Facing down cancel culture: 4 courageous women who stand firm in their beliefs

When I was a child, I wanted to be so many things “when I grew up.” My choices ran the gamut of all the traditional options: police officer, professional football player, teacher, and doctor. News flash: I pursued none of those things.

Today, I now entertain the same conversations with my 10-year-old daughter. One day she wants to be a show director. Another day she wants to be a teacher. And another she wants to be a mom. Like my journey — and the journeys of most — the odds are that she will pursue a vocation yet to be mentioned (although I am rooting for the mom option somewhere along the way!).

Society provides some truly heroic women for our daughter to emulate.

Regardless, as her dad, I do not expend much effort worrying about what she chooses to do. Rather, I am most concerned with how she does it and whether she will exercise the values my wife and I are raising her to practice: courage, humility, hard work, honesty, generosity, empathy, selflessness, honor, and intellectual curiosity.

I often recycle the same advice my parents always gave me: Pick appropriate role models and emulate them. Unfortunately, the U.S. media is not interested in promoting women who exercise these values in the face of career consequences.

While her mom is the best example for her to follow, it is important to provide our daughter with examples from outside the home. Luckily, society provides some truly heroic women for her to emulate.

Michele Tafoya enjoyed as prestigious a career as anyone — male or female — in sports broadcasting. She holds a record four Emmys for sports reporting, and she was the only person nominated every year she was eligible. She worked five Super Bowls, and “Sunday Night Football” was the top-rated show during all 11 years of her tenure on it.

But in 2021, Tafoya used a guest-host appearance on “The View” to represent the beliefs of so many Americans who were silenced and canceled at that time. Amid her fellow hosts asking for talking points to be fed to their earpieces from their producer, Tafoya schooled them on critical race theory and race in America with the grace of a wide receiver and the power of a linebacker. At one point the crowd booed her, to which she responded, “Bring it on!”

Even before then, Tafoya knew she wanted to pursue something different. She had a lot to say, and she wanted a platform where she could share her conservative beliefs. So she told NBC the 2021 NFL season would be her last, and after 327 games from the sidelines, Super Bowl LVI would be her final big game.

For Tafoya, it had become less about the military veterans standing by her side for the national anthem and more about woke causes that did not align with her values. As she said at the time, “I couldn’t ignore that little voice any more after what we have all endured over the last four years.” Since then, she has been a champion of conservative causes across multiple networks and platforms, including her own podcast.

Thankfully, Tafoya has been a trailblazer for many women since. In 2022, Jennifer Sey, brand president for Levi’s and a 23-year veteran of the company, was ousted for her criticism of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her own admirable move, the married mother of four and sole breadwinner in her household turned down a $1 million pay package so that she could share her story with public. “I walked out the door with an uncertain future but a clear sense of purpose,” Sey said. You can’t put a price on that.

Sey is now leading a movement of bravery with her clothing company, XX-XY Athletics, the first athletic brand that has stood up for women’s sports. What a novel idea! “This is who I am,” Sey said. “This is what I believe. Deal with it.” Let’s hope her efforts give young women the encouragement to live their values now, in the beginnings of their promising careers.

Every day the list of women gets longer. After being sidelined for sharing her opinion on ESPN’s COVID vaccination policy, Sage Steele left the network after 16 years to “exercise her First Amendment rights more freely.” Not long after, Disney-owned ESPN fired one of its other female rock stars, Samantha Ponder, for voicing an opinion that 70% of the country supports: Biological men should not compete in women’s sports.

Much is said about the glass ceiling. These courageous women not only broke through it but also laid a new foundation for the women who have followed them. There are countless other stories like theirs out there.

I still listen to every career my daughter dreams of and give her the encouragement that she can be anything she wants to be if she puts in the hard work. In a society where it is popular to “do as I say, not as I do,” when it comes to these women, I will tell my daughter to do both.