Love Coach dishes out some bad advice
Karen Bumgardner
Guest Coiumnist
On the way to UH, stuck in gridlock Friday morning, I found myself outraged at what was transmitted over the airwaves by our football coach, Kim Helton.
Coach Helton promotes UH every Friday morning on 104 KRBE by acting as "The Love Coach" in an hour-long spot where he gives callers advice on how to tackle their relationship problems.
Usually, this advice seems to be considerate, yet truthful. However, the advice the coach dished out Friday not only shocked me -- it appalled me.
Here's what happened: A married woman whose husband had moved out of the house called the show for advice on whether or not she should try to stick out the marriage.
She explained that the relationship had been in trouble for some time, but that she and her husband had stayed together because of their children.
Her husband had moved out of their house, and she now wondered, was it worth the effort to try and patch things up?
What I heard next made me frown in disbelief. Coach Helton gave her the advice that if she did want to stay in the relationship, she would need to put more effort into getting him to desire her.
As if this wasn't enough, he also advised her if she wanted to keep her husband, she would need to work harder to compete for him.
I just sat there, unable to comprehend what I had just heard. Not only did someone blatantly degrade the role of women in marriage, but the person promoting this misogyny was a representative of UH.
Is it OK to label women as objects that exist to satisfy sexual desires as long as you are a sports figure?
Since when is a person allowed to delegate marital responsibility completely to wives, even if he is a coach?
I'm sure someone else out there realized what was going on when Kim Helton stomped on the progress females have been able to make toward equality.
I have to wonder if his wife listens to the advice of "The Love Coach."
If she does, my condolences, Mrs. Helton.
