Tucker Carlson railed into the director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University and women, more generally, who believe that patriarchy has and continues to exist. During a broadcast Monday night of Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the host said, it's a "sign of mental illness" to believe that women are oppressed by men.
Professor Suzanna Walters penned an op-ed for the Washington Post over two months, titled, "Why can't we hate men?" But somehow, it just made it onto Carlson's radar. In it, Walters acknowledges the need to recognize male power as institutional, and "not narrowly personal or individual or biologically based in male bodies," especially in order to give credence to the way racism shapes patriarchy as does geographic location. But she adds, that it's still true that there are gender inequities that are universal.
Walters explains:
Pretty much everywhere in the world, this is true: Women experience sexual violence, and the threat of that violence permeates our choices big and small. In addition, male violence is not restricted to intimate-partner attacks or sexual assault but plagues us in the form of terrorism and mass gun violence. Women are underrepresented in higher-wage jobs, local and federal government, business, educational leadership, etc.; wage inequality continues to permeate every economy and almost every industry; women continue to provide far higher rates of unpaid labor in the home (e.g., child care, elder care, care for disabled individuals, housework and food provision); women have less access to education, particularly at the higher levels; women have lower rates of property ownership.
Carlson doesn't address these points, only the title and conclusion where Walters encourages men to "Lean out so we can actually just stand up without being beaten down" and lays out a series of action steps, relating to the relinquishment of male power.
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"Is there anyone unhappier than this woman, do you think in America?" Carlson asked his guest, Jason Nichols, a professor in the African American studies department at the University of Maryland College Park.
Nichols defended Walters' right to voice her opinions and warned that there have been ongoing attacks on academic freedom. "Now, I think a lot of what she's saying is actually correct," he added.
"If I was taking her class — and I took some women's studies courses in college because I wanted an easy grade and they're so dumb it's not hard as long as you hate yourself," Carlson said.
"That's absurd. Come to Maryland and take one of those Women's Studies courses," Nichols challenged.
"It's true, but let me be honest, if I stand up and I say, you know, 'I am a man and how dare you attack all men on a collective basis,' how do you think I would do in her class?" Carlson questioned.
"I think you would do fine," Nichols said with ease. And as Carlson tried to make false equivalencies, the Maryland professor ran down a list of real gender disparities nullifying any further comparison. "What is the judgement that she's making?" Nichols added. "She's saying that patriarchy exists."
"No," Carlson said.
"That women are oppressed by men, those things are true," Nichols continued.
"But not all women are oppressed by men," Carlson demanded. "That's a lie. And it's also a sign of mental illness to really believe that every woman is oppressed by every man, that's like, demented. You need help if you think that."
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