Forbes.com says Wives are Like Whores

Wow. Found this on FAIR [1] (emphasis mine). Apparently Forbes.com recently offered an opinion piece by it’s executive editor called “Don't Marry Career Women” complete with handy slideshow depicting the “Nine Reasons to Steer Clear of Career Women.”:

 

Well, for 48 hours at least.... Two days after its publication, "Don't Marry Career Women" disappeared from the Forbes.com website, along with an earlier story by Noer, titled "The Economics of Prostitution [2]," in which he compared "wives" to "whores" and wrote that "the implication remains that wives and whores are—if not exactly like Coke and Pepsi—something akin to champagne and beer."... But about three hours after the story's sudden absence from the Web, a visitor to the Forbes.com site found "Careers and Marriage [3]," a debate.

Editors had reframed Noer's story as one half of a "point-counterpoint" discussion, lightening its heft as an institutional statement by pairing it with a rebuttal by married female columnist Elizabeth Corcoran. "Don't Marry a Lazy Man" was the title of Corcoran's take, which flaccidly asserted that "studies aside, modern marriage is a two way street. Men should own up to their responsibilities, too."

 

How boring, how dreadfully dreary my day would be if I didn’t have these people to make fun of? I mean, c’mon, we all know there is no shortage of misogynistic bungholes in the world – that one of them would be an executive editor of one of the most prominent patriarchal jerk-rags of corporate neo-liberalism should come as no huge surprise. Comparing wives to whores is so beyond the pale that I can’t even feel insulted by it – it says enough about the author that I almost feel a degree of pity for him. It’s like the guy wandering 5^th Ave. with drool on his chin screaming ‘bitch’ at every female tourist unlucky enough to cross his path. The guy is clearly so deranged that there is no point in even validating his opinion with a debate.

What I am insulted by is Forbes.com’s handling of the situation. I mean, the crazy old man is still Executive Editor, he’s bound to slip one or two past the other editors. But when you discover the problem, you pull the story. Sort of like patiently explaining to your 90-year old grandmother that it is not ok to use the word ‘colored’ anymore. Issue an apology and the problem goes away. But Forbes.com instead decides to solve the problem by offering the supposedly ‘fair and balanced’ counter-point to the argument.

First of all, “Don’t Marry a Lazy Man” is not the opposite of “Don’t Marry Career Women.” It’s not even in the same ballpark. It’s so far out of the ballpark that it’s beginning to question if the ballpark even exists. As though women wouldn’t have to seek careers if their husbands would only stop being so lazy and bring home the bacon. As though 35+ years of second-wave feminism would disappear overnight if only men would make more money. So now instead of one vacuous piece of idiocy, we have two – each with their own honored place within the nice tidy dichotomy of 1950.

[4]