Psychiatrist Keith Ablow, a member of the “Medical-A-Team” at Fox News, says allowing girls to participate in extracurricular activities traditionally reserved only for boys perpetuates a culture of violence against women, Media Matters reports. On Fox and Friends Wednesday, Ablow shared his reaction to a widely circulated video footage of then-Florida State University quarterback De’Andre Johnson punching a woman and fellow student in the face at a bar.
“We all know a man should never hit a woman, right?” host Steve Doocy prompted the licensed physician. “Well that’s what I was raised with Steve, and I still go by that philosophy,” Ablow responded before contradicting himself, “but you know what? That may be an antiquated notion if you look at our culture, which has just in a wholesale way dispensed with all gender quote-unquote stereotypes.”
“But in fact,” Ablow continued, then illogically offered his opinion, “what I think they’re trying to do is dispense with the idea of gender differences.” Ablow at no point defined the pronoun, “they.” “And there are differences,” Ablow asserted. “No you don’t hit girls. That’s a nice notion,” Ablow abruptly transitioned, before launching into his rationale for referring to women in belittling terms. “I like using the word girls,” said Ablow. “I’m not going to stop.”
At no point in the show did anyone ask Ablow to stop using the word “girls.” Ablow did not identify who, if anyone, asked him to remove “girls” from his vocabulary. “And I don’t much like it when, for instance,” Ablow went on, “when high school wrestlers have to forfeit a match if they don’t wrestle a girl on the other team. That’s ridiculous. Who would want to wrestle a girl?”
Ablow did not give examples to support his argument, nor did he offer insights into how girls can meaningfully participate in team sports, from which they have been historically excluded. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a show host and the only woman in the conversation, asked Ablow to elaborate on the concept of allowing girls to play sports means that boys will punch them.
“It’s gonna happen more and more,” Ablow predicts. “That’s why you get YouTube videos of girls, gangs of girls, getting in brawls with other girls. This didn’t happen before.”
