Thanks to Mediaite for getting the screengrab before Fox News removed it. The Nation and Feministing writer Jessica Valenti was the first to note this additional point against the notion that Fox News (either the channel or their online entity)
February 11, 2013

fox wedding.jpg
Thanks to Mediaite for getting the screengrab before Fox News removed it.

The Nation and Feministing writer Jessica Valenti was the first to note this additional point against the notion that Fox News (either the channel or their online entity) is a professional news organization.

From the "You can't write this" files: Suzanne Venker, niece of reactionary Phyllis Schlafly, wrote a column for FoxNews.com further laying out her already lambasted argument that it is the fault of women that there is a battle of the sexes going on at all. (Is there actually anyone claiming there's a battle of the sexes so much as a war on women's rights and freedoms? Talk about starting with a strawman argument.) Worried that the feedback she got from the first column indicated that most misunderstood her argument for the traditional marriage of a man and his wife where neither strove for "equality" within the relationship, Venker doubled down and made her case more obviously:

It’s time to say what no one else will: Feminism didn’t result in equality between the sexes – it resulted in mass confusion. Today, men and women have no idea who’s supposed to do what.

Prior to the 1970s, people viewed gender roles as as equally valuable. Many would argue women had the better end of the deal! It’s hard to claim women were oppressed in a nation in which men were expected to stand up when a lady enters the room or to lay down their lives to spare women life. When the Titanic went down in 1912, its sinking took 1,450 lives. Only 103 were women. One-hundred three.[..]

You see, the problem with equality is that it implies two things are interchangeable – meaning one thing can be substituted for the other with no ramifications. That is what feminists would have us believe, and anyone who contradicts this dogma is branded sexist.

But the truth must be heard. Being equal in worth, or value, is not the same as being identical, interchangeable beings. Men and women may be capable of doing many of the same things, but that doesn’t mean they want to. That we don’t have more female CEOs or stay-at-home dads proves this in spades.

There is more fallacious thinking in a few short sentences than I know what to do with. But that's neither here nor there. What's more funny than her specious argument against the reality of today's gender roles is the graphic Fox News opted to accompany the column. With Venker arguing for the traditional male-breadwinner, female-homemaker gender roles, the picture was actually of Stephanie Figarelle and Lela McArthur, who were the first same sex couple to be married at the top of the Empire State Building.

Figarelle was married in a black tuxedo while McArthur wore a strapless white gown with a train.

Figarelle said she hopes the couple's home state of Alaska will legalize same-sex marriage, which became legal in New York last year.

"Equality's a beautiful thing," she said. "Love is a beautiful thing. We don't have enough of it in this world."

But, but, but...that's not what Venker thinks should happen!

After enough tittering on Twitter and the internets over their ridiculous choice of graphics, FoxNews.com removed the graphic in favor of what appears to be generic restroom signage. Perhaps that too is a comment on Venker's scholarship.

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