Nigel Bethel, a football player at Texas Tech who was recently dismissed from the team for defending himself from female basketball player Amber Battle, has been reinstated. The dismissal by head coach Kliff Kingsbury could have very well been a Title IX violation given the multiple accounts that she hit first.

Many mainstream media outlets, however, chose to ignore this fact. Instead they ran headlines that were variations of phrases like “Nigel Bethel dismissed after punching woman.” The mindless chest-thumping from tradcons who assert that no man should ever hit a woman no matter what the reason (I suppose if she’s holding a knife to your kid’s throat you just wait until the police arrive?) was heard far and wide.

There were also claims that “we don’t really know what happened for sure” despite the fact that Amber Battle publicly confessed to striking the first blow. Kind of reminds me of how the 88 professors at Duke University who took the side of false rape accuse Crystal Mangum still say “we’ll never know for sure what happened,” despite the fact that they do.

Well, now we can all know for sure (or at least never say we were not shown the truth) of what happened at Texas Tech. The school has released a surveillance video of the incident which you can see above. It shows Amber Battle (grey shirt) striking Nigel. Nigel then responds with a singular punch. Amber then walks over to the bleachers and sits down while Nigel is ganged up on and forced off the court by a group of young men.

The scenario as it unfolded is entirely what we might have expected, and what happens all too often in many violent altercations between men and women, including violence in intimate relationships. Here’s how it goes:

Step one: the woman starts the violence, thinking she can get away with it because she is a woman.

Step two: the man hits back.

Step three: the woman immediately adopts the position of a helpless damsel.

Step four: the man who defended himself is ganged upon by white knight males who think it wrong to ever strike a woman – even if it means defending yourself from criminally violent women.

And remember, all of this occurs in a culture where “violence against women” is supposedly the norm. Or so Feminists tell us.

While covering Nigel’s reinstatement reporter Jim Basquil asked ESPN reporter Max Olsen, “Regardless of how the fight was initiated this still was a young man punching a young lady. How does this sit with the women’s basketball team?”

Excuse me Mr. Basquil, but I saw no lady. I saw someone who – if she ever was a lady – certainly forgot how to behave like one.

Nigel Bethel will also not be charged with felony assault (as was planned) because the grand jury did not see enough of a case to indict him. Hey, defending yourself is felony assault. Who knew?

According to Sports Day DFW:

The school originally stated it has zero tolerance for this type of behavior. The July 4 statement read that the school has zero tolerance for violence against women.

What a truly horrible set of values. I absolutely oppose ending violence against women, on the grounds that I think it far better to end violence against everyone. Apparently not everyone agrees with this.

At the end of all of this Nigel Bethel will be suspended for three games and Amber Battle will be suspended for a month. This, we are told, amounts to ~25% of their total game time. This is consistent with a discussion about them receiving “equal punishment.”

This is what athletics director Kirby Holcutt had to say:

Every decision related to this case has been the right one at that particular time based upon our principles, student-athlete code of conduct and team rules.

I highly doubt that. Unless by “principles” Holcutt means “women are more important than men,” which – unfortunately – does seem to be the guiding “principle” of our academic institutions these days.

Here’s something to consider: if women truly are so weak that they need double-standards to protect them from violent altercations that they themselves initiate, why do we have them playing sports in the first place? Aren’t they too weak to participate? Those who support women in sports but don’t support men who defend themselves from violent women are talking out of both sides of their mouths.

And you had better believe that if it were Nigel Bethel who threw the first punch and it were Amber Battle who retaliated there would be no talk of “equal punishment.” Indeed, to even consider punishing Amber Battle for defending herself would be labelled blaming the victim.

Because it would be.

It’s getting better, folks. But we still have a long way to go.