, ‘Stop, stop, stop.’ Because [she’s] becoming a human before my eyes,” Crews said. “I don’t want you to be a human. I want you to be an object. I want you to be something pretty to look at. But as you talk, you’re making things too real for me.”
