As the mouthpiece for the patriarchal right wing, who would love to take us back to the 50's, Fox News' prime time is a man's world where, for the most part, white, Christian family values guys promote the patriarchal politics of the GOP while the leggy, buxom, eye candy gals do the same thing. For some time, there has been a GOP meme, advanced by the muy macho Rush Limbaugh, about feminized Democrats ("metrosexual" John Kerry). But now that they have a House Speaker who cries, this culture war focus has shifted to children, as evidenced by Fox's questions of whether yoga (Eastern, heathen) is "leading to the wussification of America" and contributing to "raising a nation of wimps." This week, the manly GOP man (Bolling) on The Five, along with his comely conservative handmaidens, tackled the pressing issue of whether the schools are "too feminized." Ah, don't ya love the smell of testosterone in the evening!
Bob Beckel opened the segment with a report about six year old who had been suspended from a Maryland school for pointing his finger at another student and saying "POW." Beckel described this as "pretty draconian." Video was played in which George W Bush's Secretary of Labor nominee Linda Chavez talked about how schools are "feminized" because they teach that "simple child's play is aggressive." What the audience didn't learn was that the suspension had been lifted on January 4th. What they also didn't learn is that Chavez was only a "nominee" because she dropped out of contention when, according to Chavez, "search and destroy politics" made her a distraction to the incoming administration over the haven she gave an illegal immigrant from Guatemala in the early 1990s."
Macho man and wall of genius Eric Bolling whined about the "cultural slide" in America. Swinging her leg chair leg, Kimberly Guilfoyle agreed. Dana Perrino huffed about how her friend got a letter from her son's Washington DC school which informed parents that the school wouldn't be "doing" Thanksgiving because it was "hurtful to the Native Americans." In claiming that a little girl would have been able to get away with saying POW, she questioned whether the school's policy was equal. (Right wing meme alert - men are being discriminated against - a narrative promoted by Christian Hoff Summers who wrote "The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men" and who was a panel moderator, at this week's GOP retreat, in a discussion about how the GOP can better talk to women.)
Andrea Tantaros advanced the anti-feminist meme about how women are graduating from college in greater numbers than men while the poor little boys, who are being diagnosed with learning disorders, are being "left behind." (Awww) She whined that "the whole culture is being feminized" and that we've gone from Charlton Heston to Seth Rogen. (Tantaros isn't familiar with the manly Daniel Craig and Russel Crowe?) Traditionalist and twice married and divorced (but still Catholic!) Kimberly Guilfoyle said that she sees this feminization in her son's school and recommended that "boys be boys" because "they want to play rough, don't try to overmedicate them and turn them in to girls. They're boys. There are differences in genders, embrace them, celebrate them."
Eric Bolling snarked that after watching the Golden Globes red carpet show he doesnt "think that there is a man left in Hollywood. Every one of those guys is feminized." The pièce de résistance was when the posh and oh-so-demure Dana Perino might have been expressing her preference: "You know what you need to watch if you want to see real mean. The American Country Music Awards." (Wonder what her British born husband (photo here), who is 18 years older than Dana who is 40, thinks about that.)
It's not surprising that the patriarchy's personal network is pimping an anti-feminist backlash that might have a hidden homophobic aspect to it. Yes, ladies and gents, Fox News is the network for macho, macho, men - but then there's Steve Doocy - never mind....
If this piece had music it could have been the Monty Python "men" song in which they sing that "It's great to be on a ship with men And sail across the sea-o. We don't know where we'll land or when but it's great to be with men cause men can sweat and men can stink and no one seems to care-o. We'll throw the dishes in the sink and clog the sink with hair-o...Men, men, men, it's a ship all filled with men so throw your rubbers overboard there's no one here but men"
"Ahhhhhhhh Mennnnn!!!!"
The simple fact, “Roger,” is that FoxNoise is NOT interested in any sort of REAL dialogue; the FoxNoise kkkrew is only interested in returning to the “values” of the 1950s. The FoxNoise “dialogue” simply wishes to blame the women’s movement for all the ills besetting America.
The FoxNoise kkkrew grew up with FALSE images of “manhood”—ones that glorified violence in general and treating women as nothing more than objects to be conquered and owned.
But men traditionally were instructed to bottle up their emotions which led to far more GROWN men being medicated for ulcers and stress and dying earlier than women by nearly a DECADE. (Yes, men, on average, die younger than women, but now, the average is less than 5 years.)